As the team made their long walk down towards the docks, where they would set out on this new-found adventure, something kept replaying in Harley's mind, like a tape recorder stuck on loop.
The Joker. Mr. J. The J-Man. The light in her life. Her rock. The only man, human...creature she could ever love.
The last time he'd laid eyes upon her, he and his crew were trying to carry her to safety in their chopper. That is, until mean old Waller blew them out of the sky. Harley would have much rather joined her beloved in death, but instead she had fallen out of the wreckage just before it exploded. Since then, she had never been able to stop thinking about whether or not he might still be alive.
Suddenly, her thoughts turned back to that night. The night she became the Clown Princess of Crime.
The Joker, free from Arkham on account of her giving him the keys to the guard's gun lockers, had told her that as much as he loved her, there was just one pesky little thing he couldn't overlook.
"You see, sweetums, you're just too right in the head to join my family of loons. I can't have someone telling me that I should be merciful and such."
"Please, Mr. J, I'll do anything for you. Just tell me what."
"Very well. Follow me, Harley."
He had taken her to Ace Chemicals, the place where he had been "conceived", as he called it, in a massive vat of acid. "If you want to be like me, you have to take a little bath, Miss Harley."
At first, she had been reluctant to make the plunge. But then she reminded herself of her promise. She would do anything he said.
In all fairness, she should have been dead the moment her limp body hit the acid. After all, why would the Joker care about someone like her?
But then she felt it. His hands underneath her, bringing her to the surface. When she emerged, her skin and hair were as white, red, and blue as his was chalk and green. Looking deep into the Joker's eyes, she knew she had made the right choice.
She was no longer Dr. Harleen Quinzell, always nervous, always longing for the love she couldn't find. Now she was Harley Quinn, the girl who would always stand by the Joker, helping him terrorize Gotham, and killing anyone she wanted, whenever she wanted. She was...free.
But without the Joker, she was incomplete. She no longer felt the same rush as she had with him.
She silently swore to herself that she would find him. She WOULD FIND HIM.