Once again, my time, and internet, is slipping a little so updating will be in a five to six day span depending if the internet is working.

So in this chapter we begin to see who my OC, 'Hans' really is. Any of those who are a fan of my writing have already figured it out. But then we go to a Barley (Batman & Harley) bit. For those who play Arkham City, you'll remember this as when you find Harley tied up and gagged.

Thank you all for giving me your views and please remember to fav, follow, review, or all three, on Part 2 and Part 1. It's a huge boast to see a review or a fav to my work :) It also makes me want to write a Part 3 or a Prequel in Arkham Origins. (Still deciding, on the latter but a Part 3 might coming once I finish Part 2.)

With Love~ Dresner

Gates of the Steel Mill-

Hans stood near the bridge that acted as the gate to Joker's Fun house, Otherwise known as the Sioius Steel Mill. The mill was decaying rapidly after years of neglect after Black Mask lost it in a class action law suit with the city of Gotham after an investigation lead by Commissioner Gordon and infiltration by Batman found a gigantic illegal narcotics production facility hidden under the mill. The Steel Mill then went into the hands of the City of Gotham and thus was left to rot in the slums like the rest of old Gotham.

After the Joker's take over of the mill months ago, The condition of the mill became worse and was soon decorated with equally decaying and depraved clown masks and carnival themed decorations. The addition of clown masked guards toting the latest in Western Military hardware, unquenchable blood lust, and enough drugs to keep the whole state of California 'hopped up' for a decade, Only made the Steel Mill more of a daunting structure to topple for the veteran fighter.

Even with his extensive training by Slade Wilson after the death of his soon to be wife, not to mention his past experiences as a mercenary and field officer, Hans was under prepared for the battle that laid before him, but his will was ready for anything, unlike his brother and sister...

Rejoining him was his Brother, Diesel, and Sister, Erika, from the trip across the old and destroyed Gotham Freeway and housing blocks to link up and scold him for running off once again. It was a habit that near killed him in North Korea. Where ever they maybe be sent, Hans always seemed to disappear

"The fuck Hans!?" Erika shouted at him with her Krinkov in hand. "Running off in Arkham is like saying your Christian in Gaza! You could have gotten killed! We almost lost you in Korea and I'm not loosing you in Arkham! We have to get Sean, Allen, and Astor out of here before things get worse!"

Hans shrugged off her whining and looked over to his brother, "We were fine before we brought you into our world and we'll always be fine. Quit worrying so much. But I could expect that from a coward."

Erika dropped her gun and slapped him across the face, Hard...

"I'm not a fucking coward! I wouldn't have gone gallivanting across half the fucking earth with you and Diesel if I was! Who the fuck do you think you are? I don't know what the hell happen to you when that bitch, Wendy, sent me away, but you and R-" Erika's mouth was clapped shut by Hans hand.

"Shhhh-" He told her as he tried to contain himself from ripping her head off. "Things happen to me and 'Diesel' when you were gone. But we were fine then and we are fine now. Keep to the names I gave you two and nothing bad will happen to us, or at least you two. You know the deal we had in Metropolis after THEY killed my beloved... Salt the earth and start a new... Is that what you said, yes?" His whisper turned into a dark hiss as Erika looked into her brothers darkening eyes. This wasn't the older brother she grew up, The brother that would take her to school when Dad or 'Diesel' was to drunk to drive, The brother that gave her a home before Wendy destroyed it all, This wasn't the brother who spend years looking for her after their stepmother sent her away to boarding school.

This was the 'darkness', he would speak about, shutting her up. This was the beast in him... Coming out into the open for all the world to see...

Erika broke loose from his grip and slapped him two more times across the face. "Who the fuck do you think you are? I know your still torn up about D-"

Hans hit Erika with the stock of the Sturmgewehr, knocking her down to the ice covered pavement, and drew his sights on Diesel before he could react. "You two just need to calm down and realize that I have my reasons for doing what I am doing... Don't think for a moment that you can change this, Because if you do I will personally send you to whatever god your wish." Hans hissed as his finger gripped tightly around the trigger of the old rifle.

Diesel took his gas mask and helmet off to reveal his face to his brother in hope of reminding him who he was threatening. He rose his hands into the air, "Karl... It's me... It's Roddy... Your brother... What happen to you?... Where have you gone?..." He whispered, shedding the pseudonym of Diesel for his nickname. "We're your family... That's your sister, Shelia, and I'm your brother... Rodrick... Don't you remember?"

