Hello there everyone, are you ready for me to pick off from my cliffhanger past chapter? I realize it was a little cruel to do that to you, but it felt necessary for the sake of the story. I'm sure there's a lot of you wondering whether certain characters are going to live or die, but that, along with what Barbara's fate is going to be, is something you'll have to find out by reading the chapter. The Joker's plan has only just begun, so it's time to dive back in and see what else he has in store for our heroes. Thanks so much for reading and be sure to review.

Chapter Soundtrack-Stealers Wheel: Stuck in the Middle With You

Most people's time on this earth was spent trying to discover their purpose. They try to find a reason for everything thing that they do and everything they want to be. Psychiatrists are paid hundreds of dollars an hour to try and sort out the madness a person finds in their life. The Joker may have been the only person who not only hated reasoning, but embraced the madness in this world. It was because of this madness that the clown currently found himself dancing around a beaten and bloodied Robin, gleefully making the boy suffer for his own amusement. With a crowbar in his hand, the Joker beat the boy again and again, splattering blood all across the pavement as he did. Each grunt the boy gave off only egged the Joker on, "Haha, what's the matter boy blunder? Aren't you enjoying your quality time spent with Uncle J? How about we play a game? I'll hit you in a couple of body parts with this lovely little crowbar, and you'll tell me which one hurts more. Here, I'll start!"

Robin cried out in pain as the Joker struck him in the back with the metal bar. He got only a moment to focus on the pain before the bar came back and hit him in the side, breaking one of his ribs. The Joker chuckled and twirled his weapon around in his hand, "So kiddo, which one was worse? That first one sounded pretty bad, but I think I felt something break on that second one. If it's a toss up, I'll be more than happy to hit you again so that you can figure it out."

"Fuck...you," Robin rasped out, spitting blood onto the Joker's shoes, "I'm not...afraid of you!"

That response should've irritated the pale man, but he actually found it amusing, "Of course not, who could ever be afraid of such a nice man like me? Just look at my beautiful smile!"

The Joker leaned down and showed off his face, which was hardly being held on by the belts he'd used. It made the boy want to puke being so close to it, "Why?...Even for you...that's just sick."

"It's to prove a point to my beloved Batman of course," The Joker said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world, "Don't worry if you don't get it, I'm sure that he will. You know, assuming you survive that is."

It looked like the beating was going to continue, so Robin braced himself for what was about to come, "I'll get through this...I've had worse...times than this."

The clown smacked the boy across the face with the crowbar, fracturing his jaw. For the Joker, beating someone so close to the Batman within an inch of their life was like Christmas, "I can't deny, watching you squirm while I pound the ever living tar out of you is fun. If only I had time to enjoy it a little more. Oh well, at least this means that I finally get to tend to the guest of honor! Excuse me Robin, but I've got work to do. In the meantime, Harley, bring it down!"

"Coming right up Mr. J," Harley called, jumping down from the balcony above them with much acrobatic grace. She landed with a small explosive in her hand, one that she seemed very hesitant about, "Do you really want us to use this thing on him? Sure it's small, but it packs a real punch. I don't think they'll be anything left of the kid if I strap this to his body."

For the first time since he became Robin, Jason started to wonder if he was going to make it out of this thing alive. The Joker notice that the boy was starting to have some fear in his eyes, so he grabbed the explosive and went with it, "There won't' be even an ounce of the boy left Harley, that's the point. I don't want Batsy to even be able to find him. Let's set this to go off in about 20 minutes. Those goodie goodies are gonna have to rush if they wanna save him in time. Oh, this is going to be a real blast! Hahahahahah!"

"Worst pun ever," Robin said with some strain, doing his best to keep acting tough, "It doesn't matter...they're gonna come for me...and when they do they'll kick your ass!"

The Joker spun around and smacked him in the head with the crowbar, knocking him unconscious this time, "Would you shut up? I'm trying to have a moment here! Besides, you shouldn't be trying to talk. Sounds like you've got a collapsed lung there. Haha, wonder how that happened?"

With his last joke complete, the Joker tossed the explosive onto Robin's chest and beckoned to Harley, "Alright, time to go babe. Bat's should be arriving at main event any moment now."

