Life and Death

Chapter 15

"Whatever you think you've become
Don't worry 'bout it dear it's where you come from
There's no such thing as living comfortably
I'm not formed of myself alone"
Becomes the Color - Emily Wells

ACE Chemicals had not changed notably during the years. The same sickly yellow liquid churned endlessly down below, and to the Joker, it felt like coming home.

Harley was holding on to his arm, as lovesick as ever, looking down at the place where she was born the way one reminisces about past vacation trips. He could feel the stirring in his fingertips, the creeping sensation of shedding skin.

His daughter stared down at it, too. Obsessive interest sparkled in her eyes.

At twelve years old, she had become much too like Harleen Quinzel. Her eyes shifted in blue, and her hair was a shade of dark blonde. He had got rid of Harleen so he would not have to see her flushed, warm tones or that faked doctor stance, that poor attempt at faking humanity. He had never bought that act. Harleen had not been any more human than he, only he had been the one locked up a cage. It irked him to remember that place where his entire past, his identity, had been shredded by her unforgiving hands.

He couldn't have his kid growing up to look like that woman, no. Jaylie's battling personalities had agreed; she had demanded to be taken to this place like a kid who wanted to go on vacation - almost prompting him to wonder if it ran in the family. She was Harleen's daughter, and a part of him wanted to see more of himself in her. He wanted to see what it would do to her. How far she could go, if he let her... flourish.

"Happy Birthday," Harley smiled.

Down below the tanks of acid bubbled, inviting, and Jaylie studied them for another moment before she took a step forward. After all the stories she'd heard, she had been longing. It was something new, exciting, something that would make her belong to them like they belonged to her.

Looking straight down, she took the plunge.

At first it felt like dying, sinking deep into the churning liquid. She was not afraid of death, but the sensation was uncomfortable. A searing burn spread along her arms and face, and slowly other sensations appeared from the dark: soft pieces of fabric touching her and melting away. She saw only yellow bubbles of air escaping to the surface. The liquid felt so thick, it encased her completely like a blanket. It felt like home.

It couldn't have been more than a few seconds, when the burn and lack of air reminded her of its presence, pressing down heavily on her lungs. She kept her mouth firmly shut, feeling her hair dance around her, and time slowed down. She felt so light, like a fish, sinking deeper until her feet touched the rough metal bottom of the vat. Her skin felt as if it was melting away from her arms.

Then someone nudged her, called to her. Lucy took over in her mind, making her arms move forward, and her legs kick, pulling herself towards the surface. Jaylie wanted to stay longer, forgetting about the lack of oxygen.

We were made for this.

As the edges of her mind started blacking out, Lucy became clearer.

Lucy means light... so bright up in the ceiling, from the bottom of a chemical vat, she sang.

Are we dead? Jaylie wondered.

The lack of reply inside of her head left behind a silent echo, and she started struggling again, only to sink deeper. Without her push, she felt no need to get to the surface. It was calm here. It was freedom.

I am here. I am you. Get to the surface, now.

She was completely heavy, seeing the light of the yellow surface above, sparkling like a million tiny diamonds. She wanted to touch them, see if they sparkled like the fabric of Mommy's favorite dress. Lucy was urging her to swim, but the swirling surface was too far away.

Another voice, not Lucy's, broke through the haze. She tried to reach for Lucy, to pull her closer, but Lucy was nowhere to be found.

"Baby, where are you?"

Mommy's voice. Her lungs cramped and she wanted to reach out with a smile, here I am! Her heart was beating all the way in her ears as she felt herself sink like a stone. Red lips appeared in her blurry vision, wide smiles, sharp sounds and coldness. A blurry face above her, a red mouth and dark eyes. A strange sound left her throat. Breathing the air was searing her lungs as warmth spread across her body. "Welcome to the world, Princess."

She smiled.

"Jaylie, buttercup, open your eyes."

She coughed and her throat burned. She blinked once, then twice and the world was back again, cold and too hot. Laying on the area surrounding the acid containers, she felt her fingers twitch, feeling the metallic web of the surface underneath them. She blinked thick liquid out of her eyes, seeing the ceiling up above, a room slowly forming around her as she gasped for breath.

At first she saw nothing, only two blurry faces above her like in the dream. Her skin stung, and her lips, eyelids and scalp felt badly sunburned. Her smile grew, excitement overflowing through the haze.

Harley grasped her wrists, and her smiling face came into focus above her. "Wakey, wakey, lemon cakey! How do you feel?" she giggled. "We had to pick you up because you didn't swim, silly!"

The Joker was watching her as well, his gaze concentrated and intent. Jaylie slowly sat up, noticing the strange silence in her head.

