Chapter 87

Oswald's head, as delicate and pained as an egg filled with lifeblood, replayed the last hour over and over. Like a faulty record, the images kept repeating themselves. Down to the last syllable. And the horror that had dripped from every second.

Edward and Barbara. Their alliance hadn't been nearly as shaky as they had wanted Oswald to believe. And Edward, he hadn't been satisfied with simply destroying what Oswald had had. He'd wanted to destroy what Oswald had believed. Those had been Edward's words. "I wanted you to die knowing you were incapable of loving another person." But Oswald could, and he did. He had proven that without even realizing it when he had refused to give the Sirens (and Butch, the one-handed traitor) Edward's position. Despite Ed trying to kill both him and Ruby, and done so in a horribly torturous way, Oswald had found that he still loved the man. It had turned out that Edward had been listening, and had been momentarily speechless by his former friend's selfless act.

But not enough to spare his life.

Now here they were, at the docks. It was early dawn, and the sky was choking on fat white clouds. Bells could be heard, and seagulls flew above their heads. Everything was damp and cold. The air was salty, edged with the scent of rotting fish and soaked garbage. The mound of earth that they were standing on, right beneath an incomplete building structure, was rimmed with barnacles.

Oswald was going to die here. At least, that was the outcome that Edward wanted. But Oswald had to try again.

"Ed...I love you." Oswald sobbed. Edward just stood in front of him, blank-faced, a small revolver in his hand. "I know you believe that now. So you need to listen to me when I tell you, by doing this...it will change you."

"I've killed before, Oswald." Edward reminded him gravely.

"Not like this!" Oswald protested, shaking his bound hands. "This won't be a crime of passion, or self-preservation, but the cold-blooded murder of someone you love." His voice cracked at the last two words.

Edward blinked, then his expression hardened. "I. Don't. Love. You." He spoke slowly and deliberately, rubbing chunks of salt into the pus-filled wound.

Oswald reached out to him. Edward effortlessly swatted his hands away. The small pain ignited a fire in Oswald. He looked up at his captor with defiance. "You need me, Edward Nygma! Just as I need you! You cannot have one without the other!"

Edward sucked in air through his teeth. His knuckles on the gun-weilding hand whitened. "You killed Isabella."

"The point is-"

"THAT IS THE POINT!" Edward yelled. "You can't talk your way out of this, Oswald! I've wanted you to suffer as I've suffered! You killed her...so you die." He swallowed. "And it was a shame about Ruby. She was a good person. She didn't deserve to die like that. But if she did, it's only because of you."

Oswald bit his tongue. They all still presumed that Ruby had succumbed to the poison, and he hadn't dared to discourage them. As long as she was dead to them, she wasn't in danger. But there was something else he had to say. "When I met you, you were a nervous, jittery loser. You were nothing! I created Edward Nygma! And I am the only one in the world who truly sees you as you are. Who you could still become."

Edward looked down, eyes impenetrable.

"Ed, are you listening to me?!" Oswald pleaded.

"I'm listening." Edward answered. Neutral.

Oswald inhaled raggedly. "Say something."

Edward was quiet for a second. Then he said, "I loved her, Oswald."

Bright blue eyes widened.

"And you killed her."

BANG!

Oswald gasped, stunned, then slowly looked down. Bright red blood was oozing from his gut, hot on his hands as he attempted to smother it. The pain hadn't kicked in yet. The shock was too great. He could only look up, his mouth and eyes three perfect O's, as Edward grabbed his front and pushed him backwards. Oswald crashed into the icy water. Edward watched him sink, breathing shakily.

Oswald reached up to him as he disappeared in a swirl of red.

Edward sighed, closed his eyes, and tossed the gun aside. Then, he adjusted his suit and turned back. His sombre footsteps soon faded from earshot.

Then, one of the metal beams opened its eyes. Its indigo eyes.

A figure detached itself from the beam, its flat body the same dark gray with hints of rust. Then, like a balloon being filled with air, it regained mass. A bush of short, fair hair popped out of its head. The dull colors faded into peach skin and cheap clothes. Within seconds Ruby was there, and she was terrified. Looking back to ensure that Edward was out of sight, she ran to the ledge and peered into the water. A large crimson oval marked Oswald's descent. She took a deep breath, and kicked off her shoes and jewelry. Then, she dived in.

