Descent

Chapter 43

The Joker watched as Johnny walked out of the room. He was happy that he did what he was told and didn't fight him on this. J didn't fell like killing one of his best men over something as trivial as the women strapped down like a sacrifice.

He turned to look down at Harley. "Now that we're alone...let's finish what we started."

From her position on the gurney the Joker looked as if he was upside down. It gave her this odd feeling of vertigo, as if the gurney was spinning and the room was standing still. All she could do was look at the manic light in his eyes and hope that whatever he had planned she would live through.

"What are you going to do, Mr. J? Kill me?" Harleen smiled as if she was daring him.

He brushed his fingers down her cheeks. His brave little doll. Fearless even in the face of the unknown. Not backing down from the crazy that lurked within his black soul. Embracing all three of the voices that lived inside him.

Mateo and Johnny were right, she would be perfect for him. But she would also be a weakness and that was something Mr. J wouldn't allow. No he needed to go through with this, it was best for them both.

"No, doll. You are too much fun alive. So feisty. Life without you would indeed be dull."

Shaking her head to get him away from her she retorted. "Yeah, that's why you're being an ass and pushing me away."

Oh, did you hear that? Our little doll is so brave to speak to us like that.

The Joker grabbed his head to still the voice but it only grew louder. Hissing continuously that Harley needed to go.

J tried to fight it. Hurting her would be tantamount to hurting himself. But his mind was so fractured that he wasn't sure he had complete control and for the first time since he had watched his parents die he felt real fear.

"Go ahead and do it then. Or are you too chicken shit to get your hands dirty?"

He starred at her as if she had lost her mind. She was actually goading him to hurt her. Forcing his hand, when J was in fact trying to still his raging need for blood.

When he didn't answer Harleen pressed on, figuring that if she was going to die she was going to give him a piece of her mind first. Show him just how tough she was. That Harleen Quinzel would never cower before a man again.

"Maybe you should get one of your thugs in here to do it for you."

The Joker held the rods to the electro shock machine in his hands. "Oh doll face, your mouth is what gets you into trouble."

Harleen was so pissed off she was moving straight passed a hissy fit and right into a conniption. He was lucky she was strapped to the gurney or else she would have kick him in the nuts.

"Yeah, well you're too much of a pussy to do anything about it. So learn to deal with it."

Oh shit, was all she could think after the words left her. If her arms weren't strapped down she would have covered her mouth in shock. He was right of course her smart mouth was going to get her killed one day. And today might just be that day.

"Really doll, I should wash your mouth out for ya. But this will have to do instead." Here he held the probes close to her face so she could see exactly what he planned to do.

Harleen fought down her urge to cry. Drawing in a deep breath she composed herself. Steadying her heart to take the pain that she knew was coming.

"So this is your kiss to send me off?"

"You should know that sending you off, as you call it is for your own damn good." The Joker growled in annoyance.

Why couldn't she see he was trying to keep her safe. Harley was smart enough to fly through school and handle Batman's Rogue Gallery, but she wasn't smart enough to see he was doing this because he cared.

Harleen lay there fuming. J said he was doing this for her own good. That he was trying to keep her safe. Well, it wasn't his choice it was her's. If she wanted to throw her life away to care for someone as broken as Jason than she would do it.

"Oh, I didn't get the memo that you were now the king of the fucking world."

The Joker couldn't help but roll his eyes at her outburst. "Doll, I'm doing you a favor."

"By cooking my brain?" Harleen shot him an incredulous look, and he couldn't help but laugh.

When his bout of laughter quieted he said. "By setting you free."

He was growing tired of this back and forth. Knowing that if he let her keep talking, she would brake down his walls. And instead of leaving her here for Dr. Arkham to find, he would be taking her with him.

He couldn't allow that. J needed for her to be found, so that she wouldn't be suspected of helping him. Because deep down he hoped that the shit he had just spewed was true. That by shocking her he would set that darkness in her free. So long as she clung to her normalcy she would never fit into his world.

Unacceptable, hissed the voice.

He shoved the extra strap between her teeth.

"Now don't try to talk, it'll all be over soon." The he leaned forward and kissed her gently on the forehead.

The action was so at odds with what he was preparing to do to her that Harleen felt her head spinning. She wanted to shut her eyes from the sight of him above her, smiling down menacingly.

"This is going to hurt really bad." He sounded as if he was apologizing.

Harleen wanted to say she understood. That she knew it wasn't Jason doing this to her. That it was Mr. J, but she didn't have a chance.

The Joker pressed the probes against her temples. The moment they made contact with her skin Harleen felt as if a bolt of lightning had struck her. Moving from her frontal lobes all the way down her body in a searing rush of heat.

Her back arched off the gurney and her whimpers filled the air. All the while her mind felt like it was splintering. As if all she had ever been was giving way to all she could be.

Harleen felt the strong women she kept hidden deep inside rise to the surface. Knowing that as soon as she woke from this nightmare Harleen would be no more. It would be Harley that would rise from the ashes of her rebirth. And woe to anyone who got in her way. She wouldn't take any shit from those around her.

The lights flickered overhead and just before she passed out from the trauma everything went black. All she could hear as she slipped into unconsciousness was the maniacal laughter of the Joker.