"I cannot force you to see the magic of us, unless you choose to feel the spell we are under."
- M. Firechild
"How did you survive?" Ed asked still in shock as he looked between Oswald and Charlotte.
"In shooting us, Ed, you gave us something to live for," Oswald answered while holding onto the bars which separated him from Ed. "Revenge".
"And you also gave us something to bond over," Charlotte told him, also holding onto the bars. "You made mine and Oswald's friendship even stronger, Ed".
Ed looked at them suspiciously. "Yes Unless..." His voice faded and he hit both Oswald and Charlotte in the head.
"What the...?" Charlotte asked as she rubbed her forehead in confusion.
Oswald was also confused and angry that Ed had hit him. "What?"
"Just making sure you're real," Ed explained. He rubbed his eyes and then adjusted his glasses.
Not long after Ed shot them, he started taking some pills. Every time he took them, he would see both Charlotte and Oswald. There was even a time when he saw them singing and Charlotte almost kissed him, but of course, that couldn't happen cause she was nothing but a hallucination. It left him craving for it though and Ed hated it. How could the mere hallucination of her make him feel like that? He was the Riddler. He was not weak. Ed was the weak one.
"Wow, you are difficult to kill," Ed complained and turned to Oswald. "More cockroach than penguin". Then he glanced at Charlotte. "But don't you dare call me Ed. I'm the Riddler. And I became him when I killed you two".
"News flash, Ed!" Oswald shouted with a mocking expression. "We're not dead!"
"That's true," Ed said, his eyes full of mischief. "For now".
"I came back from the dead to kill you, Ed," Oswald told him threateningly.
Ed smiled. "And ended up a prisoner yourself".
Oswald turned his back to Ed and went to lean against the bars on the other side of the birdcage. "You really think a little steel and concrete is gonna stop me? The way I see it, I have you just where I want you".
"Perhaps," Ed smiled again and patted the iron bars before stepping back from them. "But not for long".
Charlotte was sure Ed had already planned a way out. He was Edward Nygma after all. He was just waiting for the perfect opportunity to put his plan into motion.
The blonde woman sat down on the bench at the center of the cage. She was angry to know those men had actually taken off her clothes and dressed her in a dark gray jumpsuit like Oswald and Ed's.
Suddenly, the door on the other side of the room opened and the two men dressed in black walked in, placed metal trays in front of the cages and left without a word.
Charlotte's eyes wondered over to Oswald who had sat on the floor and taken a razor blade from his sock. He was sharpening it against the iron bars and stood that way for a while. Charlotte stared in his general direction but her mind was planning what she could do to get out of that hellhole.
"You're making your blade too thin," Charlotte heard Ed laugh. "It's gonna snap off when you try to stab me".
"Well, we'll soon find out, won't we, Edward?" Oswald said, not stopping what he was doing.
Ed glared at Oswald. "I told you not to call me that".
Oswald finally stopped sharpening his blade and turned back to look at Ed. "What? Edward? But that's your name, Edward. Edward. Edward, Edward, Edward, Edward, Edward, Edward, Edward-"
"Enough!" Ed shouted furiously. "You're both pathetic, you know that? At least I'm in here because I was trying to figure out who runs Gotham. You are here because what? I didn't love you back? Get over it".
Charlotte was trying really hard not to snap at him. Not that Ed didn't deserve it, but she knew there was no use in yelling at him, so she held on tightly to the bench until her knuckles turned white.
Oswald, however, stood up and faced Ed. "No. You did not love me back, but that's not why I'm here. I'm here because you destroyed the empire I built. I'm here because you shot me". Ed chuckled after the last sentence, but Oswald didn't back down. "And no one does what you did and lives".
"Well, good luck exacting revenge when I'm gone," Ed mocked with a laugh.
"Oh, please. Make one move to escape and I call the guards," Oswald warned as he walked up to grab his cup of coffee from the tray.
"I assumed as much," Ed said as he saw Oswald take a sip from the coffee. "Which is why I bribed the guards to poison your coffee".
Oswald immediately spat out the coffee and turned to Ed with a furious expression while Ed laughed amusedly. "You're lying!"
"Oswald, he's just trying to get to you," Charlotte warned her friend while glancing at Ed with an emotionless expression. "Ignore him".
The emotionless look on her face while looking at him left Ed with a pang in his heart. Once again he hated himself for feeling this way. He was stronger than that, so he did his best not to let it show. Instead, he rolled something on a piece of paper. "Yes, I am, but I did steal a dart from the guards a couple days ago. Was planning on using it on them, but..." His voice faded as he took the paper to his mouth and blew it in Oswald's direction.
The dart hit its target right in the neck and Oswald shouted out in pain. "Ow!"
"Ed!" Charlotte glared at him, but he only let out a loud laugh.
Charlotte sent a concerned look at Oswald, but he seemed fine when he pulled the dart from his neck and threw it against the bars. "You're gonna have to do a lot better than that-" But suddenly he felt like he couldn't breathe and he fell on his knees choking. Charlotte wanted to help him, but there was nothing she could do from her cage.
Ed took advantage of that moment and picked the iron padlock on the door. Oswald asked for help, but his voice was nothing but a whisper.
