The Hummer arrived on a quiet isolated street in the middle of New Gotham. Barbara parked it inside a storage house. A man took Barbara to an empty room. They sat her on a chair and tied her hands to the arms of it.

Barbara tried to move but her arms where bound tightly. A man entered the room but she couldn't see him. He was behind her. She felt the cold steel of a gun press against her neck so decided it was best to keep still.

"You're being very good Ms. Gordon," he said moving a lock of hair away from her back, over her shoulder and putting his mouth near her ear. His breath smelled awful.

"Who are you?" she asked without moving. She strained to hear his voice, trying to recognize it.

"I'm the only one here who asks the questions."

"What do you want?"

"I don't think you heard me." He pressed the gun against her neck "Only I ask the questions. You are the famous Oracle. I never thought you'd be Oracle, a disabled teacher."

Barbara didn't respond.

"Do you know how many people would pay good money for you?" the man asked.

"I think you're making a big mistake here." Barbara didn't know how he knew who she was.

"I know who you are, it's not necessary to lie to me. The master of the computers, the amazing Oracle. I've heard many things about your incredible abilities in the cybernetic world. Maybe I should help you remember." He took Dinah's earring out of his pocket and held it up in front of her "Do you recognize this?"

Barbara froze "...It's just an earring."

"You know that is not true." He took her by the hair and pulled her head back pressing the gun on her neck "It's a special device that you use to guide the annoying Huntress and her blond friend."

Barbara could now see his face properly and recognized him as the Mad Hatter. He was a man of average height with green hat and a long dress coat. Her memory of him was that he had always been a disgusting man. She looked hard at him; he was still foul. Now he was older, fatter and his messy and long hair was white. The last time that she had seen him was more than nine years earlier.

"Let me introduce you to my team;" Mad Hatter said. "You know Polly, my hat check girl, in charge of keeping tabs on my hats. And my henchmen Benley, Skimmer, Cappy and Dicer." He smiled and walked in front of her with a strange gun in his hand. "And judging by your look, you know who I am."

"Mad Hatter, my father showed me all your files." She said.

"And you keep all the info in. Delphi's is the name of your system?"

Barbara was stunned and swallowed.

"I intercepted your frequency and I could hear all of your conversations. You changed the frequency but you really weren't all that hard to find again. Maybe you've forgotten but I know my way around the cybernetic realm a bit as well. I know that you are Oracle, I recognize your voice now. I will kill you and your damn girls but it will not be easy unless you and they help me, I want to know about your wonderful Clock Tower, it sounds like a marvelous place."

"You're wrong.."

One of the men turned on a tape recorder and Barbara could hear her voice while she talked with Huntress.

::Huntress are you okay? Huntress::

::Yeah, I'm here, but I can't see a damn thing. I hate tear gas!::

::Where are you?::

::I jumped to the river. I'm freezing here.::

::How is Dinah?::

Barbara felt her heart beating faster. The man stopped the recorder.

"Now do you want to talk Oracle?" Mad Hatter asked as he smiled. "I would never have guessed that a person like you could be one of the best crime fighters in New Gotham. Don't you get it? The reason you couldn't trap me over the last few days is because I've been ahead of you every step of the way. I heard exactly where and how you were moving. I tried to trap that damn Huntress but she is fast and agile. Who is she?"

Barbara kept silent. Things were already bad enough.

"Come on Barbara Gordon, play nice. I need you to help me out. I want you to fit Huntress with this." He held up a small computer chip. "Do you know what this is?"

Barbara shook her head as he walked in front of her.

"Well, it's the device that you have been looking for. I can control minds with this device, I developed a nano technology for my mind-controlling mechanisms. It's wonderful microscopic plaything really. I just need to put this in the back of a person's head. Maybe you'd like to know where I'm going with this, eh? Okay then, since you asked so nicely. I'm going to install one of these in your head and guess what? You are going to help me to put this in your friends."

One of the men of Mad hatter wrenched Barbara's head backwards. Holding her in place he snapped a collar around her throat. "Are you insane?" she shouted struggling "This is a mistake!"

"You will be more friendly once I have installed the device." He smiled walking behind her. In the back of the collar there was a small hole; he raised a gun and the barrel fit perfectly in it. Barbara felt the gun press against her neck and two of the henchmen held her head to keep her from struggling.

"You are wrong! Please, listen to me!" Barbara cried out, a feeling of utter helplessness washing over her. She could tell that trying to escape would likely be in vain.

"Too late baby." He smiled and fired the gun.

* * *

"Sixty five, sixty six, sixty..." Helena was at the Dark Horse bar helping Leonard with the yearly inventory. She was currently counting glasses when Dinah's voice came over the comm set.

::Helena have you talked with Barbara today?:: Dinah asked.

