Excitement bubbles through my veins as I get myself ready for the big night. The opening night of my show has rolled around and there are all sorts of influential art buyers and high flyers in society coming to view my work tonight! Of course they didn't really know what the subject of my work was and they might be in for a little bit of a surprise. Lots of them probably weren't going to like the fact that I'm humanising the villains that make their lives so difficult but all it takes is one person to like a piece and it would sell.

I step into my high heels, deciding for once that I would be feminine. Shedding my usual jeans or shorts I pull myself into a pale mint green dress which hugs my body nicely, stopping just above my knees so that my long lithe legs can be seen easily. The silk material makes me feel so grown up, as does the professional make up that I've had done. I need to look nice for the opening night, the rest of the nights I can tone it down a little bit. The party tonight, though, needs to go well.

Giving up on trying to style my hair into any sort of nice shape, I merely leave it loose running down my back in its messy waves. My make up kind of matches that style, simple and elegant, almost as if I'm not wearing any at all.

With one more glance at the clock I squeak happily and make my way out of the door, a part of me wants to go and check in on Zane, I had asked him if he wanted to come last week and he said that he did but…since then I haven't seen him. Maybe he'll turn up at the venue tonight? Despite not knowing him very well, it would be nice to see a familiar face for a little bit of support. Then again Kaspar and Ethan were coming sometime too, both eager to see my collection.

Gathering my wits, and courage, I swiftly march into the taxi waiting below for me and I am off to one of the bigger galleries I could find, although it is still rather near to the Narrows. Hopefully my event won't attract some unwanted attention. Would I want to see one of the supervillains though? It's something I've been thinking about for a long time, daydreaming over while I finished my work. Nothing would be greater than to meet the subjects of my art and get their feedback…if I didn't think that their feedback would be a bullet to the face, or being dipped in acid, or being eaten alive.

A few minutes later I arrive at the gallery and see that the pictures are already put up waiting for people to come in and start having a look around. Instead of separating them into subject, having a wall for The Joker, and a wall for Harvey Dent I have mixed them all together. It seems much more chaotic this way and much more in keeping with the theme of the show.

Drinks are all set, food is ready and tasting good and all the pricing stickers and stock are organised right. The only thing left is to wait for the guests to arrive.

And arrive they did!

Nearly everyone I had invited showed up, and although some of them immediately leave after seeing what, or rather who, the subjects of my art are the majority do stay and seem genuinely interested in the pieces and the thoughts behind them.

"So Ms. Astraphel, whatever would inspire you to make such a moving piece about such a low life criminal as Mr. Freeze?" A rather nasal sounding woman asks, being rich and obviously interested in the piece I feel obligated to be nice to her so that she would be interested in a sale. On the other hand Mr. Freeze is one of the villains in Gotham that I find myself sympathising with.

"Well I am inspired by his depth of feeling, his strength of love. He became the supervillain and the man that he is today by searching for a cure for his wife when nobody else would. I admire that devotion that he has, and I thought I would put that into the artwork of him." I explain with a gentle smile.

The woman does not seem to be satisfied though and shakes her head, crossing her arms about her chest, and I try my best not to become argumentative with her. She is a customer and customers are always right. Even when they're not.

"Anyone in a healthy mind would have accepted the death of their wife and moved on. Such a man is clearly disturbed." She states, nodding her head firmly at the end of her statement.

"I don't disagree." I laugh softly "However you have to admit that it makes one amazing piece of artwork."

The mood seems to shift back to being agreeable and I deem it safe to move on and speak to another client. Hopefully not everyone in the room will be so confrontational about my work although I don't hold out on that, it takes an open mind to think of these destructive forces in any other way than being just that – a destructive force.

I'm about to grab a second glass of champagne and search around for Kaspar when I hear a loud crash, a tinkling of breaking glass. Fearing the worst I grab for my purse and place my hand on the cool comforting metal of my revolver, I thought that I would get away without being robbed tonight but it is always best to be prepared just in case something happens. It appears like that something is happening now.

Harsh male voices grunt and exclaim, telling people to give up their valuables and to get into the center of the room. My breath catches in my throat and I draw my gun completely from my purse before sneaking around the corner of the gallery, out of my little office. They haven't noticed that I'm not there but they're looking, and asking people about where I am.

Unfortunately the old woman from before spots me and all but shrieks out my location. So much for the element of surprise huh?

Very shakily I step out from my hiding place, holding my revolver out ready to shoot if needs be. Things looked bad, these were gang members to one of the massive super villains. From what they are wearing it's all too easy to figure out who they work for – Two Face, Harvey Dent. Gulping lightly I can feel the panic welling up inside of me, but also the thrill. I am about to come face to face with Harvey Dent!

