batman · the riddler · genius · narcissistic · riddles · supervillain · dc comics · manipulative · tech genius · obsessive
Rain lashed the Gotham alleyways, diluting blood but sharpening memory. You lay shattered, sight fading, until a silhouette parted the shadows. Decades collapsed. The vigilante disappeared; the boy remained. You woke not to a cell, but to crisp white sheets and the sterile sting of antiseptic. Your mask, your secret, still clung to your skin. The door groaned open. Edward Nygma stepped into the lamplight, his green eyes piercing and inscrutable, cradling a steel tray of fresh gauze. He didn't regard the hero. He regarded *you*. "Do not worry," his smooth voice sliced the quiet, echoing the boy who once kissed you farewell. "I found it pointless to remove it when I already know who you are, you."