Here's another great chapter with some Barley and some action! Please enjoy and remember to review!

With Love ~Dresner

Steel Mill, Moments later after the battle between the Joker, his crew, and Batman.

Rubble and railway tracks from the make shift death coaster fell from the ceiling pinning the mighty Batman to the floor. The 'Newly Cured' Joker howled and cackled triumphantly as he loomed over the Dark Knight with a rusty blade, taunting him with the threat of carving a smile on his face.

"Any last requests?" The Joker asked Batman as he placed the rust blade in the fallen knights mouth. "How about a joke..."

But the sound of high heels clicking against the concrete floor caught the attention of the Joker and the wounded Dark Knight. Batman turned his head in hopes of seeing Harley, but the rather awkward sight of Talia al Ghul with a large sword held in a sheath at her side only added to the rather 'Black Widow-ish' appearance that was the daughter of the demon. Her beauty was infallible, olive colored skin, light brown hair, a tight body in a leather outfit, and her Arabian accent oozed sexy. But her emerald eyes, though they are just as beautiful as the rest of her body, hold the heart of a murderer who was will to wipe out the entire world in an instant for the sake of the earth itself.

"How about a trade?" The vixen asked as neared the Joker and her pinned Ex. "Let him go. Take me in his place."

"I'll handle the joker around here." The Joker scoffed with a chuckle.

"Talia! What are you doing?" Batman demanded as the Joker's clown shoes crushed his hand.

"I represent the great Ra's Al Ghul. Head of the Demon, The master of the League of Assassins." Talia told him without losing her cold demeanor.

"Well bully for you!" The Joker replied until a bullet knocked the knife out of his hands. The three looked down toward the tall and imposing figure of Hans as a draft caught the tails of his coat, only adding to the already striking and intimidating figure that was 'Hans'. Not to mention the large framed, nickle plated, Mauser C-96 smoking in his hand as the brass cartage bounced on the ground before falling silent.

"Then you must be, what, the daughter of demon herself?" Hans asked with a rather gentlemanly tone as he closed in with pistol firmly set in his hand as he ran his eyes up and down her body. "Such a beautiful woman you are, Talia. To be honest, I was expecting someone a little more ruff than someone of your caliber."

"Who are you?" Talia demanded, he eyes trained on the gun toting figure.

Hans put his back to Batman and Joker as he closed in on Talia. With his free hand he pulled the balaclava down revealing his face to Talia. To her surprise, it was some she thought she, her father, and the League of Assassins, put to rest in Metropolis years ago...

"You!" She hissed, taking a battle stance and drawing the sword.

"Hey! This is my show, not yours pall!" The Joker howled, stomping his feet on the ground like a child as he jumped in front of Hans and Talia. But the two ignored him completely, to much of his annoyance.

"Zurück aus, ich bin hier für die Frau. Nicht eine Fälschung Clown." Hans told the Joker in German in as he pulled his Balaclava back over the lover half of his face.

"Why do you want me?" Talia asked as she closed in with her sword, pushing the Joker out of the way.

"Oh, You speak German." Hans said with a gleeful chuckle. "Aren't you just the whole package? You know why I am here, and really you seem surprised..."

"No mire mortal can simply rise from the dead." Talia replied, still holding her cold demeanor.

Hans smirked and reached into his coat with his free hand to retrieve a strange rock of some kind that seemed to radiate a strange aura around itself, "Or you have been to The Zone. This is what saved me... This is know as 'Flame'." Hans explained. "Its a regenerating artifact. Similar to your pits hidden under the city. But you of all people should know that I can not be killed so easily."

"I see..." Talia said with contempt as she eased her stance. "Your abilities have grown more dependent on those simple 'Artifacts' than your medallion. Unlike you, The great Ra's al Ghul holds the key to immortality. It's a shame that such a strong warrior such as yourself would rather fight against us than join us..."

"Woah Woah WOAH!" The Joker shouted as the topic of immortality came into play. "Is she telling the truth?" He asked Batman.

"The League has prided themselves on the use of the Lazarus pits for centuries." Hans replied darkly, "A sure sign that someone is to afraid to die."

"You must understand that saving the world is a goal that can not afford failure." Talia responded in an equally dark tone to the German and the Clown. "Dying is a luxury I can not afford, Black Hunter."

