Chapter 13 - Carrying burdens

She was truly at a loss for words. This day had gone to hell in an entirely unexpected fashion. At worst, Pamela had thought, they would have to flee from a rampaging Harley Quinn. But now, they were the ones carrying that terror!

And perhaps,what was even more horrible than kidnapping her former friend, was that Tanya had just become a killer. At least she hadn't personally seen it, distracted as she had been with setting up a trap, but still... She just couldn't do anything right for Gabrielle, could she? Tanya had spilled blood and made powerful enemies all because she had been too weak to step in and protect her from that fate. Not to mention that Batman was undoubtedly going to look for them soon.

If only she had been by Tanya's side to prevent this disaster, instead of timidly waiting in the back out of fear for Harley seeing her. How shameful...

And underneath all that self-loathing and bitterness Pamela was feeling at the moment, another emotion reared its ugly head: Pity.

Yes, despite their many years apart, it seemed she still cared for the sociopathic woman slung over Tanya's back like a sack of fertilizer. She was, on some level, distraught for her. To lose a loved one, no matter how twisted that love might have been, could not have been easy on her and would probably haunt Harley for a long time to come... As much as she hated to admit it, Pamela could emphasize with that.

Ah, her feelings were such a mess right now!

"I hope you're not squeamish about the smell, but we will have to go down there if we want to carry on undetected." Tanya disrupted her spiralling thoughts.

Pamela glanced down at the grime coated entrance to the sewers and the slightly deformed lid laying beside it before shrugging in acceptance and hopping down into the darkness.

They continued their trek through the stinking tunnels, stepping over the occasional frozen hobo and dodging the remaining living ones until they reached an overflow grate near the ocean. There had been some iron bars here once to prevent easy access, but rust and vandalism had long since removed their functionality. Pamela relished the fresh sea air as they stepped outside, happy to finally escape the rot of Gotham's refuse.

Though when she saw Tanya remove two tissue plugs from her nose and gasp like a woman on the brink of suffocation she remembered that she could have had it worse. Her partner had mentioned that she had enhanced senses... Yeah, that could not have been pleasant.

After hacking up some bile, Tanya unceremoniously dumped her ex-friend's body onto the gravelly beach and Pamela once again felt rather lost. How ironic that just a few hours prior she had captured and tied up two people and now Harley was the one being kidnapped.

What were they going to do with her? Delivering the madwoman to the GCPD felt too simple in a way. There were so many things Pamela wanted to do, to say to her... but on the other hand she wanted to get rid of that twisted woman as soon as possible. She didn't want to look Harley in the eyes after what happened earlier. There was nothing that they could say to each other now that would not hurt...

"Sooooo... are we going to call the cops now?" she tentatively asked.

"No." was her partner's instant reply.

Dread pooled in Pamela's stomach. They weren't going to just...

"But you said that we would..."

"Yes, of course we are going to hand her over to law enforcement. There are multiple witnesses who have heard me promise as much after all." Tanya flippantly explained.

Relief filled her for a short moment-

"But that doesn't mean we have to do it now. I still have some questions for her before she gets locked up again."

-and then vanished directly afterwards.

"Um, I don't think it would be a good idea to interrogate her in this state."

She gestured vaguely in the direction of the shallowly breathing woman and winced when she focused on her undoubtedly broken nose.

"I am aware. Sadly we don't have much time before we attract suspicion. In a normal situation she wouldn't tell us anything, but we do have other options open to us..."

"What do you mean?" she asked, before reeling like she'd just been slapped, as Tanya turned to her.

"Can you mind control her like you did with that guy back then?"

'Oh, no...'

Sure, her hypnosis pollen was very useful, but she had purposefully tried to limit her use of that ability. Back when she had been young and angry at the world, when she had still been Poison Ivy... Pamela hadn't hesitated to charm whoever she pleased. She had played cruel 'pranks' on people and Harley had goaded her on, always giddy to see someone stumble around like a zombie and make a fool of themselves.

But those times were supposed to be behind her! Gabrielle had helped her see how messed up that kind of behaviour was and now...

Now, Pamela felt as if she was sliding back into a life of violence.

Of course there were still times when she had to kill some idiots who threatened her home, but that was self-defence! She wasn't acting malicious about it; she simply did what had to be done and then repurposed their biomass for something beautiful. That way they kind of lived on forever, as part of her beloved children.

This however, somehow went beyond that. To mind-control her former friend was just... terrible.

