A/N: Yo people's, I have had no inspiration to write until my best friend tried to get me to watch Lord of the Rings and so now I hijacked her computer to bring you this next installment.
"So we gonna play monopoly or somethin' cause thats fun and it will get the right amount of violence you are known for?" I asked Joker smirking.
Dick jabbed me with his elbow, not because of what I said but because it was waaaaaay to close to what Sparrow would say. Honestly the Joker was about to torture us and he was worried about that. Slow clap it out for my brother.
"What? No, no childish games you idiot!" Joker retorted.
"Oh so we're gonna play battleship. You know I'm okay with that but Dick might feel a bit left out."I held back my smirk, and focused on putting a false look of innocent curiosity.
"NO! We're gonna play one of my games."
"Okay...but I might not understand the rules at first." I shrugged.
"Shut up!"
"You called Puddin'?" Harley's voice flitted in from some room nearby.
"You know, now thats just messed up. Take it from me you should treat your girlfriend better, or she'll roundhouse kick you into a wall." Dick pointed out. I nodded my head in agreement.
"No comments from the peanut gallery! " Joker snarled.
"Actually I think Dick over here is taller than you." I said.
Joker had obviously had enough of our comments. He raised his hand and backhanded me. I felt the sting and then my head flew back and nearly hit the brick wall had Dick not stuck his hand in between the two items that wished to collide. Normally a hit like that wouldn't have phased me, but I was playing a part, and that part called for me to clutch at my cheek and scoot farther away from the madman. He smirked at me and then continued on.
"Now, pretty boy over here has already had his fair share of fun, but princess looks to be to weak to handle any of the real games. So who to pick…"
"I'm the stronger one." Dick answered quickly.
Normally I would have responded with a 'like hell' but this time just didn't seem appropriate.
"Not from what I saw in the other room. I enjoyed your screams though." Joker smirked.
"You had your 'fun' with him. He needs a break." I cut in before Dick could add anything.
"You make an excellent point princess. But girls screams are so annoying and high pitched. It almost takes all the fun away."
"I don't scream hardly. Too many nightmares with my father around for that to happen." I shuddered. It was the truth, my tati had gotten annoyed with my scream within a year of my birth. He would simply yell at me, cursing me in German, and when that didn't work Romani until I shut up. As I got older he would occasionally have to slap me, or make me stand in a corner for hours at a time so that I wouldn't scream or cry. He succeeded by the time I was three and even now I hardly scream ever.
"Oh well then you won't be any fun at all." He pulled his face into a frown. "The boy it is."
"NO!" I shouted. Joker simply smiled at me then grabbed Dick by the collar of his shirt and dragged him into the other room.
I yelled and pummeled the floor with my fists, angry with myself for letting him be taken like that. How great a sister I was. How fucking great! I can't protect him while in costume and now my attempt to help him backfired and sealed his fate. I put my head against the wall and groaned. I could hear the grunts of pain coming from Dick, I could hear each blow land, I could hear the Joker laughing at what I could only assume was Dick's face contorted in pain. I took a shaky breath and pulled my cochlears off my head and out of my ears. The Gift of Sound was something I could live without right now. I held the devices in my hand and pressed them into my palm. Their coolness, the smooth plastic, I ran my hand over the coiled wire, and then the small grooves at the base of the transmitter. The familiar feeling and shape of the machine helped pull me back to reality. It calmed me down enough so that I didn't begin to hyperventilate, or worse go into a full fledged panic attack. The panic attack had begun to get worse since the summer. What with school getting more stressful and all of the costumed activities becoming more intense and Bruce just getting more Batman-ish 24/7 and the flashbacks of my tati getting worse I was having trouble with a lot of things. One being panic attacks.
But that was something Dick didn't need right now. I didn't have the luxury, though it was hardly something I could control. The attack would come, I had just put it on hold until Dick was safe. That I could control, for now.
The team was taking too long. Dayln and Wally both knew that we only had two or three hours until our instincts would kick in and we would fight back. It had to have been at least an hour since we had arrived, and even then I was fighting the urge to rush into the room and put the Joker's lights out. But I knew that to do that would be suicide. So I stayed still and waited, unhearing, hoping Dick wouldn't be too hurt. I couldn't do much other than that, I was helpless, and I hated it. But what else could I do?