"Sure thing puddin," Harley said, glancing back at Jason as she walked off. She had begun to feel that this was going too far, even for her lover, "It ain't right doing you like this kid. I wish there was something I could do…"

Batman and Kakashi did their best to bob and weave through the hoards of loose Arkham inmates as they made their way to what everyone in the Asylum had dubbed, 'The Pit.' It was called that because it was only spot in Arkham where the most dangerous criminals were allowed to have some time to stretch their legs and get some kind of contact with other people. No one wanted to give the villains such a luxury but they had to for legal purposes. The room was shaped like a hexagon and was nothing but wall to wall concrete. This was easily the most heavily guarded area in the Asylum, for obvious reasons, which was why a failsafe for the security system had been placed in the Pit's control tower. It was almost certain that this would be the last place in the Asylum that criminals would be able to take over, so it was the most logical place to put it.

That was where the men needed to be, but the rioting inmates made it near impossible to get there. Batman knew if he could get the security system running again, the GCPD would be able to come in and get a handle on the situation. Until then, he and Kakashi would fight through various maniacs trying to kill them, no matter how many came at them.

The Dark Knight apologized to the shinobi as he ducked under another pipe that was coming for his head, "Sorry about dragging you into this mess. I know you and your team came to Gotham to train, but as you can see, you're help was greatly needed here."

"You wouldn't have asked us here if you didn't have to, I'm sure," Kakashi said, kicking a man with a large hunting knife who'd jumped out in front of him, "This might be pretty good training for them anyways. You're sure that they're going to be safe with your other fighters?"

Batman was certain they'd make it out okay, "They've been trained by me to know not only how to fight, but when it's time to retreat. If things get too dangerous, the Red Fox will see to it that everyone gets out of the Asylum intact. He might have to do it too, with everything the Joker's planned for us tonight."

Mentioning the villain reminded Kakashi that there was a question he'd been itching to ask. He finally remembered it as the two got closer to the door to the pit, "Who is the Joker anyways? Before the messed skin and everything? Something seriously horrible must have happened to turn him into that."

"That's what I always assumed," Batman agreed, sliding under a man who was swinging a rattling chain at him, "We've been able to piece small parts of his past together throughout the years, but the full story has always alluded us. I've had to make peace with the fact that there's a good chance we'll never know who he is."

Kakashi could hardly imagine how frustrating it must have been for the hero not having some kind of reason as to why the Joker was such a monster, "I suppose all you can do is tell yourself it doesn't matter. There's nothing that could've happened to him that would justify the things he's done."

The shinobi had correctly summed up how Batman had comforted himself about his nemesis over the years. He thought about it briefly as the two of them reached the entrance to the pit. Based on the green spray paint that covered the area around it, they weren't the first ones here, "Looks like Joker's going to be waiting for us. Be ready for something strange in there."

"I'm not sure anything can surprise me at this point," Kakashi replied as the two of them began into walk into the room, "But, I'll be ready just in case."

Batman threw his fist back with for one last punch on criminal who'd snuck up behind him and then gave Kakashi a quick nod. They started to walk into the room and immediately noticed that there were a dozen people strapped to the balcony that surrounded the room. As there footsteps echoed on cement walls, Batman noticed that they each had a gun pointed to their head with strings attached to the trigger. It was difficult for the detective to figure out what this was supposed to be, "A hostage situation? All of this build up, and it's just a simple hostage situation? There must be more to it than this, but what?"

A faint buzzing range in their ears as the Joker's voice came over the room's intercom, "So, I see you received the free ticket I sent you. I'm glad. I did so want you to be here. You see, it doesn't matter if you catch me and send me back to the Asylum. Gordon's been driven mad!"

"There he is," Batman growled, turning to Kakashi and asking, "Do you want me to translate what he's saying so that you can understand it?"

Kakashi said yes in the knick of time, as the Joker quickly continued on, "I've proved my point! I've demonstrated that there's no difference between me and everybody else. All it takes is just one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy! That's how far the world is from where I am. Just one bad day."

