𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟗 -

Bat grabbed Falcone and we walked him out of the club whilst he kept saying to Gordon about how he couldn't get him behind bars as he 'owned you boys in blue', his arrogance and pure confidence that he thought it was only the three of us against him made me smile and I saw Bat rolled his eyes.

We got outside to see almost all of the police department stood outside with a few paramedics so I told Selena to go to them, she nodded and thanked me then ran off but I soon felt the feeling of eyes on me return.

I stood still in shock as Bat and Gordon walked him to the police car thinking they finally won as I saw Riddler load his sniper, I felt my heart drop and time go slow as Bat turned to look at me in confusion to see Riddler too as he aimed for Falcone.

I started climbing up to the window and felt my adrenaline rush through me as I was desperate to have Falcone get what he deserved, Riddler shot Falcone just before Batman could react in time to save him from the shot.

The police panicked and they saw me climbing the building at an insane speed towards the open window in the apartments, I got to the window and threw myself through it causing me to hit his desk but I soon sprung up to see Riddler stood there with his gun.

"𝐅𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐡𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐧𝐞" Riddler grinned before he started running.

He started running to the open window that led to the fire escape so I chased after him, he jumped out of the window and I jumped after him and he raced down the steps as I swing down them.

We both met at the bottom of the stairs and I tried to grab him for him to start running with a grin on his face, he knew he had time left until the police would actually look for him due to the fact he just gave up his location.

He knew that they knew who he was now too.

I grab Riddler by the arm and yanked him into an alleyway and slammed him against the brick wall, I had so much anger and adrenaline pulsing through my veins that I didn't even notice that it caused the wall to crack.

"Batman surely has changed you a lot Ghost, you used to be so gentle," He laughed.

Riddler wasn't even wearing his mask so I got to see his proud, arrogant smile despite the fact he just killed a man, he seemed so proud of himself and as if he just saved the world from ending.

I punched Riddler in the face out of pure rage even though I knew I really didn't want to, Riddler had played with my head and since he confronted me in the orphanage I've been on edge and finding it hard to not be paranoid. 

Riddler turns his head to look at me with a smile on his face, we both knew that no one knew where we were and I intentionally went down this alleyway so that we were hidden in the shadows.

Riddler grabbed at my mask and tried pulling it off and I panicked, I go to push him off me which caused him to hit his head first on the brick causing me to quickly check if he was okay.

I didn't want him to see my face but I also didn't want to harm him, I knew that my friendship with him from the past was clouding my judgement on how to treat him but that was normal in these cases.

"Ed, I know you want to help the kids from the orphanage and you know they need help but is this really the way to do it?" I ask.

My robotic voice from the re-verb made it feel less emotional and less caring but his reaction to my statement told me it still hit a string in his heart, he seemed surprised that I found his motivation for all of this but we both got our motivation because of that place.

We both suffered and both wanted to make a change because of that place, we both made secret identities and tried to solve the problem Gotham had but the problem was that Ed didn't seem to notice that his methods were causing more harm to Gotham.

I offered my hand to Ed and he took it so I helped him up, I knew he had the best intentions and I wanted him to know that I understood why he was so desperate to solve this but I also needed him to understand that Batman and I didn't agree with his act which seemed to click to him.

Except, He most likely still thought Bat was on his side.

My comms suddenly turned on and it made a high-pitch noise that caught Ed's attention, he clearly wanted to eavesdrop but luckily Bat made it so no one else could hear the comms other than the person wearing the mask.

"Ghost, where are you?" Bat asked.

I looked at Riddler stood there and he seemed to realise it wasn't long until his act came to end, he looked so excited yet so sad.

"I'll come back to Riddler's apartment, I was chasing him but lost him," I lied.

Riddler seemed surprised that I lied to Bat but he had a smile light up his face, he waved a goodbye and started walking away and I waved back knowing where he was going.

I then return to Riddler's apartment and Bat and Gordon was waiting for me at the window that lead to the fire escape, I swung into the room and looked at them confused.

