Right after Arthur left her uncle's apartment, Wendy went out into the living room and found a red file lying on the coffee table, the same one he'd stolen from Arkham State Hospital. Wendy opened the file and read the paperwork and found the adoption certificate. There were reports that issued a series of child abuse, including an incident where there was a radiator involved. Several forensic photographs showed a three-year-old boy with bruises all over his naked body and a cut on his upper lip. The mentally ill woman who adopted him and gave him a second chance in life was nothing more than a monster, as evident by the abuse he endured, the innocence he had lost. The more Wendy read, the more her heart ached. It brought her to tears thinking about what Arthur went through during his childhood.
At the moment, Jack was looking through Penny Fleck's case file. His niece was sitting on the couch, looking distraught. Her face was red and tear-stained from all the crying she had done over the last hour.
"You were right all along, Uncle Jack", Wendy told him, tearfully. "Somebody did mess him up. Arthur was abused as a child, practically raped. It's that fucking bitch's fault! She's the reason he turned out like this!"
Wendy lowered her face into her hands and started crying again, sniffling and letting out a quiet sob. She wrapped her arms around herself, her body trembling with grief.
Jack paid no attention to her despair. He was intrigued by the all evidence he found in the case file, but there was no emotion to be found on his face. "You said he came here today?" Jack asked her.
Wendy looked up at him and said, "Yes! I'm telling you, Arthur was here this afternoon. His face was all painted up like a clown. His hair was dyed green and he was wearing a red suit. He aimed a gun at me!"
Jack closed the file and tossed it down on the coffee table and said, "So he's a messed up kid. A lot of guys are like that."
"But what kind of mother allows someone do to that to her own child?!" Wendy shouted, and lowered her face back into her hands again, sobbing and sniffling.
Jack rolled his eyes in annoyance and turned around and went over to the small table next to the wall and poured himself a glass of bourbon, saying, "You keep crying like that, you'll give yourself a headache."
"No wonder he's so unhappy all the time", Wendy cried. Her voice sounded broken.
Jack downed his drink in one gulp, then poured another glass and turned around and walked back over to Wendy, telling her, "Drink this. It will calm you down."
Wendy took the glass from him and was about to bring it to her lips, but then remembered her current condition and set the glass down on the coffee table. She wasn't sure if he did that intentionally or not.
"You said he killed those three businessmen on the subway", Jack mentioned. "Has he killed anyone else?
Wendy didn't look at him, but shook her head and answered, "I don't know. I don't how if he's killed other people. Even if he has, I still love Arthur, but I never wanted him to end up like this."
Jack moved closer to Wendy and placed a gentle hand on her left shoulder, squeezing it comfortingly. "There, there, kid", he said. "I know it hurts to lose someone you love. I'm sure your mother felt the same way."
Wendy sniffled and took a shaky breath, wiping away a tear from her face. She didn't know why he decided to bring up her dead parents at a time like this, but hoped he was doing it out of closure for the both of them.
"What was the name of that guy your mom married, Wendy?" Jack asked her. "Your father's name."
"Tallman", Wendy answered. "George Tallman."
"Ah, yes. Good Ol' Georgie Tallman. The man that got away and broke your mother's heart. What went wrong, Wendy?"
"They had some problems. Mom divorced him and got custody of me and changed my name from Tallman to Napier. I got to visit my father on weekends. Sometimes she let me stay with him for Christmas and New Years."
"That's nice", said Jack. His grip tightened on Wendy's shoulder, almost in a possessive manner. Wendy looked at his hand and then looked up at him, her eyes glistening with tears.
"You know why she married him in the first place, don't you? Your mother married him to get away from me. You see, Uncle Jack did some bad shit back in his days. At age fifteen, he got into trouble for bringing a gun to school. Assault with a deadly weapon, they said. He was a fine young man. He liked science and art and chemistry. He was a brilliant man, but he just had a few loose wires and made some bad decisions. Mommy and Daddy couldn't control him, so they put him away. They both died before he got locked up, but he didn't give two fucks about them. The minute I got out, I went back home and tried to throw myself at my sister. I scared her so bad, she said she never wanted to see me again. I had a feeling your mother was never going to come back, but she did. In the form of you, that is."