As more and more of the speech was translated for him, Kakashi began to understand just how insane this clown really was, "I've had to interrogate some psycho's in my day, but this guy beats them all. He's enjoying the fact that he essentially scared a man for life."

"You had a bad day once. Am I right? I know I am," The Joker ranted on, his voice filling with even more of his morbid happiness," You had a bad day, and everything changed! Why else would you dress up as a flying rat? You had a bad day, and it drove you as crazy as everybody else! Only you won't admit it! You have to keep pretending that life makes sense. That there's some point to all this struggling. GOD you make me want to puke! I mean what is it with you? What made you what you are? Girlfriend killed by the mob, maybe? Brother carved up by some mugger? Something like that I bet...something like that...something like that...happened to me, you know? I'm...I'm not exactly sure what it was. Sometimes, I remember it one way, sometimes another...if I'm going to have a past, I prefer it to be multiple choice, haha!"

Batman noticed that one of the people on the balcony was Kirk Langstrom, but couldn't identify any of the others. There were both inmates and guards in the mix, a fact the Dark Knight wasn't quite sure what to make of. Between that and the speech, the hero was at a complete loss as to what was going on, "Where are you going with this Joker?"

As if to answer him, the villain came back onto the intercom at that moment, "My point is...my point is, I went crazy. When I saw what a black, awful joke the world was, I went crazy as a coot! I admit it! So why can't you? You're not unintelligent, you must see the reality of the situation? Do you know how many times we've come close to World War III over a flock of geese on a computer screen? Do you even know what triggered the last world war? An argument with Germany over how many telegraph poles they owed their war debt creditors. Telegraph poles! Haha! It's all a joke! Anything anybody ever valued or struggled for, it's all just a monstrous, demented gag. So why can't you see the funny side? Why aren't you laughing?"

"Because I've heard it before, and it wasn't funny the first time," Batman screamed, unsure whether or not the man could hear him, "Jim's going to be fine, you and I both know that! He's never going to be the same after what you've done for him, but he'll pull through. I'm not going to let you break him like all the others!"

Joker must have been able to hear, because he yelled right back into the intercom, "No! He's going to go crazy, you're going to lose everyone that you love, and I'm finally going to break you! By the end of this night, my blood will be on your hands!"

"No, it won't," Batman yelled back, still desperate to end this rivalry once and for all, "Do you understand? I don't want to hurt you. I don't want either of us to end up killing the other...but we're both running out of alternatives...and we both know it. Maybe it all hinges on tonight. Maybe this is our last chance to sort this bloody mess out. If you don't take it, then we're locked onto a suicide course. Both of us, to the death. It doesn't have to end like that. I don't know what it was that bent your life out of shape, but who knows? Maybe I've been there too. Maybe I can help. We could work together. I could rehabilitate you. You needn't be out there on the edge any more. You needn't be alone. We don't have to kill each other. What do you say?"

There was a pause hanging in the room, as if the Joker was thinking over what the man had said. Kakashi hadn't been able to understand what they'd been saying, as Batman had stopped translating, but the pure intensity of the words had him impressed. A few more tension filled moments later, the Joker finally responded, "I'm sorry, but no. Let's face it Bats, there's no getting off this track of ours. We're both too far gone. Don't cry though, because tonight's the night that we've both dreamed about. At last, we're going to see who makes it out of the greatest rivalry the world has ever seen alive! Here we go!"

The strings on each of the of the triggers, firing something off into each of the chained balcony victim's necks. Batman finally translated what had been said to Kakashi. It was fascinating to the shinobi the relationship these two shared, "It's like the Joker actually does think of you as a friend. I've never seen a pair of enemies who have a relationship like this. By the way, what did he those strings do to all these people?"

"I'm not sure," Batman said, watching as all of the victims began to jerk their bodies all around, "But it's highly unlikely that it's anything we're going to like."

