When they get out of Arkham, the three psychopathic clowns begin to move to regain their holding on Gotham. Joker's men have divvied up the city again, since they were gone for so long, and he wants it back. And now he has not only the slightly crippled and generally useless Schwarzwald to do it; he has the more able and useful Harley Quinn to help him.
They immediately find an abandoned building and set up shop again. More or less, they make the abandoned, derelict and very dangerous building a home. Schwarzwald remains paranoid that the building is going to capsize and take them all to their dark, concrete tombs at the base of the building. Joker and Harley either like the risk or just don't care.
Speaking of Harley Quinn. Schwarzwald is very sure that she now hates her. Schwarzy was born with a jealous mind, though she'll never admit it, and when she's shoved aside to make room for the new girl, it makes her angry. She doesn't want Joker like Harley does, not at all, but that doesn't mean she wants anyone else to have him, either. She doesn't like how Harley hangs off of Joker, she doesn't like all the cute pet names she has for him, and Schwarzwald really doesn't like how Harley likes to flaunt him in front of her.
Neither woman really notices that Joker treats both of them the exact same. If Schwarzwald wanted to adore him like Harley does, then he'd let her do the exact same thing; Schwarzy just doesn't feel like that. But Harley does.
Alright, maybe he has Harley help him more. But that's just because Schwarzwald is too busy being jealous and hating Quinn.
Three days after escaping, they get a few thugs back and they get their costumes from the costume maker. Joker is more than happy to be back in his outfit, because an Arkham jumpsuit and a white doctor's coat really isn't an intimidating sight. Schwarzwald is happy to be back in her own monochrome costume, and Harley finally gets hers. It's a tight latex sort of thing, Schwarzwald thinks, and she also notices that the former doctor is curvier than her. Or maybe it's her envious mind that makes her think Harley's prettier than her; it's hard to tell anymore.
After some chatting between the three of them, Schwarzwald finds out that Harley's younger than her, too. Another stupid thing that she can add to the reasons she has to hate Harley Quinn. Schwarzwald is very aware that she's being a jealous bitch, but so is Harley, though to a much lesser extent, so it's alright.
They move from their derelict building back to the chemical factory that remains abandoned and waiting for them. There's still an uproar about how the Joker has broken out of a high-security mental facility, twice. There's more panic when they find out that Jonathan Crane has escaped as well.
Things move along smoothly for a while. Joker starts to get ready to rain terror and hell upon the Gotham people again, while Harley and Schwarzwald help him while hating one another.
Their first order of business: they hit a bank to get some start-up money.
Joker walks in, smoothly, beginning an introduction to the terrified bank-goers. As he does, Schwarzwald, as planned, hurries back towards the vault with a couple thugs. They begin to crack the vault, Schwarzwald peeking out now and then to see Harley kill a teller with a cell phone and then continue to strut around at Joker's side, generally looking pretty and dangerous.
"We're done here." One thug says, as the other opens the vault. They can't afford to kill off all their thugs now, because they don't have that many yet, and so all three begin to load money into dufflebags, like Joker told them to. Schwarzwald is a little slow at it, but there's no problem here.
"Hey!" Harley is in the doorway, looking at the three of them loading up money, and she looks annoyed. Schwarzwald looks up at her, equally annoyed.
"What? We're sort of busy here?" She snaps back, and Harley struts up towards her and begins piling money into the same dufflebag.
"What's taking so long? You can't be this useless." Harley snaps, and the thugs watch the two women glare and try to load money in quicker than the other.
"I can do it myself, so go do your fucking job." Schwarzwald snaps back, and the two continue to try one-upping one another.
After fifteen minutes of this, and some arguing, Joker walks into the doorway looking annoyed. "We need to, ah, take our leave."
Both women look at one another, and then back to him. "Why?" They ask, as police sirens wail in the background, growing steadily louder.
"Because someone didn't watch for people calling Gordon's dogs on their cell phones." He says, bluntly, before the three begin to move, the thugs following them.
One shootout later, which involves using the two thugs as human shields, and throwing the bullet-ridden corpses at the cops, though the second is launched at Batman right after he lands from the roof of a nearby building and prepares to attack, and the third is dragged down the alleyway, sobbing, pleading for his life, before the Joker lights him on fire and sends him running, screaming, down the alleyway at Batman and the cops, who are giving chase, and the three escape into the night and make their way back to the chemical factory.
Schwarzwald is very, very pale after she sees the man go up in flames and screech bloody murder, before being accidentally shot full of holes by the cops and then trampled and tripped over by Batman sprinting to give chase, and when they get into the getaway van hidden a block away, the first thing she does when she sits down in back with Harley and Joker is vomit on her shoes.
