Violet Morgan prided herself in being a plain Jane. At eighteen years old, she'd suffered enough grief and attention at the hands of tragedy to last her a lifetime. However, a lifetime has a far different meaning to a teenager than it does to someone who's experienced the shit storm called life in all its cruel glory. Some people suffer for three times longer than Violet had even been on this earth and still, they beat on. Whatever she thought might happen to her in the aftermath of her foolish actions, reality would exceed any and all expectations. Before the night-the worst night of her life-was over, she'd get hauled to hell, look the devil in the eye, and make it out…well, maybe not completely alive, but at least still functioning.

"The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places."

-Ernest Hemingway

I

She found herself sitting in the back of an old police car, watching as the run-down buildings flashed past the window. The car maneuvered its way through the darkened streets with unsettling expertise. She couldn't help but think that the skyscrapers and high-rise apartment buildings looked as though they were gazing down at her in disappointment. It was a silly juvenile thought given the situation she was in, but it helped take her mind off of the dilemma at hand, if only for a few seconds.

Her leg bounced up and down in a steady, erratic rhythm, matching the thoughts that raced through her head. She had been so stupid for leaving the hotel room earlier, so stupid to take a walk in the middle of the night in a dangerous, unfamiliar city. She knew why she did it of course, and what events ultimately led to her not being able to sleep in the first place, but now wasn't the time to think about that. It wouldn't change the predicament she found herself in.

How was she supposed to tell her parents about this? She chewed her lips raw as she thought about how disappointed they would be in her yet again. While it could be argued that the first tragedy she lived through wasn't her fault, an argument she didn't wholly believe, this escapade was definitely all on her. Not only that, but with a criminal record, she realized she could probably kiss her scholarships and thus, college, goodbye. She'd have to live in her parent's basement for the rest of her life, assuming they would even want anything to do with her after this mess.

Being the pessimist that she usually was, her mind immediately went to the worst-case scenario for how the phone call to her parents would go. She started rehearsing what she could possibly tell them as to why she was calling them from a police department in a foreign city in the middle of the night, but her mind came up completely blank. There was absolutely no good excuse for what she had done. Maybe she could bypass calling her parents and just look up a local lawyer in the phone book and call them. That's what people on all of the cop shows usually did, at least from what she had seen on television. That sparked something in her memory; she couldn't recall being read her rights when the police arrested her. No, that couldn't be right. She must've just been in shock when they arrived and it didn't register in her head.

She deserved this and she knew was all her fault for deciding she wanted to come to Gotham in the first place. She knew it had a reputation for being one of the worst cities in the entire country in terms of murder and other heinous crimes. Lately, it had stirred up controversy for an entirely different reason. About a year and a half ago, there had been some sort of riot at a mental institution outside of the city and a bunch of people, mainly staff, ended up dying. Some idiot, in response to that, came up with the bright idea to combine the asylum and local penitentiary into one big open-air prison located on the outskirts of the city.

The only reason she was here in the first place was because her two best friends had invited her on their end of the year celebratory trip. Chances are when they asked her originally it had only been out of courtesy; there was no way they actually would have thought she'd say yes to this. Not their quiet, introverted friend Violet Morgan. Well, surprise, she said yes and now she was fairly sure they wouldn't consider her their friend after they wake up in the morning and find out she got arrested.

The three of them hailed from a sleepy town in Connecticut where crime was practically unheard of. The prospect of leaving her safe haven to visit an oversized crime-riddled metropolis normally wouldn't have appealed to her, but she wasn't acting like her normal self. She wasn't thinking like her normal self. Her parents, for obvious reasons, were hesitant when she expressed her desire to go. Eventually though, they relented. Probably, she thought, because they were just trying to get her to act like a normal teenager for however short a time period. There were stipulations, of course, as there always were when Violet left their watchful eyes. Stipulations she'd promised to abide by, but lying through her teeth at the same time. She felt good then, and thought she knew what she was doing.

Harper and Channing, the two friends she traveled to Gotham with, were identical twins whose family came from old money and, as such, they were staying in a very nice penthouse suite in the Upper East Side. She had met them in middle school by chance and they ended up becoming quick friends, something many people thought was odd at the time.

Outside of their differences in socioeconomic status, they were three very normal teenage girls for the most part. The twins were undoubtedly more outgoing than she was, but they had bonded over certain things. They all lived in a normal small town and had normal home lives. Violet's parents were, for the most part, trusted her not to get into too much trouble. Misplaced trust, she often thought. Then again, they never needed to worry about her sneaking out to go to parties since she preferred to be alone most of the time anyway. Even with having two best friends, most of the time she enjoyed sitting in her room playing around on her computer. Alone.

She hadn't always been that way, but a few years ago, she lost her passion for things like sports or extracurricular activities. Besides, it gave her more time to focus on her schoolwork, which she took extremely seriously considering she had planned on pursuing a career in medicine before tonight. She'd probably end up working at a convenience store one day, kind of like the one she had just been at no more than an hour ago.

She cringed at the thought of her crime. Images popped up like photographs in her mind of what had went down in that crappy corner store. Why did she have to go and do something so stupid? To anyone who knew her, it would seem so uncharacteristic of her that it would almost be funny. Maybe it was just this city's fault. There was something just bad about this place. She was convinced of it. It did something to normal people and made them extra bad. After all, this city had more than its fair share of quirks. She thought back to all the news stories she had read online before coming; the ones concerning Batman and the criminals he fought on a nightly basis were the first ones to come to mind. She didn't know how people in this city took a man dressed up as a bat seriously, but she supposed he did his job since the cops had such a hard time keeping crime rates down themselves. Not to mention the criminals Batman ended up catching were usually costumed villains, which, to Violet, was incredibly weird. This whole city was like something out of a movie.

