Evil Shadow

36.

Penguin

"Let go of me you brute – oof."

Thrown down to her knees in front of Penguin's feet, Catwoman glanced up at him through her eyelashes. Any other man would have felt some kind of… attraction towards the beautiful lady, especially since she had been grabbed from her apartment wearing only what little undergarments she usually slept in.

But not Oswald. Oswald had only ever had eyes for two people. And Selina was never one of those.

Granted he could see what others would find attractive…

"Well, well. The tides have turned, aye? Now, the prey brings in the feline."

Selina rolled her eyes, "Don't think a cat doesn't have back-up plans."

"Oh, I know of your nine lives. And I didn't bring you in to kill you – yet." Oswald chuckled at his own words, causing Selina to look less than amused.

Moving from his seat, Oswald placed himself in front of the large tank he had once built all for Elaine – well, for Elaine and himself. That shark truly did end up being a good way to rid himself of stupid people without the cops getting wind of it. After all, the GCPD knew where Oswald was at all times; it wasn't like he was trying to hide while running his club. So he had to keep his… other business… a secret from the law. Murder would surely give the GCPD a good reason to arrest him, now wouldn't it? So, if they found no bodies, there was no evidence.

If Batman found no body of Selina, there was no evidence either.

Oswald smirked as he saw movement in the back of the tank, Tiny reacting to Oswald's presence. She knew what the look on his face meant; dinner time.

"My d-" He stopped himself, remembering who he was at the moment and what he was showing to the world. "My right hand man is in Arkham. Our plan was flawless." He turned to look at her, "Wasn't that the word you used? 'Flawless'? When you pitched it to us?"

Selina remained quiet, though there was a tense look about her that told Oswald he had indeed figured out the truth – "You told Batman of where we were going, didn't you? You alerted him."

At her silence, Oswald laughed. "Oh, come now, there's no reason to keep silent anymore: I've figured it out. Did I not tell El one can't trust a cat?"

Suddenly, Selina smirked. It fuelled Oswald's rage as it made her seem she had the upper hand – she was supposed to be scared of him; terrified for her life. "What!?" he spat.

"'El'? Oh, Ozzy, are we growing a soft spot for the girl?" This time it was Oswald's turn to remain silent. What could he say anyway? If he denied it he knew his voice would betray him… and if he let the truth be known, the Cat and Batman (because everything Selina knew, Batman always found out eventually) would know his weakness…

Though, perhaps not the true extent of his weakness? Perhaps Selina and Batman didn't know-

"Because I know, Ozzy. I know of her relation to you and I know of her importance to you. I know what you want with her." She smirked, standing up and brushing some invisible dust off of her knees. "Because I was friends with Anna, Os. I know what they did to her."

Oswald shook his head but remained silent. From behind him he could sense Tiny had approached the glass, awaiting her next meal.

Though Oswald suddenly realized that… perhaps… there wouldn't be a next meal.

"She's in Arkham because she's safe there, Os. You're not the only one who wants them for themselves." Selina approached Oswald, his thugs tensing up though not doing anything as his boss didn't give any orders. "I pitches this stupid plan of hers knowing she'd end up in Arkham. I pitched it to her with confidence, because I needed her to trust me. I need to keep her safe."

Oswald suddenly frowned and angrily grabbed the cat's upper arm, holding her close to him as he menacingly growled, "What's she to you?"

"A friend."

And at those words, Oswald's grip loosened.

"Don't tell Elaine the truth Os, so I can keep an eye on her; so she'll trust me. And, for the love of God – don't let her out of Arkham."

"You want to work together? To get her back?"

"Yes. And I'm not the only one who wants that."

Nearly gasping, Oswald's eyes stared intently at Catwoman.

"You think Anna had only you? She wasn't as stuck up as you always have been. And still are. Let her friends help you. Let us help her."

Not needing much more to convince him, Oswald shook Selina's outstretched hand, "A deal has been struck. But know that if you break it-"

"Yeah, yeah, you'll feed me to your pet shark." Selina rolled her eyes, but when Oswald wasn't looking she did flash the giant shark ironically named Tiny a scared look. It was circling the glass, waiting impatiently for its next meal.

Five thugs were in the room with Oswald and Selina; five thugs had just overheard that conversation and as far as Oswald knew, those thugs were not loyal to him and Pete but to Elaine and Mark. They needed to go…

With a smirk, Oswald turned back towards Tiny, "Don't worry, dear. A feast is coming your way…"

Millie

She enjoyed the ride back to Gotham, even if it took a while. She felt free on the back of a motorcycle and she seriously considered getting a motorcycle license herself. Mostly though, she enjoyed the ride because she got to hold onto Dick, her arms wrapped around his torso as they sped down the roads. Shielding her face from the harsh wind, she rested her head against his back, clinging onto him even more.

