A/N: This was supposed to release a few days earlier, but College Life has made me push it slightly further...
Chapter 15: Chatting with Harley:
Ivy held her communicator in her hand. Ever since Joana had given her the device in favor of Batman, she had been busy contemplating exactly what to say to Harley when she got ahold of her. She knew that this would take one hell of a effort, but she didn't care, she cared about Harley, and she saw this as a chance to permanently rid her friend of The Joker's presence for good.
"What am I going to do with you Harley?" Ivy wondered this for the first half hour, while still holding the communicator. This wouldn't be the first time she's tried this with Harley, but for some reason she felt differently about it, like it could actually work, given the proper words and circumstances.
Ivy thought about some more past moments she had with Harley such as their past crimes, jobs, time at Arkham and etc. She specifically recalled the moments where that psychotic creep wasn't involved and manipulating her for his own evil intentions. She was glad the evil bastard was dead, and nothing would change her mind about that.
Every once in a while, Joana would come to check in on Ivy while she contemplated what to do with Harley. Half the time, she wouldn't even notice him due to how distracted she was with the current thought.
Could Harley be persuaded, or would she just continue her hopeless bloody crusade against Batman to avenge her 'puddin?' Ivy obviously wanted her to come around to the former. Maybe even find herself a better boyfriend than the dead Joker. To pass the time, Ivy said screw it and decided to think of some candidates that could be a much better influence of Harley. She would've said Batgirl, but she had mysteriously disappeared years ago. She would've said Robin, but Ivy was pretty sure Robin held an even bigger grudge against Harley than he did for her. She landed on a final choice. Nightwing. Yes, he was perfect. Nightwing never really held a grudge against anyone really. Ivy decided that down the line, she would ask of this huge favor from Batman.
A large amount of time had passed, and Ivy was still contemplating on what to say to Harley. She had an idea of what she would say, she just hoped that the execution of it would work.
Ivy decided to think back to another past memory with Harley before making officially deciding to try and contact her...
Flashback, July 20th, Harley'sbirthday (Shortly before the Arkham Island Incident):
It was Harley's birthday and she and red had spent alot of time trying on various new costumes so Harley could find a new establishing costume. She was awfully in the birthday mood. They were in a secret hideout in an old and abandoned apartment complex that Harley had kept hidden from everyone, even The Joker.
"Happy birthday, Harles."
"Thanks Red, now what do ya think of this one?" Harley posed so Ivy could see the outfit she had on. It was a black and white version of her classic costume, and Ivy wasn't a fan of it.
"To plain and boring, it gives off the unemotional and uninspired looks of Batman, try something else Harley."
Harley tried on another outfit for Ivy to examine, this time it was a red and black one piece. Ivy clearly despised this outfit as well as it made Harley look more so of a 'desperate tramp', as Ivy called her in her mind. No way was she gonna let Harley go out wearing something like this.
"Definitely not, you'll attract those sleazy, idiotic, spineless meatballs, and I don't feel like having to hunt down and waste mother earth's gift on them. Try something else, you'll find the perfect birthday outfit Harley."
After another hour or so of Harley and Ivy going through various customs she's had, she had finally found one that Harley felt perfectly suited her.
"Yippie, what do ya think red? Pretty hot, don't ya think?"
Harley had on a completely brand new attire. It had a red, white, black and purple color scheme. Her clothing consisted of a white shirt, with a purple and red corset over it, as well as a black choker necklace. She had gloves that ended above the elbow, which were both red and purple, albeit in opposite order. Harley had a small gap between her top and skirt, which showed her navel. Her belt was a thick black leather one, with a gold square buckle. Her skirt was white and had what appeared to be blood on it. There was a gap between Harley's skirt and boots, in which her fishnet stockings were able to be seen. The boots she wore were leather in appearance, with a purple one on the left, and red on the right. On the bottom of her boots were thick platforms. Harley's costume was similar to, if not, exactly like a nurse's outfit.
Ivy was impressed and admitted her fondness of the attire. "It's perfect Harley, and I like it, this outfit will send a direct message to anybody that crossed your path."
"You think Mister J will like it Red?"
Ivy's smile soon fell flat. Everything was going perfectly until she brought up The Joker. Why did Harley have to bring up that psychopathic failed comedian. "Who cares what he thinks Harley, today is supposed to be about you, not him. For once, forget about him and enjoy things for yourself Harles."
"But I wanna impress Mister J, who knows, if pudding likes it, maybe he'll do something romantic for me, like break into a jewelry store, And get me something nice, give me a chance to whack B-Man, ahhh, any of those things would be nice."
Ivy groaned in irritation, "Harley, I won't allow you to taint your birthday because of that psychotic creep."
