Who: Eddie, Stephanie (part two!) When: Backdated to the day before secret Valentines were sent out Where: Tunnels -> Lazarus Pit What: Explorin tunnels Warnings: swearing, talkin bout sad stuff.
“Is that a bad wow or a good wow?” He laughed, a little nervous, too. His mind never got a very good response from his teachers or schoolmates and this newfound space technology was an extension of that. A power that was strange, unpredictable and a little scary.
“Mac, give us some light.” Ping! White globs of light the size of pebbles flickered awake and filled the air. They puttered around the abandon city like a family of fireflies. Eddie reached out to touch one, squeezing the glob between his fingers until it squeaked. He looked up to smile and Stephanie and walked over to her, pulling out a handkerchief from his suit to wipe the blood off her face.
Eddie gave her a look to ask if her nose was broken and then kissed her once the blood was dotted away. “Your lips taste like aquarium water.” He teased with a mock-romantic Italian accent, handing her the bloody handkerchief and then put his hands on his hips and looked up and around. Eddie was still in awe. Not just of Machina, but how well she worked with his mind. He could summon matchbook golems with riddles? Was it even real or just an illusion?
“It’s a...it’s a wow.” Stephanie stood still for a few seconds, still a little shell-shocked about the Goosebumps-esque monster that he (and Mac) had materialized from thin air. “A good wow, I think.” The globes of light floating overhead earned a smile, something awed and charmed. Her mouth slacked open, and she blinked a few times until the night vision was turned off, and she could take the sight in fully. It would almost be romantic down there if it weren’t for the blood smeared on her lip or her soaked suit or the winded burn in her chest from the thrill of a fight.
Her smile turned a little hazed. “How many times have we had busted noses together now? It’s turning into a thing,” she teased, eyes trailing him wiping her nose up. She pressed lightly to the bridge of her nose before shaking her head. A little swollen, but no real damage. Maybe a bruise later, but that would make her look tough, right? “You’re lucky, baby. You won’t have to look at an ugly broken mug this time.” And when he kissed her, she sighed happily, gloved fingers wrapping into his blazer and tugging him closer. Smirking against his lips, she nipped at his bottom lip. “You taste like burnt hard-drives or whatever alien tech tastes like.” Arms slinging easily around his neck, she looked around as well.
“Impressive,” she said softly, smiling as she looked around at the decrepit city. And, she was impressed. Awestruck in the way that he never got from those teachers or the other students, but he always drew it out of her. After a couple of moments of admiration, she looked back at him. “How the hell can you both do all this?”
“Good, my New Year’s resolution was for neither of us to break our noses. Don’t make me invest in a nose guard. I’ll do it.” He watched her look around the ruined city and up at the floating globs of light and smiled. Even down in the bowels of Gotham, Stephanie made him feel safe in a way no one else could. Eddie closed his eyes and leaned his head into her shoulder, getting lost in the feeling just for a moment. Just long enough that he could remember it whenever he felt doubt about himself. When she asked how they did it, he pulled his head back and tilted his head in thought. “I think she’s tapped into power that can manipulate matter, which basically boils down to magic. She’s probably capable of anything.” But, he and Steph both knew it wasn’t about what she could do. It was about what he and Machina could do in collaboration.
“I uh, I riddled actually. I saw you getting clobbered and I usually have my fire cane with me, but I didn’t bring it tonight. So, I just thought of an old riddle about matches and then imagined a fire monster and blamo.” He was a little ashamed it came down to his compulsion. On the other hand, if this was how Machina wanted to work, then it could actually help him keep his mind without having to leave the riddles by the wayside. “She’s really good at riddles, apparently.”
He smiled, kissed her cheek and then stepped away from her, checking their location on his glasses before pointing in a far off direction. “Pit’s that way. Let’s get moving.” Eddie started to climb over catwalks and rubble, occasionally making a iicccckk noise when he managed to step into some dirty water. The globs of light slowly floating after them, squeaking and sticking to Stephanie out of affection.
Her hand floated up, slipping briefly into his hair as he rested his head on her shoulder, but fell away when he looked back up. Resting, for a moment, at the base of his neck before falling away all together. She appreciated when their affection was so easy and natural even in their Gotham purple and green. Most times, it felt like a barrier they could only hope to overcome instead of just extensions of them. Stephanie and Eddie could get lost so easily between the Gotham mess, but right now, Wonder City was just emphasizing how well they worked together. That they needed to continue all of this just the way they started -- as partners.
“At least someone around here is good at your riddles,” Stephanie replied with a smile, not bitter much at all when people got his riddles but she needed to have them spelled out for her. Cut her some slack, the thing was an alien supercomputer. Besides, part of her charm had to be her less than expertise in his riddles. It just emphasized them working out things together, instead of playing a continuous guessing game that threw them both into a loop of riddles and question marks. “You’re both capable of anything, apparently.” She rubbed her hand over her chin and mouth in thought. “If--when you learn how to really use it? It could be wonderful, baby.” And while she sounded more sure of Mac than she had ever before, a small dash of worry still lingered in her blue eyes. How could something so powerful not eventually cause trouble for them? The fact was, it probably would.
