Frost was out doing recon, trying to see if Feline was at his loft. We'd tried calling him, texting him, but nothing was working, he wasn't picking up or responding. We weren't exactly keen on being alone, especially being that we hadn't traded powers back yet, but finding Feline was important.
If we didn't get him back here to touch the crystal before tomorrow afternoon, we were severely fucked. Harley was still knocked out on my bed, and I'd been researching to find anything I could about this Change Rock, and surprisingly, there was much more information to find about it than I'd thought.
Most of it was folklore, but I'm guessing since the crystal was successful in trading out powers, this lore proves to be true. I was sitting at my table in front of my laptop, immersed in the information that I was finding, looking over the top, every so often to check and see if Harley was still asleep.
I'd looked over to my pad, writing down notes, trying to see if there was some way around the whole, 'we all have to touch it' thing, just in case we couldn't find Feline. I knew Harley, and I knew how he operated, mostly, but this is Feline, and there's no telling what Harley's insanity would affect him.
Or even what an insane Feline would look like. It was all so complicated, and from all the information I was finding, every single entry about this crystal remained the same. It needed all of us back to do it. I sighed heavy, rolling my eyes to continue searching.
I minimized the webpage and pulled up my personal browser, turning the volume up to make sure I didn't miss anything. I'd connected my server to the police scanners in Gotham, hitching onto their transmission wavelength.
I didn't use it very often, seeing as though Mother Green was always looking out for me. The plants had a way about them and if I listened, they'd warn me or reveal things that their sisters and brothers see.
Now, with Frost's powers, I couldn't reach out or rely on them now, so...I was reduced to using traditional scanners to see what's happening in Gotham. Trying to listen for keywords that sound like something Harley would do, but nothing was on it yet.
I searched around on different channels, but not a sign of Feline anywhere. He was nowhere to be found. I pulled out my phone and sent Frost a quick text.
// Found anything?
I waited a few moments and watched the three dots appear on the screen, Frost replying almost instantly.
\\ No, he's not here, I'll check his other hangout spots? What about you, did you find a way to reverse this if we don't find him?
// No. Just keep looking and I'll keep looking, he's got to be around here somewhere, I'm checking the scanners now, just in case he gets into something.
\\ Alright, keep me posted.
// You too.
I put my phone back on the table and rubbed my eyes, trying to keep myself calm, feeling Frost's powers kicking into gear inside me. I was used to having to manage my emotions with my own powers, but never to this extent. It's like any type of strong feeling, was a trigger and it was getting really irritating.
It felt like wearing someone else's clothes, sure they fit okay, but it still felt like someone else's clothes. Not being able to feel the call of the Green, not being able to feel her power coursing through me, my babies all around me, watching over me. It just...it made me feel like I did all those years ago before I was resurrected by the Green.
I was lost, purposeless, and empty. No real friends, love, connection, nothing to give me that get up and go. Having the Green by my side, serving the Earth, it renewed my spark for life, but now...now I felt lost again, and all I could think about was how much I needed it back, how much I needed the Green to be with me again. I needed her love because without it...without the Green, I had no one.
I shook off the hopelessness, and refocused my attention on the task at hand, I went back to researching and I looked over the screen to check on Harley and immediately my heart rate picked up, which felt more like a normal beating heart because of how few times Frost's powers allow my heart to beat.
All I knew was, I was immediately afraid. I let up from my seat and could feel my eyes glow along with my hands that became misty, reacting to the sudden influx of my anxious, fearful emotions.
"Harley!" I called out, racing to look out my window near my door, but I know I didn't hear the door open and shut.
He had to still be in the house. I went into my bedroom which was just separated by the archway that connected it to the kitchen and saw a light on in the bathroom. I turned and saw Harley staring into the mirror beyond the water that was melting a little after I'd frozen it earlier.
He was staring strangely as he looked at himself. I felt relief spread through me and felt my eyes stop glowing and my hands stilled themselves, the mist dissipating. I looked at him as he inspected himself. I couldn't exactly explain it, but it was almost as if his whole demeanor shifted.
Usually, he exuded this sort of untamed giddiness about him, but staring at him now, even with the sheet covering his naked body, he just looked settled. Confused, yes, but settled. He sensed me staring at him and turned to look at me, his eyes shifting cat-like for a second before he shook his head and looked at me, blinking hard.
"Sorry, I don't know why I keep doing that," he apologizes, his voice void of his adopted Bronx accent, his voice seemed, husky, almost mature, it was very disconcerting.
"Uh, no, it's fine," I answer back, a little confused myself. I knew what was going on, I knew what was happening, but the shock of seeing Hartley so...together, it was just too odd. Even when he was sane, or at least, stable, he still had a certain air about him, like he could crack at any moment.