Dick was thrown into the room and I looked up to see Joker chuckling as he watched me attempt to help Dick into the corner, even with my hands bound, I was able to get him away from the clown. Joker gave me a sick smile then turned back into the room. I growled but didn't dwell on him. Instead I focused on getting Dick somewhat fixed. I slipped my CI's back on and looked him over.
Most likely a broken nose, but he didn't seem to be in too much internal pain.
"No...crowbar...just a..knife." He forced out. I gasped as I looked down at his stomach and arms. They were covered with cuts that we're bleeding and soaking his white school shirt with red stains. I gritted my teeth and began working.
I unbuttoned his shirt and began tearing it into strips of varying size. I put all the blood-soaked pieces aside in a pile, then I started tying the strips around the cuts. For his stomach, which had four long, nasty looking wounds I tied two strips together for each cut and then put the around his waist. He had about five cuts on each arm. I sighed when I realized I didn't have enough cloth to bandage him properly.
"Oh well..." I shrugged and began unbuttoning my shirt.
"Jani...no." Dick shook his head and tried to grab my hands to stop me.
"Dick!" I pulled my hands away and continued taking off my shirt. I then ripped a few strips from the bottom and wrapped them around the cuts remaining on his left arm. I noticed that the cloth on his stomach was already bleeding through. "Might as well." I started ripping up the rest of my shirt until I had about ten strips. I then tied the ten together to make five, then I proceeded to wrap these on top of the nearly useless ones on his stomach.
"You...shouldn't have." Dick managed to scold.
"We can't have you dying of blood loss. Now stop talking." I scolded back. He groaned, but did as I said.
"Oh look at princess, trying help her brother. It won't do you any good ya know. If he dies or not is in the hands of Mr. Save all the orphans." Joker sneered as he strode into the room. I glared at him before putting my cochlears back on. No need to miss any important information Joker might slip out.
"Now now that's not a very pretty face." He mocked.
"Go jump off a cliff." I snapped, then turned back to Dick, who was beginning to look pale.
"Play nicely or you won't get a cookie." Joker taunted.
I didn't reply, instead I focused on making Dick more comfortable. Joker turned back into the other room, but not a minute later Harley Quinn was rushing in to the room. She knelt down next to myself and looked at Dick. "Mistah J cut him up good." She said in the incredibly annoying accent of hers.
"Do you want something?" I glared at the blond.
She shoved a bundle in my arms then got up and left the room. I looked down and noticed that she had handed me a pile of ratty t-shirts. I began folding them and then stacking them, then I placed them under Dick's head.
"You should put one on." Dick whispered. I rolled my eyes.
"You need them all." He sighed then took my hands in his. He began working the knot that still bound my hands.
"Bruce would kill you if he knew you still had these on." He said as he finished untying my hands.
"Why'd he untie you?" I asked, ignoring what he said.
"Said he wanted to get a better angle to..." He stopped and began coughing. I put my arm under him and helped him semi sit up. Once he had finished I laid him back down.
"Never mind, you need to not talk. But think. I need you to stay awake." He nodded and closed his mouth. I noticed his eyes moving back and forth and I figured he was visualizing some book he had memorized. I sighed and leaned against the wall, the Team needed to get here soon or we were gonna have some serious issues.
Two hours in Dick was looking worse and Joker was getting bored. "Allright pretty boy, time for some more fun."
"If he's dead you won't get his ransom money, you cut him up anymore and he'll die!" I argued.
"Look, princess, I won't kill him. I'm smarter then that."
"My boyfriend is a medical prodigy the amount of blood Dick is loosing is dangerous. You do anymore damage and he will die!" I wasn't letting Dick go back with this madman out of costume.
"Well I'm bored and he was fun to play with." Joker reached for Dick's arm.
"So hurt me, not Dick. You're gonna loose money if he dies, why risk that?" I asked trying to appeal to what little logic Joker still had.
