They entered the huge building that housed numerous cisterns, each of which contained powerful highly corrosive chemicals. He was not surprised, then, to see everywhere signs indicating 'danger of death'.

Levi followed him silently, climbing the flight of stairs which led to the top.

He would have done anything to be accepted by him. To be understood. To be loved.

At the highest point, the Joker turned to the raven.

The criminal's face, disfigured by acid but retaining its magnificent features, had an innatural complexion. His hair, once brown, had lost their original pigment and had become green, highlighting his beautiful jade eyes. Intriguing. Dangerous. His lips, bent in a wicked smile, were stained of red like the blood of the hundred of victims of his insanity.

«And so» he said, amused «you love me.»

«Yes, I do» the raven answered, tensed.

It was the moment of truth.

«Tell me» he continued, walking around him like a predator playing with his own prey «what would you be willing to give up, for me...?»

«Everything.»

Not a shadow of hesitation crossed his eyes or shook his voice.

«Your family...? Your carreer...?»

«Anything.»

«Would you give your life away, for me?»

The criminal approached him, caressing his face with his fingertips without loosing his smile. Was it all just a game, for him?

«Yes, I would.»

The Joker laughed rudely, coming back deadly serious an instant later.

«Watch your mouth, Doctor: desire becomes surrender, surrender becomes power...!» he whispered an inch away from his lips, so that Levi clearly perceived his breath melting with his own. «Do you want to give me power?»

Levi returned his gaze: he wanted that man with all his soul, but if he had complied any of his requests, he would have died without having anything in exchange. Without a shred of the love that he so longed for.

«No. I want power.»

The other man seemed genuinely surprised.

«Oh. On what?» he asked, with evident interest.

Levi was entertaining him and this was a point in his favor. He had to intrigue him, lead him at the same point where the Joker, day after day, had led him.

«Not what. Who.»

The man clapped his hands with emphasis, delighted, looking at him with admiration.

«Do you want power on me?»

«Yes. I want to be the one without whom you have no fun. The only person who lives all of your emotions, 100% amplified. The being for you to feed on when reality is too obvious to bear. I want to shape your ego so that I will be the undisputed center of your every thought, rational or not. I want to be for you exactly what you are for me.»

The other stared at him, spreading the smudged lipstick on his cheek with his thumb.

«If I asked you to die...?»

The raven looked briefly at his back. A twenty-meter void waited for him without any fence to protect him while a cistern seethed, waiting only to swallow his body.

«If I cannot get what I want, I might as well end it here. I would have no purpose to live anymore.»

«What if I asked you to live, for me...?»

With his red-stained fingers he dyed Levi's lips, rubbing them with possession, a perverse light litting up his eyes. The same that shone in Levi's celestial ones.

Madness.

Insanity.

Simple and pure loss of reason.

The Doctor opened his arms wide, letting himself fall, and as he fell he striped of his old self. Of everything that was not exclusively love for the Joker, the only fulcrum of his heart and his mind. He gave his soul away, aware that he had just embraced death. He was ready for oblivion.

The chemical broth welcomed him, impatient to macerate his flesh.

The criminal had observed the scene, impassive. He could have left, in fact, he should have. Yet something held him back.

Those icy eyes were the screen of his ones.

He growled, frustrated: his creation was about to dissolve, and that idea made him act even before formulating any thought.

He threw himself to follow him, with the feeling of going back in time and live again the moment when his transformation began.

His body crossed the dense liquid, moving in search of his creature. He emerged with it in his arms, admiring its perfection.

The skin, already pale, had taken on a whitish color while the acid gave it the appearance of the wax. His hair, pitch-black, had become silver threads that framed his small and wonderful face. His rosy lips, on the other hand, were deadly pale. It needed some color.

He kissed him, giving air to his lungs that immediately swelled.

The creature uttered a gasp widening his eyes, from which gushed colored tears that painted his face like makeup. Red and blue, the color of the clothes they wore just before they melted in the acid bath.

The Joker pointed his emerald irises in the cold ones of the other, and there it was: the spark he had seen, that he longed to possess.

Mad Love.

The creature looked at him with devotion, smiling immediately afterwards and kissing him passionately. He would have lived for him, to please him and venerate him, while the man he loved would have held him by his side, protecting the fruit of his own delirium.

He did it. Now the Joker was now his.

The criminal laughed, and with him his new partner.

There, where Eren Yeager had died and the Joker had come to life.

There, where Levi Ackerman had vanished and was reborn as Harley Quinn.