Hans only let out a light breath as he clicked off the safety, "I have no family..."

Erika regained some of her baring and looked up to see her brother holding Diesel at gun point. But to her horror, Hans pulled the trigger...

Diesel's body feel to the ground, his head ripped to pieces like a watermelon by the heavy round of the rifle. Hans looked down to his sister with the rifle clutched in his hand and a expression of cold and unfeeling disgust on his face, along with the blood of his own brother on his brow.

Erika shouted in rage as she reached for her side arm, another old C96 Mauser, to kill her brother in retribution for the murder of her older brother. But as she drew the pistol Hans kicked it out of her hands and struck her with the stock of his Sturmgewehr.

Few moments later...

She awoke in a daze moments later with her hands bound with wire and gagged with a towel in front of her sitting on a ledge off the side of the Gotham freeway. Hans stood smoking a cigarette with her Mauser in his hand, STG on his back, and a wicked smirk on his face as he blew a cloud of smoke in her face.

"If prisoners impede the advance they are not to be taken." Hans told her as he stuffed the blacken Mauser pistol into his belt. "It was a rule that I happily broke when ever possible..." He took another deep puff from the cigarette and exhaled it slowly, savoring the flavor and the aroma of Marlboro cigarettes combined with the metallic odor of smelting steel and gunpowder.

"Do you remember the time when we were in Korea, During the second Korean war a few years back?" He asked as he bent over to tighten the wires around her wrists. "Of course you do... Do you remember the Regiment I took hold of after the fall of Seoul?"

He threw his hands on her hips and looked into her eyes with a slight chuckle and a grin, "Of course you do!..." He whispered with stark glee.

"After I took over the regiment," Hans explained as he took his hands off her hips. "I ordered a counter attack against the North Korean rear devastating their line of supple for the 3rd Shock Army... Crippling their ability to supply their own men with even the basic needs of survival as well as destroying the Anti-Air defenses and allowing the Americans to do as they pleased in the air with impunity... They fought well, almost as good as my old Panzergrenadiers of the Iron Guard did, Gave no quarter to those dogs..."

His voice changed to a dark whisper as he remembered a dark day in his life, "Five days after my attack, the 3rd Shock Army was reduced to a meager division. A... Blockade unit of North Korean troops, used to keep the unruly penal troops of the Gulag battalions in line, was one of the many units attached to the 3rd Shock army, or shall I say its remains, during the invasion. It was my unit who took the blockade unit official surrender, another unwelcome surprise to the top brass in the South Korean and US Armies, and were officially disarmed by my Regiment. But after my departure from the country, Thanks to Amanda Waller of the CIA, came just in time as an American recon detachment found piles of dead North Korean Commissars laying in a bloody rice paddy close to a pile of rifles and small arms, Their small arms. Hehe..."

A dark chuckle and smile sent Erika's skin crawling as her brother took another hit off his cigarette, "Waller always told me to 'Finish the mission by any means necessary' my Mission then was to stop the 3rd Shock Army, and I did... Then my plane was shot down by a MiG-29 over the former DMZ... Or was it a 21? Or a 23? I don't know... But you know the rest of the story, I'm sure dear Rodrick told you of his daring exploits that near killed the both of us and his undercover work for that beast of a woman Waller, one of the reasons why I killed him, should have did the deed sometime before hand, but I'm digressing... Taking prisoners impeded the advance and it was the only way to keep going toward the boarder, to end the war. But then Task Force X ended the war for them and had just enough time to break me out of the Gulag... And gave me new life as 'Hans'..."

His voice changed from terrifying to harsh and calculating with in an instant as he threw his hands on her shoulders, "You and Rodrick were a liability, just like those murderers I left in that rice patty, Just like my soon to be wife... Liabilities that impeded my goal. Hmmm, Make you wonder if I should thank the murderer... But I digress once again, My goal is so close that I can taste it and I'm not letting some coward stop me from getting what I came here for. The funny thing is that Coldwater never sent US here, I sent us here. Why do you think I wanted to work with the Joker? Why do you think I wanted to come to Arkham? Why do you think I do what I DO?"

Hans took his hands off of her and turned his back to gaze at the deformed fun house in the distance. "Simple really: Nothing else matters."

Hans turned with Mauser in hand and shot Erika directly in the stomach, The shot having enough energy to knock her off the ledge and into the icy waters of the old Gotham harbor. He took a deep breath and looked down to the body of his brother with a slight frown before snorting, "Nothing else matters."

