Strange Minds

Save her...I must, save her. Save Detective Yin.

"Your so overcome with the obsession of saving, I almost wonder what would happen if you were to fail. Are you afraid to fail, Batman? What happened when you were a child?"

The voice of Dr. Strange echoed in Bruces head as he eagerly searched through Joker's subconscious for clues on the detective. And they had to be here. They had to be..somewhere.

He was the Dark Knight. He had to save her. HAD TO! He would not be able to live with himself if he did not.

After a brief run in with lady and baby Joker, Bruce had flown up to the top of a building to escape the madness. There was a ding behind him, and he turned to see a factory built with a light bulb on top. It even lit up when he turned.

"Joker's idea factory?" he murmured to himself, walking to the doors.

He felt almost something like a shiver run down his spine when he opened the purple doors. Something was in here the clown really did not want him to see.

Bruce stepped inside, staring into the darkness. Many filing cabnets lined the walls of the dark factory, perhaps a little cobwebs here and there. He dusted one off, seeing a label that sparked his interest.

"Maybe Y for Yin?" he pulled, but was suddenly slammed backwards when the drawer extended farther than it should have.

Bruce stared at the piles of electric teeth as they laughed at him. At his failure.

"No, Y for yucks." sighed a young voice in the darkness.

Bruce searched for the owner, not having to look hard to find the source. His eyes widened. Jackpot!

"You are--"

"The only shadow of Joker's former self?" the man finished, stamping another document and shoving it to the side.

Bruce looked for a second, maybe for a clue, but they were all mindless gibberish all stamped in red, 'crazy'.

"I didn't want to be stuck here doing this. I really just want to make people laugh." on his last sentence, he stopped what he was doing to hold his chin with his hand in a dreamy expression and voice. And when he smiled, Bruce saw Joker through and through.

"Listen you must be able to help me!" he started, slamming his hands on the table. "I'm looking for someone whose time is about to run out! If you have any humanity left in you, you will tell me where to find her!"

The man, startled and holding his hands up for cover said, "Hey I didn't want any part of this." he suddenly leaned in, putting a hand to cover his mouth as if it were a secret. "You'll want current schemes. It's that door behind me--"

"Now what did I tell you about sharing family secrets?" a familiar voice echoed throughout the room.

Bruce and the man stared around wildly, and then a hole was cut out of the ground with a saw where the man was sitting in a chair, and like that, he fell.

Bruce reached for him, but it was too late. The man fell into a vat of green-looking chemicals.

And out popped Joker, as to be expected.

"The water's warm Batman. Hop in!" he laughed, staring up at the Dark Knight.

Batman felt a familiar tick in his head, but chose to move on.

He put his gloved hand on the door, and from there on decided there was no going back. He would do anything it took to save detective Yin. He had to.

Suddenly, he was pushed through the door. And to admit, he probably needed that help. His mental state was becoming cloudy the more he stayed in this hell-hole.

Singing. Who was singing? Bruce, are you really going crazy?

Brown eyes looked up to see a spotlight, and center was Joker, wearing the outfit he had stole earlier from the Gotham Museum. He also adorned the makeup of the opera singer who wore the outfit, and was singing in perfect tune with the original. His crazy, chemically altered red and yellow eyes were trained on Batman's body as he laid on the floor, staring.

When Joker ended the sonnet, his spotlight shut off abrubtly and was replaced by a jack-in-the-box.

"Oh, Batman, help me help me!" the mocked voice of Yin yelled from inside the box.

Bruce stared in horror.

"Oh, I'm coming Yinny!" a puppet of Batman strutted across the stage towards the box.

And right as it got there, the box exploded and Yin's puppet body flung in front of Bruce. Burning. She was burning.

He dropped to his knees.

How could he let her die? HOW?!

And then to mock him came Joker's laugh. At first it was just him in the costume from earlier, pointing and laughing at Batman.

Bruce shakily charged him, taking Joker by the collar and holding him up.

"Where is she?!" he growled.

He was only answered with more laughter, Joker now holding his head he was laughing so hard.

Bruce threw him as hard as he could away. Didn't matter what direction. The laughing. Oh, the laughing.

And then, all around him, suddenly there was an audience of Joker clones all laughing at him hysterically. Some were pointing, some were holding their sides, some in tears.

Bruce felt his head hurt more and more.

And now it was his turn.

He dropped to his knees again, and as he did so, he began to laugh. Sobbing laughter. Insane laughter. He was losing his mind.

"Bruce."

Who was that?

"Master Bruce!"

He did hear it! It was Alfred. He was still back with his body in the cave. He had to do this. He had to complete his mission.

Shakily, he stood and raised a fist to Joker, pinning him under his weight as well.

"WHERE IS SHE?!" he roared, ready to swing.

Suddenly all the Jokers in the audience frowned and so did the real one.

"Your dancing in a hornets nest, fella." he chimed, smiling again.

Bruce looked behind him, and suddenly all of his clones were launching out of their seats and straight for him. They grabbed at every inch of him, punching and clawing and eventually overpowering. This happened for merely a moment before a huge hand reached in and took him out.

Joker? Why would he save him?

"Tell me where she is, Joker." he growled, completely trapped in Jokers giant hand.

"You want in? I'll take you so deep you won't know your way out." and with that, he shoved Batman in his mouth and swallowed.

Down.