She looked at her wet hair that clung to her shoulders and her corroded t-shirt. Holding up her forearm against the light coming from the ceiling, she inspected her bleached skin. Some of her birthmarks had faded, leaving a smooth hue underneath the shedding skin. It seared and burned, but it felt good, it was almost enjoyable. She couldn't help but giggle, seeing the pride their faces. Batsy was gonna love this.

"My hair is green."

.

.

She sat perched comfortably against a pillar on a low roof, watching as the people scattered, panicking, climbing up on stairs and benches to get away.

The large dog chased after the people across the small street, barking, knocking an old lady down that came in his way. She struggled to get up, groaning in pain as the feral animal pounced once again, tearing into her bag and made it impossible for her to get up. An older man came to her rescue, only to shy away from the growling dog.

"I think I broke my hip..." the woman complained.

"We need help over here!" the man yelled, looking around. Jaylie smiled.

As the old couple faced the dog, shielding their arms, a young teen came running. Throwing something at Lucifer to capture his attention, he helped them to stand up, picking up a large branch from the ground. "Who owns this dog?" he yelled.

Jaylie fixated her gaze on him from above. "His name is Lucifer."

The boy's eyes widened when he spotted her. A moment later he regained himself, leaving the elderly couple behind as he walked closer.

"You need to keep your dog on a leash! Get it under control, or I'll have to call the cops!"

She whistled once, and the large animal ran to the spot beneath her and sat down. The street was empty of people, who all had fled in panic, and the old man was helping the limping woman away.

The teenager walked up to her. "The dog needs to be controlled, or I will do it for you. Next time someone might shoot it."

Narrowing her eyes, she climbed down from the roof, jumped the last distance and landed in front of him. Lucifer immediately closed in by her side and bared his teeth with a snarl.

He looked at her and she knew what he saw. Young, defenseless girl unable to handle large dog. It worked perfect for her case.

Hiding her smile, she widened her eyes. "Do you really think so?"

"Yes, I'm serious! It's a danger to the public!"

She made her voice softer, insecure. "I don't know how to control him. I got him the other day, and he's really nice to me."

"You shouldn't handle it him alone. Get someone to help you with him before someone gets seriously hurt."

She bit back the urge to let Lucifer finish him off and she smiled friendly. "Wait, aren't you the Robin? I've read about you in the news. I'm a big fan of yours!"

He looked to the side for a moment, then answered, his voice low, but there was something in his eyes too, a sense of pride that made her fingers ache. "I work for the safety of Gotham."

I work for the destruction of Gotham, Lucy said sarcastically in her head. Such a show-off, thinking he's Batsy's favorite. He ain't that cool.

"Can you help me if he loses control again?"

He frowned. "Sure, if I'm around."

"Thank you." Jaylie gave him a sugar sweet smile, before turning away, and grinned. After months of trying, it had worked. Finally. She disappeared into a nearby alley with Lucifer following close behind, taking the most unnoticed streets. Being undercover was really fun.

The new Robin in training still had no idea about his impending death sentence, but she was not going to enlighten him. Not yet.

Johnny Frost picked her up a few streets away, in one of their usual meeting spots. He doubted that it was a good idea to have the Boss' daughter running around Gotham like she pleased, when she was an obvious target for other mob organizations, but it didn't seem to concern her parents. At times Frost had to accompany her, a job that made watching Quinn seem like a stroll in the park. Years of babysitting for the craziest had taught him that nothing could surprise him anymore.

Jaylie had to be dressed in casual, civilian clothes when she was out on her own, only in daytime, whenever her parents couldn't accompany her. The green color in her hair had faded out during the past months and was now only a hue on top of her light blonde hair, visible as a green light in certain lightning, but unassuming in daylight.

He doubted she could really stand her ground, if it wasn't for that dog. It didn't take long until the Boss figured out it was a smart move to let her keep the drooling, feral creature. Her gymnastic skills were better than before but not good - she wasn't interested in exercising or somersaults and had no body strength to speak of. Joker had made sure she knew how to handle a knife but she preferred using her own improvised weapons, to his amusement. The dog was her first line of attack and defense.

Recently she had started ending up in the most unexpected places. With Lucifer as company, she went where she wanted to go with little regard for the situation, and Frost was supposed to clean up any eventual messes. Her parents noticed sometimes, sometimes they didn't, and if she came back with bruises they dealt with the situation the way they always dealt with situations. In other words, more work for Frost.

Jaylie leaned back in the seat and looked at her phone. "Drive me to the mall, Frosty. Me and Mom are gonna take Lou for a walk."

.

"Look, they have ice-cream!"

Roller-skating through the mall, dressed down enough to not be immediately recognized, Harley held on to a leash with Lucifer on the other end.

The hyena-dog was not fond of the restraint and kept trying to break free by tugging at the leash whenever Harley slowed down to round a crowd of people. When she finally came to a stop in front of the ice-cream bar he whined. People turned to look at her, then at the drooling dog who was gnawing at the leash.