This Hartley, he...he wasn't the one I knew and he wasn't Harley Quinn either, no...he was someone else, someone completely and totally sane. No cracking, no quiver in his voice, not even a trace of the abuse I know he's endured.
He was supposed to be in bed, screaming and crying, but somehow...it's like his mind was settled now...like it adjusted to his sanity. He started to walk towards me and I could see he was becoming faint, I grabbed him just before he could fall, taking extreme care to focus on not freezing him.
"Hey, you gotta take it easy, the sleeping powder isn't completely out of your system yet, it's effects are pretty strong. You should still be knocked out," I say, trying to explain, leading him to the bed, he sits next to me, and looks at me, pulling away from my hands slowly,
"Your hands are cold," he answers, trying to make sure I knew his reasons for pulling away. He sits up a little, and pulls on his underwear next to the bed, and then looks at me and squints,
"Okay...I might be a little out of it, but...isn't your hair supposed to be red?" he asks, groggily, looking at me through heavy eyelids.
"Yeah, it's supposed to be, something happened to us earlier today, tell me, how much of it do you remember?" I ask, trying to coax him awake.
"Not much, I remember, I think I remember us going to some...museum? We took some weird looking white crystal, and uh...we came to your house and then...well, nothing. I just remember waking up now," he answers, blinking a little harder to try to get himself together.
"Do you remember who you are?" I ask, fearfully.
"Yeah, I know who I am, Sammy," he answers, laughing a little.
This shook me to my core. Harley would same my real name sometimes, usually only when we slept together, but the way he said it this time, it was different.
And he looked at me, the smile leaving his eyes and I could tell that he was getting there, his consciousness was catching up with his reality.
"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to—" he starts.
"No—no it's okay, I get it, you're just confused is all. How are you feeling?" I ask, tentatively, scared that I might set him off again. He took in a deep breath and shook off the last bit of grogginess.
"I feel like I was hit by a bus. Everything aches, and my head, god, my head is killing me. But it's settling. It's not exactly all there yet, but I'm getting there," he answers, smiling weakly,
"What happened to us? What happened to you?"
"Well, apparently we weren't supposed to touch that crystal with our bare hands because technically it's not a crystal at all. It was supposedly broken off of a metal human who was made entirely of white quartz who had the ability of reflection, which means was able to reflect attacks both supernatural or otherwise no matter how powerful.
There used to be many of them when the guy was alive, but once he found out that there were pieces of him in the world, he destroyed most of them. There are still a couple of stragglers left, but they're a bitch to find. There were only two so far that people have found, the one we stole, which was supposed to be transferred to some other facility and the other found by some guy a long, long time ago," I answer.
"Well, looks like someone's been reading up on their magical crystal Wikipedia page," he said, jokingly.
"Well, let's just say, I got a lot of reading done trying to figure out how to fix this. I just want my powers back and our money. That crystal just isn't worth the trouble it's gotten us in," I say, shivering a little in disgust.
"Where's everybody else?" he asks.
"Feline's in the wind and Frost's trying to find him. He's got you um—well, he's got your—" I start, trying to be careful, knowing his sensitivity to the word—
"Insanity," he says, his voice low in admission, almost ashamed,
"Yeah, I kind of figured."
"Harley, are you...are you okay?" I ask in trepidation.
"No," he says, his voice cracking a little from the emotion he's trying to hold back,
"Ivy...Sam, the things I've done...all of it...I don't—I just—"
He's trying hard to keep himself from crying, but I can see how hard this is for him. So I focus with everything inside me to pull back as much of my chill as possible and wrap my arm around him and he comes closer, reluctant tears streaming for his eyes onto my chest, dampening my shirt.
I may not have cared too much about human life, neither did Harley when he wasn't insane, but that didn't mean that I didn't feel anything. The things I've done, though for a greater purpose, have had an effect on me over the years.
I know what I must do, and I know that the only life that matters is the Green, but there are sometimes, sometimes late at night, when I'm lying in bed, only for a moment, I'll feel...guilt.
It passes as quickly as it comes because there's only one life that I feel even the tiniest pang of regret for, and that was for Pamela. I hated what my parents had done to me, I'd hated how they doted on her more than me, and I wanted to make them suffer.
But...killing my sister, killing someone who didn't even get the chance at life, it had an effect that I could never truly get past. I've killed dozens of people, none of their deaths ever made me feel even the slightest bit guilty, hell, not even killing my parents. But my sister...that pain, no matter how small, still existed, so I knew what Harley was feeling...maybe not in the same degree that he's feeling it, but I knew.