"No, why? Sixty eight, sixty nine." The brunette continued counting the glasses.

::I thought she might have called you.::

"Seventy. No she never called me. Seventy one, seventy two..."

::We were supposed to meet and go to lunch::

"Seventy three... Sometimes that happens with Barbara. She gets so engrossed in what she is doing that she forgets what time it is. Seventy four, seventy five..."

::But she also had an appointment with her lawyer::

"Sixty five, sixty... Damn it Dinah! you made me lose count," Helena growled and slapped the palm of her hand against her forehead. She put her hand on the bar table "Dinah this had better be serious. What is the problem?"

::She never arrived for her appointment with her lawyer at 10 o'clock:: Dinah said.

"Well maybe she had to be somewhere else." Helena began to recount the glasses.

::She never made it to her one o'clock class.::

"One, two... " Helena stopped counting to say, "That sounds bad."

::I've been trying to contact her using the comm but she won't answer me. Do you think something has happened to her?::

"Anyone see her at school?"

::Yes, Gaby said that she was talking with a woman and then they both climbed into the Hummer and took off around 10 o'clock.::

"Where did she go?"

::I don't know.::

"Where are you?"

::At school. I called Alfred and he told me she hasn't contacted him.::

Helena stood up to get her coat. Leonard stepped in front of her, barring her way. "Going somewhere Kyle?" he asked.

"I just need go out for a few minutes." Helena said.

"You promised to actually stick around today. You know, so we could actually get the inventory done."

::I'm here. What is the problem?:: Helena heard Barbara's voice echoing over the comm.

"Forget it. Just let me go to the ladies room." Helena went in a hurry to the ladies room. She entered and closed the door. "What the hell is happening?" she asked.

::I don't know. Alfred told me that Dinah was looking for me. I'm here::

::Where are you?:: Dinah asked.

::At the Clock Tower. Where else?:: Barbara said annoyed.

"Oh damn! What have you been doing there?" Helena was pissed.

::Working::

::You never arrived for your appointment and your class.:: Dinah said ::I called you.::

:: Dinah I was busy working with this case.::

"Are you okay?" Helena asked.

::Yes, why?:: the red head grumbled.

"Dinah, are you okay?"

::Yea. why?:: the blond answered

"Barbara is okay, Dinah is okay, Alfred sure is okay, I'm okay; Every damn body is okay. Now, lets get back to work. See you later, I got glasses to count," Helena said and turned off her mic.

* * *

After she finished her work, Helena went to Clock Tower. She wanted to make sure that Barbara was actually okay. It wasn't like Barbara to just disappear for several hours so maybe she'd actually found something. Like a break in the case.

"Hey Barbara." Helena walked in with a lollipop in her mouth. The redhead was at Delphi typing on the keyboard.

"Hi Helena. How was your day?" she greeted her.

"Boring, you know, inventory." Helena sat on the desk next to her. "Where were you this afternoon?."

"I was right here the entire time working nonstop on our case." Barbara pretended to be distracted.

"You worried Dinah."

"I was working." Barbara answered finishing her typing on the keyboard. "I know how to take care of myself. I am over thirty you know. And I can do it a lot better than you two. I'm going to have to have a serious talk with Dinah."

"It's your fault." Helena pointed out.

"My fault?" Barbara faked a laugh.

Helena cocked her head "We can tell time by you. You always follow the rules and are never late for classes. Gaby saw you talking with some woman and then you disappeared. What's up with you? It's not like you to be so pissy at Dinah."

"Yes, that's true." She turned to look at the brunette "Well I'm glad that you came back early. I need to run some tests on you."

"What tests? Why? I came here to eat not be a lab rat. It's four o'clock."

"Just a routine test."

"I'm feeling fine." Helena was surprised by the redhead's sudden concern.

"I know that you feel okay, but you know that I like to monitor you condition every so often." Barbara raised her brow, looked her and smiled. "Humor me?"

She knew full well that Helena would back down. When it came to the medical side of things, the younger woman knew she was out of her comfort zone. "After that we can go out to eat. Remember that Alfred is at Wayne Manor on Mondays; Im not good coking and you are worst than me."

"I can't survive that long. I'm hungry now. Why don't we eat first, then we can do the tests." Helena's sense buzzed

"No."

Helena looked around nervous.

"What's wrong?" Barbara asked noticed her nervousness.

"I dunno, I feel something..."

"Okay, I get it. Another one of your tricks to avoid having me check you out." Barbara said sighing.

"No Barbara, something..."

"Helena I don't have time of anymore excuses. Let's go." Barbara knew that Helena would discover her duplicity soon enough. She needed move faster

Helena rolled her eyes. She felt sometimes it was best just to follow Barbara orders. She went over to the stretcher and laid down.