A/N: I've been streaming a lot of Batman Arkham Knight of Twitch lately, so a story was going to come up sooner or later. This is what I decided on. It was a rather interesting idea that I had, so I decided to build on this. Hope you enjoy it.
Batman stood in front of his Batcomputer in the Movie Studios with his arms on the edges of the computer. He couldn't remember the last time he sat down. Or rested. This was a common thing during nights like this. He'd remember as soon as he finally finished what he needed to do.
His body ached, but only in the slightest. He never let himself hurt more than he could control. Most of them time, it worked well. Not after tonight. Even with nights like this. But this night had turned out to be something far different than what he had planned. Or could even imagine.
He was Bruce Wayne. Well, of course he knew that. The most important and most dangerous thing was that the whole world knew. Thanks to Scarecrow and his irritating desire to prove his points. Maybe if hadn't acted on paranoia and kept Robin out of the cell, he could've preserved his identity. At the very least, he was happy that Jason had somewhat managed to get over his anger at him. But there was something that he couldn't change. Not the killing. He knew that was there ever since he used to be Robin. No, he meant the fractures that would remain in his mind of what Joker did to him.
"Your friends become a target the moment they commit to your cause." Scarecrow had gone into a surplus amount of speeches like this when he was gliding or driving around the city. Some of them had somewhat valid points. Many of them were stupid. Crane was a genius, but he did tend to say rather idiotic things. At the very least, Scarecrow's Toxin wouldn't ever work on him again. But after this, did he even need to find out anymore?
There was a gentle noise that his ears that his ears picked up. The pointy ears kind of weren't just for show, because they did work quite well. They came with speakers with a highly sensitive radio that picked up sound from distances further than any normal ears were capable of, filtering that noise into his own ears. It made knowing when thugs were coming up behind him far easier. Not to mention picking up on communications.
The noise that he heard didn't arise again, so he returned to typing on the computer. His only goal was to use the Batwing to get a mark on the last of the Militia's settlements here in Gotham. They wouldn't infect this city any longer than he would allow. Maybe he would also lure Deathstroke out as well. Riddler could wait. After Arkham City, the man had become more of a very irritating errand rather than an intellectual rival. Sort of like having to go to work at a desk job or anything of the sort.
Then there was the noise again, but louder. Batman gave pause again to listen for it again, but this time it persisted. Now he had a location of where it was coming from. Quinn's cell. So, in order to continue waiting for the Batwing in some semblance of peace, he moved over to see what was wrong. Rather, the strange noise was Harley laying down on her bunk looking up at the ceiling. By the noise and the way she looked, she was incredibly bored. Somewhat understandable considering there was literally nothing in the cell except a bed with only a minor bit of comfort, no pillow, and a few medical machines. That was it.
"Hey, B-Man!" Harley said, sitting up after finally noticing that he was standing at the front of the cell. "You got anything entertaining around here to do?"
There was a TV, but he never cut them on. He was never sure why. He sure there were mildly irritating(but more than likely funny to the Jokers and Harley) sitcoms that would keep them more entertained and less focused on him when he had to run tests. Before tonight, he was actually here helping Tim with the cure. Now there actually was no cure. He had just locked Joker in the furthest corners of his mind. Hopefully, he was squashed and would never reappear again.
"The cells weren't exactly made for your entertainment Quinn," Batman said in the driest voice that ever existed. He always took these rather lax tones when it came to criminals. Or rather, Quinn was more of a victim from the Joker than a criminal in her own right. Her own insanity is what turned her from Quinzel to Quinn.
"You have a TV! Put something on that! At least the cells back in the Asylum were actually comfy!" Harley exclaimed in an irritated tone. Batman just stared at her as stoically as usual before another idea crossed his mind.
There were times where he considered telling Quinn what actually happened to Joker. More or less to get rid of this obsessive fixation she had on him. It almost got him killed back in Arkham City as well as Robin. During Arkham City and tonight. Not to mention cops that had gotten in the way.
But he knew there were risks to that. Quinn had been relatively quiet since her siege in Arkham City failed. There had been no sightings of or even the slightest of events that suggested her ever since. If he told her what happened to Joker, and she achieved the closure(that is if she believed him) that she needed, or in some peoples' eyes, wanted, then she would focus her time, efforts, and very violent nature on the rest of Gotham.
"Then again, don't forget, that will happen anyway once you disappear," his mind reminded him. His mind was quite a complex thing just like everyone else's, but there felt like there was an extra layer of something that helped him think. Maybe it was the photographic memory that he possessed, but there was always something in him that made him think unnaturally quick. Warrior's instinct maybe? The idea nearly made Batman mentally snort. Very nearly.
"One moment," Batman said, walking away from the cell. He then put his hand under his chin in thought. He was still thoughtfully planning it over. His disappearance wouldn't change what Quinn would do after he was gone, but maybe, just maybe if he gave her an explanation, he would be able to control it better. Maybe he might put in her the same solitude that she had before. But on another hand, she would have less of a purpose to live. When he thought about it, he would rather she take care of herself rather than her take care of dozens of citizens. It was part of his moral code to save anyone he could, but after tonight, he really wouldn't be able to do much of that. Not as Batman at least. His decision was made.