"But Red, I just want Mister J to happy, if I'm happy, he should be happy you, I'm a girl who makes her man happy."
Ivy facepalmed at this, she was not going to leg Harley's day go to waste, and one day she vowed to herself that she would make Harley snap out of this nonsense and forget all about the Joker.
Without a second thought, Ivy finally gave in and decided to give Harley a call. At first it took a while, but Harley eventually came through on the other line, immediately ranting and yelling.
"Whoever this is, I knock your freaking ass out! I won't be prisoner forever! I'll-"
"Harley?"
The former immediately stopped yelling once she realized who that voice was. "Red, is that you? Where are you?"
"Relax Harley, all that matters is that I'm somewhere safe, how are you feeling?"
"No worries Red, I'm fine, I gotta bust out of here and execute 'Vengeance For Puddin' 2.0. If B-Man thinks this is over, he's got another thing coming."
Ivy let out a deep breath, this was it. "Harley, please, no more pain and suffering, it's time you've moved on from your crusade of revenge."
Harley was shocked. "What?! But Red, Bat-Brain killed Mister J, he needs to answer for his crimes! I won't stop until my puddin is avenged."
"You see Harley, that right there is why I always said Joker wasn't good for you, even long after his death, he still has a hold on you and will make you carry out his bidding. The only reason his legacy still lives on is because you carry it for him, it's time to let go of revenge."
Harley didn't want to listen to this. "But he needs to pay, Red. I know he killed Joker, I saw B-Man carrying his body out of that theater, if that doesn't say he killed Joker, I don't know what will Red."
"But that's the thing Harley, Batman didn't kill Joker."
An immediate long silence followed this. Ivy was worried that she had offended Harley. Hell, she even was expecting Harley to yell frantically and close out her end of the communications channel. But she didn't. She was surprisingly calm
"What...what do you mean...B-Man didn't kill Mister J?...but...but that can't be true, because Joker and Bats hated each other's guts."
Ivy quickly picked up something. It was the fact that Harley was actually slightly interested in learning more about the nature of Batman and Joker's final confrontation. Ivy saw this as a good thing and capitalized on it greatly. She saw this as a small turning point in Harley's life. "Their relationship with one another is much more complicated Harley, but trust me, Batman did not kill him, you should know that murdering isn't his style."
"Prove it to me, Red. If B-Man didn't kill my puddin, there's better be a damn good amount of evidence to support his case."
Ivy sighed. "I know Batman didn't kill him because I heard the entirety of their final confrontation with my plant based abilities and the fact that the theater was old and overgrown by nature. It went the usual way with the two of them clashing, some feign humor by Joker. After they were both through destroying each other, Batman obtained the medicine to Joker's illness, but before he could even make the decision to let him die or to keep him alive, Joker being Joker got greedy and tried to sneak an attack on Batman, causing his medicine to be destroyed, thereby committing himself to death, so you see Harley, Batman Did. Not. Kill. Joker."
Harley was completely silent. Ivy didn't know if she was either gonna lash out in a fit of rage, mentally break down or both. Two minutes of silence had gone by and Harley had finally spoken up. "Red..."
Ivy paused, waiting for Harley to continue her reaction to Ivy's words. "Do you believe me, Harley?"
Harley could be heard taking a deep breath on her end of the line, "Well...that does sound like Joker...I...guess, I do trust ya, Red...It doesn't make much sense for me to kill B-Man for something he didn't do."
Yes, finally. Ivy was ecstatic on the inside, Harley was finally letting go, or at the very least, beginning to let go of her revenge against Batman. This was opening up so many possibilities. Internally, Ivy thought Officer Joana would love to here this news, and especially Batman.
With Harley officially stopping her war against Batman, Ivy could finally catch a break. What she thought would go on forever had finally stopped. The combination of Joker being dead and Harley realizing Batman's innocence was enough to let her die a happy woman.
"Harley, you know I would never steer you wrong, you realize that right?"
Harley replied, this time sounding more normal and casual than raging and vengeful, "Yeah Red, I trust ya, and if you say B-Man didn't off Mister J, then that's the truth."
"Good, now Harley, is there anything spectacular that has happened since you were, well, subdued and placed under custody? You don't have to tell me anything if your not comfortable just so you know."
"No, no it's fine Pammy, I figured I owed you a lot after you helped me out, so I'll tell you a lot of the crap that happened tonight so far."
"Alright Harley."
"Okay Ivy, I'll start with the juicy bits, for starters, B-Man locked Bird Brain up in a cell like the one I'm in myself, they had one giant ass argument with bird brain using language that isn't suitable for a child to say to their parents." Harley laughed. "Talk about a dysfunctional family."
