Hellooo,

Thank you again for all the love you are showing this story, it means the world.

This is has been my favourite chapter to write thus far so I hope you all enjoy it

Nessa

xoxo

Chapter 17

The joker drove like an absolute menace, he gave no regard to the cars around him and caused multiple accidents on his way around the city, the bat was most definitely going to find them. The car screeched and it brought back a memory of when she was with Bruce.

A car screeched down the street near Bruce's mansion and Harley watched as Bruce raced to the window peering out at the city below. "What is it? That stupid clown again?" She smiled as he came sat next to her, pulling her into his side.

"He's just trying to get a reaction out of batman as usual, I don't think he really has much else to do with his life." He stares at the news and Alfred brings them a fresh pot of tea, almost choking as he hears Bruce's comment, Harley looks at him questioningly but he just smiles back fondly.

"Well he does blame batman for his…looks. I guess I'd try and piss someone off if they made me look the way he does two. I think he wasn't shown enough attention as a child…" Bruce kissing her lips silenced Harley's rampage.

"Baby don't go all psychiatrist on me, the guys a freak, lets leave it at that." Bruce laughed at how amped up Harley got over the Joker, she did write her final paper on him though so he guessed she had a pretty good idea who he was.

"Sorry, I just wish they'd catch him and stick him in Arkham so I could work with him." She says dreamily, that would be a great way to have a break through in her career.

"No way, he's way too dangerous for a new doctor Harls, he needs someone who can keep him tame, plus he likes pretty girls." Bruce said and then realized his mistake, he'd let it on that he knows more about the joker than she thinks.

"I guess. How'd you know that anyway?" She smiles coyly at him.

"He always kills the women first." Bruce shrugs and goes back to watching the TV, effectively ending the conversation.

Harley looked over at her Joker now and thought about how two years ago, fresh out of college and desperate to make her mark Harley had wished to meet the Joker. Now she was here watching him run his hand through his hair and let out a sweet laugh of exhilaration. He turned to her and for a split second she could see it in his eyes too, as if they were just meant to be. Then he turned his attention to the road again and any emotion in his eyes disappeared faster than the city lights around them. "Where we going J?" Harley finally had the courage to ask.

"Well, I thought you'd be curious about where I was born so… I'm showing you doctor Quinsel. You're going to get the first hand experience of how this brilliance came to be." He pulled into the lot of ACE chemicals and got out of the car, walking towards the building. Harley let herself out of his car and looked up at the factory in front of her. This is where he had been all these years ago, where batman and the joker first became enemies. This is where the story began.

She followed the joker as he walked into the factory as if he owned it, smelling the chemicals in the room before them and hearing the bubble as they move in the vats. She was unsure as to what she was meant to be doing here, with the Joker, but she didn't dare question it. Without even giving her a second glance he began to climb the old stairwell to the top of the building, where the maintenance catwalk hovered over the vats below, the handrails mostly missing and the floor creaky. Harley looked unsure as she made her way up one of the platforms that hang mockingly over the vats, as they clawed desperately at the metal from below. The joker gestured for her to walk forward and she leaned her head over the edge, seeing the green liquid pop like over blown gum and hiss at her from below. She turned around confused as to what she is looking at.

"That," J points to the vat below them, "is where I was created Harley, that is where my story began." He looked down at the vat fondly, like it was a family home and in that moment Harley was scared of him, she could finally see his insanity. For a few moments they stood in silence, Harley's gaze shifting from the vat to J and back again, she was unsure as to what he wanted, surely he didn't actually expect her to jump into acid.

"Would you die for me?" J's voice rang out through the old room and Harley turned all of her attention to him, noticing he was holding himself as if it was opening night at the opera.

"Yes." Her voice cracked but she knew he had heard her as he was shaking his head, as if she were a pesky fly too near his ear.

"That's too easy, would you… would you live for me?" he lifted his hands up in gesture and she couldn't take her eyes off of him. He was enchanting and terrifying all at once. "Will you embrace me and only me? Will you bind your spirit to mine, in hate? Do you consign your soul to me? Do you…laugh at the world in disgust?" The joker started to circle Harley, attacking her with a million questions as if his body couldn't' keep up the speed his brain was working at, his gaze never left her as he stalked her like a mountain lion. She followed him round, turning in circles to keep her eyes on him.

"Yes." She didn't know what else to say, what else would convey all the love and loyalty she had for the mad man in front of her, what else could she say to prove herself to him.

He stopped so her back was to the vats below and she was moving closer to the edge with every step he took towards her. "Careful." He pointed his finger at her, a threat. "Do not say this oath thoughtlessly. Desire becomes surrender," he moved closer to her, his body pressed to hers, "surrender becomes power. Do you want this?" he purred in her ear and her body went into red alert, her palms were sweaty and her body hot. She wanted it; she wanted everything he was willing to give.

