Rise of Harley Quinn Jr.

Life and a new friend

How is this possible, how is any of this possible?

Barbara couldn't possibly believe a word of this. She would never stab her father to death. She would never take a life or break the code that she followed.

The heroine closed her eyes. She had to be dreaming. This wasn't real. After all, how could she possibly be in the asylum, and as a patient no less? It was like she traveled through time, or entered an alternate universe. Only that didn't make sense either. Nothing about this made sense. There wasn't a logical explanation.

It had to just be another one of Scarecrow's tricks a way to manipulate her and get Barbara to do what they wanted. Bruce often told her about what Dr. Crane was capable of. But he did it in his own special way. He was always very confident, sure that Scarecrow could be dealt with. No matter how many times the supercriminal made Batman go through his own parent's death, seeing them killed in cold blood outside of the monarch theater, he always came out a sane man.

Maybe she could do the same against this trick? If Batman could do it, so could she. And that's what she was going to do. She would come out of this as Batgirl, and not some sort of Harley Quinn Jr. She was Barbara Gordon, the girl who could hack any and all machinery at such a young age. She was the same Barbara Gordon that made it through any and all situations.

But as the days slowly turned into weeks, things got progressively harder and Barbara soon came to learn about Asylum life. She quickly learned of the various sessions and therapy that patients, or rather inmates went under. But that didn't detract from her positive attitude. She happily ate the food she was given without so much as a complaint.

It was hard though, very hard to deal with all of this. Even knowing this was all an illusion made by Scarecrow, Batman was still dead. He couldn't be brought back to life, at least not without losing his sanity in the process.

As Barbara began picking at her food, the Lazarus Pit briefly passed through her mind, the legendary pit of Ra's al Ghul. It was able to recover a person from a death experience, but it was at the cost of their sanity. And it only got worse every time somebody went into the pit. Every time, a little bit of what made that person who they were was lost. Eventually, after too much time in the Lazarus Pit, a sane person had completely gone crazy. They weren't themselves anymore, they were but a fragile shell of what they once were.

So, it wouldn't work. Even if Barbara wanted Bruce back to the way he was, Batman would never want something like that to ever happen to him. No matter the circumstances, Bruce didn't want to interfere with life. He always had a clear vision of life. It was something that nobody could get back. Bruce didn't believe in taking a life, Batman didn't believe in taking a life.

There were several reasons for this. The most prominent could be how Batman's parents were murdered right outside the Monarch Theater at a young age. He was eight at the time. But there were parts missing, the story was always a tad different. However, the fact still remained the same, when Bruce saw his mother and father dead, blood leaking from their fresh corpses, something changed how Batman felt about life.

To a normal person, it would've been the beginning of a bad day, a spiral down to darkness. For Batman, it was also the beginning, it was a different kind of beginning; the day he looked for a symbol. Soon, that symbol would stand for who he was; The Batman.

But now, none of that mattered. In a single instant, Bruce was killed. The Joker won.

Barbara punched the table. She was angry, angry that it had to end up this way. If Bruce wasn't so stubborn, they could've teamed up on that psychotic clown. Then again, Harley was there. She threw a rock at Barbara. Sadly, it knocked the heroine out.

And that was the end.

Barbara shielded her eyes. She wanted to cry. She wanted to hide somewhere and never come out. Her life was over, everything was over. There really wasn't a point anymore.

Tears started to come out of her eyes. This really was what Harleen and The Joker wanted, they wanted her to lose her sanity, her grip on reality. On any other day, Barbara would've fought. She would've fought tooth and nail against Harley and The Joker's tricks. But now, she didn't want to fight anymore. Barbara could see herself for the first time since she put on the cowl, she could see a weak and defenseless teenager that wanted this all to end. She wanted to go home.

"Are you okay?" A male voice asked.

"Go away..." Barbara croaked. Though her actual voice sounded more like a whisper. She was so sad, it was hard for her to speak.

"I know how it must feel to be hurt, to end up in a place like this. But I do want to let you know that we are all family here. We help each other in ways that the doctors and staff never could."

Barbara was barely listening to what this guy had to say. She was still too focused on everything that has happened already. It made her care about that, and only that.

The man continued. Barbara heard him sit right by her. "We all make mistakes. What matters is we recover from those mistakes. We don't let those mistakes consume us." The man's tone got softer. "If we let those mistakes consume us, bad things happen. We become what we despise most."

"I know," Barbara thought. She was trying her best to hang on, but it was becoming very hard.

"I had a wife. We used to get along really well, she was pregnant too. One day, I had a very bad day. I let the darkness consume me, swallow me whole. I couldn't escape."

Barbara briefly looked up. She saw that this man had blonde hair. He didn't look very old. But the strangest part was that Barbara felt like she knew this man from someplace. However, she couldn't put her finger on where she had seen this man before, she just knew that she had seen him before.

"Before I knew it, I had a corpse in my living room. It was at that moment, I had two choices; I could go on with the darkness, or I could grow stronger from it." The man explained.

She didn't know how to respond. Barbara felt bad about what happened to this man. She had heard of people snapping before, but they always went down a dark and dangerous path. But this man sounded sincere like he felt bad about what he did. At least, she hoped he chose the right decision.

"It's a funny thing what we do. Regardless, I didn't go with the darkness. I went somewhere to get help. This place does help, but it can be kind of daunting and unforgiving at times. The shock therapy and medication are something to note."

Barbara opened her mouth wide in shock. It never really occurred to her what happened to the various people she helped bring to justice. But now, she could see that Arkham Asylum was more like a prison than a hospital designed to help cure the mentally dangerous individuals it housed. As well as the more sane residents that were housed inside these walls.

The man leaned over. His voice got lower, more akin to a whisper. "If you want a piece of advice; don't listen to them. Don't let them get in your head no matter what." His eyes looked around, checking to see if anybody was listening in. When nobody was listening to their conversation, he continued. "Do you understand?"

Barbara quickly nodded her head. She could understand that this man was serious, that he knew something fishy was going on. And it was nice to know that there was somebody else here, somebody else in this nightmare, somebody that could help her go on. But most of all, it was somebody that Barbara could call a friend.

Harleen watched the two of them talking, standing out of their view. She smirked. In a place like this, there were always others that try to sway patients from seeking proper treatment.

But she wouldn't let that happen, not on her watch.