“I gotta call Pammy.”

 

Harley exits the church and pulls her phone out from her pocket. She then grins mischievously when she realizes she still has Revenant hidden inside Dante’s secondary jacket.

 

“Yes! This is one hell of a gun! I can’t wait to tell Pam how I got it.” She tries to turn on her phone but it’s dead. “Damn. Gonna have to find a way to charge this thing. Might need to jack an ATM for some cash to buy a charger, among other things. Poo. But hey, at least I’m back in Gotham. Thanks, freaky nightmare-angel!”

 

A beat-up Volvo pulls up and parks in a hurry. 

 

“EEEP!” She closes her new coat, pretty sure she gave the driver a free peepshow.

 

Jason, in his civilian clothes, hops out and sprints to her.

 

“Harley!”

 

“Killer-Red!” Harley exclaims, giving him a hug. “Awe, Killer-Red, it’s real great to see ya! Just how I remember ya! How’d ya know I was here, sweetie?”

 

“I was about to um, not snipe a drug lord, when I saw you on the security cameras on my phone. How did you-“

 

“It’s cold outside!”

 

“Is this Dante’s other jacket? And what, your boots? Is that it? Is that all your wearing?”

 

“Awe, phooey, ya saw my knockers, didn’tcha, and my bajingo!”

 

“Only for a split second, I swear.”

 

"I took a bath in your nice bathroom. Ho my gawd, what day is it, Jason?”

 

“It’s November third.”

 

“November third. That makes sense. Sort of. Say, honey, can you give me a ride to an ATM? I need to um, not rob it.”

 

“You need money? How much?”

 

“I dunno, whatcha got?”

 

“I’ve got two hundred on me and yeah, I can give you a ride somewhere.”

 

“Oh goodie! Can we get some Thai food? It’s my favorite.”

 

“Sure, there’s a food truck down the block…”

 

The ride is short, maybe two minutes. When they arrive, Harley bounds to the Thai truck, orders and lets him willingly pay. She then breathes in the aroma of the grill and smiles blissfully, needing a few minutes to take it all in. 

 

He lets her, sitting at a picnic table and watching her, envious of her joy. When the food’s ready, she joins him and pigs out. Her happiness is delightful and he doesn’t want to interrupt it with his heavyheartedness. So he keeps his eyes on the other customers ordering their food and living their lives, wishing he could find some peace. 

 

Midway through her chow-down, she asks him…

 

“You’re not hungry too?”

 

“I don’t eat before a hunt anymore.”

 

“Oooo, a hunt?” She whispers, “Whose gonna get it?”

 

“There’s a demon near the Gotham City Art Museum, I’m gonna track it down and kill it tonight.”

 

“By yourself, Killer-Red?”

 

“No, you can’t come.”

 

“Ya sure? You always helped me, I wanna help you.”

 

“I know, Harley, but I can’t let you do that. You’re exhausted.”

 

“You’re sure you can take this thing out alone?”

 

“No.”

 

“Then why do it? Jason, don’t!”

 

“I have to, it’s too close to a special painting inside the museum. I want it for the church.”

 

“You’re willing to die over a piece of art?”

 

“It’s of Dante.”

 

“I know. I know all about it. I read your diary by your bedside in the church. For a first entry, it was very intense. Dated November third. The ink was barely dry!”

 

“You know you’re the only person that can get away with that.”

 

“Well duh! But hey, it’s already happened. Besides, I know you’re full of passion, Killer-Red. Ya ain’t got nothing to hide from me. I saw it first hand, I get it, I getchu!”

 

“Reading people’s journals is a big no-no in the psychiatric world, Harley Quinn.”

 

“Hey no worries, patient confidentiality is something I take very seriously. Look, I’m not gonna be too happy if you die tonight. Who else can I talk to about Hell? And Deathstroke? What happened to him?”

 

“I shot him after he tried to mutilate Dante’s body.”

 

“Good on you. And Dante?”

 

“I got led on that he was gonna recover in Jump City, then I never saw him again. Supposedly, he was taken somewhere safe but, the Titans told me that a rift fucked the whole thing up.”

 

“I know how that goes. A rift is how I got back here but it’s not like I had any control over it. I got lucky. Your church is a mirror, but you already knew that.”

 

“Worked that one out a while back, yeah. Always wanted to fix the place up.”

 

“It’s therapeutic for ya, I can tell. You took this whole thing really hard. You two really were the best of friends.”

 

“Is it weird that I sometimes miss being in Hell?”

 

“Not at all. It’s where you guys met. It’s a special place. Anybody who can make light of living in actual Hell has got a real will to survive.”

 

“I miss Dante.”

