Just Paint Your Face

"I-I-I'm Mike Engel for Gotham tonight..."

"Come on come on say it. SAY IT."

"W-what does it take for you people to join in? You failed to kill Mr. Reese. It's time to get you off the bench..."

"Bench."

"And into the game..."

"Game!"

"Come nightfall this city is ours..."

"Ours."

"And anyone left here plays by my rules..."

"Rules!"

"If you don't want to be in the game... get out now. But the bridge and tunnel crowd are sure in for a surprise. Ha ha ha ha?"

We both laughed with the pretty-boy newscaster now. Live from Gotham City. Funny how a few weeks ago I hated the news, and now I was the news.

"What did you mean by that, Jack?" I asked as we marched along with the chaos and down to some unknown location. He still hadn't told me what the plan was, only that he wanted to make the city ours and that Daisy would be safe. He'd been nowhere that early morning and into late afternoon, then he'd come back.

Happy had been staring at me angrily. There was something strange about him, like he'd been possessed.

"Why are you letting her go?"

She'd been sleeping. I think she didn't want to face the day.

I sighed weakly, "This isn't the life for her. It may be the life for you. Me. The Joker. Grumpy and Goofy. But she... she has something else to do."

"You're wrong!" He spat, "I'll show you... one day... I'll show you!"

It was so unlike him, that voice he'd used.

The dark voice.

He'd run out of the house before I could stop him.

When The Joker came back, he was fully crazy and ready to go. We loaded up a sleeping Daisy in the car and drove off. She slept through the entire ride, still refusing to face the sun sitting high upon its perch over civilization, slipping into evening as we left her with a few things and instructed Goofy and Grumpy where to take her.

We'd walked to the News Station right before their Live broadcast on the Harvey Dent tragedy was to start, shooting up the place and taking over.

"You guys want an investigative report? Well here we are!" I remember shouting, cackling, taking over the camera as The Joker roughed him up and drew a smile on his face, black circles around his eyes, muttering some story about his scars.

"I had this boss, yeah...? He was a little bit... crazy... And one night I was working late because I didn't do my job right..."

He'd shoved a crumpled piece of paper into the frightened man's hands and we were on.

And now...

"Tell me Jack. What's the surprise?"

"It's nothing, Ivy. Just... a uh, social experiment."

I twitched. I knew why he was playing stupid. The ivy running through my hair shook angrily.

"Oh?" I said, smiling sweetly, circling him. His eyes shifted, following my movements calculatively, "You're planning on experimenting again? With the people ferrying out the city?"

He stared.

"Do you know who's going to be ferrying out?"

Nothing. I growled. Stupid, stupid, stupid boy.

"Children." I spat, raising my hand to strike his painted face. He caught me mid-swat and suddenly held my neck in his grip, holding back the ivy in my forearm with the other.

"I'm trying to make a point here, Ivy."

"You said you don't touch the kids..."

"I'm not. I'm giving them the choice. Killing is making a choice."

"Oh, you make me sick." I pulled away and he blinked, "I can't kill you, you can't kill me. But I'll do something to ruin your fun. You want this city? Well, that's just fine. But you can't have any fun with a toy that's already been played with, huh?"

This time, I disappeared.

Daisy

There are three things in this world you simply cannot fight.

The first is death.

The second, time.

And the third. Love.

I woke up knowing I could not fight time, knowing I was alone with Goofy and Grumpy in the van. I somehow knew that Happy would be gone before they could get him out with me. He wanted to be a criminal. Maybe I did too, but I realized they wouldn't let me tag along. They were making the ultimate sacrifice, so I could live a normal life. I knew I could not fight my silent tears of love for them as I clutched the old torn bit of The Joker's shirt in my feeble hands, glancing out of the window to see where my new home was supposed to be.

I recognized it. But I remained in denial until my eyes traveled over the windows of the darkened place, up to the roof.

A swirl of a black cape. Barely detectable to the unseeing, inattentive passerby. But unmistakable to me.

That was the final straw.

The way he'd grabbed my shoulders in the interrogation room. The way he'd hit The Joker mercilessly, pounding him into the wall. The fact that he didn't get my Ivy's best friend out in time. The gunshot pounding in her emotional state, reverberating through my ears. The Joker screaming. Screaming...