Wendy stood up at once, scared out of her mind of what Jack was implying. "Hey, I'm no Clark Gable, but I think I'm a much better choice than your last two boyfriends", he said. "You're running out of options here, kid."
Wendy slowly started to back away, knowing that whatever it was Jack was about to do to her wasn't going to be any good.
Jack slowly advanced on her, smiling wickedly. He fixed his hair and asked her in a soft-spoken, creepy monotone, "What are you afraid of, Wendy? You're not scared of dear old Uncle Jack, are you?"
Wendy gasped in fright once her back came in contact with the wall. The small table with the bottle of bourbon on it was on her right. She started breathing heavily and told him, "You're not an uncle, you're the Devil."
"I prefer to be called a Taurus", said Jack. "By the way-" He reached a hand into his pocket and pulled out one of the pregnancy tests. "I found your little friend in the bathroom this morning. Would you care to explain that?"
Wendy didn't say anything and just stared at him like a deer caught in the headlights.
"Now about this problem of yours", said Jack, putting the test back into his pocket. "If you'd like, I can have it taken care of by tonight. I know a good back alley doctor that can remove it like it never happened."
Wendy shook her head and told him defiantly, "I can't do that. I don't want to kill it. It's Arthur's baby. I can't just-"
Jack slammed his fist on the wall beside Wendy's head, causing her to turn her head and look away from him. She quivered with fear and let out a soft whimper.
"You decide to keep that little parasite, you're gonna wish you never met me", Jack threatened her. "You thought you could just come here with your pretty face and try to convince yourself that I was a good man? There are no good men, Wendy. Your parents never told you about me, because they didn't want anything to do with me after I tried to force myself onto your mother. She knew I was going down a bad path, so she married the first guy that came to her rescue and moved away to another city just to get away from me. I didn't care if the bitch lived or died without having me in her life at that point."
Wendy gasped and held her breath as Jack placed his other hand gently on her cheek. She still avoided looking at him.
"You know something? I've boned a lot of women in my time, but I don't think any one of them came as close to looking as beautiful as you do. Did Arthur fuck you in the ass? If you're still tight as I think you are, I'm sure we can negotiate a deal. Nothing but a little breaking in wouldn't do to fix you. If you would just change your mind about me and consider having an abortion-"
Finally having enough of Jack's verbal abuse, Wendy decided to fight back and grabbed him by the lapel of his suit and kneed him in the groin. Jack howled in pain and clutched himself between his legs, groaning.
Wendy looked to her right and grabbed the bottle of bourbon, as Jack looked up at her and growled furiously in a strained voice, "Are you out of your fucking mind?!"
Wendy yelled and smashed the bottle right over his head, knocking him out. She breathed heavily as she looked down at his body lying on the floor, making sure he wouldn't get back up. She tossed the neck of the broken bottle aside and glanced over at the clock and saw what time it was. It was 10:45. Quickly, she ran over and dropped down on her knees in front of the TV, turning it on and seeing the clown-faced, green-haired Arthur Fleck in his fancy red suit. He was on the Murray Franklin Show, just like he told her he would be. Wendy heard the audience booing him, hinting to her that they weren't enjoying him being on there. What happened now?
"Ugh, why is everybody so upset over these three guys?" Arthur grumbled on TV. "If it was me dying on the sidewalk, you'd walk right over me! I pass by you everyday in the street and you don't notice me."
Wendy stared at Arthur in disbelief, listening to him rant about how everybody was awful and how men like Thomas Wayne didn't care about people like him. Murray calmly tried to talk some sense into Arthur and convince him that not everybody was awful. Even though she didn't care for the talk show host, Wendy strongly had to agree with him. Arthur, however, was not inclined to share in the same opinion and told Murray that he was awful.
