*BANG*

Funny how everything was supposed to start with a big bang and now it would be responsible for Kaldurs end. Oh irony. Thank goodness Aqualad hadn't time to think of how the world pulled sometimes the cruelest jokes on you.

He was otherwise occupied.

It ripped Aqualad with a brutal force from his feet, and smashed him into the ground. There was nothing but hot pain exploding in his back, burning it's way past his skin. His entire body was on fire. Literally. Somewhere in the distant he heard a weird mix between laughing and yelling. Kaldur couldn't care less. All he knew was that it hurts.

The Atlantean wasn't able to move, he barley managed to keep himself awake. Every breath felt like it was too much to take. At this time 'of the game' he was completely at the mercy of the psychopath, not that it mattered to him anyway. Again, it hurts, a lot.

"So what are we gonna do with you now water boy? You wanna see a magic trick?"

Kaldur continued the doomed fight against his clouded mind. Some small victory's were already accomplished. For once, he got his vision back. How he found the strength of successfully opening his eyes, he had no idea. The way the colors melded together made everything seemed to be blurry and a little out of place, but Kaldur was almost sure, that the room spinning around him was not real... almost.

There was a pair of black shoes next to his face, slowly circling around his aching body, like vultures. The rhythmical taping of them held something strangely comforting. It reminded him of the steady sound of waves tossing against the beach.

"I wonder if you can breath without that gills of yours...I always wanted to see a fish drowning. Hahaha... Now that would be funny! A fish who can't swim! HAHAHA"

Aqualads thoughts were floating back to his home. Not Mt. Justice. Kaldur 'Ahms real home, the deep blue ocean. Fuzzy pictures of happy memories and a pair of cyan orbs bubbled up in his mind just to get washed away again. His grip on reality started to fade. How easy it would be to let himself drifted back into the welcoming darkness... just for a little while. But there was that nagging voice. It was annoying to tell the least and made his headache worse. All he wanted was for it to be silent.

"You see my old man always told me: Sonny, what doesn't kill you simply makes you stranger."

Sadly the voice didn't seem to care.

"Oh, don't worry! This will definitely kill ya!"

It was ridicules hard for Aqualad to figure out the meaning behind the spoken words. They just wouldn't made any sense, but there was a vaguely feeling of something dangerous looming ahead of him.

With time passing and the dizziness leaving, it was getting easier to put the words together, but he still felt like he was missing the point. And since when could shoes talk anyway? Kaldur saw them stop in there track and noticed a white hand coming out of space, grabbing something that looked like a big black stick, which lay on the floor. Weird...

"Hmmmm...Normally i would make this one as slow as possible, since your a friend of the Boy Blunder" Jokers eyes lightened up in excitement as soon as he mentioned Robins name."But you know my schedule is a little crowded, so I just gonna put a bullet trough your brain."

Suddenly said brain decided spontaneously to work again and all parts fell perfectly together. The jigsaw puzzle was solved and all to soon reality seemed painfully clear to him again. Oh man, did Kaldur wished he was still in denial.

He felt his heartbeat speed up, when he realized what would happened next, now that the Joker was finished with his crazy rambling and holding the deadly weapon.

The clown was wandering in slow motion towards him, carrying the M16 he had picked up from the dirty floor. He kicked Kaldur, not very slow-motion-like, into his stomach, so that the energy of the impact forced the young man on his back. Now Aqualad was facing the mad man, with a gun barrel pressed painfully against his forehead. Waiting for the inevitable.

"By, by, Bir- Fish Boy." The semi-sweet voice of the Joker was filled with poison. Sickening pleasure was gleaming in his eyes.

Kaldur closed his own, not able to watch any longer.