But mostly it was his jaw. The way it was hard and set, just like my old rotten dirty son-of-a-bitch dad before he struck me...

I trembled. A terrible feeling rose in my throat as Goofy and Grumpy dozed off in the front seat. It burned like a fire, licking at the inside of my throat.

"no..." It was a whisper, a croak, but it was there.

"Hm? huh? Wha...?" Goofy jolted, stretching.

"No.. no... no... NO NO NO NO NO NO!"

I screamed, opening the car door and hopping out before they could catch me, rushing into the night, heading towards downtown, following the screams that rivaled my own.

Ivy

The earth cracked and I laughed, flipping cars and all who dared cross my path. I let the mothers and children pass with no fuss, even dragged a few out of harm's way.

Harvey was out having his vendetta.

While I was making mine.

Everything in those moments was filled with a primal, beating drum of black and hate and rage.

This was the full brunt of madness. I glanced up at the unfinished skyscraper he'd run off to.

"I hate this town." I said to no one, "Not enough green."

Absentmindedly, flowers bloomed up in the cracked street as I walked, creating carnage and smoking wrecks.

The SWAT Team pulled up to the skyscraper and I stopped, turning. I must've looked incredibly intimidating, surrounded by flames and twisted skeletons of metal, my vines whipping about me like I was some demented goddess.

"Hello boys! Here to pick up the clown?"

They raised their guns at me.

"Ah, now that's not very nice..." I grabbed one up, dangling him in front of my face.

"No one has to get hurt, silly boy," I smiled charmingly, "Unless I want them to."

I flung him carelessly into the water behind us.

"Don't you boys have something better to do?" I raised an eyebrow, resting my hands on my hips in challenge, allowing the vines surrounding me to strike fear in their eyes.

They hurried into the building and I laughed wildly, turning to face the water. Two ferries stood in silence aside one another, each one contemplating the choice: life or death. Innocent or evil.

You either die a hero...

I couldn't let this happen. I couldn't stand there and let children cry and scream and cling to their mothers while I stood on dry land.

Or you live long enough to become the villain.

I was something different. I was crazy, motherly. A best friend, a worst enemy. Hateful, loving. A cynic, a hypocrite. A bitch, a martyr. A human, an experiment.

I was really Ivy. I was Ivy real.

Killing is making a choice.

Then let him choose this time.

"Take me to the ferry, girls!" I laughed and my vines stretched over the black water.

The Joker

"Ah, you made it! I'm so thrilled! Go get him boys!"

He'd overpowered the dogs quickly, that was to be expected. I didn't care. I'd been watching her, watching the clock. Watching the boats. She looked like a freakish green spider. I laughed, seeing her wreck up the city and crack up the glistening pavement as if the earth itself was laughing with me now, cracking its shell to reveal something dark, horrid. Just like what happened five years ago.

11:55.

They had five minutes. I was about to turn back over to the delightful scenery below, until I heard the swoosh of a cape.

I took up a crowbar, laughing maniacally.

"Diogenes once said to Alexander the Great as he passed through the streets..." I howled as the batty lunged.

"Please move, you're blocking my sun!"

We struggled, he punched blindly. And I laughed hysterically.

"And you know what Alexander the Great said?"

"If I weren't Alexander..."

The familiar feel of fist against face. I giggled, the pain filling me with the artificial temporary high.

"I'd be Diogenes!" I screamed, pinning him close to the ledge, restraining him with the crowbar in my hands. He grunted, nearly pushing me off. But I pushed back, until our heads could touch the ledge of the unfinished skeleton of the building.

"We should really stop fighting. We'll miss the fireworks!" I smiled, "And here. we.... go!"

Silence.

"There are no fireworks." He snarled back at me and I felt my face twitch. I turned.

12:10.

Something in my brain flamed. I frowned.

"What are you trying to prove? That deep down, everyone's as ugly as you? Look up, Joker."

I snarled.

"Look up!"