A smile graced her lips.

And unbeknownst to her, Dick was smiling as well.

Upon arriving at the manor one hour later, Dick parked the bike by the gate and the two climbed over the fence, not having the key to the lock someone had put on it. Millie struggled a bit with the climb, though Dick looked rather impressed when she actually managed to get over on her own without his help ("I guess those training sessions we had back in the days did you good after all"). Together they walked over to what was left of the manor:

A burned structure with almost all its walls partly collapsed.

"Our childhood just gone…"

"All thanks to Nygma…"

"And the Penguin. And Elaine…" breathed Millie before taking a deep breath and stepping onto what was left of the porch.

Everything creaked under her weight. The front door was gone, but the walls of the main hall were mainly still there. As the moon shone down on them, they could see how the expensive wallpaper was all but gone, leaving dark, barren and fire-touched structures in its stead. It felt haunting to Millie, especially when she saw the fallen down chandelier on the floor in the main hall, right in front of what was left of the staircase.

"So… what are we looking for?"

"I need something from my room," explained Millie, broken glass crackling underneath of her shoes. "You see, I can't let it go."

"What?"

The two moved over to the staircase, Dick testing the first step before beginning to slowly move up, Millie following him.

"Elaine. Ever since that night last Christmas I've been… obsessed. Obsessed with getting her to choose a different path. But I can't just ask her to, she wouldn't listen."

"So you want to find out about your parents to make her listen," said Dick, stopping halfway up the stairs and turning to look down at her. His statement surprised her a bit, though she shouldn't have been. Dick was a bright, intelligent young man capable of – well, capable of being Robin.

A crack was heard and before she understood what was going on, the step she was on broke. Though nothing happened. Two hands had grabbed her before the step had collapsed, keeping her from falling down to the ground. Dick lifted her up to where he was standing, not even struggling a bit.

"Thanks…"

Even though she was safe, he did not let go of her arms, "Please, don't be a fool."

She stared him straight in the eyes, seeing the worry that was evident there. Though she didn't smile to make him feel better. She didn't pretend. "I remember when you were obsessed with finding your family's killer. I guess, now that I know the truth, that you indeed did. You, as Robin, took in your family's killer to stand justice for what he did. Now I wanna do something for my family. I wanna make sure that my sister doesn't go down that dark path anymore… won't you help?"

"That's the thing. Bruce doesn't want me to interfere with your whole situation!" he sighed, exasperated before moving up the last few steps, Millie following him quickly.

"Isn't this interfering?"

He sighed, running a hand over his face.

"What?" she asked quietly.

"I don't understand Bruce. I used to at least understand the basis of his reasoning. But with you, everything is different. Everything is hushed up and whenever I accidentally mention you on the wrong moment he flips out. Especially if I mention your name dressed as Robin."

"Overprotective is what I would call it." He chuckled at her rolling her eyes.

"But… overprotective might not be wrong in this situation. What we do is dangerous…"

Millie nodded her head, understanding what he meant.

"You know…" He sighed, hesitant to say what he was about to say. "No more lies, right? Just… Urgh: he knew. He knew about the charity event scandal. He knew Elaine wanted to show her face there! Apparently, he had some sort of plan, I think, but he just told me to let it go. I think his plan failed because he was pretty distraught after all that."

"How would he know?"

"Well…" mumbled Dick. "I don't know. I suppose he's keeping an eye on Elaine for some reason. Which, in all fairness, isn't that weird. He's your father, and he wants to keep you safe. If something's going on with Elaine, it could affect you too - Where are you going?"

An idea had crossed her mind and she had quickly hurried over to her room. The door was still there, though the walls around it were not. A large hole in the door revealed where flames had attacked it.

Out of habit, she used the doorknob, though the door didn't open anymore. Instead it fell over to the ground with a thud, doorknob still in her hand.

Walking over to the vent at the far most corner of her room, she jumped up on a chair that was only half burned and opened the grate at the top, taking out all her research stuff, which evidently had made sure no smoke had entered her room, probably saving her and Alfred's life a tad. She was relieved to find that her hopes of the papers not having all been destroyed were not crushed. Indeed, much of what she had found out was still at least half intact. Though mostly it was the pictures that had survived, not the actual documents. Those documents that were still readable looked awfully yellow and smelled funky.

"What's that?" Dick entered the room, joining her on the floor.

