Chapter 33: Harlequin

As he flew toward the coordinates, Clark felt a mixture of emotions. Anger being the most prominent one. Harley Quinn had helped the Joker kill Lois, she'd helped him take the love of Clark's life and their unborn child away from him. She'd destroyed his world and she'd somehow escaped justice before now. Clark knew that somewhere deep down he wanted to kill her like he'd killed the Joker, but he also knew he'd made a promise to Roy and he wouldn't do it. He wouldn't kill her because his word meant more to him than revenge. The Joker had been different that man had deserved what he'd gotten, Harley Quinn would stand trial and then be dealt with.

He spotted her sitting down near a rock and brought himself down to land near her. She didn't flinch, all she did was look up. "Superman." She said, she didn't have that annoying accent that she usually did, instead her voice sounded calm, resigned even.

"You knew I'd come." Clark said sounding surprised.

"I figured that when you got my coordinates you'd show up." The woman replied and as Diana and the others appeared, Harley sighed. "With back up as well."

"Why have you decided to turn yourself over now, Quinn?" Diana demanded.

"Because I'm tired of running." Quinn responded. "I committed a crime and I'm here to face punishment."

Something about this didn't sit right with Clark, Quinn was far too composed for someone in her position, her heart beat was normal, indeed it was slower than perhaps it should be. "How did you get away the first time?"

The moment she opened her mouth, Clark knew the woman was lying. "I got away, I had some friends close by who got involved in helping me escape, and because you were so busy doing everything else, I managed to lie underground and wait for things to cool down."

"And you think things have cooled down now?" Diana demanded, something in her tone making Clark's hair stand on edge.

"I mean, the fact the blue boy wonder over there hasn't killed me yet suggests so." Quinn responded.

"Watch your tongue, Quinn." Diana snarled.

"Diana." Clark said putting out a hand to calm his friend, he looked at Quinn and said. "I won't kill you, Quinn. You aren't the Joker and in some ways you were just as much a victim as you were an accomplice. What did he do to you to break you so?" He'd read Quinn's file before, or was it after all of this had happened, and he'd seen just how smart she'd been how much potential she'd had, before she'd met him, the Joker, the mad man. Lois had always said that Quinn was perhaps the key to breaking the Joker.

Quinn sighed. "I fell in love with him. He got into my head and then made me see things from his point of view. It was all I could do not to go mad. I obsessed over him. I wanted to get inside his head and see who the man was behind the makeup. And then I fell." The woman laughed. "I suppose that was his ultimate goal. He wanted to break someone like me for a new game. Because he couldn't break the Batman."

"And Lois?" Clark found himself asking unable to stop himself. "Why did he target her?"

"To get to you." Quinn said looking at him directly. "He knew she was the one thing that kept you anchored to your humanity. He knew who you were, he never said how he found out who you were, but he did and once he did he obsessed over you. He thought by killing your wife you would break and Batman would have to put you down."

Clark could see that, he and Bruce had come very close to fighting, he wasn't sure who he had to thank for his friend coming around to his point of view and seeing sense. "So, he killed her and my child, and you helped?!" He asked, anger colouring his tone.

"I didn't know she was pregnant." Quinn said, more as a statement of fact than as an excuse. "I followed him through with all of this and then let it be. The moment I realised what had happened I wanted out but he wouldn't let me."

"That's not a good reason to keep helping him." Diana snarled.

Quinn sighed. "I know, and I know that once everything is done I am going to die, so I have just one request to make."

"You dare?!" Diana snarled.

Clark waved away Diana's protests and looked at Quinn. "Go on."

"I have a daughter, she's about five years old. She lives with my cousin, could you please make sure she's safe." Quinn said.

Clark was so stunned by that revelation that he simply said. "Yes, of course."

Quinn got up and smiled. "Thank you. I'm ready to go now."

Clark took Quinn's arm and was about to take off, when he heard a strangely familiar voice whisper. "Not yet you don't." He turned around to see who had spoken but saw no one, all he heard was a whirring sound before a gas appeared. He tried to breathe but couldn't, his throat was clogged and he felt as if he was dying. The gas contained kryptonite clearly, but as he fell to his knees he saw that Diana was already out cold, so this gas clearly had affected her as well. He turned to look at Quinn. He raised an eyebrow, unable to speak. Quinn was coughing and spluttering, but she managed to speak.

"I didn't do this."

As Clark struggled to communicate, he wondered where the other members of the League were, none of them had said anything, none of them had even moved, he couldn't see them as he turned his head from side to side. There was no one there but him, Diana and Quinn. As his eyes slowly closed he swore he heard a voice cackle. "Oh, Harley, you can't get away from me that easily."