The water was colder than she could have ever imagined. It was a gelidness so intense that it burned her to the bone. Thinking quickly she webbed her fingers and rendered her legs into a type of mermaid's tail, quickening her speed through the tide. Following the trail like a shark, she soon found Oswald still convulsing and coughing up bubbles. She reached out and grabbed him by the cuffs. Pulled. But he was too heavy, water-logged and too weak to swim. His eyes were fluttering shut.

Thus, she pulled him close and made their foreheads touch.

The red dot burned with the intensity of firework.

Then, Cobblair broke the surface with a cough and a splutter. Pushing the damp hair out of their eyes, they paddeled back to the mound of earth. With a kick and a grunt, they grasped the ledge and pulled themselves up. Streams of water spilled from their combined clothes. Once they were lying on their back, panting and coughing, they glowed once more. Ruby sat up, then quickly moved closer to Oswald. He was moaning softly in pain and clutching his side. Tears were running down his cheeks. "Oz!" Ruby turned her hand into a knife and cut through his bonds. Then, she cradled his face. "Oz! Oz, look at me. Look at me." He reluctantly obeyed, looking like a small, wounded child. She pushed some wet hair out of his face. "Don't be afraid. It's okay." She assured him. "It's okay. I'll take you back to Fish and Strange, and they'll fix you up. Okay?"

Oswald nodded, then burst into tears again. "He...he shot me." He managed to get out. "Ed shot me!"

Ruby's face crumpled. She held him close. "I know. It was torture, hearing all that and not being able to move. But you're alive." She kissed the top of his head. "That's all that matters."

Oswald returned her embrace. Nodded feebly.

The return was long and ardous. For Oswald's well-being, they fused back into Cobblair. But because Cobblair had once saved a group of wealthy Gothamites from the Mad Hatter, everyone had seen their picture. Thus, they were forced to stick to the shadows. It took a long time to finally reach the abandoned clinic. When they did, their feet were bleeding and their lips were blue from the cold.

The second they passed through the doorway, which had a plastic sheet as a makeshift door, Cobblair fell to their knees. Their vision blackened around the edges. But before they could hit the floor, four strong hands caught them. The moment they had support, Cobblair began to glow. Split in two. In the blink of an eye, Fish was cradling a barely-conscious Oswald while Strange was helping Ruby to her feet. When Fish saw Oswald's colorless face and bloody clothes, she gasped.

"Nygma shot him!" Ruby explained. "And dumped him in the canal. The bullet's still in there. I - I was afraid removing it might make him bleed more." She turned to Strange. "You'll help him, right?"

"We'll do our best, Ruby." Patting Ruby comfortingly on the back, Strange went to help Fish. Together, they picked Oswald up as though he weighed nothing. Ruby followed closely, hands on her heart.

Ruby had never prayed, not even when Master began to die. She had always viewed religion as another type of fairy tale and folklore. How else could she have seen it any other way, when no god had swooped in and saved her from her parents' attic? When they hadn't restored Master's health? She'd come to the conclusion that if there had been any gods, they'd been either imponent, ignorant, or malevolent.

But now, as she witnessed Oswald lying lifelessly on a mattress, Ruby found herself praying to...well, everyone. Every god that she could think of. The Christian God. The Jewish God. Allah. Odin. Anansi. Ra. All the Hindu gods that she could recall. Even the Roman and Greek gods. She was getting that desperate.

For the next several hours, she stood by while Strange and Fish worked. They managed to dig deep into his entrails, causing him to squirm despite the anethesia, and dug out the bloody lump of metal that had nearly ended his life. While they did their best to patch up the torn intestine, a machine steadily pumped leftover water from his lungs. For a little while, it seemed like Oswald would see the morrow.

Then, suddenly, his heart monitor began to go uneven.

Ruby jumped to her feet, eyeing first the machine and then her unconscious friend. "What...?" The beeping grew more frantic. "What's happening?!"

"We..." Strange slowly removed the mask from his face, eyes wide. "We couldn't repair the intestine, and the bullet must have caused more damage. Deeper damage that we can't reach. Not without this rudimentary equiptment. The cold water was also a deep shock for his system, which was already undergoing stress from the gunshot wound." Strange shook his head. "We need to take him to the emergency room."

"And then what?" Fish snapped. "If we wheel him there, the whole town'll know he's alive. If Nygma don't come to finish him off, then he'll send one of the blonde's goons."

"What do you suggest then, Miss Mooney?" Strange asked with just a hint of impatience. "Because I can assure you that if we attempt to continue here, our insufficient materials and limited working hands will lead to his death anyway."

Fish was about to tell him off when Ruby spoke. Quietly. "I'll do it."

