Crowds are won, lost, and won again but our hearts beat for the die hards...

Hey everyone! Sorry I've been out of commission most of the summer!! ( I truly am!!)

OTAKON 2008 ROCKED!! Can't wait for next year!! D

This is an extremely early B-day present for Katie E. who is like one of the few people who still actually read this so

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

So on with the show!

Disclaimer: Do not own Teen Titans, DC comics, The Joker, Batman comics, The Dark Knight or any other thing used in this story.

No...

No...

This is just a sick joke. I'm getting Punk'd. I have to be. Ashton Kutcher is just going to walk through that door and everything's going to be alright.

If only...

His heart monitor confirmed that with a long monotone beeeeeeeep. The doctors ran in trying to save a lost cause while I sat there, empty. I stared at his pallor face, so calm, so peaceful, so unattached to the cold world. A state only death could bring. I felt nothing. Heard nothing. Spoke nothing. I just stared at him. His black hair was messy and unkept. His alabaster skin was more pallor then I ever believed possible, only slightly tainted by his blood. Brendon's perfect aubergine eyes were covered by his eyelids. And his lips were set into a peaceful line.

The doctors started to maneuver me out of the room and I let them. I couldn't bear another minute near Brendon's lifeless body. I was about to find the nearest chemical and inject it in myself if I stayed any longer. The doctor pulled me aside when we were nearing the waiting room.

"He's dead, isn't he?" I whispered. The doctor said nothing.

"Why couldn't you save him?!" I shouted, my body surprisingly racking with anger. "You let him die! He was only sixteen years old and you let him die!" My hands were starting to tint blue and my eyes had already overflowed with angered tears.

"Yes. I did let him die," The doctor's dark voice rang. "But I wouldn't worry too much. You'll die too, soon enough."

I froze. He laughed a laugh that has haunted my father for years.

My rage overtook me.

I grabbed him by the collar and threw him against the wall. He fell, laughing hysterically, to the floor.

"Now, now baby bird," He mocked. "Let's settle this like civilized human beings."

"There is nothing civilized about you, Joker." I growled and gave him a kick to the stomach. He laughed once again.

"You are so correct, my little canary! And ya know? I blame my father. You see, my father was a heavy drinker and never one to smile at me. As far as he was concerned I was a mistake." He started to get himself on his knees. "And I craved his attention, I just wanted to have him smile, just once. So one day I gathered all the china in our china cabinet, ya see? And I grabbed a couple of poles and practiced spinning the plates on them for hours until my father came home. When he arrived I asked him to watch what I could do so I brought all the china and poles into the parlor to show him. But, my dog ran by me and I accidentally dropped all the china and it went smashing to the floor."

I dimly heard a click! But otherwise ignored anything besides controlling myself. We were around civilians after all, and I wasn't in my costume.

"My father became furious at me for dropping the priceless china, and he must have been drunk because his angered words were slurred." He was standing now, slowly backing me into a corner without my notice, his hands behind his back. "Then my father picked up a sharp, jagged piece of the broken plate..." He slowly moved his hand from behind his back to show a shining pocket knife, waiting to be used. My back hit the corner. "And my father backed me against the wall and grabbed my arm..." He grabbed my upper arm tightly with his other hand. "And he slowly dug the china into my skin so I could feel the every inch of the pain pierce me." He brought the knife to my skin and slowly dug in. My arm trying to squirm out of his iron grasp, my blood slowly oozing out from the puncture. I whimpered at the pain.

"Squirming won't work, baby bird," he cackled. "I've handled your mother and father, I can handle you...Now where was I? Ah, yes! So I screamed, begged for my father to stop the pain and he leaned into my ear and whispered..." The Joker leaned into my ear, acting as if he was his father, he dropped his voice low.

"Not frivolous now?!" He jammed the knife deeper into my arm and I screamed in agony. He broke into hysterics, his head flipping back as he laughed. He took the blood drenched pocket knife out of my arm. and clicked it back into place, still laughing. My blood raced down my arm and pooled at my feet, crimson staining the linoleum.

"Well, it's been a riot kid, but I've got a date with a old guy, a spider, and an emo kid, so ta, ta!" He clapped his hands and in a poof of smoke disapeared. I ran quickly to the nearest supply closet and stitched myself up followed by wrapping it in gauge before facing my friends and family.

One Week Later...

My black dress dances lightly in the cold November wind. I look up at my father, his midnight blue eyes hard and cold, he's listening to what the priest is saying, one of his warm hands in mine the other in my crying mother's. I had no more tears to cry. I had used them all up in this past week and even if I tried to cry my tear ducts were bone dry. So I listened to the priest in silence my heart as icy as the wind, my anger and sorrow barely controlled. I can't fly anymore so I've been late to school more often than not. And I've been late to school because I can't sleep at night anymore only in the daytime, and barely then. I've been losing weight cause I can't eat anything and my grades have been dropping.