With contempt in his heart he took to the steel mill... "Nothing else matters." He told himself as he marched on like a plague to reek havoc and destruction upon the wretched souls of Joker's hoard.

Inside the Steel Mill-

Batman followed the hand painted arrows leading to the Joker's loft where this all began only hours before. After crossing through the cooling tunnels under the steel mill, taking out a legion of guards, and finding more of Mr. Freeze's gear for his personal arsenal. Batman soon changed his path as the sight of armored Joker thugs lining up three familiar faces against a wall with itchy trigger fingers.

"On the wall!" One shouted to Sean, The Irish Sniper, as he shoved him forward with his Spas-12 as three more armored thugs with AKM's lined Astor, The french medic, and Allen, The Afrikaner support troop, against a wall near a large locked door.

"God in heaven you sound like your mum when I was fucking her in your papa's Laundry room!" Sean shouted back with evil laugh as he spat on the crazy clown masked fool. "Oh the heavens was she a beast of a woman!"

The thug struck him with the side of the Spas, but Sean continued on, to much to the enjoyment of the others and the dismay of the thug. "OH WAS SHE LARGE! Larger than croc! No, Larger than Bane! With rolls of fat that would make the rocky mountains look like piles of dung!"

"SHUT UP FREAK!" The thug shouted as he kicked Sean in the ribs, but the Irish man kept on.

"Oooh that smell though! God did she reek of the sea! I thought I was a fisherman for a moment when I POUNDING HER LIKE A SNARE DRUM!"

"Thats it!" The thug yelled as he pointed his shotgun at Sean to shut him up, But a batarang knocked the gun out of his hands and gained the attention of the thugs long enough for the Mercenaries to rush them, take their weapons, and turn the tables on them. Sean swept the legs of the irate thug as he took the shotgun off the ground and placed it to his head, "Don't move beer boy." He told him as pressed it against his head as Batman came out of the shadows to retrieve his Batarang.

"So your the bloody header himself, Batman right?" Sean asked as the Dark Knight looked over to him and his mates as they held the Thugs at gun point. "I'll take that as a yes. You hear from those jammy jerries and that juicy bird Erika?"

Batman said nothing as the muffled cries of a woman echoed around him. "Do you hear that?" Batman asked the cheeky Irishman.

"Oh thank you Batman for saving our arses. 'Oh no problem Sean, you had it all along your devilishly handsome bastard!' Your to kind Batman, now we best be getting our arses out of this slaughter house before that nutty scrubber Harley Quinn comes back to ruff us up again. What the best course of action? 'Simple! You fly the fuck outta here!' Snobby Weather..." Sean droned on sarcastically as he went on with himself to much of Allen's enjoyment.

Astor rolled his eyes listened for a moment and he agreed with the Dark Knight, "Sounds like a woman. American." Astor told him.

'Harleen...' Bruce thought to himself. 'We have to find her...'

"Why should I?" Batman asked his alter ego. "She poisoned us and took the cure back to Joker. I should have never allowed you to convenes me to take her with us across Arkham."

'I doesn't matter!' Bruce exclaimed, 'You know why she did it, to save the Joker. We can't let anyone die, No matter who they are. We save people, not kill them or leave them to die.'

Batman groaned, vexed that he was defeated by himself in a battle of morals. But he couldn't help but wonder, why did she do it? What compelled her to run off back to the Joker with the cure? Was it just to save her tormentor? Or did Harleen have a hand in this?

The dual personalities of Batman and Bruce acknowledged the duality of Harleen and Harley. Both sides fought for different reasons, unlike Bruce and Batman. One fought for the Joker and his approval, while the other fought to regain her life...

Maybe this was Harley taking back control?

He shook his head and focused on Sean, "You three need to get out of here. The cooling chamber has a tunnel leading to the subway system, You might be able to find a way back into Gotham."

"That sounds safe," Allen remarked as he took the bullet proof vest off of a Joker thug and adjusted his slouch hat. "Why not we just cross the open city naked with spoons?"

"The metro leads to the sewer through maintenance tunnels and the man made tunnels constructed by Le Clown..." Astor remarked as he preformed an ammo check on his AK.

"Say again?" Batman asked the Frenchman.

