Memories of Home

ｘｖｉ． ｄａｒｋ ａｒｍｏｒ

5 WEEKS LATER

MJ sat on the warehouse rooftop, feet hanging over the side of the building, 10 stories up. She could leap down from this distance now - so her own safety was no longer a concern these days.

As she swung her boots over the edge, she felt the way the sheathed daggers and weapons trail all the way up her new black leather suit. The leather, she found, was easier for wiping away all the messes she had been making lately.

The weapons, convenient for making those messes.

If one of the people in her old life would look at her now, they would recognize nothing about her. The serum she had been being given twice a day for a few weeks now had given her eyes and lips a purple hue.

But....she did still smile sometimes.

She'd smile when she found whatever mark the Kingpin gave her.

Smile when she brought them down.

Smile when she made them beg.

Smile when she finally gave them what they deserved...in a way her new smile was close to the image of her namesake. Smiling for dark things no one should smile for.

Her once sarcastic stare was now deathly, assessing. Her hair that used to fall in waves around her shoulder, had now just been pulled into a tight braid that tucked into a crown at the root of her hair. Nothing to get in the way, nothing to slow her down.

She looked out into the black night, noticing the way the city shimmered in light across the Hudson.

She'd rather there were no lights at all.

Her days were all nights.  Her nights lasted years.

But the night had made her stronger, her blows hitting harder, and her body able to reach heights she had never imagined before. However much she ran though, her murderous partner was never far behind her.

She didn't know how much time had gone by since her and Harry had become the Dahlia and the Goblin. Sometimes, in between the dosages, something tugged at the edges of her awareness - a feeling of something she might have been once. A small voice calling out, trying to remind her of something. It would unsettle her so much - that she would act out. Destroying her quarters several times - smashing mirrors until Harry came running in to see what was the matter.

It was an easy alert for Katarina, to distribute more of the dosages to the girl. Somehow she seemed to require more than Harry, as if what was underneath was fighting harder. Maybe Harry had nothing left under there that wanted to fight. But they sure did fight well, together.

The Kingpin had easily doubled his territory in the city, more people falling susceptible to his mob ring than ever before. He was planning to unleash a brand new drug in the days to come -already having buyers line up for something brand new. Something that apparently could transfer power, taking it away instead of giving it. 

Essentially meaning any greedy or corrupt person in business or government now didn't even have to try and work their way up to have power, instead they could just take it.

He was getting richer and richer, and with the Black Dahlia and Green Goblin sweeping up any challenger in sight - who would stop him?

They functioned together - but quite differently.

Dahlia was a shadow ebbing with murderous intent, target after target falling from her blows. Who ever the King Pin put a mark on, she brought to him with swift purpose.

Where she was precision, Harry was chaos and madness. It's almost as if every feeling he had pent up from his father, from his disappointment in himself, and in this universe, any inkling of trying to be better disappeared with the hope of what he could have been.