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"Not until we play a game. Come on, don't pretend you're not in the gaming spirit. And, if you're not, I can soon get you into it." A 'ding ding ding' sound played and Edward dropped his legs down, leaning forward towards his mic, his voice slowed and reserved, in that cruel drawl he saved for his more cutting moments. "If you ever want to see billionaire boy and Foxy alive and well, you better find that spirit and come on down!"

Doctor Strange had told him to not go after Jim, just Lucius Fox and Bruce Wayne but with his greatest nemesis roaming free? How was he supposed to ignore this? "Here's how level one is going to work. I ask riddles, you answer them. Three correct riddles in a row and you'll advance to the next stage. Three riddles in a row wrong and your life is forfeit. Everything else in between? Let's just say, we'll play that by ear." Two right, one wrong or two wrong and one right. He'd work that all out as they played. "Keep in mind, I do have two hostages."

"How about you come here so we discuss this in person instead?" Jim didn't need to raise his fists to make the threat obvious, his voice did that for him just fine. There was a lot to be said for a good growl. "Leave them alone, Ed. You don't want to do this."

Were Lucius and Bruce in just as much danger as he was? Only one way to find out. "I want to see them." And no, he wasn't agreeing to his insane games that easily. The last thing Edward needed was an enabler. "If this is all about you having some issue with me again, then leave other people out of it. Carl Pinkney didn't have to die. Neither do they."

"What? And engage in some petty meathead fist fight? Oh yeah, sign me up." Men like Jim didn't talk unless they were talking with their fists. And that's what Jim did. He would sooner sock Edward in the face than ever speak half a word to him. "How about we keep doing this my way and you play along like a good little puppet, 'mmkay?"

Apparently not, Jim had to be awkward. He turned his head to the side, casually, eyeing the fallen bodies and then pulling a face. He didn't like to give in. "Nah. Don't think so." He didn't feel like dragging them around. "Do you really want to not take my word for it and not play?" He hissed playfully. "Risky move. I would start with the boy. I think that'd hurt you more, wouldn't it? Plus you and Foxy don't scream bffs to me."

"Lucius is a good man, Ed. He reminds me of a friend I wish I still had." Jim wasn't willing to play the game, but he knew Edward was a talker. He could keep him talking and hopefully keep him from hurting someone in the process. Slowly shaking his head he ran a hand through his hair. "You like to play with people. I didn't even know you were playing with me. I guess that must have made you feel really smart."

What a mess that had been. Mostly he wondered why he didn't hate Ed more than he did. "The strange thing is, you put so much work in and in the end I really just feel sorry for you. You could be a good man too. A great man, even."

"Oh please, you never had a friend like him. Your friends don't have a brain cell between them." Or, should he say, friend. Harvey was the only one he could think of and no, he didn't count himself. The pity and humouring did not count as friendship and he was nothing like Lucius. Other than their dashing good looks and actually have a mind to speak of, that was where it ended. "I am really smart. I don't need to feel it. I outsmarted you before, I'll do it again."

Right now, in fact. If Jim would just play his damn game. He gritted his teeth, tried not to let it get under his skin, trying to breathe calmly. No, he couldn't let Jim steal his moment. He wouldn't let him win. "I can sneak up on you or be right in front of you without you knowing. But when I reveal myself you will never be the same. What am I?"

Edited 2018-01-10 20:54 (UTC)

"I guess then you just felt really dumb when things didn't work out for you." Jim slowly walked around the room, taking another careful look at the walls and finally the door, putting on a casual air while listening to Ed. A riddle, of course. "You know, I've always liked riddles actually. Brain teasers. Broke up a dull day at work, when you didn't time them too badly."

Harvey wasn't a big fan, but Harvey preferred to use his brain simply on his own terms and not when anyone was watching. He really hoped that Harvey was using it right now, they could use some backup. "For you, Ed, the answer might have been friendship. Do you think that it would have changed things, if you hadn't felt alone? Why kill people? That's not a smart thing to do. Why did you start? Tell me. Why kill Doherty?"

"Wrong answer! Seriously, Jimbo, step up your game here. You're playing for lives." He didn't like the questions, it sounded just like talking to Strange. When he deemed him worthy to speak to - pompous asshole. Edward wanted to move forward but the incorrect answer to his riddle was bugging him. He never could just let things alone. "How did you even get friendship from that? Are you seriously trying to play therapist right now?"

Jim wasn't playing right and it was beyond frustrating. He wanted not to be bothered by it but he was bothered by it. Of course he was. "Doherty was an asshole. No one missed him. No one even noticed he was gone. That's how loved he was. I'll give you a second chance on the riddle, come on, step up your game here. Give me an answer. A correct one, this time."

"I don't think you would have killed him just because you were jealous. I'm sure you were, but I don't think it can be that simple. You'd have tried to rationalise that. You'd not have become a murderer just out of jealousy. So what is it? You like questions, why not answer mine?"

