Well here we finally are, the final chapter! I'd lie if I said that I didn't play around with this chapter whilst I was writing it. I played around with it A LOT, and I was constantly changing my mind as new ideas would pop inside of my head. But alas, it's finished!
I've only just managed to read the reviews from my last chapter as the reviews have been down for everyone's stories lately, but I'm extremely grateful to all the feedback received and I did read a question that a guest asked as to why I had chosen the name Lucy and I'm happy to answer it here as I can't personally answer. I had specifically chosen the name Lucy as in the comic book series Injustice: Gods Among Us, it reveals that both the Joker and Harley had a daughter name Lucy; although the Joker was made completely unaware of it. I found it only right to include her name in this story with the many connotations that the name already had with it, plus it's a lovely name :)
I just want to say a massive thank you to all of you who have reviewed, put this story on your alert subscription as well as add to your favourites. So far this story has received 96 reviews, 131 alerts and been added as personal favourites by 112 people which is truly amazing. For a story I never actually first intended to write , I am incredibly humbled by everyone's support.
The final chapter to this story now added, the rest is now up to your imagination to how you personally picture how JJ's future will go. If you have any questions or just wanna chat about this story being finished feel free to ask me, (I would encourage if you have an account though as then I would be able to reply) and I would love to talk with you. ^-^
Full circle
It wasn't just the Joker who could hide his secrets from the naked eye.
JJ had appeared to have been gifted with the same trait.
To the teenager's pure luck, the Joker's intervention from their first date hadn't fully scared Lucy away; his major lucky card being that the Joker's real identity to JJ had been kept hidden.
The event from their first date never wanting to be revisited, JJ had seen to it personally that he no longer informed or shared his personal life with either of his parents. Not that he was expected to have one, the majority of his time had been solely taken up by the role that he possessed as the Joker and Harley's son; which included the occasional heist and work with clients. With the small amount of free time that was spared, he spent it with Lucy.
Lucy Hinson was JJ's dirty little secret.
A secret that was very will hidden through his parent's eagled eyes, it appeared that even secrets could enclose classified information of their own.
Having first started off with a question, a question enquired by Lucy to meet JJ's own 'beloved' parents after the successful introduction to her own. Of which, JJ had somehow managed to make a good impression of himself to the man who wanted to put his father behind bars; Lucy's parents proved to be an overall content couple. They approved of Lucy's lifestyle choices and supported her with every decision she made, JJ could never find a more loving family even if he tried.
But with Lucy's family finally met, it was JJ who refused for her to have any correlation with the two criminalised clowns. His deepest secret now proving to no longer be so well hidden, it had taken over a year before he finally (on forced terms) admitted his true identity to her.
Perplexed and shocked, Lucy first proved to be unresponsive. The first thing she had told the other teenager when they had met for the first time was that she feared for the time when she would cross paths with the Joker, it was only now that the poor girl realised that she had only set herself up for this predicament. She had fallen in love her heart, not her mind which would have screamed to her the many warning signals for if she had taken that path.
But for now, she had doomed herself.
Her mind swarmed with overwhelmed scenarios to how her life would now entail, her eyes seemed to suggest the obvious.
"You can't tell your father," warned JJ, his voice hinted with slight guilt; "because if you do, my dad won't hesitate."
Her father's promotion had to wait.
JJ had unseeingly trapped Lucy to a life that was now filled with the constant fear of death and destruction, but truth to be told; it was a life that JJ hadn't chosen either. His secret now forced upon Lucy to keep, it appeared that the pair of them both needed to keep quiet if they wanted their relationship (as well as lives) to continue.
If either of their fathers were to find out, the other teenager was dead.
This was a game that neither one of them wanted to play.
But they had fallen in love, the consequences not first realised the pair of them now had to live by it.
The Joker Jr. had fallen in love with his Harlequin.
