Chapter 13: Star-Crossed Lovers
She woke in her own apartment for the first time in a while and she stretched out in bed almost expecting to feel him next to her, but of course, he was not. She pulled her self out of bed and made her way into the living room, she switched on the TV while she made her self a smoothie before she sat in front of the news.
"Gotham's very own DA has called a press conference today to unmask the Batman, we will go live to that conference in just under an hour." Scarlett almost choked on her drink as watched, the Bat was going show his true face. Without another sip she ran to get changed she put on her costume and makeup and tied her hair messily.
She pushed on her motorcycle helmet as she let the cat out and locked the door behind her before dashing down the stairs to the parking garage below the apartment block she lived in. she was up to 90 MPH through the streets in no time and arrived at the warehouse no less than 20 minutes later.
She jumped off the bike, and pulled her helmet off as she stormed through the door, The Joker looked up from whatever he was doing and grinned at her.
"Morning Jester," he called happily, grinning brightly to her.
"Dent's called a press conference to unmask the Bat," she exclaimed her chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath.
"What?!" he said with a mad laugh.
"They're gonna show it on the TV in the next ten minutes or so, I think" she said as she pulled the remote from one of the goons and began to flip through the channels, she felt Joker's presence come up behind her and she held in the shiver, that threatened to make her swoon at his closeness.
She stopped on the GCN channel and watched as the two new presenters made some kind of lame joke before the went serious and talked a little before the screen showed the inside of a conference building, and a little LIVE icon came up into the corner of the screen. The stage was empty for a minute before they watched Harvey Dent make his way onto the stage. The Joker shooed a goon from a chair before sitting heavily in front of the tiny old TV. Jester turned up the volume, as she sat herself on the arm of his chair, and as if by instinct his arm encircled her waist with his hand coming to rest on her thigh.
The crowd on the TV went quiet and Harvey Dent began to speak.
"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming" he began and the Joker sat back in his chair a little more.
"I've called this press conference for two reasons. Firstly, to assure the citizens of Gotham that everything that can be done over the Joker killings is being done," said Dent.
The crowd on the television erupted into shouts and heckles.
"Jester, I'm famous," said Joker looking up at her with big eyes and she laughed loudly at him, he simply grinned.
"Secondly, because the Batman has offered to turn himself in." Dent continued. Joker began to jump up and down in his seat excitably.
"But first let's consider the situation. Should we give in to this terrorist's demands?" Dent continued.
"That's not very nice, he's just name calling now," said Jester and the Joker cackled wildly. She made a mock sad face at him, her bottom lip sticking out.
"Do we really think he's gonna..." Dent said but was cut off as a reporter called out from the crowd but they couldn't see the source of the voice as the camera view stayed on Harvey.
"You'd rather protect an outlaw vigilante than the lives of citizens?" called the voice.
"The Batman is an outlaw. But that's not why we demand he turn himself in, we're doing it because we're scared. We've been happy to let Batman clean up our streets until now" began Dent again.
"Things are worse than ever" shouted a man in the audience and again Harvey stopped.
"Yes, they are. But the night is darkest just before the dawn. And I promise you, the dawn is coming." Dent said and the audience fell quiet, the Joker stopped his bouncing a grin still on his face.
"One day, the Batman will have to answer for the laws he's broken. But to us, not to this madman" said Dent and Jester felt the Joker shift in his seat next to her. Muttering "No, I'm not" to himself quietly.
"No more dead cops!" shouted a voice on the TV and Jester turned her attention back to the box.
"He should turn himself in!" shouted another voice, a raucous of noise erupted from the rest of the crowd on the TV.
"So be it. Take the Batman into custody," said Dent and the crowd fell silent.
"I am the Batman," said Dent.
"What!?" Jester exclaimed and The Joker began to hysterically laugh as they watched two cops handcuffed and led Harvey Dent away.
