Riddle 036: What is it that nobody wants to have, yet nobody wants to lose?

[questionauthority]

[A - ACTION - Hospital.

On an ordinary day, during an ordinary visit to the hospital (perhaps to see Ema), the Riddler winds up running into another familiar face. But there's something quite different about him today. He's got that cheery look in his eyes, a dopey smile that's been plastered onto his face. But unlike his ordinary childish facade, the look on Bruce Wayne's face is eerily... vacant. Empty.

Question: What happens when you discover that the man who's outwitted you, outmatched you, and beaten you to an absolute pulp more times than you can count has been turned into nothing more than a brainless automaton with no mind or free will to call his own?

Answer: Grin like a madman and gloat when nobody else is around.]

So you've failed at last. Disappointing, but not entirely unexpected. After all, who can truly hold a candle to my genius? Not you, Dark Knight. [He laughs.]

If only you could see yourself now. The World's Greatest Detective? Hardly.

Question:

"What is greater than God? More evil than the Devil himself?
The rich need it, the poor have it, and if you eat it you'll die?"

Answer: Nothing. You're nothing now. You've lost. And I, Edward Nigma, have finally---

[Won? ...no. No, he hasn't. Mayfield did this to him. Mayfield took the Batman and broke him down into nothing. Not the Riddler. This... isn't his victory. This was never a victory at all. And as soon as he realizes that, Edward's wide smirk fades into a venomous glare. Shoving the husk he once called his archnemesis out of his way, he moves to depart the hospital and put as much distance between himself and that... thing as he possibly can.]

[B - PHONE - Unfiltered. The winning edge is completely gone from his voice now. He sounds strangely empty.]

Riddle me this. What is the one thing we have all seen and will never see again?

[C - ACTION - 726 Anderson Lane / The Hall of Doom.

Whether he's sitting in the kitchen tinkering around with a strange contraption he's received in the mail or in the empty conference room of the Hall of Doom, the Riddler is uncharacteristically quiet this evening. Bother him?]

Comments

[puzzlerprince.livejournal.com]

[That's an unexpected change in topic.]

What do you mean?

[buildstherobots.livejournal.com]

[This... this is really hard to say. It's something he's never said... but no one has listened to him before. Not really, not since Anise. And, again, drunk.]

You love her. And she loves you. Yes?

[puzzlerprince.livejournal.com]

[Granted, Edward never makes life very easy for Ema. Nor she, for him. But at the end of the day, they'll still say they love one another. He nods.]

Of course.

[Where is Dist going with this...?]

[buildstherobots.livejournal.com]

...I don't have that.

[It's the simplest, most straightforward way to answer. He simply doesn't. He never has. He's tolerated, he's used. It's never something he's been blind to; for a long time, he simply didn't care.]

That must make it easier for you.

[puzzlerprince.livejournal.com]

[It's almost similar to Edward's own situation, really. Always tolerated in Gotham (barely). Never appreciated. Never respected. Yet despite his changed relationship status...]

...it doesn't always. [He hangs his head.] In some ways, it makes things all the more challenging. [Not to say that Edward's never appreciated a good challenge. But still.]

Question: When we do manage to overpower our captors, to solve the riddle that is Mayfield, what then? What happens when we no longer have to call this place "home?" [What happens when they have to return to their separate homes? In separate worlds?

...it's a thought that's been digging at the back of Edward's head more and more as of late.]

[buildstherobots.livejournal.com]

I'm not going home. I'm staying. I'm going to burn this place to the ground, then rebuild it to be a real home.

[He hasn't considered the fact that it might not be an option yet.]

Who knows if we'll even be able to leave, once we solve it?

[puzzlerprince.livejournal.com]

[Dist is staying? Those words really shouldn't surprise him. There are plenty of people without much to return home to. He's suffered through enough Ethics classes here to know that.]

...good question. [Groan.] Yet another we're going to have to ponder.

[buildstherobots.livejournal.com]

[From that... Dist lifts his head and gives a mild smirk. He'd been upset. Weepy, even. But this? This is a challenge, and Dist the Rose doesn't back down.]

We won't find out until we do it.

[puzzlerprince.livejournal.com]

[Funny thing about that? Neither does Edward.]

My thoughts exactly.

[buildstherobots.livejournal.com]

So, when is the Legion's next meeting?

[There's only one question there. Dist is coming back; he's already decided.]

[1/2]

[puzzlerprince.livejournal.com]

[The smirk abruptly fades just as quickly as it had arrived.]

That's on a strictly need-to-know basis.

[puzzlerprince.livejournal.com]

[A pause. A smirk.]

But you'll know about it soon enough.

[buildstherobots.livejournal.com]

[DAMMIT EDDIE. The grin is shared at the end, though.]

I'll be there. And I'll help fortify your base further. We don't want any more unwanted guests.

[puzzlerprince.livejournal.com]

I've made more than enough fortifications already. But I suppose one or two modifications wouldn't hurt.

[buildstherobots.livejournal.com]

[Well, it's official. Dist has chosen a side. It's a weird feeling, to say the least.]

And perhaps, one day, I'll mean something to you.

[puzzlerprince.livejournal.com]

[A beat. Then Edward rises to his feet, offering a hand to help Dist up.]

Perhaps.

[buildstherobots.livejournal.com]

[Okay, a real, genuine smile as Dist takes the hand, pulling himself up from the floor. Maybe he's just still drunk, or maybe he's actually relieved; it's a little hard to tell, but either way it's a definite improvement.]

...We'll take him out. Together.

[puzzlerprince.livejournal.com]

[Edward nods. The Major won't win.]

Of course we will.