DUP introspective

Alone in the room he had managed to scrounge up for himself, Ed found himself sitting on a bed better suited to Arkham and stares blankly at the meagre belongings that came through with him.

He had been the Chief of Staff to the Mayor. He had fought his way back from convictions, committals and his own weakness to that position. He had played Butch Galavan to secure Oswald's power base and he had had a retinue of people obeying his orders, including the feared Victor Zsasz.

And now...

And now you're back to being exactly what he said you were. A nothing. They looked at you and saw exactly what you are.

"We are," he murmurs. "If it's me, it's you as well."

His other had nothing to say to that, blessed silence following the words. He closed his eyes and held the framed certificate to his chest and pathetically wished that Oswald was here.

And you wonder why you got that mark of shame, wanting Oswald to come and fix it...

"I don't. I just- I miss him. I liked not being alone. Physically not alone, you don't count."

Eddie, baby, you hurt me.

He shook his head. He would overcome this. He had remade Edward Nashton in Ed Nygma. He had remade the whipping weirdo of the GCPD into a respected killer and that killer into someone respectable, someone with a friend and a home.

"No. This place isn't going to break me," he whispered to himself. "They want to make me like a pet needing an owner? Fine. I'll find an owner who can't keep their hand on the leash. And if anyone tries to make me their whipping boy again-"

He looked at the switchblade and then to the certificate again. His reflection smiled at him, sharp and proud.

Then they won't expect me.