Two days earlier:

His maniacal laugh could be heard echoing throughout the streets and allies. It was difficult to pinpoint the exact location of the source, but it was close and moving as well. I kept a close eye on Robin because I knew what this creep was capable of from experience. He could snatch someone right next to you without you noticing until you heard the agonized filled scream weave through your ears and etch itself into your mind.

"Where oh where is my little birdieee?"

It was coming from behind me. I turned around. Nothing.

Haha ha haaa!"

Now in from of me. I looked, but still nothing but a confused Robin. He knew exactly where we were, and he was just toying with us. Trying to push us into a frantic state of mind. There was no way I was going to let that happen. When I myself was Robin, I was naïve and rash. But, as Nightwing, I am more experienced, more careful and calm. I can protect others better than I once could. And I will be damned if I let anything happen to Tim. The boy who is practically my younger brother. I would protect him, even at the cost of my own life if that's what it took.

"Joker, why don't you stop hiding like a coward and show yourself already?" I yelled as loud as my voice would allow. All I could hear was the echo of my anger in return, until…

"I'm right next to you my dear birdie."

I spun around, facing where Tim was, only now he wasn't. Instead I was face to face with a man that had a serious clown complex. The only thing I could think of though was Tim. Where was he? "Where is he?"

"Heehee, where id who?" He was now smiling larger, if that was even possible.

"You know damn well who I'm talking about. Where is Robin?"

His face twisted into a mediocre concerned expression. "My, my, I believe my bird has finally lost it. My dear birdie, I'm looking at Robin right now." What was he talking about? He was looking straight into my eyes. Looking at me. His hand drifted towards his pocket. He was retrieving something. It was… a mirror? He slowly brought it up to eye level, facing me. I gazed into it and froze immediately. What was this? It was me in the mirror, but the wrong me. It was Robin me. "Don't you see? You are my only little bird."

"Robin?" I called looking all over for Tim, but he was nowhere to be seen. "Where are you?"

"I'm right here brother." I turned to face Joker again. Wait, where did he go? "Look behind you." I turned cautiously; terror rushing through my body. There he was. "Robin, where were y-" I choked on the last word, not sure if what my eyes told me was true. I felt tears begin to surface. I was definitely Robin, but I didn't want to believe it. His mouth. His mouth was slit at both corners just as the Joker's were.

"Ri-Richard, h-help me." I didn't know what to do. I embraced him, holding him close.

"Where were you? What happened to you?"

"What do you mean? What happened to you?"

"Nothing happe-" My words were cut short as an explosion of pain shot through my back. A knife? Who? Tim began shaking in my arms. Was he cold? Or scared? No, he was… laughing? "Tim? What are you doing? Why?"

"Heh heh heh, isn't it obvious? I'm breaking you down."

I bolted upright, sweat dripping from my face as I took unsteady breaths. There was a light throbbing bouncing off the interiors of my skull. A gentle hand fell upon my shoulder, pushing until I was back in a lying position. I looked to my left to whoever it was. I saw Tim staring down at me. I don't know what happened; it was as though my instincts took over. I grabbed his wrist and twisted, causing him to drop to his knees. He let out a gasp, but nothing more until I released my grip. "Sorry, reflexes, you know?" I shrugged. It was all a dream. None of that was real.

"Yeah, sure." He said standing back up and rubbing his wrist. "Anyway, I would suggest staying down, unless you want to black out again." Again? I wasn't aware that there had been a first time.

"Robin, what are you talking about?"

"You don't remember?"

"If I remembered would I be asking about it?"

He looked as though he were deciding on how he wanted to word things. "You have a point." It was then that I noticed where we were. We were outside. But, not just outside, we were in an alley in Gotham. "Well, you see, Joker kind of… escaped again." Then everything came back to be all at once, or most of everything anyway. Of course, we were after Joker. Wait, what?!

I jumped to my feet, startled. "You mean to tell me that he got away?!" My head was spinning and my legs were shaking.

"Whoa, what are you doing? I just said you shouldn't get up. You might have a concussion." He grabbed my arm to prevent me from going anywhere.

"Let go! I can't just lie around knowing he is out there somewhere. I have to find him."

