ARKHAM ASYLUM
He felt groggy as consciousness slowly came back to him. Whatever had been in that injection had been potent and for a few moments after regaining consciousness he wasn't even sure who he truly was. He definitely had no idea where he was but at least he was somewhere.
He was surprised to find himself to still be alive after his confrontation with Jason… no, The Joker. He hated admitting it to himself but after facing him at Axis Chemicals, he came to the realization that Jason Todd was truly gone and had fully taken on the persona of The Joker.
He stiffly turned his head to the side and observed his surroundings. He was in a completely white room. He could hear the whirring of a large mechanical machine behind him. He tried to move his other muscles but then realized he was lying on a steel cold table, strapped down by thick leather restraints. He was also wearing a white straight jacket while still costumed as Batman.
"Welcome, Batman."
He turned to see Hugo Strange standing in the doorway to the stark white room. He was wearing a white coat that matched the bright whiteness of the room. The Joker was standing behind him, looking bored as he twirled his purple pocket knife in his hand.
"I have waited a long time for this, Batman." Hugo stated.
"Waited a long time for what?" Batman asked dryly.
"The ultimate patient, of course." Hugo explained. "I've had many fascinating patients during my years here at Arkham Asylum but I knew I'd never be satisfied until I had you."
"I'm not your patient, Strange. I'm not a psychotic."
"Oh, I beg to differ. Before you decided to don that cape and cowl, we never had the colorful individuals that we now have had the luxury of knowing. Before the Batman there was no Joker, Penguin, Catwoman, Riddler, or any other number of villains that have surfaced throughout the intervening years. You are the original psychotic."
"What do you want, Strange?" Batman asked.
"The mind is a very fragile thing and the existence of alternate personalities has always fascinated me. Take your mind for instance. By day you masquerade as Bruce Wayne, the famed billionaire playboy. By night, you lurk in the shadows as Batman, the caped crusader who brings justice to the criminals of Gotham. I have dedicated my life to studying the mind and trying to cure patients of their alternate personalities. My goal is to cure your mind. Bruce Wayne is the false personality. I will endeavor to delete him from existence and have Batman become your sole personality."
"I don't have a split personality," Batman explained. "Underneath this mask I am Bruce Wayne. I choose to be Batman as a symbol of hope for the people and a symbol of fear for the criminals like you."
Hugo took a metallic headband attached to the machine, located behind Batman. "Perhaps that is what you believe at the moment but when our sessions have come to an end you'll think differently."
"Don't count on it," Batman said. "My mind is stronger than you think."
Hugo attached the headband around Batman's head. "You insult me, Batman. I've spent my career perfecting this science. Take Harvey Dent, Jr. for instance. When he was brought to me, he was just a young boy with an anger problem. I molded out of him an alternate personality that claimed to be called Face."
Batman stared icily at Hugo. "He already had that personality. You forget that I funded his treatment. He was sick prior to seeing you."
Hugo shook his head, "Wrong. He made up the existence of Face as an alibi for the violence he had enacted on the kid he nearly killed. What I did was turn his lie into a reality." He pointed at the headband on Batman's head. "I accomplished it by using this device. My very on shock treatment therapy."
"You're a sick bastard!" Batman angrily stated.
Hugo continued speaking as if Batman hadn't made that comment. "Of course, I underestimated young Harvey. His mind was stronger than I realized and he managed to quell the Face persona. I was so heartbroken at the time but I was also still a novice in my studies of the mind back then."
Batman struggled within the straight jacket and restraints. He wanted to get his hands on Hugo Strange. He imagined the doctor's blood on his fists.
"The treatment of Harvey Dent, Jr. had a good result in the end though. It just took a long time for his alternate persona to come back to the surface. I have your former protege to thank for that. The explosion he set off knocked the dormant persona of Face back to the forefront of Harvey's mind. As a result, Two-Face took the reins of his mind and tonight he will truly shine bright."
The Joker chuckled in the corner. "He's probably at Falcone's place right now, taking his revenge on the old man."
Batman glanced at The Joker before glaring back at a very smug Hugo Strange. "Are you the reason that Jason became what he is now?"
Hugo nodded, with pride evident on his face as he began explaining: "Oh yes, but it wasn't nearly as hard as you might think. When you brought him here, his mind was already gone. He had no personality to speak of. The beating he had to endure by the hands of his very own mentor and the only father he had ever known had broken his mind completely. The boy who had been the vigilante Robin and the man who had become the misguided Red Hood no longer existed as an identity for Jason Todd.
"I helped to give him a new identity, however, it took quite some time for me to pinpoint exactly which identity I wanted him to have, though. After about five years in my care here at Arkham Asylum, I uncovered his true origins. Not the origin of The Red Hood or even of Robin, the Boy Wonder but the origin of his hereditary biology. I learned through his DNA and the existing files of Jack Napier's DNA that the boy you had admitted into psychological care was in fact the son of your arch nemesis, The Joker.
"And just like that I had the identity that I had been so desperately looking for. What better personality to bestow upon the young Jason Todd than that of The Joker. An opportunity for him to come full circle and to carry on the legacy of his true father.
