Reality returned.
She gasped. She could breathe.
Silence.
She opened her eyes.
It made little difference to her vision. The velvet texture tickling her cheek told her she was blind folded.
She licked her lips - not too dehydrated. It gave her some vague idea how long she had been knocked out. A few hours, maximum, no more than that.
She tried to relax but to no surprise whatsoever, she found she was bound to a chair. Her hands felt around the edges. A dining chair. Wooden. The temperature was warm, artificial. She assumed she was in a building. Judging by the wood carvings on the chair, it was one of her dads dining set.
She listened.
A familiar squeal and a rattling against floorboards. Her wheelchair. Her property.
"Woohoo!" Came a delighted squeal.
The same sound again, as the wheelchair rushed past once more, a cackle accompanied it.
Damn him.
The noise came closer as the chair thundered past - and then stopped.
She heard it rattle as it reversed towards her.
"My, my, this is such fun!" the high pitched voice declared. "No wonder you gave up using your legs!"
Monster. What could she say? What could she say which would possibly make a difference?
"Hmm," mused the voice. "Looks like we have a serious party pooper here."
She felt his breath once more. Sickly sour. He was too close, intentionally invading her physical space.
"I guess it must run in the family!"
***
"This is a dream?" Batman stared at his hands. All so real.
This wasn't the first time he had been caught in an experience like this. The JLA had offered him adventures which
took the word experience to it's very limit. This felt real. It also felt very intimate. Claustrophobic. He rubbed his eyes. His mind didn't seem as focused as usual.
"It's not a dream." Robin replied, hovering on the edge of his vision. A ghost - a very real ghost. "This," he gestured to the mismatched images of Gotham that span around them, "This is what's left of your soul. Squashed into a tiny recess of your mind, running from the infection."
"The infection?" queried the Bat. "What is it?"
"Your physical self can taste the compound. You can in here too."
Batman licked his lips. Slightly acidic. A Joker compound, no doubt of that, but there was something else. Some other chemical had been mixed in. "This is new," he muttered. Robin nodded.
"It's breaking down your - our - mind. I think it's driving you crazy."
Batman smiled. That was definitely the Joker's signature. The punchline.
Robin - Jason - moved closed to Batman until their faces were virtually touching. "He will kill Barbara like he killed me. Like he's killed you."
Batman gritted his teeth. "Not yet. He's not killed me yet."
Robin shrugged. "Soon then. Unless you do something about it..." his face danced as he uttered the end to his sentence. "..Old man."
Batman looked up and into Jason's eyes. "You're not Jason," he spat. "Jason was hot headed, but he was never malicious!"
"I'm not Jason. I'm your construct of the boy. I'm how you feel he deserved to be - after the way you treated him, of course. You could say I'm simply an image fuelled by your guilt."
Batman's lip twitched. "A ghost."
"A reflection." Robin corrected. "Your own hatred for your actions reflected back at you. Self loathing. I'm all the things you believed Jason had the right to say, but could never say it."
"Because he's dead." Batman's head hung low. Gotham was spinning faster now.
"Like yourself. You're the parts of Batman which have fled to the corner of his head. The parts which ran when the others stayed and fought."
"What are you saying?" Batman touched his mouth. Blood. He knew the answer, but could he cope with the principle?
"You are a construct also. You are a construct of all the parts of Batman who couldn't face the Joker's toxin and ran."
Batman looked up. "I don't believe it."
"Simply, you are a the parts of the weakest elements of Bruce Wayne. Frankly, you are all that's left of him and I must say it's not very impressive."
***
"Let's talk."
The Joker removed Barbara's mask. She was indeed in her father's house. She could make out very little. The lights were turned down quite low. The Joker sat before her in her wheelchair, shadows licking his white face. That grin..
She knew there was little to no chance of escape. She had to try and remain interesting for as long as possible. Long enough for rescue. That was her only hope.
"I'm listening."
The Joker waggled a thin finger. "No, talking. You see pet," he span the chair in a neat circle, "I hear the Jolly Joker's voice all day and all night. It goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on." He settled the chair back to facing her. "So, Pumpkin, I want to hear someone else's voice for a change."
"Why?" She felt ill. Tension and nerves swelling into a massive knot of stress and air.
Her stomach churned.
Joker's face was chillingly serious.
"I want to know what it's like to be sane."
Batman clenched his fist. Images floating in his head. "I remember chasing a lead."
"The real Batman remembers a lead," corrected Jason. "A lead Joker planted."
Batman ignored him. "The Axis warehouse."
Robin nodded. "He knew you would go there."
"I was expecting a note. A clue of some sort..." stammered the Dark Knight.
"He knew that." laughed his dead companion.
Batman winced. "There were so many. Sharp. Piercing my skin."
"Overkill. He knows your fast. That warehouse was full of needle launchers. You didn't have a chance."
