Thirteen

"Do it, Maddie, do it. Do it do it do it do it do it."

The whisper felt impossibly harsh as it caressed her ear. The contrast of the softness of the whisper and the words that were actually being said would have been clear to her if she knew what it was.

"All you have to do is pull the trigger, doll. His life in your hands. Can't you feel it? Can't you feel the power you hold right now?" Joker persuaded manically.

A bead of sweat rolled down Maddie's temple, landing somewhere on her outstretched arm. She couldn't understand why he wanted her to do this. As if he had read her mind, Joker continued talking.

"This is what you've been training for. Do it so we can be together. A family. Do you really want to be alone again?" He asked.

No. Maddie couldn't stand the thought of going back to being by herself. Or worse, going back to her old father. But the man said that he has a family too, she couldn't help but remember. Can I really take another little girl's daddy away?

"But he has a family, too, Daddy," she protested softly. The crowd didn't hear it, but the man did, and so did Joker. While a glimmer of hope appeared in the man's eyes, Joker snarled at his trainee.

"Do you think I care about his family, doll? About anyone?" Joker growled. The man flinched at the same time as Madeline. Joker saw, and tried to be falsely sweet with Maddie to convince her to follow through. "Come on now, princess, don't be silly. You don't know this man, no one will care if he dies."

"I will," Maddie realized.

"What?" Joker demanded.

"I said, I will," she repeated. "I'm sorry, Daddy, but I can't kill him for you. I can't kill anyone."

Maddie's words were meant for Joker, and he and his victim were the only ones who heard them. She lowered the gun, ashamed of herself, and offered it back to Joker.

The man's shoulders sagged in relief, and the crowd gasped again, murmuring to one another.

Joker was seeing red. All he could think about was her betrayal. He snatched the weapon from her hand and almost immediately smacked her upside the head with the butt of it.

Maddie collapsed to the ground, holding her bleeding head. She looked up at the Joker, eyes watering threateningly. She almost let a tear slip at the terrifying look on his face, but remembered what he'd said to her about crying and held it back, unable to bear the thought of disappointing him further than she already had.

Without turning his face from Madeline's, Joker fired the pistol, nailing his victim between the eyes. Someone in the crowd shrieked, but Maddie and Joker never broke eye contact. That is, until—

"Joker!" Came a shouted growl from above.

"Batsy!" Joker laughed, finally turning around. "How nice of you to join the party! Though, I don't recall sending you an invitation."

"Let the girl go, Joker," Batman ordered, gracefully falling from his vantage point and landing on the opposite side of the stage.

The crowd cheered happily, relieved that their caped crusader had left his cave a little earlier than normal. Meanwhile Maddie trembled on the stage. She didn't want to go anywhere with Batman.

"Oh she doesn't want to go with you, Batsy boy! Just look at those little shakes! I do believe you're frightening the poor girl," J chuckled. "And besides, Batman, I don't think even you could be in a few places at once. It's a good thing I hired a bouncer in case you showed up today. Though you were just a tad too late for this fella here."

As he spoke, Joker walked closer to Batman, kicking the dead man that the Bat had failed to save.

"What are you talking about, Joker?" Batman demanded, eyes flashing angrily as he was reminded of his tardiness.

"I bet right about now Riddler is having a lovely time with all those people on the Ferris wheel. He is just so cute when he plays with his toys," Joker smirked. Right on cue, a series of screams erupted from over by the tall ride.

Batman turned in that direction, panicking. J smiled smugly, glad that his backup plan was working so perfectly.

"So what'll it be? Me, Riddler, or the twerp? Wish I could stick around and find out, but I've got places to be! Toodaloo, Batsy!" Joker giggled, dashing to where he'd had his Lamborghini stashed.

Frost moved quickly, picking up Maddie before anyone else could and jogging back to the running car. As soon as Andy closed the doors behind them, the driver pealed out, flying back to the entrance of the fairgrounds.

Batman was torn between three actions, unsure of what to do. Ultimately he decided that he would have to go and save the people on the Ferris wheel. The Joker could be caught another day, and sadly, saving multiple people was higher on his list than saving one little girl. If Joker had left her that'd be one thing, but now he was forced to save many over a single one, a decision that would probably come back to bite him later on.

"How many people are on the Ferris wheel?" He asked as he grappled away.

"I estimate that there are thirty people on the wheel, sir. But it's all the way across the grounds," Alfred answered in the earpiece.

"I'll head that way. Notify the police about the van and Joker."

Meanwhile, Madeline still hadn't said anything to anyone in the escaping van and Andy was getting worried. She hadn't cried either, which came as a shock.

She was sat cuddled into Tommy's lap, but she didn't make any move to return his embrace.

"Maddie, honey, are you alright?" Andy asked.

"He killed him," was all she said.

"What?" Tommy jumped in.