She can have other people kill people. Hell, she can push the detonator and kill scores of human beings with no ill feeling. But she absolutely can't kill someone face-to-face, and seeing other people do it makes her feel sick. Not to mention this is the first time she's seen Joker do something completely and unnecessarily cruel just for the sake of cruelty, such as seeing a man run screaming down an alleyway like a human torch before the Batman trips over him like some sort of sick slapstick routine. Not to forget that the Joker just happened to quip "Let's brighten up Batsy's day" before laughing like a maniac and sending the poor bastard off on his flaming suicide run, Harley joining him in his laughter.
Sometimes, Schwarzwald really does wonder why she picked this line of work. Then she remembers that she had no choice and needs to quit bitching about it.
A couple days after the failed bank robbery, which they only got a fraction of the money they should have out of it, Joker tells both Harley and Schwarzwald that they're going to plant C4 in the tailpipes of various people's cars. The two of them split up and do half of the list, until they hit the last two cars and meet up.
"I'm taking these two; you go back and wait for me." Schwarzwald snaps, kneeling in front of the car, as Harley glares back.
"No, I'll do it, and you go back." Harley snaps back, preparing to load the C4 herself. The two of them sit there and stare each other down, before beginning to argue.
"You can't handle it; don't wanna ruin your boots again, do ya?" Quinn sneers, and Schwarzwald grinds her teeth.
"Bombs are fine; don't want you to screw up and blow yourself up, toots. That's all." She sneers back, continuing to glare. It's now that they hear a merry little jingle, and realize that it's the one-minute timer telling them that the bombs are going off in exactly one minute. They're holding two packs of C4; one each. Once they stare at one another for a second, they toss the C4 and run, both happening to take the time to try and run faster than the other. The bomb's explosion knocks them off their feet for a moment, before they scramble up again and take off running.
When they make it back to the base, Joker is less than pleased.
"You two are pretty useless, aren't you?" He growls, laying a hard kick to Schwarzwald's ribs as she tries pitifully to crawl away across the concrete floor. The Joker is a boss that you do not want to disappoint. When he kicks her she yelps like a kicked dog, and when Harley comes up on his left, from her spot sitting on the floor with a hand over her split lip, and tries to plead with him, he backhands her as hard as he can. She hits the floor again, falling against a table for support, as Joker continues on his little rant.
"A simple, simple job. Shove C4 into ten cars' tailpipes, and leave. You had an hour to do it all, and you still managed to screw it up." His voice is a tone higher than usual, seething anger right behind the surface, and when he sees that Schwarzwald is trying to crawl away, pitifully, sobbing, he stamps on her back to get her to quit moving and then punts her to get her to stop sobbing; the noise is grating on his already frayed nerves.
"Shut. Up." He breathes, and she does instantly. He's told them already that the last car, the one that wasn't destroyed, was the one that he actually needed destroyed and the others were only destroyed to hide his actual target. After a moment, seeing the both of them at his feet without any fight in them left, he growls under his breath and speaks again, in a tone that seems to be imitating kindness.
"Don't screw up the next one." He warns, and doesn't even need to add a threat for them to know he's absolutely serious. He leaves, and Schwarzwald and Harley make eye contact and glare.
"It's your fault." They both accuse, simultaneously, before rolling over and moving to get away from one another.
The next job is a week later. They're going to grab a hostage, strap a bomb to them, set them in the center of a very large intersection with four important buildings on either direction of them; a daycare, a school, and a set of pleasant homes. The hostage is going to be the sister of a mob man, and Joker says that she should be easy enough to get there. Someone else, meanwhile, is going to be helping set up charges on the other side of Gotham, unnoticed by the general populace as they panic about the hostage, and they will end up setting their charge within a hospital, by helping deliver a bomb-rigged vending machine into the best place in the building to cause the most damage. Joker, meanwhile, will be drawing all the attention not drawn to the hostage to himself, making sure to get a hold of a news reporting team so that he can contact the entire news-watching city.
It's a plan that's going to be the big introduction to Gotham that their Public Enemy Number One is back in action…again.
The hostage is already picked out, and Schwarzwald is chosen to go get her, and bring her to the right location, where thugs will be waiting to strap the bomb to her and then move her to the intersection. Harley is going to help move the bomb-rigged vending machine into the hospital and then she's going to join Schwarzwald in keeping attention to themselves as well, though mainly in keeping the bomb squad away from the hostage and hospital, which aren't that far apart, before they're notified that it's time to blow the scene and watch the fireworks. Joker is going to wait with his hostage news team in a derelict building in the Narrows, narrating to the city to keep their attentions and offer his ultimatum: they go and rescue the single hostage, or they go and save the hospital. Joker himself is going to see if Batman is going to come find him instead of helping the police take care of and rescue the hostages, which he could ostensibly do. One life, two hundred lives, or sacrifice them all to apprehend a man that will most likely just escape again?