Two more years down the line and now at eighteen years of age, JJ had found himself in Lucy's presence after a rowdy session from his father. His presence seemingly missed in the family business and not fulfilled to the Joker's high expectations, his mind had grown agitated to why the boy's standards had seemingly dropped. Still not fully unstable like both the Joker and Harley, that had been his lucky card on many occasions that spared him from the Joker's clenched fingers.
The Joker's method to getting his son's mind back into gear by a harsh infliction to the skin on JJ's face, JJ managed Lucy a grim smile. His face overwhelmed with a black eye which was concocted with a furious blaze of purple skin, Lucy gave him a sympathetic look that was overwhelmed with pity.
"This has to stop JJ," her voice murmured as she applied some cream onto the inflicted skin; her touch soft. "Can't you see this is hurting you? Me even?"
JJ offered her a wince, "the pain will be a lot worse for both of us if my dad was to find out what's really going on."
Not the answer she was expecting, Lucy let out a small sigh.
"I hate to see that this is what your father can do to you just from sheer anger, the Joker's dangerous JJ."
This humoured him with a grin, "you think I don't know my own father? He gifted me with a gun on my eighth birthday, if that doesn't scream a criminal in the making then I don't know what will."
He had confessed to her early on in their relationship that JJ saw a future of himself working alongside both of his parents, and although JJ didn't show it when he was in Lucy's presence; his mind had blossomed toward the life of crime and thievery. Gifted and trained at his parent's side along with the corruption from the Joker's own behalf, the boy held huge promise to being successful in carrying on the family business after the Joker.
It was just the relationship that he shared with Lucy that put it on hold.
The small remnants of well-being that was spared by the hand of Lucy, she hugely disapproved him for his personal lifestyle choice. Her mind not fully able to have a say on the matter, she had grown to accept the Joker and Harley's tactics in shaping him to the young man that he was; and that was what held responsible.
It wasn't JJ's fault, but his parents.
Even if she had a massive grudge about it, this didn't stop her from her attempts of mind games of her own. Although half the time they proved to be no way near as affective as the Joker's.
"What's stopping you from having a normal life JJ?"
He managed a weak laugh although to Lucy's dismay it was hinted with a tinge of insanity, "my mind is so unstable Lucy."
"Honestly though JJ, any other person; their mind unstable or not would see just how dangerous the life is that you live. Don't you ever worry about your father lashing out?"
JJ stared at her, he often questioned to just how much she understood the life that JJ lived; and by her own terms; there was forever going to be something to stop him.
"Don't you get it though Lucy? I'm not just any other person. I was brought up since birth through corruption to a life of lies and thievery. I have no other understanding of the world other than to squeeze the money out of it dry; as that's my own perception of life. My idea of right and wrong clearly out of context its what I had been taught to believe, I'm broken Lucy; so very much broken."
He paused, his troubled mind turning. "Do you wanna know just how broken my crippled mind is? I only need to be angered before I break down, break down to a mentally unstable mind; do you think its no wonder that I turn away from the thought of a normal lifestyle?"
His voice proven to be close to breaking, he interrupted her when she tried to comfort him.
"I only need to get angry before I break down. Now imagine that in a scenario of everyday life, how on Earth would I manage to survive past my first lousy pay check? Or to not get annoyed by the tax collector when he'll try to squeeze my allowance dry, what about when my dad finally finds out about the pair of us? How will I react then, knowing that my dad disapproves of our relationship but I can't do anything about it; either way my initial state is doomed. "
The connection made earlier on that JJ could never truly leave her, if he was to repulse against his father's command there was no question that he would seek out the girl and kill her. But even then, JJ could never find himself to actually disown him.
The Joker had corrupted him too much, and it agitated him to the core.
He could never leave his parents; it was an impossible thought.
The last remaining subconscious of JJ's mentally stable mind still there; it was exposed when he was with Lucy. He had known for a long time now that he had never been truly free as his own individual. Trapped between his father's manipulated fingers, he had grown to accept his position on the Joker's well accustomed strategy board. What he feared for the most, was the day that his father would make the connection that Lucy was preventing him from gaining complete control of his mental state.
