Batman is typing furiously, downloading every subway plan, every underground tunnel, every hidden passage, ever coal mine. Every nook and cranny underneath Jump City, he was gleaning for himself in order to plan this rescue mission.
He turned the printer on and sat down, sighing audibly, contemplating what else can be done.
He could only think deeply about every memory he had with the Joker, fighting with him, figuring out his next move. Sometimes, he won. Sometimes, he lost. And sometimes, he lost lives.
Men, women, children, animals...
There was no limit to his cruelty. There was no limit to his madness. There was no fear and no pity; there was no compassion found in the eyes of evil. He was an irony above all things: a clown aching for a laugh from a performance that wasn't his own. It's why he manipulated people to his liking, for them to do the dirty work.
"Or if they didn't, he killed them when he saw fit."
Batman spoke, to no one in particular. In a way, it was like speaking to the Joker. Reasoning with him was like debating with a hurricane or commanding the rains outside to stop; there's no logic to spin around with lunacy.
He played by his rules and his rules alone.
'Why didn't he simply give Beast boy instructions? Why did he have to mention his way of thinking above all? Why was that even more effective than beatings and whippings?'
The answer rattled him. It was the very answer he feared:
The Joker and Beast boy are very alike. Even the circumstances in which they were found are extremely similar.
They're both victims of fate, of tragedies not even caused by their own making. They're both hiding behind something they're not, a psychopath hiding behind clown make-up and a broken boy hiding behind a mask full of laughter and immaturity. And both have committed crimes. Even if Beast boy was forced into it, he still did terrible things.
But other things stand in the way of such similarities:
Beast boy has a conscience. The Joker does not. Beast boy had done a measure of good. The Joker has not. Beast boy never killed anyone. The Joker has... multiple times.
And most importantly, Beast boy has a boulder of guilt on his back. The Joker had long since rolled it off and blown it up.
"And with all that guilt..."
Batman knew what it was like to carry false blame. He knew what it was like to want to die, to join his parents in the grave.
Beast boy's words suddenly took a whole new meaning for him:
You can't ask a graveyard for answers.
A good thing Raven stopped him from an act of desperation. Such tragedies often lead to more questions than answers.
After arriving to the Tower, Robin raced to his room, took a shower, and discarded his torn uniform, cape, and mask. He changed into brand new ones and raced over to Cyborg's room, who was replacing the dents in his body by unscrewing the metal sheets on his robotic parts.
Cyborg looked up and nodded at him. Robin simply waved at him, a sad smile crossing his face.
"It still... it's still really... I mean... man, all I told him, was a nickname, a damn nickname, and he just..."
He looked down at the dented metal sheets scattered across the floor.
"What'd I do wrong, Robin?"
The Boy Wonder shook his head.
"Nothing. You did nothing wrong, Cyborg. He was just... so angry at us that... he thought it was somehow justified... killing all of us."
"Murder's never justified."
"He didn't kill us."
"He could've, Robin," Cyborg shook his head. "He was very close to that point."
"And Raven made sure that didn't happen."
Cyborg nodded at that.
"Guess love really does conquer all, as your little girlfriend said. "
"Shut up..." Robin said teasingly.
He sat down next to Cyborg, who is sitting beside his desk. Pictures of him, before his accident, playing sports, particularly baseball, were tacked across the wall.
"Still..." A more serious tone flowed out of Robin's voice. "I mean, the way he hurt Starfire—"
"You were so... you were primal, man. Seriously. You went ape shit on his ass."
"Wouldn't you be if the girl you love was getting beaten to a bloody pulp?"
Robin said this a little more defensively than he should. Cyborg only kept mum, and finished his left arm.
"Yeah..." Cyborg said, forlorn. "But you heard what Raven said. He almost killed himself, man. He almost... he could've died on us. And we were... too wrapped up on our own problems to notice how bad it was getting for him. I'm just... Why, man?"
Cyborg threw the screwdriver, a sob escaping his mouth. He held his head with his left hand, hiding his human eye, which was filled to the brim with tears.
"My little brother, Robin..."
He felt an arm placed across his shoulders. Robin said softly yet resolutely,
"You're right. What he did, what he was so close to doing... sometimes, I don't know who he is anymore, Cyborg. After he injured me, I was so... so overwhelmed that I just... I just broke down. I cried so much. I don't think I've ever been so affected by someone like him."
Cyborg gently shook Robin's arm off to bend down and pick up the screwdriver. He want back to work with a final dent, found on his left shoulder.
