Animal ||Edward Nygma|| [3]

Chapter Seventeen || Backup plan

"If only we could rewrite the ending to that one fucking love story that we'd give anything to travel back in time to. Now that would be poetry."

- Erin Van Vuren

Charlotte, Ed, and Oswald walked through a street in the Narrows after they ditched the van used to escape Arkham. It was a cold day and Oswald quickly stole a coat with the help of Charlotte and Ed. The blonde woman wrapped her own coat tightly around her as she saw her breath rise in the air. Ed seemed happier than ever and waltzed through the streets like he owned them.

"I knew that as soon as I rescued Martin that she'd send her hitmen," Ed stated knowingly.

Oswald was still cleaning his nose from the blood. The three of them were passing by a group of punks and one blonde man with spiked hair leaned forward towards Oswald. He felt so creeped out by that action and quickly moved closer to Charlotte, almost falling as he did so.

"How is Martin?" He asked Charlotte and Ed.

"He's safe," Charlotte smiled warmly at her friend. "Don't worry".

"Yes, snug as a bug in a rug," Ed confirmed as he took off his hat and passed it to Charlotte. "Here, will you hold this?"

Charlotte grabbed the hat but then passed it along to Oswald and started tying her hair up because it kept getting in front of her eyes.

"So, do you wanna know how we found him?" Ed asked Oswald and he nodded curiously. "So, it turns out, Zsasz huge fan of the disco. So, Charlotte and I dressed up as old Polish women-"

"You made a very sexy Polish woman, by the way," Charlotte laughed as she remembered that moment and Oswald looked between the two with a weirded out expression on his face.

"I know right?" Ed smirked at the blonde as he took off his gloves. "So did you".

"Perhaps another time-" Oswald interrupted them impatiently, his head swarming with ideas on how to kill Sofia. They passed by a homeless man who was warming his hands close to a barrel of fire. Ed took his hands close to the barrel too to warm them before Oswald continued. "Now that Martin is safe, we need to focus on killing Sofia. We need a power base".

Ed unbuttoned his jacket and loosened his tie. "I know. That's why we're here". He opened up the door of Lee's apartment to reveal Lee pointing a gun at him. Charlotte and Oswald remained hidden while he spoke to Lee. "Hello".

Lee relaxed when she saw him, thinking it was just Ed and she wasn't completely alone anymore. "Ed. You're back. How are you doing?"

"Worlds better, honestly. Thank you," he told her honestly. He stepped farther into the room and suddenly noticed her hand. Charlotte had told him what Sofia did, but he pretended he didn't know. "Oh, no. What happened to your hand?"