"I do." Those two words felt like the biggest promise she had ever made, she felt like she was getting married and in a way she was, she was marrying herself to the madness, to the destruction that was the clown prince of crime.

"Say it, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty…" He chanted, his cold finger coming up to press itself against Harley's bottom lip as his eyes bore into hers, all the passion and emotion burning into her soul.

"Please." She uttered the words almost in a trance, watching as the delight washed over the joker and he smiled, ever so slightly.

"God you're so…" he gestured towards her, "good. Now goodbye doctor Quinsel." His eyes fell to the vats below and she knew in that moment what he wanted. And she also knew that know matter how crazy is was, she was going to give it to him.

She slowly walked backwards until she felt the back of her feet become weightless, no support holding them in place any longer. She never took her eyes off of her Joker as she spread her arms out, as if she were spreading her wings. She tipped back on her heels, her body teetering on the edge of sanity and then she let herself fall, plummeting into the insanity that awaited her below. She felt her heart race on the fall down, the seconds feeling like hours as the wind whistled around her, the sight of the Joker peering over the edge and waving her goodbye tattooing itself into the back of her mind.

Her body hit the acid and she felt it, all around her there was stinging, it was eating her body alive and yet it wasn't unpleasant. She tried to climb to the surface; to prove herself to the man she loved but the chemicals were too thick, her body unresponsive. She flailed slightly and then sunk to the bottom, her hand reaching out for help that was never going to come.

As she surrendered herself to the burning acid she felt it shift around her, giving way to a more solid feeling object and she latched herself to it, feeling it pulling her to the surface. At first she couldn't open her eyes, the cold air burning them more than the acid had before it. But she felt the acid being wiped form them and she blinked them open, seeing a worried joker above her.

"You saved me?" She whispered, unable to believe he had jumped in after her.

"Don't get a big head, I was curious to see what you looked like," he tried to hide his worry but she knew, she knew that he loved her. She leaned up and kissed him, unable to control her emotion any longer. He pulled away and howled his laughter to the ceiling above them, letting the whole world know that it was he and Harley against them all. She clung to him, his clothes disintegrating around her hands and his skin slick with acid; his tattoos unmoving and his hair still vivid green.

He cradled her bridal style and climbed from the vat, she found it kind of fitting. Like they had just had the wedding and now he was carrying her over the threshold of their new life together. She tried to stay awake but finally the whole event took its toll on her and she collapsed into the arms of the Joker.

…

He should've left you there, good for nothing little bitch, no one loves you Harley you're just nuts, have you ever heard of too clingy? The voices chanted in her head, not letting her rest. She sat bolt up right and took a startled look around her. Where was she? She didn't recognize these sheets, or this bed, or this room for that matter. It smelt oddly familiar, like gunpowder and mint but she couldn't put her finger on what it was. Just like you Harley, such an idiot. Are you good for anything? How about you just jump out of that window there and make it easier on everyone? You could grab a gun, you could kill them all, they don't mean anything, they ain't good enough to be alive. You could kill everyone; you could do it and enjoy it.

"Shut up!" She screams and clutches the sides of her head, sobbing when the voices just keep talking, her head pounding from the volume of their screams. She hears urgent footsteps and then the door swings open, a disheveled joker standing in the doorway.

"Harley? What's wrong pumpkin?" he rushes over to her, crawling on the bed.

"They won't stop talking, they just keep making noise, make it stop, make it stop." She cries and flings herself at him, wrapping herself around him in a desperate attempt to feel safe. All at once as her skin touches his the voices silence and she feels a calm come about her, he is like an antidote to madness.

"That'll happen Harls, you'll learn to ignore them, and they can actually be really useful sometimes. Come 'ere Harls I have something to show you." He pulled her from the bed and plants her in front of a mirror.

At first she doesn't recognize the person looking back at her, this person has paper white skin, smooth and flawless. The stranger's hair is white, slowly changing into dual toned ends, the same colours as Harley and J's shirts had been when they kissed in the vat. Every blemish or scar that had marred her skin was gone, leaving a blank canvas to work with. The woman staring back at her was anything but blank though, her eyes shone with unrestrained madness, and her body had the build of a gymnast. She was beautifully dangerous, like a wildcat. She looked at the man behind her in the mirror, his skin matched the perfect stranger's and his eyes shone with unmasked passion. He watched the woman in the mirror, calculating her every move and she knew he was ready for it if she reacted badly, if she flipped out.

"What happened to my hair?" She whispered timidly, stroking the pink and blue strands.

"The chemicals melted our shirts into them, nothing I did could get the colour out but I kind of like it. It suites you Harley Quinn." He smiled fondly at her and softly kissed her neck, wrapping his arms around her stomach tenderly.

And that was who was staring back at her in the mirror, not Harleen Quinsel, but Harley Quinn. As she made eye contact with the woman in the mirror, a wide grin spread across her reflections face.