Alternate
Who: The Joker, Rachel Dawes, Lex Luthor
Where: The restricted section of the LexCorp lab
What: Rachel's bad night gets much, much worse
The building was deathly quiet around Lex as he sat in front of the bank of security monitors, watching the Joker drag Rachel Dawes through the empty halls of LexCorp. At this hour of the morning, even the janitors had gone home, and Lex had dismissed the security staff. It would just be the three of them, in the most remote basement corner of the lab.
He glanced at the machine behind him, powered down for now. It was non-assuming, a large loop of metal connected to a tangle of wires and computer monitors. It didn't look dangerous, or like it could punch a hole through reality itself, creating a pathway to someplace else. It was still considered experimental, too dangerous and unpredictable to test on humans. All they knew was that the lab rats they'd prodded through what could only be called a portal were still alive. Somewhere. Dawes will still be alive. Somewhere.
Turning back to the monitors, he saw that the Joker was getting close. Lex reached over and flipped on the lights, the empty lab suddenly bathed in harsh, flourescent light. He shrugged into his lab coat and moved to meet the Joker at the entrance to the lab.