Damian growled in frustration. Three days, three long days and they still hadn't found anything on the Joker. His useless brothers were still nowhere to be found and Drake, the fool, had insisted on not staying in bed.
"Where is that imbecile?" he growled, staring holes into the Bat-computer. That's when the alarm sign popped up on the screen. "Great," muttered Damian sarcastically. "A robbery." Just what they needed. He sighed and called the team downstairs. Damian would never admit it, but he was worried for his brothers, Drake somewhat included. He was still injured, and a bullet to the stomach doesn't heal fast.
Someone cleared their throat and Damian spun around. The team stood behind him, looking nervous.
"Did you find anything?" He shook his head. "No, but there is a robbery going on. I need you to go there while I keep on searching for Grayson and Todd." Kaldur nodded. "We will put the thief behind bars, but you need rest. When was the last time you slept?" Damian shrugged. "Don't know, don't care."
"I will look for Dick and Jason," said a voice and everybody turned their heads towards the entrance of the cave.
"Tim, you are supposed to sleep. You're still healing," scolded Artemis, crossing her arms over her chest. Tim just rolled his eyes. "I'm fine. Damian, you go to sleep. Now."
Damian glared at Tim, but he knew that his brother wouldn't back down, so he sighed and nodded reluctantly. If he thought about it, he was pretty tired and sleep wouldn't hurt anyone. "Fine, but call me as soon as you find anything." Tim nodded.
"Don't you have a mission?" the older boy asked the team, watching his brother ascent the stairs. Kaldur didn't seem happy to leave Tim alone, but be nodded. "Just be careful, your wound hasn't fully healed yet."
"Yes, yes, now go. I'll get some coffee and I'll be fine."
With one last worried glance at Tim, the team left the Batcave as well.
Tim turned his attention back to the screen. He noticed with a slight smirk that Damian had managed to hack into the security cameras all around Gotham. "So he did listen during my hacking lessons," he muttered.
His eyes searched for anything suspicious, anything that hinted at the Joker, Harley or his brothers. He didn't know what had happened after he'd been shot, but the brat had told him that Joker had left Harley and once Tim had been out of danger, Damian'd went back to bring her in, but she'd been gone.
With a sigh, he rubbed his eyes. There was nothing unusual on the video feed, so he decided to watch over the Young Justice's mission.
~
Megan was sensing a lot of different emotions from the team. Mostly guilt and worry. Megan herself felt very sorrowful. Now that she knew that Dick was Robin, things had gotten personal. No one messes with their team without consequences.
Megan sighed and asked, 'Is the mind link up?' The team nodded. 'Good,' said Aqualad, taking the lead, 'Let's move. We need to be at the jewellery store before the thief leaves.' They moved forward.
Megan looked through on of the store windows and gasped, covering her mouth. 'What the hell is that?!' She could hear Connor growl threw the mind link, seriously grossed out. 'That's Scarecrow. One of Gotham's regulars.' Explained Artemis.
Wally snort and looked at him closely. "Well, I bet he doesn't have a girlfriend." Artemis hit him across the head. 'Not important, idiot. And speak through the link, he could hear you.' Wally rolled his eyes. 'Whatever.'
"Let's go in,' commanded Aqualad. He took out his weapon and position himself in front of the door. 'I will kick the door open, Miss M., Superboy and Wally will come through the windows and Artemis will follow me, understood?' Everybody nodded their heads and Aqualad held three fingers up. Then he started the countdown and kicked the door open when his last finger was down.
They surrounded the creepy villain, who didn't seem startled at all. Megan narrowed her eyes and took a closer look at the store. Nothing was missing. 'Guys, I don't think he's here to steal anything at all.' And as if he'd heard her, Scarecrow began to speak. "The junior League, how nice of you to show up. Took you long enough." Aqualad narrowed his eyes.
"What do you want?"
"Me? I don't want anything, but I see that you are a teammate down. Someone you want back." Megan gasped. 'Is he talking about Robin?'
