For the next few days, Kevin thought about what Babs told him, regarding what Joker did to her and her father. It was frightening and despicable. But how could Joker be alive? He'd have to talk to Bruce about it. One day, while Bruce was at the Batcave on the computer, Kevin walked in. "Hey Dad, there's been something on my mind lately."

"What is it son?" Bruce asked, looking at Kevin. He still spoke in his Batman voice. "It's The Joker..." said Kevin, rubbing the back of his neck. He knew this would be uncomfortable to talk about with Bruce. "What about him?" Bruce asked, not getting angry. He was willing to listen to what his son had to say. "Is he dead, or is he still alive?" Kevin asked, rubbing his head. "The Joker has been notorious for supposedly dying, only to come back a year or less later," said Bruce, "right when I think I've seen the last of him, he comes back." Bruce thought of the many times he'd seen Joker die. He'd never stay dead.

https://youtu.be/Kg4qG2ZswOA

A/N: Ignore the deaths from Batman Beyond, The Dark Knight Returns, and Injustice.

"That's impossible," said Kevin, "unless the Devil's got a restraining order against him." Bruce smirked and said, "Honestly, that wouldn't surprise me. But why do you say the idea of Joker not being dead is impossible? Take it from all of us. He's made his comebacks very... public." Kevin sighed and said, "Mom would probably be able to explain it better than me. Is the Batcomputer capable of doing face-chatting?" Bruce typed on the computer and said, "I can make it possible." A few minutes later, he contacted Andrea on the Batcomputer. Andrea answered, and she was seen on the computer screen. "Hello?" she asked. "Hey Mom," said Kevin as he waved at her. Andrea smiled and said, "Hey Kevin! It's good to see you." She saw Bruce, and her eyes widened in surprise. "Bruce?" she asked, having not spoken to him in 25 years. "Hello Andrea," said Bruce as he looked at her. "It's nice to see you again Bruce," said Andrea, "you've certainly taken good care of yourself." Bruce nodded and said, "You as well. You look good." Andrea giggled and said, "You're still flattering Bruce. Now what brings my two favorite men to want to call me?"

"I found out a few things Mom," said Kevin. "Like what?" asked Andrea. "According to Dad, The Joker's still alive," said Kevin. Andrea's eyes widened and said, "What?!?!?! That's impossible! I mean, sure, a lot of your allies die and come back Bruce, but how can Joker still be alive after 25 years?"

"The Joker's unpredictable Andrea," said Bruce, "right when I thought he was dead, he proved me wrong. He's crippled Barbara, and he murdered my ward, Jason Todd. Now Kevin says you can explain why he doubts Joker is still alive." Andrea sighed and said, "When I converted to Catholicism, I confessed my sins as The Phantasm to a priest. He was sworn by God to never tell anyone this secret, and he hasn't since. Please promise you won't tell anyone, unless it's your extended family Bruce." He nodded and said, "You have our word Andrea. This conversation will never leave this cave." Andrea did a sign of the cross and said, "The Joker's real name was Jack Napier, the Red Hood's hitman. After I pulled my disappearing act with the hitman that murdered my father, I was at the bottom of that Future Amusement Park with that clown. There were so many ways I wanted to murder him after what he did to my father. I snapped his neck, and left him for dead. I found out his corpse burnt down after the amusement park exploded. So yeah, I killed Joker; or in this case Jack Napier, and I am 100% sure he's stayed dead. Unless some other guy that looks and sounds like him started running around like Joker after that." Kevin rubbed his chin in a pondering manner the same way Bruce did. "That doesn't sound impossible Mom," said Kevin. "Like there are two Jokers?" asked Bruce. "Either that, or the Devil's got a restraining order against him," joked Andrea. "I can see where Kevin got that joke from," said Bruce, "I'm going to look into this more Andrea."

"Alright, good luck Bruce," said Andrea, "I'm really sorry to hear about what happened to Barbara and Jason. You take care now Bruce." He nodded and said, "I will Andrea. It was good seeing you again." Andrea smiled and said, "You too. I love you Kevin."

"Love you too Mom," said Kevin as he waved at her, "bye!" Bruce then hung up and started typing on his computer. He found footage from the incident at ACE Chemicals when the Red Hood Gang tried to rob the Playing Card Company. "You see this son?" Bruce asked as he saw the two goons get shot down as the Red Hood leader started running away. "Yeah, that's the night you botched the Red Hood's heist," said Kevin, "it was your first year as Batman, and that would be the last we'd see of the Red Hood gang after that because they disbanded." Bruce nodded and said, "Impressive. Every word in that sentence was correct Kevin. But during that fateful night, I inadvertently created a monster. The Joker was born that day." Bruce then got out a picture of The Red Hood Gang, which included a picture of Jack Napier, the man that would become The Joker. Bruce had added a smile to the hitman on purpose.