The plan goes into action the next day. Joker, Harley, and Schwarzwald go their separate ways, each accompanied by an entourage of thugs that are either masked or unmasked, depending on what their leader's objective is. Schwarzwald finds the apartment of the woman she's kidnapping, and the dingy little building looks all-too-familiar. She doesn't know why, until she walks in the building, knocking out the caretaker of the woman, and walks in the bedroom to see none other than Samantha Keegan. Her heart drops into her stomach.
"Hello?" Samantha asks, alarmed. "Who's there?"
Schwarzwald doesn't answer, only watches the thugs march in and grab her, dragging her along screaming. They march out, toss her in the car, and take her to an empty parking lot and strap the bomb to her frail chest. One of the thugs cops a feel and Schwarzwald bludgeons him with the butt of her shotgun, angrily. He calls her a bitch under his breath and continues, as Samantha cries out for help, and manages to slash at what could possibly be left of Schwarzwald's heart with words sharp as razors.
They drive the now bomb-strapped Samantha, also now gagged because everyone is sick of hearing her scream, to the intersection and place her there, Schwarzwald feeling very sick as she stands before the ungagged and screaming Samantha in the intersection, with all six other thugs, toting her shotgun. Cops surround her quickly, but keep their distance with the heavy arms that the Joker goons are carrying. Cameras surround them quickly, SWAT cars and members, all staring and watching and horribly oppressive. The guilt is not mixing well with her general feeling of claustrophobia by all the people focusing on her.
Samantha continues to scream and beg for help, pleading for them to let her go. Schwarzwald almost wants to kill her just to shut her up; she's that desperate to escape the guilt.
She doesn't hear the Joker's speech, but she knows it's begun when everyone seems to turn away and begin listening to something she can't quite catch. Commotion sounds as people rush towards the hospital, where Harley and her thugs are probably waiting to defend it.
The minutes tick down. Samantha keeps screaming, pitifully now, and then the small jolly circus jingle sounds that lets the thugs know when to run. One minute until the bomb goes off. Thugs start firing off into the crowd, causing confusion and panic, and run off into that same crowd while throwing aside their guns and masks and overcoats, trying their best to blend in. Schwarzwald prepares to make her own path, or at least attempt it, when Samantha screams one last thing that freezes her blood.
"Michael!"
Schwarzwald freezes at the shrieked name, as Samantha sobs his name again and again, and suddenly, Schwarzy finds herself whirling around and dropping beside Samantha, tugging at wires like a madwoman. Joker showed her which wires arm and which can be pulled to disarm, and she's trying to do that just now. People have assumed the bomb is about to go off and run, clearing the area, as Schwarzwald continues to pull the wires. The seconds tick down; she hasn't got much time.
"Hold on!" Schwarzwald shrieks hoarsely, pulling the bomb off and dropping it before dragging Samantha against her, turning and diving towards a dumpster nearby. The bomb blows at their back, Schwarzwald feeling a searing breeze across her back as she dives against the concrete with partial cover from a dumpster with Samantha pinned under her, protected from the heat.
Schwarzwald's ears ring painfully, and all noise sounds like it's coming through a layer of cotton. She can only hear her own rapid pulse and her ragged, pained breathing. She can't kill her human emotions; can't be rid of her human guilt. Samantha sobs below her, quietly, and for a split second, Schwarzwald can become Michelle again. She brushes the younger woman's hair out of her face, tenderly, with shaking fingers, and speaks quietly into her ear.
"I'm so sorry."
Samantha's blind, milky eyes open and then turn to focus, in their own way, on Schwarzwald's face.
"Julia?" She asks, softly, but gets no answer as Schwarzwald stands up and staggers towards the nearby alley, not hearing the hospital bomb. They must have deactivated it in time. Probably due to them seeing Schwarzwald deactivating Samantha's bomb and gambling on her knowing what she was doing.
Joker is going to kill her. Agonizingly.
Schwarzwald turns back to Samantha in time to see Batman there, not too far away, apparently having come to attempt to save Samantha. He wouldn't have made it if Schwarzwald hadn't proved a heroic idiot. Schwarzwald stares at him a moment, and he seems to stare right through her before turning to Samantha instead, leaning down to see if she's alright while the police reorganize themselves. Schwarzwald comprehends that he's letting her off right now and so she turns and runs, runs as fast as she can while wearing heels, and hijacks a car to ride back to the chemical factory base, fully aware that Joker's going to mutilate her when she gets back.
She feels sick. So sick. Maybe when you're an evil, murdering whore, compassion makes you ill?