All of them broke from their restraints at once, their bodies pulsing and starting to grow. It was a horrible sight that the Joker came over the intercom to explain, "What you're seeing is the effects of the new drug that I got from those little bulbs on Ivy's plants a few weeks ago. I used that and little sample of Bane's blood to create a new miracle chemical. I've named it Titan, and it has all the effects of Venom, but you don't have to take it constantly to stay all beefy. Of course that's because you die roughly 10 minute or 15 minutes after taking it. Talk about an unwanted side effect, haha! Well, most of them will die, I don't know about the good Doctor Lamgstrom because I added a special ingredient to his brew. Either way, that means when all these guys keel over, you'll be too tired to put up a fight against me. Then I'll come down and I'll give you a choice. First you'll take a look at my beautiful new face and explain the point I'm trying to make with it. After that, I'll give you the chance to do what you probably should've done a long time ago...kill me! How's this going to go Dark Knight? Even with all the horrible things I've done tonight, some of which you don't know about yet, will you still let me live? Can you stick to your self righteous guns even when I'm giving you a free shot at me? I don't know, but I can't wait to find out! Get ready boys and girls, it's time for a rumble in The Pit! Hahahahahaha!"

Screechs filled the hero's ears from all around the room, making Kakashi and Batman focus back on the people who'd gotten the injections. All of them had grown into almost 9 foot tall monsters, with foaming mouths, massive muscles, and disproportional limbs. Langstrom looked the worst of them all, having reverted back to his Man-Bat form, only this time nearly twice as large. His fangs and claws looked longer as well, making the creature all the more intimidating. This was going to be a fight for their lives, and Batman knew it, "We're surrounded on all sides by opponents who greatly outmatch us, but I think we can manage between the two of us. Keep them all alive if you can. I know they're likely going to die either way, but I don't any blood on your hands right now."

"Don't worry, I've got plenty of attacks that are non lethal to use on these guys," Kakashi said, looking around at the monstrous creatures that had once been men, "Although I don't that was really gonna be an issue with these guys anyways. I'm wondering if we've got anything that'll be hurt them. Oh well, you ready?"

Batman grabbed three batarangs in each hand and gave the most fitting answer he could, "I'm always ready. I wouldn't have survived this long if I wasn't. Alright you big ugly freaks, which one of you wants to go first?"

The Red Fox and company were moving as fast as their legs could possibly carry them. They'd all jumped down into the hole in the sewers that had been left in the sewer and started to track Robin as best that they could. There was no telling what the Joker was doing to him, which made them even more desperate to find the boy. However, there wasn't much to go off from as to where he was. Usually they could use the tracker that each hero had connect to their suit, but Jason's must have been removed as it was giving off no signal. It had started out easily enough, as the Joker had disturbed the moss that lined the pipes he ran through. All the heroes had done was follow trail the clown had left until it lead back to Arkham. That was when they hit a snag regarding where to go next.

"There are five different ways we could go right now," Sai pointed out, as he and the rest of the group stood in heart of the Asylum. Eight or nine escaped prisoners had been there as well, but the ninjas made quick work of them. Each path lead a different wing in the Asylum, and it would likely take them hours to check an entire wing for Robin. There was simply no way for them to know which way to go, "There's no way for else to tell which route to take. Red Fox, you know this Joker character even better than the rest of us. Do you know where he would he be mostly likely to take your friend?"

The Red Fox didn't know, as he'd never been able to get into the Joker's head, "No, I don't' have a clue. It'd have to be somewhere that meant something to him I guess. This Asylum has been like home to him for ages, so that could be just about anywhere. Shit, there's gotta be someway to figure it out."

"My my little Fox, is something wrong?" Came a raspy whisper, this one completely in English, "You were having quite the temper tantrum in that language of yours. You'll have to forgive me for not being able to identify it, I was never any good with Asian dialects."

There was no need for the Red Fox to run around. He knew exactly who it was, "Scarecrow, again you went and tracked me down. I'm starting to think you might be stalking me."

That made the dark figure chuckle a bit, "I can see how you might think that. You know it's funny, the Joker is Batman's worst enemy, but I like to think that we've become each other's nemesis. Don't' you agree?"

"Believe it or not, I actually do," Red Fox growled, not in the mood to deal with the deranged psychiatrist, "You better not be looking for a fight tonight, because we don't have time to get in a into it with you right now."

