"Lee," The Riddler whispers, patting her cheek. "Lee, I know you're alive. Wake up. We've gotta get out of here."
She's non-responsive. "Lee!"
He hears the pendulum swinging side to side within Oswald's huge grandfather clock, pestering him, reminding him that they don't have much time. Professor Strange is unconscious for now, but that won't last. He removes her restraints and tries to pull her off the gurney, but her dead weight is too much for him. He's become too weak. Panting heavily, he lifts up his shirt, looking for the scar that should be there. Is his wound holding him back? Is it not quite healed?
He gasps.
It is not a scar. It's an open wound that's bleeding a bit. Panicked, he pulls up Lee's shirt to look at her scar . . . But he finds two, when he was expecting just one. Just like Eddie. He should only have two personalities, but inexplicably, now there are three.
He hears a noise in the hallway. No time. He's going to have to wheel her out unconscious, gurney and all.
As they move along the side of the estate, Lee comes to, yelling.
"You can't make me into what you want. You can't force me to do anything!"
"Lee, shh!" The Riddler says urgently. He stops pushing the gurney. "We need to be quiet. I'm getting us outta here."
She's not quiet. Not at all. She blurts out the next three sentences in quick succession.
"I am the Queen of the Narrows!"
"Your children shouldn't be suffering this way. Have them come to my clinic."
"Where's Pooky Bear?"
She utters the final sentence in a little girl's voice that chills him to the bone.
She looks up at him from the gurney, her eyes big and round with something akin to fear. "Who are you, mister? I'm Leslie. I don't think I've ever met you."
Still the little girl's voice. Something is seriously wrong.
"Lee, you do know me."
"No, I don't!" She shakes her head and pouts, fighting off tears, her chin quivering. She's definitely scared now. "Why are we here, mister? What's happened?"
And then suddenly, before he can answer her, she has an adult voice again as she clutches at her stomach and then the tears do come. "Something's missing."
"Lee, it's okay," The Riddler says, relieved, placing a hand on her shoulder as she sits up. That weird kid voice is gone. Maybe she really will be okay. "Do you think you can walk? We've gotta be stealthy, but we gotta get out of here - and quickly."
She nods, wipes away some of her tears and gets off of the gurney. "What's going on, Ed?"
Oh, good she recognizes him. The Riddler lets out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. "I'll tell you what's going on, trust me. But after we get to safety."
"Trust you?" Her face contorts.
He wonders if she's remembering what happened. What he did. What she did. Why they are here in the first place. He hopes not - she'll have time for remembering later. He holds out a hand and she smirks at his gesture, but takes it anyway.
They hear a noise – it's someone opening a door in the back, just around the corner from them. She suddenly grabs him around the torso and says, "Mister, I'm scared."
He groans as he realizes he's not going to know if he's dealing with child Lee or adult Lee at any given moment. He is seething – he wants to kill Strange for whatever he's done to the woman he still loves despite what had passed between them in their last waking hours in The Narrows. At the very least, Strange has obviously broken her brain. But right now, they need to go. Getting them both away from the estate is likely futile – at least for now. He thinks about the layout of this place.
"Mister?"
"Shh… I'm thinking."
She just grips him tighter.
The pool house! It's their best bet, so leaving the gurney behind, he extracts her from his chest, takes her hand, and leads her to it through the dark of night. The patio surrounding the pool is getting damp as the dew is settling.
What in the world has Oswald been up to? Why were he and Lee brought back from the dead by Professor Hugo Strange? At Oswald's old family estate of all places?
What madness is going on here?
