WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Batman #113 on sale now from DC Comics.
Ghost-Maker has been an ally of Batman for a while now. But it was recently revealed that he had connections to another major power player in Gotham: the Scarecrow. Ironically, his desire to better understand a young Bruce Wayne led him to work alongside one of his future enemies. This twist in Ghost-Maker's past led to Batman beginning to understand Scarecrow's motivations for inducing the fear state upon Gotham City.
Ghost-Maker had been helping Batman purge any lingering influence Scarecrow had on his mind in Batman #113 by James Tynion IV, Jorge Jimenez, Tomeu Morey and Clayton Cowles. The endeavor was successful, but in light of the situation and having seen a memory of Scarecrow boasting about the impending Fear State, Ghost-Maker realized he had a memory to show that had relevant information on their current predicament. He took Batman back to a time before either of them had truly made their alter egos known to the world when Ghost-Maker sought out a promising young graduate named Jonathan Crane.
Ghost-Maker's motives for seeking him out weren't sinister. In fact, they were quite the opposite. He went to this rising star in the psychology department to try and get a better understanding of Bruce Wayne and his motivations. Previously, Bruce had warned Ghost-Maker that his lack of empathy would hold him back. These words apparently had more weight than Bruce realized, pushing Ghost-Maker to seek out a man who could elaborate not on Bruce's empathy, but his fears. He thought that more than anything was what motivated Bruce not to go the extra mile and kill his enemies. But instead of insight into Bruce's mind, he got a glimpse into the darkness lurking just beneath the surface of the future master of fear.
He only worked with Crane for a week, but even in such a short time, he could sense the coldness in the man. It unnerved Ghost-Maker, an impressive feat considering he is a psychopath himself and one of the most dangerous warriors on the planet. But this week of study would pay off because Crane couldn't resist sharing his theory about the fear state. The memory elaborated that a massive population would receive a shock, priming them for manipulation before the media is spun to stoke their fears. These fears would then be directed towards a single target -- a strawman -- that Crane prophetically referred to as a Scarecrow. Once the Scarecrow had been conquered, the people in the fear state would become better for it.
As the memory faded, Ghost-Maker further elaborated that Crane's theory had circulated around Silicon Valley, thus revealing how Simon Saint came to know of it and work alongside Scarecrow. Ghost-Maker explained that Scarecrow never intended to help Saint officiate the Magistrate, but rather intended to use them as the "scarecrow" in his greatest fear experiment.
So in a bizarre twist of fate, Ghost-Maker's desire to better understand his friend led to an understanding of what Scarecrow planned for this city. Now with the context to their situation laid out before him, Batman may be better able to coordinate a counterattack -- especially since the two enemies he has been fighting for so long have finally broken ties.