Gotham's Unknown 2 (A Batman Fanfic)

Chapter 9: Rivals of One Body

As time grew on Joker tried his best to visit Sarah as much as he could but it was difficult taken that she was off her medication so whenever she would feel Iris watching her she refused to let her father inside knowing that Iris would've attacked him upon seeing him. Luckily Sarah had Vanessa always around because Iris didn't mind Vanessa too much, she was sort of indifferent to her so Sarah felt comfortable having her keep an eye on Iris while Sarah was trapped inside of her own mind. Sarah did however insist that Vanessa tell her what Iris had been doing while she was away taken the comments Iris had made early on in the pregnancy.

One particular morning Joker snuck in as he does but when he approached the back door he found it was locked so he checked his pockets for the key Sarah had given him. He finally found it in his back pocket. He unlocked the door and then suddenly heard a loud crash like something had been thrown against a wall and shattered. He stepped inside and saw Vanessa and Sarah or Iris fighting. "Can you help me?" Asked Vanessa to Joker as he sighed.
"Iris?" He asked.
"Yeah." Said Vanessa as Iris came down the stairs.
"Hi, Daddy." She said in a vindictive tone as she looked at Vanessa. "Are you still here, Slut?" Asked Iris as Vanessa huffed.
"What is your problem with me!?" Demanded Vanessa as Iris walked away. "See!" Said Vanessa as Joker scoffed.
"When you said need help, I thought you meant she was trying to kill you." Said Joker as he walked in and sat on the couch.
"Why?" Asked Vanessa as Joker looked at her.
"Because almost every time I've been around Iris she's tried to kill me." Said Joker as he dug the remote out from between the couch cushions and turned on the television.
"Well I wish Sarah had warned about that." Said Vanessa as she sat down next to him.
"What did she warn you about?" Asked Joker as he flipped channels.
"She said she was worried that Iris was gonna try and kill her baby." Said Vanessa as Joker froze up for a second.
"Then is it such a good idea to leave her alone upstairs?" Asked Joker as both of them seemed to realize that was in fact not a good idea so Joker quickly stood and rushed upstairs. He knocked her bedroom door. "Iris open the damn door!" Barked Joker as he pounded on the door and tried to force the handle open.
"Leave me alone!" She barked as Joker growled and knew that if he didn't do something Sarah was going to lose everything. Joker eventually mustered the strength to force the door open. When he opened the door he saw her sitting there in the middle of her bed crying, she had a photo album in front of her. They were photos of Sarah and Daniel mostly but others were of her and Vanessa, her friends from college, even a few with Bruce.
"Iris?" Asked Joker as he tried to keep a distance.
"Why does Sarah always get to be the one that's loved? Now she has friends and family and people who love her! Why doesn't she love me anymore?" Asked Iris through sobs and tears. Joker didn't really know what to say, he had never seen her like this though now in this moment Joker realized that though Sarah called her a monster but that's only because she was so alone. All Iris ever had was Sarah but Sarah chose the real world over her so Iris wanted her to feel the pain she does so she'll come back to her. As Joker saw her in this state he saw her as less of the psycho Sarah described her as and more like someone who's just tired of being alone. Joker sat down on the bed next to her but she glared at him. "I thought I told you to leave me alone!" She barked as he sighed.
"Well I'm not gonna just leave you here to cry." Stated Joker as she sniffed still glaring at him.
"Why are you acting like you care about me all of a sudden?" Asked Iris as she wiped a tear off her face.
"Because I think Sarah has judged you too harshly." Said Joker as Iris scoffed.
"Really?" She asked sarcastically. "I've actively tried to kill you many times, why think any different of me now?" Asked Iris as Joker sighed.
"Because we're more alike than Sarah chooses to believe." Stated Joker as she just stared at him. "Before you and Sarah, I was alone and I acted like it didn't bother me like you do but it did. The worst part was that I barely remembered who I was before I was the Joker and since no one really liked the Joker no one really liked me at all. After Sarah I wanted the world for her and if I had known that I had two daughters for the price of one then I wouldn't have treated you any differently than I treat Sarah." Said Joker as Iris looked down at her hands in her lap.
"You know Sarah wouldn't like that you said that, would completely detest idea."  Said Iris as she obviously trying to get him to take back the statement because she didn't want to believe that he saw her as his daughter.
"Well then Sarah doesn't really have to know does she?" Asked Joker as Iris scoffed.
"Oh please! I highly doubt you can lie to her!" Said Iris as she looked away from him but still sort of eyed him like she was hoping he could prove her wrong.
"Why do you think Sarah would be so rejecting to the idea?" Asked Joker as Iris sighed.
"Because she thinks I'm a monster! Our entire lives Sarah was sweet, innocent and I was just the nightmare that lived inside of her mind. Even she rejected me at first!" Said Iris as Joker looked at her confused.
"I thought you convinced Sarah that you were sisters in the beginning?" Asked Joker as Iris sighed.
"No that's just as far back as Sarah's memories go. She doesn't remember before we became completely separate." Said Iris softly.
"But you do?" Asked Joker softly as she nodded.
"Before we separated Sarah was still her sweet innocent self but she was also vicious and brutal, and she didn't just accept the bullies in the world. I remember the day we separated. We were just playing then this jerk came over and shoved us to the ground. We got up and just started attacking him. Eventually the kid was beaten to near death and we stopped. She couldn't take the sight of his blood on her hands, she was soaked in it. In that single moment I heard and felt this snap like the sound of glass shattering  and I guess I just woke up for the first time." Said Iris as she looked down at her hands like she remembered this so vividly. "I remember rubbing the blood between my fingers, I enjoyed the feeling of blood on my hands but what I enjoyed the most was the fact that I now knew I didn't have to accept getting beaten as a part of my life, I could fight back and I never wanted to let someone hurt Sarah ever again." Said Iris as she took a breath. "Personally I really don't care whether or not she hates me, I just want her to be safe." Said Iris as she wiped a stray tear from her face. Iris caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror causing her to notice that as she had wiped her tears away she had also wiped off the makeup Sarah applied every morning to hide the white patches of skin. Iris stood from the bed and pulled a pouch of makeup wipes from the drawer in Sarah's vanity mirror. She took out one of the wipes and started stripping the makeup from her face revealing the patches, she even wiped off the make up on her hands and chest revealing all of the white patches all over her skin. "She tries so hard to erase our past but it's never gonna go away, no matter what she does." Said Iris as she ran her finger down from the bottom of her right eye down her cheek sort of tracing the speckled triangle like shaped patch of white skin. Joker hadn't seen her without the make for a while, he had almost forgotten what lay underneath. He would never say it to Sarah but he found her to be beautiful just the way she was and he thought it was a shame she felt the need to hide it. Joker knew better than anyone that Gotham wasn't known for being accepting of differences in the population. That's the main reason this city had so much crime, someone would be different from everyone else so they would get ridiculed for it and eventually they'd become so filled with pain and a desperate need for an outlet that they'd snap and hurt people just because they were so tired of all the hate. Somehow Sarah was an exception to this well faced fact in Gotham, she was different and ridiculed for it but somehow she became a better person. Joker knew that anyone else in Gotham would've focused on the hatred and harm they went through but not his little girl, what got her through the endless amounts of torture was what little good there was in her life like him.

