A.N Hello, this is an alternate take on TDKR I suppose but I'm not saying all events will be gospel. I was inspired to do this fic after discussing with a friend what would occur if Nolan's universe of The Joker and Bane were actually to come into contact with each other, plus I wanted to throw in one of my favourite characters from the comics. Basically this ramble is a disclaimer that this is AU and that I hope you enjoy it. Please review if you can, it's always good to know what people think.

Prologue

Everything before her was like looking at the world through a diamond, shining and distorted. The light was bright, blindingly bright, so much so that her eyes stung as she tried to grow accustomed to it. She moved her head from side to side, trying hard to focus, some moments there seemed to be a haziness around all the objects, then a second later she seemed to see double. There was a noise to the side of her, echoey and distant and what could she feel… pain? No. Stiffness, she was stiff and achey like she'd been left out overnight in the cold. Was the room warm? Yes. Oh how she wished she could focus better. She looked to the noise and saw a blurred shape, a person with their back to her. The person… a woman looked like she was on fire, squinting hard and focusing her gaze her sight started to rectify itself and she saw it was not fire but a shock of long, red curls.

"Where am I?" She croaked, her throat dry and her jaw stiff. The figure turned to reveal a beautiful woman, she wore some sort of green dress and her hands were covered to the elbow in violet coloured gloves. The woman moved nearer the bed and leant over, examining her.

"Harley, how are you feeling?" The woman asked, her voice a deep, velvety tone tinged with concern. Harley found something reassuring in this voice, though she panicked about her physical state, the woman did not seem a threat.

"Am I in hospital?"

"You're recovering from an accident; you've been unconscious for five weeks." The woman explained raising Harley's arm and checking her pulse. "Your heart's racing, try sitting up."

Harley did as she was bid and looking around the plain white room everything seemed a lot clearer, the light was less harsh to her fragile eyes and a few swallows relaxed her throat. Looking down she beheld she was in a white night dress and something about it seemed unnatural to her, the colour white… she didn't like it.

"How… how did you find me?"

"By accident… providence as it turned out. Your clothes are over there, can you not remember?"

"Can I walk?" Harley babbled, focusing on how deep the woman's lips were, were they crimson or purple? The woman noticed her gaze and she brushed some of her fiery hair from her forehead. "You're very beautiful."

"Thank you. My name is Pamela." She replied, taking hold of Harley's hand. "Let's see if you can stand. You had a fractured collar bone and a broken leg… you were half dead when I found you."

Harley did not expect to sit up with such ease, her legs dangled off the bed freely and she felt no pain. She looked about herself, confused, stretching out her arms.

"I'm not broken anymore."

"I fixed you."

"How?"

"I'll explain that some other time." Pamela said gently and she walked over to a nearby chair where a pile of what looked like rags lay. Cautiously Pamela brought them over to Harley and placed them on her lap. On first look Harley noticed bright red and black but then her eye was caught by another red, much deeper and its pattern was nothing linear, it was spattered about. Holding up the outfit in front of her she saw tears in the sleeve and across the abdomen. The material unfolded and hung right to the floor, it was some kind of tight fitting cat suit, half black, half red.

"I remember this, this feels like me." Harley said happily, hugging the outfit to her and inhaling, she could smell the blood on the fabric. Something about this familiar scent brought a manic feeling of elation in Harley's bones, it felt like home. As she looked back to Pamela she saw the beautiful creature held something else out to her, Harley took the small object into her hand and stared at it.

"You were clutching this tight in your hand, even unconscious it was hard to get it out of your grasp." Pamela explained carefully. Harley looked at it hard, it was a Joker card that was quite dog eared and had a few drops of blood on it. All this was nothing to Harley for she focused on the manic face of the Joker on the card and saw that around it, little love hearts were drawn.

Suddenly a sweep of sound seem to hit her like a wave and she jerked, it was the sound of laughter, shrill but not her own, yet it sounded familiar. It hurt her, it hurt her in her head and she dropped the card and clothes and they slid from her lap to the floor. Harley threw her hands over her ears and bent her head forward crying out, the peel of laughter continued. It sounded insane, like the laughter of some unrestrained tormenter, yet somehow it was as familiar to her as the scent of her own blood. Then another sound, a crack and the sound of something brittle shattering. Harley's head was held up by Pamela who held it in both hands searching her face, but Harley could not see her, her sight was blocked out by a colour… purple. Then all went black.

When light hurt her eyes again, it seemed identical to before; as her pupils searched wildly to focus she saw the flamed haired Pamela stood by her bed. Giving herself time to focus, Harley inhaled deeply and as her body calmed her sight returned. Pamela had Harley's left arm straight and was holding an injection containing a greeny brown serum in her hand. Harley jerked her arm a little out of reflex yet something about the way Pamela looked at her, such deep concern helped her relax again.

"This will make you stronger."

"How do you know?" Harley asked.

"I've been giving you it for some time; it's what has helped your bones heal so fast. Soon you will be better than your old self." Pamela replied with a smile, it seemed to have a twinge of cockiness in its curve that warmed Harley to her protector even more. Without protest she allowed Pamela to inject the serum into her arm and within a few second she felt a fizzing sensation all over her body.