She nodded, following him down the path and watching the lights trail behind them, then surround them with the wide-eyed wonder of a little girl meeting her favorite Disney princess for her first time. Wrinkling her nose in amusement every time one of the blobs landed on her, she giggled quietly when a dot landed right on the tip. “These things are getting handsy, baby.” Her quiet voice echoed through the spacious city as she walked more steadily than he did. Combat boots made for the perfect kind of ‘exploring an abandoned city’ footwear. She didn’t even feel the splash of the dirty, disgusting water through kevlar and heavy shoes.
“If I get freaked in there, don’t be surprised.” It’d been over a year since she’d seen a hue of that green, and she wasn’t sure how she would react then. Hopefully without nausea, without the panic or fear it used to cause her.
As they walked, the buildings became more sparse and the water turned into rolling underground rapids. Eddie found a ladder, tested his weight on it and then climbed up onto a familiar walkway that he had built himself. “This is how meow face and I got here the first time.” And, that brought back memories. Before he loved Stephanie, Eddie still wanted to see if he was capable of it. If he could look all the answers to Gotham’s downfall in the eye and still say no. His walkways were made out of sturdy metal scavenged from abandoned ships and old landfills. They stuck out in contrast to the rusting, feeble antiquity of the Wonder City around them. Eddie thought that was kind of funny. His industrial punk style somehow being the most modern thing about him while the rest of his soul was frequently caught decades ago.
“I haven’t been in there for a while.” He admitted. “After Muerte thought it was a good idea to go wading in green goop and got herself killed I just didn’t have the guts. So, if we both get freaked out than no one has to know.” Eddie was the keeper of this green heart of Gotham, after all. If someone got hurt because of it, then it was his fault, right? More faulty logic from the man in green.
The walkways split up into different directions, all of them actually not leading towards the pit at all. Eddie pointed across the way to a tiny, broken apartment hanging off a cliffside and turned to her sheepishly. “Steph, uh, can you jump over there and then catch my scrawny ass if I don’t make the jump, too?” He rocked back and forth on his feet and shrugged. Machina wouldn’t make him a bridge if she didn’t have to. She was a machine of necessity.
Stephanie admired the more modern touches, clearly his handiwork, and ran her fingers across any bit of metal she could reach as they were walking. It was a funny little picture, the Riddler leading the charge and Batgirl trailing behind with globs of light bouncing off her now and then and a childlike glee at this city that used to be infested with Talons. The memory of Talons lurched her stomach, causing her to bite down on her lip to get rid of the tiny bit of guilt and mourning over Damian. Her little baby bird who had explored these tunnels at some point, too, but for completely different reason. So, when Eddie mentioned Muerte’s ‘accident’ and Stephanie rumbled out a noise, it was partially because of that, and partially because of the grief still boiling under her skin. It wouldn’t ever go away, that feeling of loss and longing, but there were good days and bad days.
Glad that Eddie knew where they were going, she gladly followed him in whatever direction they needed to go, and her gaze went out across the gap to where he pointed. “Can I jump over there?” she asked as if it was the silliest thing in the world, pointing the same direction he did. A pssshhhaaa and a roll of her eyes were his answer. Pecking his cheek with a quick kiss, she pressed her grapple gun in his hand. “In case you’re really worried, baby.” She motioned for him to give her some space, then backed up enough to give herself a running start. A quick, cheeky wave and she bolted, leaping over the gap and sailing through the blown-out hole in the wall of the apartment. She landed with a stumble, knocking over an ancient armchair left in the rubble and kicking up a mixture of dust and mold.
Turning back, she gave Eddie a thumb’s up and a grin. “C’mon, baby, I’ll catch you just like a Prince Charming should,” she teased over the comm before waving him over with big gestures of her arms.
Eddie gave an exaggerated frown. “I constructed the hidden entrance so no one could make the leap! Or even think about making the leap! Bats and their stupid sexy athletic ability thinking they own my sewers.” He ranted as she took a couple steps back and made the running leap, inhaling sharply as she hit the air and then exhaling in relief when she made it. “Hah! You stumbled! See? My- alright I need to get my head on straight if I’m going to do this.” Eddie held up his hand as if to ask for a moment of silence while he concentrated and stepped back, squinted and then made the jump, arms flailing to grab onto her, fingers gripping onto her shin as he just barely managed to hold onto the edge.
The little green man scrambled to safety, flopping on the dusty floorboards of the ancient apartment as he looked up at Stephanie dramatically, arms flailed out as if he had just jumped farther than any man alive. “I hate you, Stephanie Brown. You make it look so easy.” He huffed, glimmers of affection in his eyes as he turned over and crawled to the wall on the other side of the room. Wobbling to his feet, he lifted a trinket on a table, flipped a light switch, adjusted a painting and then a panel in the wall popped open to reveal a keypad.
Maybe the greenman couldn’t leap over a deep ravine, but he was damned good at hiding things. He punched in the code, did a handprint recognition on a nearby painting of the Cobblepot family and then the wall opened to reveal a marble stairway. “M’lady.” Eddie wiggled his eyebrows at Stephanie, gesturing for her to step inside first.
