Alfred looked from Bruce to the man manacled to the bars. "We're as ready as we'll ever be." He looked up at the IV bag of saline and the smaller pouch filled with a homemade Pentothal mixture. "It's as strong as I dared make it. If you don't get any answers with that, I think it's safe to say, you won't." Alfred leaned over and checked the tubing one last time, "Are you sure you want to do this, Master Bruce?"

"Like you said, Alfred, I have to remember who I'm dealing with and not be swayed by my feelings in all this. I'm done being polite."

"Po.. lite," the Joker mumbled, his head fighting to rise. "Good manners cost nothing," he added.

Bruce nodded at Alfred. "I'll take it from here." He reached around his brother and gave the cuffs on his hands a tug and then tugged at the chain around the chair holding it secure to the bars. "We're good."

"Good luck," the old man offered then turned and left the cell.

The Joker's head came up and this time it stayed up. His eyes were still slightly unfocused and his words slurred. "Did you hit me in the head with a brick? It kinda feels like you did. Why didn't I get a brick? Seems only fair. I want a cinder block."

"Shut up." Bruce reached up and turned the small valves on the IV bags. "You've been sedated. I'm administrating a Pentothal solution. Then when you're ready, I'm going to ask you some questions and you will answer them."

"You think so? Ha!" Joker shook his head like a dog. "You know, I have these weird reactions to drugs. They never seem to work the way they should. It's just ca...razzee."

"Yeah?" Bruce grabbed the Joker under the chin and wrenched his head back. He took a small light and shined into each eye in turn. "I'm willing to risk it. How about you?"

Joker hummed lightly. "I've got no immediate plans. But you better get it right the first time, cause there won't be a second."

"I plan to," Bruce agreed. "So why don't you just relax and enjoy the ride."

"I always do, Bro. I always do. Are we still gonna play truth or dare? Can we, huh? Can we? Tell me about mommy and daddy? Did they wub me?"

Joker started to laugh. The sound made Bruce want to punch him until he couldn't laugh anymore. He wasn't sure he'd be able to stop this time. But that wouldn't get him what he needed. Joker was right. He'd already tried that once and it got him exactly nowhere.

"Wheee..."

Bruce leaned in and looked into the Joker's eyes again. They had dilated. He was as ready as he would ever be. He took a deep breath and turned on the small digital recorder in his pocket. "So let's start with something easy. What's your name?"

"Ohhh," the Joker leaned his head back. "Floaty. I got the good stuff. Call me, Joker."

Bruce pursed his lips. He needed to remember to keep the questions succinct. "What name did you use before you came to Gotham?"

"I told you. I'm the Joker."

"Joker isn't a name." Though, it most certainly described him well.

"Only people have names. I'm much, much, more than that. You already know it, you just don't want to accept it."

"If you're not a person then what are you?"

"I am the personification of chaos."

"Who told you that? Gave you that identity?" The Joker was right. He hadn't been able to really hear him when they talked at the MCU. He was too angry and disgusted. But things were different now. He had a new perspective. Listening to the Joker now, he could hear the indoctrination. The League was all about symbols, rituals, and belief.

"What?" The Joker started to giggle. "Oh, Brucey. What am I gonna do with you? Can't see the forest for the trees. Gonna have to drop a log on your head."

What had they done to his brother to turn him into this mockery of a man? Whatever horrors he had imagined for his brother if the truth had been he'd been sold into sexual slavery, the idea that the League had raised him was just as bad if not worse.

"Did you know a man called Ra's Al Ghul? Did he send you to Gotham?"

The Joker's unfocused eyes sharpened suddenly, "Isn't that a pasta dish?" he looked up at the IV bags over his head, "No one sends me anywhere. I follow the smell."

"This is important. I need you to concentrate. The League of Shadows and their leader Ra's Al Ghul, you came to Gotham with them, didn't you."

The Joker's head lolled to one side. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Bats. Pasta and a bowling league called Shadows? I'm confused."

His responses were way too cohesive. Either the drugs weren't working as well as he hoped… or the man was telling the truth. It had to be the former. Joker had even said that drugs didn't work well on him. "I want you to close your eyes and take a slow, deep breath."

"What's that?" The Joker grinned but he did as Bruce requested. "Nap time?"

"Just relax. You don't have to worry about Ra's anymore. He's dead and whatever plan he had for Gotham is dead as well. You can stop. You can rest."

The Joker shook his head, "Chaos never rests. Sometimes it pauses to enjoy the devastation but it never rests."

How would intense conditioning manifest? There had to be a way to get him to acknowledge the connection. If there is one. There had to be. It was the only thing that made sense. All the rest was just utter madness.

"Tell me how you got to Gotham."

"The bus," Joker guffawed. "Why is this so important to you?" The slur in his speech was gone and his eyes held too much awareness for someone so drugged. "Why do you care so much about my past? Or do you feel guilty about that too? Tell me, Bats. Come on. What was it about that night that weighs so heavy on the old noodle? Hmm? You can tell me. We're fam..a..lee."

Bruce took a deep breath. "I don't know how you're able to resist the drugs but I will get my answers." He pulled a syringe from his pocket. It was a big risk. While the Joker was obviously drug resistant, it would be hard to tell where the tipping point was... until it was too late. He could easily overdose. But if he didn't do this, the Joker would continue to play him. He needed to understand so badly. Something about all this death and destruction had to make sense. It had to, for the sake of his own sanity.

