While he waited for Edward Nygma to wake up from being knocked out after his failed attempt of trading Oswald for Jervis Tetch, Oswald Cobblepot took out his phone after he pulled his vehicle onto a side-road and away from the police blockade before he dialed in a familiar phone number that he'd called a couple of times beforehand.
The last time he called them was the night that Barbara Kean and Tabitha Galavan had made a mess of The Sirens, a mess that was a result of Butch Gilzean sending some men after them to make sure Barbara and Tabitha went under Oswald's wing for his protection.
It was only after two rings into the call that he heard the all too familiar sound of Annabelle Mikaelson asking on the other end of the call, "Yes, Oswald? What do you want?"
After hearing a pained groan in the background, he asked her, "I'm sorry, Annabelle, are you busy? I could always call back some other time."
It was then that he heard the groan become even louder and after a couple of moments, he no longer heard the sound before she said to him, "No, not at all. What do you need?"
He asked her, "How do you feel about helping me rid myself of a particular nuisance and regain my claim to the position of a boss for the underworld here in Gotham?"
She replied, "Sure, why not? It's not like I have anything better to do, anyways."
His eyebrows furrowed as he said, "Really? Because last I heard, you were staying out of this war between me and Barbara Kean because of you having a deal with her that as long as you did just that, no harm would come to Victor Zsasz."
She chuckled before she told him, "That's the thing about it, Oswald. People can be quite stupid when making deals with me. They only mention one thing they want to happen. They never expand their wishes, thus allowing me to find a loophole, and that's exactly what she did. She told me not to do as Victor wished, if he told me to involve myself in this war of theirs. She said nothing about me joining it myself, if you asked it of me. I mean, if I remember correctly, I believe her exact words were 'I want you to, no matter what Zsasz says or wants, stay out of this war we're about to start, okay? Then and only then will we leave you and your beloved Zsasz alone'. It's not my fault she didn't choose to be more specific about it."
As a hopeful grin made its way onto his face, he asked her, "So, does that mean you're in?"
She chuckled as she replied, "Of course I am. The bitch has been trying to use Victor against me and used her threat on him over my head. I don't take things such as that very lightly. Hell, I'd rip her little head off, if you asked it of me."
He sighed as he said to her, "Thank you, Annabelle. I knew I could count on you." When she didn't respond to his words, he told her, "I swear, Annabelle, the moment I regain my position in the underworld, I'll do everything in my power to make sure no harm comes to Victor. I'll even let you work for me and not boss you around too much, if that's what you want."
In turn, she said, "Hmm. I'll be sure to think your little proposition over, Oswald, but I'll be there to help you with this little debacle of yours."
Before he could say another word to her, she'd already hung up on him.
* * *
After being let out of the backseat of the cruiser, Oswald limped towards the end of the pier, while Edward walked closely behind him.
He only stopped moving when he was standing not far from the ledge of the pier and just as the sound of a ship blowing its horn was heard, Edward said to him, "Here we are. Again. Wow. I have to tell you, this feels really great."
After he turned to face Edward, Oswald replied, "Glad I could help."
After taking a deep breath, Edward asked him, "Any last words?"
Oswald told him, "I'm fine for now."
Edward said to him, "I beg your pardon?"
Oswald told him, "I'll wait."
Edward said to Oswald, "I'm going to kill you, Oswald. There is no later. If you have something to say... now is the time."
With a nod of his head, Oswald replied, "Duly noted."
Edward sighed before he said, "Oh, whatever. I'm not letting you ruin this for me. You don't have anything to say, but I do. Goodbye, Oswald."
Then he pulled the trigger and expected to shoot Oswald once more, only for his eyebrows to furrow when the only sound he heard was a mere click from the gun.
While Edward tried once more to shoot Oswald in the chest, Oswald put his hand in his right pocket and pulled out some shell casings he had lying inside of his pocket before he told Edward, "I removed the bullets when you were knocked out. Right before I called them."
Edward turned around to see Ivy Pepper and Annabelle Mikaelson standing near the car, with Victor Fries walking towards them.
After Oswald limped past Edward and stood not far from Annabelle, Edward asked Oswald, "In the backseat, the pin I used to unlock my cuffs?"
Oswald told him, "My tiepin. I thought it should be personal."
Edward said to him, "You were just trying to make me think I had the upper hand."
With a chuckle, Oswald said to him, "It all fell into place."
Edward asked him, "How did you know that Barbara would show up at the warehouse?"
Oswald told him, "I didn't. If it wasn't for her, Gordon would have turned me over, and I'd most likely be dead. But fortune favors the bold."
Edward said to him, "You said you called them after you knocked me out." While Oswald started to limp towards him, he said, "You knew that I'd bring you here."
Oswald said to him, "I know you, Ed. I may be driven by my emotions, but you are driven by something much more predictable; a desperate, compulsive need to complete what you've started in exacting fashion."
Edward asked him, "Why didn't you just kill me, Oswald?"
Oswald told him, "You were the one time I let love weaken me, and I want you around as a constant reminder to never make that mistake again."