The stairway was lit with a pulsing green liquid shooting through glass tubes along the sides of the wall and across the ceiling. While the rest of Wonder City crumbled, there was a pristine feeling that resembled the inside of a temple. Up the stairs, the sound of electricity snapped the air and a green light poured forward. The Lazarus Pit smelled of ancient salt and foreign sands, churning in its pool. The floor was made of the same dark marble with a circular design cut into the ground. Suddenly, it didn’t really feel like they were in Gotham anymore.
“Nooo you doooon’t,” Stephanie sing-songed, rocking on her heels to and fro with an innocent smile on her face. “Besides, you’re the brilliant, handsome brains of this operation, baby. I’ve got to contribute somehow.” A rare moment lacking hubris when she was in the suit; the suit made her feel strong. Safe. Better. While he fiddled around in the broken down apartment, she sleuthed around a little bit. Picking up trinkets here and there, inspecting paintings, running gloved fingers over dusty bookshelves. Eventually, she made her way over to where Eddie stood and peered over his shoulder as he pressed his hand to the painting. An impressed noise rumbled in her throat, and she pressed a kiss to that spot between his jaw and earlobe before slowly stepping inside.
If she looked hesitant at any point before during the night, it was nothing compared to this. As she ascended the stairs, her shoulders stiffened, and her heavy boots suddenly felt like lead. Her knees shook with every step. It was slow moving up that marble staircase, and she barely thought about the green tubes surrounding them or how clean and almost modern it all looked. Mostly, she was arrested by that green light as it drew her forward like some kind of sick siren call. The smell of sulfur and sand had her stomach turning slightly, and she swallowed hard to keep her dinner down.
As she reached the top of the stairs, the blonde bat almost shivered in fear, and she didn’t stop her hand from instinctively going to reach for his. There it was, in its bright, luridly green glory, bubbling in its pool. The electricity that kept it alive seemed to crackle all around them, and Stephanie dared a few more steps to bring her closer. She frowned deeply as she stared down into the abyss of green and resurrection. “So this--,” she started, but had to stop. Clearing her throat, she let his hand fall suddenly. “This is where you--you brought Dick back. Where she dipped in.” Steph had never seen a Lazarus Pit so bright and almost, if it were possible, more wrong than the others. When she’d helped Damian bring Jason back -- another memory that brought a twinge to her stomach -- well, that pit felt crude compared to this one.
Eddie had opted to go after Stephanie with the simple idea of being at her back if she needed support. It was a lot easier for her to make a run for it if he was still leading the charge, right? The truth was that the Pit itself didn’t get to him at all. He had dunked into it before, hell he even ate some once. But, it did carry some extra weight after the past year. Bringing back Grayson wasn’t the best choice he had ever made and thinking about Muerte testing her mortality here made his blood boil a little bit. He could hear the kitty cat’s voice in his head remind him that the toxin made people do what they wanted. So kissing him, hurting Stephanie and then killing herself? Muerte was a ball of dramatics even a man like himself didn’t understand.
When Stephanie let his hand go, he walked away from her, circling the marks on the ground with his hands in his pockets. Thinking. “This is the one. It’s an eternal pit. Ra’s pumped electricity into it and then distributed the Pit as an energy source around the city. But, guess what? It made everyone crazy. His shoes clicked on the smooth ground. Click, click. “The same one I ate. The same one I poured on your head. The same one that saved kitty cat’s life. We’re all connected by that green right there.” He pointed and then wandered a little closer to the edge of the pool to sit down.
He leaned his head back to look at her, hands planted on the floor as he legs stretched out. “I’ve thought about destroying it. Researched it even. But, it involves explosions and just the thought of the green stuff raining down on the city scares the shit out of me.”
Stephanie hadn’t ever considered how much they were all connected to this pool of green goop before her. Everyone in their circle, in one way or another, had been affected by the pit. Some of them, including herself and Eddie, directly. Staring at the unnatural shade of green, she remembered vividly the way it dripped down her head, slipping down her face and sneaking into her mouth. She remembered the sting on her tongue, the burn on her face, the rage that boiled in her veins as Eddie slipped off into the Gotham night and the goop soaked into her skin. That was over a year ago. Some days, it felt like decades. Others, like right then and there, made it feel like yesterday. The rage didn’t return, but the fear still lingered in her bones, floating up now that she stood so close to it.
While Eddie circumvented the marks in the marble, she started circling the pool itself, giving it a wide breadth as if it would jump out of the pool and drag her in if given the chance. She looked horrified every now and then while she stared in at the pit. Flickers of fear, of remembrance, of hatred, of confusion. A plethora of emotions slipped across her face, each one only for a second before giving way to the next all in a strange sort of cycle as it settled in on her. Where his shoes click, clicked, hers thump, thunked around in slow, deliberate steps until she reached Eddie again. Lounging at the side like they were back in Hawaii and just by the hotel pool for some sun. She was frowning again. Not at him, but the green glow behind him.
Inching forward quietly and painfully slow, she sunk to her knees about half a foot behind Eddie and just to his left. She pulled off the cowl from her face, not thinking if anyone could see her or not, and sat there for a moment on the heels of her shoes, hands in her lap. Blonde hair tousled and blue eyes wide, wide, wide.