"How? For you, I mean."
Robin sighed, sagging in the chair a little.
"His parents died, so... there's that... there's that sympathy I feel for him Cyborg. And I know how hard it is to escape from a mentor's influence. Not that Batman is like the Joker. He's nothing like him. But being behind his shadow can be a bit... um..."
"Stifling?"
Robin nodded.
Cyborg, who had finished with his left shoulder, opened up the toolbox sitting on the desk and put it away, saying,
"My dad was like that. Brilliant, authoritative, driven. Everybody expected me to be like him, but when I decided to play sports... Yo! You shoulda seen how my neighborhood reacted! Like the end of the world! Like Doomsday was approaching! My dad almost wanted nothing to do with me! But I stepped up on the plate as my coach said and struck his expectations like a bat stricking the ball out of the park! I mean, if only it was that easy for... you know..."
"Yeah..." Robin said, a bit marveled at Cyborg's story.
"But life isn't a baseball game," Robin said hinting at the photos.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah! We get it!"
"And stop using your pictures as a reference."
"Now that's just cruel!"
"Just my advice."
"Man, I'm strikin' out your advice like swoosh!"
Cyborg mimicked holding a baseball, and swinging it wildly at Robin. The two boys laughed, enjoying this small sense of leisure.
They both stood up, Cyborg's arm draped around Robin's shoulders.
"Thanks for showing up, Rob. Really appreciated it."
"No problem, Cyborg. Anytime."
The two exited the room.
"I'm going to go check on Starfire."
Cyborg nodded. He sauntered up to the Common Room. He was hungry and he decided a warm cheeseburger would assuage his craving for meat.
Robin went across the hall and to Starfire's room to check on her.
Cyborg entered the Common Room, his stomach growling audibly. He whistled loudly as he sauntered up to the kitchen. As he opened up the fridge, he heard a deep, cool voice say,
"How're you?"
The suddeness of his voice made him jump. Cyborg turned to Batman, who was inspecting dozens of papers on the coffee table.
Cyborg turned back, washed his hands, and started grabbing bread and lettuce and tomatoes. He grabbed meat paddies, settling them down along a pan to cook them.
"I'll be okay. Thanks for askin' me."
Batman only grunted loudly in acknowledgement.
Cyborg sighed heavily. He's still reeling over accidentally blasting Batman with his sonic cannon.
"Listen... Batman... About what I... about me blastin' my cannon at you... I want to say I didn't... I didn't mean it. I–"
"It's forgiven and forgotten. Have long since been," Batman said this as he turned over to him, his face a veneer of calm. He continued,
"Eat. Take care of yourself. When you're all done supporting each other, I want you all here so we can discuss this."
He pointed at the papers, then kept ruffling through them.
Cyborg nodded curtly and went back to preparing his lunch.
A while later, Raven, Starfire, and Robin entered the Ops Room.
"Guess there's no need in callin' you guys up."
"What for?" Raven inquired.
Batman simply motioned for them to come over and sit down on the couch. They followed. Cyborg trailed behind them. He'd just finished making his burger and carried a plate along. He munched on his burger while everybody else sat down.
"Alright..." Batman said. "I asked all of you to come in order to investigate every possible passageway the Joker and Beast boy may have traversed through, underground. Here are all the operating subway tunnels..."
He took out a page, a rat's maze of intricate tunnels leading all the way up to the surface.
"Coal mines..."
He took out another page. The tunnels looked larger, more spacious, more treacherous to tread about to.
"And abandoned tunnels..."
There were more dead ends on that plan. Batman has even written, according to confirmed reports, which tunnels had no entry point and which tunnels to avoid, due to them being categorized as high risk.
"And were using the warehouse..."
He took out the older blueprints of the warehouse. Batman has taken the time to draw on the plan, adding the trapdoor they saw as a focal point.
"And these plans to gather up anymore information we can find. Then, when we've found out for sure where the Joker is, we'll manage to save Beast boy."
Robin nodded at this, a small smile on his face.
"Alright," He rubbed his hands together. "We should start with..."
Robin had chosen the abandoned subway tunnels as the most probable location to where the Joker should be at. As he and Batman discussed which tunnels were the safest to venture through, straight out of the blue, Raven felt this pulsation inside her brain. At first it was a low throb but as the minutes ticked by, it started to worsen.
"I need to be alone for a moment."
She held her head in pain, grimacing.
Robin suddenly stopped talking and looked over at her.
"Raven? You okay?"
She shook her head. She was perspiring from sudden chills running up her spine.