Bruce then searched a file on former employees of ACE Chemicals. One of them was an employee named Arthur Fleck. He and the hitman looked just like The Joker, if they didn't have any makeup or green hair! "Why would Arthur Fleck join the Red Hood Gang?" asked Kevin. "A good man will do anything to make ends meet for his family," stated Bruce as he looked at Fleck's file and found out about Jeannie and the baby, "even if it means doing one bad thing. Had I known better, I would've offered Fleck a job at Wayne Enterprises. Help make ends meet for him and his wife."

"Do you think Jack Napier and Arthur Fleck were in cahoots with each other?" deduced Kevin. "It sounds plausible," said Bruce, "the supposed two Jokers looked and sounded exactly alike. It wouldn't surprise me if Fleck convinced Napier to be like him. It would explain why Joker never stayed in Arkham for so long. It's so convoluted... There was only one time I truly thought Joker was dead. It was during my first meeting with Superman 10 years ago. He stole Lex Luthor's plane and then the plane exploded with him in it. Nobody could survive that. Not even Joker until a year later."

"Unless, what if Joker had a clone?" asked Kevin. "Three Jokers?" asked Bruce, "there's only one laboratory capable of cloning. Cadmus Labs..." Alfred walked in and said, "Master Bruce, I don't wish to interrupt your bonding time with Kevin, but you have a meeting with Derek Powers." Bruce stood up and said, "Thank you Alfred. I have to go Kevin. Perhaps you can contact Barbara about this." Kevin nodded and said, "Yeah, I think I'll do that." Once Bruce and Alfred were gone, Kevin decided to call Barbara. She picked up the phone because she wasn't doing a lot that day, so she wasn't busy. At the moment, she was reading something in her room but she happily picked up and asked, "Hey Kevin."

"Hey Barbara, glad you could pick up," said Kevin. Barbara shrugged and said, "Yeah, I wasn't doing anything. What's up?"

"Can you come over to the Batcave?" Kevin asked, "I might need your computer skills for something."

"Yeah, sure." Barbara said, getting slightly worried. "What do you need specifically? I'm sure Tim can help you with that while I get there."

"Well Tim's with Stephanie," said Kevin, "and I figured you might be able to hack into Cadmus. I can trust you with what I'll tell you at the Batcave." Barbara looked intrigued. "Cadmus..?" She asked and stood up, closing her book. "Suit or no?"

"You don't have to bring your suit if you don't want to," Kevin said on the phone. "Alright. Then I'll see you there." She told him and grabbed her motorcycle and sped off with all the things necessary for the Cadmus hack. Kevin smiled, glad to know he could count on Barbara. In less than half an hour Barbara had made it to the Batcave. She took her helmet off and made her way over to Kevin. "Good to see you Babs. Alright, I thought about what you said regarding The Joker, and there's some things Dad and I found out," said Kevin. He had a feeling Barbara would flip when she found out. "What did you find out?" She asked him hesitantly. "I only said he shot me, that was all over the news wasn't it?"

"Yeah," said Kevin, "but it turns out... There may be more than one Joker. Maybe three. These are the first two." He showed Barbara the images of Arthur Fleck and Jack Napier. They both looked alike. One could mistake them for look-alike twins. Babs narrowed her eyes at them. "Kevin... you're sure they're two different people?" She asked him as she observed both images. Kevin pointed at Arthur and said, "That man is Arthur Fleck. He was the Red Hood that Dad inadvertently turned into Joker." He pointed at the hitman and said, "That was Jack Napier, the hitman who killed my grandfather. You'd be forgiven for thinking they're twins. They're different though. Mom could confirm it." Barbara observed further, there were a few very minor differences that she recognized. "I can definitely tell which one's Arthur Fleck and which one's Napier," said Barbara. "I believe you," said Kevin, "especially since Mom killed the hitman." He sighed, knowing this would shock Barbara. She wasn't actually shocked, it was the Phantasm he talked about, but she was extremely confused. "She killed him? When?" asked Barbara. "25 years ago," confirmed Kevin, "she snapped his neck. Arthur must've taken over afterwards. Did Dad tell you about when he first met Superman?"