Batman walked in front of the cell and hit the button that opened the door before walking inside. Harley looked surprised that Batman was standing in front of her, his stolid look still on his face. But something about his body language seemed... off more than usual. She may not have been as bright as Mistah J, but she was still a psychologist. She still knew how people operated in the brain somewhat. It's how she was able to tell if anyone was a traitor or about to be one.(A/N: There's a story on the game about that) Simply from the way they acted. But she still had yet to figure Bats out. He was as much as an unknown as if he wasn't actually there!
"There's something you should know. To be quite honest, it has been a long time coming," Batman said evenly. Harley's eyes narrowed in suspicion. She knew that tone. It was one of those tones that those authority figures used when they told em about- Mistah J! Her face immediately hardened when she came to that realization.
"I don't need you to tell me anything! I know you killed my Mistah J! People believe that you didn't do it, but you hated him. You were jealous of him! Of course it was you!" she spat at him.
"If men were convicted of murder by simply carrying a body out, then policemen all over the world would be convicted murderers," Batman said with one of his driest tones.
"They might... be," Harley said, trailing off on the last word. No one had laid it down in front of her that simple. The dumbasses that she worked with certainly didn't. But they were all she had as far as getting her revenge on B-Man. But at the very least, what he was suggesting, he was innocent of killing her beloved. If she heard his story and she believed him, she wanted the name of whoever did deny Mistah J his ability to live. She'd carve a smile on their faces after she carved their bodies until they resembled pumpkins done over by a toddler with scissors. She had gotten a tiny bit good at the imagery.
"Interesting hypothesis doctor. Truly brilliant," Batman said just as dryly as before. But Harley raised an eyebrow. As dry as he sounded, was that a joke said by Batman? It was a very sarcastic one on her expense, but it was still a joke! This is why she could never figure him out! He did strange things like this!
"Alright, then if you didn't kill him, because you want people to believe that you don't kill, then what happened to him?" Harley asked.
"I don't kill. My purpose is to save lives. As I have done for you, your beloved Joker, and many other criminals. What would I have to gain by saving his life so many times only to kill him last minute?" Batman questioned.
There Harley was definitely beat. There were many times that she was thrown out of the way of an explosion, gunfire, a stray Joker gas accident on her part by B-Man. And Mistah J told her of his first Christmas with him, which was when he first met him. Before he went to Blackgate and before she met him(which was a memory she would cherish forever), he told her about how Joker had been setting up these mercenaries to kill the Bat. But he saved his life when a fall that would've surely killed him was broken by a certain vigilante with a cowl. That was then Mistah J realized how important Batman was. How crucial he was to the fun of everything they did. That was why Mistah J didn't kill Batman either. Well, go for plans that were more seriously vicious on him than the people that got in his way.
"Then how did he die then if you didn't kill him?!" Harley yelled him. Despite the circumstances that were all in Batman's favor, her tone was angry and demanded. But despite herself, desperation wormed its way in there too. She had stuck with the story for the longest that Batman killed him because he carried his body out. Now, that he actually bothered to say something, she wasn't all that sure.
"As you already know, we were in the Monarch Theater. Joker was working with Clayface to keep up a type of deception against me, and I was forced to fight him," Batman said before he was interrupted.
"Ha-ha! Yeah, I remember that! Mistah J managed to fool the World's Greatest Detective!" Harley said in a joyful tone of voice. Then she noticed the somewhat irritated look on B-Man's face, and she figured interrupting may not have been the greatest idea. But he simply grunted impatiently before continuing.
"With the bombs Joker had setup, the fight was forced underground. I finished Clayface for the moment by freezing him solid where he couldn't do anything and grabbed the cure that was out of his body. I took a drink and my own threat of death was gone."
"Joker had plans of using the Lazarus Pit, a machine that grants immortality to do you can easily guess what. To prevent that, I tossed a sword into the panel behind him. It effectively destroyed the machine and I was knocked out temporarily from the blast."
"So you did kill him by doing that! Liar!" Harley exclaimed. Batman's fists tightened while his eyes grew hard as he looked at Harley. This time she shrank from him. When he got like that, Batman was the most intimidating person to stand in front of. Being in his presence when he was like this was almost like being hit with a mini dose of Scarecrow's crazy gas.
"Let. Me. Finish," Batman said slowly and deliberately. He was not going to have these interruptions if he was going to bring up the night he lost someone important to him. That unfortunate side effect came with telling this story. Harley's eyes widened with fear before she nodded rapidly. Good. He was happy with the fear he instilled in people. Well, that fear was going to disappear once Harley figured out that he was Bruce Wayne.
"Anyway, when I got up from the blast, Joker had himself hidden. He seemed completely confident that I was going to give him the cure even after everything he had done tonight. And roughly, I did think about just throwing the vial on the ground and not giving him another chance to kill anyone else."
