"Hehehe..." While Batman was still worried about what kind of conspiracy the Joker might be brewing, in a room in Arkham Asylum, the Joker had a friendly smile on his face. But in the next moment, his expression became conflicted. "I am the Joker! No, I am not the Joker! I am Sc... No! I am the Joker! Hehehe..."
"How interesting, making you the Joker... No, making me you... No, that's not right! Whatever, my identity now belongs to you, and your identity belongs to me. After all, we are one person now, aren't we? Hehehe..."
Eerie laughter echoed through Arkham Asylum. As this strange laughter spread, the other patients, upon hearing it, first froze, then began to laugh along.
"Hmm?" Outside Arkham Asylum, a figure had been quietly approaching. But before entering, he heard the laughter, making him pause.
"Have I been discovered?" The figure looked deeply at the asylum before a black shadow at his feet disappeared. He seemed to merge into the darkness, continuing to silently observe the situation within Arkham.
Inside the Joker's room, his perpetually grinning mouth froze for a moment. His gaze turned sharply toward the shadows at the door, just as a black figure emerged, transforming into a non-human creature wearing a mask.
"I seem to recognize this kind of power, but I don't remember this memory..." The Joker's smile finally faded upon seeing the masked creature. His eyes flickered with resentment and anger, and his body trembled slightly. "Who? Who stole my memory? You damned imposter, can't even copy all my memories?"
The black shadow creature stood still, and then a black, swamp-like substance appeared at its feet. Another figure emerged from this substance.
"Do you want your memories back? Then work with me!" This figure was the one who had previously been outside the asylum. After probing the situation inside, he believed no one there could harm him, so he appeared before the Joker.
"Get my memories back? Hahahaha! Do you know who I am? You can get my memories back?" The Joker laughed instantly, his voice full of ridicule, not taking the intruder seriously at all.
"Of course I know you. Who doesn't know the infamous Joker? The citizens of Gotham wake up in the middle of the night because of your name!" The man in the shadows laughed in response to the Joker's mockery.
"Oh? Do you know my real name?" The Joker's mocking smile deepened as he asked again.
"..." The mysterious man in the shadows fell silent. The Joker's real name was a mystery that many had tried to uncover, but no one had succeeded. Even Batman, the Joker's arch-nemesis, didn't know his real name. The man remained speechless.
"You don't know me, but I know you..." The Joker's smile grew brighter as he stared at the shadowy figure as if he could see his face. "Ra's al Ghul, the former mentor of the little bat, leader of the League of Assassins. Of course, back then you went by Henri Ducard..."
"Swish!" Before the Joker could finish speaking, black shadows lashed out like tentacles toward him. However, the attack lacked lethal intent; Ra's only wanted to capture the Joker and find out where he got his information.
Ra's was fully armed, wrapped in a long robe, and wore a mask. He couldn't understand how the Joker recognized him, especially since they had never crossed paths before.
"Heh, what a lousy trick..." Unexpectedly, the Joker dodged the tentacles with ease, moving like a dancing butterfly, untouched by the black shadows.
"Hmm?" Ra's frowned under his mask. He had researched the Joker, believing him to be an ordinary human without supernatural abilities, just exceptionally unpredictable. Ra's had thought the Joker's combat ability was on par with elite soldiers, nothing more. He had plenty of more powerful members in the League of Assassins.
Ra's had chosen to approach the Joker because of his deep understanding of Batman, hoping to leverage that against their mutual foe. But now, the Joker exhibited abilities that seemed to breach the threshold of the extraordinary.
"This power feels familiar. It reminds me of a sycophant who tried to control me but ended up obeying me, only to betray me later... Wait! Isn't this the shadow power the little bat summoned? Oh! The mask! The dark dimension. So, you also gained the power of the mask!" The Joker suddenly seemed to recall something from his lost memories, smiling even more brightly at Ra's.
"Mm?!!!" Ra's heart skipped a beat at the Joker's words. He was already surprised by the Joker's performance, but now the Joker had revealed his mask's secret, adding to Ra's shock.
Although Ra's had some knowledge of the supernatural world, he hadn't reached the level of omniscience. He had only recently learned about Gotham's Shadow Warriors and the Icarus mask, and he had just acquired his own mask not long ago. He had no idea the Joker had once possessed a mask.
What Ra's didn't expect was that while he was still stunned by the Joker's revelations, the Joker suddenly stopped moving and stared at him, making Ra's feel uncomfortable.
The Joker, unflappable even under extreme circumstances, now seemed out of character.
"I can't believe it, that playboy is the little bat. No wonder he has so much high-tech gear without worrying about funding, and he rarely leaves Gotham because it's his territory!" The Joker's words made Ra's face change drastically under his mask.
"You can see my memories?!" Ra's finally understood how the Joker had recognized him. Although he didn't know how the Joker did it, Ra's knew his memories contained too many secrets. He couldn't allow them to be exposed!
"Buzz!" In an instant, black energy surged around Ra's, transforming the tentacle-like shadows into a more solid and terrifying form, filling the room and covering every wall, spreading toward the Joker.
Once the shadows enveloped everything, the Joker had no space to dodge unless he could unleash greater power to destroy the shadows, which he clearly couldn't.
A single shadowy creature's tentacle couldn't harm the Joker, but the overwhelming force of the dark dimension's shadows instantly overwhelmed him, swallowing him whole.
The next moment, all the shadows disappeared, and everything in the room returned to normal. If the Joker hadn't vanished, it would be as if nothing had happened.
...
"So, how did you read my memories? According to my information, you don't have that ability..." In a dark space, the Joker was bound by countless shadowy tentacles, while Ra's voice echoed, questioning him.
After capturing the Joker, Ra's calmed down significantly. He realized that if the Joker truly had the power to read memories, he would have long known Batman's identity.
The Joker's memory-reading ability, combined with his own strength, would have easily made him a match for Batman, even without the Icarus mask.
Ra's had also received reports of Batman often gaining the upper hand against the Joker. The Joker only leveraged Batman's no-kill rule and his insanity to repeatedly engage Batman.
So Ra's believed there was more to the Joker than met the eye, potentially a significant secret. Even if the Joker was insane, Ra's intended to extract that secret.
"Heh? That's it? If you have the guts, show yourself. Hiding behind a speaker is too cowardly," the Joker taunted, unafraid despite the darkness around him.
"Do you think these shadows and darkness can scare me? If darkness were that frightening, Gotham wouldn't have so many criminals. The little bat would have cleaned up the city long ago..."
"Don't worry, even if you don't talk, I have ways to make you. I'm not like Bruce, bound by a no-kill rule and reluctant to use extreme measures," Ra's replied, unfazed by the Joker's mockery. His voice echoed through the speaker.
"You already know my identity and that I founded the League of Assassins, so you should also know my methods aren't like Batman's, especially in interrogation!"
"Buzz!" Ra's voice ended, and the Joker still didn't speak, just smiled mockingly. Then, a black, tentacle-like substance snaked into the Joker's mouth.
"You should feel honored. This is a new punishment I devised with the mask's power, saving me a lot of tools!" Ra's voice carried a hint of mockery as he watched the Joker's body begin to tremble.
"How about it? Can you endure it? These dark energies will invade your body, destroying every part, your organs and flesh. If you don't speak, you'll soon be a disfigured corpse..."
"Pathetic! Just this little pain and you tremble! You're not worthy of being the Joker!" The Joker's voice held anger at his own body's trembling but quickly shifted. "As for you, Ra's, you shouldn't use this power against me, especially not letting it merge into my body..."
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