Disclaimer: I do not own any of the DC Universe's characters, only the ones I have created.

Chapter 9: Voodoo you think you are?

ONE YEAR AGO

"Pick a card."

I rolled my eyes while I rolled the bandage around his pale, white arm. "I'm not playing your game."

"Everyone's playing my game, doll face." He smirked at me and waved the cards in my face. "Now if you'll be so kind." I fastened the bandage with a paperclip and sighed. I took one from the middle.

It was a seven of hearts. He was grinning uncontrollably and held out the deck once more so I could return the card. Impatiently, he brushed away a lock of dull green hair (which had grown quite a bit) from his eyes and then shuffled the deck in a skilful way while keeping his eyes focused on me.

Amused, I raised an eyebrow and his gaze moved to my left eye. "I see your eye's healing up nicely." I touched it briefly; it barely hurt anymore and was now turning yellow.

"Whereas I'm healing, you're only getting more bruised up," I replied with a nod towards his arm I had just dressed. He laughed at that while still shuffling his cards.

"The difference between us is that I like being bruised up." I was just about to reply when the door opened and Terry walked in. The clown was ecstatic.

"Terry! Ol' pal! You up for a card game?" Terry laughed nervously. "You're not getting sick of those yet, Mister J?"

The clown only smiled and stopped shuffling. "When I do, you'll be the first I'll tell, buddy" he answered and held up the card from the top. "Is this your card?" I had started putting away my equipment, but looked up and smiled upon seeing the card; it wasn't the one I had picked.

"Nope." His smile turned downwards and I chuckled. "You're losing your game, mate."

Instantly, the Joker looked enthused again, his grin wide.

"Mate?" He glanced at Terry who was waiting patiently for the clown to be done. We both knew it was best to just wait it out and let him come on his own. Made him feel like he was the one in charge.

"Terry, don't you agree that Eva's getting a bit too British? We must get her off tea before it's too late." Terry laughed at that and the clown's smug gaze immediately flickered to me; a thing I noticed him doing a lot. He was always eager for the responses he got for his jokes and actions and I noticed that it thrilled him.

The fact that Terry was always laughing at his jokes, only encouraged him more. I frowned while glancing at my fresh cuppa on my desk.

"Nothing's wrong with tea." The clown tutted and finally moved to the door where Terry was patiently waiting.

"Of course not, sweetheart, just messing with ya. See ya next time, Doc." He winked at me and I once more rolled my eyes. "Don't make it too soon," I said pointedly by the looks of his arm.

"Sure, sure, now what's for dinner, bud?" the clown asked Terry distractedly while they left. Smiling, I shook my head slightly and it was only when I went to grab my tea, I noticed a card being stuck under it. It was a seven of hearts.

Son of a bitch.

~.~.~

PRESENT

I touched my left eye carefully and winced ever so lightly. At the moment it felt like yesterday when I had a familiar sort of bruise in the same place. The pain made it feel like yesterday anyway and I was reminded of the Joker's continuous teasing about it.

A lot sure had changed since then. I felt drained because of my little power display of just now and my clothes were soaking wet and sticking to my body.

"What the hell happened?" Floyd asked while we walked back to the others.

"Sort of lost control," I mumbled and rubbed my numb skin in discomfort.

I watched as Boomerang picked up something pink and fluffy from the ground, stuffing it inside his coat whilst Harley was still smashing one creature's head in with her baseball bat.

Reaching the others, Floyd moved past Flag and said: "That's how I cut and run."

Flag clenched his jaw, but stayed quiet until his eyes connected with mine and he pressed his lips together in a fine line. "Nice work, Van Helsing." The words sounded constrained and I clenched my fists upon hearing them.

The force in my chest flared up again, prickled by my emotions and stood eagerly waiting for my command to be released. I drove my fingernails into my skin to keep it from doing exactly that and moved past Flag without uttering a word.

"What happened to you?" Chato asked me, completely ignoring Boomerang who was waving a lighter in his face but stopped as soon as he took in my appearance.

"How come your clothes are wet?"

I grimaced. "Went for a swim."