 

“Yeah. It’s almost worse that we don’t know if he’s dead or alive anymore. It sure feels like he’s dead. I admire you for facing your pain and making something out of it in this life. That rat’s nest of a church looks so much nicer now. You didn’t have to do any of that.”

 

“Yes, I do have to do all of it.”

 

“Mad respect to you, Jason Todd.”

 

“Thanks.”

 

"Oof, I inhaled that Pad Thai. Thanks for feeding me, giving me some cash, and letting me use your charger.”

 

“You’re welcome. Anytime, my friend.”

 

“Ivy’s sent me an address where you can drop me off.”

 

“Then lets go, Harley Quinn. If I don’t see you again, it’s cause I ate shit tonight.”

 

“Yeah right. You’re a fighter, a survivor. We’ll see each other again, Killer-Red.”

 

A few hours later.

 

In the museum…

 

“Wretched ape! You follow me into this place for what reason?”

 

“Museum’s closed, bitch!”

 

“Red Hood, even the way you speak is primitive. Did you not break and enter as well? Why are you here? Show yourself.”

 

“I’m here to get rid of you, Watcher.”

 

“Show yourself and do it then! Or should I rip apart this painting over here, the one with the moving angel. This is a rift that should be closed.”

 

Gunfire from Ebony and Ivory hits a shadowy demon as it floats near the Painting of an Angel.

 

“Wouldn’t touch that if I were you, demon!”

 

“No, that’s your job, isn’t it, you monster.”

 

“I’m the monster? Really?”

 

More gunfire, it detours the massive Watcher away from the painting and into an open, circular space. An amorphous darkness with red eyes and morphing claws, the demon settles like smoke from a hellish pit, in the middle of the matte-finished floor.

 

“Does this circle remind you of somewhere, Jason Todd? Perhaps where your D-Rank Devil Hunter plunged to his doom?”

 

“You know I’ve got unlimited ammo, right? We can keep talking all night but you’re not leaving this place alive.”

 

“Why do you carry on when every part of you was reduced to a flock of pests? That’s what you are! A pest! A pest fixated on a corpse that reeks of chlorine, rainwater, and rotten blood.”

 

“Okay, getting more creative, that’s good.”

 

“GRAH! I want to hear you cry! Where is the broken Robin that’s been weeping for months? Your hero is dead, Little Robin. Stop waiting for him to come back. Stop protecting the rift.”

 

“Oh I get it. You’ve been terrorizing this neighborhood over a painting. Does artwork really offend you that much?”

 

“Many nights I’ve slipped into this place undetected. I move around freely by faltering the alarms with my demonic darkness.“

 

“And we’re all very impressed!”

 

“Waiting for the Nephilim to move about. When he didn’t, I took my mission to the streets and fed upon the humans and their animals. Then you showed up and now he’s finally moving around.”

 

“That painting’s coming home with me.”

 

“You have a death wish. You came here to die protecting his homage, did you not? Typical human, led by his feelings.”

 

“I’m gonna kill you, like I did to all the other Watchers.”

 

“I am a superior Watcher. My insides are the brain of the hivemind! If you dare remove that rift from this museum, I’ll find your little church and destroy it. Your sacred death rituals will soon come to an end!”

 

“Okay, ya got me. I’m trying to reunite Dante with Killer-Red. Even if this painting is only way I can do that, no one is going to stop me. Not you, not Vergil, not the police, not a priest, not even Bats, nothing is going to stop me.”

 

“Your determination to preserve that which is tied to Limbo still has a place in Hell, Red Hood. Why not join the Demon King’s regime? You could replace Deathstroke as his personal mercenary. Vergil’s features are identical to Dante’s, you could worship him for it.”

 

“Worship the guy who killed my angel? That’s so ridiculous it’s funny!”

 

The demon goes for the painting again, ignoring the gunfire that follows. Worried, Red Hood comes out of the woodwork and fires at closer range. Fully covered to the brim with a helmet, a hoodie, a leather jacket, and a uniform that’s both tactical and thick, he’s well-shielded but is it enough to take a blow from a shapeless demon? 

 

“Is it worth diving in front of the painting? Am I ever gonna see Dante again? If not, this might be all I have left of him. Yeah, it’s worth it!”

 

He blocks the painting and keeps firing. This gives the demon the opportunity to wrap itself around him like sludge and throw him into a glass display of ancient pottery.

 

“Stupid, stupid Red Hood! Sacrificing everything all for you!” The demon wraps it’s morphing claws around the frame of the painting. Red Hood can see the angel reaching forward, trying to push the monster away.

 

“I gotchu, my friend!” he cries, shooting the demon’s jagged finger-like appendages and forcing it to let go. “Get your claws away from him!”