A time JJ's thoughts troubled to process, he had made it his upmost priority that he would stall the day for when his father would find out.
Up until then, he made the most of his time that he spent with Lucy.
JJ's attention diverted to the time he spent with Lucy as they continued to explore the abnormal relationship that they shared, what JJ had noted early on that their relationship contrasted against the one with his parents. The commitment made evenly on both ends, their relationship revolved around the pair of them confiding to one and other and not with the work that lingered with both the Joker and Harley's.
Not blessed with the stress of having to commit to heists, it was both the Joker and Harley that suffered when JJ was away.
Left to handle their newest heist by themselves, it all grew too much for the pair of them to bear without their extra hand in crime. The situation first easily contained, it grew to be a hectic battlefield as a bullet had claimed Harley's abdomen. The fire made from a senior officer, the Joker hadn't been given the chance to shoot the poor fool to the ground of where he stood; as the copper had fled from the scene before he had the chance. Concocted with revulsion and anger through a loud snarl, the sparing of the officer didn't go down too well with him as he fired out his rage on a passing Henchmen before his attention turned solely to his injured Queen.
Welcomed with red paint, the Joker's own red lips clenched with fury. His own Harlequin withering in pain, this should not have happened. JJ's presence had been expected and yet he failed to meet the demands, the consequence? It had injured his Harley, and there wasn't a hope in hell that he was going to leave that bloody copper as well as his son undealt with. But up until now, his Queen had been made top priority.
The incident in the bank finally contained and Harley's gunshot wound treated by an unsuspected medic with a high degree in the medical profession; the Joker had sparingly allowed him to treat his Queen back at their house. Minutes after the medic had arrived, the Joker's mind turned to his son; his thoughts entirely bitter.
"I'm going to kill the boy," the Joker's teeth gritted, overwhelmed with the post stress that came to witnessing his Queen getting shot; he glared across at the medic who gave him a troubled look. The situation finally contained as Harley's injury was finally sanitised with the correct treatment; she had been lucky that the bullet hadn't reached one of her major organs.
"He's disobeyed me for the last time,"
Severely blown, the injury proved to not be as severe as it could have been. Although it was still a serious injury to having been shot, her recovery time had halved at their fortunate news. But to the Joker's infuriated mind, she shouldn't have been injured in the first place. Their son had a duty to uphold and he had failed to live by it.
Troubled, Harley shared a look with him once the medic had finally left. Given the all clear, all Harley had to do was be bed bound for the next week; like that was going to be possible with the mind that Harley had.
Unsure to the Joker's own behaviour toward their son, her mind troubled to just how serious the Joker had been to his sudden outburst.
"Puddin'? Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Harley hesitated, her frame fragile she released a short wince with the tinge of pain that followed when she looked at him. "I don't want you to hurt him."
The Joker guffawed, "Hurt him? You expect too little of me my dear."
Harley grew doubtful, "Mr. J…"
His son's wellbeing was the last thing to cross his troubled mind. "He should have been there at the heist Harls! It's because of him that you're in this state."
Harley was doubtful, "but no one else saw that policeman take the shot Puddin', how could have JJ stopped him?"
The Joker wasn't in the mood for her attempt in common sense, which never proved to work anyway. "That's besides the point, the boy had a duty and he failed it. It's time that he had a piece of my mind, he's part of this family and its time he finally proved it."
Harley knew what his words were hinting, eighteen years down the line and it appeared the Joker had finally had enough of the boy's common sense.
"Then I want to go with you," Harley's persistent nature had always been a trait that the Joker admired about her, but given the circumstances of the cold evening; tonight wasn't one of those occasions.
"No kitten, you need to rest."
He was rewarded with a pout, "but,"
His cold finger found her lips. "No buts Harls," the Joker warned, his own voice grown to be possessive. "I've already had one member of this family disobey me, and I will not have two."
His patience rather thin, he allowed it to cool at the sight of his Harlequin when he watched her eyes soften.
