I have this story posted up on my Archive of Our Own account under the name Riddle_of_the_sphinx so you will see this story there as well.

The Riddler was always a sort of unofficial information broker among Batman's rouges. Nothing could stay hidden from him. No dirty deal could be made without him hearing about it, no dark family skeletons could stay locked away in the closet, and any secret alliance that was formed among the villains never stayed a secret from him for long. There was no mystery that he could not solve. Edward was a master of conundrums, and mysteries were just conundrums wrapped in enigmas. The only mystery he had yet to solve was the mystery of Batman's identity. That was a greatest riddle of them all, but it was a riddle that he would solve eventually it was only a matter of time.

Anyway, most people seemed to refuse to acknowledge the Riddler's talent for uncovering the truth. Well, maybe that wasn't completely true. The small time crooks of Gotham knew of his talent of dragging everyone's dirty secret out into the light. The various crime families of Gotham knew that if they paid him enough he could dish out some dirt on their enemies plans. Hell, to some extant Black Mask was slowly catching on to the fact that the Riddler could tell him all sorts of juicy information if he pays the right price.

The rest of Batman's rouge gallery underestimated him though. They refused to acknowledge just how much the Riddler knew, and just how good he was at uncovering everything that they had to hide. They also seemed to refuse to even realize that the Riddler would uncover their plans and secrets just for fun most of the time. As far as the rest of the super villains were concerned the Riddler was just an annoying childish mental patient who could come up with a few good plans to rob banks or do some other criminal thing. They never seemed to consider the fact that the Riddler could be a wealth of information. That was fine with the Riddler. He only shared what he uncovered to people who proved themselves worthy by solving his puzzles and riddles or by paying him rather handsomely.

The other criminals had yet to prove themselves, and Riddler knew from experience that most of the other criminals could be rather stingy when it came to paying for things. They were all fools, and the Joker was the biggest fool of them all for thinking that he could keep whatever the heck it was that he had in Arkham Asylum secret from the Riddler. The Riddler did have to give him credit through. Arkham Asylum was a pretty great place to hide something if you really don't want it to be found. No one would expect a villain to hide something in Arkham Asylum of all places, and Arkham had more secret passages and hidden rooms then it had patients and Arkham had a lot of patients. Also, if Edward was being honest the only reason why he spotted the Joker was because the Riddler had been escaping from Arkham Asylum and just happened to spot the clown prince as he was working his way through the old tunnel system of Arkham.

Joker hadn't seen him, but Riddler spotted him lugging a huge bulky movie camera along with him. Where he got it Riddler had no idea, but his best bet was that Joker stole it from Panessa Studios. Joker disappeared down a tunnel that would lead him into what Riddler liked to call the old Arkham. It was the old parts of Arkham that were built over when they rebuilt Arkham Asylum or bricked away to forget that they even existed. What Joker wanted to do with the camera down in that old place he didn't know, but Riddler's curiosity had been captured. Riddler continued with his escape plan, but a few weeks later he returned to the dusty tunnels with some mini cameras and quickly set them up in the tunnels. He didn't dare go down the path that would lead him to the Joker's little hidden area yet.

The Joker hadn't been heard from for a while which made the Riddler believe that he was most likely down there doing only God knows what. So once his cameras were set up the Riddler turned right around and left the Asylum. After that Riddler kept an eye on the video feed and would make notes of when Joker would come and go and what he would bring with him when he went down to his little hidey-hole. The things that Joker would bring down with him were almost always random and all rather strange. One day he brought a large roll of barbed wire down there. Two days later he brought some chains down. One weekend he spent his whole Saturday bringing down computer monitors and TVs. Yesterday the Joker brought a handheld camera and a laptop down with him.

Honestly, Riddler didn't know what he was planning on doing with all of that. What Riddler did know was that he was dying to know what was going on, and that he had a bad feeling about all of this. Why this whole thing was making him feel on edge he didn't know. It didn't affect him personally and Riddler knew that Joker was unaware of the fact that the Riddler was watching. Still, he just felt uneasy about the whole thing. Regardless, while Riddler didn't know what to do about his uneasy feeling he did know how to fulfill his own curiosity.

