A/N: This is my first dark(ish) fic and the first including an OC, so let's see how this goes. I know the name Jester has been used in other fics, so I take no responsibility for it. Also, if anyone wishes to request a pairing or certain adventure, I would be happy to oblige!

This fic begins around the time Robin (Dick Grayson) first sets out with Batman. Jester is 6 months younger than him, to clarify.

Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice.

We are not born crazy. As John Locke would have you believe, we are all born the same and are molded by our environments.

He didn't explain what kind of person came from chaos, though. I knew that answer anyway.

I am tall and thin, but years of dodging flying objects and fist fighting have made me strong and fast. I have orange hair; I suppose my dad used to be a redhead before he became… green…

I remember the first time I ran into the Bat and the Boy Wonder. I was about eight years old, and my mother and I had moved back into Gotham to live with my dad. I suppose she had been trying to protect me, but in the end, we couldn't last long on our own.

My dad enjoyed administering discipline with an iron fist, so the first time he found me playing with one of his knives, there was an quite an uproar in the warehouse. I managed to escape with only a black eye and a broken rib.

I was walking down dark alleys, traveling to the pier. I turned a corner and found myself faced with ten men loading boxes into a truck. It never even occurred to me that the men could have been law abiding citizens simply moving cargo.

I walked up calmly, invisible in the shadows. Finally, I asked, "Whatcha loading?"

The men turned to me in alarm, pointing their guns at me. "Step into the light!"

"But it's so much nicer over here."

"We'll shoot!"

"Fine, fine." I stepped out, and most of the men relaxed.

"We're just loading some medicine for the sick kids in Africa; now run along home."

I laughed; it sounded cold. "Sick kids? You mean the despondent drug addicts?"

The men glanced at each other, and the leader raised his gun. "You shoulda kept quiet, kid; say goodnight."

I laughed again. Suddenly, something fast and black knocked the gun from the thug's grip. I glanced at the object, curious at the bat shape. I understood faster than the men and sank back into the shadows.

From a distance, I recognized that Batman was powerful, but he was still human; his strategies were careful and precise. I realized this was a man who hadn't been raised in darkness; he had accepted it halfway through his life.

Robin, on the other hand, showed the prowess of a lifelong acrobatic. He fascinated me more than Batman, because for such a ridiculous costume and such laughter, I could sense a hate in him. Something had cut him deep, and he was taking it out on the criminals.

In a blink, it was over. Batman was tying up the villains; Robin paged the police. After he put his radio away, the Boy Wonder glanced at me. He walked forward, asking, "Hey, kid; do you need a ride home?"

I chuckled at this. He wasn't much older than me, but he was treating me like a child. "I can walk."

Batman turned to me, as if something had caught his attention. In my younger years, I had adopted a faint Brooklyn accent from my mother, but my father would beat it out of me before pubescence.

Robin noticed as well. I wondered if he had run into my mother yet.

Batman glided towards me; I looked up into his eyes, mine void of fear. He was just a man.

"Where are your parents?"

"Back at the house."

He frowned at my black eye. Or maybe he was just frowning because that was his only expression, like my father's smile. "You should go home."

"Fine." I turned and started walking away. I didn't have time for this; I needed to go to the joke shop and steal a Whoopee cushion, then fill it with glue so my father will be stuck to his seat. It wasn't very diabolical as far as revenge went, but it could suffice.

Robin trotted after me, however. "I'll make sure you get back safely."

"I can take care of myself."

"Clearly."

I looked at Robin and chuckled. "Go solve a crime; my house is two blocks away." Another lie, but the Boy Blunder believed me.

He didn't know it, but our lives were doomed to be forever entwined. The lion and the tiger locked in constant battle for eternity; we had no option. It was our fate.

Or was it?

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