"I thought that may have been the case, the way he threw himself out the window after that girl," said the Joker laughing his voice higher than ever.
"Right boys change of plan, we are gonna kill Harvey Dent" shouted The Joker as he stood and began to ready the men and make plans. By the afternoon things were ready he was just waiting for the right moment to attack Dent.
Around 3, Jester had retired to Joker's room, having found his coat she curled up on the bed wrapping his coat around her as she breathed in his scent. She heard the door open but she did not look up her eyes closed as she held the fabric to her face.
"Jester, what are you doing?" he asked and Scarlett sat up.
"Worrying" she admitted holding the coat tighter in her grasp.
"About what?" He asked. She sat up and looked at him with big eyes before she sighed.
"I was just thinking about if something goes wrong, what if Harvey isn't the Bat. I'm just worried about you getting hurt or worse." She said quietly before she flopped back down onto the bed melodramatically.
"I'm not" he cackled and she rolled her eyes "And as for the bat not being Dent, I'm hoping so. Be kinda boring if it really is Dent." Said Joker, as he sat down on the side of the bed and looked down at her.
"I don't want you to get hurt," she said her voice slightly muffled as she held the coat to her face again.
"I'm not planning on it," he said and again she rolled her eyes. She rolled off the bed, leaving the coat there and went to leave. He caught her hand and pulled her round to face him, he pulled her slightly to sit on his lap and she complied.
Delicately she pushed his hair out of his face, and he closed his eyes in contentment. She kissed his lips sweetly before she pulled away.
"Just promise me you will look after yourself, at least try to," she said softly and he opened his eyes.
"I promise," he grunted and she grinned before she kissed him again. He pushed her off his lap like a piece of rubbish and left her in the room alone, taking his coat with him. She headed to the bathroom and caught her reflection in the mirror.
The scar on her eye was almost completely hidden under her grease paints. She was disappointed, she rather liked it, because he had given it to her. It was like a gift and a memento of their first night together. She reached a hand up, though it had not completely healed it no longer needed butterfly strips to hold it together. She spied the razor blade on the side of the sink and picked it up in her hand. The blade as cold and she twisted it in her grasp and it reflected the light onto the wall. She lifted it up to the bottom of the scar on her eye and without much thought, she dragged the blade down her face. It sliced into her skin like butter and went deeper than she thought it would. The pain was rather refreshing but as the initial pain turned to a strong sting she pulled the blade away. The air got to the wound and began to bleed. The blade had ripped parts of her skin so the cut was not entirely straight. It now reached from the bottom of her eyelid of her right eye to the middle of her right cheek. She pushed a tissue to the wound and held it there watching as the blood seeped into the white paper staining it red.
She spotted his reflection in the mirror, she had not even heard him return and she decided not to turn to him.
"Making an improvement?" his voice asked her sarcastically.
"Don't you like it?" she asked and he only shrugged.
"Why did you do it? To be like me?" he asked
"Yes. No. I'm not sure really. I wanted to keep my scar from the other night as a memento of that night, and it was fading so I just thought I'd, I'd bring it back" she said weakly.
"Look at me," he demanded and she turned to him and removed the tissue from her face.
"I rather like it, It suits you Jester," he said with a grinned and she smiled madly. Most people expect this kind of reaction from their boyfriend to their new hairstyle, but to Jester he liked her new scar and in her twisted mind this felt no different than a new haircut.
After that she reapplied her face paint, it stung greatly and stuck disgustingly into the wound. She headed downstairs with him, the clown pair slipt up and Jester headed over to the weapons beach. She began searching for a new knife for her boot.
"Jester I need you" he called a little while later as she was looking over some of the guns on the table and she came to him quickly.
"Come with me," he said as he led her into one of the back rooms of the warehouse. A fat thug sat on a metal table in the middle of an empty room. There was a tray of medical equipment and Scarlett looked to the Joker as he handed her a medical mask. She slipped it on and he grinned at her.
