A/N: I'm probably going to have to bump up the rating to M for the psychological torture in this chapter but I hope you enjoy it.

Pop goes the Weasel

"Wrong!" Professor Strange shouted, grabbing Mary's punch and flipping her onto the mat.

"OW!" Mary cried. Over the past few weeks the Professor had been training Mary to fight. Most of the first weeks were just building up her strength and agility, seeing as how she'd been in a cell for five years, but now they were moving onto basic attacks and counters. And seeing as how Mary was spending most of this session on the floor, it wasn't going very well.

"Try again," Strange snapped.

"Do I have to?" Mary moaned, refusing to get up.

"If you want to eat tonight then yes you do." Mary sighed in defeat.

"Fine." She got back up and into position. Looking over the Professor's stance, she aimed a kick at his head.

"Wrong again," the Professor said, catching her kick and flipping her onto her back yet again. Mary groaned and glared up at Strange from her position on the floor.

"You enjoy watching me struggle. It makes you feel powerful," Mary accused. The Professor was about to reply when he stopped.

"I suppose you'd know that I'm lying if I said no."

"Yep," Mary confirmed and got up yet again, her back getting very sore.

Another session, Mary thought to herself as she sat in the chair outside the Professor's office. Another psychopath that the Professor wanted her to see, and yet another mind she'd have to look into. Mary sighed. Hopefully this one wouldn't try to kill her. Mary's thoughts were interrupted by the door opening.

"Come in," Strange ordered briskly and Mary got up and walked in… to find a clown in a purple suit waiting.

"Well lookie here! You got yourself a little one. Just like a certain brooding bat, eh, Strange?" the Joker laughed, breaking off into coughs.

"That's enough Joker. This is my assistant, Miss Noble. Miss Noble, this is the Joker." Mary took one look at the ridiculous looking man with chalky white skin, red lips, and green hair in the purple suit and spats, and almost burst out laughing… until she looked into his eyes.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Mary screamed, clutching her head in her hands and backing herself against the wall as far away as she could get from the monster of a man in front of her. "NO! NO! NO! PLEASE DO NOT MAKE ME LOOK INTO HIM AND HIS EYES! PLEASE!" She screamed as flashes of terrible tragedies echoed in her mind. The Batman holding the bloody and broken corpse of a young masked vigilante Mary recognized as Robin; a young woman with fiery red hair lying on her back, stripped naked, a horrible wound in her stomach; another woman, red haired but older than the other woman, kneeling and holding a baby, until a single shot from the Joker's gun caused her to fall to the ground, surrounded by infants now crawling around in the growing pool of her blood.

"I don't think your pet likes me Professor. Too bad Croc snatched Crane, I'm sure the good doctor would've loved this one's screams." Professor Strange glared at him before he grabbed Mary's arm and pulled her from the room, leaving the Joker under the watch of the TYGER guards.

"I did not bring you here to complain, girl, I brought you here to work," he hissed at the child who was currently trembling in fear.

"PLEASE YOU DO NOT AND CANNOT COMPREHEND THE EVILS IN THAT MAN'S MIND!"

"Well it's lucky for me that you can. Now go back in there and tell me what you see."

"I cannot, I cannot, I cannot, I cannot!" Mary sobbed, shaking her head frantically.

"You can and you will."

"Please!"

SLAP!

Mary's face flew to the other side as the Professor backhanded her. Mary stumbled back and fell, her hand flying toward her stinging cheek.

"I do not care for you and your little moods, all I care about is my work and getting it done. And if you make it more difficult for me to do my work then I have no use for you. And I do not keep that which I have no use for. Understood?" Mary paused for a long while, thinking over all the tortured prisoners that had been the Professor's victims, and remembering all the pain and lack of humanity in their eyes.

"Yes sir," Mary responded demurely. She knew the Professor well enough to know he would be completely fine with 'taking care of her' unless she did what he told her to do. The Professor straightened up.

"Good. Now, shall we begin?" Mary nodded slowly and the Professor led he back into the room. He seated Mary across from the Joker and Mary, after reminding herself of what the Professor would do to her if she didn't, slowly looked into his eyes.

"Oh come on kiddo. I don't bite," the Joker chuckled.

"Yes you do," Mary said.

"Huh. This ones' pretty smart Professor. Scared but smart."

"What do you see Miss Noble?" Professor Strange asked.

"Pain. Torture. Mutilation. And death. So much death," Mary muttered. "He kills for fun, as well to attract the attention of the caped crusader, not unlike yourself." Strange glared at her but she was too busy trying to keep herself under control to really care.

"All around the mulberry bush

The monkey was chased by the weasel;

The monkey thought that it was a joke

Pop! goes the weasel.

A penny for a spool of thread,

A penny for a needle—

That's the way the money goes,

Pop! goes the weasel.

Jimmy's got the whooping cough

And Timmy's got the measles

That's the way the story goes

Pop! goes the weasel," Mary sang to herself, before straightening up in her chair. "You're dying. Of the TITAN you took at the Asylum."

"Yes we all know that, continue," Strange demanded impatiently. Mary looked to the side, before nodding and looking back at the Joker.

"No clear past before this face, name, and identity. So many different options, all with the Batman as having a hand in his creation."

"Yes, yes, I know all that, but which one is true." Mary turned to Strange.

"Anyone of them could be. I do not believe he even knows anymore." Strange was clearly getting frustrated, it didn't take psychic to figure that out. "But I will keep digging," Mary assured him.

"Eh, good luck with that!" the Joker laughed. "I've had more doctors in here than ol' Batbrains has enemies." Mary ignored him and continued.

"I… I see something," Mary murmured, leaning a little closer. "Something long lost … a name."

"A name?" Professor Strange repeated and the Joker's smile faded.

"Yes. Hidden behind all the pain and loss and suffering inside… there is a name… it is–" Mary was cut off due to the Joker's hands suddenly wrapping around her neck and squeezing tight, cutting off both her voice and the flow of air to her lungs. She could barely make out the Professor's shouting for the guards to stop him until after they had pulled the Joker off of her. Mary fell backward, out of her chair and to the floor, gasping for breath.

"I think perhaps it would be better if we waited until they'd gone before we discussed what you saw in their minds," Strange commented as the Joker was dragged out of the room, absolutely laughing mad.

"I think… that… would be a good idea," Mary panted, massaging her throat.