Scarecrow had no interest in a brawl at the moment, "Fear not little Fox, I'm merely enjoying the mayhem of the night. It did trouble me a bit to find out that you eventually broke free of my toxin's hold, but I'll simply use it as motivation to continue my research. If my chemicals could do that to someone with will as strong as yours, who knows what a little more work might make it capable of."

The hero cut his rambling off there, "Yeah, you like fear, I get it. All I want to know is if you've seen the Joker come through here or not."

"Funny you should mention it, he came running out of the storage wing of the facilities about five minutes ago," Scarecrow recalled, which made the Red Fox immediately turn towards that direction, "Usually I would keep this information to myself, but I find this setup he's created incredibly fascinating. I'm headed to the security booth to watch this entire thing play out from there."

The Red Fox was already running away by the time the villain finished speaking, "Thanks for the info Crane!"

For Scarecrow, it was no trouble at all, "As I stated before, I'm only furthering my own interests. I do wonder who those children with him were. How many of those thing does the Dark Knight have lying around anyways?"

"Come on, come on, hurry up," Robin repeated to himself, thinking about his friends that he prayed would be arriving soon. There was less than five minutes left on the explosives timer, "Please, stop counting!"

His words meant nothing to the timer. It cruelly continued to tick down, digging more fear down into the boy's heart. The more that Robin thought about it, the less likely it seemed that anyone was going to find him. There was almost no way for them to track him down, as the Joker had dug out the tracker in his suit, and there was well over a hundred crazies in this place slowing down any progress that might be made in finding him. He could've sworn that he felt someone with him once or twice, but he knew that was only wishful thinking.

Jason almost found this all too much to bare. After years of struggling and trying to find a family he could call his own, he'd finally found one who accepted him with open arms. Not only that, they'd been helping him grow as a person. Everything that he'd ever wanted in life was finally his, but now it was about to slip through his fingers. It was such a cruel twist of fate, even the usually stern boy couldn't help but let tears roll down his cheeks, "I don't wanna die...I don't wanna die…"

"Dammit, move people, move," The Red Fox screamed as he and his team ran through the hallway of the storage wing as rapidly as they could. They'd just finished searching the room where all of the Joker's recovered weapons were stored. There was no sign of Robin there, so the Red Fox lead them to the next most logical place, "He might have put him where the Asylum keeps all of the batarangs and whatnot that Batman's had to leave here over the years. The Joker might have thought it was funny to throw him in there or something. Come on, it's only a hundred feet ahead."

Sai was beginning to question if them going after Robin alone was such a good idea, "Red Fox, didn't that Batman person say the Joker is the most dangerous thing in this Asylum? If so, are you sure we should be trying to take him on by ourselves?"

The hero was sure alright, but only because he had to be, "The Joker is definitely the most dangerous person in this Asylum, which is exactly why we can't leave Robin alone with him for too long. All we have to do is hold him off until someone can get my friend loose. It's not like we can't handle that."

"Yeah, but what if," Sakura started to ask, before a door on the left side of the hallway they were in blew off from it's hinges and they felt a shaking in their feet. The girl could feel beneath her feet that the ground was shifting, "What's happening?"

The Red Fox knew what it was, and he was going to have to act quickly if he was going to keep it from killing them, "Get out of here, now! This whole place is gonna come down!"

None of the ninjas needed to be told twice. They turned around and began sprinting away as the cement behind them began cracking. The group could here tumbling rocks falling and something loud splashing into the water. Sasuke yelled as they picked up the pace, "What's going on? Why is everything falling apart."

"They put an addition on this wing a few years ago," The Red Fox screamed, praying they'd all make it in time, "A lot of people thought it was a mistake because they were doing it right on the ledge of large body of water. Some people didn't think the ground was stable enough. I think I'm starting to agree with them!"

