Disclaimer: I don't even feel like being a smartass at this time. I own nothing.

Blinding
Florence and the Machine

Ring-a-round the rosie,

Dick turns around quickly, trying to follow the hauntingly sweet voice. He is unsurprised to find himself in the large circus tent from his childhood.

A pocket full of posies,

It sounds like a child, one of those little girls singing before someone gets killed during those horror movies that Wally is so fond of watching. Dick feels something fall onto his face lightly

Ashes! Ashes!

Wiping his hand across his face to push the falling item away, he spots a form standing in the shadows. He places his hand above his eyes to try to see the shadow, them pulls his hand back down to stare at it. There is a black streak on it.

We all fall down.

As he watches, dark specks fall down onto his hand. Ashes, his brain informs him. That's what's falling. He looks up to the top of the tent and sees it falling everywhere with no obvious source. Blinking away the ashes that got near his eyes, he looks back towards the form in the shadows.

Ring-a-round the rosie,

Suddenly desperate to end the singing, Dick heads towards the shadow. He stops close enough to see the familiar painted smile expand to expose the teeth that lie underneath.

A pocket full of posies,

Strangely, seeing the Joker doesn't scare him like it always has before. The green hair and purple suit seem almost comforting to him now. Dick frowns and turns around when the Jokers eyes fix on something behind him.

Ashes! Ashes!

His old team is there, with Alfred, Bruce, Jason, and Barbara. After glancing around, he can see his neighbor Tim Drake standing nearby and Dicks family standing as if to begin flying on the trapeze. Dick goes to take a step towards them, but stops again when the singing continues.

We all fall down.

He watches as his family falls again. The only difference is that this time they jump, one by one. First his aunt, followed by his uncle. His cousin follows after them. Soon after that, his father jumps, then his mother. It has a strange form of beauty to it, like a synchronized routine.

Here comes a candle

His family's bodies hit the ground with frightening speed as the singing changes lyrics. Blood splatters across the ground, causing Dick to flinch back a few steps to avoid and that could travel far enough to reach him. As one, his friends, family, and neighbor position themselves into a defensive stance. Their eyes flicker between Dick and the Joker warily.

To light you to bed.

Dick forces his body into a fighting stance, glancing back at the Joker as if it is a natural response when he's in danger. The clown gives a small nod, and the young acrobat looks forward again with a smirk lining his features. One, two, three seconds pass. Then Dick attacks.

Here comes a chopper

He takes down Bruce and Alfred first, getting the threats out of the way. He has a little difficulty, but manages to finish them off. He follows that attack with getting rid of Superboy by thrusting kryptonite into his bloodstream, a painful death for the clone of Superman.

To chop off your head.

Artemis nearly manages to hit him with an arrow, but he eliminates her as a threat with a well-aimed batarang. M'gann and Wally try to attack at the same time. Wally speeds around Dick, forming a tornado like he so often does and M'gann attacks his mind. The defenses and traps in his mind that came from years of working with Bruce had her crumpled on the ground almost immediately.

Chip chop

With speed most people didn't know Dick could manage, he grabs Wally before the attack could work and throws him sideways. Wally hits Roy and both boys hit the seats where fans would watch the show. Wally doesn't move, and Dick puts a batarang into Roy before he can stand.

Chip chop

A stream of water throws him to the side. Dick spots Kaldur off to the side with his water bearers glowing. He runs towards the leader of the team and pulls out a bow staff as the water forms to swords in Kaldur's hands. He manages to slam Kaldur against the wall in under a minute, knocking the Atlantean out

The last

With a smirk, Dick throws a blade across Zatanna's throat, silencing her from creating spells and causing her to collapse. He turns to the last two boys standing, Jason and Tim. They attack together, something that the others should have thought of. Even together Dick can take them down. Realizing that the fight was ending with these two, however, he decides to make it take at least two minutes.

Man's

A part of his mind realizes that the singing has been slowing down, and the voice had been getting a deeper since he had begun the fight. But the majority of his mind is focusing on Jason and Tim. Jason he took down when the fight reached the two minute mark. Tim surprised him, knowing how to fight even though he has been raised by business people. His skill was raw, untrained, but he fights with everything he has. Dick quickly gets bored of his new opponent and knocks him out, seeing no reason to kill the poor kid.

Dead

He turns back to the Joker, who was giggling at what the boy had done. Their eyes lock together, and Dick can see the approval shining in the green eyes. The approval was all that was needed to cause Dick to smile. A real, bright smile that he hasn't used in years. The clown smiles as well, and opens his mouth, whispering a sentence that Dick shouldn't be able to hear from across the room. For some reason he can hear it perfectly.

"Together, we shall wreak havoc on the world."

Wayne Manor, Gotham
May 29th, 2011

Dick is pulled awake by the sound of someone walking into his room. He opens his eyes and glances at the intruder. It's Bruce. The billionaire looks at his ward with the same look he has had since Dick came back two days ago. His eyes hold worry and Bruce's version of love, yet they hold them back enough that most people would only see a blank look.

"Barbara mentioned that you are planning on becoming a hero again." Bruce tried to explain why he was in his room at -Dick glances at the clock- 5:30 in the morning. "You're not going back into the field without more training. We started half and hour ago. You're late."