"He told me very little. Bruce wasn't in the best mood that night," she said as she crossed her arms. "What do Napier and Fleck have anything to do with this?"

"Dad and I thought Arthur met his demise in Metropolis after crashing an exploding plane," said Kevin, "nobody can survive that. It's logically impossible. That's where the third Joker comes in."

"I'm unsure about that plane. It may be logically impossible but it's the Joker we're talking about here and Joker isn't exactly logical," stated Barbara. Suddenly, she began to tense up. "A third Joker?"

"What if Arthur died?" Kevin asked, "And what if the third Joker was a clone? There is only one laboratory capable of creating a clone successfully." Barbara nodded and said, "Ah. Yes, Cadmus. So you want me to hack into their systems and check if they ever did a cloning sequence on Arthur Fleck." Kevin nodded and said, "Exactly. It may answer some questions."

"I can do that," she said and started typing quickly. Kevin nodded, looking at Arthur and the hitman. "How did you find out about this?" Barbara asked as she continued to work, finding it easy, for now. "Well, when I was 13, Mom thought it was time I found out the truth," explained Kevin, "she told me everything, including that hitman. All my life, I thought he was dead..." He noticed a file that said Project Batman Beyond. It looked interesting. There was also a file that said 1/22/2008. "Wait, that was a month before Joker and Quinn went to Metropolis!" Kevin realized, "Click on that!" Barbara looked at the file and clicked it. Her eyes scanned the contents of the file in surprise. "There's footage," said Kevin, "let's look at that."

Babs pulled up the video and her features muddled together in a mix of emotions. In the video, Joker was cackling as he was creating a clone of himself. "Cadmus tech that has my clone have my memories and mannerisms?" he said, "What'll they think up next? Harley and Batsy won't be able to tell the difference!" He continued to cackle as the clone opened his eyes. "IT'S ALIVE! IT'S ALIVE! IT'S ALIVE!" he laughed madly, as if this was Frankenstein. "Shit, this is heavy..." said Kevin as he did the sign of the cross and held Barbara's hand, for her sake. Babs didn't react to his touch but her eyes were closed with anger, a different type of anger than when they had first seen each other, a more vicious, fearful anger. "Damn it," she growled, "does Bruce know?"

"He didn't know either," confirmed Kevin, "but if my hypothesis is correct, after Joker played Victor Frankenstein, he died in Metropolis. After that, the clone must have escaped Cadmus... and he's been on a rampage since... That clone was the one who hurt you and killed Jason."

Barbara looked at him and said, "But that was years ago..." She gave a pondering look, her fist on her chin and asked, "How has Bruce not figured this out?" Her knuckles lay on her lips, pondering. "Maybe the tech was that good," assumed Kevin, "Arthur wanted to fool us all, even Dad. I guess Fleck got the last laugh. We have to tell the Bat Family..."

"We can tell Bruce and Alfred, not Tim though. I don't know how he'll react. After all, he is Jason's replacement," stated Barbara, "I can't go after Joker. I don't think I can go at all. It's too personal." Kevin nodded and said, "I understand. I wouldn't want to go near him either. Still, three Jokers? Remind me to never get into a conspiracy like that again."

"Ugh, I don't even want to look at that again," she groaned and closed all the files and rubbed her eyes, screwing them shut. "Each one worse than the last..." she muttered. "I agree," said Kevin, "no matter what, he screwed all of us... Sorry for bringing all this up." Barbara gave a sympathetic smile and said, "It's fine. I'm glad you brought this up... Now we know how he survived everything we threw at him."

"Now we know better," said Kevin, "if the likes of Mary Shelley and Michael Crichton taught us anything, it's that we shouldn't play God. But some fools just won't listen." Barbara rolled her eyes and said, "Try telling that to Dick. He has the nerve to test everyone and everything..." Kevin smirked and said, "Let's just hope he doesn't tempt fate and say those six infamous words." Barbara crossed her arms and said, "God, now I know how Dinah feels... Shit."

"How about we leave the Batcave?" offered Kevin, "I could make us cookies." Barbara gave a look of curiosity and asked, "You bake?" She was considering his offer. "Oh yeah," said Kevin, "I bake, cook, fry, grill. I love to make food. Not to brag or anything." He chuckled. "No it's fine. I'm not the best cook so having someone in the family other than Alfred is nice." Barbara slightly laughed. Kevin smiled at her as they left the Batcave, feeling a sense of closure on the three Jokers conspiracy.