I understood. My Hartley, he may have been a sociopath, but this man crying into my chest, this man, he was not that guy...not with Feline's sanity running through his brain. He was different.
"Sam, the things he's done to me...the things I did to those people, to those innocent people," his voice still cracking, as he forced himself to calm down, he pulled away and I looked at his reddening eyes, full of regret,
"I'm not a good person Sam, I'm—I'm evil,"
The way he said it, the way he'd admitted it, it broke my heart to see him like this. He looked broken, and not in the way that he was supposed to be, but broken from the guilt of his past. He was remorseful and what he's done is tearing him apart all over again.
I may have done some terrible things, but it was my choice to do them. Hartley's choice was to kill, he enjoyed it, he thrived in it because that was who he was, but now, now he was normal.
Whatever screws were loose in his brain before he fell into the chemical vat and after having Feline's sanity, tightened them up and now he was just like any other decent human being, he was filled with morality.
"It's okay Harley, we're going to fix you, we're going to give you back what that crystal took from you," I say, trying to reassure him and he immediately jumps back, almost afraid.
"What's the matter Harley, what happ—" I start.
"I can't go back Sam, I can't go back to that place, to that—to being with him. I can't do it, I can't take it. You don't Ivy, you don't know—" he starts rambling on, fearful and terrified.
"Harley, calm down," I say trying to approach him, but he pulls back and he's almost shaking now.
"No! You don't understand Ivy! You don't understand what happens with us. You think what you did was bad? You killed a couple dozen people, a baby, that's nothing. You have no idea what we've done together Ivy. Mr.—The Joker, he's sick, he's dark, he's—" he rambles on again.
"It's okay Harley—" I try to cut in again.
"Sam, listen to me!" he screams, coming forward, gripping my shoulder's tight,
"It's not him that I'm afraid of. It's me! He's bad, but Sam, god Sam, I'm so much worse. The things I've done to people, I—surprise even him sometimes," he admits, and I'm floored, and I can tell he can see it, "
And it's all for him, everything, everything I do is for him. I worship him, I adore him, I'd do anything, anything for him Sam, do you understand that?
I'd do anything to make him happy, even...god, it scares me to even think about it...but if he asked me—if he really wanted me to—I think...I think I'd—I think—" he starts, unable to finish his sentence, and he doesn't have to because I already know what he was going to say.
It's something that I thought about before, something that crossed my mind, so I finished his sentence for him.
"You'd kill me," I say, just stating it simply, not really wanting to think about how it made me feel.
"I don't know—I don't think so, I pray that I wouldn't—I pray to God, or whoever's still listening to me that I wouldn't. But Ivy—that's what scares me. I was already messed up before him, and after that vat, it destroyed whatever doubt I may have been having about loving him.
He used my own mind against me Sam, and now he owns me, I want him to own me when I'm like that. I care about you Sam, but if I go back to being like that, when I'm with him, when I lost my mind, he's all I think about, all I want, I am devoted to him, mind, body, and soul. I might sleep with you, but I'd die for him.
And that kind of devotion means that I may not be able to control what I do in service of him. I'd die if I lost you, Sam, my soul would die without you, you mean everything to me. But if he asked me—I don't know what I would do," he admits, and it rocks him down to his core, it tears him apart and I can see it.
My Harley would have never admitted something like this, but he did. Haley wasn't the one for this kind of honesty, not like this, not when it could hurt me this badly. I knew that if I was filled with the Green, I may have cried, may have shown some emotion, but with my heart frozen, I could only feel the pain, but not emote it.
This was the first time all night that I was grateful for Frost's powers. Harley's admission made me realize something as well, Harley was human, and my mission was to destroy all humanity. If the Green willed me to kill Harley, would I do it? Would I kill the person I loved in service of my devotion to the Green?
This is when I realized that Harley and I weren't so different. Harley wore his insanity on his sleeve, I was just better at hiding it. In truth, we both hold the same sort of insanity, the same sort of unhinged nature inside. Where Harley's devotion lies with the Joker, my devotion lies with the Green, and that forced us to have to make a strong decision.
If we had to choose between our respective devotions, would we choose it, or would we choose each other?
"This is really starting to piss me off!" Frost said, bursting through the doors, and both Harley and I were cut off from our exchange.
He was wiping away his tears, and I instinctively turned away from him, afraid that even with my heart frozen, I might still cry. This was not what I wanted to talk about, not now, not ever. I needed to focus on something else, we needed to find Feline and we needed to get Harley back to the way he was.
This Harley was too honest for my taste and too deep, and this wasn't something I'd even considered let alone thought about. But sane Harley had, and that...that was too much, too fast.