A soft spot to please him which the Joker had vigorously over abused, his finger teased away at her lip with a gentle tug; his mind unresponsive as he thought. "Rest Harls, you've been badly injured and I forbid you to get any worse. Some of my henchmen will be out in the hallway if you need 'em."
"What about Frost?"
It wasn't old news to anyone that Frost had been the particular family favourite from all three clowns.
The Joker however, had top priority.
"He's going with me, but there'll be two others who will be just as good. If not, then I'll see to it that I'll personally handle them." His voice bitter he paused, a faint grin lingering on the corner of his red stained lips. "That's if my girl doesn't play with them first."
Praised with recognition, Harley released a weak laugh but the emotion wasn't there. "You know me too well Puddin'."
Their communication interrupted by the harsh hum of his phone, the Joker's fingers flexed around the cold metal in a natural reflex. He didn't even need to look at the caller ID, "It's Frost, he's got him." He shared a look with Harley, "it's time for me to go."
Harley should have known that the Joker would have ordered Frost to fetch him whilst they had been talking. She just feared that the Joker's anger would cloud over his sense of judgement that he had toward their son.
"Promise you'll be back soon?" his eyes found hers, her tone hinting. "Both of you."
He pulled a face, but thought nothing of it. "Make sure to keep the bed warm,"
After all, they were going for a swim and he liked the thought of coming home to a warm bed.
His anger proven to have not calmed down in the slightest for the duration it took the troubled Jester to meet with his son. What made matters worse however, was the conformation to where his Henchmen had found him. His first attempt in the handling of JJ's little crush proven ineffective, it repulsed the Joker that his son had continued to see her behind his back.
It infuriated him that it was because of his son's feelings toward the girl that Harley had been shot.
Held against his own will by Frost and another Henchmen inside of Ace chemicals, the look JJ exchanged to his father was cold. An expression hardly given to him at any point during his life, it was a look like that which pushed the Joker to playing the final card that he should have played so many years ago. The information assessed, the Joker held an infuriated expression toward his son.
He was losing his son again, but this time toward a girl; and he was going to get him back. But this time however, he was going to see to it that the affects were permanent.
"I'm very disappointed in you JJ," he begun, his voice cold. "There goes your mother and I thinking that you had grown into your own little clown outfit at our side, but it's only now we realise that you've jeopardised it by your foolish actions."
JJ stared at him, "you can't be serious."
The Joker pulled a face, "you should know me by now, I am never serious. But what I can't ignore however, is that you continued to see that blasted girl behind my back; where's your priorities?"
"My priority is with Lucy!"
Wrong, so very much wrong.
This was not the boy that he had brought up.
"Your priority is with both me and your mother, of which who is now at home recovering from a bullet wound, as your sense of judgement was clearly too clouded and you found your petty friend to be more important than your own family." His lips sneered at the word, "you're part of this family, now start committing yourself to it."
"Why can't I have both?" JJ snapped, his own voice infuriated it proved to be no match for the Joker's. "You have mom stood by your side through all the destruction and chaos, why can't I have Lucy? What's the difference!"
"There's a huge difference!" The Joker's blessing void, he didn't approve of his son's committed relationship. "The girl's brain isn't in the right state of mind. Her mind's weak, and that's not something you want to surround yourself with."
"And how would you know?"
"She's a bloody diversion!" The agitated threat flashed across his cold calculating eyes, "JJ, I'm warning you." His voice now no more than a whisper, his tone however screamed for his troubled son to listen to him. "I refuse to have a son that is partially good willed and distracted by a feeble girl. If I have to, I will personally see to it myself that I corrupt this altruism out of your dense skull."
The threat left and the connections quickly made, you'd be a fool to think that the Joker would only resolve the problem with a tempering of JJ's brain.
"You're not going to hurt Lucy."
It wasn't a statement, but a command that left JJ's lips.
On the Joker's own lips, a grin emerged before he cackled, "whose to say that I haven't done that already?"