After that Iris decided to take a nap because she was mentally exhausted from being so vulnerable. She was left alone as she slept but in her dream it wasn't quite a dream it was more of a space between consciousness. She woke up in this concrete cell with an iron door but the door was cracked just enough for her to be able to open it from the inside. She walked through the halls of Arkham Aslyum but as she walked the tile walls cracked apart revealing the stained and torn wallpaper of Pinkney Orphanage but that too ripped apart to reveal the pristine white and silver wallpaper and dark wooden paneling that made up the walls of Sarah's bedroom in the Wayne Manor. Finally Iris reached a door that seemed to flicker between the iron clad cell doors of Arkham, the rotten wooden doors of Pinkey, and the dark wooden door with a white wooden sign hung over it with Sarah's name painted in black calligraphy. It flickered faster and faster until Iris grabbed the door knob  and it stopped to reveal a grey door with a frosted glass window and a little golden name plate that read Dr. Sarah Ivory. Iris opened the door and stepped inside to see Sarah sitting at her desk with her feet up on the desk. "Did you enjoy tormenting my family?" Asked Sarah as she flipped a page in a book.
"Actually I think Daddy kinda likes me." Said Iris as she pulled over a chair.
"Don't you usually try to kill him when you see him?" Asked Sarah as Iris shrugged.
"I kinda like him now." Said Iris as Sarah tilted her book and looked at her altar in disbelief.
"The man who gave us up to Pinkney and set in motion the horrible events that was our childhood?" Asked Sarah as Iris put her feet up on the desk as well.
"Well usually I'd feel that way but today I sort of let these damn pregnancy hormones get the better of me and became kind of vulnerable and instead of just leaving me to suffer he comforted me. It was very odd but now I kinda see why you like him so much. He really does care about us and I guess I never saw that." Said Iris softly. "Look I'm sorry for being so difficult through all of this. I just hate the thought of losing you to the rest of the world." Said Iris as Sarah scoffed.
"Well maybe you should've thought of that before killing with my hands." Said Sarah in a cold tone as she left the room.