This Mad World

Harlequin Rising

Right, gymnastics. That was the very first thing she had to get back into. She had seen some of the crazy stunts Batman liked to pull and caught a few glimpses of his crazy gear. If she was going to survive jumping around in the urban jungle after him she had to have her body in the right shape for it. Harleen signed up for a gym membership that night, particularly one that had acrobatics, and decided to see if there were any tutors for parkour in the area. There had to be, Gotham was practically famous for all of its gargoyles and statues all over the skyscrapers, at least several famous parkour artists came from here.

When she walked into Arkham the next day she was smiling, genuinely smiling, to the point where some of the others were tentatively asking her if she was okay while others were clearly relieved. The one who had the greatest smile of them all, though, was her. The one in the mirrors and reflections who was not her, the harlequin with the makeup and confident tilt of her head. The Harleen that Harleen did not know, but the one she wanted to be. She was confident, head held high, and always looked on with approval at what Harleen was doing, black-painted lips pulled into a wide smile.

Echoes were coming back to her, though, just as Batman warned. At one point she whirled around and nearly shrieked when she came face to face with a grinning Joker looming over her, every single tooth in his jaw visible. Instead of screaming or cowering, though, Harleen's first instinct was to slam her clipboard into his face as hard as she could, and that was when she came to realize he was just a vision when her attack went right through him as if he was made of smoke.

God she hoped this wouldn't become a regular thing. However, she was incredibly proud of herself for not cowering this time and for fighting back. Good job, brain, you show those traumatic memories who's boss!

But she wouldn't go into Joker's cell yet. That was far too soon. She would make him wait.

She handed her resignation back into Arkham and told him that she had reconsidered, that she wanted a permanent position in Gotham, instead. He barely looked up from his work, but she heard the approval and relief in his voice as one of their best young doctors decided to stay. "So few of them do," he added with a smile.

I can't imagine why, Harleen did not say as she thanked the director and showed herself out. Anyone who stays here for any length of time is cracked in the head. Doesn't matter whether they're the patients or staff.

Weightlifting was utter torture, holy moly. How in the world did Batman manage to do this so often to look like he did? She knew he had to have some sort of routine, probably squirreled away in that crazy cave of his. Schwarznegger would have wept at the sight of the Caped Crusader, in pure male pride. Meanwhile Harleen was burning her muscles to cinders just through a few of these routines, but she had to build muscle.

It took her a week or two to rethink her position, and realize that she was being kind of an idiot. And not from her own insight, either, even though she sorely wished it had been.

"What is the definition of insanity, Doctor?" Riddler asked her casually as she sat in front of him once more.

She didn't look up from her note taking. She had already written a detailed analysis of him the last time she had been in here, and while jotting down a few more details never hurt, it was not the main reason she had come in here.

Her list was growing bigger by the minute. Strengths: Intelligence!!! , insight, charisma, knows how to get under people's skin, knows how to make himself seem harmless, Intelligence. She had to write that twice because she was quickly realizing the more she talked to Riddler the more she realized that everyone else was a complete idiot for downplaying him compared to other titans such as Joker and Scarecrow and Killer Croc. That was precisely what Riddler wanted, to go unnoticed, to be seen as the good one. That was why he escaped so many times and why each and every time everyone was so surprised. For goodness sake Harleey was half-certain that he could make a pretty good escape attempt right this minute, if he actually wanted to. It did not slip her notice that unlike every single other inmate here, whenever Riddler escaped it always took Batman a while to bring him back, and always when he caught him in the middle of some other scheme of his.