The sound of metal hitting skull rang through Jessie's ears alongside the Joker's maniacal laughter as she swung again and again. She lost vision suddenly in her right eye and heard a sickening squelch, feeling something wet and sticky joining the hot rivers of blood dripping down her face. Had her eye popped out of its socket? She saw something gray and gelatinous drip onto the ground beneath her from her skull and immediately felt sick. She just wanted this to end, wanted this torture to finally be over, she didn't care how. But the blows kept coming.

Eventually, all fell silent and cold, so cold. Jessie wanted to roll over, to wrap herself in her cape for warmth but she couldn't move, couldn't even force herself to breathe. She wondered if the traumatic brain injury, the cold, or the loss of oxygen would kill her first. Or was she already dead? No, she was in too much pain for that, and she could hear...something in the distance. Footsteps maybe? Whatever was left of her brain was trying desperately to form thoughts, allow her to recognize anything at all.

"Robin!" Batwoman. Brie.

Jessie could still recognize the voice of her mentor but she couldn't respond. She felt movement and then she was lying on her back though she could hardly see through the eye that was left, her vision fading far too fast.

"Robin, can you hear me?" Brie would have sounded calm to anyone else but Jessie could still hear the underlying panic as the woman's fingers pressed to the side of her neck, searching for a pulse. Jessie wondered dimly if she'd find one.

"This is going to hurt, okay? I'm sorry."

Brie laid her flat on the ground and Jessie wanted to protest at the new dull pain as she started chest compressions, cracking her ribs in the process. Didn't Brie see that it was too late? Even if her heart started again what good would that do? Half her brain was probably on the ground. She wanted to tell Brie to stop, to let her go, but she couldn't find the strength.

"Come back to me, Jessica. Come back. Keep fighting."

The words were spoken with a ferocity that could only come from a desperate woman and Jessie felt Brie tilt her head back as gently as she could and force air into her lungs. God, why didn't she just stop? Why was she trying so hard?

The next thing Jessie was aware of was a breathing tube forced down her throat and a surgeon's hands putting pressure on her head. No. No just let me go, Jessie thought, I'm already dead, I was gone, I could find peace. But the team couldn't hear her desperate pleas and she felt a tear slip out of her swollen eye.

"Suction."

No. No more suction, no more sutures, no more pain please, god-

"This eye is ruptured and the optic nerve is severed. There's no saving it. Scalpel."

No more. Please, no more.

But there was no respite, no escape and Jessie felt the surgeon's tools tearing apart her eye socket and face. She wanted to scream, to tell them to stop, to tell them they were hurting her, but she couldn't even move. She was pretty sure she had to be brain dead by now but the damn machines were keeping her body alive, keeping her tied here in agony.

She woke once more to Ricki and Brie arguing loudly in a hospital room. She could hear the beeping of the machines forcing her to stay alive.

"This isn't fair to her, Brie! She's suffering! You can't force her to live like this because of your fucking mistake!"

Ricki's words were harsh and biting, meant to hurt.

"I'm not forcing-"

"What the hell do you think is going to happen if you take her off of those machines? She's not going to live, she's not going to go back to being Robin, she's catatonic at fucking best! Even if she somehow manages to live without something forcing air into her lungs the surgeons said she's missing part of her damn brain and the rest is so bruised and swollen she's probably fucking brain dead! She's...she's not coming back from this, Brie."

The silence that followed was heavy, oppressive.

"She was my daughter." Brie said brokenly and Jessie felt her heart break for the woman she'd come to see as a mother.

"You have to let her go." Ricki sounded as close to crying as Jessie had ever heard her.

Jessie felt Brie's hand on her forehead, heard the choked sob as she leaned down to whisper something in Jessie's ear. She wanted to hear what it was that Brie said but she couldn't move, couldn't respond and she knew this was it. This was the end.