Rory woke with a groan and a massive headache, barely remembering what had happened before she blacked out. Taking, a guess she was hit with something and was knocked out giving the Joker and whoever he was with a better chance at capturing her.

With that last thought, quickly her head shot up, and looked around. She noticed that she still had her mask and most of her suit on, minus the jacket and her boots. It looked like she was in a warehouse of sorts, but Gotham was full of warehouses so it would be nearly impossible to find her disregarding the fact that she might not be in Gotham still. 

There was a sound to her left, and her head jerked in that direction to see the door open and in walked the Clown Prince of Crime himself along with two of his goons. "Oh good, the little bird is awake. Wave hello to the camera sweetheart." he grinned, pointing to his left.

Looking in front of her, she saw a camera set up attached to a computer. He was probably sending this to Bruce and the others. Rory clenched her jaw and glared at him, "You really think you can keep me here?" 

The Joker laughed at her words, it echoing off the metal walls. "Keep you? No no no no, I'm going to have fun with you." he grinned and walked over to the camera and started to record. 

"Hiya Bats! Long time no see eh? Well, I got a surprise for you." he laughed and turned the camera to look at Rory her glare only getting darker. "I found this little bird stranded outside in the cold, seems like someone clipped her wings. Don't worry, I'm taking good care of her I mean she isn't dead yet."

Rory had forgotten about the rod in her side, looking down she saw that her suit was bloodstained but it had dried. The Joker had her patched up, but why? She looked around, trying to analyze a way to get out but nothing was going to work if she didn't get out of the chair first.

The Joker turned the camera to look back at him as he set it back on the stand before walking towards her and grabbed her hair, jerking her head to the side with as she winced. "You know, there's a reason I wear a hood, you Pennywise drag queen looking knock off," she growled.

Her words only made him laugh harder. "You have a mouthy one on you Bats, she's funny." He grabbed her face, but she pulled back and bit his hand as hard as she could making him yell in pain before backhanding her across the face.

"Don't you touch me again." Rory threatened, "or I'll make sure to take off a whole finger next time."

"Mouthy and morbid, geez you really know how to pick them. Are you sure she's even a goody-goody like you?" he laughed and summoned one of his goons over who punched her. Rory's hair fell in her face as she licked her chapped lips and chuckled lightly.

"Is that the hardest you can hit? Robin hits harder than yo-" He punched her again, and this time it was hard enough she saw spots in her vision. Adjusting her jaw she looked at them. 

"Good thing I have a great dentist, want his address?" another punch was sent to her face making her yelp in pain. "It's 5227, Freak Circuit." More punches were sent to her face that was sure to leave a bruise.

The Joker stopped him after the eighth punch, Rory's lip was bleeding as she spat out the blood pooling in her mouth and looked up at them. "Is that the best you can do?" she taunted. 

Truth be told, Rory was terrified but she wouldn't let it show at least not on camera. If she let the others, especially Tim see how she really felt it would make them worry more than they already were. The Joker was different than any other person she had faced. The man was criminally insane and he enjoyed it, he beat Jason to death seven years ago and blew him up. She was not about to let him do to her, what he did to Jason.

Before the Joker could respond she stood up, her arms still tied to her chair, and kicked them back. Rory turned and hit the goon with the chair making him fall to the floor before she used his body to jump off of and land on the chair and smashing it under her weight.

She got to her feet with two wooden stakes in her hand and glared at the Joker and the other goon in the room. 

"Note to self, no more wooden chairs," he muttered before sending the man next to him to fight her, several more coming into the room to try and subdue her. The wound in Rory's side was burning, but she had to ignore it as she hit each thug with one of the stakes and kicked them back 

One managed to wrap his arms around her, and she stabbed one into his thigh making him fall to the floor. With only one stick left, she threw it at the last thug before jumping on him and bringing him to the ground head first. 

Her side was in even worse pain, gripping it she looked around to find the Joker. Hearing a click, she felt something press to the back of her head. Of course, he had a gun on him. "You know, you're making this very difficult. He didn't say you would be this big of a problem." The Joker taunted from behind her. Rory slowly put her hands up in surrender before swing her leg around and kicking the gun out of his hand, rolling to grab it off the floor. She stood straight and aimed it at the Joker, right between the eyes.

It was the Joker who put his hands up in surrender with a grin. "What are you going to do, shoot me?" he laughed. "That would break a couple of Batman's rules."

Rory cocked the gun, her chest heaving in anger. The look on her face was calm and collected, except her eyes were filled with rage. The Joker saw the look in her eyes and grinned, "Oh, but you don't play by the rules right? I can see it, you've killed before but are you going to kill me too?" 