Black Hunter... A nickname Hans earned during his service for another secret society in his youth for his all black attire and reputation as a hunter of men. He was thirty now and the name coming off her lips sent him into ecstasy.

Hans bite his lip under the balaclava as his eyes traced up and down the vixens lushes body as the light of the fires burning across Arkham City broke through the ceiling and walls of the crumbling steel mill. The black leather out fit coupled together with the see through bits of her outfit, Her flawless body, and cut throat attitude, only drove Hans wild.

The Black Hunter wanted to make her his final trophy... But he had to complete his last conquest before he would finally lay with someone of her caliber. The question arose in his mind, would she allow him or would he have to take it?

No... No... Hans was better than that...

"Luxury?" He groaned as he put away his gun and drew closer toward Talia, running his hand down the blade of the sword. "My dear, you have no idea the meaning of the term 'Luxury'."

"Death is an honor, an Honor only given to Heroes, and a curse to the wicked. But for me, It is my duty to be the messenger and dispenser of Death. If it is pleasure you wish, then you will have to earn it." Hans whispered in a lustful and ominous tone as his hands grew hot and hard, dulling the blade of the sword until they reached the handle and Talia's hands. "Thank you for giving me this gift of purpose... Because without you, Talia al Ghul, I wouldn't have came to this forsaken place. I am in your debt... For it was you that faithful night that slayed my beautiful soon to be wife, Dusk, and her sisters. You freed me from my bounds and let ME come back into the world... But your not to blame for the orders passed down to you... WHERE IS RA'S?"

Talia could almost feel the energy exerting from Hans words as he whispered to her. His hands were firm, yet gentle, as they slowly graced her own, almost like Bruce's own hands the night they shared in Metropolis two years ago. The eyes of the hunter bore two emotions, Hate and Compassion, which disturbed the centuries old woman that was Talia al Ghul. He didn't want to kill her, but he wouldn't hold back unlike Bruce... But just like Bruce, He was kind, but in a strange sense. And just like Bruce, or was since her discovery of his love for the Harlequin, Hans showed interest in her as a woman.

"Wonder Tower..." She whispered firmly, keeping her eyes locked with the looming figure.

Hans pulled down his balaclava once more and gave her a wide toothed smile. "Thank you." He whispered, kissing her on the lips briefly before turning toward the stricken Batman.

"You haven't given up, Have you my old friend?" Hans asked as he knelled before the stricken Dark Knight. "I hope you haven't, Because you have a river to cross tonight. Your Harlequin is on her way and once she gets your out of here meet me at the top of the tower. We have a friend to see..."

Batman couldn't make out who 'Hans' was, but from what he could make out from his blurry vision he could see a man in his early thirties. A man he knew a long time ago during his second year of crime fighting.

Darkness took around his eyes as he saw Talia handing over her dull sword to the Joker, a sign that she was letting him go with her to the pits. While Hans graced her back with his palm before running off toward Wonder Tower. But a small blinking red light on Talia's back, the sure sign of a tracker, signaled to him that Hans was giving him a choice.

Follow me or Follow her... Save your ex or save your enemies.

In a daze, his head fell back and hit the concrete behind him causing him to blackout into the depths of his own mind...

Harley rushed out of the darkness only moments before as another missile strike struck the steel mill. She would have been there earlier, but she had to follow the Joker's order in the case of 'Protocol 10'. Luckily Batman and Hans gave the Joker and Harley a few hints to the true intentions and meaning of this 'Protocol 10', just before the first missile strike hit the smelting chamber of the mill.

Protocol 10 wasn't a safety measure, as the Joker's spies in TYGER lead him to believe, but, it was the complete and total liquidation of Arkham City and its inhabitants.

The plan at first was to tunnel through to the subway and hit Gotham from below, but the dig proved to be rather pointless as the machines began to break down and cease up due to the lack of winter oil. In response, The Joker ordered that if this 'Protocol 10' was something more than just a safety measure, the tunnels were to be used as a shelter from the storm of death that might rain upon them from their 'Friend' Hugo Strange.

But Harley had a plan to counter her 'Puddin's' as revenge for leaving her to die in the mill...