"The process to complete his transformation had taken the better part of a decade. With persistence and diligence, I finally managed to awaken your original arch nemesis from the mind of your greatest pupil, who also turned out to be your greatest failure. The Joker's awakening also unveiled the shocking truth about the origins of Batman and that the caped character's secret identity was nothing more than a rich philanthropist who had been masquerading around as a playboy all of these years."
Batman became angrier and angrier as he listened to all of Hugo's shocking revelations. He shouted in rage at the deranged doctor. "You insane, son of a bitch! You can't just play God with people's minds!"
Hugo chuckled, amused. "There is no existing God, Batman. There is only the mind which God had been derived from." He then switched the machine on.
Everything became a bright white from the intense pain, and Batman's mind began to fry.
The Joker yawned, having grown bored of the lengthy banter between Batman and Hugo. "I'll leave you with your new toy, Strange. I wouldn't come around anymore, checking up on me again, if I were you. You might not like the end result this time if you do."
Hugo smiled fondly at him. "Take care of yourself, Joker. You've been an exemplary patient."
Damian Kyle was dressed as one of the Arkham Asylum security guards as he stealthily made his way through the lower levels of the facility.
He had managed to get one of the security guards alone and questioned him about Batman's arrival. He learned that Batman had been taken to the lower levels where the most insane inmates were kept. He then proceeded to knock the guard unconscious and took his uniform.
After searching the lower levels for several minutes, he soon heard a gut wrenching scream that reverberated throughout the corridors. He recognized the screaming voice belonging to that of his father. He took out his .38 revolver and began rushing toward the sound of the screaming.
As he got nearer to the source of the screaming, he recognized The Joker, exiting out of a room. He hadn't noticed Damian's approach. The Joker appeared to be deep in thought, as if something had been weighing heavily on his mind.
"Jason!" Damian exclaimed.
The Joker looked up in surprise, his burdened thoughts suddenly evaporating. "Who the hell are you?"
Damian approached him. "I'm Bruce's son, just like you are. You have to help me save him. "
The Joker studied him for a long moment. He appeared to be in deep contemplation of the words that the stranger, who was claiming to be Bruce's son, had just spoken.
Damian felt that the tortured mind of Jason Todd was trying to break out of his Joker persona. He clung to hope that the once heroic protege of Batman would be able to break free from his brainwashing and assist him in rescuing their father.
His hope was shattered when The Joker burst out laughing in hysterics. "Why on earth would I do that?"
"Batman's not your enemy!" Damian announced, exasperated at the fact that Jason was still unable to break free from his psychotic conditioning.
The Joker brought out his purple pocket knife and sneered. "Yes he is and if you're really his son, then so are you!"
The screaming became even more intense and frenzied from inside of the room. He knew that his father could not endure much more of whatever was going on inside of that room.
Damian pointed his gun at The Joker. "I don't have time for this shit. Help me or get the hell out of my way!"
The Joker stepped closer and ominously asked, "Would you like to hear a joke?"
Damian proceeded to shoot him in the leg and The Joker fell to the ground, laughing hysterically, as if he'd just been told the funniest joke in the world.
Damian stared down at the broken man with pity in his eyes before proceeding toward the door, behind which he'd find his father, who sounded like he was in agonizing pain.
He turned the knob on the door, but before he could enter, the Joker abruptly grabbed him by the leg and desperately tried biting him. Damian shook his leg free from the fiend's grasp and proceeded to kick him three hard times in the face. The Joker was left there laying on the ground, completely unconscious with a bloody face and some broken teeth.
Damian rushed inside of the room and what he then observed, shocked and infuriated him all at once. His father was strapped down to a table and was actively being electrocuted by some large strange looking machine.
Batman's horrific screams had finally subsided and he was convulsing and salivating out of his mouth.
A bald man, wearing a very white coat with circular glasses on his head and a well groomed beard, was staring down at Batman with a smile of complete satisfaction on his face. The bald man looked up in alarm once he noticed that Damian had entered the room.
"Who the hell are you?" The bald man asked in annoyance.
For a response to his question, Damian angrily approached him and hit him in the head hard with the butt of his pistol. The force of the blow knocked him out cold and the bald man fell to the ground with a loud thump.
Damian inspected the strange machine and realized he had no clue how to turn it off. He tried taking the headband off of Batman's head but only managed to get shocked himself to the extent that he nearly convulsed.
Damian then took his pistol and shot three bullets into the center of the machine. The machine sparked and abruptly ceased it's shocking assault on Batman's brain. He proceeded to remove the headband, unstrap Batman's restraints, and removed the straight jacket.
Batman was still actively convulsing and his eyes were rolling in the back of his head. The convulsions were so violent that he fell off of the table and landed on the ground with a loud thud.
Damian shook him frantically, trying to snap him out of his seizure. "Dad, wake up!"
Batman soon stopped convulsing but he also stopped breathing, as well.
Damian panicked. "Dad, no! You can't die! Not like this!" He removed his father's mask and immediately began CPR as he desperately tried reviving his unresponsive father.