Prologue

The sirens cried, the lights flashed bright red. Arkham Asylum was in complete lockdown. Guards were running all over the place, trying to find order in the chaos. Oh, Commissioner Gordon was not going to be happy. Not only were all of the jail cells unlocked, but many of the city's top criminals escaped. Except Joker. Thank God Joker had still been locked away. There was movement outside of his cell.

"Pumpkin?" He cooed, stepping up to the barred window in his cell to peek through. The figure was just a silhouette, but one he'd know anywhere. That hourglass figure, with two pigtails high on either side of the feminine head, he'd bruised, beaten & pulverized that body so many times. "I knew you wouldn't forget about your Mr. J. Hurry up & spring me, before my palm starts to itch."

There was silence for a few tense seconds, before Harley Quinn stepped into the shaft of light out front of Joker's cell door. She looked so pretty, her blonde hair pulled up into those pigtails, her face painted white with deep red lips that curled into a matching, twisted grin like his very own, her bright blue eyes looking at him, right at him, in the dim light under the black mask that concealed absolutely nothing. She just loved that mask.

"I ain't here for you, Mistah J." She answered, stepping forward to wrap her gloved fingers around the bars of his cell.

"..Pumpkin?" Joker said with a nervous laugh. "Come on, now, let's not do this tonight. Spring me & we can deal with this at home."

"We're not dealin' with this at home. I'm not goin' home. I'm goin' somewhere else. Somewhere you won't be able to find me."

"Harley…" Joker said testily as his hand shot out between the bars. Harley fell back just in time for his skeletal fingers to curl in the air right in front of her throat.

"Goodbye, Mistah J..." She sighed as her head canted to the side a bit. She frowned, causing the red painted lips to look twisted, even more so than originally intended upon. She took that final step backwards so that she could turn, symbolic as her back showed to Joker, to escape the maximum security mental facility to the sounds of Jokers screams, howls of laughter & angry yells.

She wouldn't be his pawn anymore, she couldn't do it. Physically, mentally, she was done. She couldn't look back over her shoulder before she launched herself up to grasp onto a sturdy low hanging bar so that she could neatly flip herself up into an air duct.

& that was it. Just like that, she had rid herself of the shackles Joker had tied her in. She was a free woman, to do as she pleased, to not wince in a corner whenever he was in a bad mood. No longer did she have to play his sick games on her heart, or bear the torture he placed on her soul.

She was finally freed.