Starfire said, "Friend, would it be best if you were alone for a moment?"
"Yes..." Raven was thankful for Starfire's deep sense of understanding and intuition. She flew upward and hovered over to the sliding doors. She quickly materialized all the way up to the top floor and flew to her room, shutting the door behind her.
She felt her back against the wall. She slid down, not even believing what was happening at first.
Suddenly, the throbbing was gone. She felt deep emotional pain. She felt determination. She felt this fearlessness, this lack of cowardice. Resolute was the right word for this feeling. Suddenly, there was righteous indignation. Deep broiling anger. She felt acceptance. An admittance to fate. There was nervosity, which spiraled into sheer horror and terror. Then, a complete numbness of feeling.
She knew deep inside her heart it was Beast boy. Even if her soul isn't traversing through him, he was a part of her now. Whatever he felt, she felt. Her allowing Love to take over had made her do really miraculous things.
An idea popped into her head:
'If I can concentrate all of my power, all of my being into him, then maybe, I can sense and pinpoint exactly where he is.'
Resolute, she walked up to her bed, sat on it, crossed her legs, and chanted her mantra.
She could feel herself flying into Nevermore. This time she wasn't in Happy's territory. She was in that barren road, that wasteland, so to speak, that led to that exit out of Nevermore.
Her emotions immediately materialized from the gray ground. Happy, Timid, Brave, Knowledge, Wisdom, Rude, Rage, and Love.
"Hey..." Raven said.
"Hi Rae Rae." Happy said, though her tonality is subdued.
Happy flew over and gave her a hug. Raven only reciprocated the hug. She really needed one, especially with what had happened today.
Love walked up to her, her voice soft, gentle,
"I'm proud of you. We all are. You finally admitting me into yourself, into Beast boy, saved his life. You are his other half now, Raven. No denial now, huh?"
Raven shook her head. She let go of Happy, and said dryly,
"I'm beyond that now. I came here for help."
"Oh?" Knowledge asked.
"Well... that's new," Rude said, while flicking ear wax out of her ear.
"Finally! You got the guts to ask!" Brave posited.
"What do you need, bitch?" Rage said.
"For you to shut the hell up and send you back to the latter," Raven almost wanted to punch her. "I really don't need your shit right now."
Rage gave her the middle finger.
Raven, somewhat shocked, only looked on and said, her voice even,
"If that's all you can do, then I can't help but pity you."
Rage only kept flipping the bird out.
Raven just ignored her and said to the rest,
"Ever since I've given my soul to Beast boy, I can now feel everything he's feeling right now. But I can't pinpoint his location. Can you help me?"
The emotions looked at each other, worried. Even Rage dropped the birdies and looked at Rude, shrugging at her.
"Well..." Wisdom adjusted her round glasses. "We've never done this before."
"Giving my soul to someone isn't something I'd done before. The monks back in Azarath always warned me it was dangerous."
"They didn't say Love was its only exceptionality to that risk," Knowledge said. "Yet again, you've only figured that out today."
"You're very welcome," Love said slyly, twirling her cloak seductively.
"Please don't." Raven said.
"Sorry..." Love replies.
"Back to the subject at hand before Love distracts us any more with her powers of seduction, Raven!"
She eyed Wisdom wearily.
"I think if we worked together the same way we did when we fought against Rage, then, maybe we can help Beast boy. We should all meditate as one in order to reach him. Just maybe—"
"'Maybe?'" Raven asked. "There can't be any 'maybe's in this. This is Beast boy's life we're talking about."
"And that doesn't mean we don't acknowledge that," Knowledge said. "But if this doesn't work—"
"It will!" Raven said.
"Yeah! That's what I'm talkin' about! High fives, y'all!" Brave bounced up and down.
"I want this to work..." Timid said, fumbling with her thumbs.
"It better work," Rude said.
"Ok!" Raven waved at them. She hated when they all talked at once. They silenced themselves as she walked up, and said, "You're all onboard, right?"
She heard a bunch of exclamations, all of them a resounding "yes."
"Rage?" She wanted to make sure.
Rage only scoffed as she nodded. Raven let her attitude go for now and said,
"Alright. All of you. Make a circle."
They obeyed, standing in a circle. Raven stood in the middle.
"When I count to three, and Happy, after three, not on three..." Happy only smiled and blushed embarrassingly. "Then we all chant. Got it?"
They all nodded.
"Okay. Here it goes."
Raven sat in a lotus position, closed her eyes, and counted,
"One... Two... Three!"