OK So I said fuck it to 'DNA Crossroads' and extended this story to include Harley Quinn's revenge DLC
ANYWAYS: Thank you so much for everything!
With Love ~Dresner
GCPD Headquarters, Gotham City, One week after the closing of Arkham City
Karl and Batman walked down the halls of the new Gotham City Police Headquarters toward the special holding cells where some of the more dangerous criminals where being held until Arkham Asylum was cleared from Poison Ivy's attack last year. The two men walked side by side until they reached the security door to the special holding cells where Karl stopped him to have a little chat with him.
"Bruce," Karl said in a rather brotherly tone. "You know you didn't kill him. Why are you blaming yourself for his own undoing?"
Batman shrugged him off and open the door to the holding cells. But Karl continued as they passed by the cells for Two-face and Penguin. "All I am saying is, there is no point worrying about something you can't change. You didn't kill him and yet your acting as if you were the one to take him to St. Peter himself!"
"Karl!" Bruce hissed as they passed by Calendar man and Hush, "Quiet!"
Karl turned Batman around and got in his face, "Be proud of yourself... Because if I was there in that pit... I would have savored the moment for all the hell he gave to Ms. Quinnzel... But no... You were the better man..."
He backed away from him and took the lead for far cell near the end of the holding area, "You always were..." Karl whispered as he turned with Batman toward the final cell where Harley Quinn sat in an orange Arkham jumpsuit.
Her back was turned toward large safety glass with her face buried in her hand sobbing. The cell walls were covered with crude drawings of the Joker and Her, Joker rising from the grave, and pictures of Karl and Batman hanging from nooses...
"She's gone" Karl whispered to him as he slowly turned away from glass. "The lights are on, but no one is home."
"Where do you think YOU'RE GOING?!" Harley growled as she threw herself against the glass with her eyes full of hate.
"On second thought," Karl said as returned to Batman's side. "Someone is home. How are you doing Harleen?"
Harley's gaze burned with fiery rage, oozing through the glass and onto Karl and Bruce. "HOW DARE YOU COME HERE?! AND YOU... YOU KILLED MY... MY... Puddin..." Harley threw herself to the floor her eyes are blind with streaming tears and she cries for all to hear: "YOU KILLED HIM..."
"Harleen I never-" Batman plead to his beloved Harlequin.
"DON'T CHA YA DARE LIE TO ME! I'LL MAKE YOU PAY FOR THIS! BOTH OF YOUSE! BOTH OF YOUSE ARE GONNA PAY FOR TAKING MY LIFE AWAY!" She screamed at the top of her lungs until her voice began to wheeze.
"Harleen, I didn't kill him! I could never kill him!" Batman responded. But Karl only chuckled...
The talk and long coated figure of Karl Dael laughed and laughed until a large smile took over his face. He pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his coat and began to smoke openly in holding cell before turning around to walk out of the holding area.
Batman pulled his cowl back enough for Harley to see his face, his real face. "Harleen you know me, you REALLY know me, I couldn't kill him. He would have won if I did... You know this... Please my love..."
In the eyes of his Harlequin was hate... Hate and sorrow... The two emotions that drove him to the cape and cowl. She had lost everything. EVERYTHING. This was the lowest point a human being could come fall to...
Harleen's life was in shamble, almost burnt and unrecognizable by the standards of the civilized world. Now Harley's life was at the same stage... With the Joker gone, Harley's life was nothing... It was over... The ride had stop and Harley was forced to get off...
Everything she had, wither it was Harleen or Harley, was gone... All of it was gone...
She was at the crossroads of wither she was going to change for the better or change for the worse. Bruce knew this road, it was a lonesome road, a long, beaten, and lonesome road...
He walked the road when he was only boy, but he had some guidance from friends and what family he had. He had people who loved him who CARED for him and his well being. People who wanted him to rise to the light instead of sinking into the slim... The heart of the Dark Knight bled for Harley Quinn in this moment of her life... He wanted to save her once more, to mend what was broken... To finally make it right for all the times he didn't save her, for all the times he should have stopped the madness himself. Harleen was still in there... and he wanted to get her back...
