A/N: Thanks guys! Yes… I hated it when Barbra was first put into a wheelchair and stopped being Batgirl like that. But I believe having this tragedy really helps set the mood that is the darkness of Batman's world.

I decided to change Diana's appearance. I think her new look kind of matches Batman's better than the original one. It gives her an edgier look, especially in the dark.

Hopes this chapter satisfies you for now. Thanks for reading and any reviews and comments are greatly appreciated!

Someone New

"What do you want witch? Aren't you supposed to be in jail?"

"Ares, The God of War… I was paroled on the agreement that I do not harm Queen Hippolyta or her pretty little daughter Princess Diana. But you look bored and I thought you could use some amusement at the Princess' expense." Circe, the magical nymph walked up to Ares with an evil grin on her face.

"And what is it that you have in mind if you are not allowed to harm the Princess?" Ares scratched his chin in interest. Despite his lustful determination to have the most beautiful Amazon for himself, he too despised Princess Diana as she and her Justice League had been recently stopping his plans time and time again in causing violent chaos around the world.

"Yes it is true that I'm not allowed to do anything to her, but they never said anything about her pointy-eared husband." Circe's grin grew wider as she saw the approval of The God of War.

"Hmm… you are talking about the so-called Greek Champion Batman no doubt." Ares sat up, now eagerly waiting to hear what Circe was conjuring up.

"It seems to me that the best way to send Diana crumbling down is through her heart… and nothing can damage her heart more than for her to see her beloved husband in pain that she cannot heal. From what I've found out, there is nothing that haunts The Batman more than to see his 'family' suffering in excruciating pain." Circe brought up a vision cloud revealing Robin, Nightwing, and the original Batgirl.

"Yes I see… but what are you going to do? Turn them into bats? What does this have to do with me?" Ares was growing irritated with Circe's insistence on stringing him along with her plan.

"Yes that does sound like a good idea, I'll do that eventually… but what I have planed will devastate the so-called Dark Knight and his little Princess." Circe went on to reveal her scheme knowing that Diana will soon suffer a pain worse than death.

Batman, Wonder Woman, Robin, and Batgirl entered Oracle's secret base. It was a dark room lighted by the blue glow emanating from the many computer screens that filled the walls with the exception of one. That wall was fully stocked with every piece of weaponry that each member of the batclan used.

"This better be good old man… I could be sleeping you know." Nightwing said sarcastically with a smirk on his face as both The Huntress and Black Canary stood next to him wondering what Batman wanted.

Diana raised her eyebrow as she looked at both Black Canary and The Huntress. "Where are the rest of the Birds?"

"They are on a mission for the league doing something in Asia." Black Canary said while yawning.

"Oracle… status report on what the Birds have found." Batman plugged in the hard drive that he took from the thugs earlier into one of the computers.

"I cross referenced everything they found… notice anything?" Oracle pointed at the obvious clue on the screen. "Clayface, Two Face, Killer Croc, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, Joker… all the major players are there. But Clayface Two Face, Joker, and Harley are still in Arkham…"

Oracle started uploading the files stored on the hard drive as Batman turned towards the rest of the batclan. "The Riddler… for whatever reason is letting us know who's playing his game. From what we've gathered so far, it obviously involves a jailbreak. But he is waiting for something… or someone…"

Nightwing scratched his head in confusion. "But this doesn't sound like The Riddler at all."

"Exactly… he's either doing something new or he's working for someone new…" Batman looked back onto the computer screen as Oracle was going through the information.

Diana placed her fists on her hips. "Well if he's planning to bust them out of Arkham… why don't we just have a stakeout there? I'm sure we can defeat all of them easily before they can actually regroup."

"We will Princess… but first we got to know what the Riddler wants before he attempts the jailbreak, and why he wants to include everyone in his plan. Going up against them blind will most likely put us in a trap." Batman's eyes widened for an instant as he realized what was on the screen.

Oracle spotted the same clue as she looked up at Batman. "Him? Is he just waiting for him to do a simple smash and grab at Arkham?"

Batman stood up while narrowing his eyes as he continued to analyze everything. "Bane will easily destroy Arkham…"

"Not if we have anything to say about it." The Huntress playfully punched Black Canary in the arm.

"Yea… this seems just like a trap to get you to fight all of them at once Bruce." Dinah said while giving Helena a slightly harder punch on the arm in return.