Meanwhile, Wendy failed to notice Jack had recovered and slowly got up from behind the couch, a large, bloody gash on his head. He glared angrily at the auburn-haired woman, deciding to finish her off for good.
When Murray mentioned a list of things that happened because of what occurred on the subway, Wendy felt silent tears starting to fall down her face. Arthur simply laughed at the facts and asked him if he would like to hear another joke, but Murray rebuffed him. He started to tell his final joke, but Arthur had to raise his voice louder each time when Murray kept interrupting him, frightening Wendy and causing her to put a hand over her mouth.
Jack reached a hand inside his coat during the rant and pulled out his gun, but before he could pull the trigger and bring an end to his niece, the sound of a gunshot echoed from the television. Arthur shot Murray Franklin!
Wendy threw her arms down and screamed in horror at the sight of Arthur shooting a man on television. Even Jack paused his murderous intentions for a moment and stared in disbelief at what Arthur had done. It was just about the ballsiest thing he had ever seen.
Arthur Fleck, a once well-meaning individual and all around good guy, had publicly murdered a man live on national television. And not just any man, but Murray Franklin. As much as Wendy didn't like him, she never in her wildest dreams ever thought about having him meet such a gruesome death. She was mortified that the crazed clown man would display a murder live in front of millions of people as though it were a public execution.
Wendy sat there on the floor, a look of terror on her face. She couldn't breathe for a moment. She could see Arthur's real smile creeping out from beneath the painted one on his face. He let out a genuine laugh and stood up and shot Murray in the chest just to amuse himself. He tossed the gun on the desk and came closer to the camera, tilting it up and closing the show with the final line: "Good night, folks. And always remember: that's li-"
The television screen exploded from the sound of a second gunshot, sparks went flying. Wendy screamed and threw her arms over her face. She turned around at once and looked at Jack, who cocked his gun and tried to shoot at her again. Wendy ducked out of the way just in time and reached a hand into her coat pocket, pulling out the switchblade and pressing the button to flick it open. She sat up and threw the weapon at Jack, striking him in the shoulder. He yelled out and raised the gun, shooting it at the ceiling. Wendy found her mobility again and got to her feet and ran over to the door immediately, opening it and running out of the apartment.
Wendy ran down the hall, never bothering once to look back. She was finally leaving Jack Napier for good. She turned right at the elevator and ran down another hall and raced down a flight of stairs until she reached the lobby. She ran out the revolving door and looked around outside, hoping to find somebody who could help her. She didn't know where to go. Just then, a yellow taxi cab pulled up next to the curb. Wendy ran over to it.
Travis leaned over the seat and rolled down the passenger side window and said, "Hey, I just got your message. What's the matter?"
Wendy opened the back door and got in at once, slamming the door and telling him, "Take me to Gotham Square and step on it!"
Just then, another gunshot went off, shattering the back passenger side window. Wendy screamed and ducked down low on the backseat, throwing her arms over her head as broken glass rained down on her.
Travis looked over and saw Jack Napier pointing a gun at the cab and firing more bullets at them. Quickly, he activated a device he had hidden up his sleeve, projecting a Smith and Wesson Model 61 pistol into his hand and firing once. He shot Jack through his face. The gangster clutched at his facial wound, dropping his weapon and letting out an ungodly scream of pain as he fell down on the ground. Blood rushing through his fingers.
Travis hid the weapon back up his sleeve and told Wendy, "You might wanna hold on back there." He stepped on the peddle and sped off down the street, turning left onto Clark and Higgins Street.
Wendy uncovered her head and sat up slowly. Travis looked back at her for a second to see if she was all right, then looked forward again and adjusted the rearview mirror so he could see her reflection. "You hurt?"
"No, I'm all right", said Wendy.