As the last bits of the rock began crumbling, the entire group made one last leap straight foreword in the hopes that they'd make it far enough to stay safe. They rolled across the ground a couple of times and then came skidding to a halt. The Red Fox pulled his head up to see if they'd be alright. There was only a large hole left where the rest of the wing had been, through which a clear view of Gotham's skyline could be seen. Slowly the boy stood up, staring into the empty void that was left behind. Sakura stood up as well, soon realizing what this series of events must have meant, "Red Fox, you're friend, is he…"

"Dead," The Red Fox mumbled, no emotion in his voice, "Even if the explosion didn't kill him, the fall into the water would have. It's so deep in that area, we probably wouldn't even be able to find the body…"

Everyone in the room stared at him, unsure of what the boy would do. For nearly a minute he just stood there, as if he couldn't even comprehend what he'd seen. At last, he fell to the ground on his knees and started screaming. Not a scream of anger, but one that sounded more empty. It was nearly a depressing moan really. Tears formed in the boy's eyes, starting to roll down his cheeks. No one wanted to touch the boy, for fear of what he might do. When he finally stopped, no one said a word until a voice called out from the distance, "Hello? Is somewhere there? A hole just got blown in the ceiling of this place, someone talk to me!"

The Red Fox shook himself into focus and realized that it was Jim Gordon calling them. He ran a little ways forward towards the ledge and saw the explosion had blown off a small section of the roof of a cave. It was difficult, but you could see the commissioner strapped to a bumper car through the opening. Taking a deep breath, the Red Fox straightened himself back up then turned to the others, "That voice you were hearing is Commissioner Gordon. We need to go down and rescue him, and after that, we go find the Joker. He is going to fucking pay for this!"

"Perhaps you should calm down before choosing a further course of action," Sai began to say, before the Red Fox swatted his hand away.

There were still tears in his eyes, but the anger was visible in them as well as he spat, "He killed my brother! There's a whole lot of things that he may have gotten away, but I'm not going to let this be one of them! The Joker's blood bath ends tonight!"

The Red Fox's eye had turned a crimson color by this point, and there was a slight red glow that surrounded him. None of them knew what this side of him was, but it scared them. Even Sasuke found himself frighten by the anger radiating off from him. They watched as the Red Fox jumped from the ledge and into the cave below. Sasuke turned to his friends and said, "If he wants his vengeance, I'm gonna help him get it. I'd like to see if he'll find it as satisfied as hope I will. You guys in?"

"I suppose I will, if only to make sure you don't do anything foolish," Sai said, following his teammate down into the cave and calling behind him, "Sakura, you coming?"

The pink haired girl had every intention of doing so, as she did not want to find herself wandering a place like this alone. Sakura jumped down with the rest of them into the darkness below. She had no idea how this little adventure was going to end for her, but she was liking the direction it was taking less and less.

Nine of them were dead. Out of the dozen people that Joker had injected, nine of them were dead, leaving only three were alive. One of them was the newly revived Man-Bat, the other two were normal Titans, and the rest of them had already passed on. . Kakashi was taking on the two regular Titans himself while Batman focused on the more animalistic creature. Man-Bat's fangs were bared his claws were out and ready. Much of his fur was tattered from the fight, giving him a very beaten up look but the monster was still ready for a fight. With a screech, Man-Bat started to charge at Batman for what must have been the tenth time, ready gnaw the flesh right from his bones, "Graaahhhhhhhh!"

"You wanna go another round big fella," Batman asked, already knowing the answer, "Fine, the let's make it our last!"

Batman pulled two tasers from his belt and started rushing towards Man-Bat right back. The creature dove at him and the Dark Knight jumped over him before the attack landed. He pressed the two devices to Man-Bat's neck, right where some the fur had been ripped off, and turned them onto full blast. Electricity shot through him, getting down deep into it's body. It was caused the creature to begin spazzing and smack his head into the wall. It slumped unconscious onto the ground, allowing Batman to jump off and take a breath, "That Titan made him far more powerful than he was last time. I don't think he'll die like the rest of them because of the genetic alterations to his body, but it's unlikely he'll ever be human again. Kakashi, how are doing with those two?"

The shinobi was standing in between the two remaining Titan, who were both running at him the intent to kill. Kakashi didn't answer Batman, opting instead to wait where he was standing. At the very last second, right when they were about to tackle the man, Kakashi leapt out of the way and let the two of them collide. It shook nearly the entire room when the two fell to the ground. They didn't move for a few moments, so Kakashi walked over and checked their pulse. Neither had one to be found, "Damn, we lost them too. Looks like the giant bat is the only one that's gonna survive this. God, and what a way to go too! That bastard needs to pay for all this."