"Daddy. He killed that man. That man had a family, he said," Madeline repeated flatly.

"But are you okay?" Andy asked again.

"He hit me too. He said he doesn't care about anyone. But that's okay. I forgive him. I know he's just scared. I get scared too, sometimes," Maddie carried  on talking as though Andy had never even spoken.

Andy and Tommy exchanged glances while Frosty looked on in concern.

"They'll be sending police after us," Tommy pointed out. Frost hit the button, causing a series of clicks to resonate through the truck as panels rearranged themselves.

By that time Joker and his stylish ride were almost halfway home.

That selfish little brat. Spitting in the face of her savior.

To be fair, she's not even five yet.

We oughta kill the rat. No one disobeys the Joker.

But she's too sweet to die!

Yes. Too sweet, especially for this life. Take her back where you found her.

No! I mean, she could still be trained. She didn't know what to expect before. Now she does. I'm not throwing away all the time, money, and effort I've put into this project. She could still be useful. I'm keeping her. End of story.

Just then his car got the notification that the van had activated the panel switch. So predictable.

Around the time that Madeline began talking Batman arrived at the Ferris wheel to find everything just fine. No bombs, no hostages, no death, no Riddler. Nothing.

"Despite all that we know about Riddler and his traps, I don't think that this is one of them. We've been tricked, Alfred," Bruce realized.

"Then where is Riddler? Where did those screams come from?"

"There," he replied, pointing to the speakers. Then he quickly turned and ran back to where he'd left the Batmobile. "He must have remotely played a track through one of the speakers in this area."

"But what about Riddler, Master Bruce, where does he come in?"

"Riddler was never here, Alfred. He and Joker must not have faked the falling out. They did stop working together, but Joker must have realized that we would figure out the alliance and that we would question the reality of the disagreement. He also knew that I'd figure out his hint. Wanted it, in fact. He wanted to show off today. He had everything planned out. So what went wrong?" Bruce lectured as he climbed into his black car and zoomed off.

"The girl. What was she there for?"

"I have no idea Alfred. Do a scan for missing children reported in the last two months that fit her description," Batman suggested.

"There aren't any, sir. Perhaps she was just taken tonight?"

"No," Bruce denied, trying to find the van or Joker using the police scanners. "That outfit was specially made for the girl. And besides, why would he want to try and have some random child he just stole from the crowd perform deeds? He'd never take a risk that big. He must have been planning this during the two or so months of inactivity. For some reason, whatever he had planned backfired. We'll have to get eyewitness accounts from Gordon when they come in to know more about her. For now I want to try and find either of the two vehicles. Any sightings?"

"There have been a few mentions of the Lamborghini flying down the streets, but he's long gone. The van has not been spotted since it left."

"How does no one see an ice cream truck driving crazily around Gotham?" Batman asked himself.

"Wouldn't driving so crazily make them stick out, Master Bruce? They wouldn't want to give themselves away."

"But Alfred, the other option is risking the possibility of being spotted and followed. Joker would never allow that," he protested. Then the realization came. "No one sees a crazy ice cream truck when it's not an ice cream truck at all."

"I'm afraid I don't follow."

"The van, Alfred, the van. They either changed vans or changed its design so they wouldn't have to be worried about being spotted. It's a shell game at that point," Bruce explained, slamming a hand down on his steering wheel in frustration. "Dammit!"

"So that means we've lost them, then?"

"Not necessarily. We've lost them for tonight, maybe, but not for much longer. There must be something we can find on the girl. If not, there's Riddler. I doubt that he would feel compelled to stay right-lipped about Joker's plan and whereabouts after their violent falling out," he pointed out. "Until then, however, all we can do is search for clues and wait."

By the time that the van finally made its way back to the mansion, J had long since arrived and was holed up in his office like a recluse.

Maddie was still in shock.

She hadn't said a word since her revelation in the truck except a 'Thank you' when Tommy helped her down from the truck. Even now, sat on a stool as her head got stitched up by a certain jolly snowman, she didn't breathe a word.

She didn't wince when the alcohol swab touched her open wound. She didn't flinch when the needle came towards her face. She didn't even make a sound when the needle began pushing and tugging at her skin. Not a word.

Another thank you was given when Frost finished his work. Then Maddie slowly, as if in a daze, climbed off the stool and went to her room.

"I'm worried. Is her reaction normal?" Andy asked Johnny.

"As normal as one can be at that age. I've seen newbies act like that, sometimes, or get sick. But really I couldn't tell you. I'm no shrink. And she's no ordinary recruit. Or little girl," Frost answered.

"So what do we do?" Tommy asked.

"There's not much we really can do. We can take care of her injury. We can try and keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn't do anything stupid. We can be there to support her if we needs, but if we try and talk about it with her and bring up a sore subject, it'll be worse than if we'd done nothing. All we can really do is wait."