'But that would mean he knows that Dick Grayson is Robin!' exclaimed Artemis slightly panicked. Aqualad glared at the villain. "If you don't want anything, than why are you here?" Scarecrow laughed, his voice sounded cut off through the mask.
"I lied, I do want these beauties." He pointed at a few diamond necklaces. Wally crossed his arms. "I don't think they go well with your skin colour. And what makes you think that we will just let you walk out with them anyway?" Their opponent smirked. "I am sure you don't want your precious bird to get hurt, do you? We got him and that little Red Hood bastard."
Megan clenched her fists. How dare that monster blackmail them with the health of their friends? But aside from that, there was something else... She narrowed her eyes and concentrated on the man's mind. Images flashed through her own mind as she went through his newest memories.
Robin and Red Hood, with domino masks on their faces; Jason being dragged to a dark, little cell, and a scene that she wished she could forget; Robin chained to a table, his mouth opened in a silent scream and his eyes showing too much pain for Megan to handle.
She gasped and pulled out of Scarecrow's mind like she'd been shot. She collapsed to her knees, breathing heavily. "You okay?" asked Artemis quietly and she nodded. "And now," said the villain who hadn't noticed Miss Martian's penetration of his privacy, "I will take those jewellers, while you stand there and watch."
Wally had his fists clenched tightly and growled. "You won't get away with this. We will find Robin and Red Hood and we will stop you and the Joker." He was not letting his best friend be used against him. Scarecrow just laughed. "I highly doubt that." He winked at the team and started shoving the expensive jewellers inside his pockets and they were unable to do anything against it. They could just stand there and grit their teeth in silent anger. "See you soon, kids." And then he was gone.
"That bastard," growled Aqualad, punching the wall. "Let's go back," muttered Megan gravely. "I need to tell you something."
The team met back in the Batcave, where Damian and Tim were already waiting for them. "What the hell was that?!" exclaimed Tim loudly. "You let Scarecrow go without fight and let him steal the jewellery?!"
Megan lifted her hands, trying to calm the boy. "Has has allied himself with the Joker. He threatened Robin and Red Hood. We had no choice." Tim growled very animal-like, but then his eyes widened. "Wait, what?! He knows who they are?!" Damian ran a hand threw his hair. "This is bad, really bad. Father will kill us."
"No-"
Megan was interrupted by Kaldur. "If they found out who Dick and Jason are, then they probably also know your identities."
"Guys-" Megan tried again, but Tim spoke louder than her. "We need to find them, now! And we need to tell Batman!"
"GUYS!" Yelled Megan, anger boiling inside her. Couldn't they just listen to her for once?
"What is it, Megan?" asked Kaldur nicely, noticing her anger. "Scarecrow doesn't know their secret identities." Tim frowned. "But-"
"I guess that only the Joker knows- which is bad enough. I read Scarecrow's mind and saw that the Joker had put domino masks on Dick's and Jason's face." Tim ran a hand over his face and groaned. "This is still bad. If the Joker doesn't want anyone else to know who they really are, then he's planning to use that information somehow. Maybe sell it, or blackmail us."
Megan bit her lip nervously. She wasn't sure weather she should tell them about Dick getting tortured or not. She shuddered as she remembered his tormented expression and anger swelled up inside her once again. Robin was only sixteen, damn it!
"Megan?" Asked Tim carefully. "Is there something else you want to tell us?" Megan looked around warily. Everyone was watching her now and she shifted her weight from one foot to the other uncomfortablely. "Well, there is one more thing... I- I saw Robin and... he- I... He was being tortured." She muttered the last part quietly, eyes fixed on the ground.
Damian took a sharp breath and Tim clenched his fists. "Okay, we need to find them, now. I'm going to call Batman." No one objected, not even Wally, who was more than scared that the Dark Knight would kill them all.
Tim pushed a few buttons on the computer and then Batman appeared on the screen, cowl over his face. He looked at the teenagers and a scowl appeared on his lips.