Tim only tightened his grasp on me. "You can't go."

"And why is that?"

He bowed his head directing his gaze up at me looking rather guilty. "Um, because I may have already contacted Batman."

"You did what?! Why would you do that? Do you know how furious he's going to be at this failure of a patrol?"

He averted his eyes from me, which looked so pitiful. "You were knocked out in the middle of the street and there is a madman on the loose. What was I supposed to do.?"

Of course, I wasn't angry with him, I was mainly angry with myself. I shouldn't have been taken out so easily. "Look, Tim, it's okay, it wasn't your fault. It was mine. I made a mistake and left you alone to fix it. You panicked and that is understandable. How long has it been since you've spoken with him?"

"Um… about five minutes, why?" He released my arm and looked back up at me, waiting for an answer.

"Okay, and how long was I out for?"

"About thirty minutes, but why do you want to know?" I loved the anticipation in his voice, as if I was about to reveal all the secrets of the world.

"Hmm, interesting." He was staring at me harder now. "Maybe, no, that can't be it." He seemed to be growing impatient now. It took everything I had to keep from laughing at his curiosity. "I wonder if, no, that can't be it either." I felt like his eyes were now burning through my soul.

"Come on! What are you talking about?" I couldn't do it anymore. I could no longer contain my amusement.

"Absolutely nothing." I said patting him on the back twice. "I just like messing with you. And the look on your face was well worth it.

"Not cool," he said lightly punching the arm he was clinging to earlier. "I thought something serious was going on."

"Sorry, but I couldn't resist the opportunity. Now, Batman should be here soon." My head was still throbbing, but it had at least lightened up some. Hopefully I would still be able to walk straight; I haven't even tried taking a step yet. I've actually been holding that off until Bruce got here. I didn't want to pass out on Tim and leave him alone again. Just standing there as long as I did was beginning to cause me to become light-headed. I lowered myself into a sitting position and placed my head in my right palm.

"Hey, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just a headache, don't worry about it." A few seconds passed before I felt a single drop of rain fall upon my forehead. The beginning of a long rain-filled night. "Great, of course it has to start raining, why not?"

Bruce's timing could not have been more perfect. The batmobile skidded to a stop right outside the alley we were in and rain had just started its descent towards us, dampening our hair and rolling down our faces. Bruce walked briskly towards us. I rose back to my feet as he approached, wavering slightly as I did so. I placed my hand against a building to steady myself. "Take it easy." Bruce placed a supporting hand on my shoulder. "Robin, get in the car and out of the rain." He waited until we heard the car door close. "You're no hurt, are you?"

I lightly shook my head and even that blurred my vision causing me to close my eyes, so my answer was not too convincing at that point. "I'm fine."

"No, you're not fine. Can you even walk on your own without falling?" I didn't answer. "I didn't think so. Come on so we can get you checked out."

"How can we go back when the Joker is out there somewhere. We have to find him." I took a couple steps forward, stumbling over my own feet as I did so.

Bruce quickly wrapped one of his arms around me, supporting me and preventing me from falling flat on my face. "You're not going anywhere like this. You are coming back to the cave and getting looked at by Alfred. End of story."

When Batman said 'end of story' you should know better than to push the issue further. At this point it's better to just nod and agree. "Understood." I allowed him to assist me in getting into the vehicle, mainly because my vision was blurring again and I would have most likely ended up hitting my head on the top of the car resulting in another state of uselessness. I was definitely going to be sore in the morning, I could already feel my muscles stiffening up and threatening to tighten into a knot of a cramp. Great, this perfect situation just keeps escalating into the world of perfection.

"Tell me, what the hell happened out there?"

Crap! Why did he have to ask now? I don't exactly remember; my memory was nothing but fuzz and static. Hmm, what did happen? "Well, you see-?"

"You don't know, do you?"

I didn't know how to answer that. 'Sorry, I got my ass handed to me and forgot everything.' Yeah, that would go well. "Sorry, but I can only remember up to a certain point, then the rest is nothing more than a mere haze. Tim? Do you recall everything?"

"Down to the last detail." Thank you Tim for you abnormal memory capacity. "I'll start from the beginning."