But beyond that he saw something that made his skin crawl... Something that truly filled his stomach full of disgust... Something that they shared with the Joker...
Bruce shared even more in common with the Harlequin God seemed to have forsaken this faithful night. They saw something in each other neither one of us liked, or maybe they were just looking in the mirror. He placed his hand on the glass in hopes of reaching the woman he loved under the vexed Harlequin.
Her blue eyes burned with rage and drowned in sorrow, but deep beyond that Harleen cried to him and Bruce could almost hear her calling to him... Her eyes broke contact with him for only a slit second to his hand before she threw herself to the floor and rapped herself into ball. Sobbing quietly to herself as she tried wishing away all the pain...
Bruce put his cowl on, but didn't stop gazing at his Harlequin as she laid on the cold concrete floor crying.
"I won't give up on you Harleen..." He whispered as he slowly walked away, bottling up the tears as he walks away to join the Black Hunter as he shared cigarettes with the Penguin.
"Are we done here?" Karl asked him as he lit the Penguin's cigarette. "Cobblepot has me thinking of a tall one. The boy and I might head to a bar before they ship out to Bosnia. You want a drink before I leave?"
Bruce said nothing and walked out of the holding area without a word. "Suit yourself." Karl said as he followed him as GSPD staff came with tonight's meal.
"We ain't done pretty boy..." Harley growled as she walked to her bed and retrieved the Mauser pistol Karl gave to her in the Theater as the staff came closer. "Not by a long shot..."
Two weeks after the closing of Arkham City- Downtown Gotham
Karl sat down in a ragged recliner chair in his old apartment in Downtown Gotham. The apartment was old and decrepit from years of neglect by its former owners, Owners who were sentenced to Arkham City for the crime of building the now torn down bremer walls of the former mega prison and murdered during Protocol 10. It was cheap and Karl preferred it that way, not to mention that owner of the apartment complex was a former Political Prisoner who was saved by Karl and his men and almost gave him the apartment for the price of only twenty dollars a month for rent.
The wall paper was falling off the walls, the carpet was stained, and the air conditioner was broken leaving the room colder than the arctic circle.
But the Black Hunter would not have it any other way...
He wore a pair of dark blue jeans and a long sleeved black button up shirt under a dark brown leather jacket to keep him warm. The thick wool socks on his feet kept his feet warm in the freezing apartment. His tall Jackboots sat near the door shining in the light of the lamp and candle light as he sat near an open window shining his remaining Mauser pistol.
The heavy framed Mauser C96 pistol was plated with blackened metal until reaching the peal white grips on the 'Broom-handle' pistol grip. The pistol itself once belonged to Karl's sister, Shelia Dael, before he murdered her and his brother, Rodrick Dael, during the chaos leading up to Protocol 10. It was once a gift he gave to his sister for joining him and his late brother in the world of private military contracting.
But being a coward under Karl's command never ended up well in the end...
On the coffee table was his gun belt, holsters, magazines of ammo, a cup of coffee, and his black Panzer cap along with the TV remote. He turned the TV up to listen to another news report on the findings with in Arkham City. For weeks following the closing of Arkham City by the GCPD the media was having a feast at the number of stories coming out of Arkham. From conspiracies, mind control, secret deals, genocidal plans, and the crem de la crem The death of the Joker.
For the last two weeks the stories clogged up all forms of media coming out of Gotham and Metropolis. It was crazy to Karl to see how little they knew about what was going on in that corner of the city that God seemed to forsaken, but he couldn't help the fact that THEY weren't there.
'They should have known better than to put some of the most cunning villains together in the same pond.' Karl thought to himself as he cleaned his beloved handgun. 'You put three alpha males together in a pack they will fight for dominance. It's a simple law of nature. But what can you expect from these 'Progressive' thinkers and tinkerers.'
