Death is only the beginning.
Harley's murder was just another added to the long list of crimes that the Joker had committed, but it was by far one of the worst. He hadn't realized just how much she meant to him. Still, it was a necessary evil.
The problem is, Nightwing hasn't forgotten. He continued to come after the Joker. Something had to be done; it would be a distraction from the plan, but a necessary evil, nonetheless. Dick Grayson has to die.
"Did that one wake you up? No?"
Dick groaned a little, and he heard a gasp.
"Oh! I think he's coming to! Maybe this-"
Dick screamed as a searing pain erupted in his arm. The Joker let out a whoop of success.
"There we go! Perfect. Good morning!" Joker said merrily as he turned his head to the side, looking at Dick below him. Dick's head jerked up and he looked around the room, his head spinning. It was lit by what little sunlight could seep through the dirty windows, so streaked with rust and dirt that he could hardly make out the shapes outside them. The dark concrete walls were stained with the same orange and black streaks, and the room was incredibly hot.
Dick's arms were above him, handcuffed to pipes protruding from the wall a few feet below the low ceiling. He could feel his blood seeping from the metal clamped tightly around his wrists. His arms above his head only allowed him to slump on his knees on the floor. The Joker stood before him, the sleeves of his gold colored shirt rolled up, his waistcoat unbuttoned. He grinned, and it would have been a pleasant smile, had it not been for the ghoulish makeup distorting his features.
Dick's throat was burning. He had no idea what time it was, but it had to be at least midday. Or is it? Have I been out that long? Dick thought, unable to keep a cry of pain from escaping his lips as the Joker grabbed his wrist, the handcuff biting into his skin, and leaned down to look at him.
"If you're going to kill me, that's not going to work out for you," Dick hissed. The Joker laughed.
"Of course not. Why would I kill you right away? Where's the fun in that?"
"And you're all about fun, aren't you?" Dick looked up at him, doing his best to look menacing despite the ringing in his ears and the sick feeling in his stomach.
"Of course! I just want everyone to be happy. I want everyone to smile. But…" The Joker stood and turned around, closing his eyes. He didn't let Dick see the look of sadness that crossed his features. "I learned something years ago; not everyone can have a happy ending."
That's when Dick saw someone slumped on the other side of the room in the dirt.
Someone wearing a Harley Quinn costume.
His stomach knotted as he stared at her, unable to move. The Joker smiled darkly at Dick over his shoulder.
"You would know, you've ruined plenty of happy endings. I took away the last chance at my own so you couldn't have yours." The Joker suddenly whipped Dick across the face with a piece of metal piping. He cried out, his head snapping to the side and yanking painfully on the cuffs cutting into his wrists. The Joker grabbed his face, the pain from the blow intensifying. He looked Dick straight in the eyes.
"Do you miss her?! Does your heart ache for her?" Joker hissed, grinning. "I don't-" he suddenly halted and tilted his head, as if listening to something. "-shut up, Harley, Daddy is trying to work." He drew back his hands and swung the piping like a baseball bat into Dick's stomach. Dick choked on his own scream and coughed, seeing stars from the pain. Another horrible cackle rose from the Joker's lips.
"What did you do to her?!" Dick spat, his teeth clenched against the pain. He couldn't move his hands to pick the lock on the handcuffs, they were wound so tightly around his wrists. He didn't have anything he could do it with, anyway. He didn't take his eyes off of the crumpled figure in the corner.
"Her?! God, no. I would never desecrate my dear Harley's grave. But I needed some incentive to get you out here, now, didn't I?"
Joker's Italian leather shoes clicked as he walked across the floor, grabbing the hood of the corpse and lifting it's head.
Joan's pale face was painted with the same ghastly smile that streaked onto the Joker's cheeks. Dick had to look away to keep from vomiting.
"What the hell is wrong with you," he hissed, squeezing his eyes shut tight. Joker held her by the harlequin hood on her head and dragged her toward Dick. He grabbed his face as he dumped the body by Dick's feet.
"She didn't get a happy ending. She can't smile anymore." The Joker laughed, forcing Dick to look at Joan's crumpled corpse on the concrete. Dick squeezed his eyes shut tight.
Releasing him, Joker cackled merrily.
"Pulling her up was more fun, really. And I knew when that little brat Kelley told you there was something wrong with her, you'd come running. And now here we are, together at last." Joker grabbed him by his shirt collar and pulled him up, making Dick look at him.
"To be perfectly honest, I don't even know why I want to kill you. Maybe it's because you've been interfering even more than the meddlesome Batman. Maybe it's because he cares about you and what better way to call out your nemesis than with the slaughter of a dove- his precious Nightwing? Or maybe it's because you… destroyed…" he looked like he was making an actual effort to remain calm. "Everything that I'd worked toward last month. You and Harley," he sneered.
