42 Chapter 42

Zoovuvuvu...

The noise coming from an electric wheelchair moving sounded out in the batcave.

"The controls are simple enough..." Barbara said as she tried out the electric wheelchair.

Terry looked at her with concern. Even though it's temporary, Barbara was still pitiful to look at. The thought of somebody being paralyzed forever gave him chills. If Luke Fox had not invented the treatment to repair damaged nerves, Barbara's fate would be this for the rest of her life.

"Stop looking at me like that." Barbara furrowed her brows at him.

Anyone would be uncomfortable when you are being pitied. Especially if you think your current situation is temporary and would like to look ahead instead.

"Sorry..." Terry straightened his face and stopped staring at her.

Barbara heaved out a sigh. "Can you brief me again about what happened?"

Terry already gave a summary about what happened after Barbara passed out.

The reappearance of Jason Todd with a new alias and Luke Fox treating her.

"Didn't Bruce forbid them to use guns? Seems like he was really trying to kill Joker."

"Seems so..." Barbara said while doing a thinking pose. "You said you found a nanochip on the dog?"

"...Yes" Terry replied to her.

Ace had a nanochip implanted on him. Kind of like the one they put on Derek Powers. It can't be detected by the vet.

"That's how the Joker knew I was here..."

"I already destroyed it as soon as I found it..." Terry glanced at the poor dog who didn't know he was used. He was lying on the floor and looked like he was feeling sorry for what happedned. Terry crouched down and petted his head. "It's okay, Ace. You couldn't have known."

"I'm not blaming you, Ace." Barbara smiled warmly at the dog.

"What do we do now?"

"I'll rest here for a while and then, I'll go home once I'm better."

"What? But the Joker is targeting you?"

"I doubt it. The guy gets too bored easily. Once he does something, he rarely does it again. He won't be after us."

The Joker never does the same thing twice. He sees himself as an artist in that way.

"Still...how could he have known where to send him?"

"Maybe he had similar dogs scattered around Gotham."

"That's unlikely..." Terry looked at Barbara. "The most probable reason is he knows your past as Batgirl just like he knew Bruce is Batman. And now he knows who I am because it wouldn't be hard to connect that the personal attendant of Alfred, Bruce's butler, was hired almost at the same time Batman reappeared."

Barbara couldn't look Terry in the eyes.

"...It had something to do with the third Robin, isn't it." Terry said.

"...I don't want to bring him into this again...specially when it comes to the Joker..." She said with a remorseful expression.

"...I know what you mean...but we have to."

There's a dark past between Tim Drake, the former Robin, and the Joker.

It costed the life of Joker himself.

Terry already knew his story in genereal based on the information from the batcave, but he has to learn more of it in detail.

"...I'll send you his work and home addresses." She tapped on her smartwatch. "Be nice, okay?"

-Bludhaven-

A thirty-year old man was maintaining a circuit board.

He lifted his eyes when he noticed a presence. Turning his head to the right, he saw his co-worker leaning on the doorway.

"You finished?" His co-worker asked

"Not yet." He went back to what he was doing. "You can go ahead without me."

"Okay~"

As soon as his co-worker left, he said "What do you want?"

There seemed to be nobody there, until...

"Tim Drake..." A figure suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

Tim glanced at him before continuing his work. "...You must be the new batman. Let me guess. It's about the clown, isn't it?"

News of Joker's return has also reached Bludhaven where Tim Drake is now residing in. It's a city tha's near Gotham.

"It is...It's okay if you don't want to talk." Batman said.

Tim Drake furrowed his brows. "Did Barbara tell you that?"

"..."

"Listen..." He put back the circuit board in its slot before facing Batman. "I'll tell you anyting you want to know. Just please don't treat me like I'm some fragile thing like everyone does. What happened is already distant history. I'm much better now."

After hesitating for a while, "Then...I'd like you to tell me everything from your perspective." Batman finally got to what he wanted to ask. "The information from the batcave didn't give much details."

Tim chuckled. "Typical Bruce...I bet what's on there is just a summary of what happened and seemed cold and emotionless. That's just probably him trying not to recall it as a way to shield himself from the pain. Which I understand now though... I didn't before..." He stated before starting to tell his tale

"Every man has their breaking point. Everyone except, maybe, Bruce. I, on the other hand, took a week of torture before breaking..." Tim made a regretful smile.