"Bruce I have been training for five years. I think I can miss a day."

"And I have been training for much longer that you have, and I never miss a day. Besides, you missed three months. Now get up."

Dick tries not to flinch with the not-so-subtle mention of his time with the Joker, but at the same time he is confused at the dream he just had. He quickly pushes back any thoughts about the meaning of the dream and cringes when his mind laughs at him for being weak.

"Fine. I'll train." His voice grows defensive towards the voices, causing Bruce to look at his suspiciously. "It's nothing." He climbs out of bed and walks over to his dresser for his workout clothes. "Did anyone ever get Harley?" He changes the subject quickly. Usually when he does that he isn't interested in the subject he changes it to, but this time he is actually curious.

"Nobody went after her. Why do want to know?" Bruce allows even is voice to lace with suspicion.

"No real reason. She might know the answer to something I was wondering about." Dick tries to cover his curiosity, but his answer seemed to blurt itself out. And it was much closer to the truth than he would like.

"Well, tell me what you were wondering. I might be able to help."

Of course he would do that. He always does that. Dick closes the door to the bathroom so he can change inside it. Fortunately, he is a compulsive liar and doesn't even need to think of his answer. "Does the Joker know how to cook? I was given food that didn't look like it was made by a madman." He doesn't have to be able to see Bruce's face to know that he was looking at Dick like he was insane.

"I would guess that Harley made the food." To Dick's surprise, Bruce answers. "I have never heard of the Joker cooking, and Quinn had a normal life. It would only make sense."

Okay, for some reason they were actually talking about this. It strikes Dick as funny that even in their family this would be a weird conversation. "Okay yeah I can see that being true. Hey, do you think Ivy knows how to cook? Then she and Harley would have days where they could cook together and see who is better."

Bruce chuckles at the idea of the two friends cooking together. "I don't see why she wouldn't be able to. Her food would probably be tasteless though. All the seasonings are plants and she wouldn't cook with plants."

Dick comes out of the bathroom, completely ready for training and wearing an amused smile. "So then Harley would win for sure. Hey, do you think any other rouge can cook?"

Bruce considers this as they exit the room and head down towards the living room. "Catwoman can cook. Killer Crock and Moth can most likely not. Cluemaster might be able to, same with Penguin."

"Yeah, we know that Selina can cook. What about Ra's and Two-Face? And I would think that with Scarecrow being a scientist he would at least know how to cook."

"Well Talia had said at one point that her father had made something for her, so I would guess that he can cook. She can cook too. Two-Face can't cook unless he has learned since becoming Two-Face. He once burnt one of the mini refrigerators while trying to use the stove." Bruce pauses to open the clock. "Then he tried get rid of the evidence by hiding it in a deep freezer. Harvey had even made me help him. Alfred was so mad when he got home that day. Somehow we had forgotten to cover the burn marks in the kitchen." They step out of the elevator. "What do you mean we know Catwoman can cook? And since when do you know her ID?"

"She kidnapped me and Jay once. She had stolen something and got mad when you didn't show up, so she took us. Once we explained that you were on a mission she made us dinner. She explained to us her ID then, but we both knew already at that point." Dick rolls his eyes. "Anyways, we have Harley, Ivy, Catwoman, Ra's, Talia, Cluemaster, and Penguin as Villains that can most likely cook, and Two-Face, Killer Crock, Killer Moth, and Joker as ones that can't. What about the Riddler?"

"He most likely can. Probably learned one of those times we found a chef terrified as part of a clue. Do you think that Deadshot can-"

"What the hell are you guys talking about?" A sharp voice interrupts them. They both look up to see Barbara staring at them, confused. Jason is standing behind her, looking less confused but also a little amused.

"Which villains can cook." Bruce responds. Dick can see the words being ran over again in Bruce's head. At least the subject isn't going to get Harley. Dick still needs to find her and ask her what she meant about the voices. She knows more than she was saying.

"Yeah I got that. Why?" Barbara questions.

Because I changed subjects and why not. "I was curious. Now, are we going to train or what?" Dick flips onto the mat, hiding the pain that came to him. His wounds are not quite healed yet.

The day had been completely about training. Barbara went through many of the easier forms of fighting that they had all been forced to learn first and seemed to grasp them all easily. Together the group of four ate lunch up at the manor, where Barbara had to call her father and tell him she was staying there for the day. All in all it went well, and it wasn't until Barbara left that Bruce brought up a sore subject.

"You are going to be visiting the team tomorrow."

Dick stops moving, shocked at the command. "The team doesn't want me there. Why am I going anyways?"

"Because they don't want you there." Bruce didn't have to say anything else. Not like he was going to. As soon as he had said that he walked away. What he meant but hadn't said was that Dick was going to be proving himself to the team.

Dick's mind flashes back to the dream he hadn't thought of since this morning and the voices that had followed him throughout the day. How is he supposed to prove his loyalty to the team if he isn't sure about his loyalty? In the dream he killed almost everyone he cares about simply because the Joker allowed him to. Faintly he notices that he is calling it a dream not a nightmare. If that wasn't a nightmare, and he killed everyone, what does that say about his reality?

Silently he vows that he will get his answers from Harley. He will get them from the Joker if the option ever presents itself. But for now he will prove to his team -and himself- that he is still fighting for the good and not for the clown.