๐‚๐ก๐š๐ฉ๐ญ๐ž๐ซ ๐Ÿ– -

Bruce and I cried then Bruce went to visit Alfred in the hospital as I returned back to the orphanage, I couldn't bare the thought of seeing what happened to Alfred and would rather deal with the torture I faced growing up.

I walked into the building with tears flowing down my face like a steady river, I felt like much an idiot and walked into the room where we watched the videos about the Wayne's and slowly stepped over to the projector.

"the sins of the father."

It caused me so much anger to read that when I knew Bruce had done nothing like his father, he was trying to undo all the wrongs he did without knowing his father caused them but Riddler didn't see that as Bruce only did that through Batman.

I pressed play on the projector and sat on the floor as I let all of Ed's words drill into my head, his confidence saying all these things made him sound so proud of himself.

I knew he hated Bruce because he lived a better life than us as an orphan but he needs to realise nothing could be done about it now, I heard footsteps walking up to the door for the doors to creak open and the footsteps to pause.

"Lies, deceit and MURDER." The Riddler's voice played again.

It didn't continue but I hear footsteps approach me and the sound of cheap plastic rustle as a shadow suddenly grows towards me, my head was buried into my knees so I didn't get to see his face but I already knew who it was.

I hated him for all of this, I that his intentions were good but all this was hurting people. But that didn't matter to Ed as it was already people at the top, the rich people of Gotham were being dragged down so that he could try and remove the corruption.

My tears stung my face, I hated myself for crying as Ed just sat there watching me.

"Don't cry, why don't we solve riddles like we used to?" Ed offered.

I lift my head up and looked at him with my now tear stained face, somehow he didn't understand that he caused the tears that were pouring down my face.

Riddler had took his mask off to look at me face to face but I didn't want to see Ed, I wasn't to believe Ed wasn't the Riddler and this was all a nightmare like this place was.

Riddler reached into a pocket and pulled a photo out, I looked at him confused until he placed the photo on the floor for it to be and Bruce on the bridge kissing whilst the sun was setting and when I looked at him I could see the jealously on his face.

"We used to have memories like this too Y/N, sneaking out of the orphanage and driving around as the sun set whilst laughing and joking. So, what is different?"

I couldn't speak but rather looked at him in shock whilst he had jealously coating his eyes, his jealousy had blinded him from a dislike for Bruce to pure hatred for Bruce just because I was in love with him.

Riddler placed photos of us as teens acting in a similar way, me driving a motorbike with him behind me and getting ice cream and making fun memories whilst I lived in a hell hole that no one wanted to hear or see.

"Don't like we didn't do shit like this together when we were younger," Riddler sighed.

Riddler goes to place a hand on me but I slap his hand away and I saw the heart break in his eyes, he realised he had hurt me through the actions of Riddler.

He stood up and took a deep breath and a sigh, he looked at me with sadness in his eyes.

"I'm sorry, Y/N," He said then walked away.

I bury my face back into my knees and start to sob again, Riddler's footsteps paused when he reached the door and he glanced back at me then sighed and walked away as he put his mask back on.

I pick up the photos Riddler had left and watch as my tears softly landed on them to then slide off the photos, the photos of Ed and I made me smile as I cherished his friendship so much and held him so close to me but we got separated and our wealth divided us and gave us different lives.

Wealth and corruption in Gotham was the thing that divided us and caused us to be so different and to grow apart, it caused my heart to tear even more as I gathered all the photos and walked out of the orphanage and made my way back to Wayne Tower as I agreed to meet Bruce there.

Security let me into the tower and I walked in for Bruce to run to me and hug me, I hadn't realised it was so late as I looked at a clock and it told me it was 3AM.

Bruce sees the photos in my hands and quickly scoop them out of my hands, the first one he sees is the photo of us kissing on the bridge then a bunch of photos of Ed and I as teens having fun and smiling whilst joking around.

Bruce looked at me to see my tear-stained face and pulled me into a hug, I was haunted by the plagues of the memories I had forgotten about that place because I sat there for hours on end without realising and let it consume my mind.

Bruce took me up to the room I was staying in and got one of the staff to bring me a hot drink and thanked them when they came back, he stuck by my side until I fell asleep then also fell asleep at the side of my bed.

I wake up to see Bruce holding my hand whilst still asleep, he looked so tired and must of been so scared because of my temporary disappearance.

I look at the clock on the bedside to see it was 10AM so I gently shook Bruce awake and told him the time, he complained and said he wanted to sleep for longer which made me smile, I rolled out of bed which caused Bruce to stand up and suddenly want to be awake.