"I must gain control." Batman declared with false confidence. Robin giggled.
"You're too weak to do so. Your mind is a mass of confusion. It's being driven insane, chemically. Order will be eaten out of your head. Soon there will be nothing but chaos. A mindless vegetable."
"No..."
Robin once again gestured to the spinning environment. It had lost all it's colour. "Look around you. You're losing control of this tiny space."
"There must be a way to stop him!"
Robin cackled. "There is. You won't like it."
"Try me." Growled The Bat.
Jason smiled wickedly.
***
"You don't want to be insane?" Barbara gasped incredulously.
Joker snorted, sipping at a cup of tea that had suddenly appeared. "Pooh! I love it! But as they say, the gas is always greener on the other side!" He chuckled merrily at his little joke.
Barbara winced at the gag. "You just want to know what it's like to be normal?"
Joker shrugged apathetically. "It's all ying to his bat-a-yang, and quite frankly, I sometimes I wonder if he is insane or simply just the dullest man I've ever had the misfortunate to laugh upon!"
"I don't understand.." He was trying to throw her. Confuse her. She was sure of it.
"Batman you silly moo-moo! Batsy baby! Why, at this moment he'll be experiencing madness in it's perfect state. Terminal insanity!" Another chuckle.
This sounded bad. Very bad. "Joker.."
Joker ignored her. "So come on! Tell me! I've forgotten what it's like! I'm guessing sanity is rather boring, n'est pas?"
Barbara shook head. What a request. Just what is it like to be sane? "No, I can't explain. Not without..." She stopped and her blood ran cold.
"Without what?"
A trap. Hook, line and sinker. She would have kicked herself if she wasn't so scared. "I don't know," she stammered.
The Joker grinned with cold satisfaction. "Yes you do."
She went silent.
"You can't explain without a common point of reference. That was what you were about to say!"
Oh god, no. Please no.
The Joker's tone was deadly - like ice. The grin remained. "You need to taste the wild side, honey!" He whooped with joy. "Wheelie Girl wants to pull a smilie!"
***
"You can never escape this Bruce. Your world revolved around order. This chaos is a chemical you can't control."
Batman refused to admit this. He could. He did. Always, he did. "Yes I can!" he declared.
"It's impossible!" Robin shook him. "It's the only answer!"
Robin watched him with light curiosity. "You're scared! I've told you the answer!"
"Never! I won't accept that as an alternative!" was the response.
"What would Dick say if he knew what was happening to Barbara? What would he say to you? She'll die!"
Batman went pale.
"Well!" Demanded Jason.
"NO!"
Batman screamed.
***
He sat up with a slight spasm. Needles were dropping from his sweating body. His mind felt like it was on fire. His eyes tried focusing while his hands swept off the sharp metal points - each coated with the Joker's venom. Anger. He needed anger to get rid of the symptoms. That's what Jason was doing.
"Thanks Jason." He whispered. "I owe you more than I can ever repay."
Staggering to his feet, he began to make his way to the door of the warehouse, his feet crunching against the carpet of spikes that littered the warehouse.
"I'm coming Barbara!" He declared under his breath.
***
The door was open. His heart beat faster than he would have normally liked. The drugs still lingered in his system - and probably would for many days. He pulled out a batarang.
Take no chances. This was the Joker.
The house was a mess. Pictures ripped down, papers flagstoned the floor. Furniture had been upturned.
He heard a noise. He tried to keep his head from spinning and concentrate on it's source.
He moved through the shadows. Nothing stirred.
That noise again. A soft gentle noise. Disrupted breathing.
"Jim?" He called out quietly, shifting his position as he did, making sure no one was able to target his voice. "Barbara?"
He turned a corner and saw the figure hunched on the floor.
He moved closer.
"Jim?" He glanced to his left, the cracked mirror he past caught his reflection. The tattered, broken Dark Knight looked wearily back at him. He was in no state to take on the Joker.
But the Joker was gone.
"Dick?"
His ex-partner knelt in the middle of the room. He was dressed in his police uniform. It was Dick's breathing he could hear. An agitated uncontrolled breathing.
But only his....
Oh no.
Lying on the floor there was a shape.
A twisted shape.
He tried to kneel down for a closer look but Dick pushed him away.
"Get out of here!" the young man cried, heaving through his muted sobs. Batman froze. Not sure whether to back away or move closer. His heart thundered against his chest. He moved forward once more.
This time, he was caught full on by his companion and thrown into Jim's upturned table.
He was simply too weak to prevent himself collapsing against the broken wooden frame.
Dick stood above him, tears rolling down his face.
Batman - Bruce - looked across at the figure which lay metres away. The moonlight caught the face of the young red haired lady. Her head caught an angle which pointed it directly at him. There was no sign of animation on her delicate features.
Just a gigantic smile.