Rory didn't move, keeping the gun aimed at him. "You said 'he', who is that?" she demanded. 

"Wouldn't you like to know." 

Rory's glare darkened, he was taunting her. Somehow, he knew what she did and he was baiting her. "You think you can get me to kill you? You're right, I have killed before and I don't play by the rules." she grinned. "I make them." 

Flipping the gun in her hand, she grabbed the barrel of the gun and threw it at the Joker's head before breaking off into a run as her bare feet hit the cold concrete. Kicking the door open, she took off down the hall and ran into several more of his thugs he had waiting. She let out a groan and ducked under their punches, and avoided their kicks. Rory was in no condition to take on this many men again, she needed to find a way out.

Looking around, she saw a window and darted towards it but was stopped when she heard two gunshots. It took her a minute to realize what had happened, her head was throbbing as she fell to the floor and gripped her shoulder that had two bullet holes in it. She felt someone grab her by the hair and began dragging her back to the room where the Joker was waiting on her.

As the entered, the thug who held her threw onto the for at the Joker's feet who stared down at her with a gleeful look on his face. "Back so soon?"

She sat up on her knees, gripping her shoulder, and looked to see him standing above her with the camera in his hand, focused on her. "Don't forget to smile at the camera, we don't want bats to think you aren't enjoying yourself." Rory glared, wincing from the pain in her shoulder. 

"Fuck you." 

The Joker sent a  kick to her side, and she let out a cry of pain falling to the floor onto her back. The fucking clown kicked the wound in her side, of course, he did. With a gleeful laugh, he sent another kick to her side but harder. 

Rory was flipped onto her stomach, gripping her side with one hand and biting the other to keep her cries in. She was not about to give him the satisfaction of making her scream. Wincing, she felt him kick her side again multiple times, Rory gasping in pain trying to catch her breath. The wind was knocked out of her and she could barely breathe.

"You know, this is no fun when you don't make a sound. Give me that." He snapped his fingers and one of the goons handed him a glass beaker of a green liquid. "Now, tell me how this feels."

Rory felt something being poured onto her side with the hole, the pain was white-hot. It was so hot, she couldn't hold back a scream of pain as the liquid burned her flesh and her wound. Tears were falling from her eyes, but she hid them not wanting the camera to catch them.

The Joker stopped pouring the liquid on her with a laugh. "How did that feel, and remember to be honest." 

Gasping for air, Rory's arm struggled to hold herself up. "Why don't you just fuck me with a chainsaw while you're at it? I'm sure that would hurt more."

The Joker was slightly stunned at her words before he bent over laughing. "You are way more fun than the last one and way more vulgar, I'm going to have a blast breaking you." 

Rory's hair covered her face as she clenched her fist. "You can't break something that's already broken, you ass clown. And I thought you were supposed to be smart, but apparently I was wrong."

With her comment, the Joker kicked her in the side while the pain from the liquid he poured on her still burned. Rory cried out and rolled into the wall before falling back onto her stomach, guessing he didn't like being called an ass clown but Pennywise drag queen looking knock off was fine.

"Anything you'd like to say before I cut the tape?" he grinned, zooming in on Rory. She refused to look up at the camera, Rory was not going to respond to him the way he wanted even if it was going to kill her.

The Joker didn't like how she ignored him, he grabbed her by the hair and lifted her head to look at him. Rory winced gripping her shoulder, shaking slightly from the pain in her shoulder and side as she looked at him. "Pull my hair again, I'll kick your ass." 

He threw her to the floor and turned the camera back on himself. "Those are some lovely parting words, I hate to leave you Bats but I am a busy busy man with an unexpected guest and all and there are some things I need to take care of. See ya soon!" The joker turned off the camera and turned to look at Rory.

She managed to lean herself against the wall, her shoulder bleeding still, and the wound on her side starting to bleed again. "You really think they won't find me?" she muttered. "You couldn't even kill the last one right, what makes you think that you will break me?"

"Because a friend of yours gave me all the information I need to do it." he grinned and turned his back on her and grabbed something she couldn't see. "Now, let's have some real fun." 

The Joker turned to face Rory again, and her eyes glanced down at what he was swinging in his hands. Her face paled, it was a bo staff but she recognized that specific one. It was then Rory knew what friend he was talking about. Everything made sense, the Joker's sudden fascination with her, how he knew where she would be, and more importantly, that one piece of her past she wanted to stay hidden.

