I do not own Gotham! I only own this story and my original characters! Please, enjoy!
Outside of Gotham and away from the island that was cut off by the bridges being destroyed, Jerome Valeska was looking at the outside from their mansion home from the balcony as he had binoculars, looking for any signal. He was in a desperate search to find and locate his longtime girlfriend, Poppy Gordon. It's almost been half of a year since he last heard from her and her last known location was at the GCPD. He wanted her to be back in his arms where she doesn't have to be in fear of being alone and confused in a messed up place like Gotham.
So far, he had sent over 10 of his remaining cult members to find her, but so far, they either ended up getting killed by the army or taking a boat to reach the island, only for landmines to get to them first.
Walking back into his office, a few of his members were there as he had a map of Gotham where he learned about the territories.
"Jerome, if I may ask… why are you so desperate to find her?" One of the cult members asked as he felt frightened, knowing that he could be sent out to find the young woman. "It's suicide, sir! No one has not come back!" He stated as Jerome kept his eyes on the updated map of Gotham.
"Oh shut up, Tommy!" One of the cult members named Emily spatted, as she threw a kitchen knife at him, but he quickly dodged his head. "You have no idea what his Queen is going through. Not to mention that Jeremiah freak is probably still alive since he was a fake." She explained while she was listening in on the radio to find locations on the island.
"You saw what he was capable of, right? He destroyed the bridges! He created his own army, calling it the Church of Jeremiah. And not to mention him knowing about the secret escape room here in-" Tommy started to explain, before he was cut off by the sound of a revolver clicking into its chamber, until he slowly turned towards his left to see Jerome aiming it at him.
"Jerome?" Tommy gently responded before backing away, until he felt his back touching the doors.
"What was that? I couldn't hear you over a faint little circus song I was humming in the back of my head, because of your bitching." Jerome asked, as he had a finger behind his ear knowing that he wanted to listen to that again.
"Jerome?" Emily asked after she stood up.
"You said something about a secret escape room? How did you know about it? Only me and Poppy know about it." Jerome explained, before pressing the barrier of the revolver to the side of his skull, as a warning.
"I… I just knew about it, that's all." Tommy responded as he was scared.
Jerome wanted him to be like that. That's what he likes to see. His own prey being frightened of him since he was dangerous in front of everyone, but to his cult and his girlfriend, he was more of an artist, a philosopher, and even a God.
From the minute of his remaining cult members teamed up on this suicide mission to find Poppy, Jerome knew that something was up with Tommy from the moment he was trying to persuade him to not look for her.
"You… get me the tape and a chair." Jerome instructed Emily as he looked away from Tommy for a second. But when Tommy tried to make a run for it and towards the balcony doors, Jerome immediately shot the betrayer in the back of leg, causing Tommy to crash through the glass windows and landed onto the broken glass with cuts on his face and a bullet lodged into him. "I know something you don't know…" He sang as he walked towards Tommy's wounded body while the betrayer was trying to move, but he was in too much pain.
"Jerome, look." Emily stated, before Jerome looked to see a walkie talkie in her left hand.
Gently grabbing it, he turned it on as he could hear a familiar voice, but it was more like a quiet and soft voice that changed overtime which sounded manic like his.
"My… lady…" Tommy managed to say, thinking he had the walkie talkie in his hand, but it was a giant glass shard lodged through his hand.
Jerome turned it off, before speaking to the wounded betrayer. "Well, well, looks like me and you are gonna have a nice little chat." He stated, after bending down to look at his bleeding face.
Tommy closed his eyes as they were getting heavy, knowing that he was surrendering himself to Jerome Valeska.
At the GCPD, Poppy was inside of Jim Gordon's office as she was holding up a chocolate snack cake that had one blue and white striped birthday candle lit up by a lighter.
"Make a wish, Poppy." Jim stated, as Poppy looked up at him before looking back at the burning candle.
She closed her eyes before she blew it out as a lone tear ran down her face.
"Thanks." Poppy responded quietly, before she took the candle out and split the snack cake in half for her to share with her uncle.
As Poppy started eating her half, Jim started to speak.
"What did you wish for?" Jim asked.
"No. I can't tell you." Poppy answered as she had her mouth full.
"Come on, you can tell me." Jim responded once more.
"It's bad luck, you know. We've already had bad luck before." Poppy explained.
"Yeah, we had. But Poppy, whatever it is, I'm sure it will come true. You can trust me." Jim explained as he sat down at the corner of his desk, looking down at her.
Poppy didn't even want to tell Jim her wish.
Because when it happened years ago back at Haly's Circus, it led her into a dark path which became her life in the future today.
If she never told her mother her birthday wish in front of her after blowing out the candles, she would have been alive today and even stayed with Jerome back then. But Poppy was blessed to have Jim Gordon as her legal guardian back then and having Jerome back in her life was all worth it.
Looking up at her uncle after pretending she was thinking about her wish, she was about to tell him until Harvey Bullock walked in after knocking.
"Jim?" Harvey responded before looking at Poppy. "Hey, happy birthday, kiddo." He stated as Poppy smiled gently.
"Thanks. Uh, I'll leave you two be." Poppy responded before she stood up and left.
Grabbing her backpack from outside of the office, Poppy started to look through as she made sure that she had everything. From the pistol, the hunting knife, a pack of bullets and even a few snacks for her to take with her for today.
Putting on her backpack behind her back, Poppy walked out of the GCPD without saying anything and left out of everyone's sight as she decided to take a stroll down memory lane by visiting an old theater for her 20th birthday.