"You told them." Tim nodded. "We had to, Bruce. We are in trouble, serious trouble. The Joker kidnapped Dick and Jason and he knows that they are Robin and Red Hood and Scarecrow sided with him, but he doesn't know their secret identities, he just thinks that the Joker kidnapped Robin and Hood, and now he is rampaging through Gotham and we can't stop him, because he threatened to hurt Dick and Jason and we believe that the Joker knows our identities, too, and please don't kill us!" He gasped for air and stared as his father-figure warily.
Batman took a moment to process everything and the team could see the burning rage in Daddybats' eyes. He was probably wondering how they managed to screw up so terrifically in only two days. "I'm on my way." He ended the call and Tim glanced at everyone else. "I hope that Dick and Jason can hold on long enough for Batman to find them." Damian was glaring daggers at the wall.
The brothers glanced at each other. They just hoped they would get the other two boys back in one piece and that they would still be the same. They both knew how much torture could change people, especially now that Jason was back with the Joker and Dick had probably trouble with his overprotectiveness.
~
Dick coughed up blood. He was lying on the cold, hard ground in a small cell, eyes closed shut. Scarecrow and the Joker had stopped asking questions a day ago. His body hurt and he shivered, hugging his knees to his chest in an attempt to keep his body warm. It was so cold that he could see his breath in front of his face and he couldn't move a muscle without whimpering in pain. He had tried to sit up a few minutes ago, but a burning fire had raced through his limbs and Dick had quickly collapsed. The only good thing about the cold was that it was numbing his body, so the burning pain subsided into a dull throbbing.
His biggest problem was breathing. Joker and Scarecrow would give him two cups of water each day and after this day's torture- he shuddered at the thought- his throat was as dry as sandpaper and every breath hurt like a knife tearing his throat apart.
Dick hated to show pain in front of his enemys, but the Joker had injected him with some kind of drug and the pain had been unbearable, so Dick had screamed, he had screamed for a very long time, because the pain hadn't lessened for what felt like forever. The poison was still in his blood system, weakening Dick, but not killing him. Scarecrow didn't even think it was necessary to chain him up, he had just thrown him onto the ground.
Dick missed Jason. He hadn't seen him in the three days they had been held captive and he hated being alone. He needed someone to talk to, someone who would comfort him and give him the typical 'It's going to be okay' talk.
And Dick was scared of what the Joker was doing to Jason, considering that he had killed him before. Joker had talked, a lot, while he had cut Dick's skin to ribbons, and he had described every detail of Jason's death, from his screams and Joker's glee to the sound of bone breaking. It had been sickening. And Joker had also told Dick how angry, how furious, he was that his masterpiece had been ruined, the punchline of the perfect Joke hitting Joker in the face, not Batman.
The creak of a door pulled him out of his thoughts. I'm too tired for this, he thought, quickly putting on his poker face as he heard footsteps approaching. "Welcome to my humble place," laughed the Joker and Dick looked up to see who he was talking to. There was just the lilac-clad maniac. He is talking to himself, of course. "Here are our guest room, the other one was sadly, luckily, merrily occupied by a Red Todd man in a Jason Hood. We have everything you desire, a balcony to watch kids kill each other in crime alley, a garden to sell the prostitutes some drugs and so on! Oh, would you look at that, this room is also already used, too. And this, children, is a bird, a Robin, to be specific.
"But Mr. J, he looks hurt," he mimicked a small child, faking concern. "Oh, you're right. Do you know what always helps, children? Fun! Loads and loads of fun." He bend down and breathed right in Dick's face. "So, what do you say, let's have some fun, Bird Boy. I'm just finished with your brother, but he didn't give me the satisfaction I wanted. That kid is mean," he complained, stretching out the 'ea'.
"But maybe you will?"
Dick wanted to growl, but he could only choke out a gurgling sound. The Joker laughed. "Don't worry, our little Hood is still alive." Relieve washed over Dick and a bit of the tension left his body. The maniac cackled and crouched down next to him. "Why are you so quiet, Pumpkin? Sing for me one more time, will you?"