And that riddle. Damn, what had it been again? Friendship had seemed fitting enough and right now he really had other things on his mind than memorising a damn riddle. "What was the riddle again? I didn't memorise it."

"Of course it wasn't jealousy. I'm not that petty." He wasn't sure if he could say he had intent or not on that one. It was a crime of passion, sure, but it wasn't exactly an innocent mistake or a slip up. He didn't come to do it but he meant to do it. He was glad to do it. "He was hurting Miss Kringle and he was trying to hurt..."

No, he was falling into his trap. God damn it. "And I stabbed him to death. It was liberating, Jim. Felt great. Couldn't get enough of it." He hit his sound buzzer and it played a happy little celebration noise, to try and clarify his point. "Focus this time. I can sneak up on you or be right in front of you without you knowing. But when I reveal myself you will never be the same. What am I?"

"So you wanted to stop him from hurting Miss Kringle. But then you were the one who hurt her. How does that add up? That's not very logical. I thought you were smart. A reasonable man." An insane man, clearly, but there was no need to point that out right now, given they were literally in an insane asylum. Jim looked around with obvious irritation at the buzzer sound, then shook his head and focused on the riddle.

It seemed familiar, actually, now that he heard it again. "Betrayal!" He smiled, self-derisively. "I've felt that in your apartment that day."

"I didn't mean to hurt her!" Edward snapped, his voice wavering and feeling more than a little heated. When did this turn into an interrogation? "I loved Miss Kringle." She was the love of his life, his first in every sense of the word. She made him feel loved. And then she took it all away from him. He didn't blame her, he should have seen it coming really. "I just wanted her to stop saying those things and-and-" Her neck was just really flimsy apparently. He didn't quite remember what happened after that, he blacked out.

"Some detective you were. Not exactly Gotham's finest." Edward laughed, his own riddle forgotten. He was already worked up, distracted, trying to find a win. A way to brag. "Her body was in the GCPD, you moron. Her hand was in the vending machine." Ha!

"You shouldn't hurt the woman you love. I've done it too often too." Although he had never killed any, so at least there was that. Endangered them, however, that was unfortunately a different matter. "I'd never have thought you'd hurt her, Edward. I've seen the two of you together. You seemed happy."

Jim shook his head and then his mind caught up with something and he frowned. "Why was her hand in the vending machine?" What kind of twisted mind thought up something like that? "You mutilated her? Why even drag her to the GCPD? You should have turned yourself in after doing this to her. You didn't mean to, you went too far."

"I mean, I wanted to but I wasn't in the drivers seat, so to speak." Edward huffed out a bitter laugh because before he may have tried to downplay the crazy but if Oswald had taught him anything, it was to embrace it. To be himself. Oswald decided to be the Penguin, he turned what people mocked about him into a symbol of what he was. Edward couldn't help but admire that thinking. "That was the other guy. He stole my dead girlfriend, he wanted to play a game, a little scavenger hunt."

He wished he could say it was fun but he wasn't sure. He felt as if at some point that day, something snapped apart or maybe it was even before then. It was hard to pinpoint and he didn't like thinking about it. He rubbed his temples and tried to move forward. "Most people need it, some ask for it, some give it, but almost nobody takes it. What is it?"

"Advise." That was an easy one. "And you should take some, Ed. You are better than this." Jim walked back a few steps to get a better view of the camera. Perhaps he should have seen this coming. Friends with Oswald, after all. He had to wonder what came first, the murder or the Penguin. Maybe one day he would find out, but Oswald had a habit of spreading violence. "Ed, what other guy? Who stole Kristen's body? Who would do such a thing?"

"Me." Wait. "The other me." It didn't sound right because it just seemed like he was imagining this other self to get away or to make excuses but it wasn't like that. This other him, it felt real. It was real. He talked to him, he took over and did things. He was the one who pushed him, who set him on the path he had to be on. He was what he was supposed to be. "He didn't want the fun to end, this is who I'm supposed to be." And he really did believe that. Changing wasn't on the table for him. "That's why I'm here, remember? Crazy."

"So, what? You got like a split personality thing going on? Is that it?" In a way, the thought made sense a little. He knew Ed, he had thought he knew Ed. Mild-mannered, clumsy, not at all aware of when he was inappropriate, brilliant, but weird. He knew him, he liked him. The Ed he had met with all of this, he was very different.

"Do they give you meds for that in this place? Because you are not supposed to be like this, Ed. You are a good man, you gotta remember that. I thought you were my friend. I wanted you to be my friend. I trusted you."

"They're a little busy making dead people alive and experimenting with mutation to give any real medical advise here. I've seen my therapist twice and they've not been helpful. Usually I'm the one giving the therapy here, I'm very good at it. I've diagnosed half of this place correctly by now and I gotta say, whoever is doing that here? They're sloppy. They confused a schizoid personality disorder with a schizotypal personality disorder. I mean, honestly."

