Actions

Work Header

Rating:
Archive Warning:
Category:
Fandoms:
Relationship:
Characters:
Additional Tags:
Language:
English
Collections:
WLC 2024 Multimedia Summer Exchange
Stats:
Published:
2024-08-07
Words:
496
Chapters:
1/1
Comments:
8
Kudos:
133
Bookmarks:
20
Hits:
1,026

catharsis

Summary:

“He’s dead.” The words fall flatly from his tongue. He tries to process what he’s feeling, tries to find that relief, that vindication, that he had hoped would come with this moment, but instead he just feels empty.

Notes:

This is set in the direct aftermath of Suicide Squad: Get Joker, which is amazing and I highly recommend it, especially if you love Harley Quinn and Jason Todd.

Basically, the premise of the comic is that Jason is put on the Suicide Squad and their mission is to kill the Joker.

Work Text:

“He’s dead.” The words fall flatly from his tongue. He tries to process what he’s feeling, tries to find that relief, that vindication, that he had hoped would come with this moment, but instead he just feels empty. 

He’s tossed the gun already, shoved Joker’s corpse into the already red-tinted waves. He hopes no one will ever find him. To be forgotten, his body eaten by carrion eaters at the bottom, it’s what he deserves. 

“Thank fuck. No risk of him blowing our brains out then.” Pebbles spits on the ground, but Jason’s not looking at him. 

He’s looking at her. 

She’s the only one who matters right now, the only one here who truly understands what it’s like to have that clown inside your head, to have him shatter your entire being, your sense of self. There’s a sense of camaraderie he feels right now, a kinship that runs deeper than that. 

Harley blinks. She runs her tongue over her lips. Her mascara is streaked. She’s been crying. Of course. She loved him once, as crazy as that sounds. 

Jason doesn’t understand it, but he can’t judge her for it. 

But she looks at him and her eyes are burning and she says, “Good.” 

That settles it. 

Fuck whatever Bruce has to say. He did the right thing.

The Joker will never traumatize another woman, never murder another teenager. He’ll never hurt anyone again.

“I’m sorry,” she says. Later. When they’ve moved on.

He looks at her, surprised. 

“For making you do it alone.” She hugs her knees and stares out at the waves. “You shouldn’t have had to.”

Jason shrugs. He understands why she had to stay away. “You did what you had to do to protect yourself.”

“I’m glad he’s gone,” she says and Jason thinks, you and me both. She looks absolutely miserable. “I miss him.”

That’s something he doesn’t understand, but then again, their situations were entirely different. He swallows thickly. “That sounds rough .”

She snorts, wiping her eyes. “You have no idea.” She smiles, self-deprecating. 

She’s right; he really has no idea. 

In lieu of replying, he seeks out the rest of their team.

He spies Meow Meow a ways down the beach with Banshee, collecting sea shells it looks like. She can’t be older than sixteen, seventeen. Prostitution. That’s what she had been in Belle Reve for. How many years ago was that? It makes his fingers itch with the urge to shoot something, kill something, but killing doesn’t make the hurt go away. It doesn’t fix it.

The Joker is dead, but Jason still died in that warehouse in Ethiopia. The Joker is dead but that won’t give Harley those years of her life back. 

Killing Joker didn’t fix any of those things. 

But it ensures he won’t ever get to do those things ever again. No more lives ripped apart because of the actions of one monster. 

Jason takes a deep breath. “I’m glad he’s gone too.”