The mic dropped, it wasn't long until fear and then revulsion washed over JJ's troubled eyes. His intention being to corrupt the boy, it was true that he could see the anger flash through his eyes at the troubling thought. More shocked than anything else, it didn't give him the response that the Joker wanted. A game that the Joker continuously enjoyed to play, to corrupt his victims through taunting; it proved that the promise of the girl's death wasn't truly enough to break him.
He still needed the encouragement.
Which could easily be arranged.
"Lucy?!"
Gifted with the presence of two new henchmen, in their arms struggled an overwhelmed teenager. Her cheeks flushed and her movements rigid, she met JJ's startled gaze before the situation finally sunk in. But to JJ however, he grew unable to understand the predicament that had presented itself in front of him.
"But-"
The Joker had been playing mind games with him.
And he was winning.
Encouraged to continue, the Joker found Lucy surrounded by the two Henchmen before he smiled at her. His signature smile, to his amusement he released a soft purr.
"I didn't even need to find you my dear," his finger distracted with her cool cheek, he took note of her when she flinched. "All the signs screamed for you to run away at the realisation that I finally knew who you were, and yet you came crawling over to try and save my petty son. What's changed from the last time we had presumably encountered? What made you put on your brave face to meet with the notorious Mr. J?"
His finger having invaded her lips, he took note of her gentle tremble when he teased the lower lip down. Proven patient for an answer, his uncommon generosity thinned when she released a low noise; her brave phase clearly fading away.
"I need an answer, because you know how itchy at the fingers I get when I'm poorly treated." His lips purred he offered the young girl a look.
"I dunno," her voice eventually whispered, the Joker's finger still pressed against her lip. "I, I had to make sure that JJ was okay."
A dismal response to the Joker's mind, he did however find humour to it with her concern for his son's well-being. Through all of the past history of JJ's proven corrupted mind, and the proven connection made to JJ's relationship with him the poor girl still cared.
The idiotic girl.
Entertained by the triggered horrors that inflicted his troubled past, the Joker released a loud cackle at the odds that had presented themselves to him. "What is it with clever girls falling for the mentally unstable, eh?"
His attention shifted from Lucy and toward JJ, still painfully refrained in his henchman's grasp he smirked at him manically. "We've had your mother, the oh so clever psychiatrist fall for the petty patient; but now many years later it seems we've got the fooled scientist falling for the corrupted son." There was a slight pause before the Joker's humoured lips continued, "the girls can't help themselves; anything to sooth the mentally unstable. Make 'em believe that they're doing good to the world. I wonder how far this theory is willing to stretch?"
"Dad, you don't want to make me angry." Gritted JJ, his voice finally heard for the first time in minutes.
The Joker smirked, his tongue present he clucked it against the back of his teeth before he released a giggle. "You sure about that? I thought it was time to get the party truly started,"
His attention turned to the other corner of the room, and he signalled for the Henchmen to bring a new unmentioned victim forward. It hadn't just been JJ that the Joker had ordered Frost to collect, but the copper who had held himself responsible for shooting Harley too. There had been no way in hell that the Joker was going to let the man live to see another day, and he had plans for his son to make it so.
To make the boy return to his senses he needed to spill blood, and in front of the girl if needs be.
Not originally in the lime light, it was only now that the Joker had focused the audience's attention on him purely that he got the response that he truly wanted.
Better late than never.
"D- Dad?!"
Entertained at the word that left Lucy's shocked lips, the connection was then so easily made and his eyes boarded over Lucy's before they fell toward the hostaged copper. His mouth gagged on the Joker's own personal choice to save the Joker's ears from the constant noise that left his troubled lips; it was only now that little Lucy had grown aware that her poor father had been in the room. Abused upon recognition as his face had grown to be stained with red war paint, Lucy's own face grew to be overwhelmed with tears.