Killer Croc laughed silently; a rumbling sound coming from his chest and Harley pursed her lips.

"You should let me do your hair some time, Eva." She looked dead serious. "With a few clips and a curler, I could make it look real nice." Before I could respond that curlers weren't my thing, a heated argument between Flag and Floyd had caught all of our attention.

"This guy had a 3,000 dollar watch." I frowned while looking at the crumbled creature Harley had smashed, laying by my feet. "Is that a person?" Floyd continued.

Flag looked conflicted with himself, but then proceeded to confirm my thoughts from before:

"It was. Now it's not."

I kneeled down by the black, crumbled pieces and picked one up.

Definitely dark magic. I suppressed a shiver and flicked the chunk away. I needed to get out.

When we continued our way through Midway City, my thoughts were elsewhere. I was trying to come up with a way to escape this madness but to no avail. I reached a dead end every time I remembered the bomb in my neck. Meanwhile, I also got to know the new Harleen the time I was here. Harley just shattered a shop window because she wanted the clutch displaying it.

She seemed to have lost all fear and where there's no fear, there's a carelessness to take its place. But at the same time, I could still sense a bit of the old Harleen hidden away inside the woman. Was she okay with the renewed Harleen? She seemed to be smitten with the Joker and I couldn't blame her. There was a certain charm to the clown, the way he could make you laugh, but at the same time he was a dangerous man and I did wonder about the things he did for her to have become like this.

We neared a building and I overheard Flag telling his team HVT-1 being at the top of it.

"We get up there. Pull them out of the vault they're hiding in. Helos extract us off the roof" I groaned internally; I had a good feeling we were getting to the middle of all shit.

John F Ostrander Federal Building, it said in big, illuminated letters. We slowly followed Flag and his team by entering the big welcoming hall and throughout the building, until a loud ding sounded. Our heads turned upwards to Harley waving at us from the elevator.

"Godammit, Harley!" Never mind being careful - we ran up the stairs and I saw something black spur by.

"Floyd!" I called. He glanced over his shoulder and nodded. "Yep, spotted them."

On the first floor we waited for the elevator to stop and for a brief moment I worried about Harley's safety and that feeling surprised me.

Without paying it any more attention, I pulled out my two knives. The elevator door's slid open and my eyes landed on two dead creatures and Harley fixing her hair.

"Hey guys," she said cheerfully. I laughed, relief flooding through me, and shook my head at the dumbfounded looks of everyone. I was starting to like the new and profound Harleen.

We entered an abandoned office and a woman, whose voice triggered something in my mind, called through Flag's radio with the news that they were all around us.

Dust fell down on my nose and with a bad feeling I looked up at the ceiling. "Guys, I don't like this."

Floyd came to stand next to me, with his white mask pulled over his head. "Yeah, me neither."

Out of nowhere, a fresh army of creatures crashed down on us. Everyone started shooting and whilst slowly backing away, I hastily refilled my pistol with bullets from my pocket. One creature, however, grabbed me by the neck and I dropped my weapon.

God, I hate guns.

"Son of a bitch," I grunted. Then suddenly the grip on my neck disappeared and when I turned around I saw Killer Croc holding the creature and snapping his neck off with his bare hands.

Badass.

I had barely said thanks when Deadshot yelled: "They're after Flag again!"

I gave Croc an exaggerated look. "I hate having to save his ass."

He grunted, which I took as a "Yes, Eva, I do too hate having to come to his aid all the time."

We all circled around Flag to keep him out of harm's way.

"Let me fight!" he yelled and then actually tried to push me away - me. He was such a muppet.

"You die, we die," Floyd recited me and I pushed back at the soldier, 'accidentally' elbowing him. Oops.

Floyd was firing one bullet after the other and I began to understand why they called him Deadshot. However, when we all spotted the last creature standing, I called "Shotgun!" and threw my last knife at its head. Harley pouted. "No fair."

Her smile turned upwards though when we left the room and were met with a dozen or so more.

"Oh, come one, give us a break," I moaned, while I dropped to the floor to shield for all the bullets flying around. Vaguely, I noticed Floyd pushing Chato and I realized he was trying to get him to fight.