"Kilson, I've decided to do something about those voices in your head," said the Joker turning to the fat man on the table.
"I'm gonna go inside and replace them with bright lights, Like Christmas." said The Joker laughing wildly and Kilson grinned at him.
"Like Christmas," he repeated and The Joker simply laughed, before he lifted a heavy bat from beside him and hit Kilson hard over the head, knocking him out cold.
"So Nurse Jester, I need this," he said pulling a device up to show her. It was some kind of bomb connected to a mobile phone. There were enough explosives to take down a house and she laughed through her medical mask.
"In this" he continued pointing to the unconscious fat man on the table.
"But I need him to survive long enough to get incarcerated with myself," said The Joker and Jester nodded. Though she didn't fully understand, she trusted the Joker to know what he was doing.
She moved over to Kilson and moved his shirt up, his fat belly wobbling as she did, she pulled on a pair of medical gloves that were left on the tray. Tthe Joker moved round opposite side of the table to watch. She picked up the scalpel and touched it to Kilson's skin, she had never operated on her own, but how hard could it be.
She dragged the scalpel along the skin and it instantly began to weep red. Her hand slipped slightly causing the cut to not be as straight as she would have liked, but she ignored it as she pulled the skin open. She picked up the device from the side and began to stuff the explosives into the skin of Kilson's abdomen it made an odd squelching noise as she pushed hard and explosive finally slipped into the cut she had made, she lay the rest of the device including the phone along the muscle wall. She looked up to the Joker for approval and he shot her a yellow grin.
She pulled the hook needle and thick surgical thread up and began to make X shape stitches along the cut pulling the skin tight around the device.
When she was done she stepped away and inspected her handy work before she pulled off her gloves and mask and threw them onto Kilson's still unconscious body.
"So can I know why that was needed now?" She asked and Joker cackled again.
"I'm gonna go after Harvey, but I'm gonna get caught either after or before I kill him, that bit I haven't decided yet. But once I'm in Gordon's fortress I'm gonna use chubbo here to break out and take Lau with me" said the Joker quickly and Jester nodded.
"Now if I don't kill Dent then that's when the fun starts. One of Gordon's men will pick him up to take him home, except they won't be Gordon's men they will be mine and Dent won't be going home. Neither will his girlfriend and that's where you come in, Jester. I need you to make sure Dent's girl is nice and comfortable in her new residence" he laughed wildly and Jester joined in.
Later he had a call come in that the cops were moving Dent to central holding and quickly the Joker moved the boys out. Leaving Jester with the last few men.
"Right we are playing a waiting game here, one half of you are going for Dent but that may be a way off yet as he's still in an armoured truck heading for central holding. But the boss is hopefully gonna stop that and hand him over to us or he gonna get picked up by one of Maroni's cops." Jester began turning to the last 5 men that had stayed behind with her.
"So you three head over to where the boss told you to wait, and remember if the boss gets caught stay out of the way. Then head straight over to Avenue X, at Cicero to await your delivery." Scarlett said splitting the group.
"You two come with me. We are going to Avenue X to check everything is good to go before we head to 250 52nd street to await our delivery" said Jester. Since the carving fiasco, the goons had followed her orders much more easily, and she seemed to have much more control over them.
They followed her out to the van, the goons adorned they masks, before they took off towards Avenue X.
When they arrived she helped check that all the barrels were set up and the phone was working before they jumped back in the van and hurried to 250 52nd street. They passed the fire engine that was a flame to lead the police down onto the lower street and away from air support.
She set up the place before she began her long wait, she sat listening to the police radio, waiting for some kind of sign and praying nothing would go wrong.
"Obstruction ahead, obstruction ahead!" called the police radio Jester sat up in her seat.
"Finally" she cried.
"All units divert down onto Lower Fifth, I repeat, exit down"
"It's really a shame this thing doesn't have picture" Jester laughed to herself as she laid back down across the front seats to listen to the radio.