I never told a soul about my encounter with the Joker, I wore long sleeves to hide the gash on my arm. Besides they don't need to know how Brendon really died. It wouldn't help them any more than it's helped me. They didn't need to know that The Joker did something to kill him. The doctor's told them he just had a hemorrhage. That would be enough.

Mrs. Logan tried her hardest to keep her emotions in check but every now and again you would see a tree limb break off in the distance or feel the ground shake beneath your feet. Mr. Logan was trying to calm her down while retaining the Beast from escaping. In the past week Mr. Logan lost all his good humor. His eyes no longer sparkled a brilliant jade, the were the dim color of olive.

But I wouldn't dare look at my best friend.

Flashback

"He...He's dead.." I whispered, tears streaming down my face, "Hemorrhage...I-in his lungs...They couldn't..." I fell to my knees in broken sobs. A couple light bulbs broke around me. I should have told them that he was murdered, lying kills you faster though. And boy did I feel like dying.

"This is your fault Mar'i!" April shouted at me. I looked up, stunned.

"You...you think I killed your brother?!" My eyes went blue, "Why would I let them kill Brendon?! I loved him, I still love him! Why would I--"

"You didn't get him here fast enough! He could have been fine if it weren't for you!" She screamed at me, her forest eyes full of hate, tears flowing freely down them.

"April Arella Logan!" Mrs. Logan scolds, "How could you think that of Mar'i? She would never-" She never got to finish her speech though, because April ran out of the hospital in a whoosh of purple hair.

End Flashback

She looked over at me and glared. I just looked down at my feet.

"...So now we bid our parting to a dear son, a loving brother, a best friend, and a caring boyfriend, Brendon James Logan. May he rest eternally with the angels in peace." The priest finishes. I look up to see him close his book and step back to let the family and friends lay flowers on his coffin. He hated flowers. He only enjoyed giving roses to me. So instead of laying a flower on his grave, I take off the ring that had decorated my left hand for a month and lay it on his coffin, right about where his heart would be. It sparkles in the sunlight. The inscription shining brightly.

'As promised.'? Yeah, right.

I walk over to a tree to wait for my parents and to give myself some space from the crying crowd. The wind rustles through the empty branches and sends a small chill through my body.

"Ya know, I've been known to put the 'fun' back in 'funeral'." I turn, frozen in a mixture of anger and fear. S.K smiles darkly, eyes hidden behind his sunglasses, as he turns from the other side of the tree to face me.

"What did you do to him?" I whispered. S.K chuckled.

"Eh, not much. A needle here, a drawing of blood there, it was quite easy to find the right thing to kill him after we gathered enough information." He shrugged his shoulders carelessly.

"So, you are teamed with the Joker and his gang," I laughed without humor. "You're just a pawn." S.K seemed careless still.

"I'll get out of it, like I did with you and the Titans...Always have a back-up plan or you'll end up six-feet under like ol' purple eyes over there." He pointed over to Brendon's coffin.

"Show some goddamned respect for the dead!" I screamed at him. He just smiled.

"Why show respect for something that can't reply back?" His smile turned into a grin when I growled.

"You're sick in the head, do you know that?" He nodded once at my question and laughed.

"I learn from the best."

"Why are you even with the Joker?" I questioned. He shrugged again.

"Got nothing better to do after I left Arkham," He paused to look at me seriously before quickly retaining his uncaring nature. I pondered over his scrutiny.

"How did you not die on Tamaran?" I questioned.

"A magician never reveals his secrets madame." He leaned casually against the tree and crossed his arms. I heard my dad calling my name and stepped back away from my interrogation.

"I should arrest you, right now." I told him.

"You should." He replied. There was a long pause between us. We both know that for some reason I couldn't.

"Marie! There you are!" Dad said relieved as he reached the oak tree. "Oh, is this a friend of yours? He looks familiar..." He stuck his hand out in greeting. "Richard Grayson, it's a pleasure." His hand waited for S.K's. To my utter surprise S.K took his greeting.

"S.K, very nice to meet you as well." He smiled at my shocked expression.

"Well, let's get going Marie. Very nice meeting you S.K." Dad said as he ushered me to the car.

"Bye Sir, Bye Marie." He laughed. I ignored him and went into the car.

"Well, he was different. He felt like ice." My dad spoke rubbing his hands together. I shrugged my shoulders.

If only he knew how different...

Well, that's another chapter down. HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATIE!

Now be nice and review!!

By the way, Mar'i's depression will show up in the next chapter. She's kind of in a denial stage right now.

REVIEW!! AND YOU SHALL HAVE CAKE!!

REVIEW!!

Love Ya,

SuperJGirl5