Both turned to her. She looked a little scared as she walked towards Oswald. But above all, she looked resolute. Determined. Like a soldier about to run into No Man's Land.

Strange didn't like that look in her eyes. "What do you intend to do?"

"I've cured him lots of times." Ruby stated.

"But this isn't like the other times." Strange replied. "Your clay-related abilities can aid a body's regeneration, but not when the wounds are so severe."

"I know." Ruby nodded. "I tried to heal the Master back when he was sick. But it never worked." She turned to Strange. "But here...I know what to do."

Strange suddenly realized what she meant. It felt as though he'd been suckered in the gut.

Ruby stood before Oswald's unconscious body. Placed her hands on the sides of his face.

"Ruby, stop." Strange blurted out. She turned back to him as he said, "It's not like the other times. Oswald's body is falling in on itself, so to speak. If you go in there, you may not come out."

Ruby processed this for a moment. Her eyes became very large. Then, she reached into her pocket and extracted her phone. "Give me a minute." She stormed out of the room, leaving one of her companions dreading and the other clueless.

Fish turned to Strange, her hands on her hips. "What the hell was that all about?"

Strange sighed. Rubbed his forehead. "To put it simply, Ruby doesn't want to give Oswald a cure. She wants to be the cure."

Fish's eyes widened. "You mean...?" She turned back to the doorway through which Ruby had departed. Just in time for Ruby to return. She was wiping her eyes even as more tears poured. Still, she tried to maintain her composure as she held up her cellphone. "There's a video on this. Show this to Oswald when he wakes up." She tossed it at Fish, who was too shocked to do anything but catch it. Not looking at Strange, Ruby resumed her position. "Now, please leave. I'd like a moment alone with him."

"Ruby-" Strange tried.

"Leave!" Ruby snapped. Then, in a quieter voice, she said, "Please. I want to do this, really. I know he'd do the same for me. But I want to say goodbye to him. This is my last chance to be with him like this." Her tone quivered. "Please."

Strange was silent, then sighed. "Very well." He gently led Fish away. But as she followed, the former boss said, "He's lucky to have a friend like you."

Ruby gave a feeble smile. "It's what we've been doing since Day One: looking out for each other."

Fish simpered sadly, then followed Strange out the door.

Alone at last, Ruby cradled Oswald's face. She looked at his heart rate monitor. It was getting even more jagged. She had to act quickly. Looking back down at him, she savored every little detail about him. For the last time. The slight crow's feet that showed when he smile. His long, beaky nose. His big eyes with long, inky lashes. His large forehead and pointed chin. His Adam's apple sticking out in that thin little neck. Those arching black brows. The only thing that she could not see were those gorgeous blues. But that was okay. She had seen them countless times in her dreams.

The beeping worsened.

Ruby closed her eyes.

She pressed her forehead against Oswald's.

"Goodbye."

The next morning, it was hailing.

It was the first thing Oswald registered, even before opening his eyes. When he did, it took a few minutes for his eyes to adjust. During that time, the sounds only seemed to grow louder. He lay there, staring at the ceiling, and tried to collect his thoughts. Memories of the day before came back in tidbits. His exchange with Edward: one side tearful, the other coldly furious. The gunshot, then the coldest plunge of his life. Fusion. Ruby's voice. Warm rain on his face, but nowhere else on his body. And then...nothing.

Oswald blinked. "Why am I still alive?" He asked aloud. Nobody answered. He sat up, expecting pain but finding none. Then, he pulled up his shirt. There was a faint scar there, but nothing else.

Suddenly, he stopped. His hands. He couldn't stop looking at his hands. Slowly, fearfully, he held them up for further inspection. Horror ran through him like a knife. While his thumbs and index fingers were fine, the other six fingers were not. They had been fused together to the point that there was only one nail to share between them. They had become, well, flippers.

Oswald sat there, his breath rapidly increasing, the terror bottling up inside him, before it finally came bursting out, "HELP!"

Fish and Strange, who'd been breaking fast on a gray and lumpy oatmeal, jumped from their seats as Oswald ran towards them, gasping and yelping like a scared mutt.

"Oswald!" Fish said, trying to calm him down. "What happened to you?"

"Please!" Oswald yelled. "I think something's wrong with me! Look!" He held up one of his flippers for them to see. "What happened?! Am I hallucinating? Please tell me I am!"

"Oh, dear." Strange sighed, rubbing him temples.