Should she lie and claim that she couldn't do it?

'No, I can't lie to Tanya… not about something like this, at least.'

"Well, she is likely in a very agitated state and that will make it a bit trickier, but theoretically... yes." she reluctantly admitted.

"Don't worry, Pamela." Tanya said with a frown, patting her shoulder. "I don't like relying on such a disgusting technique either. To suppress an individual's free will is the greatest crime you could commit against them, but Harley Quinn is not an ordinary person. She is a sadistic murderer who thrives on the suffering of others. If she is anything like the Joker then human life has no value to a nihilist like her and as such she can't be reasoned with! None of what she was planning to do to Batgirl was necessary for her own survival or even her long-term prosperity! It was just cruelty for the sake of it. If there is any kind of person who deserves this kind of treatment then it is undoubtedly her."

Tanya's words sadly failed to cheer her up.

"Think about it this way, it's the most painless method to extract the information from her. And it doesn't have lasting consequences, right?"

Pamela nodded her head in confirmation and grit her teeth. Best to get this over with quickly. The less she thought about this the better. Tanya definitely had to have a good reason for this...

Cradling Harley's bloodied face in her hands she softly parted her lips and blew a breath full of that special pollen into her mouth. In another life they could have turned out differently. If only the Joker hadn't poisoned the sweet girl underneath the caricature that Harley had become...

With fluttering eyelids the enthralled woman awoke from her involuntary slumber and sat up slowly on the icy beach.

"Harley Quinn, we have some questions for you." Tanya stated coolly as she stepped forward to look down at their prisoner.

A flash of confusion crossed Harley's face before it rapidly turned into indescribable rage. A second dose of Pamela's pollen erased those emotions, leaving only a drooling puppet behind.

"Where did you stash your valuables and cash? There have to be safe houses full of liquid assets to pay for all your stunts."

"Huh?" was Harley's befuddled reply.

"Okay, let's try this again... Where. Is. The. Money!?"

"M-money?"

"Yes, money. Bucks, coal, moolah, bills. Where did you hide it?"

"Uhm... Money... Used up... I spent it all... for the game..."

Tanya pinched the bridge of her nose in irritation.

"There has to be something else!"

She received only a drunken shrug in response.

"Alright, Harley Quinn. Focus your mind... Think back and remember. Where could some emergency funds still be located? In all your long years as a supervillain there has to be a depot you made that you haven't emptied for your... 'game'."

"Don't know much... Was much more... hubby's thing..." Harley whispered with a slight hiccup as a silent tear slid down her cheek.

"Huh... why am I... so sad?"

Somehow, Pamela wanted to cry as well.

"You are not sad. It's all just in your imagination. You want to help me out here, Harley. You want to tell me where your money is! You want to remember where you hid it!"

"Uh... oh... uh... I think..."

"Yes?" Tanya asked with giddy anticipation, leaning forward.

Pamela turned her gaze to the grey waves of the Atlantic, unable to stomach the scene playing out right next to her.

"I think... our booze money is still there... It's in the abandoned amusement park... uh-huh..."

"Where? Where exactly is it?"

The cloudy sky appeared to almost meld with the endless waters at the horizon.

"Oh, yeah... It's hidden... inside the cash registers..."

"Isn't that a little obvious?"

Uncaring, the sea threw itself against the shore again and again. Eventually it would grind down the rocks into dust over the coming millennia.

"Nobody checks the old registers... because it's so obvious, hehe... He always said that..."

Again Harley hiccupped and when Pamela threw her a quick look, her unfocused eyes were spinning wildly in their sockets.

"Hubby... where... Where are you? Hehe..." asked the broken woman with a wheezing laugh, throwing her head back as if struck.

"Enough. We won't get much out of her anymore. Simply put her to sleep again, please." Tanya commanded and Pamela numbly obeyed.

Deep down, she knew that she would be having nightmares about this day.

-W-

Her realization about the state of her body prior to killing the Joker had yet to fully sink in. She was now fully conscious of every facet of her being and that was as exhilarating as it was scary. Just out of pure curiosity Tanya had willed her heart to stop beating and it had done so at her command. Naturally she had immediately jump-started it again, but the experience of her pulse dropping to zero was a haunting one.

Theoretically, the fact that she was entirely in control of herself should have filled her with joy! However, the acuteness of her senses seemed to have only grown with the removal of her mental barriers. In praxis, that meant that her environment was passively assaulting her focus, occupying at least half of her attention at all times.