"You're not fit to say her name," Dick spat, glaring up at him furiously. "You murdered her!"
"I did what I had to," Joker sniffed. "Though I mourn her loss, it was a necessary evil."
"You son of a bitch," Dick hissed. Joker rolled his eyes.
"Don't be so melodramatic, bird boy." He knelt in front of Dick. "Do you know what I'm going to do now?"
Dick said nothing.
"All jokes aside, I'm going to torture you. And then I'm going to blow you up like your brother, except this time, there won't be any left to revive." When Dick still didn't respond, Joker straightened up, pulling his gloves out of his pocket and tugging them on, a laugh rising in his throat. "Let's get started."
"Hey!" Red Robin called, pulling his motorcycle to a stop. "Any news?" He pulled his helmet off and hurried over to where Batman and Robin were by the computer banks.
"Nothing yet," Robin said. There was none of the usual anger or sarcasm in his voice, and he looked worried but he tried to hide it.
"I got nothing. Did Jason get anything from any of his criminal friends?"
"No," Red Hood said quietly, standing off to the side. "No one even saw the Joker tonight. He's been unusually quiet."
"And Richard left the mansion of his own accord," Robin added. Batman ignored them.
"Barbara," he barked into the comm. "Do you have the locations I asked for?"
Batman fell silent as Barbara began relaying the street numbers and addresses to him. Robin glanced over his shoulder. Each one was added as a dot to the map on the computer screen. A symbol formed.
"It's the Bat symbol," Batman hissed.
"Where is he!?" Robin demanded. Red Hood looked at the screen carefully.
"It's an apartment complex," he said slowly. "In a deserted neighborhood, that's where I grew up. Odd…"
"Let's go get him!" Robin shouted, running toward the Batmobile.
The lights through the windows were fading. The Joker had left him alone for the moment, and he dreaded the man's return. Through his hazy vision in the dim light, Dick could see blood on the floor, which he groggily realized was his own. He slumped against the wall. He'd lost feeling in his hands over an hour ago, and he leaned heavily on the handcuffs. The door creaked open.
"Honey, I'm home!" Joker cackled.
Dick didn't move, his head hanging down in front of his chest.
"Did you two have a nice little chat while I was gone?" He giggled and kicked Joan's body out of his way.
"Leave her alone." Dick whispered.
"Leave her-?" the Joker laughed hysterically. "My dear boy, maybe the torture has gone to your head, but honey- she's dead. That was the whole point of this!" he shook his head, chuckling.
Dick's breath rasped past his lips and he winced, spitting blood onto the floor.
"Don't be like that, son. We're having fun, aren't we?" When Dick didn't respond, the Joker grabbed his hair and yanked his head up to look at him. "Aren't we," he hissed, and Dick spat blood in his face. Joker laughed. "Acting like an impetuous child won't get you out of this next part."
"How far out are you?!" Barbara demanded, linked to their comms.
"Robin and I are about a mile. Red Hood is about the same, and Red Robin is almost there," Batman said sharply.
"I'm on the street now," Red Robin said into the comm.
Images flashed in Batman's mind. Racing, blinding speed fueled by panic, a warehouse in the snow; an explosion throwing him backward.
"Stop!" he barked. "Red Robin, wait for the rest of us to arrive!"
"But Batman-"
"NO. Those are my orders! Wait!"
"I'm waiting," Red Robin said quietly, halting in his tracks. They could all hear the edge in Batman's voice. Red Robin could see the apartment complex just ahead. Windows were broken out of the top floors, and the street was deserted.
"What is our plan when we get there?" Robin asked quietly.
"Be wary, and find him. He is top priority."
"What about the Joker?" Red Robin asked.
"If his escape means we save Dick, then so be it," Batman hissed. Robin looked at him worriedly.
"We should go after him, Batman," Red Hood said angrily. "He's our only chance if Dick isn't there, or if he's already…"
"Don't finish that sentence, Jason!" Batman shouted as the Batmobile screeched to a stop on the empty street.
Dick tried to cry out, but he couldn't anymore. His throat was on fire, and the sound wouldn't come out. The Joker sighed, dropping the bloodied knife on the ground again, drawing the silver dagger that he'd stabbed Harley with from his coat.
"This all could have been avoided," he grinned. "Consider this 'revenge'. I wouldn't ever say something so petty, but… Harley was mine. Now, You've bled out a lot as it is. That's not my fault, if you wouldn't get so excited, you wouldn't bleed as fast." Joker shrugged. "Ah, well."
Joker raised the dagger, grinning cruelly, and he plunged it into Dick's shoulder. He screamed, slammed back against the wall as the knife sank into the brick and pain exploded across his chest. The Joker cackled madly and twisted the blade, causing him to scream again, louder. He breathed hard. Dick didn't know how much longer he could keep this up. He felt the blood begin to pour from his shoulder, but it felt slower than it was. Everything around him had begun to move in half-time. His eyes fluttered.