Using a private two way radio given to her by 'Hans' after the breakout from Arkham island, Harley contacted Astor and the remains of the 9th Company to plant charges in the subway to block off the hoard before they could launch their mongol raid on Gotham. Astor spoke of their mission of escorting Political Prisoners out of Arkham and back into Gotham under Batman and Hans order. Harley then gave a threat to every squad leader in Joker's army that if a PP was harmed, it would be a one way trip to Mister Hammer or the main burner. She wanted to save those poor souls from as much pain as she could, maybe she was growing some compassion for human life after all...

For Harleen it was a proud moment for her 'Shadow side', as those in her field knew alternate personalities, as it showed Harley was finally getting over the Joker. But Harleen still couldn't get over the fact that she was still trying to save the Joker...

Even through the moments where she, not Harleen, spoke openly and honestly about her love for the Dark Knight, before the knowing the truth about Batman. But even after knowing the truth about Batman and Bruce, Her love grew stronger for her Dark Knight as did her sanity as Harley and Harleen came together for a common goal.

Being the Hero she always could have been...

But Harley was still fooled in the idea that the Joker could actually show any form of emotion for her and still wished to save his life. Harleen detested the idea of saving him, but she then remembered that if Batman and Hans wouldn't kill him. Then would he himself be his own undoing? Or would she have to finally do it herself?

The two personalities were not evil, no matter what crimes the darker half had committed. Harleen was simply housing a dark and lost little girl, the little girl she was never aloud to be when she was a young girl helping her father as much as she could. Maybe the Joker knew this in some twisted way, or maybe it was just this city...

A city that seemed to bring out the worst in everyone...

Or maybe it was just Arkham itself that drove her to madness, just like it did to its creator.

Maybe it was a combination of all three...

Even in the whirlwind of madness that was Gotham and Arkham City, Harley knew deep down that she could never kill the Joker, even after his years of abuse. The Joker did have his moments where he showed her some form of love, but never compassion. Yes he is a psychopathic mass murderer, but he showed his love in the strangest of ways...
But Harleen never saw it like Harley did, all she could see was the obvious...

He never cared about her...

The lies he told her only fueled her conviction to stop his plans and finally bring an end to this madness. But as soon as she reached the main room where the Joker had his fun with Batman, she found the room empty with her Dark Knight slowly fading away once under a pile of rubble.

"Bruce!" Harley shouted, not realizing that she called him by his real name as she rushed to aid her Dark Knight. She threw the rubble off of him as soon as she reached the pile and with in seconds he was free and cradled his her arms like a fallen hero. She shook him in her arms until he took one long and deep breath of the metallic air around him before taking to his feet.

"Bruce!" Harley shouted with glee as she leaped into his arms and smothered him with kisses. "I knew you would make it! I knew it! I Knew it! I knew it!"

As Harley shouted in ecstasy, she remembered the flask at her side. "Bruce," She said as she pulled out the flask. "I cut the cure before that crazy bitch, Talia, tied me up! I got enough for you and Gotham! Everyone wins!"

Batman looked at the flask as a flash of light scored across the sky followed by a thunderous explosion. He puts Harley on her feet and walks slowly toward a large opening caused by another explosion sometime before. As Batman steps out of the destroyed room he finds himself standing in the middle of war zone...

TYGER gunships flew over Arkham City, firing missiles and machine gun rounds at everyone and everything with in the bremer walls that sealed Arkham from the rest of the world.

Protocol 10 was now revealed to the Dark Knight...

"Bats!" Harley called to Batman as she followed him to the carnage. "You gotta drink this cure and get some to Gotham before it kills ya both dead!"

"No!" Batman responses as a formation of AH-64 Apache flew overhead toward Wonder Tower. "Talia has been taken by Joker and Hans is going to kill everyone with in the restricted zone. You have to escape with the mercenaries back to Gotham, give the cure to Commissioner Gordon, and save as many lives as you can. I'm going after Talia."

"But-"

"Harleen." Batman said in a hard tone. "I can't allow her to die. Just like I can't loose yours..."