Hopefully she would get better at managing her senses to how it was before, but shutting off things like her pain receptors or taste buds was probably flat out impossible. Those tissues were never meant to have an 'off-switch' and thus the only way to silence them was to kill them entirely. Tanya had already resigned herself to the thrilling prospect of locking herself in her bathroom for the next few days to develop the necessary mental discipline in order to subconsciously ignore them. If she remembered her high school biology right then the Thalamus should be the part of the brain responsible for stimulus filtering, so with some targeted meditation she would perhaps be able to affect that sensitive part of her biology as well...

Shaking her head free of those thoughts, she centred what remained of her concentration on searching for the abandoned amusement park. For obvious reasons she couldn't carry Harley with her through the city and leaving her unsupervised seemed equally unwise, hence she had left her in Pamela's care. The poor woman looked rather drained from today's action, so hopefully the cushy position as guard would help her calm down a little.

Spotting the tilted, decayed skeleton of a once colourful Ferris wheel she knew she found the right place. She was about to adjust her course in its direction when the sudden explosive rattling of a carburetor two streets over sent a jolt of panic through her being. After a nerve-wracking second, Tanya straightened from where she had hidden behind cover and began to chide herself for such an obvious mix-up. Nobody was shooting at her; it was simply an old car!

Her overbearing senses continued to play tricks on her all the way. From the fluttering of a crow above, to a soda can popping beneath a tire; it seemed as if the entire world was determined to make her flinch at every shadow. How annoying.

Tanya remembered her mother once talking about how the prominent vigilante 'Superman' had allegedly answered the cry for help of a child from the other side of Metropolis city. She had been dubious about this factoid back then and was even more so now. If the flying, spandex-wearing guy could hear that well, how had he not gone insane yet from the ambient noises of ten million people? That was just downright impossible.

As she slipped through the gaping hole that somebody had cut into the chain link fence surrounding the derelict funfair Tanya smelled something odd. It smelled cold for lack of a better word, but with an underlying biting, chemical odour that was altogether unfamiliar to her. Rounding a few bushes which had overgrown the streets, she came face to face with a strange group of ice sculptures. No, that wasn't a sculpture at all... those were people encased in a thick layer of frost!

Instantly she drew her pistol from her pocket and scanned her surroundings more carefully. Who the hell could freeze a group of men solid, apparently on the spot!?

Slipping on her mask she began to creep forward at a snail's pace. Soon she found a trail of heavy boot prints some distance away.

'This means that whoever did this can attack at range.' Tanya idly noted before following them.

They led her to a half dilapidated building which at one point must have housed the checkout for the park. Only, somebody was already there, bent over a broken cash register and shuffling money into a plastic bag. And that someone wasn't just a regular thug or even a police officer; it was an over two meters tall giant clad in sophisticated black armour with a transparent glass helmet.

Tanya once again felt rather stupid for not recognizing the perpetrator sooner. This was Mr. Freeze!

He had attempted to rob two banks the year prior, but Batman had foiled both attempts. That wasn't anywhere near enough data to draw a conclusive overview of his character and motivation, but at the very least he seemed to not be motivated by any nonsensical ideology like the Joker.

While he continued to steal her prize, she stealthily snuck around the rotten house and positioned herself behind a half-molten, life-sized plastic figurine of some cartoon animal. It was not the best cover, but hopefully his frost blasts didn't have much penetrating power.

"Greetings." she spoke up and watched attentively as the glowing red gaze of his goggles quickly turned towards her.

"You."

The single word was uttered with such severity that Tanya was a bit taken aback.

"Are we acquainted?"

"You are the one who killed the Joker."

"Indeed. Is that a problem?" she asked in a carefully neutral tone.

"Ha! It is. But not in the way you think..." the man chuckled darkly.

"Oh?"

"You see, I was hired to off the bastard myself, but now that you have taken care of the job the bloody Penguin is most likely going to deny me my payment. He is stingy like that."

"A reasonable assumption." Tanya conceded, unperturbed by the anger in his tone.

Mr. Freeze was a dangerous man, no doubt, but from this angle she saw the exposed rubber connection between the tank on his back and his gun. If it came to an altercation she was certain that she could severely cripple his offensive capabilities with a single shot. Not to mention that his armoured glass helmet could be turned into an opaque mess of micro fissures if she hit it at just the right angle so the bullet wouldn't bounce off.

"And you took that bitch of his with you too... I wanted to sell her for ransom. Has a lot of enemies, that wannabe clown princess." the bald villain continued and Tanya found herself nodding along.