"Why are you doing this?" Harley asked. "You don't know me."

"I knew who you were the moment I found you." She replied, dropping the syringe into a bin and walking towards the door. She reached out to flick the light switch. "You need to sleep again, its best."

"Will you be here when I wake up?"

"Always."

Harley closed her eyes and she heard the click of the light switch, all was black but then something crawled from the back of her mind and she called out.

"Mr J?"

There was no answer, Pamela was gone or had she heard she did not reply. A familiar drowsiness came over Harley again and soon she slumbered. If Harley dreamt she could not remember, the serum seemed to even shut out dreams and nightmares and when she awoke again she felt refreshed as though she had never had an accident.

Sitting up she looked around, the room was dark and she sensed she was alone. Climbing out of bed she fumbled to the door and found the light switch, the harsh light startling her but giving no pain. Looking around the room she saw a mirror in the far corner and something in Harley felt nervous about beholding her own face. As she approached she looked at the floor and stood a good, long moment before daring to raise her eyes. What a sight she beheld, it unsettled her immensely.

Her skin was peachy fresh and glowing, her eyes wide and bright and her hair seemed to have such a golden sheen to it that she wanted to be sick. It didn't seem right; it was as though she were staring at a stranger. Even her facial expression seemed alien to her, there was no confidence in it, no surety. Is this what Pamela had meant by 'better than your old self'? Harley panicked, her hands began to shake and she looked about her frightfully. Soon she saw a small cabinet and she stumbled towards it, her eyes pricking at her with frustrated tears. There were bottles of this and that which she threw idly in temper until at last she stumbled on something that would help. Talc. Unable to help it, Harley let out an unbridled chuckle that sounded like music to her own ears.

When Harley Quinn beheld her dry, white face in the mirror she felt slightly appeased, indeed she quite liked how bright and keen her eyes looked set in such a pallid frame. Her mind thought back to Pamela with those deep crimson lips and she despaired at her own rosy pink ones. Something in her laughed again, a little harder this time and her eyes turned back to the bin that she had seen Pamela throw the syringe in. Fishing it out she brought it to the mirror, using the needle end she pricked her own finger and she squeezed out a large drop of blood. Slowly she ran it over her own lips, not caring if she went slightly over. Looking at herself again she was temporarily satisfied, she could do more later.

Wandering from the room with neither pain nor stiffness, Harley felt a new sense of possibility and somehow felt her old self. She could not remember how she came to be here but there was such a buzz of excitement in her stomach and her mind raced with numerous thoughts. Walking down the corridor she slowly opened the door revealing a large room, so large it seemed almost like a warehouse.

The place was filled with sunlight, its glass ceiling allowing all the warm rays of daylight to dance on the ground below. But it was not the sun which amazed Harley, it was the rows and rows of plants of all kinds stretching up their arms towards the warm rays. There were buds and leaves of every colour, strong vines that twisted round beams. Looking up Harley could see there was some kind of gallery above but the plants blocked a lot of her view, indeed she could not see the bottom of the room. It was a spectacular sight and the aroma was breath taking, she could not identify one plant known to her. Just who was this Pamela?

Then as she stood in awe she heard voices echoing from down the room, one of them was a feminine velvet tone that she knew to be Pamela's. The voices were clear but the words were not and Harley decided to follow the sound to find their origin. She was halfway down one of the alleys formed by arching plantlife when a large purple bud busting with deep, red seeds caught her eye. Hypnotically she moved towards it, unable to stop herself, every sense seemed to fail in all but focus of it and she walked so blind she did not see the large root that arched not far in front.

Harley's fall felt like slow motion, her eyes still mesmerised by the bud, it was only when a strong grip was felt on her arm that the spell was broken. Suddenly everything seemed to move at lightning speed and she felt herself flung round, her throat gripped in an agonizing vice grip and she was lifted from the floor into the blinding sunlight. Her breath could barely pass through her wind pipe and she started to kick and struggled against that which held her, but the grip only intensified and she felt herself jerked forwards.

With the sun no longer blinding her, blocked as it was by the large shape in front, Harley's eyes focused on her assailant. What she beheld made her cease to struggle as she gazed at the large, dominating form of a man who's thick, muscular arm held her above him with seemingly no effort. But her eyes travelled up the arm to the face and she could not help but give a croak of a cry. The head was large like the body, and fastened over it was a jet black mask. She could hear the rasping breath emitting from his huge chest and she willed herself to seem less afraid, but it was hard.

Rushed footsteps sounded behind her as the giant of a man looked upon her, the meaning in his eyes vowing not to be read.

"Don't hurt her!" Pamela cried and Harley saw her friends arm rest gently on the free one of her attacker. The man turned his head and looked from Pamela's hand up to her face and Harley saw how she cautiously withdrew it and let it fall limply at her side.

"Well then Ivy…" he said, his voice a deep, distorted boom as he lowered Harley to the ground, though his hand remained about her throat. "Introduce us."

"Harley… this is Bane… he's been looking for you."