Ivy figured out quickly that Harley was obviously talking about Batman's loyal sidekick, Robin. Why would Batman lock up his own loyal pupil was all Ivy could think of.
"Harley, do you know why Batman placed Robin inside of a cell?"
"I dunno, beats me, maybe bird brain turned evil or something, either way, it was juicy."
Ivy let her friend continue telling her about her point of view of tonight's crazy and episodic events. But she wasn't ready for the next part she was about to be told. "Before B-Man captured and took me prisoner, I found out that he was keeping a secret, he had three Jokers all to himself. Hell, one of em even helped me get inside his secret hideout."
Her eyes widened out of fear and realization. Did Ivy's best friend just tell her that there are three more Jokers walking on mother nature's beautiful earth? Three more people that were exactly like that fortunately dead madman. Ivy had so many questions, and a newfound fear. "Harley, did you just tell me that there are three more Jokers?"
"Relax Red, their all gone and dead so you don't gotta worry about them anymore, one of em offed the other two than offed himself in front of me, B-Man and Robin."
"Thank goodness." Was the only thing that Ivy noted to herself mentally. "Three clones of that psychotic creep is the last thing Batman and Gotham needs in their lives."
"And here's the juiciest part Red, you know before Joker died back in Arkham City right?"
"Yes, what makes you bring up Arkham City?"
"Well, before Joker died, he managed to inject about three or four pints of his sick and infected blood into B-Man's body, my guess is that before the Titan killed him, he made himself an insurance policy just in case he didn't show up with the cure, Joker would be able to live on through B-Man."
Ivy was left speechless and horrified. Her eyes had widened to levels that probably weren't humanely possible. She was in pure shock from what Harley had just told her. Batman was running around with that madman's blood coursing through his veins. She needed to speak to Batman immediately about this now urgent situation. Batman was possibly on the brink of death and wasn't doing anything about it.
"Red? Pammy? Pammy Wammie, ya still there?" Harley kept repeatedly calling her best friend's name due to the long silence that followed her last statement. Harley must've thought that Ivy had died or something with the amount of silence she was getting from her friend.
"I'm fine Harley," This was far from the truth. "Thank you for telling me all of this, I have to go now, I'll check in on you later, okay?"
"Alright Red, K-I-T."
The communication channel between Ivy and Harley disconnected. Ivy knew she immediately had much more work to do.
Ivy was anxiously awaiting Batman's arrival at the GCPD building. Each minute that had passed just made her feel more frightened about the situation of Batman she had now become aware of, thanks to Harley.
Eventually, Batman finally did return to the GCPD, but this time he didn't have a petty thug or supervillain with him, he had an African American firefighter with him. He had a brief conversation with the man that Ivy could not hear.
After he was done, Batman walked towards Ivy's temporary quarters to see how she was holding up. Ivy's curiosity could not be contained anymore.
"Ivy, how are you hol-"
Before The Dark Knight could even get his first sentence out, Ivy cut him off with her own question. She didn't hesitate, she just jumped straight into the point. "Batman, are you infected with that psychopath's blood? and don't lie to me, I can easily tell when your lying."
At first, Batman said nothing. He just stood there looking at her in silence.
"Don't lie to me, Batman, this is serious, Harley told me and I want to know one thing...is it-"
"it's true."
Ivy stopped talking to let him explain himself. She figured that meant everything that Harley told her was correct.
"Yes, Joker infected me during The Arkham City incident, luckily I formed a brief alliance with freeze. He managed to develop a cure that kept myself and would've kept the Joker alive, but it doesn't prevent the Joker Illness from. It behaves like a prion infection. It attacks the brain and turns any and everyone infected with his blood, into him."
"Dear god, Batman."
The unfazed vigilante continued more with his explanation. "The other four infectees all had one sick and twisted aspect of the Joker's warped personality."
"Harley told me about them briefly, but not as specific."
Batman started with the first Joker-Clone. "Christina Bell. Former Queen Industries executive had the Joker's warped infatuation with myself as her driving character trait. She was almost like Harley before the Joker died. Furthermore, Christina also took up the violent sadism of Joker's personality as well, this is proved as she murdered and mutilated the 11 board members of Queen Industries when they removed her from the board and laughed when those charges were presented to her. Furthermore, Christina's capture, made her develop Stockholm Syndrome and she frequently described me as her "soul mate."
"My goodness." Ivy was fearful of this specific Joker incarnation. She secretly was glad that she wasn't a problem anymore.