"People these days... you gotta do everything yourself. Don't we? That's okay... I came prepared." I revealed the little detonator, the one that would blow up both ships. I was proud of this one. I'd made it so that even if it shattered it would end the night in a bang. There was only one way to deactivate it, and only two people in the world knew how. I held my thumb over the shiny button, holding down batty as he struggled.

"Look up, Joker!"

"Geez, you and your whiny little..."

I looked up. There was a large crowd gathering outside the bay, pointing off to the two boats.

"No... NO!"

I got up, shaking my head, twitching. The Batman did not try and stop me as I stepped to the very edge. He watched in fascination.

I was lost in myself then, staring at her atop the boat. Thoughts came flooding, feelings. Pasts, dreams, presents, futures. Chaos, clocks, switchblades. Blood. Hair like blood and eyes like leaves. Lips that tasted like exotic fruit. The way blood looked against her skin, the way I couldn't stomach it, the way I couldn't handle it.

I screamed. I screamed so loud the people down below murmured and yelped and I could hear her in the distance, cackling.

Ivy

It was once said that the only thing that will redeem mankind is teamwork.

But I think.

The only thing that will redeem mankind is love.

Joker

You know, I'm not a hand-eye coordination kind of guy. I trip. I fall. I can't dance to save my life. I knock things over.

Fuck, I'm allergic to cats.

In my madness up on the skyscraper, I dropped the stupid thing.

I fucking dropped it.

If it reached the ground, she was dead. A bucket of guts and aloe swimming in the ocean.

And it was my fault.

I twitched.

I planted the seed.

I watched her bloom.

And for that, I would fall.

I walked right off the ledge, laughing.

The rush of wind through my ears as I eyed the detonator, reaching for it. I flipped like a freakish acrobat, turning and doing somersaults through the cold city windy, smelling fire, blood, and flowers. I grasped at the remote with my hands. If I could just catch it, I could cushion its fall...

I heard a zzzziiiippp noise and I halted, midair.

"Just one more.... no! One more chance!"

I was dragged up slowly, reaching for the thing that meant life or death for the only woman I'd ever held a blip of a feeling for, a speck of emotion, in my whole meaningless, chaotic life.

And it was too faraway now.

Daisy

"Move! ...Out of my way!" I pushed violently through the crowd as I ran downtown, falling all over the place. My knees were bloody and my hands raw. My hair surrounded my face in a frightening shock. I caught a few words as the few brave enough to stand out in the street shouted.

"BATMAN PUSHED HIM OVER. HE BEAT HIM! YEAH!"

"SONOFABITCH"

"COP KILLER!"

"WOMAN HATER!"

"KID SNATCHER!"

I made my way out, shutting my ears. I stood off to the side where everyone wasn't looking around, dazed, confused, looking for the one I called mother and father.

I said words. I just said words. They came flooding out of my mouth in a torrent rush, making up for lost time.

"Chaos! Clocks! Watermelons! Dogs! Can you hear me now? Good! CALL 1800GEICO. CALL 1800GEICO. Somebody get the fucking phone to Mr. Williams. The lady's are in the parlor having tea! I would like to wear a red dress, for I think it's Christmas!"

I looked down. I was standing in a patch of daises.

I looked up. Something was falling. A flash of purple. But something closer...

"What's that? Is that a METAL THINGY?"

"Little girl, watch out!" Men in black suits holding guns shouted.

It landed on my head with a CONK sound, falling into my outstretched hand.

I whirled dizzily.

"The height from where it came from is enough to kill her..."

"Somebody get a hospital!"

"Hospital's blown up, stupid prick!"

I smiled at the shapes before me, "Why so serious. Wanna know how I got these scars? Kill the Batman! All part of the plan. Just paint your face!"

My vision was blurry. I'd wrapped the old torn bit of shirt around my head like a ridiculous scarf, perhaps that's what saved me in the end. The few people watching me looked at my hands, frozen, as I fumbled with the thing.

I blinked. Clarity. Fire, ruined shells of cars, corpses of men. A SWAT team, staring at me like I was God.

I looked down.

"Ah! Metal thingy!"

"Little girl... just .... we need to destroy it.... okay? Hand it over..."

"No." I spat.

They flinched.

"Hey.. hey. Anybody got a screwdriver?"

"What... ?"

I smiled again.