"Listen we need back up, we got company" called an anxious voice over the radio and Jester let out a laugh the Joker would have been proud of.
"This is better than the movies" she squealed as the goons gathered around the window of the van to listen.
There was radio silence for a long time after and Jester sat up and hit the radio as though it were playing up, she needed news she needed to know how things were going.
She picked up the long range walkie talkie and pressed the talk button.
"Hey hey J, how's it going?" she called in cheerily and for a second there was nothing then his voice crackled over the air.
"Bit busy at the minute gorgeous, but we're having fun" she left him alone after that not wanting to distract him at all. But his voice crackled over the air again, not long after.
"Okay rack em up. Rack em up, rack em up, rack em up" she knew he was talking to the three she had sent off earlier to meet up with the helicopter, with his own man driving the swat van it was easy to put the cops where he needed them to be.
"On our way with the girl" called a new voice over the walkie-talkie and Jester sat up excitably.
It was about 10 minutes after that the two goons turned up with an unconscious Rachel Dawes. The cops had picked her up and delivered her to the goons before they had headed over.
"Get her inside and connected before she wakes up," Jester said as she pocketed the walkie-talkie and headed inside. She supervised as they handcuffed Rachel to the chair before connecting her up to the barrels. Jester turned the phone on and activated the clock on the bomb to Midnight whether anyone was in the chair or not. As she went to leave, Rachel stirred.
Scarlett moved behind her so that Rachel could not see her and waited.
"Where am I?" Rachel stuttered.
"Why does that matter?" Asked Scarlett her voice slightly higher than usual.
"What do you want from me?" Rachel asked frantically trying to turn her head to see Jester.
"Nothing, really. You are just a part of the game" Jester cackled and Rachel moaned slightly.
"What's gonna happen, what are you talking about game?" Rachel cried her panic setting in.
"Well on the other end of that phone in front of you is someone you love, but here's the clincher only one of you will survive and we are going to let your friends decide who it will be" Jesters laugh echoed around the room. Rachel screamed in anger and she pulled at the cuffs that bound her to the chair.
"Let me go" she screamed.
"Now that would ruin the game, wouldn't it?" asked Jester laughing again before she left the room, the goons following behind as they locked the door to the room and left.
The 5 of them got back into their vehicles and headed off. Jester headed off in the van to Gotham Police station to wait for The Joker to break out, she kept the goons in the back of the van so they would not become wise to her plan.
She hid around the corner and she waited patiently for news.
"News just in the Jokers has been taken into custody and we go live now to John Pillion, who is at the scene with Gotham's DA Harvey Dent" Came the voice over the radio as Scarlett flipped through the radio stations. Jester cheered from the driver's seat.
"Mr Dent! How does it feel to the biggest hero in Gotham?" called the voice over the radio and Jester sat up a little in her chair.
"No, I'm no hero. Gotham's finest, they're the heroes." Dent's voice came over the airways.
"But you and your office have been working with the Batman all along." stated the presenter John.
"No, but I trusted him to do the right thing," said Dent
"Which was?" came John's voice.
"Saving my ass" replied Dent.
After that they cut back to the regular news show and Jester jumped from the van. She had abandoned the van down a back road, explosives set to blow it up in 1 minutes, to destroy any evidence and the goons in the back. She had told them to wait for her to return, before locking the van with them inside. As she arrived at the police station a few streets away she heard the explosion of the van and the car alarms from the shock wave.
She waited by the back of the station and she spotted the police cars pulling up and the cops dragging a nonchalant looking Joker inside. She wasn't sure how long she would be waiting so she made her self-comfortable, it was gonna be a long night. After a while she found her way onto the roof and round herself a skylight she could spy through. Inside she could see Gordon's cage, the Joker was sat on his own on a bench only a few other men were in there with him and the rest of the goons were in a cage together. The Joker looked to be completely unfazed by his predicament as he sat, his hand clasped together, they had taken his coat and jacket. Jester was glad to see Kilson was still standing but he was holding his stomach. Though she could not hear what he was staying, she imaged he was moaning about the pain. She was surprised he hadn't passed out or had some kind of shock-induced seizer. She moved her position a little not wanting to put too much weight on the glass of the skylight.