"My research… Uh, there's maybe more reasons behind why I got fired then I mentioned…" she confessed, glancing at Dick with wide eyes. "It wasn't just because of the scandal with Elaine and Penguin. You see, I used my position at the book store to gain access to archives. That way, I got some intel on certain things. I may or may not have figured out the password to my boss' computer…"

"Wow…" praised Dick, going through everything she had found.

"There are three potential women that could be my mother," began Millie, taking out the slightly burned pictures of each woman. "Remember the note I got on my 18th birthday?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, it indicates that my mother has a sister. Remember? 'Auntie'?"

"Oh, right, that was, uh, actually Quinn. And, uh, she doesn't have a sister," confessed Dick before letting out a sigh, "You've really missed out on a lot."

"You don't say," she shot back. "That means my research was for nothing!" She placed the pictures back down on the burned floor along with most of the files that had survived.

"You checked to see if someone had died 18 years ago who had a sister?"

"Yeah… there were a few, but none of them seemed to fit in on being my mother," sighed Millie.

"Why this reaction after you heard Bruce was following Elaine's whereabouts?"

"Well, I figured that maybe Bruce knew my mother, or that there's a secret that he doesn't want me to find out concerning my mother. And therefore he's keeping tabs on El," sighed Millie. "I guess you don't know if Bruce knows either of these women…"

"He knows a lot of women," joked Dick before looking down at the pictures. "What are their names?"

She pointed to the first picture, not needing the almost destroyed files to remember what she had worked on so intensely, "This one's Eleanor Smith, worked in a drugstore and was killed there. She had twin daughters as far as I could find out. Then there's Annabelle Smith. She was a bit of a wildcard, really. I just took her in because she had twin daughters. From what I can tell, she didn't have a job, nor did she have a registered house. She was difficult to find info on. All I could find was that she was once married to a certain Aaron Pulitzer, who was murdered like a week or two after their marriage. And then there is Theresa May; died at home during a burglary in the nursery. Twin daughters as well."

"Annabelle Smith, you said? And was this Aaron the father of the twins?"

"No, this was way before her twins were born," corrected Millie. "Her husband was murdered when she worked for the GCPD, as a forensic doctor."

"Wait, Millie…" breathed Dick, taking out a few pieces of intel on Annabelle Smith.

"What?"

Her heart skipped a beat at the look on Dick's face.

"Seeing as the Riddler has been showing his face and everything, I went through his files again. Did some digging. And it turned out he actually worked for the GCPD awhile. In forensic as well. Then he did some bad things and then he was turned into Arkham and, well the rest you can deduce easily. But, look," Dick turned over some files, reading as quickly as he could before pointing to a specific year, "he was turned into Arkham the same year Annabelle quit her job."

"That's a strange coincidence," mumbled Millie.

Dick shook his head, "There are no strange coincidences, trust me, Robin knows. But, I don't know everything. You see, Bruce hides files from me."

"How do you know?"

"Because I once saw him looking at files I haven't been able to find since," explained Dick. "He… He might be hiding the files on you as well."

He quickly took out his phone. It was one of the more modern ones that flipped open, and Dick quickly opened up the web browser. He mouthed the word 'Annabelle Smith' as he googled her, and then his face fell.

"What? What did you find?"

He slowly turned the phone around to show her headlines from news articles from old Gotham Weeklies. Apparently it was someone's hobby to take pictures of old versions of the newspaper…

"Had I just googled her…" breathed Millie, grabbing the phone from Dick.

'Annabelle Pulitzer Suspected of Murdering Husband.'

'Former GCPD Doctor Found Guilty of Murder After Several Years in an Abusive Relationship – Justifiable or Not?'

'Murdering Forensic Doctor Put in Blackgate!'

'Mysterious New Evidence Turns Up – Frees Annabelle Smith'

'Oswald Cobblepot Elected for Mayor: 'I could not have done this without my two best friends.''

'Annabelle Smith Taken to Arkham – Gotham Free of Her Madness'

'Murdering Lunatic Proven to Have STRANGE Abilities?'

"All these headlines… Poor woman. Gosh, she was friends with Ed and Oswald? Well… friends would be to push it a bit too far I guess…"

"Millie, I don't want to upset you, but… There's gotta be a reason for why Oswald took Elaine in. Why would he allow a child to live with him? That's… That's out of character for him."

"Not if he thought she could help him though, right?" she asked quietly, hoping Dick wasn't thinking what she was already thinking. "Like… a child can fit into places where a grown up can't, right?"

"Maybe…" Millie patiently waited for his brain to connect the dots she clearly was missing – or rather was intentionally not making. "Or maybe not… He would probably not have chased her away if he recognized her."

"Recognized her as Anna's daughter you mean?"

There was a pause in where Dick just stared straight at Millie, seeming unsure of whether he should say the next part.

"Or as his own daughter."