Travis adjusted the rearview mirror again and placed his hand back on the wheel. "What the fuck happened back there?"
"I'll explain everything to you later. Right now, we have to find Arthur. He's lost it, Travis."
After being tackled by security, Arthur somehow found himself riding in the back of a squad car. He leaned his head against the window, enjoying the view of the city as they slowly drove down to the police station. The city was under attack by a swarm of clown protesters, raging anarchy and chaos in the wake of the uprising against the system. Cars were on fire. People were breaking windows on buildings and looting stores. Some carried flares and smoke grenades, waving them around like stick flags. An endless parade of violence and madness is what it was. The people of Gotham were cheering and celebrating in the streets like it was a holiday.
All Arthur could do was sit back and enjoy the sight. He smiled and laughed enthusiastically. All of these people were following him for bringing awareness to their oppression. He felt like an artist watching a painting being brought to life. He was the artist and the clown rioters were his paintbrush, creating a beautiful masterpiece of anarchy and chaos. Whatever he told them, whatever he said, the clowns would do his will. He loved it.
One of the police officers in the front said to him, "This isn't funny, you fucking freak. The whole city's on fire because of you."
Arthur looked straight ahead and leaned forward, resting his forehead against the steel grate. "I know", he bemused. "Isn't it beautiful?"
Right at that moment, a blinding light crashed into the right side of the vehicle, T-boning the squad car and knocking Arthur into unconsciousness. The two policemen in the front did not survive. It was an ambulance that hit the squad car, stolen by three clown rioters. It came out of nowhere. A yellow taxi cab tried to make a turn and avoid the collusion, but flipped over upside down and slid across the road, stopping about ten feet away.
The door of the medical transport opened. The masked driver and his two companions got out of the ambulance and ran over to the undamaged side of the squad car, seeing the dead-looking clown man in the backseat.
"Yo, it's him!" Said one of the clowns.
"Come on, man. We gotta get him outta there!" Said another clown.
Carefully, they reached inside and grabbed hold of Arthur, pulling his body out of the wreckage. They carried him over to the front of the squad car and placed him gently on top of the hood of the vehicle. He didn't look like he was breathing. The crowd gathered around and waited anxiously, still cheering for the leader with the painted face who started it all.
Wendy looked out the window of the taxi cab, seeing all the madness and mass riots going on in the streets of Gotham. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of people had donned clown makeup or clown masks. Travis looked to his right and saw a gang of clowns setting a car on fire. There were people looting a music store. Someone took a golf club to a telephone booth. Another person stood on top of a truck and started waving smoke flares. People were running and shouting like animals, destroying everything they could in their path. Everything was in total disorganization.
Travis drove down the uptown part of the city. Wendy saw the Wayne family coming out of a movie theater and spotted Joe Chill, as well. He followed them down a dark alley as they tried to avoid all the danger.
Wendy looked forward and urged the driver, "Travis, please, hurry!"
"Wendy, this is a taxi cab, not a Lamborghini", said Travis. "Besides, have you seen what's going on out here tonight?"
Making a right and driving down on Market Street, Travis turned on the radio, tuning in to a news station and hoping to hear about what led to all this craziness, though he already knew the answer.
"Breaking news: popular TV talk show host, Murray Franklin, shot dead tonight on the live telecast of his program. The man, who was introduced by Franklin as 'Joker', is currently under arrest."
Travis wasn't even listening to the radio anymore. He kept his stoic gaze forward, seeing a police car right ahead of him. The red and blue lights flashed in the distance as the sirens blared loudly.
You got what you fucking deserve, asshole, Travis thought to himself. His eyes held no emotion.
Then, suddenly, without warning, Travis saw an ambulance crash into the side of the police car. Not having enough time or space to make a turn, Travis yelled at the woman in the backseat, "HANG ON!"
The cab drove over the hood of the squad car and flipped over, landing upside down and sliding across the asphalt until it came to a stop in the middle of the road. The driver and his passenger were knocked out.