It was then that Victor started to power up his freeze gun and pointed it at Edward, while Oswald turned around and limped away from the taller and former Arkham inmate.
It was just as Edward held out his hands and yelled 'no' that he got frozen in that exact same position.
After watching him become frozen in place and hearing Victor's gun power down, Annabelle slowly walked towards Edward and said to him, "I remember that, a year ago whilst I was still in Arkham, you were there for me. You made sure that I had company every chance you came and offered me your blood, that way I wouldn't be so weak after my inability to drink any of the staff's blood because of Hugo Strange's wish to keep me in isolation, even when I didn't do anything wrong. I won't forget that, Edward, and I wish you didn't have to be frozen like this by Victor, but you didn't really give Oswald a choice. By your wish of wanting him murdered by you, you practically sentenced your life to this." After she raised a hand and lightly patted the side of his face, she said to him, "I'll miss you, Edward. You were a fun person to work with."
Just like that, she turned to Oswald and nodded her head at him before she disappeared.
* * *
After killing yet another follower of Jerome's, Annabelle was walking out of one of her alleyways and needed to go to Victor's apartment to talk to him about how he could help her ignore the presence of the followers, only to stop when her phone started to ring.
She pulled her phone out of her coat and said after she accepted the call, "Victor, I already told you that I'll be there. Besides, I'm almost there. It won't take long."
Her light grip on her phone tightened when she heard the familiar sound of Jerome Valeska's laughter before he asked her, "Oh, Anna, were you expecting a call from Zsaszy?"
As she eyed her surroundings with narrowed eyes, she asked him, "What do you want, Valeska? I've already told you and those damn staff members at Arkham that I'm never visiting you."
He replied, "Oh, I know you're not, Anna, but that's not why I called."
She asked him, "If that's not why you called me, then why did you call me?"
He told her, "Oh, I wanted to talk to you about my dwindling followers that keep saying that they see you killing off the others and their informants."
She replied, "I don't see the problem in doing that. You said not to harm or kill you. You said nothing about doing anything to your followers."
He said to her, "Well, I figured it would've been obvious that they were off limits as well. After all, what kind of great leader of a cult would I be, if I let you kill them all?"
She retorted, "Well, perhaps you should have said that, prior to the dozens of phone calls I received from Arkham. I mean, after all, for someone who's apparently as brilliant as you were before you were killed, you would have known better than to not specify all of the things you wanted me to not do."
He chuckled as he said to her, "Oh, Anna, Anna, Anna. You always manage to find some sort of loophole in the deals or promises you make. Did you know that that was what I always liked about you, ever since that day Galavan made you promise that you wouldn't hurt me? Which, of course, didn't do much because you compelled a group of people to do it for you. Do you remember that, Anna?"
She replied, "Of course I remember. That was one of the best days of my life, seeing the supposed leader of the Maniax being beaten by the people I compelled into doing as I wanted. If it were up to me and you didn't constantly have the threat towards Victor held over my head, I'd be sure to do that all over again."
He replied, "I know you would, which is why I need you to stop going after my followers before I have the group's that watching him pace around in his apartment kill him inside of his own living room."
Her veins came onto display and her free hand had clenched into a fist as she said, "You do that, and I'll kill them all before killing you in a far more gruesome manner than I'd do to them. And it wouldn't be a quick death, either. Oh, no. It'd be a far and all too painful death that I would enjoy more than any other kill I've made in my one-thousand years as a vampire."
He sighed as he said to her, "Oh, Anna, you have nothing to worry, so long as you leave them alone, okay?"
She clenched her jaw as she said to him, "Fine. Is there anything else you'd like to say, or do you plan on continuously annoying me just by hearing the mere sound of your voice and your damn laugh?"
He laughed before he said to her, "No, that'll be all, Anna."
Before she could threaten him once more, the call had ended.
After quickly shoving the phone back into her coat, she let out a frustrated scream and stopped walking.
She turned to the wall that was closest to her, without so much as a care for who would see what she was doing, before she repeatedly threw punch after punch into the wall.
The more punches she threw, the louder her screams would become.
It wasn't until she stopped punching the wall and fell onto her knees that she let out a sob.
After burying her face into her bleeding hands, her sobs grew louder.
She hated that she had one more person that still held a threat over Victor's head, since word had spread about Barbara Kean's sudden disappearance.
She didn't know how much longer she could handle having someone threaten Victor's life.
All she knew was that no matter how much she wished to not do as he wanted, she had to abide by his wishes.
She had to do everything she could to ensure Victor's safety, even if it meant lessening her pride by allowing Jerome Valeska of all people to hold his threat for Victor over her head.
She would obediently do what he wanted, no matter what he wanted done, so long as it meant that Victor wasn't hurt in the process.
And that was just how Annabelle was.
If anyone that had the power to hurt someone that could be killed with ease had a threat held over the head of someone she loved, she would do anything for them.
And for that, Annabelle was cursed.
She had a tendency to love a person too much once she let them in, and that was what ruined her.
It ruined her when Atticus and William died.
Now it was possible that the probable death of Victor Zsasz would destroy her the most.
Because after all, there was no man outside of her family that she loved like she loved Victor Zsasz.