Her mind went blank for a second and she became aware of just how fast and hard her heart was beating inside her chest. She took deep breaths and tried to think of a happier topic, something that would calm her down, but images of the cashier kept popping up in her head. She shuddered-the kid had to only be a year or so older than her at most and definitely hadn't done anything to warrant getting attacked. She realized that now of course. That's usually how it went.

The GCPD had picked her up a few blocks from the convenience store, carrying the energy drink she'd ended up taking with her after running out of the place. If the clerk hadn't been able to identify the drink they'd been discussing right before she flew into her rage, she would've gotten away. It's not like the cops would've suspected someone like her to commit that type of crime. After all, she wasn't intimidating physically, standing at 5'1" and barely tipping the scales at a hundred pounds. At one time she had muscles from growing up playing sports, but as puberty came and went, physical activities gave way to long nights with little sleep spent in front of a computer screen. That, in combination with her overall anxiety-prone attitude, left her a scrawny little thing. Even she was surprised by the damage she had done tonight. Especially considering she barely even remembered leaving the condo in the first place. She had been too focused on finding something to help rid her of her headache.

She tried explaining that to the cops after she came out of her daze and realized exactly how deep the pile of shit was that she'd somehow managed to get herself into. Needless to say they hadn't believed her-hadn't really even listened to her. Why would they, she was just a foolish girl who committed a crime in an unfamiliar city. What they were surprised by was how young she was. After placing her in the back of the squad car, they stood outside and spoke to each other in hushed voices for a few minutes. To Violet, that didn't seem like a good sign for her.

Her anxiety increased tenfold when the two officers returned to their vehicle, slid quietly into the front seats, and took off. Violet assumed they'd be going "downtown" so to speak, which was as far as her knowledge went of the arresting process and she only surmised that from what she'd seen on those late night cop dramas.

"We'll be arriving shortly." The sudden break in the silence of the dark squad car was enough to jar her from her thoughts.

She tried to speak, but nothing came out but a squeak at first. She took a second and cleared her throat before trying again, "Arriving where?"

Certainly they weren't going downtown since the area of the city they were driving through was clearly on the edge of Gotham. The slick streets were lined with dilapidated buildings, the kinds with boarded up windows and missing doors. The black depths within seemed to mirror the darkened feeling that had been growing inside of Violet's chest from the moment the car started.

Neither of the men in the front seat spoke at first, but finally the younger of the two did, "Our new facility."

"No," This time her voice came out as clear as day "I-they aren't going to put me out in the general population are they?" Violet knew exactly what their new facility was. If that was where she was heading to right now, she was as good as dead.

"I'm sorry Miss Morgan, it's standard protocol now." The younger cop sounded genuine, but for all Violet knew he could say that to everyone they arrest. "My partner was trying to figure out a way around it but-"

"This whole system is ass backwards." His partner spoke gruffly from the driver's seat, his knuckles white from clutching the steering wheel so hard. "Not even an hour ago, do you know who they locked up? Bruce Wayne."

Now that was a name Violet knew well. Everyone in the United States knew who Bruce Wayne was. If that were true and they locked him up, she was especially screwed. He basically owned Gotham City.

"Kid, honestly I don't know what they're going to do with you. You should get your one phone call, but we don't know how things are going down in there. I'm sorry. I don't want to have to take you there." Violet was sure there was a "but" in there somewhere but she knew as well as he did that no explanation afterwards would be good enough.

She sat back in the seat, resigned to her thoughts. She mulled over how she wouldn't need to worry about what her best friends and parents thought of her because she'd be dead by the time any of them woke up tomorrow. Well, she hoped she'd be dead and not being used for something worse. Tears stung her eyes as they finally broke free, rolling down her cheeks in fat drops. The car slowed to a stop. Violet didn't even bother looking out the windows. She didn't want to see what would almost certainly become her own personal cemetery.

"We're here." The younger of the two got out and helped her out of the cruiser. She was still handcuffed and had a little trouble sliding out. The older cop was in front of them, leading them up to where two armed guards in all black stood bolt upright, not moving. Violet shivered. It felt a lot colder out now than it had a few hours ago. Her leather jacket wouldn't do much to protect her against the elements but, then again, that would be the least of her worries soon.

One of the statuesque guards nodded their heads and knocked on a steel door she hadn't noticed him standing in front of. Another guard dressed similarly to the other two emerged from within the facility and walked towards her.

"Get in there and stay hidden. This will work itself out by the morning." The young guard said to her in a hushed voice as he unlocked her hands from the cuffs. Before she had a chance to ask him what the hell he was talking about, the guard grabbed her in a steely grip that was surely going to leave a bruise and all but dragged her towards the darkened doorway.

The last thing she had a chance to look at before crossing the threshold of the prison were the steel letters hanging on the side of the massive cement wall: "Welcome to Arkham City."

A/N: (7/15/17) If you're reading this, that means you just read the first chapter of the remastered version of Gaining a New Mask. I finally got around to going back and editing through all twenty chapters of the original story.

For first time readers, I hope you enjoy the other 19 chapters!

For returning readers, I think you'll find this version much more cohesive. While I've kept the main storyline the same, I changed up some of the character dynamics. Violet, specifically, acts much more consistent throughout the rewrite. I hope that the changes I made will make more sense to any readers who read the original version and questioned certain characters or events.

I didn't leave the previous version of the story up because this is the version that sixteen year old me wasn't clever enough to plan out before writing the story in the first place.

Hope everyone enjoys!