"Le Clown, Joker as you call him, told me of his tunnel network during my time as his indentured servant." Astor explained as he pulled a coffee and blood stained map out of his boot and handed it to Batman. "The network is very crude, but a few tunnels lead right under the TYGER command compound. My apologize for the state of Le map, The Joker and his brutes were not kind to me or the keeping of their cave."

Batman rolled up the map and handed it back to the Frenchman, "Use it and get out of here. If you find any political prisoners, take them with you."

Sean chuckled, "You sound just like Hans!"

Batman ignored the laughing Irishman and proceeded deeper into the Steel Mill to find the Joker and his cure. He tried to block her out of his mind as he walked on through the endless corridors and clown paintings. Every room or so, he came across mannequin of Harley Quinn in her old jester costume holding a balloon with 'Mr. J' written on it. He tried to ignore them and the tacky writing on the balloons, but as the mannequin and pictures of the Joker littered with kisses became more and more frequent as he drew closer and closer toward the loft. A neared a room with a sniper had made his home as he awaited for him, But Batman was sharper than the amateur sniper and knocked him out without an issue. But in the far corner stood another Harley Quinn mannequin with a large grin on it's face with the bulb inside of the balloon flickering insistently.

The flickering annoyed him beyond all forms pushing his anger to a breaking point, to which he ran toward the mannequin and ripped the balloon clean off the figure. Sparks flew from the wiring and danced around his gloves as he crushed in his armored hand. The wiring fried the rest of the statue, just like the cancer inside of his own body, and reached the PA/Voice recorder causing the recording of Harley Quinn to skip and finally stuck on a phrase "And I'll tell my Joker..." but after a couple of runs the recording came to only-

"My Joker." It would say in her high pitched and childish tone he despised.

"My Joker."

"My Joker."

His name echoed through Bruce's head until finally he closed his eyes and the head of the statue disappeared into a cloud of dust and sparks. He looked down at his hands to see his fists clutching pieces of the jester's head. In a sudden rage, Bruce dashed the pieces away as he threw the mannequin to the ground and stomped on the PA until the words ceased. But the words echoed deeply in his mind until he collapsed to the ground in front of the shattered metal and plastic remains of mannequin.

It killed him to hear her voice, no matter if it was her kiddey and giddy Harley or calm and cool Harleen tone, say that phrase. It killed him even more that she left him to that mad man 'Hans' to die, just so she could save another mad man...

Bruce slammed his fists into the pile of circuits wanting to scream to release the angst that gripped his body along with the cancer, but he held it in just enough before a dark whisper came forth: "WHY?!"

"Why?..." Bruce asks him self as he fights showing any form of emotion that his ego, and Batman, would allow him to show.

"I worked so hard to keep you out of trouble, to keep you away from HIM... But you always waltzed back to him... Why can't I just leave you to him?" Bruce lifted the cowl off of his scarred face and ran his hands through his hair. "All I want to do is save you from this life with him... You know you'll die with him if this game of ours continues... I don't want you to die Harley... I don't want his life to be your end, but at the same time I don't know if my life will be any safer than his. I want to protect you, I want to see you, I need you Harleen, and your the only person I ever..."

The sound of crashing metal caught his attention like a bolt of lightening striking a tree. He threw his cowl over his head and scanned the room like a predator, but found nothing in the shadows. 'Might have just been a fallen beam or crate...' He thought to himself, but even the great Batman knew never to accept such ideas. Behind every echo and creek in any city or town, there was something dark hiding in the shadows...

But Bruce didn't care and soon forced himself onward toward the loft, following the sounds of the Joker's maniacal laughter and the crudely painted green arrows. Where ever he was, the cure was sure to be there, as would be Harley Quinn. But the latter seemed more plausible, or rather a fact of sad fact of life...

For a moment he turned back to the destroyed mannequin and with a tired, and rather regret filled, sigh: "If you were here, I would have forgave you..."

Just above Batman was an elevated area over looking the assembly line where Hans smirked as he pulled himself off of a bound, gagged, and teary eyed Harley Quinn. Hans found her in bound to the steel support beam, but before he could react to the rather awkward sight of a tied up and pissed off harlequin Batman appeared below them. Luckily for Hans he learned from his last encounter with Batman five years ago to line his coat with a special dye that allowed him to hide from thermal based scans like that of Batman detective and Deathstrokes's tactical vision. Throwing himself over Harley was only a spree of the moment, but he didn't mind Hans favored blondes the most.

"Sorry about that Harley dear," He said as he dusted himself off. "But I would rather stay away from Bruce as much as I can. After all, he has a mission of his own and so do I. But I'm afraid his little moment on the floor wasn't for your or my ears."