"Maybe so… but there's definitely more to this than that. There's something else he's after. There are three different shipments scheduled for tomorrow night at 2:00am. Diana and I will take the one in Gotham Harbor… Nightwing, Robin, and Batgirl will take the factory in the industrial district. Huntress and Canary, cover the downtown factories. Stay in contact for any updates that may come up." Batman motioned to let everyone know that the meeting was done for the night.

"Finally I can get some sleep! It's already five in the morning! Come on Babs, let go knock out." Nightwing stretched his arms above his head yawning before wheeling Oracle out of the room. The others followed, leaving Bruce and Diana to themselves.

"You know Bruce… sleep does sound like a good idea." Diana yawned with a seductive smile on her face as she stood in front of him and wrapped her arms around his neck, blocking him off from the computer screens.

Batman unemotionally stared into her beautiful pearl eyes. "I have work to do Prin….." Diana cut him off as she kissed him passionately. She pulled back and broke the contact that her lips made with his to allow both of them to catch their breaths. She slowly pulled off his cowl and massaged the back of his head with her fingers, patiently waiting for his eyes to meet hers. Diana knew she had him the instant he looked back into her eyes.

"I hate it when you do that…" Bruce muttered out as his hands rested on her hips, holding her in place.

Diana laughed softly. "Your body says otherwise… and right now it's telling me that you need to sleep with me tonight." Grinning, she grabbed his hand and led him out of the base while he quickly put his cowl back on.

"Oracle… Status report" Batman crouched on the rooftop with Wonder Woman standing behind him as he spoke into his earpiece while they looked down at Gotham Harbor.

"Everything's quiet… N, BG, and R are bored while the Birds just took care of unrelated random criminals breaking into a jewelry store."

Batman noticed two vans pulling up to dock 13. "I have activity, keep the rest on alert. Batman out."

Batman and Wonder Woman quietly made their way into the ship's cargo bay and observed the henchmen's activities. "Hurry up with those crates! The boss said to watch out for the Bat. I want to get out of here before he shows up!" The leader of the thugs shouted as Batman motioned to Wonder Woman to prepare to strike.

"BATMAN WE HAVE A SITUATION!" Oracle's voice was loud and filled with fear.

Batman gritted his teeth in annoyance. "Make it quick" He knew that whatever Oracle was about to say had to be extremely important.

On the same channel as Batman and Oracle, Diana listened intently knowing that something was wrong. "Nightwing, Robin, and Batgirl have been attacked! Robin's vitals are out! And Nightwing and Batgirl are not responding!" Batman's eyes widened with shock as he immediately looked at Diana. Her jaw hung in disbelief as her eyes were filled with fear.

"Patch me their last known location and send the Birds." Both Batman and Wonder Woman quickly left the ship and flew straight to the coordinates Oracle sent them. They found both Nightwing and Batgirl unconsciously lying on the roof of an office building across the street from the factory they were watching. Batman immediately began setting up a crime scene on the rooftop to search for clues.

Wonder Woman tended to both Batgirl and Nightwing while The Birds of Pray arrived. "Oracle, it's Wonder Woman… Both Nightwing and Batgirl are unconscious but don't seem to have sustained any major physical injuries."

The Oracle sighed in relief. "OK… send them to the cave. I'll have Alfred on standby."

Diana looked up to see the Birds standing next to her. "Good, I'll send the Birds to pick you up and bring you to the cave as soon as we leave."

"What happened?" Black Canary said with concern as she watched Batman carefully search the roof.

"We're not sure… they were attacked and Robin is missing… his suit's vital life support system stopped…" Wonder Woman stood up to wait for Batman to finish.

"Do you think he's…" The Huntress said nervously.

Wonder Woman shook her head trying to make sense of what just happened. "I don't know… but why would they only take Robin?"

Batman stood up and moved over towards them with an unemotional look, but Diana could tell that he was furious about Robin's disappearance and the possibility that he could be dead. His eyes became very thin slits as he spoke with great anger in his voice. "There's nothing here… whoever did this knew exactly what they were doing. There's no sign of any kind of struggle. Everyone get to the cave. Wonder Woman and I will take Batgirl and Nightwing." Without saying or doing anything else, Batman picked up Nightwing and flew towards the cave.