The idiots here were giving him meds but like hell was he going to take them. Firstly, he didn't want to and secondly, he didn't trust what they were giving him. "You weren't my friend. You were never my friend. You humoured me because I could do what you wanted. You never wanted to spend time with me outside of work, did you? That's why you didn't want to go on that double date. You never wanted to hang out outside of work. Friends do things together, they don't just hand you a file. Don't pretend we had something deeper than we had."

"Oh, come on. Don't take that personally. I don't spend time with anyone outside of work." Well. It was true. Perhaps sad, but certainly true. "I've barely seen Lee outside of work at the time. But I still spent time with you. I came looking for you when I needed help. I'd have helped you if you needed me." He was still trying to help him now.

"I care about you, Ed. I think you need help. I don't think you are a killer, you are just talking yourself into it. I don't know why. Why do you suddenly want to kill? It's not like you. You are smart. There's nothing smart about killing. It's not a riddle either. You bludgeoned Officer Pinkney. What are you, a bully? Who told you that was a good idea?"

He paused. "Penguin?"

"You don't know me! Stop acting like you know me. I'm not Detective Bullock. I'm not--" Not a friend, not accepted, no one of the guys. Not much to lose. He didn't even want to be but it was always that thing of feeling on the outside. Not always because of people but because of himself, because of how he was. He didn't fit. He tried before and it was exhausting, tiring. To be himself was all he'd ever wanted.

He frowned, unable to know what to do with the idea of someone 'caring' about him. Likely a load of crap to keep Lucius and Bruce alive. He focused instead on that last comment. "What does Mr Penguin have to do with any of this?"

Ah. This old chestnut. "Actually, he wanted the opposite. He tried to talk me out of it." Weirdly enough. "Arkham really did a number on him." It was haunting to see a man like Oswald acting like that. "Your handiwork, that one. That's what Jim Gordon's friendship does, huh?"

"That's different. Oswald... He wanted my friendship. He's the Penguin, he's a criminal. He chose to be on the other side." Which, he supposed, ultimately Edward had as well. "When you studied, why did you do it? Isn't there any part of you that still remembers that you just wanted to be one of the good guys? Catch the bad ones?"

That was it. The world wasn't black and white and there was no place for heroes in Gotham, but they still had to act like it. They had to fight bad. Edward wasn't supposed to turn on them. "You should be good for your own sake. You are. You could be."

"I thought it was interesting and I liked the field. I wanted to do something a little more interesting but..." He failed the psyche eval and that kind of marred his future career. He had liked the GCPD, it had been safe, friendly, a chance to try again and get what he most certainly didn't get in school. Or ever. "I'm a criminal. I'm not better than Mr Penguin. Do I deserve to be a brainwashed monkey too? Leave me here, see what happens. It's only a matter of time."

No one here got better. No one here got helped. This was the best experience he'd had here and, in his opinion, the most healthy. "I can't be, Jimmy. We both know that. There's no going back even if I wanted to."

"Whatever happened to Penguin here, it shouldn't have." He was glad Oswald had snapped out of it and he felt guilty for leaving him to it, for condemning him like that. He shouldn't have left him behind. But that only made him even more determined to at least try with Edward, for what it was worth. "But would you want to? Go back?"

Just a question. Ed liked questions.

"Hugo Strange put you up to this? You know what he is doing here. Bruce is just a child. I don't think you would hurt a child. You have to be better than that."

"I--" He never considered it an option and, as far as he felt, he was too far gone. Would he want to go back? "Back to what?" Back to being ignored, dismissed, talked to like an idiot. To be treated like a weirdo, told he was odd and a creep. Go home alone and keep himself busy doing whatever he could to keep himself from being bored. "I don't have anything to go back to. No point in going back. You can only go forward."

And this was what he'd chosen. He lacked direction, purpose, sure but he was hoping to solve that as soon as he got out of this dump. "Like I said before, you don't know me." Maybe he would hurt a child. "You know what? I've been derailed long enough! Last riddle, Jimmy boy."

He couldn't keep letting Jim play these head games. He was getting under his skin, that wasn't good. "I can fill a room or just one heart. Others may have me but I can not be shared. What am I?"

"I thought I knew you, Ed. I'd be sorry if I was completely wrong about you." Jim had at the very least managed to buy a lot of game, but it was a question how reassuring that was, given everything. "You can't trust Hugo Strange, Ed. He might get rid of you too, like he wants to get rid of all the evidence. Let me contact the GCPD. That's your best chance to get out of this alive too. You are smart, you have to realise that."

Because damn if he knew the answer to that stupid riddle.

He knew Strange planned to ditch him. Any idiot could see that. He didn't have any real faith in Edward and he only used him as a distraction. He literally wanted him back in a cell after he took down Lucius and Bruce, it was lucky everything had gone nuts from that point on and he'd been given this beautiful chance to play. This place was almost a panic state out there.

"Hmm." It was tempting but. "What do I get if I let you?"

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