Joker had brought down cameras and a computer down there with him so if Riddler was lucky then maybe he could had the cameras hooked up in such a way that he could hack it. If nothing else maybe the Joker had some footage on his laptop that Riddler could watch to get a clue as to what was going on. Riddler decided to give the whole hacking thing a try when he saw the Joker disappear down into his secret hideout in Arkham Asylum with some branding iron in hand. It took some digging to find the Joker's signal. It was hidden rather well, and it took a while to pinpoint it among all of the other signals that were coming from Arkham Asylum. It was also password protected, but Joker was painfully uncreative when it came to passwords so all Riddler needed to do was type in the word 'Jester' and with that he was in.

The Joker seemed to be recording something now, and luckily for the Riddler he was able to access that video feed and turn it on so that he could get front row seats to whatever the heck it was that Joker was doing. Riddler didn't know what to expect when he opened the video feed, but what he didn't expect to see was Robin tied to a hook that was hanging overhead. To be specific it was the second Robin, and he looked like he had been through hell. The boy was a bloody mess. He was hanging from his wrists, and his wrists were covered in rope buns. Barbed wire had been wrapped around his body like Christmas lights wrapped around a tree, and the metal was digging into his skin. He was covered in burns, and the knife wounds that decorated his body were deep and not pretty to look at. Blood ran down his body like water droplets, and they fell to the ground like rain. A small puddle of blood decorated the floor below Robin, and it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the blood all came from Robin.

"Oh, Robin are you ready for another day of fun?" The Joker practically sang out.

Robin flinched and Riddler could swear that he heard the kid whimper a little. The Riddler was sure that Robin would have curled up into a ball if he could. Riddler didn't know how to react to this. The Riddler shouldn't care about what happened to Robin. Robin was the Bat's sidekick, and Riddler had been punched in the face plenty of times by Robin. The Riddler shouldn't have cared about what happened to the kid, but Edward cared. Edward cared a lot. Robin was just a child. Robin had to have been around eleven or so when he started the whole Robin thing, and right now he should have been around thirteen or fourteen. He was a child. A child that wasn't even old enough to drive. He should be worrying about school right now. He shouldn't be trapped in a dark dank room being tortured by the Joker.

Edward didn't like seeing kids getting abused. It made him think way too much about his miserable childhood with his abusive father. He had to live with that, and he hated seeing kids being hurt or abused in similar ways. Even if those kids worked with the damn Bat. Edward was snapped out of his thoughts when he saw Joker start to approach Robin with a red hot branding iron.

"Good news kid. I'm getting a gift made just for you. It's a branding iron that's going to be in the shape of a J!" Joker said cheerfully. "I'm going to use it on you so that everyone will know that you are the sidekick of good ol' Mister J!"

Joker waved the iron that he was holding around as he said "However, until my gift comes in the mail I figured I could use this as practice. Practice makes perfect after all, and I don't want to screw up making the mark."

"N-no!" Robin cried out weekly as Joker approached him.

Joker just ignored him as he pressed the hot metal to Robin's bare skin. The loud scream that Robin let out was heart wrenching, and it made Edward feel a little sick to his stomach. Not helping matters was the fact that hanging on the walls all around the room was monitors showing Robin's torture in real time. No matter which way Robin looked he was forced to watch the Joker torture him on a bunch of huge screens.

"Hmm, I don't think that mark turned out very well. Let's try it again shall we?" Joker said as he pressed the red hot metal onto a new patch of skin.

Robin let out a loud cry of pain, and Edward couldn't look away. It was like watching a horrible train wreck.

'What are you going to do about this?' A small voice in Edward's head asked as he watched Robin cry out. 'What are you going to do?'