“It doesn’t seem right,” she muttered suddenly, almost lost under the hum of electricity. “That something like this could affect us all so much. That we can’t get rid of it.” She didn’t like the idea of this shit raining on Gotham either, and she knew it wasn’t an option to destroy it. Oh, she wished it was, but there was no way in heaven or hell that this one was going anywhere. That motherfucker Ra’s, even if he wasn’t with them anymore, gave them all one final thing to make sure the suffering would never really end.
Her hands braced her as she leaned her torso forward to look closer. It was putrid, the smell and the sight, and she popped back up again. Hand covering her mouth as if she were going to vomit. She could feel it burning again, she swore she could. What she hated more though? The distant, whispering thought in the back of her mind wondering if this super pit could have saved Damian.
Eddie watched her intently, recognizing the pain even if he wasn’t feeling it at the same time. He had gotten a lot better at empathy since Damian died. He couldn’t feel sadness for the bird’s death, but he could hold her and make her feel like what she was going through was important to him. Because it was. “Some bad things never go away no matter how hard you try.” Eddie said distantly in that Gotham tone she knew so well and then watched her inch closer to the pool. When she dipped down close to it, his legs twitched like he was going to jump up and pull her away. And, wasn’t that funny? A man who could cannonball into the Lazarus Pit right now felt the need to keep his lady love far away.
He bit down as she examined it and then inched over to pull her closer to him once she popped back up. “Want to know a secret.” Eddie asked, scooting away from the pit, fingers tugging on her batsuit to get her to come along with him. “I promised the Dark Knight’s Vegas-side that I’d pit him if he died over here. And, I thought when I made the promise I’d go through with it. Because it makes sense. Luke has a family. I’d never want some kid to go through losing a parent.”
The green man sighed, running his hand through his messy, curly black hair and looked up at the dark ceiling. A single glob of light had managed to follow them into the Lazarus Pit. It floated up and up until it couldn’t be seen in the glow of green. “But, uh. I can’t do it. Even if I haven’t made up my mind if I want to be pitted if something- you know happens. I can’t do it to Bruce. They’d have to put a fucking gun to my head.” He laughed mirthlessly and sighed, looking to her. Feeling a little weak for not being that perfect grey area he was supposed to be.
She whined, and then said mirthlessly, “Well, that’s true. I guess I’d be out of a job if all the bad shit went away.” Still, she rubbed her eyes tiredly, exhausted as usual from all the goddamn awful things in this city. Wishing so desperately that for once, she could just blink and this pit problem would be solved. “There’s no off switch?” she asked with a hollow tease as she caught that twitch of his leg. Her eyebrow raised, but she didn’t say anything. For fuck’s sake, she wasn’t Muerte with her suicidal dramatics and not-so-veiled threats. Her mouth twitched down for a second in a disappointed frown before he started tugging her back.
Sliding back slowly away from the pool, Stephanie didn’t slip her arms around up, but she did turn her body to look at him better. Eyes widening further if possible as he went on. All she could say was, “oh,” at first. Shocked a little that Bruce’s Vegas counterpart would have the balls to ask Eddie something so trying and frankly pretty selfish. Her gaze didn’t follow the glow of the blob of light, but instead went back to that green glow again. “That’s fucking selfish of him,” she said after a few moments, knees up and arms hugging them. She rested her chin on top of the kevlar-clad knees as she stared off. “It really is.” Maybe it wasn’t a very hero-like thing to say, but she found it so fucking selfish of Luke to ask that.
“Didn’t he think about Bruce and what would happen to him here?” Frowning, she turned, cheek resting on her knees now as she looked at her riddled man. “I just--no. I couldn’t ever do that either. That’s so selfish of him to ask you, Eddie.” After a second or two of looking at him, she turned back to the pit. “Would you do it to anyone else if something happened?” Translation: would he do it to her? It was a very valid question, one she knew he would have definitely said yes to a year ago. He had done so a year ago.
Before he could respond though, she hummed a little in thought. “The only thing that can kill Death, huh.” There was a crack of a mirthless laugh from her, too. One little sound, more like a scoff than anything, and she wasn’t smiling at all. No, she didn’t seem happy about that thought at all.
“He’s got kids.” Eddie said simply. He didn’t know the first thing about having a good father, but Eddie knew if he had a family he’d be selfish for them. People might get hurt in the process. People could even get killed. It didn’t matter to Eddie. If he had a family, there’d be no end of sacrificing and selfishness for them. “I lost my mom at a young age. She could have saved me from my father- hell my father probably wouldn’t have ended up the way he did if she didn’t die. Yeah, it’s wrong of Luke to ask me to do something like that, but I get it.” That didn’t mean Eddie was going to throw away all that hard earned trust to help a family he didn’t know. So who was selfish now?
He sighed and looked at her. Considering her question and the statement about Death after it. Eddie gave her a look like she wasn’t going to get away with asking him something like that and then jumping past it. “No, I came up with a new rule. If someone doesn’t want to be pitted, I’m not going to do it. And, I know you’re not a big fan of the green stuff so I’d-” Eddie shrugged, refusing to finish that thought process. “Would you pit me if I asked you to? Even if I came out a different guy? Or with my head messed up?” That was a riddle he couldn’t figure out. The Pit made him see clearly. It fixed all the mazes in his brain and illuminated the world. In concept it sounded beautiful, but truly it just turned him into a sharp, deadly monster. Eddie without his humanity wasn’t something anyone should have to see.