But Ed's undoing was thinking Charlotte would never call the guards herself. However, that's exactly what she did. She started shouting for them to come while banging her fists on the iron bars. "Guards! He's trying to escape! Guards".
"Hey! What are you doing? Stop that!" Ed growled at her in desperation, but she kept on calling the guards. Then Oswald, who even gasping for breath, grabbed his tray of food and hit it on the floor, creating a loud metallic sound. "Stop! Stop that. Stop it!"
The guards opened the door, ready to reprimand them for all the noise they were making, but then they saw Ed out of his cage and charged at him with batons in hand. They shoved him to the floor and started hitting him over and over again with the batons.
Ed cried out in pain, but Charlotte just stared at him. She once felt sad that she and Oswald were going after him to get revenge, but now all that sadness was gone. He deserved it for being such an asshole. Ivy was right. She deserved far better than that.
After a few hits, Ed stopped screaming and his mind went far away back to the day he finally made a name for himself. Perhaps it was some sort of defense mechanism so his body would support the pain.
Oswald was screaming at him, mad that Ed was trying to find a new mentor to help him on his path of crime. Oswald stood there with his suit dripping and filled with seaweed. Charlotte was there too, sat at the dining table. Her coat also drenched in water and her blonde hair fell wet down her shoulders. He had to admit she still looked beautiful.
"I showed you how to be Ed Nygma, a man who could run the underworld and operate in plain sight," Oswald was telling Ed while he put up his green suit. "What you are planning is madness".
Ed turned to Oswald with a glare. "No. It's a way forward. And the fact that it scares you gives me all the confirmation I need".
"Ed, you are not sleeping. You are taking drugs. You are having a conversation with your dead friend and dead ex-girlfriend. Just admit that you are lost without us or you will destroy everything!" Oswald kept shouting at him.
"I have to go," Ed told. He had invited Lucius Fox for a game of wits. Well, that was if he deciphered his riddle first.
Ed was going to leave, but Charlotte called for him before he could reach the door. "Ed, wait!". He stopped and looked back but this time she wasn't sitting at the dining table and Oswald wasn't standing there anymore either.
Now a red light was coming from the other end of the dining room where they stood. Oswald wore a black and white tuxedo with a white bow tie. Charlotte stood beside him in a white shirt and a black skirt that reached the middle of her thighs.
"What are you doing?" Ed asked as a melody started playing in the background. Then Charlotte and Oswald started singing.
"He's fierce in my dreams
Seizing my guts
He floats me with dread".
Ed took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes to get rid of that crazy hallucination. But when he opened his eyes, Charlotte and Oswald were still singing and sending sensual looks his way.
"Soaked in soul
He swims in my eyes by the bed".
Oswald held a tall hat in his hand and rubbed its edges as he sang. Charlotte leaned her back against Oswald and stared at Ed with those blue eyes he loved so much. The way her red lips moved and her hands slid down her body was enough to send Ed into a spiral of madness. He had to slap himself in the face to stop his thoughts.
"Pour myself over him
Moon spilling in
And I wake up alone".
Ed was finally able to get a hold of himself and he hit his hands on the table. "Enough!"
Charlotte and Oswald finally stopped singing and were back to their wet clothes filled with dirt from the Gotham river.
"I admit that killing you killed a part of me!" Ed confessed, pointing a finger at both of them. "But I will find a way forward no matter the cost. I will be born anew! And I will leave you behind".
"Penguin saw you, Ed. He made you!" Oswald shouted aggressively. "There is no Ed Nygma without the Penguin!"
"Go away!" Ed shouted back and closed his eyes tightly.
Everything went silent and Ed opened his eyes again. To his surprise, Oswald was gone but Charlotte was still there. She was back in that same dress she was wearing when she sang with Oswald. Ed gasped and gulped at how close Charlotte was to him.
"Did you like my singing?" She asked as she rested a hand on his chest. Her eyes never left his own. "Say the truth, Eddie. There's no use in lying to me".
"Yes," Ed answered without thinking and she smiled. He realized what he said and shook his head. "No. No, I did not li-". He wasn't able to finish his sentence because the same melody from before continued playing and Charlotte sang.
"If I was my heart
I'd rather be restless
The second I stop the sleep catches up and I'm breathless".
Charlotte's hand started sliding down his chest slowly and she leaned forward to sing close to his lips. He could even feel her breath brush against his lips. Ed gulped again but he wasn't able to take his eyes away from Charlotte.
"'Cause this ache in my chest
'Cause my day is done now
The dark covers me and I cannot run now".
Charlotte leaned even closer to Ed's lips and as she sang the next verse, he could feel them brush lightly against his.
"My blood running cold
I stand before him
It's all I can do to assure him.
When he comes to me tonight
I drip for him tonight
drowning me
we bathe under blue light".
A blue light came out of nowhere and filled the room around them. Charlotte looked down at Ed's lips while biting her lower lip. Ed could swear she was going to kiss him, so he closed his eyes and waited to feel her lips against his.
When that feeling never came, he opened them again and just like that Charlotte was gone and he was alone again.
***
A/N: Amy Winehouse was the singer of this beautiful song and may she rest in peace. This also goes to the legend called Stan Lee who passed away two days ago. I respect him a lot as well as all the comic book characters he created. I will miss you forever, Stan. Thank you both you and Amy for everything <3