Edward didn't know. For once in his life he didn't know what to do. The second Robin had been missing for almost a whole year now. Edward had always assumed that the second Robin had retired or quit. Hell, he even thought that maybe Batman had fired him or something. It was clear now that the second Robin had never quit. He had been captured by the Joker and locked away in the bowels of Arkham to be tortured by a mad clown.

Did Batman know about this? Was Batman looking for the second Robin? Did Batman even care? A new Robin took the second Robin's place not too long ago so Edward honestly didn't know. Another loud cry broke the silence in the Riddler's hideout, and Edward cringed.

'Are you going to leave him there to suffer?' A voice in his head asked. 'Are you going to be like every other idiotic adult and just ignore the abuse of a child?'

Edward clenched his hands into fists at that thought. The only thing that he hated more than his father was all of the people who knew that his father was abusing him and just turned a blind eye to it. His mother had been the biggest offender in that department, and he hated her almost as much as he hated his dad.

Another loud cry filled his room while that small little voice in his head quietly asked once again 'What are you going to do?'

What was Edward going to do? Edward was going to do something that he never thought he would do. Edward was going to save a Robin….

Edward hated Arkham Asylum with the intensity of a thousand suns. The guards were idiots, the psychologists were bigger idiots, and most of the inmates were annoying. Arkham Asylum looked more like a collection of abandoned buildings then some highly advanced Asylum that Warden Sharp kept trying to advertise it as. Also, there was always something off about Arkham Asylum. What it was Edward had no idea, but the whole place made his skin crawl. He knew for a fact that being forced to stay there for any amount of time drove him crazy.

As far as Edward was concerned you didn't go to Arkham Asylum to get better you went there to get worse. The fact that the second Robin was forced to stay here for almost a full year was almost chilling. The longest Edward had ever stayed in Arkham Asylum was about three weeks. The thought of having to stay in Arkham Asylum for a full year made Edward cringe at the very idea of it. Edward shook away these thoughts as he walked down the tunnel that would lead him to where the second Robin was waiting. At the end of the tunnel was a small metal door, but a quick twist of the handle showed that it wasn't locked.

'Joker didn't even bother to lock up the room?' Edward thought in slight surprise. 'Either he's confident that no one would find this place, or he doesn't care if Robin is found or not.'

Edward just shook his head as he slowly opened the door. Honestly, he shouldn't think too deeply about this. The door being unlocked just meant that he wouldn't have to blow it down with bombs. Upon opening the door he immediately spotted Robin in the middle of the room. He was still hanging from that hook wrapped in barbed wire. The boy slowly lifted his head and upon spotting Edward his eyes grew wide. Edward took a single step inside which caused the boy to whimper. Edward lifted his hands up to show that he was unarmed and was not here to hurt him.

"Hey, it's OK I'm not here to hurt you." Edward said softly as he slowly walked over toward Robin.

Robin looked at him in disbelief, but didn't make another sound as Edward slowly approached. Once he was close enough Edward slowly slid his backpack off of his back and placed it on the ground. The boy's eyes drifted down to the bag only to shoot right back up to Edward. The look Robin was giving Edward seemed to tell the man that he thought that their was something bad in the bag. Considering the type of things that Joker brought in here to use on him Edward couldn't blame the kid for immediately thinking that there was nothing good in the backpack.

"Before I let you down I'm going to get the barbed wire off of you. I'm going to use some wire cutters to do so, and it's going to hurt a little." Edward explained slowly as he unzipped his bag.

The boy said nothing he just continued to stare at Edward as the man pulled his wire cutters out of his bag.

"I'm going to start cutting the wires now." Edward told him all while hoping that telling the kid everything that he was about to do would give him at least some comfort.

Again the boy said nothing. He just continued to watch him with wide untrusting eyes. Edward gave him what he hoped was a reassuring smile before he went to work. The sound of the metal being cut away seemed to echo throughout the room as Edward slowly snipped away at the barbed wire. The boy winched a little every now and then when Edward pulled the sharp bits of metal that had become lodged into his skin out, but other than that the boy made no other movements. Luckily, the boy wasn't wrapped up with too much wire so it didn't take long to get it off.

