paper love | edward nygma

Chapter 43 ○ Reunited

"Sorry about that guys, my uh- head hurt a little bit." Alfred got up slowly and looked concerned. "Do you need any medicine Miss? I'm sure I can find something." Bruce continued to drink his tea and read the newspaper. "I'll be fine Alfred, I'm sure it's just some uhm- side effects. I need to do one thing. I know I visited you, but there is someone else I want to visit." Bruce finally looked up from the paper. "Who is that?" Grace put on a leather jacket that Alfred had given her and began to walk out the door. "The man who found me dead: Jim Gordon."

Grace walked out of the mansion down to the gates, and when she got close, she realized that Alfred knew she was walking out of the gates and opened them using the gate controls. With a few steps from the gates, she was now on her own. Completely lonely. However, she wouldn't be for long. 

As Grace made her way down the sidewalk, she saw how far away she was from the manor. Behind her she saw a faint image of the mansion outline. She was proud of how far she got. It wasn't her first time walking alone since her reanimation, but this time no one was around. It was a complete ghost town around her. It didn't feel like Gotham at all. It was quiet, too quiet. 

That was until she heard yelling from a nearby building. It was pretty hard to hear, but she managed to hear some of it. Then, she pieced it together. "I'll kill you, Gordon! No one gets in the middle of my business!" It was definitely a man, and a loud one at that. There was grunting, and, all of a sudden, a crash was heard. It sounded like glass breaking. That's when she noticed the broken window. 

Grace knew that Jim was in trouble. She decided to help him, after all it was the least she could do. Grace saw what looked like pipes conveniently placed like a rock climbing wall. This was going to be fun, she thought to herself. Slowly but surely, she made her way, keeping in mind that Jim was probably going to die if she didn't help. Jim was a good cop, but he was hated among criminals, especially in the Narrows. 

She made her way up, peering through the window. Grace saw a burly man, dressed in pretty rugged attire, hovering over Jim Gordon. She decided to sneak up behind the man. Slowly, she stepped out of the windowsill and creeped towards the man and the detective. "This is payback for all the times the GCPD stole from me! I was gonna make it big, but you guys had to screw it up!"  Just as the man pulled a gun on Jim, Grace gathered all her strength, and with one elbow to the head, the man fell down.

Detective Jim Gordon stood in awe of the woman standing before him. Slowly, his eyes made their way up to identify who it was. "Holy hell. It can't be you." She stretched her arm and looked at the stunned detective. "That's what I thought too when I heard you getting assaulted from outside. How's it going Jim?" His mouth was still wide open with shock. "How are you alive? I found you dead in Nygma's apartment myself." 

"Let's just say that some weird things happened to me at the Asylum. I don't know how I ended up in Arkham, and personally I couldn't care less, but I'm pretty glad I'm back. What do you say we go back to the GCPD and you re-introduce me to everyone? I have a lot to show you." Jim slowly stood up from the floor, still staring right at her. "Uh-er-sure! I'm sure e-everyone will be glad to see you after your ext-extensive leave- heh! But--uh, maybe we should take this loon with u-us too!"

Grace and Jim made their way to the cop car located outside of the building. Jim cuffed the unconscious man and loaded him into the backseat of the car. They both went to their respective seats in the car: Jim in the drivers seat and Grace was in the passenger seat. "Jim, I just wanted to say thanks. Thanks for saving my life." Jim chuckled while looking in the rear-view mirror. "I didn't save your life, you were already dead. You should be thanking Hugo Strange. Luckily enough, he fled Arkham a while ago, and was replaced by a new Warden following a massive earthquake underneath the prison. It killed almost 8 people."

Grace started coughing violently after Jim said that sentence. She killed people. She was a murderer. "Jim, about that. Uh- that was me. Something went wrong and well, that's how I escaped." Jim pushed the break and abruptly stopped. You could feel the man in the back seat shift around. "You what?! You did that? First, I get the shocker that you're still alive, and then that you are a murderer as well?" 

Grace's head started to hurt immensely. Then, he spoke. "So, you do have a little monster in you? I mean, you did tell me sooner or later that you killed people, but not that many! I mean come on, eight people? That's enough to start a criminal career!"  She pressed her hand to her head, and immediately Jim noticed. "Grace, what's wrong?" She looked up at the rear-view mirror and saw The Riddler. This time, he was wearing a different set of clothes. 

He was wearing a button up shirt that had half sleeves. It was a deep green. He was wearing a black vest with small question marks that matched the green on the shirt. His hair was more relaxed and it looked kind of like how she imagined Ed looked like when he woke up. "Listen, you can change now! Just admit your wrongs, go to jail, then start a complete war! Simple really, I've done it many times." 

"I am not a murderer. It wasn't m-my fault! Leave me alone!" Jim turned towards Grace and started shaking her arm. "Grace, Grace!" Everything went black from there. She could hear Jim requesting an ambulance, and that was about it. "You can feel it can't you. The true side taking over. Don't ruin a good thing. Join the villains. Join me. We can do great things together."  

"Heroes are cowards. They don't let people embrace their true selves, and they try to turn you against who you really are. No matter what you can do, it's always a matter of how weak you are. Flight, strength, speed- none of it matters. The weaker you are, the less you embrace your true self. It's just about who gets to you in the right way first. I've done that, haven't I?" 

A/N

AYYY OK I finished super quick so here you go double chapter for today. I have ideas now. ALSO, I BET YOU THOUGHT ED WAS REUNITING WITH GRACE. HAH.