“As for Muerte. Yes, this is the only thing that can kill her. See, if Jason Todd was smart he’d hang me by my toes and torture me until I told him how to murder her.” Eddie said brightly, all smarmy arrogance. Then he sobered. “I think it’d kill her for real this time. I think there was something about firebombing my bunker with her in it that- I don’t know. Did something. So, if you want to blame anyone for bringing her back, you may direct your complaints to me.” He rolled his hand in the air and did a half bow.
Stephanie knew about being selfish for family, and she knew about parents that couldn’t really be selfish at all for their children. So, maybe part of her didn’t understand what it was like to be a parent like that, and maybe she was just too moral to want to dip herself in something like that. She experienced first hand the burn the goop seeped into someone’s body, and she saw how Jason’s eyes gleamed after he was ripped back from the afterlife. She just shook her head in the end, pursing her lips like she didn’t know how to respond to that. And, she didn’t. Stephanie didn’t know the answer to that riddle.
Turning back to him, she drew her elbow to lean on her knees, and she cradled her mouth in the palm of her hand. The slow rise of her eyebrows spoke of her surprise and admiration for his new stance on the pit. Truthfully, if the moment happened, and she was feeling particularly selfish and weak, she had no idea what she would decide. But, she did hate the green stuff, more than she hated almost anything in this godforsaken city. Her eyebrows fell down quickly, and she watched him for a minute. “Is that what you want?” she asked softly, knowing he would never be as scared of it as she was. There was a long, lingering hesitation. “If that’s what you want--.” She bit her lip because again, she didn’t know if she could do it. If she was brave enough to throw him in it, or weak enough to make the decision to do it in the first place.
She shook her head. “It’s not your fault,” Stephanie implored yet again, legs falling to stretch out and hands pressing to her lips as she shuddered out a sigh. “None of what she did, what she does is your fault, Eddie. I hate how you blame yourself for everything she does. I get why you do it. Like, fundamentally, I can see where you’re coming from, but I hate it so fucking much.”
Eddie felt like he was saying he didn’t know more and more lately. After Machina showed up, he had to start getting comfortable with something he never liked: knowing that he didn’t have all the answers. Truthfully, he didn’t see himself getting killed anytime soon. He always managed to live through the worst, even when the rest of the city was dropping dead around him. Eddie inhaled, rubbing his heels into the floor before simply shrugging at her. “I don’t know yet. The good news, baby, is that I’m damned hard to kill. The main function of a mother box is healing. That, and I’m resilient for being such a small, squishy man.” He barely smiled at her, knowing that it wasn’t going to be a source of comfort for her. But, sitting in front of the Lazarus Pit wasn’t exactly like a fireside chat in Wayne Manor.
He let that part of the conversation drop and took a moment to soak in what she was saying. He did feel guilt over Muerte. He felt like he let her down when the rest of the world only saw her as a monster. “Santa Muerte. Like the real one? Is a saint for sinners, killers, robbers. Bad guys. So, I get it in my head that she’s looking out for me because I’m a bad guy. But, she’s not the true Santa Muerte. The real one- she doesn’t need protecting.” Eddie bit his lip in thought, fingers drumming on the ground. “I’m trying to teach myself not to take the blame. Why- why do you hate it? Just because you hate her?”
And, it wasn’t a source of comfort for her that he thought he was near infallible in the face of Gotham’s ruthlessness. “We all fall victim to Gotham eventually,” she said just like she knew about that sort of heaviness. She did, after all. Discounting the shitty childhood or what happened to her in this door, there were so many things that could have killed her, too. Gunshots, bodily harm, torture and sexual assault. Sure, she made it through the other side again and again, but when would it be the last time?
“I didn’t know that,” Stephanie admitted of the real Santa Muerte being a patron saint of sorts to him. Maybe he had told her so before, but she probably buried it all under the vitriolic hatred for the other worldly entity. Sighing, she rubbed her eyes then pressed the tips of her fingers into them, the pressure giving her an anchor to the conversation and this room. “No, it’s not that. Okay, it’s partially that, but that’s not the only reason, I promise.” Her hands flopped back into her lap, but she didn’t turn to Eddie. Instead stared at the only thing that could do physical harm to Muerte. “She doesn’t deserve someone like you looking out for her. What I told her was true-- she’s selfish, Eddie.”
The blonde bat worried her bottom lip for a few moments, fiddling with her fingers in her lap. “What she did, everything that she’s done? Those were her choices, and it’s disgusting to me that someone who clearly has no regard for consequences is getting off so scott-free. Is getting someone as caring and giving as you to bend over backwards and feel guilty for things she wanted to do.” Finally, she measured a look at him, pressing her hand in her chest. “When I got infected with that toxin, did I go out and make out with someone else? Did I stop someone’s heart? Did I take a dip in that?”
Every I earned a flex of her fingers against her chest until she waved at the green pool in front of them again. “That toxin just let us do things we were already capable of. That we wanted to. And she doesn’t fucking deserve your forgiveness. I’m not even talking about me, or what she did. I’m talking about all the pain she’s put you through. Do you realize that? She’s put you through so much and all because she doesn’t consider things. She doesn’t consider you.”