Once that was done Edward tossed the wire into a random corner of the room and dumped his wire cutters into his bag before he said "I'm going to untie you now."

The boy looked hopeful upon hearing that, but again he said nothing. Edward reached up and started to work on getting the rope untied. It took a while, but he was able to get all of the knots untied. The second the ropes were no longer holding him up the boy started to fall toward Edward. Edward let the rope fall to the floor as he quickly caught the child before he fell onto the ground face first. Edward slowly lowered himself and the boy down to the ground and tried his best to ignore the disgusting feeling of the wet blood slowly seeping into his clothing.

"I'm going to wrap up the worst of your wounds now, but when we get out of here and back to my hideout I'll treat all of your wounds." Edward told the boy as he pulled some bandages out of his backpack.

This time the boy slowly nodded his head to show that he understood. Edward paused for a second amazed that he got a response from the boy, but he quickly shoved his surprise to the side as he went to work patching the boy up. Edward was able to patch up the wounds that were beading heavily, and while he wanted to treat all of the kid's wounds right now he couldn't do that. It wasn't safe here. The Joker could come back at any moment and Edward wasn't going to risk getting caught. Besides, he didn't have everything that he needed to treat all of the kids wounds here. For now he could just take care of the worst of it.

Once Edward was done patching the kid up he said "I'm going to check and make sure that the idiotic court jester doesn't have any security cameras set up to record this. Once I'm done we will leave."

The boy nodded before he slowly curled up into the fetal position. Edward gave him a quick smile before he quickly checked the area over. He probably should have done this before he started to take care of Robin, but honestly it was starting to look like it didn't matter. There were no hidden cameras set up in the room, no secret recording equipment hidden away in some corner, and even the recording equipment that was out in the open was turned off. There was no security to speak of which surprised Edward greatly, but he didn't think about it too deeply.

He could think about it when they were at his hideout safe and sound. For now Edward had to focus on getting them out of this hellhole. Edward grabbed his bag and quickly slipped it on before he knelt down beside the second Robin.

"I'm going to pick you up now." Edward told him.

The boy nodded, and that was all the blue eyed man needed to see. He slowly picked the boy up so that he was holding him bridal style before he turned and quickly left the room. The boy was incredibly light. He was too light in fact. Joker must have been giving the kid enough food and water to survive, but it was clear to Edward that Joker was probably just giving him the bare minimal amount of food that he needed to survive. The second they were out of the room and in the tunnel system the boy seemed to slump a little in Edward's arms.

It was as if being out of the room was enough to calm the child. Not that Edward could blame him. After being in that small room for so long the kid probably thought he would never get to leave it. As he walked Edward noticed that the kid's arms were trembling a little. It almost looked like he wanted to lift his arms up, but didn't have the strength to do so. Whatever the kid was trying to do he must have eventually decided against it because he let out a small sigh as he laid his head down against Edward's chest.

"Thank you." The boy croaked out.

His voice was raspy and quiet which was the complete opposite of the cocky strong voice that Edward was used to. However, even though it was week sounding that small thanks was the most genuine heartfelt thanks that Edward had ever received in his life.

Edward just gave the kid a small smile as he said "You're welcome Robin."

Robin gave him a small genuine smile upon hearing Edward actually use his name instead of just calling him birdbrain or something like that. It was rather nice to see, and Edward was almost relived to see that the kid was still capable of smiling. Edward didn't know what he would do with the kid once he got him to his hideout. He also didn't know what the repercussions of saving Robin from the Joker would be. However, hearing that week thanks and getting a genuine smile to go along with it made it hard for Edward to regret saving Robin.

Dealing with the aftermath of all of this was going to be a pain, but right now he didn't care. He just saved a kid from being tortured some more by a mad clown. He saved a child from having to face more abuse. He did the one thing that the adults in his life never did for him when he was a child. He did the one thing that his damn mother could never do. In his own head that made him better than them. That made him better than his worthless mother. That alone made this whole thing worth it….