Not really knowing how to react to Batman's words, Diana hesitated before looking at the two Birds. "Meet you guys there" She picked up Batgirl before taking off to follow Batman.

As Oracle and the Birds reached the batcave, Alfred and Wonder Woman were tending to both Batgirl and Nightwing in the medical station while Batman was on the computer trying to figure out who was behind the attack. Oracle wheeled up to Batman and began working with him. "Find anything yet?"

"No… from what I got at the crime scene, I'd say the person revealed himself to them and somehow was able to take all three down without any resistance… we have to wait for Nightwing and Batgirl to wake up to find out what exactly happened." Batman looked over to see his two protégés surrounded by his worried team.

Batgirl was the first to wake as she shot up looking around only to see that she was back in the cave sitting next to an unconscious Nightwing while everyone rushed over to her. She was a little dazed at first as she touched the back of her head feeling the continuously throbbing pain. Batman was the last to walk up to her. He looked into her eyes as his face asked her if she was ok. She nodded back and slammed her right fist into her left palm, signaling to him that she was furious about what had happened and that she was ready for another round with the person who attacked her. She went straight to the training station and began fighting training droids despite the insistence to rest from everyone in the cave except Batman. She hated losing a fight, even more so than Batman.

Nightwing finally awoke half an hour later, opening his eyes to see Back Canary and The Huntress talking quietly to each other at his side. "Do you think this has anything to do with The Riddler and his plans?"

Black Canary shrugged her shoulders "I don't know… even if it is… I know Dick, Cass, and Tim definitely would have put up a better fight than that…"

"Could you two not talk so loud? It feels like jackhammers are drilling through my head…" Nightwing sat up holding his head.

Both of them snapped their heads to him as they shouted in unison "What happened? Are you ok?"

Oracle instantly raced up to her fiancé and hugged him as Batman followed. Batman looked at Nightwing as his eyes narrowed. "What happened?"

"I'm fine by the way, thanks for asking…" Nightwing said sarcastically before getting to his story. "We were on the roof watching our target when Cass noticed that someone was watching us from behind. We all turned around and it was this guy dressed like Joker's old alter ego, The Red Hood. But it wasn't The Joker… he didn't talk like him or sound like him. He looked at Cass first, saying that she is nothing compared to the original Batgirl. Then at Tim, saying he was weak and a pathetic choice to continue the legacy of Robin. Then he nodded to me saying 'Isn't that right Dick?' He somehow knew who we were! I have no idea how, but he did… we were shocked and were about to question him but something struck us from behind before we blacked out. It was like nothing I've ever felt before…" Nightwing scanned the room and saw everyone standing beside him while Batgirl was fighting training robots. "Where's Tim?"

"He… he took him Dick…" Oracle said quietly as she looked down holding his hand.

"WHAT! What are we going to do?" Nightwing shouted in anger as he stood up and faced Batman.

Batman snapped his fingers to get Batgirl's attention before speaking as Cassandra came and stood between him and Diana. "For one thing, he knows who we are so everyone keep a low profile. Obviously he knows more than he led on… how much more remains to be seen. It wouldn't surprise me if he knew about the location of the cave as well as Oracle's base in the clock tower. Everyone will travel in pairs… at a minimum… and report to me even if the slightest thing feels out of place."

Batman looked into everyone's eyes seeing that what they really wanted from him was his thoughts on Robin's condition. He took a breath and continued "For whatever reason, he only wanted Robin… I believe that Robin is still alive. If he wanted to kill Robin, both Batgirl and Nightwing would be dead as well." Batman motioned to both Dick and Cass before continuing. His voice then turned from flat and unemotional to one with anger and rage embedded in it. "Which brings me to the obvious… he wants us to play his game."

Regaining control of his emotions, Batman forced his voice back into the flat monotone one that everyone was used to hearing. "Finding him will be difficult. If he's good enough to figure out who we are, he's good enough to hide from us. For now, Oracle will work here as this will be the only base of operations… I won't take any chances, everyone is to report to Oracle with any information they find."

"Should we have The Justice League help us with this?" Diana asked Batman, realizing that it was a dumb question the instant the words left her mouth.

"No. This stays here. Robin's absence is not to be discussed outside of this circle." Batman looked at The Huntress and Black Canary, already knowing the questions on their minds. "I don't know if this is at all related to The Riddler's plans with the rest of the Arkham inmates, but we'll find out one way or another."