"But I didn't. I kept it held in my fist. Even after every demented thing he did that lead to the deaths of people that didn't deserve it, I was going to save him. My morals bind me, but I honor those morals. I save everyone that I can. Even for the people that don't quite deserve it."
"Then, from out of nowhere, Joker jumps out of the darkness and stabs me in the shoulder. The shoulder that was supporting the arm that had the cure. I dropped it. And he made a scramble for the liquid that had fallen to the ground, but the deed was already done. His only hope of living was gone."
Harley sat on the bunk, somewhat transfixed by the emotionless look on Batman's face as he looked down at the ground. What he said caused him to pause for a moment, but that's not what was on her mind. If what he was suggesting, it was Mistah J's fault that he died. That made her angry.
"LIAR!" she all but bellowed at him. "There is no way he would've done something like that! He knew he would've died! He wouldn't have done something like that!"
"That's what you're not understanding. He did do something like that. I was there. You weren't," Batman told her. She had charged him, intent on causing him as much pain as possible with her fists, but he grabbed them. Rather than expecting the crushing pain that the pressure from his hands usually brought upon her, rather, she felt this rather firm grip that held in her in place, but didn't hurt her. The grip wasn't what she expected. She definitely preferred this over his usual grip.
"Play nice," he told her, eyeing her with a serious look.
"What you're saying isn't true. It can't be true..." Harley said, shaking her head. She did not want to cry. The only who managed to do that was Batman and Joker, though indirectly on the last one. His death tore her apart on the inside; awakened the desire for vengeance in her. On the man she thought was responsible. She wanted to feel angry at him. She wanted to get a knife and run it through his gut. Or a gun and shoot him in the face. Maybe even carve a smile on that grim face of his. But even if she had the knife and he couldn't move to do anything about it, she felt like she couldn't do it now. Not anymore.
"I will tell you that he died laughing though," Batman continued, noticing her put off look though. "I told him that even after everything he did that I would've saved him, and he just laughing, loving how funny my statement apparently was." Her off put look was replaced by a smile, despite herself.
"Harls, if you have to do anything you don't wanna do, always do it with a smile! It makes you feel ten times better about it," she remember he told her. And he was right. Killing was always better with a smile. Ordering idiots around was always better with a smile. She kind of lost her ability to smile at all when Joker was around. Being able to smile genuinely now felt like a fresh breath of air. One she hadn't felt in a long time.
"Another suggestion. If you mentally focus your mind on their life rather than death, it does wonders for helping getting over him," Batman said evenly. Harley had to look up at him on this statement. There was something different about the way he said that one. Something... the idea caused her to stand to her feet and point at him with renewed excitement.
"You... you... you?!" Harley asked, unable to get the full sentence out. The idea of Batman in love was too much for her to handle. That had to be a joke. It definitely was. He was just messing with her. But the stoic look that didn't change confirmed her early idea. It was unlikely he was going to tell her who it was, but to just know he fell in love with someone was incredibly interesting to her. It was probably the kitty cat. Then again, she wasn't dead. At least, she didn't think the riddle guy killed her. It couldn't have been her.
"Me. Just find your peace," Batman said, standing to his feet to walk out.
"Wait!" Harley blurted, unable to stop herself. Man, she didn't know how she would even say this. To say it to... him would feel really weird. She might even vomit. But she felt it was needed. To get it out would be hard.
"Yes?" Batman questioned, not turning around to face her.
"T-t-t-thank you!" Harley said, shaking her entire body. "Glad I managed to get that out! It's so weird!" Batman glanced behind him to look at her before giving her a nod. Then his hand hovered over the button to the cell, but stopped halfway.
"One more thing. If you insist on wearing pants like that around your thugs, you may want to watch your back," Batman said before closing the cell and heading out of the building. The Batwing had finished its scan. Now he could clean up the rest of this city.
"Watch my back cause of my pants? What does he even-" Harley moved to look at the reflective screen that was in front of her jail. She didn't see a problem. If anything, she thought the pants made her butt look more defined and...
She didn't know whether to yell at B-Man to come back here so she could pound him for looking. She didn't know if it was a simple observation, or if he was actually checking her out. The idea of the second was definitely hilarious. But she would never know cause she could never figure him out. One thing was for sure. If she decided to finish what her beloved Mistah J started, she would keep that in mind. And whack whoever was looking upside the head with her baseball bat.
"If you mentally focus your mind on their life rather than death, it does wonders for helping getting over them." His words echoed in her mind, so as she laid down on her bunk and looked at the ceiling, she decided to do exactly that.
"Tell me something, dear. Have you ever had a really bad day?" She smiled at the memory of going back to when she first met him. It was the happiest one she had. She wasn't quite Harley Quinn yet, but she still admired him when he told his story.
"Better late than never B-Man," she said with a smile as she closed her eyes and let the memories wash over her. Then, before she knew it, she fell asleep.