We dug through the files and books that Riddler had and I noticed that majority of his books were ones similar to what we read in the orphanage, I dug through a few more books and files until I found one saying 'Y/N' on it.

I slowly opened it to see photos of my house and photos of me working on my suit on the day I was attacked with his video playing in the background, my photos of the orphanage that he never returned was there and I felt my anxiety start to peak as I flipped through the photos until Bat walked over and closed my file.

Bat took the file off me and I notice Gordon watching us out of the corner of his eye, clearly noticing my reaction and he might be starting to piece together who I was so I quickly picked up another file to see it said 'Bruce Wayne' on it.

It had all the photos from my past two phones of Bruce, it had every selfie we took and included pages of him scribbling angrily about Bruce that weren't legible and overlapped each other so that we couldn't read it.

I picked up a piece of paper that wasn't scribbled on as much that read 'Bruce is a thief', I turned the paper to see the photo of Bruce and I kissing on the bridge again which caught Gordon's attention and he walked over.

"Jealous ex?" Gordon asks.

Bat and I had cold, blank faces which is why Gordon probably dismissed the possibility of Bruce and I being Batman and Ghost.

"Y/N and Edward were best friends, he clearly wanted more," I said, my re-verb making me sound as if I didn't care.

I was so glad for this re-verb.

After a few hours of digging around more and seeing how obsessive Riddler was with this whole corruption thing we decided to track him down except I knew where he was going to be, I told Gordon to go to the café that Ed invited me to visit to 're-unite'.

Gordon didn't ask any questions and took his men there straight away knowing that I was going to be the most reliable one here as I was chasing him earlier, Bat and I stayed at the apartment as only a few officers stayed behind and we stood in silence together for a moment.

I picked up both mine and Bruce's files and walked out of the apartment, Bat followed me and the officers that stayed started putting crime scene tape up and went on watch for anyone or anything.

Bat drove us to the café on the bike as Riddler was being arrested, I heard his head slam against the counter as he sat on the same high-stool as he did last time.

I pushed through the crowd of cops and he smiled when he saw me and his grin only grew when he saw the files with mine and Bruce's name on them, when Bat appeared behind me his smile grew even more and the police gripped his coat and pulled him off the chair.

We took him to Arkham Asylum instantly, the police got him checked in security and Bat and I waited to talk to him once he got his uniform on and whatever else they had to do.

A security officer soon called us down and asked that we gave him any weapons or sharp objects but I had no weapons so I looked at Bat who shook his head, the guard said that he couldn't go unless he gave the guard the stuff so he gave his grappling hooks and anything that they would want.

They thanked him and then let us through, we had to walk through a few security gates then got to the rooms and they had the same metal doors as the police station but sound proof doors were before them.

I was the first one to walk in to see the Riddler was sat at a table clearly bored out of his mind and his eyes lit up when he saw me, I noticed the camera in the corner only on our side meaning that I had to be careful with what I said.

Riddler stood up as Bat walked in and the doors closed behind him, I knew that I was going to be quiet for most of this as I already talked to him but I also knew Bat would have something to say over him stalking me.

Bruce was protective and for a good reason, I knew that his protective nature came from the nature of his parent's death and it scarred him as he was stood there helpless as it happened.

It was painful to think it was Falcone that most likely got them killed as well.

"We playing good cop bad cop?" Riddler smiled.

I assumed that he was calling Bat the bad cop as he said that I was gentle compared to him so I moved to the corner of the room which caught his attention, he knew that me stepping out of this and only being there to listen meant that I wasn't going to intervene if Bat did anything.

"Aw, good cop left," Riddler said sarcastically.

I could tell Bruce was getting mad at Riddler for this, he knew that he attacked me more than once to gain something but when I thought about it I was assuming it was to help him.

Bruce started to interrogate Riddler and I was stood in the corner blankly staring at the floor trying to listen in but only was thinking back to the orphanage and the horrid memories, the screams only echoed in my head and the coughs and cries of sickness from the kids due to the horrible conditions that we lived in.

The thing that snapped me out of it was when Riddler started to sing that hated song, Ave Maria.