"I know how to shut it off. He told me." I pointed to the sky.

"Who?"

"Diogenes."

The Joker

"Look at you." I groaned as he pulled me up with his little zipline. I saw Ivy get off the boat, so my sanity, or whatever that emotion had been, was fading quickly, just like all the other moods I experienced,

"You truly are... incorruptible. Aren't you? You know what.... this is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. You won't kill me out of some... misplaced sense of self-righteousness. And I, I won't kill you because... you're just too much fun! I think... I think we're destined to do this forever."

"You'll be in a padded cell forever!" He screamed. His voice sounded like he was gargling milk. I laughed.

"Maybe we can all share one! You, me, Ivy? Have ourselves a sitcom, a comic book. It'll run for years, and people can make it into movies!"

He looked at me strangely and I laughed again loudly.

"We'd probably have to share. Arkham'll be doubling up, with the rate this city is losing it's mind."

"You just proved that this city is filled with those ready to believe in good. Even you. The media can say what it wants."

"Oh, and who will the people down there believe?" I laughed madly.

So what? I'd shown an emotion. Big flippidy-do-dah. Soon things would be back to the way they once were, I knew. The world thought I was stupid, a two-bit wack job who dropped from the sky. But really, I had a sense for things only two other people would ever understand.

"That'll all change, as soon as they take a look at good ol' Harvey Dent. White Knight. HA!"

"What did you do?"

I swung. The blood in my head pooled, making my voice more nasally.

"I just... took Gotham's white knight and brought him down to our level. Wasn't hard. Madness, as you know, is just like gravity. All it takes is a little... push! Oooh haha!"

I felt dizzy and sick and it only made me laugh more. I laughed in the faces of the men in black with their guns, grabbing me up to throw me in the loony bin.

Ivy

"Daisy?"

"Mom!"

I rushed forward before the other men could hold me back. I took her up in a tight embrace, my ivy slowly retreating back to its original position, my hair lank and eyes tired.

"You can talk... you can talk... oh, you can talk."

"Why him, Mom? I don't want him. After everything that's happened..."

"Shhh. It wasn't my decision. You have to trust us. This is your chance."

"He won't take me! He knows I'm yours!" She shook her head, whimpering. I hugged her close, fighting back tears.

"He will... he will. For me. For Rachel."

"Let go of the girl, lady."

The men nudged me with their guns. I looked up. I'd seen him fall, but I didn't know why. Whether it was because of the Bat or something he was struggling with in himself, I don't think I'll ever know.

"Daisy, it's time for me to go."

"No... no!" She sobbed bitterly and I touched her hair.

What had Rachel said to me a thousand times in my old life?

"Trust me. Trust this."

She looked at me, looked straight into my eyes, nodding.

"Go back now," I glanced at a truck pulling up with white covering its inner walls, "Say goodbye to Goofy and Grumpy for us. And wait. Don't make a sound."

She finally smiled, "I can do that."

She rushed into the crowd as the men apprehended me.

"Ivvvvy... Wanna... wanna hear a joke?"

They'd wrapped us up in some jackets. I shifted uncomfortably, while he seemed to fit into it like a glove.

"Ivy, come on. It's a funny one, I swear."

They shut the doors of the truck. I sighed.

"What?"

"...Okay. Okay. Here goes... what did the, uh, clown say to the houseplant?"

I groaned, "What? What did he say?"

"I love you."

He laughed madly and I giggled lightly.

"Heard it before."

Silence, other than the strange babbling noises he made.

"This is the end..." I said softly.

"Oh ho ho ho. Hee hee hee. I've got something. Still got a card to deal."

I frowned. He seemed to sense my confusion as we sat back to back, jostled by the wheels of the truck.

"What's that?" I asked.

"You."

Daisy

Funny thing, fate. You don't see it while it's coming at you, no matter how many stops it pulls or flags it waves. It turns clowns into men and women into plants, it makes young girls into women and young boys into psychopaths. It makes the blind see, the deaf hear, the insane harmless. And the dumb speak.

You don't see it while it's coming at you, no matter how many stops it pulls or flags it waves. But there's a moment where it all comes together, where everything fits. Like a puzzle.

Like a riddle.