The Joker's response was a large guffaw, "oooh, this is good. So very good." A new toy to speculate and endeavour to his own purpose, his silvered teeth gleamed with superiority. "Now this is interesting," he purred, "do I detect the fragile mind of the girl scientist showing the signs of being made mentally unstable by the torturing of her father?"
He was a troubled King of Gotham, and he knew the early signs of minds breaking down when he saw it.
This was interesting, perhaps this petty little scientist could prove to be useful for him after all. He did after all, found it to be useful to his own advantage to gain two corrupted minds instead of one. The bonus being, that it would fully encourage his son to take part in the family business.
A significant thought he giggled at her. "Do you want to play a game?"
"Dad." JJ warned.
The Joker ignored him, JJ had his fun in the spotlight; it was the girl's turn. "How 'bout we see how long it will take before we can corrupt your petty little mind. My personal record is 14 minutes, lets see if we can make it any quicker."
His selection of mind games broad to taunting, manipulation, abusing or even causing inflicts amount of pain to the individual; the Joker knew what he wanted to do with this one. His thoughts fresh to the ideas and possibilities that presented themselves in front of him, it appeared that he would need some assistance.
"Copper, it appears I need your help after all."
"No, please!" Lucy finally managed, her first sign of standing up to the King of Gotham.
He raised his eyebrows, "do you think highly of my son?"
A question not expected, it was the fear behind the Joker's taunts that encouraged her to make a rapid response; a major fear that she would be injured if she was to disagree. "Y- yes."
The Joker released a short purr before he continued, "Would you," the Joker began, his mind turning. "Would you kill for him? Seeing as you've already proven yourself, for having put your own life at risk for his safety."
Her response not given in his own preferred timeframe of a couple seconds he pushed her. "I'm waiting for an answer,"
"I-, I can't say." Not a definite yes or no answer, the Joker grew intrigued by the thought of her having not turned away to his question in disgust. It appeared that JJ had been playing his own little mind games with her and he had unseeingly been shaping this girl to follow his every whim.
The difference to the Joker being that his was completely unintentional.
"Hmmmm," his lips mused, "just needs some encouragement."
Not news that Lucy wanted to hear, the room grew still to the sight of the Joker when he reached for his gun. Not known to personally joke around when he included his most prized weapon, he shared a look with Lucy; his eyebrows suggestive. "Now I take it you wouldn't like to do the honours of punishing your dear old father? He's been a rather naughty boy for having shot my Queen, and that's classified as Treason in my books."
Lucy stared at him in horror, "Please no! Mr. Joker please, don't do it!"
Oh yes, her mind was just screaming for her to be broken. There was nothing the Joker loved more than to see people break to insanity through heartbreak.
He cackled.
"Now, now, my thoughts final. Surely JJ has told you that?" His son mentioned, the Joker shared a look with him. "I would usually offer for my son to take the fire, but it appears he's currently on very thin terms with me; and I personally wouldn't like to be shot. It's too messy and I wouldn't like to get blood on my new shirt."
His sense of judgement no way near to where it should be, he motioned for the two henchmen to bring the copper forward. His mind nothing but now unresponsive toward the idea of shooting the fool so he would be put six feet under, the harsh outbursts from both JJ and Lucy had been nothing but sweet music to his ears.
He had first intended to push his son inside of the pool of chemicals, but this way proved to be just as both efficient and satisfying. The connection having been made that the small remnants of the boy's well-being survived on Lucy's initial state, even if Lucy proved to be uncorrupted from her father's murder; then he would just simply kill her off. Her piece on the chessboard easily disposable to him, even after tonight with the girl dead or not; he knew that it would push his son into submission.
For he didn't care about the girl, just to claim his son back that had always been his.
Will always be his.
Even if it came to the worst, his mind grew intrigued to the idea of having his son take a dip in the bed of chemicals for good measure. Anything to secure his claim on the boy.
The shot made and his vision blessed with the heap of the fallen copper that was combined with the harsh scream of Lucy; the Joker managed a silvered grin that etched on his red stained lips.
After all,
The Joker never loses.