"What happened?" I ask, clearing out my throat.
"I couldn't find him, that's what?! I've looked everywhere! I mean, you'd think I'd know him enough to know where he might be, I mean shit, we've fucked each other for god's sake and I can't find him anywhere in Gotham?
And these fucking plants keep following me everywhere, trees, leaning towards me, bushes, they just keep fucking bothering me," he says angrily, huffing as my vines approach him.
My eyes start to glow and my hands start to get misty as my anger spikes too.
"You'd do well to mind your tone when you speak about my children, Frost," I threaten, and he just rolls his eyes, and purses his lips.
He might have an attitude, but he knew how seriously I took an insult to the Green.
"Sorry, Ivy. I'm just ready to get my powers back, and not having them is really getting to me. All these emotions and stuff are really starting to annoy me," he says, rubbing his temples.
"Wait, you and Feline?" I ask, sidetracked by what he'd said.
"Aren't we all gonna fuck each other at some point or another?" he asks, neither me or Harley deny his statement, because, in all honesty, he wasn't wrong,
"We were just fucking, nothing serious, we just both get a little pent up sometimes. Since he and The Bat can't get it on and I wasn't currently fucking anyone, we saw it as a win-win situation, but that's beside the point I was trying to make. I fuck this guy and I can't even find him? Anything show up on the police scanner?"
He asks, turning up the volume on my computer, the police banter and noise start flowing in,
"No, not that I've heard, I mean that's not like Feline, he wouldn't just vanish off the face of the Earth. He has to be somewhere? He has to—" I stop, turning to look at Harley, whose face was already looking guilty, it looked like he knew something.
I'd known Harley long enough to know when he was lying or keeping secrets, he's pretty good at hiding it usually, but with his sanity, he's standing out like a sore thumb.
"Harley..." I ask, and immediately he's shaking his head.
"What?" he asks, feigning confusion as if he doesn't know why I'd said his name. Frost looks over at Harley now, catching onto the fact that Harley knows more than he's letting on.
"You know something and you're not telling us, come on Harley, spit it out," I ask again, and Harley looks away from me trying to keep himself from my eyeline,
"You know you can't just let him get hurt Harley, your conscience won't let you."
"I don't have one," he counters, but it's a clear lie.
"You do now. We need to find him, Harley, not just for me, but for Frost too. We have to get him back before he does something," I reason with him.
"I told you, I don't want to go back, I don't want to be like that again, I can finally see clearly and you're telling me to go back to being crazy again. No, Ivy, I can't do that. I just can't," Harley almost begs and I can't help but feel bad.
Before I could try to convince him again, Frost is already out of his seat walking towards us.
"Listen, Harley, frankly I'm not really liking this whole, thoughtful Harley Quinn bullshit. I miss the old you and I want my powers back, so you either tell us what the fuck you know, or I'll make you," Frost threatens and I see his eyes cloud over black.
I watch as my vines leap from the ground and from the open window in my bedroom and start wrapping themselves around Harley's neck, and before I could react, there was a rough and rigid block of bark that shot up my ground floor and threw me against the wall across my bedroom.
I start trying to get up but suddenly the bark starts to surround me, barricading me in the corner.
"Frost! Stop it!" I scream, slamming my fist against the bark,
"He's just scared, Frost! If you would've just waited, we could've talked—"
"I'm done talking, Ivy! The more time we spend talking, the less time we have to get Feline and fix this! If he knows something, he's telling us, right here, right now. I don't know what kind of Harley this is, but if he was anything like the real Harley, he'd be kicking my ass at this point, but he's not.
He's just choking, we need the real Harley back ASAP, not this weak ass, crystal version. I'll get it out of him, one way or another," he threatens, and I can hear Harley choking and that's what sets me off.
He's struggling to breathe, and I feel the rage boil inside me, or more accurately freeze. I feel my eyes glowing and my hands become misty, I slam my bare hands against the bark, freezing it solid and breaking free. I race towards Frost who's holding Harley's face in his hands, as the vines hold tightly onto Harley's neck.
I take in a deep breath, the deepest I could possibly take, and before Frost could do anything I exhaled, the icy wind, that covered the entire room in ice mist that I focused with everything in my power to keep from below freezing.
I didn't know how to work Frost's powers entirely, but I knew that if I wasn't careful, I'd kill every living thing in the room, including my babies, and that I couldn't allow. When the mist cleared, I saw everyone covered in ice, Frost, and Harley included, no one was frozen, but they were shaking from the cold.