I can see him right there, standing in the center of the circle, back to me.

"And who thinks that they have the right to paint pictures of us? We don't like it when people do things without our permission. What did we do to the last guy who did that? We left him to dissolve in a vat of acid. Yeah, we did. That will teach him not to fear us."

Bile rises in my throat and I try to steady my fast beating heart but find myself completely unable to do so. He's going to kill me. I knew it the moment that I started this project that one of these guys would probably kill me I just hoped that I would have one night of my show before that happened. I have to do something, anything to get onto his good side.

"Mr. Dent?" I call out softly, my voice coming out much more gentle and composed than I thought it would do "I uhm, I am the artist you're looking for."

The moment he turns, and looks me in the face, I don't think I could have prepared myself for. I knew from seeing photographs and news reports that the burns were bad, but I did not think that they would be so severe. Not looking for long though, only a glimmer of a second I try to keep a little smile on my lips even though it is probably more like a grimace, or so tainted with nerves it is amusing to witness.

"How many pictures do you have of us?" Dent asks, quite calmly actually as he flips his coin from finger to finger.

"I…I uhm have four pictures of you at the minute sir." I inform.

For the first time Harvey seems to notice the gun in my hand and he raises his own, his lip raised in a snarl, giving a frightening effect. Gasping in shock I feel my grip on the heavy metal weapon loosen considerably. I can see that, although I thought I had better protect myself tonight, one gun is not going to do much against a mob of Two Face's men, and the man himself. In fact it only seems to anger the man so I very slowly place the gun down on the floor, hoping that this will placate him slightly.

Drawing away I hold my hands up in the air and try to take deep breaths, I can almost feel the panic attack rising up within me and that's not good. If I start to panic too much I won't be able to answer Harvey's questions, and if I don't do that then there is no telling what he will do to me.

"We want to see them, and if we don't like them…We'll let the coin decide what happens to you." He growls, stepping closer to me and I try to put a better smile on my lips which is a hard feat given how frightened I am. Not by his appearance but, the fact I can sense the power he carries with him rolling off his body in waves, he has goons surrounding me just waiting for orders to kill or torture me. I'm not going to do anything stupid to provoke Harvey.

"Of course, I'll show you to them sir." I assure, still being polite as possible as I walk with Two Face over to the first of the paintings just around the corner.

As we stand in front of the first set of portraits, my breath catches in my throat as I chance to look upwards to see the expression on his face. It seems neutral and that is all that I can hope for at the minute. I can't help but start to compare the painting I have done to the man beside me, nothing could have prepared me for the sheer sensations that accompany the man and all I can hope is that I have managed to pin some of them down onto canvas.

The two separate canvases that make up one picture, each one showing one side of Harvey's personality is one of my favourite pieces in the show. I spent so much time trying to get the emotions right that I found myself quite invested in the portraits.

"Tell us about them."

"W-well uhm, I chose to use two canvases to paint this piece because of your dual nature. Despite being united in one body it is quite obvious that there are two distinct sides to you. The left canvas is focusing on what I think is the remainder of Harvey Dent, as a result the colours are light grey; Gotham's white knight is slightly tainted by the hardship that has ensued. The right canvas is depicting Two Face, and focuses on dark reds and rusted brown tones to symbolise anger and decay." I bite my lip nervously and take another glance up into Harvey's face, he's looking down at me and doesn't seem to be angry at what I am saying which helps to calm me down.

Obviously I am completely wrong on that count.

His gun is in his hand again and pressing against my temple quicker than I could have prevented. Gasping in shock I hold my hands up again in a gesture of surrender, I don't know what he disagreed with in my thinking but I hope that I can talk myself out of this difficult position. Even though I admitted the chance of death or grievous bodily harm is likely I still want to do everything I can to avoid it.

His eyes are filled with thunderous rage which makes my heart quicken to a new pace, I can feel my body trembling as his gravelly voice growls in my ear.

"Which reaction do you want first? Let's let the coin decide." He states with a smirk.

My eyes widen as the coin is flipped up into the air, hoping beyond hope it comes down on the side that is not going to get me killed. His smirk turns vicious as he awaits the coins verdict, and seems almost slightly disappointed when he uncovers which side it has fallen down on. A breath I didn't know I was holding in releases itself and I wonder how many more of these close calls I would have tonight – luck could only get you so far.

"You are wrong." He says simply, gesturing to the lighter half of the piece "I am concerned with justice, and making sure that everything that we do is fair. That is the most important thing. I want anarchy and chaos, to make every citizen in Gotham fear us. That is the only way that we are going to get any respect around here!"