"That makes sense."

"So what's left for me but to scrounge up the scraps of the Joker's rotten empire? And now you come for those too... A man might feel threatened by how quickly you move to deprive him of his paycheck..."

The warning was clear. Either she backed off or it would come to a fight.

Too bad that she really wanted that money though.

"I apologize if my actions have caused trouble for you, but I can assure you that I had no ill intent. Perhaps we could come to an agreement?" Tanya offered with an outstretched palm.

"And what kind of 'agreement' would that be, White Lady?" he scoffed.

She could see the way his left shoulder joint minutely rotated as he shifted his stance in preparation to raise the futuristic gun in his right hand. The tensing of the muscles around his eyes was as clear an indicator as any that he was gearing up to kill her. Did he really think he could catch her by surprise if he was so obvious about it?

"I'll take the money and you take Harley Quinn. I am going to tell the police that you kidnapped her from me and we are all going to be happy. Doesn't that sound like a good deal, Mr. Freeze?"

Watching his reaction intently, Tanya saw the beginnings of a sneer starting to form and knew what she had to do.

"I don't think-"

Before he got a chance to finish his spiel, the arm that she had hidden behind the statue snapped up and for the fraction of a second her blood stood still in her veins as she aimed and shot. Over the bang of her weapon the hiss from his shredded valve was almost inaudible.

"Ahh! Crap-" was all the villain got out as in the next second the street was engulfed in white!

Uncontrolled spires of twisted ice shot out from his location, shredding the building around Mr. Freeze as a veritable snowstorm manifested around him. When the freezing blast wave hit her, Tanya had barely enough time to widen her eyes in shock over this unexpected development. In the subsequent moment she turned around and blindly leapt upward to escape the screeching and rupturing madness of rapidly expanding ice blades that detonated across the street.

Luckily, her jump was high enough to allow her to reach an old trestle for some long gone billboard.

Unluckily, it had several nails on its ledge to drive off pigeons.

"Aghhhhh!"

Tanya howled in agony as the worst pain she ever experienced seemed to immolate her entire hand with scorching fire. Her entire world ceased to exist as she hung limply from the steel structure that had just impaled her limb. The pain was all-consuming and blinding to the extreme. She screamed and screamed as she felt the spikes pierce her tendons, grind against her bones and pollute her blood vessels with their filth.

Somehow the last part of her brain not being melted by the torturous nails sticking through her hand found the strength to lift it off the damned thing and drop to the ground. Her landing was not graceful, but with her hand radiating pure suffering throughout her whole being that was hardly a concern to Tanya. Unbidden, tears welled up around her vision, but she suppressed them quickly.

"Ah... damn it!" she cursed under her breath, cradling the wound and willing her blood to clod.

The pain just wouldn't stop!

Tanya did not know how long she sat there, utterly absorbed in her own anguish. Only when a nearby wheezing sound rattled her self-defence instinct enough to make her lift her head did she notice that a thin layer of snow had built up on her skin. Taking in the chaos around her, she struggled to her feet in order to get a better overview of the situation.

Where there had been an unremarkable street before, there now was a hill of jagged and distorted ice. It looked like a mad artist had broken a million windows and arranged them in the form of a demented flower. That actually explained why her fall had been rather soft. The rising masses of frozen water had risen up multiple meters towards her and buried everything on the ground like a glacier. It was fortunate then that she had landed on a relatively flat floe.

And digging himself out from underneath the centre of the arctic wasteland was none other than Mr. Freeze.

"Uff... I'm not... ugh, scared of you... ah... just because you got one lucky shot off! Ugh..." groaned the giant man while he held his shredded side, red lenses balefully glaring at her.

His helmet was missing and at least one of his legs was definitely broken, but pure hatred kept him going.

Tanya on the other hand could not have cared for this battle any less. Until her hand was fixed, it was impossible for her to pay any more than the barest attention to the outside world.

Therefore, she simply stayed quiet and waited for the wounded villain to make his next move.

Growing even more furious at what he perceived as dismissal, Mr. Freeze spat out: "I bet... heh... I bet Batman would like to get his hands on you alive... ahh..."

Where was her pistol? Had she dropped it?

Coughing up bloody phlegm the man carried on: "Ahh...but even if he paid me... ugh... I'd still end you, bitch!"

Absent-mindedly she reached for the knife at her hip and groaned when the motion jostled her hand a little bit. This was going to suck...