"What?" Harley looked at them. "I'm keeping him on a leash, mind your own kids!"

Jaylie came skating after her, having a harder time to keep her balance. She knew she looked quite unassuming, boring enough, wearing jeans and a t-shirt, her hair in low pig-tails.

Harley stopped by the ice-cream queue, her voices arguing about whether she should take the liberty to 'pass by' the queue but decided to wait. Being out in public, as undercover as they could be, was a fun switch up. After the amount of clown-look-alikes that flooded the city recently, fans and haters alike, it wasn't too eye-catching. This mall, in the quarters not far from the Narrows, was known for it's various clientele. As long as they didn't draw too much attention to themselves, they could go by unnoticed for several hours. She was wearing shorts and a t-shirt together with tights that covered up most of her tattoos, and her hair was in two buns on the top of her head, a look that passed by as strange, but not alarming, for the regular Gotham citizen.

Jaylie grimaced at the queue, bored by the wait. "I'll have some later."

"But honeypie –"

"Save some for me!" She sped away to keep her balance, rushing past the crowd close enough to make a few trip and fall. Lucifer tore loose from his leash and ran after his owner, loudly barking.

"Come on, Lou!" She skated by the stores, turning heads behind her and causing angry visitors to call out after her. Navigating through the crowd was getting harder, she almost ran over a baby stroller but turned left at the last moment, laughing as Lucifer made a few kids cry and fall over.

Getting used to the skates had not taken her much time; she had practiced non-stop for the last weeks to be able to move quickly but slowing to a halt was still difficult. When she took a sharp turn, she rolled straight into a store and crashed into a line of clothing racks. Lucifer threw himself after her into the mix and bit into the nearest piece of clothing he found.

As she sat up among the mountain of clothes, the shop attendants came rushing over. Jaylie removed the roller skates from her feet.

"What are you doing?" one of the attendants yelled, grabbing her arm. Lucifer growled and lashed out with bared teeth, causing the woman to flinch and let go of her. "I'm calling security! Dogs are not allowed in here!"

The other attendant hovered over her. "You have a lot of damage to pay for, young lady. You're going to follow me into the back so we can call your parents right now."

Jaylie stood up, brushing the clothes away from her body, spotting a sparkly handbag that had fallen of the cloth rack. Picking it up, she hoisted it across her shoulder as they two attendants closed in on her.

"Put that down right now! Security is on their way."

"My parents would love to speak to you too," she smiled innocently. "But you wouldn't want to call them."

Glancing sideways, she saw two security guards come sprinting towards them, so Jaylie pushed the weakest-looking attendant to the side and ran straight past them, Lucifer following close behind. Her legs ached after the collision, so she looked around for a place to take cover while she waited for the guards to grow tired of their game of chase. People were stopping to witness the scene, and she felt them catching up as she kept increasing her pace, pushing through people.

Lucifer made attempts to bite people whenever he could, and the crowd scattered when people started running from them.

She threw herself through a couple of stores, grabbing random items on the way out to make the alarms blast, but more guards had joined the hunt. Out of breath, Jaylie rounded a corner and saw a girl open a door leading to a bathroom. She threw herself with all her might into it, pushing both herself and the girl inside together with Lucifer. She slammed the door shut and locked it. For a moment, the chaos outside silenced.

Jaylie fell down on the closed toilet lid, giggling, as Lucifer lay down by her feet.

The other girl rose from the floor in the small enclosed space, and pressed up against the locked door. Her brown eyes were wide. Her hand searched for the door handle, when Jaylie turned to her.

"Don't open it!"

She flinched when Jaylie leaned over and pressed her head against the door, listening to the sounds outside. The sound of footsteps had magnified, people were running or walking quickly.

The girl put her hand on the lock to turn it, but Jaylie grabbed her wrist, looking her in the eyes. "They're looking for me. If you rat me out, it won't be no fun! Haven't you ever played hide-and-seek?"

The girl picked up her phone, apprehensively, but there were no missed calls or messages. She placed herself as far away she could from Jaylie, glancing at Lucifer even though the dog had lost all interest in the situation and was yawning on the floor.

The over-head speakers announced that the mall was to be evacuated due to a loose dog, but urged the visitors to remain calm.

Someone jerked the door handle from the outside and Jaylie rolled her eyes.

"I need to -"

"Shhh." She put her finger to her mouth and sank down on the floor, dragging the tense girl to sit next to her.

"Open up! This mall is being evacuated!" someone yelled on the other side.

Jaylie glanced at her. "Do ya wanna play rock paper scissors?"

"We should get out of here- " The girl was whispering as well.

"Come on." Jaylie looked her in the eyes. "It's kinda cozy in here."