 

“How about I dig them into you instead?!”

 

Red Hood rolls out of the way, avoiding the devil’s lunge! 

 

“Doh! No Watcher can touch Killer-Red, right? That was close!”

 

He springs up and topples another pottery showcase onto the demon, buying himself time to retreat up the stairs to the second floor.

 

“You’re obsessed with the dead Nephilim! Come back to Hell and get on your knees before the superior twin that survived.” 

 

The demon chases him upstairs but loses him somehow.

 

Growl, “Where are you hiding, Red Hood? I know what will bring you back out. We’ll play cat and mouse until you and the rift are no more!” 

 

The demon hovers back down the stairs and goes for the painting again. Red Hood pushes a man-sized sculpture of a wasp’s nest in the shape of an anatomically accurate heart, right over the rail. It crushes and temporarily defuses the monster.

 

“Really sorry to whoever made that sculpture.” 

 

To his alarm, the painted angel begins holding his neck as though he’s choking. He watches him go limp and fall forward, right out of the frame! 

 

His wings rip! They’re left behind, like stagnant limbs, severed and protruding from the canvas. Red paint cascading behind him, he lands hard and rolls onto his back, appearing quite tangible, yet unmoving on the floor. 

 

Red Hood rushes back down the stairs to him, holstering Ebony and Ivory on his way.

 

“Hang on, I’m coming!”

 

“I’ll gag him and claw inside his nostrils!” the demon threatens, extending a newly grown, skeletal arm. But Red Hood is faster and beats the demon to it’s victim. Using his whole body to shield the angel, he kicks the monster’s wrist and snaps off it’s hand. It shrieks and pulls back.

 

“GRAH! Damn you, Killer-Red!”

 

Red Hood holds the angel's shoulders, watching him turn his head side to side as he tries to open his eyes. Supportively, he lies beside him, then wipes the paint away from his face. He speaks to him soothingly.

 

“I gotcha. That nightmare won’t touch you again. Can you hear me?”

 

The angel starts to come to…

 

Groan, “Red Hood?”

 

“That’s me. It’s gonna be okay.”

 

“Red Hood, th-there’s a Watcher.”

 

“I know, I’m gonna kill it.”

 

An echoing hiss!

 

“Red HOOOOOOD! Come back to Hell, Red HOOOOOD!” 

 

Enraged, the demon grabs him by the legs and pulls him away, nearly pulling the two of them. Red Hood lets go, the force turning the angel onto his stomach.

 

“Shit, Jason!”

 

“Don’t you dare try and save me! I’ll eat shit, not you!”

 

The now, unreasonably long-armed devil hauls him into a void of icy darkness. As Red Hood slides on the smooth hardwood, he maneuvers and tosses a grenade into the demon’s mouth.

 

“I said fuck OFF, devil!”

 

BOOM!

 

An explosion, and he was too close. He rams into a pile of rubble and moans in pain. The space has caught fire and he’s not sure if he can move. All he knows is that he’s lying sort of sitting up and everything is getting very green.

 

“Uggghhh, I think it’s dead.” 

 

From the painting, all the green spirits come flying! Towards the exit, they go, waiting by the door to be followed.

 

“Dante?”

 

“I’m here!”

 

“I wanna go back to the church. Can you take me there? I wanna go inside.”

 

“We’re in Gotham. The church is in Hell. Where’s the hospital?”

 

“The church is here. I found the mirror. Follow Killer-Red. I can feel him, he’s here too. He’s green.”

 

“Got it! I’m gonna lift you up and walk you out the door. Sorry if it hurts.”

 

Groan, “I knew it was you in that painting.”

 

“Is that what happened? One minute I’m in Heaven with my dad, then I’m napping at Wayne Manor, then I’m watching you get pulled to Hell. I bet Alfred’s confused, cause I know I am.”

 

“Is it raining?”

 

“No, you tripped the sprinklers. We’re almost outside.”

 

“Aweeesooome.” 

 

“Okay, we’re out of there. Can you see? The robins flew to a car, is it yours?”

 

“My helmets cracked.”

 

“Do you need me to remove your helmet?”

 

“No, leave it. Is the car a shabby Volvo?”

 

“I think so.”

 

“It’s mine. My keys are in my pants pocket. Can you drive?”

 

“It’s been a hot minute but I know how. Found your keys.”

 

They make it to the car he bought used, it’s inconspicuous, and easy to climb into the back and lie along the shabby seats. 

 

“Remember when you chased the Batmobile tires?”

 

“Course I do. Rest.” 

 

“When the robins took you through Riddler’s maze?”

 

“I remember. Try not to talk too much.” 

 

“Follow them to the church. Uuuugghhhh…” 

 

Blackout.