Bruce watched Joker sleep, he had come down early, to check on the clown.

Tim was right, he wouldn't be able to function in normal society, even after he had been proved sane, and all his crimes dismissed for insanity, he couldn't change his identity, he was a white skinned devil, in the most literal sense of the saying. People would always see him as that.

The clown opened his eyes. "Joker?" Batman smiled.

"Oh Batsy darling, how are you this fine morning?" Joker smiled up at Batman. Who only nodded in answer.

"… Not in a talking mood are we?" Joker sounded unimpressed. Batman nodded again.

"Well that's going to make a lot of progress isn't it?" Batman nodded once again.

Joker sat, face pressed against the bars, "you're trying to do that mind thing aren't you? It doesn't work on me." Batman nodded, smiling slightly.

The clown tapped the bars, "Come on, Bats. Don't do this."

Batman smiled, "why not?"

Joker laughed and pointed at the vigilante, "Haha, I got you to talk!"

"I have a question."

Joker smiled widely "What?"

Batman smiled again, but didn't say anything.

"What?"

… Batman still said nothing.

…

"What? What's your question?"

Batman smiled, "guess."

Joker sighed, "I've had this tried on me too, doesn't work either."

"Joker, I thought you said you'd cooperate?"

Joker rolled his eyes.

"Fine. But I don't want to play the questions game."

Batman smiled, "ok, but can I ask you a question?" Joker shrugged, "sure, no more games though, that's my thing not yours."

"Why are you only letting me come down here?"

Joker chuckled, "I already told you, I don't want to feel like a freak, I don't want all your people staring at me when I'm like this."

"Yeah but, why me?"

Joker looked over at him, a smile appeared that seemed to say 'why do you even need to ask?'

"Batsy, we share a connection, you and I, we're the same." He laughed, "I don't know how you don't see it, we both had tragic events cause us to become who we are, we share this wonderful back and forth." He sighed, smiling still. "We're soul mates, we just got off on the wrong foot."

Batman frowned, slightly taken aback, "If I didn't know better, Joker, I'd think that you had some sort of crush on me."

Joker chuckled and shook his head, "I don't do that, I don't do relationships, I don't get crushes. I like you; you're the only constant in my life. Wherever I go you're there. I don't really have anyone else. Jack's life, it's not mine, it just feels like a dream. Something that happened so long ago… But. I don't remember much of it."

He shifted closer and asked in his sweetest voice, "do you remember what happened to you? To make you Batman?"

Batman nodded, looking down at the floor, "my… umm… My parents were shot… Why are you asking? You don't care about that sort of thing."

Joker chuckled, "you might need to talk to this Nathan guy as well."

"Gotham needs to have Batman, it needs to not have Joker."

Joker scoffed, "oh come on Batman, if anything Gotham needs to not have you, you created me. Who knows how many others have come about because of you."

"Don't act as if you were innocent before you became Joker, you used to run with the mob, it's things like that I originally set out to stop."

Joker smirked, "but in doing so you accidentally created one of the most notorious criminals ever to exist. And half a dozen others to boot!"

Batman stood up, "I don't have time for this, I can't do anything for you at the moment, and, as you said, there are other criminals out there. I have work to do."

/

Joker stood at the door to the cell, bored out of his mind. He had looked over the cell for weak points several times, but he couldn't find any, or anything he could use to break himself out. He was in a remote corner of the Batcave, and anything that he could use to break himself out was out of his reach.

"Batman!"

"Batman! I'm bored! I know you can hear me, I can see the cameras! I know your watching!"

Robins voice echoed through the intercom speaker, "He's not in Joker, he's at a party."

Joker growled, "a party? I'm stuck in here, bored, and he's at a party? And why are you watching me? You couldn't handle me if I got out."

Joker heard a small chuckle come from the speaker "but your not going to get out are you? I've seen you trying to. You can't."

Joker's eyes narrowed, what a little twat.

"Do you know what I did to your predecessor? Because the same thing will happen to you if you're not careful."

"What? What are you talking about? Nightwing's fine."

Joker chuckled, "Nightwing? No not Nightwing, the other one! Has Batsy not told you? Hahahah! Well I shouldn't really rob him of the honour of telling you… Oh no I can't tell."

Joker laughed loudly, shaking his head in disbelief, "I can't believe he's not told you! It's one of my greatest accomplishments!"

Robin's voice crackled through the speaker, he seemed both confused and annoyed.

"What the hell are you talking about clown?"

"Ok, ok, I'll tell you. The Robin before you, right little arse he was, always had something to say, loved answering back, stupid bastard. Even Batman wasn't that fond of him."

Silence came from the speaker, Tim did remember seeing a different Robin on T.V when he was young. One that was the same age as he is now, not the teenager that Nightwing would have been.

Finally he spoke, "What happened to him?"

Joker smiled widely, "Well, I lured him into the backroom, leaving my men to fight Batman, kidnapped him. Then I tied him up in a little hut, then I… umm… what's the best way to put this… Beat him with a crowbar till he was unconscious and then blew him up. Oh you should have seen Batman's face…"

Joker roared with laughter, "It was such fun."

A loud click came from the speaker as Robin turned it off.

Joker stopped laughing and smiled, "here he comes." He whispered to himself. He looked up into the camera and started to speak, "So I'm just sitting here, bored out of my scull, minding my own business, when suddenly-"

Robin burst through the door, and marched into the room "You bastard! You murderous, disgusting, vile thing. You're not a man! You're a dog that deserves to be put down!"

Robin picked one of the Jokers guns off the cabinet on the far side of the room, then moved towards the Jokers cage, he stood next to the bars, gun held aloft, aimed at the Jokers face.

The clown looked up wearing an expression of mock terror, "…When suddenly this happens."

Joker stuck his hand through the bars, grabbing onto the child before he had a chance to react. He snapped the young mans arm backwards, breaking it, and took the gun off of the now screaming boy.

Joker quickly stuck his hand into Robins utility belt, grabbing his pair of bat-cuffs, and swiftly clipped them onto the boy's wrist, locking him to the bars of his prison.

"You're such a good child. Thank you for playing along with all this."

Joker shot several times at the door to the cell, hitting the bolt holding the door in place, it didn't break it, but weakened it just enough so it could be kicked down.

It fell to the floor with a loud thud.

Joker danced about the room, spinning and leaping triumphantly, "you know kid" he said once he had stopped, "You, are very easy to manipulate."

He sprinted off down the mouth of the Batcave, happy to be free from that cell.