"Princess you don't scream, said so yourself, that's no fun."
"But I have a longer endurance. I grew up in the rough part of town, sure it takes me a while to scream, but I can take more."
"Fine. If you're so dead set on playing the hero." He grabbed my arm and dragged me into the other room.
The room held a chair in the center and a table on the far wall. On the table were a collection of knives and three crowbars. I thought I saw a gun or two, but couldn't be sure as half the table was shrouded in darkness. He threw me at the chair, but I didn't bother to get up and sit in it. There wasn't a point, I'd be on the floor within minutes anyway.
"Okay princess, what shall we do first. I don't want to wreck your pretty face, but that doesn't narrow down the options by much." He smirked at me as he carefully picked up a knife from the table. I inwardly groaned and braced myself for what was to come. "Oooh I know! We can draw a little crown on your arm, since you're such a little princess." He laughed and walked toward me. I stayed still as he grabbed my arm and ran a gloved hand over it. "Oh but there isn't hardly enough room for a really pretty crown." He frowned then moved his eyes to my exposed stomach. "Here we go! Plenty of room for a proper sized crown." He pushed my shoulder back so that my stomach was flattened and more exposed, then he set to work. To say it hurt would be an understatement. But my body was already covered with scars from the Joker and I was prepared for the pain. I sucked in and let out a gasp as he brought the knife slowly from my mid abdomen to my rib cage, then he tore down to almost the same spot, a few centimeters over, then he ripped the skin moving the knife upward another few centimeters away from the line next to it. He tore down again the same pattern two more times before connecting them all we a final horizontal line. He then carved a series of circles near the main cut. I hissed at the pain, but didn't make any other noise.
"Look-e here! This is a crown." He exclaimed proudly. I glared at him but said nothing. "Now what have we here?" His hand moved down my stomach and to my hip where his hand traced another scar. "Uncle J" He whispered. SHIT SHIT SHIT! "I only put that reminder on the bat brats. And I can remember giving that to a certain little Sparrow only a few months ago. So why is it on you?" He looked at my face, which was still contorted in pain.
I groaned inwardly. "Umm I'm Sparrow..."
"So who's Batman?" He grabbed my hair and pulled my face toward his.
"No way José." I shook my head.
He put the tip of the knife angled so that it would enter under my ribcage. "Who's Batman?" His voice was deadly.
"I'm not telling!" The knife pierced my skin.
"Is it money bags?" He asked.
"No! Bruce has been funding Batman for years and I got it out of him who the Bat was, I found the Batcave, and I demanded to be trained alongside Robin, so I could lock up criminals who kill kids parents like you." I growled the last part.
He pulled the knife out, but kept it on my stomach.
"Well isn't that a funny story." He smirked then dropped the knife, but within a split second he had drawn his hand back and punched me, hitting my cheek. My head flew back , but Joker's other hand that was still clutching my hair stopped from going far.
Yeah, real funny. Especially now that I could fight back. I swung one my legs across the floor and under one of the Joker's making him loose his balance. But he was able to regain it quickly and put both his knees on the top of my thighs, forcing me to flatten my back against the floor. He reached to the side of me and grabbed a crowbar I just noticed was laying on the ground. He raised it above his head and landed the blow on my upper arm, I heard a crack but ignored the pain. I reached up and grabbed the crowbar using the momentum to swing myself on top of Joker and press the crowbar against his throat. But he was strong and was able to roll me over so that he was on top and the crow bar was on my throat. Now my rape defense training kicked in. I pushed my arms up so that they were straight and almost locked with my hands against his shoulders, making it much more difficult to press the crowbar against my neck. I kept my left foot on the ground and twisted so that my right shoulder stayed on the floor and I ended in a sort of 'L' shape. I placed the leg that was up against his hip and moved my arms down so that my hand were on his elbows. I then twisted again so that I was centered better and my other foot was against his other hip. I then pushed myself away and then up off the ground. I then backed up so that I can be on the offense rather then defense.
Just then a blur of yellow ran into the room and began circling the Joker. The blur stopped and stood smugly next to the clown who was now covered in rope