Then out of nowhere a blazing hot fire flashed over my head and when I glanced over my shoulder I saw that it came out of Chato's hands. He set fire to every creature and half the building.

More badass.

"I was just trying to get you there," Floyd said. Laughing, I clapped the Latino on his shoulder.

"No more holding back for you, mate." I could almost read the look on his face - speak for yourself.

~.~.~

Using the stairwell, we made our way to the top floor of the building.

"Eva, can't you just use your voodoo and bring us to the top one by one?" Harley complained.

"My voodoo?" I chuckled. "I don't have any voodoo."

I patted her arm. "Come on, Harls, a bit of cardio never killed anyone."

Be that as it may, when I had reached the top I sure as hell was feeling it too. Being out of breath, I rubbed my legs to ease the aching. I was reluctant to use indeed my 'voodoo' by blinking, afraid that I might lose it again, or at least almost lose it again.

"Hey Flag, this dude better cure cancer after all of this shit."

I agreed with Floyd while Ricky went ahead and I then pulled my hair up into a ponytail. I wiped the sweat from my neck and sat down on one of the tables.

Much better. Eventually, Floyd went in after Flag and left the rest of us waiting.

It was a funny sight.

Flag's men stood on one side of the room, while we, the outlaws, stood on the other side. It was as awkward as a high school class at the beginning of the year being forced to work together on a group project.

"You thought about that offer I made ya?" Harley jumped up at the table next to me and blew bubbles with her gum.

Even though I knew the conversation we had wasn't over, I wasn't really feeling like continuing it now. I rubbed my face and sighed. "Look Harleen,-"

She popped a bubble. "It's Harley."

"Harley," I continued, "I know you said he wouldn't want anything in return, but we both know that's not true." I thought back to the offer he made me a year ago and couldn't imagine him having changed his mind. Katana looked our way and I lowered my voice a little.

"I would never be able to give him what he wants from me."

She pursed her red lips and I could see the wheels spinning in her head.

"Is it,-" she stopped and glanced towards Chato who's attention we had caught as well. She bowed her head to me. "Mister J said there are bad people after you." It surprised me that he had told her about it and made me wonder what else he might have said. I nodded and she let out a deep sigh, while swinging her legs back and forth.

"We're friends, aren't we, Eva?" The question surprised me and at first, I thought she was playing with me.

"You can count on the both of us to help, ya know," she said genuinely.

It was then however that Flag and Floyd had walked back into the room, this time with someone else following closely behind them. It was a woman. I slowly got off the table and took a step forwards.

With a shock, I realized it was the same woman who kept contact with Flag through his radio and with the same shock I realized why she had sounded so familiar.

"Well, if it isn't little Manda Waller," I spoke while crossing my arms.

Her jaw clenched at hearing the name, but her voice was cool and her eyes dark. "So, you remember me then?"

A/N: Meant to upload this yesterday, but yesterday was kinda hectic for me, sorry! So, what did you guys think? I quite enjoyed writing it, but I'm kinda scared of what you guys will think of the ending of this one... The idea has been in my head since the beginning. Thanks for all the favourites, follows and reviews! I love you guys!

hellspam: Thank you so much! I'm glad you like her! At first I was afraid of making her too plain and not with very much depth if you know what I mean haha

luna lily moon: Yeah, I am feeling more comfortable with the movie, while at first (since it's my first fanfic) it felt a bit awkward and forced for me to write a story which basically has already been written... But I've found a way to not make and write it exactly the same. Like I don't copy all the dialogue, but do follow the storyline if you know what I mean haha. And now that you mention it, I understand what you mean about the ocean part, it was a bit confusing haha, but I'll try to fix that. Thanks again! You might not realise it, but you've been really helpful and encouraging :)

paula (Guest): So I'm not Spanish, but I do study Spanish, so I understood a little from what you were saying haha. I actually don't know exactly yet what her powers are (if that was what you meant) but she can basically "blink" to a different place, like teleport herself or something, and her powers make her a bit faster and stronger and her senses more heightened.