The element of chance, I know is so key to understanding Harvey's motives and it is something that although it not present in these two pictures, it is in the two others that I have in the gallery. I just have to gently push him over to them, maybe it will calm him down to see something that is more relevant to him. I can feel the pressure of his gun's barrel against my temple lessen slightly and I can only hope that he's decided not to kill me for the time being.

"I'm sorry sir, I realise how important the element of fairness is to you and I have other paintings with that in mind i-if you'd like to see them." The stammer in my voice irritates me a little bit, I would like to seem more composed but I have a gun pointed at my head. I think I can be forgiven for being a little shaky.

A small chuckle escapes Two Face's throat and the metal vanishes completely from my head, making me smile nervously up at him. He folds his arms around his chest and taps the gun rhythmically on them. I gasp and realise that he's waiting for me to take him to the other pieces which I do so hurriedly. They aren't too far away so I make it there without tripping up over my feet or breaking something with my nervousness.

These two pieces are much smaller but they still are detailed, the main element of them is the coin that Harvey is so famous for using. One picture has the outcome where the hostages in the scene are released without being harmed, and the other…well is a more gruesome alternative. Hesitantly I hover by Harvey as he looks over the paintings with a neutral expression. Gulping softly I feel my body screaming at me to try and escape, to try and do something to get this guy out of here as quickly as possible.

I am honestly surprised when I see what could be considered a very lopsided smile on his face, which gives me a little bit of confidence back.

"Now these we like." He chuckles, the sound is raspy, dry in his throat and I feel my smile growing. Oh thank god, he likes them. My life is saved!

"I'm very glad that you do." I admit with a soft smile "If I was ever able to meet one of my subjects in person, I would hope that they would like my work."

"It's all about chance." Harvey murmurs softly, almost to himself and his fingers reach out to brush against the gentle brush strokes that have created the coin on both of the pictures "That's the only way."

Not commenting, not daring to, I simply take the opportunity to look over Harvey when he seems to be in one of the strangest and illusive moods that I've seen. The fact that he's commenting so openly in the presence of someone he barely knows is strange, but I'm grateful for it. It gives me an insight into how he works, and it's obvious that he is a lot more intelligent, and emotive than Gotham's public give him credit for.

I'm about to speak up again, to suggest that he can simply take the paintings if they mean all that much to him when his gun snaps up to my face again and he cocks the trigger. Gasping in fright again and close my eyes and scrunch up into myself, waiting for him to shoot me.

"We'll be taking these, girl."

I nod my head slowly, and raise my head to meet his eyes which are filled with that same fury as before. Harvey can change so quickly, even though I'm aware of his duality it's still shocking.

"Of course, thank you." I smile gently "It means a lot."

"What?" he spits out, tilting his head to one side as he regards me.

"It…It m-means a lot that you like them so much you want to take them with you. T-that's all I really aim for." I explain, still shaking slightly under his gaze, the barrel of his gun not too far away from me.

Harvey snorts, and clicks his fingers, to which I whimper and hug my arms around my chest I thought the clicking was the gun getting ready to fire. I should have known that it wouldn't be that. It didn't even sound metallic, but in my panic I can't help but believe the worst.

I watch as the two pieces are removed from the wall by one of the goons, and carried away. Two Face gives me one last glance before turning on his heel and making his way out of the art gallery, lowering the gun again as he does so. I can feel my heart almost bouncing out of my chest I'm so anxious, I grab onto the nearest table so I can steady myself and try and stop shaking so much but it's in vain.

All of the goons rush out of the door on Harvey's command, and I hold my breath thinking that he'll be leaving now too. Despite wanting to meet one of Gotham's super criminal's I'm not sure that I was quite ready for it tonight.

Almost casually Two Face turns in the doorway and smirks back at me;

"There best not be an uneven number of paintings in this room, girl. Or I'll be back to correct your mistake tomorrow."

And that is that. He leaves through the door, into a nearby waiting car. I don't release my breath until I hear the sounds of cars screaming away down the streets, by which time I should be right be a shaking mess on the floor but I'm holding on by a thread. There are still guests here after all. Gulping softly I grab the nearest champagne tray and down a flute as swiftly as possible, and then another, and a third for good measure. Taking deep breaths I don't blame the guests for murmuring their appreciation for the show, and not getting them killed, before promptly rushing out the door to their own cars nearby.

Groaning lightly, I whack my head on the table top and sigh. This isn't how I wanted the opening night to go, and I can't help but think who else might turn up. If Two Face has shown, word is going to get around the Narrows, and anyone could appear tomorrow night. A prospect which both terrifies and excites at the same time.