Eddie pulled his legs up, arms wrapping around as his chin rested on his knees as he listened to her. His dark eyes didn’t wander over to the Lazarus Pit, they stayed right on her. On the way she ran her lip under his teeth in thought, the frustrated flick of her fingers and that long look to the green, eternal pool in front of them. He had known deep down that Stephanie and Selina were right about the toxin and there were only so many ways he could spin it. Muerte had always been kind to him. She always acted like she cared with the warmth of someone that didn’t feel Gotham at all. He really thought for so long that she was looking out for him. That she was the only friend he deserved.
And, that’s what it all came down to, right? What did Eddie Nigma deserve? The little green man folded in on himself, eyes closed as he rolled his forehead down to rest on his knees. A ball of green in a green room next to a green pool. “I guess I thought she was the only friend I really do deserve.” He said into his knees and then looked up at her. Eddie was always so good at acting like he thought he was worthy and wanted and wonderful. All of it carnival smoke and mirrors to someone who didn’t always think he deserved the life he had. “If I get to have you and a dog and this mother box and real friends, how can I say what other people deserve? How is Muerte’s actions worse than the things I’ve done? I’m never going to pay for the things that I’ve done. The people I’ve hurt. You’d never see me again if I did.”
Stephanie hadn’t always loathed Muerte. No, the blonde bat was a big fan of the lady in black, approving of Eddie’s friend because she did seem kind, sweet and warm. Someone she could trust to keep an eye on Eddie when he wasn’t safe in her arms, but Muerte violated all that trust and affection when she kissed Eddie, when she stopped Stephanie’s heart, when she guilted Eddie into thinking that was all a mistake. When she used this very pit to kill herself and then crawled into Eddie’s bunker to die. There was a lot of bitterness towards Muerte that Steph wasn’t quite sure she could ever forget. Eddie didn’t deserve a friend like that, who was selfish and manipulative.
She ran a shaky hand through her messy blonde hair, tugging at the ends as if it would help her focus. “But you do, baby, and you have got all of that. You do deserve everything. Look at how fucking hard you’ve been working over the past year and a half. Do you think that you could have had this if you hadn’t tried and worked and earned it? No,” she implored, begging him to understand that he had worked for this; Muerte never worked for anything.
“She assumes that everything should be a certain way. That we should all follow her way of living. That we should forgive her for being so manipulative and selfish. Because that was what she is, baby. She’s a manipulative, selfish bitch who guilts you and runs to you to fix all of her problems.” Steph rubbed her temple. “And, she doesn’t think she has to learn from her mistakes! That’s why you get to deserve what you have. You’re working to be better. We’re both working to be better. You learn from what you do wrong. Not yell and stomp your feet and run crying to someone.” She shot him an earnest look. “Don’t you feel like she’s dragging you down? Why did you tell me--the anon--whatever that you were pissed at her?”
Eddie pulled himself up to his feet, feeling the need to move while he listened and thought. He was typically a fidgeter, but there was something about tracing those marks on the floor with his feet, one foot after the other like a tightrope, that made him focus. He put his hands in his pockets, never wandering too far away from her as she talked, occasionally looking up and nodding at what she told him. Yes, he worked his ass off. No, Muerte never tried. She pretended she did by going half mortal, but even that was kind of a lie.
But, Eddie knew worse people than her that he liked. Harley, Ivy, the whole rogue gallery. The only difference was, of course, they didn’t pull him down with them. It was fend for yourself in Gotham. “She does drag me down. She has since she died.” Eddie said simply, voice pure and honest like he was giving the solution to a math problem. “Well I-” Eddie traced a circle on the ground with his toe and then backtracked towards Stephanie. He plopped down next to her. Close, much closer than they were before, almost as if he couldn’t go for very long without touching her. He sat at her back, his chin on her shoulder as he rubbed the side of his face into her kevlar.
“I was pissed because I know this will be an endless problem. I know that even if I go back to not speaking to her, she’ll find a way back in. She always does. And, it’ll shake up all the relationships I have. The things that I built. I’m a forgiving man, Stephanie. I believe people should be given as many chances as they need. But, the way she talked to you. Right after your brother died?” He made a humming noise, biting into the hard kevlar. “She really doesn’t give a damn about you. Does she? She doesn’t really give a damn about anyone. That pisses me off.”
Stephanie traced his movements with sluggish eyes, legs draw back up and forearms crossed on top of them. Her chin rested yet again on top of that pile of limbs, somehow looking tiny despite the bulky armor clinging to her body. It was easy to delve into the grays of Gotham when she and Eddie were on the same side, when they agreed. But, Muerte had been a touchy subject for months. The rogues would always create a little tension, and Steph would never really understand those ‘rogue politics,’ but at least they kept their distance. At least Crane didn’t drag him along to Arkham, at least Harley didn’t bring him along on wild goose chases for Joker. Muerte, though. Death wouldn’t let go.
