"What happened, Jason?" Barbara asked with a frown. "Are you okay? Do you remember what happened before you passed out?"
"The two of us found the master switch for the protective device, but that thing was a huge machine, so we decided to remove its core and take it back to the Batcave. We were halfway through dismantling it when he passed out," Robin said.
"I think he was just too tired," Nightwing said. "I saw him wandering around Gotham in the middle of the night instead of sleeping more than once. That's what happens when you stay up too late."
"Shut up!" the Arkham Knight roared, so loudly that everyone around him jumped.
Barbara immediately noticed something was wrong with Jason. She stopped Nightwing and Robin from questioning him further, instead softening her tone and doing her best to use her feminine mannerisms to convey that she meant no harm.
"Don't be afraid, Jason. You're home now. We're all here with you, and we won't let anyone hurt you."
The Arkham Knight waved his hands vigorously. He knew Barbara had misunderstood, thinking his trauma disorder had flared up, but that was not what this was at all. He took a deep breath, accepted the glass Alfred handed him, gulped down a large cup of water, and said,
"No, it's not me. It's Batman. Something happened to Batman. He's badly hurt, and he's completely trapped."
"How could you know anything about Batman?"
The Arkham Knight sighed and finally said, "Last night, a strange alien creature entered my body. It called itself a Symbiote."
"And Batman has one inside him too. They're related as parent and offspring. Through a special neurotransmitter, they can sense each other's condition and even communicate."
"The one inside me said earlier that it couldn't sense the