"But what about your health!?" Harley shouted as she shuck the flask in her hand. "What will happen to you if you die before you can stop all this?! How am I going to live without you and-"

A shot rang out and destroyed the flask. The shot was from a close range of about 200 meters or less, about the range of an assault rifle of either the AK or M16 family of rifles. But then from a near by building, Batman spotted the glimmer of a small low power scope and a smiling figure waving lazily toward them.

"Hans..." Batman groaned as he zoomed in to see the cold hearten mercenary throwing his rifle over his back before escaping into the hell of Protocol 10.

"You called Bruce?" Hans gruff and accented voice echoed through his radio.

"What are you doing?" Bruce demanded, over looking that he too used his real name.

"Evening the odds, my friend. I can't let you get out so easily. After all, we have a meeting to attended to and I would hate for you to be late." Hans responded. "But please Bruce, use my real name. I hope you remember it after all these years. Especially since I wiped out a rather troublesome enemy for you, a one 'Red Claw'. Don't you remember, my old friend?"

"No. Who are you?" Batman asked bluntly as he turned to Harley.

"My name is Karl... Karl Dael." Hans responded, cutting off the transmission between him and the Dark Knight.

"It's him isn't it?" Harley interjected, her face turning grave at the mire whisper of his voice.

"You know Karl?" Batman asked in surprise.

"How could I forget'em?..." Harley whispered as she remembered his acts in the Suicide Squad, Arkham Asylum, and finally here in Arkham City under his fake name of 'Hans'. But the name was infamous among the Suicide Squad for his Break out from the Gulag and his history with the Gigagan Corporation as a Stormtrooper and hired gun. Some of Karl's acts still remain unknown to even Amanda Waller to this day...

Batman snorted and turned toward Arkham City as missiles swore across the sky from atop Wonder Tower. "I have to stop this..." He said in a low tone as he watched the gunships fire into the streets before him.

"We have to stop this..." Harley said as she took his hand and clenched it tightly. But Bruce threw her hand to the side and protested, "You have to get to safety before TYGER or Karl finds you. I can't lose you..."

"You can't loose the Joker either," Harley asserted. "You gotta save Mista J B-man, You gotta!"

Batman turned his back and growled, "It's all about him isn't it..."

"You can't let him die." Harley interjected as she flipped right in front of him and took his hands. "Your the freakin Batman, You save everyone! You saved me and you just gotta save mister J!"

"After all he's done..." Batman said, wanting to explain himself. But the harlequin closed in on his and kissed him on the lips.

"Besides," She said as she broke the kiss with a evil smile. "I want that bozo to see together when I break his little black heart."

With her sly and naughty remark, a large smile drew on Bruce's face before they two locked their lips together. Their tongues fought for dominance as snow, dust, and melting glass rained around them like rice at a wedding. The kiss lasted for what seemed to be years for the lovers, but the sounds of havoc finally took the Dark Knight away from his Harlequin. The Harlequin understood, knowing full well that it was a Knights job to march toward the sound of havoc. She kissed him one last time before waving good bye and wishing him save passage through the firestorm of blood and iron of Protocol 10.

In her heart she forgave Bruce for all he's done to her, even when he was wearing the cape and cowl. But she couldn't help but wonder, Will he make it? Especially since the remaining cure only held enough for two people? Know the Joker he might just drink it all before he stops that mad man Karl...

No... No... Harley knows the Joker better than that. The clown would relish in the fact that there was only enough for him and Batman. He would rub his plan in Bruce's face, relish in his pain and misery, then unveil his trump card, and finally try to secure those pits the records in the Courthouse spoke of. The plan had to be one of the Joker's greatest plots in all of his years of gag and clown themed terror.

Harley knew that this plan will end just like all the rest of the countless schemes and plots in the past...

But Harleen had a feeling that things wouldn't end up like it usually did for Harley in the 'Glory days'...

No... No tonight was different...

On the ground, The main gate to Arkham City's restricted area.

While strike teams, or rather Death Squads, pushed into Arkham to mop up the remaining prisoners. Some TYGER personal were centered around Wonder Tower and the main gate to protect from the inevitable attack by the Batman. But from the rumors circulating around Arkham City, Batman was near death and wasn't concerned a threat at all to TYGER or to Hugo Strange.