Batman explained the second Joker-Clone. "Johnny Charisma shared Joker's personality for always wanting to be in the spotlight and the center of attention, aka, the showman aspect of Joker's personality. Johnny's infection showed up on October 10th when he came off-stage and beat a groupie hard and prolonged enough to render the latter into a coma, and allegedly inflated his already substantial ego into something else. When he was subdued by me, Johnny's absence was covered up with the claim that he had gone to rehab at an exclusive clinic. At some point before this, one of Johnny's billboards replaced one for James Gordon, this made Charisma lose it and begin displaying showmanship like humor towards the billboard."
This Joker-Clone in Ivy's mind sounded even more horrible than the last one Batman mentioned. Still couldn't believe that there were clones of that madman once around abrupt Gotham. "This one sounds worse than the last one."
Batman didn't comment on this, he just explained the third Joker-Infectee. "Albert King."
"Wait, the so called Gotham Goliath? the famous boxer man?"
"Yes, King shared Joker's personality for violence. King was a legendary prizefighter with consecutive knockouts since records began. Days before his testimonial fight, King checked into Gotham General for a routine procedure, only to become infected with Joker's mutated blood. After he hospitalized his entire family in a fit of rage, King took on the more violent and sadistic aspects of Joker's personality. The blood transferred from Joker might have altered King's personality, and his interactions with me may have suggested that Albert represented Joker's desire to keep fighting me and causing death and destruction. King also demonstrated extreme viciousness when infected, as evidenced by how he not only forced three of his own family members to participate in an arm-wrestling match against him, but proceeded to rip their arms from their bodies after they lost."
This caused Ivy to put her hands on her cheeks out of fear. Was Joker's blood that vile it turned these formerly innocent souls into monsters. Multiple scenarios of the last statement played inside Ivy's mind. He could've possibly ripped apart his own wife, or child if he had any. The thought was too scary to even think about, so Ivy quickly pushed it out of her mind. "This...is awful. But wait, Harley mentioned that there was another Joker, and he killed King and the others."
"Yes, Henry Adams. He only LOOKED immune to Joker's blood, but in reality shared his personality for deception and manipulation."
"In other words, the worst Joker of them all." Ivy spitefully said. She already hated this specific Joker because DECEPTION and MANIPULATION was exactly how Harley was smitten by Joker.
Batman ignored this and continued with his explanation anyways. "Once a highly respected principal of the esteemed McCallum Academy, Henry Adams was exposed to Joker's blood during a routine treatment at Gotham General. Displaying none of the symptoms experienced by the other victims, Henry's infection ACTS like an immunity that could be the key to developing a cure. Because Henry had a hip replacement, he needed a blood transfusion. he didn't receive the cure. All of those infected except for Henry began to look and act like Joker, though Henry appeared to be immune to Joker's blood. If anything, Henry's personality actually improved following the transfusion. I had Robin run tests to investigate why Henry wasn't like the others. At some point prior to this, he also paid a visit to Harley Quinn and ended up displaying similar elements to the deceased Clown Prince of Crime, including a knack for telling extremely dark jokes."
"Thank god he's dead, who knows what evilness he could've planted in the already broken mind of Harley had Batman not stopped him." Ivy mentally said this to herself.
Batman went on to finish his explanation. "Adams killed the three Jokers because of his survival of the fittest mentality..." There was a long silence that followed. "When he saw that I was infected with the disease, he killed himself, seeing that I would be a better Joker far better than he could ever be."
"But what about you, Batman? Your not acting anything like the Joker ever was."
The stoic vigilante explained, "That's because I managed to keep it buried inside, which only slowed down the process. To make matters worse, Crane's toxins have increased the speed of the infection. By the minute, it gets more severe and difficult to keep at bay. I'm doing all I can to keep Joker out of the driver's seat."
Ivy naturally did not like where this was going. In fact, she was almost angry that Batman was brushing off the fact that he could become the very same person that he spent years fighting and protecting people from. "You can't just brush this off Batman, this is serious and I demand to know what you plan on doing about this, the people of Gotham need their savior."
Ignoring her concerns and anger, Batman revealed his last result/contingency plan. "All I can do is hope that I can fight off the infection for a little while longer to lock up Crane. Once that happens, I'm locking myself away so that the Joker can never hurt an innocent person again. Tonight's the last night Gotham or anyone will ever see The Batman."
Without another word, Batman turned around and walked away, leaving behind a very stunned Poison Ivy. She was in fact speechless as well. But once the shock wore off, she knew she had to heal as quickly as possible. It wasn't just about helping Batman with the Arkham Knight's invasion anymore, it was about how to help Batman himself. The news of what Joker did finally convinced Ivy that this whole time, she needed Batman, she just couldn't see it until tonight. Batman saved her and allowed her to be reborn as a different person. She vowed to find a way to help him as well. No matter what happens, she would NOT allow Joker to win...