Compared to Harley, or for that matter Batman, Hans was a titan of a man. His long military coat and tall boots only added to his already threatening figure. With his gas mask gone, she could see his green eyes piercing to the very depths of her soul, just like Bruce's brown eyes. A balaclava covered the bottom half of his face and a black cap covered his head, but she could make out a dark brown or black hair due. He remained her of Bruce, sending her into a river of tears that drew Hans attention.

"Please don't cry, my dear," Hans said as he lifted her head toward him. "It's a shame to see such a beautiful woman such as yourself weeping. But I can understand your sorrow..." His hand reached into his coat ominously and Harley closed her eyes as she prepared for the worst.

But instead of a long barreled handgun or a dagger, a small photo of a tall man with a little blonde goth girl appeared in front of her face.

"I use to have someone to fret about myself," Hans told her with a sweet and nostalgic voice. "She was my world. My muse. My own Harlequin if I dare say."

"I fought countless demons, both mental and physical, to get to and back to her. I did so many things for her in my youth... I was so close to putting a ring on her finger in Metropolis..." His once cheer voice turned to sorrow as quickly as it appeared. "But fate had other plans for me... For her... For all of us..."

He put the picture away and ran his sleeve across his eyes to wipe away the small tears hiding under the bill of his cap,
"Fate has her way with people, both men and women fall before her. Tonight is no different. Tonight is when everything Bruce and Joker have striven since their path crossed will finally come to flourish. Either Batman dies or Joker dies, Heads or Tails as Harvey Dent would put it. But fate won't just walk away from the victor after the death of challenger, no, she won't allow that. She will only stop when both are laid to rest, or at least the Joker will. But that's why he has YOU, isn't it? Your his wild card, his most prized follower who will assure that if he dies, SOMEONE will carry on his destructive legacy. But your not as strong, or as competent, as you appear, are you? Hehe. No, your not, but that's why your a wild card and not his ace in the hole. That title belongs to his friend Strange in the big fucking tower of his and all those beautiful British made missiles of his and Batman, not you, saving his sorry ass from his own short shortsightedness. This is why your here and not THERE with both of those fools. You think Joker cares for you? No. He only uses you as a pawn his game with Strange, Ra's, and Batman. But you knew that already didn't you? Or does Harleen know this and your to memorize by the Joker and your NEED to EARN his approval to recognize the sickness in front of you? WAKE UP HARLEEN! Your is dream over, just like mine were..."

Hans shook his head in disappointment, "I've read your file, Harleen. Waller made sure that I kept track of you, especially after your unwarranted defection. But luckily for you, my brother, god rest his soul and Erika's, managed to schmooze that boar of a woman over and deactivate your chip. If I was a greedy man I could just knock you out, take you to her, and receive a fine sum for my trouble. But I'm over simple things such as wealth and power. I simply want you to do what your heart tells you to do. Maybe we'll meet again, maybe else where in Gotham or maybe at the gates of hell."

"So long." Hans said as he tipped his hat and cut the restraints off of her body with a dagger before vanishing into the mill.

She quickly ripped the tape off her face with a screech, "Shit!" She yelled as she rubbed the side of her face where the tape use to be.

"Crazy bitch!" Harley groaned, referring to Talia al Ghul and her sudden rush on her before she could give the Joker the cure. But unknown to Talia, Harley had poured some of the cure into a flask and kept it on her hip for Batman as soon as she departed from the old GCPD building. Hans may have had a point on her and the Joker, but, just like Batman, he underestimated her intelligence. She split the cure to save them both, but she needed to get it away from Freeze, Hans, and Bats before they broke it. There was enough in the flask to save the people of Gotham who were stricken with the same illness as her loved ones as well...

Hearing Bruce try and let out his pain only stiffen Harleen's belief in him and in their love, but Harley was still stuck on the clown... But Hans words shook her belief a little in her love for the Joker. Making her wonder, was he right? She shook her head and gasped, but to her luck she looked down at the flask in her boot with smile to see it was still there and that the crazy bitch and the other tall, dark, and handsome, didn't find it. But then it hit her...

He knew Bruce's secret...

Then she realized who 'Hans' really was...

It was clear to her that she had her own mission to accomplish tonight, aside from taking the whole crew into the tunnels.

Save Batman...

Save Joker...

Save Gotham...

And Kill Hans...