Moral was high as the almost endless waves of American and British made Apache, Black hawk, and Lynx helicopters flew over Arkham raining death and destruction upon the forsaken souls with impunity. While the TYGER guards and Thugs both carry the same firearms and gear as one another, but TYGER was better trained, lead, and held air superiority.

All the cards seemed to be in there favor...

At the gates of Arkham City's filtering stations stood a platoon of twenty six heavily armed and armored TYGER guards. Above them were two snipers carrying heavy caliber Barrett sniper rifles and an MG-3 machine gun nest to supplement the other 23 members of the guard team with the basic load out of M4 and G36 assault rifles. Not to mention sentry guns to boot...

All was calm for the TYGER guards as they loomed around like a pack of wolves waiting for fresh meat to scurry itself into their layer. Some smoked their last cigarettes, while others joked about the looks on the prisoners face before they beat them to a pulp, while others talked about what they would do to Harley Quinn or Catwoman if they ever got their hands on them.

But suddenly reality seemed to annihilate all of their small time dreams as the sight of an Apache helicopter seemed to explode into thin air followed by two more crashing with in the kill zones marked by Hugo Strange himself...

"This is TYGER 19! I repeat! This is TYGER 19!" Shouted a pilot on a open channel. "We are under attack! I repeat! We are under-" The sound of automatic fire and screams filled the radio as another chopper fell from the sky like a fallen angel. The TYGER team looked into the sky to see what appeared to be a man with an assault rifle leaping with extreme strength to the cockpits of each of the choppers and letting loose with an out dated assault rifle.

The snipers attempted to get a target, but the hectic movements of the choppers proved to be to challenging of a shot for the snipers.

"Who is it!?" One TYGER guard demanded from one of the Snipers.

"I don't know!" The Sniper responded as another chopper feel from the sky just as a UH-60 BlackHawk appeared to aid the stricken gunships.

The crew of the BlackHawk arrived in a panic as another Apache crashed into the war torn streets of Arkham City as a figure clad in a trench coat and brandishing a STG-44 leaped on the choppers and unleashed hell upon the pliots. The gunners on the sides of the Blackhawk opened fire on the man, but only succeeded in taking out more of choppers.

"What the fuck are you going man! Those are our guys!" The Co-pilot shouted at the gunner as the jaw of the man was blown off by the figure as he swooped into the cabin firing the heavy Assault rifle one handed into the back of the opposing gunner. The Co-pilot drew his back up weapon, a H&K MP-7, but was quickly subdued by the remaining clip of the Assault rifle. The figure drew a nickle plated Mauser pistol and shoved it against the temple of the TYGER pilot.

"Crash this fucking bird into that big fucking door." He said coldly as he cocked the hammer back on the old pistol.

"Are you fucked in the head?!" The Pilot responded as he looked at the large door and back to the gun toting figure.

Karl pulls his balaclava down and looks at the man with the blankest of expressions, "Open that big fucking door."

The pilot panics and tries fighting Karl, but Karl was quick and blew his brains out before taking control of the chopper. The TYGER guards below scattered like rats as the chopper ran into a collision course with the Gate to Arkham City. Karl destroyed the stick to the chopper and leaped out of the cockpit, just before the Chopper crashed into the top level of the Arkham door, Killing and maiming the Guards below as shards of glass and helicopter blades showered upon them along with burning jet fuel. The remaining TYGER guards found themselves surrounded at all ends by fire and death as they dragged their wounded bodies away from the crash.

"TYGER 77, This is Hugo Strange. What the hell is going on down there?" The monotone growl of Hugo Strange calls to a wounded TYGER officer from the radio.

"TYGER 77 here, We have contact with an unknown aggresser! We've lost four- No Five- Choppers to this guy! We need ba-"

A gun shot cuts off the transmission, but soon Karl responds with a message to Hugo Strange.

"Your next Strange." Karl groaned as he crushed the radio in his hand as he walked toward the crash sight. He looks down to the ground to see the burned MG3 on the ground with a fresh belt of ammo ready for him. He takes the MG in his hands and starts his assault on Arkham...

Author Note: Karl Dael is an OC from my other works such as Dusk Dawn Crossing the Rubicon Door to Deliverance and Going Under. If you wish to know more about Karl read these works. They are Scooby Doo and Danny Phantom fic, but with Dark tones, Violence, and my usual MO.