"I'll be downstairs, I think I'm involved in this case more than I thought," I smiled.

A few moments later Bruce and I were stood over the photos and in fresh, new clothes as we stared at all the evidence on the floor.

"This makes no sense, there's no connections," Bruce sighs.

I intentionally left out the photos Riddler gave me as they had no link to the case and was personal stuff that he wanted to talk about, I looked over to Savage's trap and picked up the photo of the Riddle that was given to him.

Bruce hadn't wrote an answer on the photo like he had done for the riddles, he had written over them if he had an answer but this one was blank meaning that he didn't yet have an answer so I looked at the photos.

"Riddler wants us to say who the rat is, he wants us to expose the rat in a way," I say to Bruce, showing him the photo.

I write the same of what I said onto the photo and Bruce watches me as I do so, I take a step back and look at the photos and started to let my wander and let the information run through my thoughts.

I knew that when we were trying to find who the rat was and Bruce said it was Penguin I didn't have the same thought, I believed it was Falcone since he walked all over Penguin and constantly was heard and talked about but rarely seen a lot like Bruce expect he didn't talk much.

"I'll be back in a second," I say to Bruce.

He nods his head and I grab a laptop but don't return to the same room as Bruce, I sit on the floor and typed in the URL we only just recently discovered and waited for the screen to show that doomed question mark.

<?> Back so soon, Y/N?

Is the rat Falcone?

<?> Here you go amazing me again, you are correct.ย 

I paused for a moment as I started to realise that I needed to get the police to arrest Falcone and therefore would need evidence, Riddler being one step ahead as always seemed to of known what I was thinking,

<?> I sent all the evidence I have to Bruce, see you soon Y/N.

Riddler disconnected and I closed the website and walked down the stairs with the laptop, Bruce quickly took the laptop off of me and looked at me concerned.

"What did you do, why did Riddler send a bunch of photos of Falcone and called it evidence?" Bruce questioned me.

"I went on the website and asked if it was Falcone and he admitted it was, we needed to have something to arrest him on and all those bank statements of payments of the amount Colson said he was paid will prove it," I smile.

Bruce didn't seem happy however, we both knew that the Riddler had a creepy obsession for me and Batman as he stalked me out of love and fan-boyed over Batman and idolized him and then took things to the extreme.

Bruce hadย  right to be concerned as we were dating and Riddler clearly was trying to get us to grow apart, I knew I had always seen Ed as a friend but Bruce didn't know that and clearly didn't trust him.

"It's almost night, let's get the suits on," I sighed, breaking the silence.

After Bruce and I argued for awhile about whether or not I was coming with him he gave up and let me knowing that I wouldn't back down, we had to share his motorbike since mine got blown up as it was part of the main garage.

Whilst we were speeding down to the meet-up spot I realised that I would have to explain how I knew it was Ed and where all the evidence came from, I would play it off as myself telling Ghost in this case.

We waited for Gordon at the rooftop and he soon arrived, he looked like he has been having a rough time recently but with finding out majority of your higher ups are paid to work for someone is expected to take a toll on you especially if you thought you had a bond with one of the people that got murdered.

I was surprised by Gordon's work ethic, Peter dies and they seemed close in a way and he managed to push everything aside in hopes of solving this case to find out so many of his dark secrets.

"The rat is Falcone," I sighed.

Gordon looked at me confused as Batman stood there in silence and it was almost as if we swapped suits or something, I gave the file full of the evidence Riddler sent to us and Gordon didn't know how to react.

"How did you get all this?" Gordon asked, confused and in shock.

I knew that saying I got it from Riddler then the police would want me under their watch and try to use me, I knew that they would use me in the future to get every clue that they could out of desperation to solve this as soon as possible but then I would also have to sacrifice no longer being Ghost.

"An anonymous source, Riddler most likely plans on leaking all of this to the news at some point though," I respond.

The second statement was true as I knew Riddler would get too bored and probably planned on leaking the photos before giving them to us, I was just lucky enough to be in a situation where I could exploit him for the case which made me hate this but I knew it was for the best.

Gordon flicked through some of the many photos in the file and was surprised to see the payments that Colson said he got and proof of blackmail and so many other things, I knew seeing Falcone was going to be the worst part of this case as its mostly likely he had something to do with my father's disappearance.

Gordon thanked me and took the file down to the police station and told us he would be right back, Bat walked up to me and placed a hand on my shoulder as he saw that I was clearly upset about something.