"In other news," Vicky Vale reported as the screen flip to a scene of the old Sionis Steel Mill in Arkham City. "Harley Quinn has resurfaced after the death of her boyfriend, The notorious Joker, at the Sionis Steel Mill after weeks of evading capture from the Gotham police department. Sources in the ruins of Arkham inform us here at the station that the now reunited Joker gang is in possession of numerous heavy weapons, explosives, and hostages. Gotham City Police has the Steel mill on lock down, but can not enter the mill due to collapsed bridges brought about by Quinn's gang. Harley Quinn has not issued any demands so far-"
Karl took his mind off the TV and put the rag down with a sigh. "You just couldn't move on could you Harls?" He said with a disappointed sigh as he loaded a magazine into the pistol. "You should have went with Bruce... You should have taken the right path... But no..."
He chambered a round in his Mauser and put on his gun belt and cap. "But I guess you just can't break old habits, eh?"
A knock at the door caught his attention as he put his gun in his holster. He made his way to the door and put on his boots before looking through the peep hole to see three goons dressed in strange red and black combat fatigues and face paint with tear drops.
Karl looked over at the television and back to the door. The shots from the helicopter cameras showed the steel mill locked down by about one hundred heavily armed men wearing the same red and black outfits, Harley Quinn's signature colors.
"Hmmm..." Karl thought to himself as the sight of heavily armed men guarding the steel mill. "Bruce might be there already... After all, he was the one who saw the Joker keel over... But-"
The goons broke down the door and stormed into Karl's apartment with rifles in hand. Karl stayed against the wall, drew his pistol, and killed two out of the three goons. The third was spared and dropped his gun promptly on the ground before throwing his hands over his head in surrender.
"I dropped it! I dropped it!" He screamed as Karl drew closer with pistol in hand.
"Pick it up." Karl ordered him to much of the thug's confusion.
The thug looked up as Karl put the pistol in his holster and picked him up by the collar to his feet. "Pick it up!" Karl said, pointing to the G-36K on the ground.
The thug picked up the assault rifle as Karl put his hand behind his back, "Take me to her..." Karl said as the thug escorted him out at gunpoint to a van waiting down stares with three other gun totting thugs awaited.
"Hey! Where are the other two?!" One shouted to the guy holding Karl at gun point.
"What do you think smart guy?" Karl asked sarcastically as a rifle butt knocked him out and threw his body into the back of the van...
Meanwhile in the Steel Mill-
Harley watched as her thugs carried off Batman to the shrine room with a wicked smile on her face. Her attire turned to the color of her soul, or rather Harley's soul, dark black and red, as did the color of her once golden blond hair. She was moaning the death of her 'puddin' and decided to take it out on the world and the man who 'Caused' it.
But she couldn't just off the Bat...
No...
Mr. J wouldn't want that... Harleen wouldn't allow it...
The round in her custom gun was only a stun round, something she picked up from Deadshot's bag of tricks she found when exploring the GCPD arms locker. Harleen must have put it in before she came out today and Harley didn't know about it.
"WHY DID YOU DO THAT?!" Harley screamed into the emptiness of her mind.
'He didn't kill him!' Harleen scowled. 'He couldn't kill anyone! Not even that fucking clown you lov-'
Harley reached into her pocket and pulled out a special collection of pills she swiped from the doctor's office before breaking out. The pills were used to calm her psychosis down, but Harley changed the prescription to Two-face's prescription of anti-duality pills. It couldn't stop Harleen for existing, but it did shut her up long enough for Harley to do whatever her broken mind and heart wanted...
She watched the thugs drag him pass the door toward the shrine room with a smile, but something ate at her soul as she watched the lifeless body being dragged across the ground.
'This... This isn't...' She quickly popped another pill to quell any humanity Harleen may have had with her. But she still couldn't shake the feeling that she was doing the wrong thing...
Then she saw the mannequins of her and the Joker holding each other and all seemed right with the world. "I'm comin Mr. J." She said as tears ran her make up under the veil.