"Dick!?" Batman's voice rang out through the building and the Joker cursed, his face twisting in fury.
"You little-" he relaxed and smiled. "Heh. It would be too easy to slit your throat now, but I'm late for a meeting. Don't worry. You won't leave here alive. Goodbye, Boy Wonder," the Joker hissed. Dick howled in pain as the poison began to spread; his back arched and he tried to tear his arm away from where it was pinned against the wall. The Joker grinned once more and then disappeared through the door.
Panting, Dick struggled to keep his eyes open.
"Batman!" his voice was hoarse as he tried to signal him, but the sound barely carried across the room. Dick suddenly screamed as another wave of searing pain spiderwebbed down his arm and across his chest from his shoulder. He could hear the poison hissing in his skin, and he yanked against the handcuffs harder, fighting his fatigue.
"Dick!" Batman bellowed, bursting into the room. Dick's head rolled up weakly.
"P-poison…" he mumbled breathlessly. Batman yanked the knife out of his shoulder and threw it to the side.
Robin launched into the room and skidded to a stop, a hand flying over his mouth. Red Robin and Red Hood skidded to a stop behind him, and he ran forward.
"Pick those locks," Batman commanded as he pulled out a needle filled with an antidote. Dick's eyes closed weakly. He blinked them open again, and he saw her. Harley was there. She stared at him in horror, and Dick knew she was disappointed in him for giving up; he didn't care. She was there, and he would get to be with her.
"Bruce- I'm sorry…" he rasped, his chin sinking to his chest. Batman carefully injected him with a universal antidote and then poured some over the poisoned wound for good measure, dropping the vial and grabbing Dick's face.
"Dick! Wake up, come on…"
"I don't feel a pulse!" Robin whimpered, loosening one handcuff. It clicked open and Dick fell back against the wall, eyes closed, lips parted slightly. Red Hood and Red Robin watched in terror as Batman tried to revive him.
Red Robin's eyes glanced over the dead woman lying against the wall beside Dick, her lips pulled up in a gruesome smile and held there with fishing hooks. He couldn't even look at Dick. How much blood surrounded his brother and the wounds on his skin didn't even begin to unsettle Red Robin as much as the Joker makeup on Dick's face did.
Robin dropped to his knees and applied pressure to the wound in Dick's shoulder. Batman pounded on Dick's chest, and he suddenly gasped, all of the pain coming back to him at once. He screamed and Robin scrambled back from him, alarmed, crashing into Joan's body. He shouted in terror and scrambled away, running behind Red Robin's cape. Dick let out another moan of pain, his whole body trembling.
"We need to get him to a hospital," Batman snapped, applying pressure to Dick's wound. He ignored Dick's cries of pain as he wrapped a bandage tightly around the stab wound to restrict blood flow. As he was doing that, Red Robin leaned over Dick, and using his cape, wiped off the make up as best he could.
"I'm sorry," he muttered, drowned out by Dick's groans. Batman picked him up.
"Father?" Robin said quietly.
"Not now, Damian-" Batman said hurriedly, walking to the door. Robin and Red Hood were still rooted to the spot.
"Father!" Robin cried.
"What?" Batman demanded, turning to look at them.
"What about her?" Robin said quietly again, pointing at the corpse in the corner. Batman sighed.
"We'll have to leave her. Call the police and let them know."
"B-Bruce-" Dick gasped, his eyelids drooping again, his head against Batman's shoulder.
"Just hold on Dick," Batman cried as he half ran to the Batmobile. "Red Robin, take Robin and all of you, go back to the Batcave now!"
"But-" Red Hood began.
"-Orders!" Batman shouted as the door closed and the Batmobile tore down the street.
"Bruce..." Dick whispered weakly, unable to hold his head up from his shoulder.
"You're going to be okay," Batman said, accelerating through a turn.
"Bruce… s'okay… I'll be wit' Harley…" he breathed, closing his eyes.
"No Dick! Don't!" Batman snapped, glancing at Dick in alarm. He fell silent and still, but he seemed to be breathing yet. When Batman roared into the emergency entrance of Gotham Central Hospital, he leapt out and grabbed Dick, carrying him through the sliding glass doors. A woman screamed when she saw him holding Dick's bloodied figure in his arms, and the nurse at the reception desk frantically called for help. "Just hold on, Dick, please…"
"We'll take him-" chaos ensued as the doctors rushed Dick away. Batman began to follow, and a nurse stopped him.
"I'm sorry, Batman, you can't follow," she said hesitantly. "Only family would be… can you tell me who he is? What happened?"
"His name is Richard Grayson," Batman said quietly. "The Joker tried to murder him."