Deathstroke was the one who put him up to this, and he was going to make sure she suffered in a way that not only hurt her but those close to her. That's why he chose the Joker, he knew of Jason and what had happened when he was Robin and he knew that Rory was not only close with him but the others that have been hurt by the Joker.

Rory looked up at him, as he stood over her with the staff. "Bring it on, bitch."

*****

Dick was sat in the cave with his head between his legs as he waited for the others to come back. The only ones that where there were Alfred and Barbara and neither of them were able to comfort him, he was the reason Rory was gone and he knew it. What he dreaded the most was seeing Tim. 

He heard someone pull in, and knew from the sound that it was a bike and not the Batmobile. Looking up, he saw Jason basically toss his bike to the side and throw off his helmet as he ran over to Dick. Right after Jason pulled in was when Bruce pulled in with the others right behind him. 

Jason grabbed Dick by the collar of his suit and glared at his brother. "What the hell did you do?"

"Jason, let him go!" Bruce commanded, Alfred walking over and pushing the two of them apart. No one would be stupid enough to try and start something with Alfred in the middle. The others ran over and stood by Dick waiting to hear the story.

"What happened?" Dick looked over and saw Tim there, looking at him with a concerned look. 

"She snuck out, the second you benched her I knew what she was going to do. So, instead of doing my normal thing, I kept an eye out and waited for her to show up and sure enough, she did." Dick explained. 

"She wanted to go look at the building she thought she saw Slade in and I went with her. I figured that you would rather someone still be with her even if she snuck out. We took a look around and saw that there was evidence of him being there, but we were interrupted when a bunch of gang members walked in and started a fight."

He looked at the others and dropped his head. "I didn't notice how close she got to the window until I watched one of them throw her out. I wasn't able to get to her before she hit the ground, but she said she was okay except for a metal rod in her side." He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. 

"That was the last thing I heard her say before I looked out and saw that she was gone. I asked Babs to track her and I found this." Dick held up the bloodstained cloth that held the tracker and the Joker card. 

Bruce took it from him and examined the card. "I already ran tests on the blood, it's hers," Dick explained. "Barbara has been searching everywhere she can to see if there is a trace of Rory we can pick up."

Once he finished, he finally looked at Tim. "I'm sorry Tim. I'm sorry that I couldn't keep her safe."

Tim let out a sigh and looked at Dick, "You did what you could, you didn't let her go out alone which would be worse. We're going to find her, and bring her home." Dick let out a small sigh of relief and hugged Tim.

Jason crossed his arms, "You shouldn't have made her sit out on this Bruce, you really should have known that she would follow us out anyway. I mean, did you learn nothing from the rest of us?"

Bruce hung his head, with a sigh. "You're right. I shouldn't have made her stay home, but Dick is also right. We're going to find her, and we're going to do it together." He put his cowl back on and made his way back to the Batmobile. 

"Father, where are you going?" Damian asked, watching Bruce walk away. 

"I'm going to go see what I can find, get a snack and we'll leave when you are ready. Tim, I want you to stay and help Barbara run surveillance and see if you pick up on something she doesn't. The rest of you, it's your choice if you go back out or not." 

Damian quickly got up and ran to the kitchen to grab himself a snack, there was no way his father was going to leave him when Rory needed help. Once he got to the kitchen and grabbed multiple snacks before eating them as he walked down the stairs. 

"Grayson, I got you a snack. I grabbed some for the others, but I got hungry and ate them on the way down." he walked into the cave to see everyone huddled around the computer and the cave was dead silent.

"Grayson? Father?" he walked down taking a bite of his snack to see what they were looking at. Pushing past the others, he saw that there was a video sent to them addressed to Batman.

"Guys, what is that?" he asked.

Tim looked at the video, none of them wanted to click it. His heart was beating out of his chest, he knew who the video was from but feared what it contained. Slowly, he grabbed the mouse and clicked on it making it play.

"Hiya Bats! Long time no see eh? Well, I got a surprise for you." The Joker's face appeared on the screen and laughed. He grabbed the camera, the movements shakey with his hands, and turned it to show Rory tied to a chair with a glare on her face. She still had her mask on, but her external suit was gone leaving her in a tank top and pants "I found this little bird stranded outside in the cold, seems like someone clipped her wings. Don't worry, I'm taking good care of her I mean she isn't dead yet."

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I caved and updated again. I wanted to get this one out as soon as I could and what does being cooped up in a library because you have movers bringing your stuff in do? It makes you write a chapter. 

But what did you think? I also may or may not have taken a little inspo from Arkham Knight when writing this, (That game messed me up, man). 

Until Next Time,