The inaction only agitated Oswald more. "PLEASE! HELP ME!"

"Oswald." Fish took his hand - well, flipper. The action soothed him a tiny bit. She looked him right in the eye. "You need to calm down. Once you can do that, we need to show you something. Think you can do that?"

Oswald took a few deep breaths, then nodded. It was only then that he saw that the portable table (stolen, no doubt) had only been set up for two. "Where's Ruby?"

Strange made a weird choking sound. But he cleared his throat. "That...will be explained."

Oswald didn't like that at all, but he allowed Fish to lead him away. She brought him to the bathroom, and pointed. "Look." Oswald obeyed, more out of curiousity than complacency.

The person looking back at him through the slightly dirty glass was familiar, but not himself.

His hair was still as black as a moonless night, but it had grown longer overnight - long enough for him to tuck behind his ears. And it had become wavy, like something out of a shampoo commercial. His face had changed as well. It was rounder, plumper. Oswald seemed to have grown a couple of inches taller, as well. Not only that, but his pallid skin tone had adopted a healthier, peachy tone.

But that was not the most startling change. Besides the flippers, the biggest change was his eye. One had remained the same. Icy, icy blue. But the other had darkened to indigo.

Everything in Oswald went numb.

Slowly, he turned back to Fish.

"Where's Ruby?" He asked softly.

Strange explained the process to him. But the words just hit Oswald meaninglessly like paper balls. Ruby had fused with him for the final time, using her own body as a cure for his own. But she'd used so much that there hadn't been anything left to take on a material form upon the mission's completion. Thus, in a sense, Ruby was now living in him. Not as one is truly 'alive', but in bits and pieces. Thoughts. Feelings. Still alive, but in shards, like the reflection of a broken mirror. And she had done all this while being aware of the risks.

"Ruby..." Strange swallowed. "She loved you. She loved you enough to give up her body for you. Now, she lives as a sort of ghost inside you. And...I think she's happy that way."

Oswald had been sitting on the mattress, motionless, throughout the entire explanation. He looked down at his flippers. Unable, or unwilling, to speak.

Fish sighed. She extracted Ruby's phone and placed it on Oswald's thigh. It was meatier than it had been before. "She left a video for you." Fish said. "Right before."

Oswald looked up. "Thank you." He said quietly. "This video shall be a fine substitute...until she returns."

Strange opened his mouth to correct him, but Fish hushed him with a look. She then nodded sweetly at Oswald. "Of course, precious. Until she comes back. Do you wanna be alone to see it?"

Oswald inhaled. "Yes. Thank you."

Once again, the two left the room. Oswald opened the phone, grateful that it required no code. It took him less than forty seconds to find the video. It was Ruby painted pale pink in the light of the sunset.

Ruby was looking at the sky, mesmerized, for the first several seconds. The wind ruffled her blonde-brown-gray hair, and her eyes were glassy. She had a melancholic smile on her face. "Isn't it remarkable, Oz? I know Gotham is rotten, but even a place as bad as this has something as gorgeous as a sunset once a day, every day. It's almost as beautiful as one of my gems. Or, who knows? Maybe the sun is a giant gem, changing color as it moves? I wish you could see it. But...more than that, I want you to see more sunsets. Hundreds more. 'Cause I won't be able to."

She finally turned to the screen. She was crying, but her voice was steady. "Oz...we can't both exist anymore. I'm going to become a part of you, in order to save your life. Not only will it save you this time, but it'll save you from any other life-threatening situation. I know, I read Strange's notes. And I want you to know that Strange didn't force me to do this, and both him and Fish tried to stop me, so don't get mad at them, please. I'm doing this because I want you to live." She gave a sad little smile. "Trust me, it's better this way. I know for a fact that if you died, my heart would cease to beat and I would die. At least this way, I'm doing something useful."

Ruby gave a little sob, but pressed on. "Oz, you finally came to me that day in the cemetary. You are the first real friend I ever had, and you did nothing but show me your love and friendship. Sure, things weren't always perfect, but I wouldn't trade our time together for the world. You made me smile, and laugh, like I'd never done before. All of those moments we shared, those were all real, and they'll always be ours." She sniffed. "And I need you to know that from now on, whenever you just feel happy and loving towards yourself...that's me, loving you and loving being a part of you. Because you're going to be something extraordinary. You're going to be...Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot."

She cried for a few seconds, but wiped her tears away and smiled. "And Oswald? Don't forget about me."

"Never." Oswald whispered.

Then the video ended.

And Ruby was gone.