He was thirteen when he got kidnapped and got tortured by the Joker. He was electrecuted, given some drugs, made to eat his own feces, and was prevented to fall asleep while watching horrible clips like bestiality and beheadings. The eyes of the heads moving left and right as they try to find their bodies was ingrained into his memory. Faces of bodiless strangers haunted his dreams.

Terry's face contorted as he listened.

"I offered him any information I have if it meant being free from that hell.." Tim's head drooped down from his shoulders. "I should have known that he didn't want any information from me. He just truly wanted to make me suffer....he even got angry when I told him Batman's secrets including his true identity...because of that, I was subjected to more torture. Everyday, my body got battered, but I didn't scream...I laughed because of the Joker toxins in me. It made every broken bone, bruises and cuts much more painful as I laughed..."

Tim Drake was visibly sweating as he told Batman his story. He wiped his forehead and took deep breaths as he held his head with his two hands.

"It's okay if you want to stop here..."

"No!" Tim faced Batman with determination. "I'll do this if it will help you get that son of a bitch!" He said as he panted.

"..." Batman couldn't do anything but respect his wishes.

"...In the end.. he said that killing me like the previous Robin before me would be unoriginal. Instead, he made me submit and brainwashed me into thinking I was his and Harley's adopted son.. as a joke... As a fucking joke for Batman!" Tim licked his lips and grabbed a bottle of water nearby and drank. "When the day came that he confronted Batman, he wanted me to kill Batman myself. It was a way of asserting his victory..."

"That's when you killed Joker instead..." Batman helped him finish what he wanted to say.

"Yes...I overcame his brainwashing and shot him instead." Tim swallowed his saliva. "But that's not how the story ended for me..."

Batman looked at Tim who made rueful smile.

"In the end, Bruce made me surrender my uniform and prohibited me from being Robin again. He still provided for me, but it felt like I was a long-term guest at his home. That was how I grew up. I left as soon as I got the opportunity to. Alfred said that Bruce was just feeling guilty for what happened to me, but I didn't believe him back then." He chuckled.

"...would you know anything about how Joker came back to life?"

"No..."

Batman made a troubled expression.

"...but I'll tell you a secret of mine..."

Batman's eyes immediately gleamed with interest.

After Tim Drake told Batman his secret, Batman decided to try and dig for more information if there were. "One more thing...Did you ever mention anything about the court of owls to Joker?"

"What about them? Didn't you take care of the remaining ones just recently?"

"...A friend of ours was a former Talon...the Joker knew about his vulnerability to cold."

Tim closed his eyes and tried to remember. "...I'm not sure if I did.." He looked at Terry again and said. "...but it's probably best to assume that I did."

"Thanks..." Batman looked at Tim Drake. His physique doesn't look like he stopped his training. There's a difference to the physique of someone who just works out and the physique of a martial artist. Tim Drake had the physique of an accomplished martial artist.

Batman didn't want to meddle in his affairs.

"By the way..." Tim called his attention. "Jason also came by here days ago."

"!!"

News of Jason appearing in the batcave has also reached Tim Drake.

"I was shocked too."

"What did he say?"

"...He said that everyone would pay for what happened to the both of us."

"Is that all?"

"Yup...and then he left. If what I heard is correct, if he's really not shackled by the old man's no kill rule anymore, then he's more dangerous than ever." Tim chuckled. "It sucks for you that you might have to protect both the Joker and Jason from each other."

Batman furrowed his brows.

Just like that, he vanished into thin air.

Tim Drake stared at where Batman was to confirm that he's gone and made a wry smile. Then, he frowned. He looked at his calloused hands and clenched them into a fist. "I probably should have given him my number just in case..." He clutched his bag and strapped it on his shoulder. "I guess I'll just have to visit when shit hits the fan." Then, he left his job.

----

Terry arrived in the batcave.

"You've been gone for two days." Barbara walked up to him. "Where have you been?"

He smiled as he watched Barbara walking again. "...I took my time and went to see the sights in Bludhaven." He shrugged. Terry didn't comment on Barbara's recovery because he knows it would just make her uncomfortable.

"Well, while you were taking your sweet time, the Red Hood took over the mutants."

Terry widened his eyes at the abrupt news. "What?"

"Cedric came to my office and left a message for me. The division leaders took a vote to appoint him as the new leader until they get back the mutant leader. Only him and Don didn't support it."

"...How did this happen?"

"I don't know the details. You should check up on our friends to find out."

"What else happened?"

"...There were two incidents of drug dealers getting killed. No clues were found to lead us to the killer."

Terry looked at Barbara with a grave expression.

"That's right.." Barbara locked eyes with him. "I also think it was Jason."