Roots

Life Lesson 3

Know your weakness.
"Try to look at your weakness and convert it into your strength. That's success." -Zig Ziglar

"Boss, how'd you get so strong?" A newer underling questioned, his black ski mask messily pulled over his head. He had just been initiated last month, and had never met her before.

The Joker tilted his ear towards the duo, secretly and desperately wanting to know her answer. He knew he was good, no, he was better than good, he was fantastic. "Hmmm?" She chirped in response, "I wonder..." The Joker inaudibly sighed. He knew she wasn't going to answer. Why did he get his hopes up?

She would never give up her secret to power.

His mind blew when she did the exact opposite.

"I took what I loved and made it my motivation."

His eyes widened at that. She loved something besides him?

"What do you mean boss?" The underling questioned, eyes glistening in admiration. The Joker scoffed. He could imagine the underling with a dorky interviewer hat and pad and pen, heart jumping with joy and hanging on to her every word. He would never admit it out loud...

but he was too.

"I fell in love with the city of Gotham. The way the night sky shimmered with the city lights. I loved the way the park smelled and filtered the air. How it turned the pollution into breathable air. I loved the way the water slammed onto the edge of the docks, as if telling it to crumble and let it take over...." Her eyes glistened with love. The first time he ever saw them show emotion. Even during their fun times together, passionate moments, lustful killings, her eyes stayed dull and lifeless. He glowered. He realized he could never make her feel it seems. She wrapped her arms around the underling from behind, encasing him in a motherly embrace. She rested her head against his, rubbing his with hers. "You take all that love you feel and realize it's a weakness."

"W-What do you m-mean?"

The Joker closed his eyes, no longer wanting to see her close to another man. It irked him to no end, and made his blood boil at the contact. He wanted to kill the underling.

"When you love something, you're giving it the power to destroy you." She purred into his ear. "When you watch what you love get harmed: say a knife in a loved one, you give your heart the ability to ache and yearn for them. To throb in pain every time they take a shaky breath. You show your heart the ability and way to crumble as the last of their life seeps out of them, and you let your heart die as the last breath is taken." Her eyes darkened. "When you have a weakness, you're giving it the power to end your very being. My weakness is love."

The Joker looked up in question. She could love? It gave his heart a painful squeeze. It disgusted him.

"Boss..." The underling whispered, just barely being heard by the Joker.

"Hm?" She chimed, hand reaching up to his forehead and rested across it.

"What do you do to your weakness? How did it  make you strong?"

"When your weakness is gone....it gives you overwhelming power to do whatever." The underling's eyes scrunched together as he tried to understand what she did. But when he finally did, his head had already been violently turned to the side.....

"...I killed him."

The Joker understand her hidden meaning, and was happy.

Kill what you love, crush every part of it, and you'll be unstoppable.