Bruce took hold of the IV tubing at the junction and inserted the needle into the stopper. The bluish fluid traced its way down the line. The bound man didn't even blink as the solution entered his arm. "Let's try this again, shall we?"

The Joker seemed to be reading him like an open book. "You can't make sense of chaos and if you try, you'll just go mad... der, hee. We're all mad here. Aren't we, Bruce? Just one bad day, that's all it takes. You even know the precise moment when it happens. Of course, there's nothing you can do about it. By then, it's too late. And you just don't care anymore. You welcome it."

Bruce crossed his arms. "Always the philosopher. So that's what happened to you? One bad day?"

"The truth isn't absolute. It isn't all things to all people. It's all a matter of perspective."

"Bullshit. What version of your backstory is the truth, Joker? Do you even know?"

"They're all the truth," the scarred man grinned.

"Even the lies?"

"Especially, the lies." Joker's head lolled forward. "Whoa. I'm on fucking Mars."

"Why did you come to Gotham?" Patience, the drugs would work.

"I..." the Joker's eyes seemed to be following something in the distance that wasn't there. "I came here because of you, Silly. I already told you that. I wanted to meet you."

There, that was better. "Did you know about the familial connection?"

Joker scrunched up his face, "What's whatey, what... I knew we were family, Bats. Sympatico. I could feel it.. but I didn't know it was genetic if that's what you're asking." He stuck out his tongue like he was trying to catch a snowflake. His eyes still tracked whatever hallucinations the drug was providing. "You should bottle this shit. It's spectacular."

"Thanks. Where did you come from? Where were you before you came to Gotham?"

"Where? That was.. such.. a long time ago," Joker mouthed dreamily. "I don't.. remember."

"It was two years ago. I wouldn't call that a long time. You can remember."

"No. It was a long time. Eternity. So many places. Desert and mountains. So cold and always wet. I hated the way the sun scorched my eyes. Prickling on my skin."

A nonsensical answer. This could be evidence of conditioning as well. Or it could be evidence of severe mental aberration. Or both. "Who was with you?"

"Chaos is always with me. Where one ends the other begins. Ouroboros. We are each other. But now I have you." There was something so strange in the clown's eyes.

Bruce paused, suddenly unsure. More League indoctrination, that's all it was. He'd seen firsthand what they were capable of doing to the minds of men. "Listen to what I'm asking you. Before you came to Gotham. You weren't alone. Someone had to be helping you. Doing things for you."

"Just my minions. They never turned purple though. I like purple." Joker laughed. "I think, I killed them all. There was a lot of blood. I get a little grumpy in the heat."

"What about when it's cold?"

That brought the Joker's attention into focus. There was something so lost about his expression. "When it's cold, everything is gray. So very gray. But you can feel your way along the walls. It's quiet in the dark. They thought they could make chaos sleep. But I told you. Chaos never rests. I'm so tired."

"Who are.. they? Who won't let you rest?" A classic conditioning technique was to keep the subject awake for days on end. It didn't take long for a person to succumb to madness. The only question was when and how much. The longer the torture had been going on, the less likely it would be that his brother could recover himself. Given what he'd seen so far, he didn't have a lot of hope. He only hoped that this information would help Dr. Bradshaw with his treatment.

The Joker's eyes closed and his head tipped forward. "Joker, answer the question. Who thought they could make chaos sleep?" He needed a starting point. The League was everywhere. They had facilities all over the world, in a hundred countries. There would be a record somewhere and he would find it. "You need to stay awake for just a few minutes longer. You need to tell me who kept you in the cold and dark."

The Joker's head shot up, "You mean besides you?" He clucked his tongue. "Whew. That was quite the ride. All three minutes of it," his gaze was sharp and focused. He cocked his head, "I told you the truth but you don't want to hear it."

That was impossible. There was no way that the added drug would work through his system in less than a few hours and the Pentothal solution was still running. "If you want me to believe you then give me something that I can work with, I deal with facts. Not the ravings of a lunatic."

"You know, I don't really give a twirling fuck what you believe. By the time you realize that I was telling the truth, it will be too late for you." The Joker threw his head back, a dreamy smile on his face. "This city is my ball of string now. I will unravel it. You want facts, Brother? Here's a fact for you. I infect people. Everyone I touch will be changed in one way or the other. Mark my words. It's gonna get interesting around here."

"Interesting isn't the word I would use."

Harvey Dent was just an appetizer. There are others already touched by chaos. They will spread through this city like a virus. There's no cure. You're already infected, Bats. It's only a matter of time before you succumb like all the rest." The Joker leaned forward, "And when you surrender, the city will fall. All the liars and hypocrites will get eaten and I'll be there to laugh."

Listening to the Joker now and putting it in context, the insane rhetoric could easily be the effects of conditioning. Once the mind breaks, it tries to make sense of the chaos in any way it can. Delusion, plain and simple. "You understand that I won't allow that to happen? I will fight for this city and its people."

"I wouldn't have it any other way. I think I'll take a nap now." His eyes slid closed.

"Joker? Can you hear me?" Bruce leaned over and gave the clown's shoulder a little shake. His head bobbed lightly and he mumbled. Well, at least he hadn't over dosed. But it wasn't much of a start. Jack hadn't really confirmed anything but he at least knew that his words were truth and not just another game.