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"Master Wayne!" Alfred called from his room. "You're going to want to see this."

Bruce walked into the room to find Alfred staring at the TV with an ashen face. He looked at the TV screen to find his beloved Dani tied to a chair with tears streaming down her face, a small cut on her cheek, and a large gash on her arm. Bruce watched the TV screen in horror. She was reading something on the other side of the camera and it was an announcement for Batman.

When the camera turned to show the world who was filming, Bruce's heart nearly stopped. "To give you a little incentive, Mr. Batman, here's what gonna happen. For every few hours you don't find the girl, I have a little…treat for her. Best you hurry up…before Bruce Wayne's sweetheart is gone forever!"

The tape flipped off and went back to a news station.

"He's back," Bruce said quietly.

"And it seems he's gotten Miss Molina to get to you," Alfred said sadly.

"How could I have let this happen? I told her I could make sure she was safe!"

"You still can. You must find her. And keep her safe from the monster who took her."

"Where would I even start?"

"I believe that Mr. Fox should be able to assist you."

"Fox!" Bruce called as he entered the man's office. "I need your help!"

"What seems to be the problem?"

"Dani's been kidnapped."

"Dani's been kidnapped?!" he exclaimed bolting up from his seat.

"It gets worse. She's been kidnapped by the Joker. I have to find out where she is. She's in a lot of trouble. We both know he doesn't play nice, and I can only imagine the terrible things he's doing to her."

"I'll get right on it."

Bruce and Lucius went to his concealed lab where he kept all his computer junk and techie stuff. He sat down and began pulling up different pages on several screens. "I'll try to see if I can track down where the video was taken, and maybe that will lead us to her."

"Call me as soon as you get something. And please hurry. We don't know how long she's got."

Dani's arm still burned from the gash the Joker had left. She had been worried that she would bleed out, but of course, he didn't allow that to happen. He couldn't let her die. Yet.

Every time Dani struggled against her new ropes, a surge of pain coursed through her arm. He had tied them even tighter so there was no squirming out of them this time. She looked around once more trying to see if there was anything at all that she could use to free herself. She noticed that the more she moved her feet, the looser the ropes became since she was now barefoot. She started moving them as fast as she could. If she could just free her legs, that could be enough to initiate her escape.

Finally, the ropes slid off her feet and it wasn't long after when the Joker walked in.

"Hello, gorgeous. Do you realize that you only have a little over 24 hours left?"

I've been held here that long? she thought. It seemed like a lot longer.

"You better hope ol' Batboy will come in time. Otherwise, you and I are going to have one heck of a time together!"

He was finally close enough for Dani. She lifted up her foot and nailed him in the crotch. He kneeled over and she whacked him in the head, sending him to the floor. Standing up with the chair, she kicked him once more in the head. She then frantically tried to find his knife to cut herself loose. It proved difficult with the chair attached to her, but every time he started to get up again, she delivered another kick to his face. It gave her just enough time to find his knife and snap her ropes. When she was finally free from the chair, she swiftly punched him hard in the face, just because.

She then ran out as fast as she could and tried to find her exit. She was already lost and she knew she would never get out before he caught her, so she tried to at least buy herself a bit of time. She picked up another chair that was close by and rammed it through the window. When she saw that she was a couple stories up, she knew she would never make it to the ground without breaking something. She threw a chain out the window and wrapped it tightly around a beam. It seemed like it would hold her well enough.

She heard the Joker's heavy footsteps running around trying to find her. There was no way she could make it down and out of sight before he found her. She hid behind a large beam, in the hopes that he would think she had climbed down, and prayed he didn't see her.

She listened as he ran up to the window and she assumed he looked out when he said, "Made your escape, did we, doll?" He chuckled. "You won't get far."

When she heard his footsteps depart, she slowly inched out from behind the beam, relieved her plan actually worked. She was about to go to the window when she felt the cold steel of a knife pressed against her throat. Her heart sank. All that work for nothing and she had been so very, very close.

"You've got some kick in you, sweetheart, I'll admit," he said in her ear. "Why are you so afraid of me? Is it the scars?" When she didn't respond, he continued, "Wanna know how I got 'em?" He turned her around to face him. "I used to have friends. I know, hard to believe right? But I had this one friend who bought drugs from some really bad people. One day, after he almost OD'd, he reported them to the police and told those druggies that it was me who reported them so he didn't take the heat for it. They found me and surrounded me. I just smiled, trying not to let them know that they had the upper hand. Well, they didn't like that. 'What's so funny?' they asked. 'What are you smiling at, freak?' they asked. 'We'll give you something to smile at!' they yelled. They took a knife and did this little number on me. By the time the police arrived on the scene, I was bleeding all onto the street and the druggies, well, they got away. And they were never caught. So now, I'm always smiling no matter what's going on."

He removed the knife from her face and began to drag her back.

"No!" she screamed. "Please! No!"

He once more shoved her back into the chair but he didn't tie her up again. Whether he ran out of rope, or he had something else planned, she didn't know. He put the knife to her face and made a small gash on her other cheek vertically rather than horizontally like the other cut. "You know the best way to a make a joke work?" he purred, taking her face in his hands.

She stared at the knife aimed at her face.

"You have someone else in on it."

He went to the door and ushered a man in. Dani found with horror that she was looking into the eyes of Jonathon Crane.

Oh, I am so evil to leave you with this cliffhanger! :D

Don't worry, the next chapter will be uploaded before you know it!