"Leave him to me Kakashi," Batman told him sternly, understanding the man's anger completely, "We can't kill him. If we do that, we let him win. The last thing I'm ever going to do is give the Joker that kind of satisfaction, even if it is in last moments."

Kakashi didn't like it, but he'd suck it up and deal with it for now. The sound of footsteps stopped the man from saying anything else, as both he and Batman turned to see the Joker jumping down from the balcony and into the pit. He grinned at the Dark Knight, finally showing him his new mutilated face, "What do you think Bat's? I did it just for you! Can you guess why? Oh please tell me that you can! It would be so embarrassing to go through all this effort only to find out you don't even get the joke."

It appeared that the moment the entire night had been building up to was finally here, "Step back Kakashi. There's a prisoner I need to escort back to his cell!"

"Seriously, what is with you and speaking Japanese these days?" Joker asked as he watched the ninja back away from the two of them, "You see, this is the problem! I feel like I don't know anything about you anymore. It used to be just you and me, against the world! Now, well now you've got the Red Fox, Robin, Batgirl, the guy who used to be Robin but is now some other bird thingy, the Justice League, and these Japanese weirdos too! Tell that you still love my Batsy? I miss you ever so much!"

Batman was fighting the urge to strangle the Joker right then and there, "It doesn't matter what I say, you still don't seem to get it. We're not the same Joker! I don't look at this like a joke or game! I'm out there trying to save people's lives! Yet, no matter how many times I throw you in here, you always break out and find a way to massacre even more people. What to do you call that?"

"A running gag?" Joker offered up, but was met only with a furious glare, "Lighten up Bats! Would it make you feel better if explained the whole cutting off my face and using it for a mask thing? It's simple really! I did to prove what you've been fighting so hard to get away from for years now: you and I are like two peas in a pod! You strip away my face, the purple suit, all of it, but I'm still me under those things. The same thing goes for you. No matter what rouse you might put on for the outside world, you're always going to be the Batman at heart. That face you walk around with during the day, that's your real mask! It's only when you put on that suit that you become who you really are. That's what makes us different from the rest of your team or the other nutbags in this Asylum. I'm chaos, you're order, and nothing is ever going to change that! We were made for eachother Bats. We're the two perfectly balanced half of a perfectly imbalanced world! Can't you see how beautiful that is?"

There was no beauty in this relationship as far as Batman was concerned, "You really wanna know what I see when I look in front of me? I see someone who's destined to torture me for the rest of my life so that I can always be reminded of how close Gotham is to the edge. You're what this world could be if people like me and Commissioner Gordon didn't exist. Before I came along, this city was a corrupted memory how what used to be the kind of place that gave people hope. Then the Batman arrived, and it was starting to look things had a chance of training. Right when I started to have real hope for this city was when you arrived, destroying everything that you touched for the pure pleasure of it. You latched onto me like some kind of virus, one that was there so that'd I'd always remember: no matter how much I do for this city or who I take down, there'll always be something worse to come. That's why I've never killed you. I know this city will just spit out something worse after you're gone, and quite frankly, you're sicking enough as it is. So no, I don't see the beauty in this situation. All I see is what could happen if I ever stopped fighting you!"

The Joker had started to giggle half way through the story, and he'd burst out laughing by the end of it. He grabbed a gun off from his hip and pointed it directly at Batman's face, "Oh, what a load of malarkey! I think you actually believed some of it too, haha! It does looked like we've reached an impasse though. We've finally hit the point of no return! Either the hero taints his hard earned legacy, or the clown losses his very purpose in life. The only question is...which one is it going to be?"

"It's going to be you Joker," A young voice rang out, causing everyone to look at the entrance of the pit. The Red Fox was standing there, radiating the Kyuubi's chakra off from him. His voice was darker and more feral than it ever had been before, "I'm going to rip your heart right out of your chest, because that's what you did to me! I'm going to put through every single torture your victims have had to suffer through because of you! I'm ending this, here and now! BELIEVE IT!"