I didn't think twice before I stormed up to the glass and punched it in a pure fit of rage and panic, with the memories that were plaguing me caused me to act out and leave a huge crack in the glass which Bat couldn't manage to do.

Riddler just kept singing the stupid song and went into a higher pitch as Batman looked at me concerned and moved me away from the glass, me cracking the glass would of alerted the guards something wasn't right and I would most likely be removed from the room soon.

"You got your name Ghost from the orphanage, the deaths of the kids there still haunt you like they haunt me, don't they?" Riddler grinned.

The biggest killer in that place wasn't the sickness but rather the violence that people caused out of anger and mistreatment we faced, Ed and I should of been considered to make it out of that place alive and he knows that and is trying to use it against me.

Bat gives Riddler one of his cold stares but I knew that he was mostly likely trying to understand why only now the choir song was causing me to lash out, after we went into the orphanage together and I didn't lash out.

The guards came and took me out of the room and returned me to the waiting room, I however wasn't planning on waiting and instead left the place immediately and went back to Riddler's house.

The officers on watch were clearly confused as I waltzed in and just picked up the original murder weapon that Gordon had returned in an evidence bag and snatched it out of the bag, the officer watched me in confusion and tried to talk to me in a shaky voice.

I used the tool to rip up the floor and the guard told me to stop and that I needed permission but froze when he saw the map of Gotham engraved on the floor, the map told me that he was planning on flooding Gotham and the centre of it where they would all meet?

'real change' was written there.

"Call Gordon," I spoke to the Officer.

He nodded his head and was a little panicked from my voice as I realised I wouldn't often talk to the officers so it most likely scared them, I put the murder weapon into a new plastic bag and put it with the rest of the evidence and walked out of the apartment.

I tried to open comms to Batman but declined it causing me to panic as I walked to the where people would be lead to for the evacuation, I could see people dressed as Riddler loading guns and checking what they had on them until they looked up to see me and stared.

I opened a comms with Bat again and this time he answered.

"Riddler is going to flood Gotham, I got an officer to tell Gordon but there's no time to disarm the bombs," I explain.

I was charging towards one of the bombs in hopes of being able to dis-arm it so that it would be easier to manage as I heard Batman driving, I could hear his engine revving in the background as I started to climb up a building to then jump at the location of the bomb.

"Why can I hear a ticking sound?" Batman suddenly spoke up.

"I'm disarming a bomb, there's another close to me," I quickly say.

I was panicking and trying to disarm the body as I heard Bat yelling at me to go to the evacuation point with everyone else but shut down comms instead, I had left the files on Bruce and I at the Wayne tower as I needed to make up no one knew who Ghost really was.

I disarm the bomb and quickly stood up and ran to the next one, I quickly got to work on it to realise I didn't have enough time and looked at the large body of water ready to pour down into Gotham so I quickened my pace.

I manage to disarm the bomb but when I did, all the others went off meaning I managed to disarm it just before it went off but I had to hurry to the evacuation point otherwise I wouldn't be able to help.

I jumped off the high structure and started to jump between building to building until I reached to evacuation centre but whilst I was played Riddler's latest video, he said that they should to attack anyone and everyone but me and Ghost which caused me to panic meaning that everyone would think I was working with him.

I hurried and jumped down where all the Riddler fan boys were and they all turned and pointed their guns at me but quickly lowered them and went back on task, I knew this was Riddler's way of caring for me whilst he was locked up but it annoyed me.

The mayor came on stage and one of them instantly aimed at her so I grab them causing them to misfire, they got mad and I heard angry muffling as I saw Gordon peak his head over to see I was stood with them meaning there was going to be a misunderstanding.

I throw them to the side in anger as the others looked at me in confusion, they must of thought I was on Riddler's side all because he said not to hurt me.

"You're not killing anyone, why the hell would you want to do that?" I yelled at them.

They seemed surprised at my robotic voice and the re-verb didn't manage to block out the anger in my voice which caused them to look at each other anxiously.

𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧: 27.03.22

𝐄𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝:

𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝:

𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 2,869