Work Text:
He doesn’t remember a time when the Scarecrow wasn’t there. Intellectually, he realizes there was such a time but it is lost deep in the tangled labyrinth of his mind. As far as he knows or cares, nightmares and straw are all that has ever existed.
Jonathan Crane was a great researcher and a gifted professor of psychiatry. He wrote books and peer-reviewed papers in important journals illuminating the subject of fear in the human psyche. But now he is a murderer and a psychiatric patient. They don’t call him doctor anymore.
He remembers the smirks and shared glances of the other professors. He had always been an outsider to them. His teaching abilities and brilliance in his subject meant little to their juvenile and cliquish nature. And even to this day, it burns him deep inside. But the Scarecrow showed them - showed everyone.
At first, the other doctors told him it was Schizophrenia. Except, it couldn’t be. This was not a voice or a delusion. The Scarecrow was real and fearsome. Could they not see the obvious truth? Eventually, they said it was Dissociative Identity Disorder. But he knew and remembered what the Scarecrow did and said and thought. And he approved.
What they never understood was that the Scarecrow was himself and his protector simultaneously. The bullies and abusers might not fear Jonathan Crane, but they would certainly fear the Scarecrow. Everyone would fear him.
The Scarecrow protects him from the Bat. At first Crane hated Batman, but like some horrific addiction, he kept drawing him out until Batman was almost his complete focus. It came to the point that he felt he meant nothing without Gotham’s Knight. This other creature of fear that was so full of power - why couldn’t that be him? To defeat him was to usurp him but then…
-------
Chaos breaks out in Arkham. He takes a moment to savor the screams as though they are a fine wine. Then, with a swiftness that does not match his lanky physique, he bolts from his cell. And in his mind, he sees and hears but Crane does not move. The Scarecrow is in control of everything now. He becomes smaller and the Scarecrow looms larger. Suddenly, there is no abused boy screaming in terror. There is no professor. There is no Crane.
Soon no one will treat him badly. They will run in terror from him just as he ran in terror from others. They will worship him.