I walked over and smacked Frost across the face and sent a cold blast directly against his chest, throwing him across my room and into the kitchen over the sink. He tumbled to the ground, still shaking and I walked over to him and snatched him up by his neck and lifted him up.
"What's the matter Frost, what's that phrase you always say...afraid to get a little cold," I say, kicking him in the stomach and he coughs a little, trying to hunch over, but I pull him up to face me again,
"The only reason you're not dead yet is because I know you're going through. The Green has a tendency to cause passion to be magnified, so all your feelings are magnified as well. So, I'll give you that, but listen really well to me, Frost.
Until we get our powers back, keep your emotions in check, because if you ever try to hurt Harley again, whether it's the connection causing it or not," I pull him closer, feeling the his face beneath my hands start to freeze under my touch, and I bring us nose to nose,
"I. Will. Kill. You."
"Sorry, gotcha, guess I just needed to chill out," he says, trying his best to force out a laugh, but it was so cold under my touch that it just came out shaky.
It could have been the cold or it could have been the fear, but I could tell that Frost came back to his senses. He'd better be glad I understood the effects of being connected to the Green, otherwise, he wouldn't have been so lucky.
The inscription said that we all had to touch it in order to switch our powers back, it didn't say anything about all parties having to be alive for it to work.
"Let the room go," I instruct, and Frost, finally back to himself, rubs his hands together quickly, creating friction no doubt trying to heat himself up, but in the process he releases Harley and the vines all go back to the earth and Harley coughs as he falls to the ground, and Frost quickly goes over to him to help him up.
"Sorry, Harl's, I kind of got a little heated, can you imagine? Me? Heated? We really need to fix this, like yesterday," Frost admits, and I walk over to them and look at Harley.
"This is why we need to know what you know Harley, Frost isn't even acting like himself, and the only thing that crystal did was unfreeze his heart. Can you imagine what Feline could be doing right now? What if he does something that gets him taken away, or killed?
If we can't find him, we're all stuck like this. You know this isn't right Harley, you know we need to fix this. If you know something, please, tell us. If not for us, then do it for Feline. Yes, you've done some bad things, but so have all three of us, but we all could have resisted it if we really wanted to," I coax, trying to get Harley to understand.
"No, I couldn't have Sam, all the things I did, all of it, it was because I wanted to do it. I wanted to hurt people," he responds.
"Yeah, but you still chose it, Harley," Frost adds and Harley looks to Frost as if he'd punched him in the stomach.
"He's right Harley. The Joker may have supplied you the gun, but you were the one who pulled the trigger.
He never forced you to do anything from what you told me. Everything that you did, it was your choice," I say, hating the fact that I had to be so direct, but I had to be honest with Harley. If we were going to get anywhere, we needed to be honest.
"But this wasn't Feline's choice," Frost says, finishing my thought and Harley looks at me, I see that even though he's hurt, even though he doesn't want to admit it.
He knows we're not lying, and I can see that he understands. He turns away from us, and takes a deep breath before he speaks,
"When I was insane, I lived and breathed only to serve the Joker, he was everything to me, my sole reason for living—" he starts.
"Harley we know this already," Frost cuts him off.
"Yes, but you don't know that he was what jumpstarted my insanity. My obsession with him was what caused me to kill my father, that lady and her unborn son, and all those people at the—" he couldn't finish his sentence, the guilt was getting to him, but he forced out a shaky breath and forced himself to continue as he turned back to face us,
"All of it came from my devotion to him, my love for him. So, if my version of insanity was connected to my love for the Joker, then whoever Feline loves will be the catalyst for him."
I immediately turn to Frost, who just cocks his head when he looks at me,
"We fuck, wouldn't exactly call that love."
"Then who?"
Just then we hear a transmission from the police scanner on my laptop that cuts in, the volume still on high from when Frost was toying with it,
"We have a hostage situation at the Gotham City Mall. The assailant has five kids, strapped to chairs hanging over the balcony, threatening to push them off, if we don't get The Bat here in the next twenty minutes,"
The transmission cut outand in again, and we heard the police chatter, but we all looked to each other,and without saying a word, we all knew that this assailant asking for The Bat could only be one person.
We teased him about it every chance we got, The Bat always took it easiest on him when they fought, and they've been at this catand mouse game for years.
Feline may steal things and fight every now andagain, but as far as the list of hardcore criminals go, he may have been afierce contender, but compared to the three of us, he was a boy scout.
So itmakes sense that The Bat would fall for him too. He's the bad boy that could change, the one villain who hadn't taken that final step down the murdering sociopathic rabbit hole that we all went down.
He was still redeemable, but with Harley's insanity inside him, that might not last much longer. Feline was in trouble, and we needed to get to him before The Bat does.