She gasped. She could breathe.
Silence.
She opened her eyes.
It made little difference to her vision. The velvet texture tickling her cheek told her she was blind folded.
She licked her lips - not too dehydrated. It gave her some vague idea how long she had been knocked out. A few hours, maximum, no more than that.
She tried to relax but to no surprise whatsoever, she found she was bound to a chair. Her hands felt around the edges. A dining chair. Wooden. The temperature was warm, artificial. She assumed she was in a building. Judging by the wood carvings on the chair, it was one of her dads dining set.
She listened.
A familiar squeal and a rattling against floorboards. Her wheelchair. Her property.
"Woohoo!" Came a delighted squeal.
The same sound again, as the wheelchair rushed past once more, a cackle accompanied it.
Damn him.
The noise came closer as the chair thundered past - and then stopped.
She heard it rattle as it reversed towards her.
"My, my, this is such fun!" the high pitched voice declared. "No wonder you gave up using your legs!"
Monster. What could she say? What could she say which would possibly make a difference?
"Hmm," mused the voice. "Looks like we have a serious party pooper here."
She felt his breath once more. Sickly sour. He was too close, intentionally invading her physical space.
"I guess it must run in the family!"
***
"This is a dream?" Batman stared at his hands. All so real.
This wasn't the first time he had been caught in an experience like this. The JLA had offered him adventures which
took the word experience to it's very limit. This felt real. It also felt very intimate. Claustrophobic. He rubbed his eyes. His mind didn't seem as focused as usual.
"It's not a dream." Robin replied, hovering on the edge of his vision. A ghost - a very real ghost. "This," he gestured to the mismatched images of Gotham that span around them, "This is what's left of your soul. Squashed into a tiny recess of your mind, running from the infection."
"The infection?" queried the Bat. "What is it?"
"Your physical self can taste the compound. You can in here too."
Batman licked his lips. Slightly acidic. A Joker compound, no doubt of that, but there was something else. Some other chemical had been mixed in. "This is new," he muttered. Robin nodded.
"It's breaking down your - our - mind. I think it's driving you crazy."
Batman smiled. That was definitely the Joker's signature. The punchline.
Robin - Jason - moved closed to Batman until their faces were virtually touching. "He will kill Barbara like he killed me. Like he's killed you."
Batman gritted his teeth. "Not yet. He's not killed me yet."
Robin shrugged. "Soon then. Unless you do something about it..." his face danced as he uttered the end to his sentence. "..Old man."
Batman looked up and into Jason's eyes. "You're not Jason," he spat. "Jason was hot headed, but he was never malicious!"
"I'm not Jason. I'm your construct of the boy. I'm how you feel he deserved to be - after the way you treated him, of course. You could say I'm simply an image fuelled by your guilt."
Batman's lip twitched. "A ghost."
"A reflection." Robin corrected. "Your own hatred for your actions reflected back at you. Self loathing. I'm all the things you believed Jason had the right to say, but could never say it."
"Because he's dead." Batman's head hung low. Gotham was spinning faster now.
"Like yourself. You're the parts of Batman which have fled to the corner of his head. The parts which ran when the others stayed and fought."
"What are you saying?" Batman touched his mouth. Blood. He knew the answer, but could he cope with the principle?
"You are a construct also. You are a construct of all the parts of Batman who couldn't face the Joker's toxin and ran."
Batman looked up. "I don't believe it."
"Simply, you are a the parts of the weakest elements of Bruce Wayne. Frankly, you are all that's left of him and I must say it's not very impressive."
***
"Let's talk."
The Joker removed Barbara's mask. She was indeed in her father's house. She could make out very little. The lights were turned down quite low. The Joker sat before her in her wheelchair, shadows licking his white face. That grin..
She knew there was little to no chance of escape. She had to try and remain interesting for as long as possible. Long enough for rescue. That was her only hope.
"I'm listening."
The Joker waggled a thin finger. "No, talking. You see pet," he span the chair in a neat circle, "I hear the Jolly Joker's voice all day and all night. It goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on." He settled the chair back to facing her. "So, Pumpkin, I want to hear someone else's voice for a change."
"Why?" She felt ill. Tension and nerves swelling into a massive knot of stress and air.
Her stomach churned.
Joker's face was chillingly serious.
"I want to know what it's like to be sane."
Batman clenched his fist. Images floating in his head. "I remember chasing a lead."
"The real Batman remembers a lead," corrected Jason. "A lead Joker planted."
Batman ignored him. "The Axis warehouse."
Robin nodded. "He knew you would go there."
"I was expecting a note. A clue of some sort..." stammered the Dark Knight.
"He knew that." laughed his dead companion.
Batman winced. "There were so many. Sharp. Piercing my skin."
"Overkill. He knows your fast. That warehouse was full of needle launchers. You didn't have a chance."