Down.

Falling forever.

And then he touched ground. He felt dazed and confused. Where could he be now. He looked up, barely able to see. But enough to make out Jokers white feet standing so close to him.

"Your in my world now." Joker purred, grabbing Batmans hood, holding him so they were inches apart. Batman never knew just how crazy odd his hair was.

"Arkham!" he said, dropping Bruce at the same time.

Bruce slowly crawled to the door while Joker was busy talking over his shoulder or doing whatever that had him distracted enough to not notice Batman was reaching his destination.

Was Yin somewhere in Arkham?

Joker happened to look back as Bruces hand got around the handle, and gasped.

"No, Bats! These are my private thoughts now. You don't see these."

Joker pulled at his cape, and Bruce did slide backwards for a moment before he found the strength to stand and kick Joker away.

Judging by his reaction, she was here!

He took off down the hall, holding his arms to his shoulders as if he was freezing. He was freezing..

"No!" the word was long and drawn out, and Joker chased after him. And he did so with such gusto that Bruce was even mildly surprised. Even when he looked back, Jokers eyes seemed a different kind of troubled than they usually are when he foils one of his stupid chemes to has Gotham.

And as he was gaining quite significantly, Bruce picked the first door at the end.

"Batman it's not that door!" Joker yelled desperately.

Yeah, right. And so he flew through it, triumphant he found the answer to where Yin was being kept.

Instead he found something else that totally threw him off track.

Where was he?

The place was dark and damp. Almost like when he stopped Joker when he was using the trains to turn people into thieves except this cave was carved out to be, well, something useful he assumed.

And then he slowly put all the pieces together when he saw a poorly replicated bat-mobile in an area flooded with a little light.

"Is this..my bat-cave?" Bruce murmured, so transfixed by this sudden development, he forgot Joker was over his shoulder.

Joker had been standing behind him, frozen in place since he went through the door. He was fiddling with his fingers like a child in trouble.

"Is it?" Joker grumbled, barely audible.

Bruce turned to look at the grumpy clown. "Are you really Joker?"

Was Bruce going crazy now?

"Of course I am!" he flattened his arms at his sides in a pouty way. "Wait, do you think YOU'RE going crazy? AHAHAHA!"

Joker pointed and laughed for a second, before seeming to get a new idea. He stopped laughing and smoothed back his long, green hair.

"You are. This is all a dream. Clearly you are obsessed with me Batman." Joker said this as if he was a doctor making a diagnosis.

Tired of the games, Bruce walked up to the clown and grabbed both of his wrists, Joker reacting in a way he didn't really expect (blushing)but he was serious. He didn't have time for this.

"Why is my bat-cave in your head?" he growled, Joker sort of trying to cover his face from being seen.

"This is my head! And I don't owe you any explanation!" Joker growled back, gritting his teeth and even glaring. Bruce apparently hit a nerve.

"Tell me where Yin is and I'll forget this!" Bruce barely contained hitting this insane criminal. As much as he wanted to know why Joker had a makeshift bat-cave in the very inner-workings of his brain, he needed to find her first.

"Will you?" a soft, but hopeful reply peeped out of Joker.

At this, Batman totally eased up. He stared at Joker with wide eyes, never having witnessed the crazed clown sucumb to reason or, well, anything.

"Yes." Bruce said, a little softer tone, surprise laced in every move he made.

"Shes in the old theater. Down old Gotham road. The broken down theater, you know the one I'm talking about." Joker picked up his arm, defeated, and looked at his goofy watch. "If you go now you'll have about ten minutes."

Ten minutes? He had time. "Why do you not want me to pursue the matter of this.." he looked back. "..cave?"

Joker shrugged, not meeting Batmans eyes anymore. "Just leave, Batman. You got what you want. Go save her."

He had never heard the Joker sound so...sane.

He didn't even know that word could be put in the same sentence as 'Joker'.

He even slowly let go of Joker's collar. Bruce even stood back a little, almost ashamed to have assaulted this person that clearly wasn't the crime clown as he knew him.

Joker scratched the back of his head, ruffling the back of his hair as he did so.

"What about Strange?" Bruce asked, remembering the doctor was still searching through Joker's mind.

"I'm sure his machine will run out of juice sometime soon." Joker sighed, turning away and walking to the door.

"I can destroy it. That is an obvious invasion to privacy. Criminal or not, it is dangerous technology that does not need to exist."

"How kind of you Bats, for a second, it almost seems like your going soft on me." he turned and gave Bruce a smirk. Not even a crazy smile, just a normal smirk.

And with that, he turned and faded into the halls of Arkham.


----


Bruce woke from the machine, turning immediately to look at Alfred who had been watching his every move until now.

"Well?" Al said, eyebrows raised.

"I found her. But I also found..something else." he studied the ground for a moment.

Bruce moved to configure a couple of codes here and there, and then turned to Alfred.

"I set this device to short circuit the other machine like this one." he put a hand on the transmitting device. "So it will destroy both. Technology like this is dangerous and Wayne Tech will not be responsible for it. Detonate it when your ready, Al. I have to retrieve Yin."

He rode an automated elevator down into his bat-mobile, signaling to Alfred before speeding away.

He knew he would get to her in time now, but he thought of the other thing on his mind.

Why did Joker, in the very core of his mind, have a bat-cave there? And why was he so..human when asked about it?