"I'm fine, don't worry," I sighed.

I knew that we would have to go into Iceberg lounge to talk to Falcone and Riddler's house was near there so he wasn't going to truly show himself but rather reveal a whole load of clues, it was going to show off all his work as he knew that the whole thing is coming to a close.

but then the letter he left for Bat and I? "see you in hell".

It meant he thought we were working with him, he thought that we were agreeing with his actions and his end goal.

I go to tell Bat this but Gordon returns and Bat and I swap roles again, I stand in silence as Bat does all the talking and forming a plan but whilst I zoned out all I was plagued with the horrors of the orphanage again.

That's why he doing it isn't he? He is also plagued with the memories and is trying to 'help' us, he's trying to find a solution to try and fix the problems with corruption as a main goal in hopes to then move onto the next big thing.

Ed was doing this to avoid the repetition of history, holy shit.

"The Riddler is Edward Nashton," I blurt out.

Bat and Gordon looks at me confused.

"Who's that?" Gordon asks.

Bat instantly knew who I meant and that's when it seemed to click for him, he realised Riddler gave me the photo of Ed and I not as blackmail and as a method to figure my identity out as Ghost but rather out of jealousy.

"A kid from the orphanage we went to, I think their intention is something to do with what happened there and it's scared him in a way that he thinks that people are still being hurt and they need his help," I explain.

Gordon nodded his head and told bat to stay up here as he took me downstairs as he knew that they would jump at Bat but they were unsure about me, I walked down at Gordon and felt all eyes on me as Gordon opened his laptop and started typing away.

I look at his laptop to see that it said he was last seen at Mitchell's funeral meaning it was him that was watching Bruce and I, he was the man who stood there stalking us as we were there to be respectful and he was there to ruin it.

"He lives in the block of apartments opposite the Iceberg lounge," Gordon sighed.

We both felt so dumb, I opened the file full of Mitchell outside of the Iceberg lounge to realise that the angle was in the same apartments meaning that he took those photos himself.

Ed didn't come up with this out of the blue but had been working on it for a long time, he ben planning this and placing everything with a purpose and intent.

"We'll deal with Falcone first, but make sure you bring the murder weapon for Mitchell as I think his hide out is going to be full of clues," I commanded.

I really was turning into Bat here, I always thought that he was too serious and barked orders but I could understand why now that I was in the position he was in as Gordon nodded his head and I walked back to the rooftop.

I walked up to Bat and explained the basic plan and he nodded his head, I knew that as soon as those photos were leaked Selena would be on the hunt for Falcone as some of the evidence was a clip of Annika begging for her life to Falcone.

And as if on cue, my contact lenses tell me that the clip was leaked.

"We need to hurry," I sighed.

Bat and I rushed over to the lounge and managed to walk into the lounge when we took our suits off, Bat and I quickly paced down the hallway towards Falcone's part of the building as I knew Selena would already be there.

The guards that were usually there were gone too so I we both quickly got in our suits then sneaked through the doors, Falcone was stood in front of a large TV which was playing the clip from one of the local news stations as Selena reloaded her gone.

"Hey, dad?" Selena smirked.

I felt my heart drop as I ran towards her, Falcone turned to look at her as her smile only grew with her tears still falling from her eyes.

"Selena, no!" I shout.

I tackle her to the floor as she shoots the gun which luckily didn't hit Falcone but caused Bat have to jump out as the guard soon wanted to deal with us, I tried to grab the gun off Selena but she was stubborn and wouldn't let go of it.

Selena kept begging me to have this kill so she could finally be happy, I knew that Falcone had caused her so much harm with killing not only her mother but also her closet friend but I didn't want her to throw her life way.

I have an upper hand for a second but Selena tries to snatch the gun back causing it to fire at me, my suit was bullet proof but I felt the hit as it was close range and the bullet got stuck on my suit.

Selena panics and throws the gun on the floor and Bat quickly turns to look at me only to be thrown back into the action of fighting, I gritted my teeth and stood up and grabbed the gun and smashed it and I feel the familiar feeling of eyes watching me.

Falcone soon grabbed Selena and tried to choke her saying that he didn't want to kill 'his own blood' and I was beyond pissed and kicked him off her causing him to roll off her, I turn to see that the guards were down and Bat was now stood staring at Selena who was still in shock.

"Selena, please don't kill anyone even if you think it will fix the problem. I promise you, it won't," I sighed.

Selena nodded her head with a "I promise."









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