That was the crux of the problem, wasn’t it? Muerte could claim all she wanted, but the fundamental flaw in everything was how she wouldn’t let go. She acted like the other woman in the relationship, running to Eddie any time she had a problem, or people said mean things to her. And she guilted him, and guilted him, and brought him down so far that when she stopped? He could perceive it as sweet. Warm. Giving. Stephanie didn’t think that was right. That Muerte was simply lying to him, to all of them because she whined and bitched about changing, but she never actually wanted to work for it. Eddie was proof that it was hard work that gave him everything he had in his life now. Not pouting at someone to fix everything that went wrong.
Okay, maybe Stephanie was a little biased about the entire thing, but if there was one constant threat to her life with Eddie, it wasn’t Gotham or the bats and birds anymore. It was Muerte.
Her shoulders slumped forward slightly, arms moving to wrap around her shins and chin falling between her knees. “You don’t deserve someone dragging you down like that.” She sounded worried, protective of her riddled man in face of a pervasive, omnipresent entity. Or whatever the hell Muerte was calling herself these days. Still, she smiled softly when he dug his teeth into her kevlared shoulder and slowly unraveled. Legs sliding across the dark marble until they were spread in front of her, arms falling to her sides to brace herself, body leaning back into his until she could rest the back of her head on his shoulder. “She thinks I’m the wrong one,” Stephanie murmured, eyes closing and face turning to bury her nose in the crook of his neck. She inhaled deeply, pressing a delicate kiss to the skin there.
“She does. Maybe I’m biased, but she’s done so much to so many people that I care about that I can’t just let it all go. And yes! She had no right to talk to me at all, let alone after we just lost Damian.” A couple more kisses to his neck, then his jaw before her head fell to rest her cheek on his shoulder. Angry tears pricked the corners of her eyes, and she tried so very, very hard to suppress it. “You saw the conversation. I meant every word. I don’t care. I don’t care, if she doesn’t care, then I don’t.”
The heat of angry tears against his skin and that hitch in her voice made him mad. He turned his body so he could pull her into a hug that tangled them together. It was easy to forgive Muerte when he could blame himself or the toxin. It was easy to forgive her when he believed in redemption and trying hard to make things work. But, harassing Stephanie was a step too far. He was upset that things weren’t going to get fixed with Muerte. One of the few people that he could talk honestly to when this all started. But, there was only so many times he could put Stephanie through something like this.
“Give her some of the Pit.” Eddie said seriously, voice a little darker than it normally was. “Just enough to remind her that she doesn’t get to push people around. That you know how to hurt her if she tries something with you.” He was fully aware that it wasn’t the smartest thing either of them could do and if Muerte wanted to drop both of them on the spot she could. But, it’d be more of a warning than a threat.
She inhaled deeply, the smell of his cologne and soap and the lingering scent of dirty water from below was a bit of a comfort to her. Clinging desperately to the hug, she buried her nose deeper into the crook of his neck. Arms tightening around him as she whined a little desperately. More than anything, Stephanie wished that things with Muerte would just settle themselves. Everything else might not seem so daunting if the lady in black wasn’t always hovering in the back of their minds. Her fingers dug into his shoulder blades, and she nipped at his neck a couple of times. Mumbled something about that hope that everything would just fix itself for once.
Suddenly, she stiffened, the affectionate needling of her lips on his skin stalling like she was put on pause, and she sat up quickly to look into Eddie’s dark brown eyes. “What?” she asked in surprise, hands slipping to rest around his neck and gloved thumb tracing the bits of red from her biting. “I--that is royally fucked up, baby.” It wasn’t a yes, it wasn’t a no. It was more pure shock that Eddie would suggest something like that.
He liked the sharp bites to his skin, the stinging proof of how much she wanted him. No, it didn’t really matter where they were. As long as they were together, they could build a world of their own. It just so happened that their feet would always be grounded in Gotham, a city that didn’t afford intimacy to most. So, he greedily enjoyed it every time she gave it to him. When she looked up, his eyes almost seemed black in the green glow of the room. Eddie smiled, a slow shrug of his shoulders as he stared back at her. “It is.” Of course it was fucked up. But, it was no surprise something like that came from the mind of Edward Nigma. A man who told Batman to blackmail his way to victory, a man who spent his whole life showing other people their weaknesses.
“Or you could get her tights. Show that you know why she asked for it. Ask for a peaceful truce.” His eyes lightened back to that rusted brown and he sat back on his hands, chin tilted up to look at her. “The former would destroy her. The latter would give her a reason to be nice to you.” Ping! “Mac says it’s not polite to shove someone’s Achilles’ heel in their face.” Machina might have enjoyed riddles, but she was clearly the good angel on his shoulder.
It was probably inappropriate to be tangled up so closely together when the pit’s glow lit up the room they were in, but Stephanie and Eddie weren’t very good at being appropriate, were they? It was why they worked so well together. Not many boundaries existed between the two of them, which was why a suggestion like that didn’t disgust her the way it should have. She could be an angry little thing, and nothing -- not even her father -- made Stephanie Brown angrier than the fallen entity. She bit down on her lip, worrying it until it was puffy, and sighed, burying her face into her hands.
