In Preparation | Nygmakins

The Riddler

"She lied to me," he growls lowly, staring out the window. Through its grime he can clearly see her lips on his. Jim's.

Betrayed. Again. Lied to again. He just shakes his head at the irony, wanting to cry. Ed would cry. But he can't.

"Oh Ed, you weren't the fool. I was."

Love was his most crippling weakness. He had known it all along. Knew he could only be free if he was unencumbered by love . . . unable to be controlled, betrayed, answering to no one but himself. It's why he had wanted her dead – craved it from the start – even before he had taken over from Ed. It was his destiny to kill her and become who he was meant to be. Fully. Unencumbered.

Yet somewhere along the way he had found himself helping her to explore who she was becoming - just as she had tried to help him become some amalgamation of himself and Ed. The guy she liked. He knew that if only she could find her true self – the one he loved - they could be together. Unencumbered. And he wouldn't have to kill her.

But that had all gone to hell so rapidly since Jim Gordon had found the two of them in The Narrows.

Before turning away from the window, he notices Lee's body language. Wait. That's a goodbye. She's telling Jim goodbye. Could that mean there's still a chance for them?

As the city falls to ruin, he twirls the knife in his hand. It is the same knife that he had held to her neck that heady evening at the Riddle Factory . . . when they had played a dangerous game. When he had wanted to slit her throat so he couldn't be used . . . or betrayed. To end it before it even started. But he had found couldn't.

Love was his crippling weakness.

This time he was going to kill her. He had to be free of this.

But what if . . . ?

He thinks of her letting go of Jim and decides to give her one more chance.

She's not going to leave The Narrows. Not with him. Probably not ever.

"So, what does that mean for us?" he asks her.

She turns away from the window, her eyes sunken, as dark as the raging destruction outside.

"It is the end of the road for us."

Click.

He unfolds the knife in his hands as his heart shatters, raining brittle shards within him, and stiffening his resolve.

It is.

He steps forward towards their destiny.

FIN