"I must gain control." Batman declared with false confidence. Robin giggled.
"You're too weak to do so. Your mind is a mass of confusion. It's being driven insane, chemically. Order will be eaten out of your head. Soon there will be nothing but chaos. A mindless vegetable."
"No..."
Robin once again gestured to the spinning environment. It had lost all it's colour. "Look around you. You're losing control of this tiny space."
"There must be a way to stop him!"
Robin cackled. "There is. You won't like it."
"Try me." Growled The Bat.
Jason smiled wickedly.
***
"You don't want to be insane?" Barbara gasped incredulously.
Joker snorted, sipping at a cup of tea that had suddenly appeared. "Pooh! I love it! But as they say, the gas is always greener on the other side!" He chuckled merrily at his little joke.
Barbara winced at the gag. "You just want to know what it's like to be normal?"
Joker shrugged apathetically. "It's all ying to his bat-a-yang, and quite frankly, I sometimes I wonder if he is insane or simply just the dullest man I've ever had the misfortunate to laugh upon!"
"I don't understand.." He was trying to throw her. Confuse her. She was sure of it.
"Batman you silly moo-moo! Batsy baby! Why, at this moment he'll be experiencing madness in it's perfect state. Terminal insanity!" Another chuckle.
This sounded bad. Very bad. "Joker.."
Joker ignored her. "So come on! Tell me! I've forgotten what it's like! I'm guessing sanity is rather boring, n'est pas?"
Barbara shook head. What a request. Just what is it like to be sane? "No, I can't explain. Not without..." She stopped and her blood ran cold.
"Without what?"
A trap. Hook, line and sinker. She would have kicked herself if she wasn't so scared. "I don't know," she stammered.
The Joker grinned with cold satisfaction. "Yes you do."
She went silent.
"You can't explain without a common point of reference. That was what you were about to say!"
Oh god, no. Please no.
The Joker's tone was deadly - like ice. The grin remained. "You need to taste the wild side, honey!" He whooped with joy. "Wheelie Girl wants to pull a smilie!"
***
"You can never escape this Bruce. Your world revolved around order. This chaos is a chemical you can't control."
Batman refused to admit this. He could. He did. Always, he did. "Yes I can!" he declared.
"It's impossible!" Robin shook him. "It's the only answer!"
Robin watched him with light curiosity. "You're scared! I've told you the answer!"
"Never! I won't accept that as an alternative!" was the response.
"What would Dick say if he knew what was happening to Barbara? What would he say to you? She'll die!"
Batman went pale.
"Well!" Demanded Jason.
"NO!"
Batman screamed.
***
He sat up with a slight spasm. Needles were dropping from his sweating body. His mind felt like it was on fire. His eyes tried focusing while his hands swept off the sharp metal points - each coated with the Joker's venom. Anger. He needed anger to get rid of the symptoms. That's what Jason was doing.
"Thanks Jason." He whispered. "I owe you more than I can ever repay."
Staggering to his feet, he began to make his way to the door of the warehouse, his feet crunching against the carpet of spikes that littered the warehouse.
"I'm coming Barbara!" He declared under his breath.
***
The door was open. His heart beat faster than he would have normally liked. The drugs still lingered in his system - and probably would for many days. He pulled out a batarang.
Take no chances. This was the Joker.
The house was a mess. Pictures ripped down, papers flagstoned the floor. Furniture had been upturned.
He heard a noise. He tried to keep his head from spinning and concentrate on it's source.
He moved through the shadows. Nothing stirred.
That noise again. A soft gentle noise. Disrupted breathing.
"Jim?" He called out quietly, shifting his position as he did, making sure no one was able to target his voice. "Barbara?"
He turned a corner and saw the figure hunched on the floor.
He moved closer.
"Jim?" He glanced to his left, the cracked mirror he past caught his reflection. The tattered, broken Dark Knight looked wearily back at him. He was in no state to take on the Joker.
But the Joker was gone.
"Dick?"
His ex-partner knelt in the middle of the room. He was dressed in his police uniform. It was Dick's breathing he could hear. An agitated uncontrolled breathing.
But only his....
Oh no.
Lying on the floor there was a shape.
A twisted shape.
He tried to kneel down for a closer look but Dick pushed him away.
"Get out of here!" the young man cried, heaving through his muted sobs. Batman froze. Not sure whether to back away or move closer. His heart thundered against his chest. He moved forward once more.
This time, he was caught full on by his companion and thrown into Jim's upturned table.
He was simply too weak to prevent himself collapsing against the broken wooden frame.
Dick stood above him, tears rolling down his face.
Batman - Bruce - looked across at the figure which lay metres away. The moonlight caught the face of the young red haired lady. Her head caught an angle which pointed it directly at him. There was no sign of animation on her delicate features.
Just a gigantic smile.