“I don’t want to give her a reason to be nice to me,” she murmured, all conviction and stubbornness and vindication. “I’m not the one who did anything to her. She has no reason not to be nice.” Well, that wasn’t completely true, was it? But Steph was lost in her own perspective on the whole thing, and she would never see herself as the wrong party right now. Mac’s advice earned a scoff of a laugh. “Mac doesn’t know the full situation.” She lowered her hands and looked at him. Blues sharp and honest and a little darker than normal. “It’s awful of me, isn’t it? To even consider that. I’m an awful fucking bat. I’m an awful goddamn person, but she needs to know how much she hurt me. Hurt us.”
Eddie leveled a look at her. He was used to being an awful person, that was his thing, but he’d fight anyone who tried to tell him Stephanie was even close to being the same shade of dark grey he was. That viewpoint was obviously skewed by love and the goodness that came with a heart of a bat. “Don’t make me get into that argument again.” He warned her, though there wasn’t any sharpness in his voice. In fact, he was a little fond of their fight over a year ago on the stairs about being a bat and what she was worth. It taught him respect in a variation that he didn’t know existed. “You know how I feel about you. You know I think you’re the best bat in the city. You’re going to drive me up a goddamned wall talking like that.” Affection in his voice mixed with a little frustration and he leaned closer, grabbing her hands and kissing her lips softly.
“What if you wrote her a letter, gave her the tights and then we’re done with it. She knows how you feel, she knows you’re going to keep her secret and she’ll leave us alone again. I’m the one who opened that door, not her and after she screwed us over again I’m not going to do it.” Eddie knew that his word wasn’t golden on this subject since he had broken his promise before. It was just a matter of Stephanie believing him this time.
Stephanie smiled softly when he grazed her lips with his. “I think you might be just a little biased about me. Aren’t you?” She stole another kiss, squeezing his fingers with hers. Sometimes, she got stuck into loops on her identity as a criminal’s daughter and a crimefighter, and sometimes she found it hard to navigate the gray of Gotham without starting to doubt her own morality. But, Muerte plucked a nerve deep, deep inside, and she didn’t have any real sympathy left in her for the holier than thou entity. “I understand. I’m pretty biased about you, too. You make it hard to think most of the time.”
She nodded, even if she didn’t think that Muerte would leave them alone in the long run. She did, however, trust him enough to stay away from her this time. Pursing her lips, she slid a hand up one of his arms, across his shoulder and up his neck to tangle in those dark curls she loved so much. “I can do that,” she replied softly, then hummed a thoughtful noise at the back of her throat. “If I’m feeling particularly vindictive...well, I’ve got some things still soaked with that.” She waved a hand at the pool beyond. “That might bring it closer to home for her.”
Eddie smiled, tugging so she pulled on his dark hair. He closed his eyes. “Honestly, the letter won’t just be for her, it’ll be for you. Get everything you’re feeling out on paper. It’ll heal part of the hurt she caused you.” Maybe that was some Leland echoing from Eddie’s mind, but he wasn’t wrong. “I wrote a letter to my dad in Arkham and I still hate his dumb guts, but it doesn’t hurt as much anymore.” Eddie opened his eyes and shrugged. “And, I didn’t even get to send the letter, cause he’s dead. Or missing. Hopefully dead.” His dark humor earned a dry laugh and he sighed.
“Let’s get out of here. I think prolonged exposure to this stuff makes me nuts.” He widened his eyes at the bright pool and then pulled her close for a long hug before untangling himself. “Wanna go explore until we hear LexCorp security? An idea of the perimeter will help Bats and the rest of his buddies out.” Eddie held his hand out like he was asking Stephanie to dance at some old timey ball. A formal gesture that was all old fashioned charm.
“You didn’t tell me about that,” Stephanie said gently. “And I’m glad it made you feel better. I’m really, really glad.” Still biting on her lip, the corners of her mouth curved up into a sweet little smile, eyes crinkling in affection for her riddled man. “Baby, who told you you were allowed to be so goddamn smart?” She tugged on his hair again, thumb brushing his cheekbone when his eyes closed. “You’re right. I think it’ll be good for me. I know it’ll still hurt, but maybe...yeah, maybe this’ll make it a little, little better.” She shrugged. “Maybe it’ll just encourage her to back off finally.”
Losing herself in the hug for a moment, she sighed, pressing a kiss to his cheek before he unraveled them. The blonde bat looked relieved frankly. In the wake of their conversation, she had almost forgotten where they were, but the green hue always hung in the background. “Yeah, let’s go Nancy Drew and Hardy Boy all up in this shit, baby.” Grinning a little, she placed her hand in his daintily as if she were a southern lady and he was her gentleman caller. They were both way too Gotham for that, but it was always fun to pretend.
Eddie gave her a boyish smile when she called him smart, feeling a little like a solved a puzzle for her that they’d been working on for ages. Of course, they had solved it together. That was what being partners was all about. It was hard to imagine that only a couple weeks ago they weren’t talking to each other (or if they were it involved yelling) and finally it felt like things were clicking back into place for them. “Maybe she’ll finally get it.” Or, at least, part of it.
His smile turned into a full on grin that he had to bite back when she gently placed her hand in his with all the charm of a southern belle. “Thank you for sharing this detective evening with me, my lady love.” He said with every ounce of smarm he had in him and then pulled her out of the green goop temple. Holding her hand until they were back out into the tunnels of Gotham City.