"NO!! It's too soon! You can't wake up, yet! Not yet!"

Nightwing stared dazedly at the peculiar little man standing in front of him. Focusing on the strange man, the young vigilante realized that it was one of the same men he'd seen at the tea party! The one in top hat and tails. Nightwing's eyes zeroed in on the top hat. A slip of paper, like a ticket, stuck out of the hatband. It read, 'In this style, 10/6.'

He recalled being haunted by those numbers. The clocks always seemed to read 10:06 when he casually glanced at them, but once he'd concentrated, the times would change.

Nightwing felt an all-consuming fury overtake him.

"Jervis Tetch," he growled, his voice shaking in rage. He reached up and yanked a number of wires from his forehead. "I might have known it'd be you--the Mad Hatter. The others I saw at the tea party. The guy with the floppy ears and the watch--he was the March Hare. And the one that kept falling asleep--the Dormouse! Well, that semi-explains the trip through 'Wonderland.' But not the 'why?'"

As he spoke, Nightwing jumped off the gurney he'd been lying on and advanced cautiously on his tormentor. Tetch might look like a helpless wimp, but he was an escaped Arkham Asylum inmate who couldn't be dismissed lightly. The villain's obsession with Alice in Wonderland and his genius for mind-control devices made him both insane and dangerous.

Tetch's fixation with Alice partially explained the wild merry-go-round ride Dick had been on. All of the odd quotes and songs were from Lewis Carroll's novel. Dick remembered Alfred reading it to him, cover to cover, during his first few weeks at Wayne Manor. Even though the protagonist was a girl, Dick had been fascinated by Alice's exploits. So much so, that after Alfred finished reading the book out loud, Dick begged him to read it to him again.

But Jervis Tetch's insane obsession had perverted the child's innocent adventure into a frightening, nightmarish journey.

These thoughts flashed through Nightwing's mind as he reached the Mad Hatter. Infuriated by the hellish voyage he'd been put through, the young hero threw caution aside and picked up the diminutive villain by the oversized bowtie, twisting the knot another turn. He recalled his own dream struggles against Batman.

"Okay, I'm listening, Tetch," Nightwing said his voice low and threatening. "For your sake, you'd best start talking. And fast!"

"It was all Seven's fault," Tetch stuttered. "He made me!"

Nightwing shook the Hatter slightly, causing the frail man to gag. Several small items fell out of his considerably large pockets. Nightwing glanced down quickly and saw that they were microchips, probably for his mind-bending electronic devices.

Releasing his hold just enough to allow the Mad Hatter a chance to breathe, Nightwing spoke again. The finality in his tone warned of the dire consequences to come should his questions not be answered directly and to his satisfaction.

"Last chance, Tetch," he growled. "Unless you want to be squashed so flat that you look like a playing card, tell me--who made you come after me and why?"

Tetch gasped for air, his eyes rolling in their sockets. "Listen, my rude guest. Where did you learn your manners, elbowing your way in here without being properly invited--"

Nightwing squeezed just a bit tighter.

"--Blockbuster!" Tetch squeaked. Nightwing released the pressure just enough.

"Talk!!"

"He wants someone named 'Oracle,'" Tetch said rapidly, tripping over his words. "Said that you'd almost revealed this person's location once before, but you got away before the interrogators had a chance to succeed. He broke me out of Arkham and brought me here. You were already his prisoner and unconscious. Nightwing, I swear! He ordered me to use my mind-control devices on you! To get you to finally lead him to this Oracle person! He's not happy that Oracle's been stealing his ill-gotten gains right from under his quite enormous snout!"

Dick began to squeeze again. Babs! It had been Babs all along. That was why he'd been hounded by the others to contact her! And why he'd refused so adamantly to do so.

"But why did you make you me think that I was a woman?" Dick demanded again, curious in spite of himself.

"Is that what your nightmare was all about?" Tetch asked fascinated. He smiled proudly. "I didn't make you think that, my young, manxome foe," he said. "You did it all yourself. I just gave you a set of post-hypnotic suggestions that were triggered once you met a certain set of parameters in your nightmares. Other than that, I had no way of knowing what form your nightmares would take."

He stared huffily at Nightwing.

"I'm not a mind-reader, after all, my black-clad vigilante," Tetch said, sniffing in disdain. "I'm an artiste!"

"What about these 'parameters'? What were they?" Nightwing asked impatiently.

"They were any powerful nightmare sequences that--once you got caught up in them--were supposed to place you in such dire straits you'd be forced to call on this Oracle for assistance." Tetch's face fell.

"But you didn't!" he cried indignantly. "You spoiled everything! You never called Oracle. Every time the monitors showed that you'd reached just the right factors that should've driven you to frantically beg for her assistance, you backed off and refused to take the necessary next step." He glared accusingly at Nightwing.

"I don't understand. Why did you choose to believe that you were a woman if that nightmare wasn't going to force you to ask Oracle for help?"

Nightwing thought about his shame and refusal to have Babs see him as a woman and grinned suddenly. "I think you just answered your own question, Tetch."

Nightwing checked his wrist chronometer. Time! He grinned. A man less sure of himself would probably pace nervously, or maybe chew his nails, but Nightwing didn't do either. He knew as if he were there and witnessing the whole thing that the raids had gone without a hitch.

He thought about the events leading up to his ambush and capture by Blockbuster's minions. Shortly following Desmond's failed attempt at capturing the elusive 'Oracle,' the giant gangster placed a price on her head in certain underground trade papers.

Nightwing got wind of it through the grapevine and went ballistic. It was bad enough that Blockbuster had had him tortured by two refugees from a horror movie. That one of his goons had wounded Barbara in the leg. And that they had almost succeeded in capturing her--hell, in almost drowning her!

But this? To place a million dollar bounty on her head? Dead or Alive?!

When Dick found out, he'd immediately contacted the Titans and arranged for Oracle's round-the-clock protection. Next, he went after Blockbuster. He just didn't tell them about that little part of his plan.

They were waiting for him, of course. Trapped him, gassed him, and apparently recruited the Mad Hatter to brainwash him.

He vaguely remembered part of the process. He was heavily drugged and barely able to understand what was being done to him. Through the drug-induced haze he knew that they were doing all of this to him because they wanted Oracle--real bad.

Standing on the rooftop now, Nightwing could clearly recall one other thing:

His vow that as long as he was alive, they would never get their hands on her.

Nightwing grinned, a feral snarl in the darkness. Soon, he felt the tension along his shoulders begin to relax, and he found himself smiling. Softly at first, then with growing strength, he recited:

"Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought--
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought..."

Nightwing took a deep breath, tasting the soft sea fragrance of the night air. For the moment, he felt strangely at peace.

"Yeah, Blocky, my manxome foe," he said softly. "You'd better look out for my vorpal blade, 'cause just about now it's going snicker-snack all around the world. And before you know it, the good guys will all cry out, 'O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'"

To be continued…