A little while later The Joker was moved out of the cage into another room to be interrogated. Giving up on her vantage point and not knowing when Kilson would blow she decided to move to a safer location. She couldn't find where the Joker was taken and so waited patiently in the alley behind the station. Something caught her eye and she looked up to see Batman jumping onto the roof she had just been on, before disappearing down the side. She prayed Jack would not be foolish, she did not want the Bat to hurt him too much. She knew Jack wouldn't mind and would most defiantly laugh but the idea of him getting hurt made her stomach churn.
Around about 10 minutes later she watched as both the Bat and Gordon rushed out of the police department, and headed in opposite directions Bat in the direction of Dent and the cops to Rachel. She found this odd as Bats clearly had a soft spot for Rachel so why would he got to Dent, unless he thought he was going to Rachel. She let out a loud Joker-like laugh, he had swapped the addresses.
She was blown off her feet a few minutes later as the entire MCU exploded the windows being blown out, leaving the building in a smouldering mess. She scrambled to her feet as she rushed around, to the side door of the station. She shot the hinge with the gun she had taken from a goon and kicked in the door. She spotted Joker straight away and coughed loud enough for him to hear. He turned and looked at her a skin splitting grin on his face.
"There's my Jester" he cooed, his hair looked a little dishevelled as he had clearly been knocked down by the shockwave too, but otherwise he looked relatively undamaged.
She grinned as she began her search through the paperwork on the floor. She stepped over the bodies of injured and unconscious cops. She felt him touch her and she stopped in her tracks as his arms encircled her waist as he purred into her ear. She giggled as he pressed a kiss into her shoulder, some of the goons that had survived the explosion emerged slowly through the door covered in dust. The Joker moved away from her, his fingertips brushing along her softly as they parted and he began his search for Lau.
She pulled the files up on the computer they had made of the Joker and deleted them completely before she smashed up the computer. She made her way into the cells and heard the Joker moving around, she spotted him pick up some keys from the side before he walked over to a cell, Lau sat in the corner of the cell looking very timid.
"Hello there" cooed the Joker his voice light as though telling a joke. He unlocked the cell door and still Lau said nothing. The Joker motioned some of his goons over and told them to get Lau in a cop car. Lau didn't scream as much as Jester thought he would as the goons dragged him away. The Joker came up behind her as she was rifling through the police's confiscated stash, pocketing a few guns as she did. He had his coat and jacket in his hand as he looked over her shoulder. His other hand move to touch the bare skin of her neck. She purred as his hand moved down her back until he was at her bum, he slapped her hard on the arse and she let out a little squeal. He growled at her as he pushed her into the table in front of her with his hips. He leant his head over her shoulder and bit her earlobe sharply, she let out a little giggle and again he growled. He ground his hips into her bum and she pushed back into him.
"Ready when you are boss" came a voice from the door, The Joker stepped away from her and she groaned at the sudden loss of contact. The Joker laughed a dark laugh and she turned to him.
"Come on gorgeous, let's go somewhere we can have a little fun," he said raising his eyebrows to her and she blushed furiously and nodded like a moron.
They jumped into the back of the cop car that was waiting and it took off at speed. Two other cop cars following. They rode under blue lights the whole way. She wonder if Gordon had worked it out by now or not. But surely when his officers woke from their little 'nap' they would call it in so it couldn't be long now.
The Joker hung out the window as they raced down the roads and something about his actions turned her on even more. Jester crossed her legs trying to relieve her growing arousal. She laughed when he finally pulled himself back in and he looked at her like she was crazy. She really was but who was he to judge.