"I need to stay out of trouble."

"That's boring. If you're in here, you're staying out of it." Jaylie petted Lucifer behind the ears. Hesitantly, the girl looked at him before reaching out a hand. She allowed him to sniff her hand, then petted his fur apprehensively.

"Your... dog is nice."

"He's called Lucifer."

The girl relaxed a bit, petting him more confidently. "That's cool."

Jaylie smiled at her. "The coolest. I'm Lucy."

Someone banged loudly on the door. "This is security! If you don't open up, we're going to break the door open!"

"Damn junkies," someone muttered from the outside.

The girl looked anxiously at the door, which Lucifer now had turned to growl at.

"We found the dog!" someone shouted.

Jaylie adjusted the strap of the sparkly bag over her shoulder and got to her feet, securing a grip on the hammer in her pocket. Zoe followed her movement, facing the door.

"Looks like they found us. Last one out is a sad bat!"

Jaylie put her foot on the door and turned the lock, kicking it open. She threw herself out, pushing through the guards assembled in front of it, and made a run for it. Lucifer ran next to her.

"Wait!"

She was already close to the emergency exit when she heard the scream and turned her head curiously. The group of security guards had caught the girl, who was struggling in their grip. Surrounding her, they pushed her to the floor.

Jaylie didn't know why she turned around. Maybe it reminded her of something, maybe it was just more fun this way, but either way she ran back to the chaos. Lucifer attacked the first guard he came across and pounced with bared fangs. In the chaos that followed, the first guard let go of the girl, drawing his baton to help his colleague defend himself. Jaylie grabbed her and tried to pull her upright. Two of the guards were wrestling with Lou, trying to keep him from biting their faces off, when another one grabbed Jaylie, twisting her arm behind her back. She fought her way out of his grip with teeth and claws, with the help of the girl, who kicked his shins repeatedly.

"Back off, you imbeciles!"

Stumbling to the side, Jaylie heard a sound like wood hitting concrete, and Harley Quinn was there, swinging one of the guard's batons into his head hard enough to make him collapse. She spun around to beat another guard to the ground until they all lay unmovable on the ground, someone's face split open.

She straightened up, listening to the sirens approaching outside. "Let's go, Puddin Pie. Nice bag!"

Jaylie followed her mother towards one of the emergency exits in the empty mall. "Wanna get some ice-cream?" Harley stopped in front of the abandoned bar. As she promptly served herself and her daughter a cone, Jaylie noticed that the girl had followed them.

Harley handed her an ice-cream too. "Here ya go. Vanilla, strawberry and chocolate." For a reason she couldn't remember, it sounded like a good combo.

The girl still didn't say a word, and just followed them as they continued towards the exit. Harley licked her ice-cream, humming a happy tune, as she picked up her gun from her handbag.

As soon as they were outside at the back of the mall, among dumpsters and containers, their companion finally spoke.

"Thanks for getting me out."

"Any day, sweetie."

"You're Harley Quinn, right?"

They both turned to look at her. Harley's lips parted at first, then stretched wide and she took a little bow. "That's right. Nice to meet ya."

She wrapped an arm around Jaylie. "And this is my lil pumpkin pie. Seems like the two of ya already know each other."

"Have you met my dad?" Zoe looked straight at her.

Harley frowned. "What was ya name again?"

"His name is Floyd Lawton… Deadshot. I'm Zoe."

"Oh, of course." Harley grinned. "I've met your daddy. He's nice."

"Do you know where he is? I haven't heard from him in a while. I've been sending him letters -"

Harley grimaced. "It's been a long time." Her eyes momentarily glazed over, before she shook her head as if to get everything to fall into its proper place. "He might still be at that ugly place. They don't allow visitation."

"What place? That prison? I thought it burned down last year?"

The sound of tires screeching further up the street and police sirens approaching made Harley grab both their arms and pull them away, into a corner.

"You can contact him, right?" Zoe looked pleadingly at them.

"I don't exactly have his number. I'll tell him hi if I see him. Jay, Puddin's not gonna be happy if we get stuck in a police car."

"Wait, Lucy -"

Jaylie stepped over to Zoe and looked into her eyes for a moment, before turning to follow Harley. "Don't let them take you too."

.

TO BE CONTINUED.

Authors note: Since this is an AU of Suicide Squad/DCEU, certain characters appearing will have different ages that fit into this story. Zoe is here only two years older than Jaylie. Tim Drake, Robin, is also a couple of years older. To answer a review by FluffKatt about Lucifer: I picture him looking like Bud and Lou but with black/dark brown fur. He is actually a dog and not a hyena, but with such characteristics. Lou is here the nickname for Lucifer.

I have so much planned for this story and I can't wait to finish it. Let me know what you think and thank you for reading!