Batman sat on the building across from Elizabeth's listening in on her living room. He heard her sit down on the couch. She didn't stay there for long though soon she was moving about and then went into the bathroom. Batman frowned slightly he hadn't had time to bug the other rooms she had come home before he could. He could just barely hear what was happening inside the bathroom and when she turned on the shower he couldn't her anything at all.

Batman jumped from the roof and down into his Batmobile. His equipment would record all that happened in Elizabeth's living room. What was more important now was finding out where Cuvier was hiding. Even though Elizabeth had been right about the mob working on the serum; Batman had the gut instinct that the Maroni's weren't leaving a body trail in their attempts.

How had she known about the mob? He hadn't told her anything, he thought if he did she would go out and try to take revenge but perhaps she was taking those steps herself. If she thought he wasn't trying to catch Cuvier or the mob she might have found the means to get the information herself. Batman had to find Cuvier soon before Elizabeth had the chance to hurt herself.

The Batmobile's tires squealed as he turned sharply down the street to take him to the Narrows. If Elizabeth was poking around it was time to find out so he could put a stop to it. Batman parked in an alley and jumped out of the car. He ran up the fire escape to the seventh floor. He knew just who ask to find out if someone had been poking around. Batman slid into apartment of one of his favorite snitches. He could hear the television playing in the bedroom and he snuck inside.

"Jacob." He said from the shadows. Jacob started and leapt from bed reaching for his gun; but Batman was too quick and pinned him against the wall.

"Batman! I swear I didn't do nothing!"

"Not yet but you will. I need information, snitch."

"I'm not a snitch!"

"Yes, you are and you know it." Batman put some more pressure on Jacob straining his bones.

"Alright! Gah! Alright! Whatever you want to know."

"Good," he released him. Jacob quickly rubbed his wrists looking anxious.

"Has anyone been asking around about Cuvier or the Maroni mob?"

"Yes, last week."

"Who?"

"Some guy called Lupus."

"What did he want to know about?"

"Just about Cuvier, then when I told him about the mob he wanted to know if they were interested in that murderer chick."

"Where did you meet Lupus?"

"He wanted to meet at that German bar: Das Mӓdchen but then I passed out and woke up in a warehouse. I think that bastard drugged me." There was no sound from Batman. Jacob turned around slowly and saw that Batman had disappeared. He shivered slightly but then the TV screen caught his attention. His show had ended.

"Damn it. I missed if she got caught or not."

That morning Elizabeth awoke feeling…was it better? She wasn't 100 percent sure. The dissonance in her mind between her ideal self, the self that was just and good, and her recent actions seemed to have vanished but she didn't feel happy or relieved. Just different. What she could say though is that for the first time in since being thrown in Arkham—no—for the first time since her accident Elizabeth knew who she was and what her purpose in life was.

She spent most of the morning cleaning and organizing her apartment and then set off to Das Mӓdchen. Edward was right. She didn't need to work that menial job anymore. It was beneath her.

"What do you mean you quit?" Her boss yelled.

"I mean I'm done with putting up with the sexual harassment from people, the way you peer down my blouse when I'm cleaning up and the stench of vomit in the bathrooms." Elizabeth threw her "sexy German maid" uniform at him, he caught it fuming.

"I hired you, risking my patrons' lives, to give you a chance and now you're just walking out of here?"

"No you hired me because I was desperate enough that I wouldn't complain about the sexual harassment but I'm not desperate anymore. I've got another job and it is much more appealing than this. Now have fun finding another barmaid." Elizabeth turned storming towards the door.

"Fucking freak," her ex-boss mumbled under his breath, "who does that bitch think she is?"

She stopped dead. "What did you say?"

"I said who do think you are you freak!? Treating me thi—" Elizabeth turned around sharply her eyes alight with anger.

"I am Elizabeth Jane Howard. I am not a freak. Though I might be…" Elizabeth ran over to him faster than he could react, trapping him against the wall. "…just a little crazy." She punched him hard in the stomach causing him to double over.

"And don't you forget it." Another swift punch to his head and he was sprawled on the ground unconscious. Elizabeth smirked just a bit and left.

She felt good; great in fact, Elizabeth's body was humming with exhilaration while she walked away from that despicable bar. She felt so good that she wasn't paying attention to where she was going. It was a while before Elizabeth realized that she was walking through the park. When she did she sat down under a large oak tree overlooking the pond.

It was quite the nice day out. The sun was shining, the birds singing, and the kids were playing down by the water. Yes, it was a wonderful Sunday afternoon. Nothing could interrupt her—Elizabeth's cell phone rang. She looked down angrily if it was Edward or Jonathan she was going to scream; but instead of screaming a wide smile crossed her face.

"Alyssa!"

"Hey, Elizabeth, how are you?"

"Doing great, just sitting in the park. You?"

"Amazing! I just figured out my thesis topic!"

"Awesome!" Elizabeth nearly slapped herself on her forehead; with all that had been going on the past weeks she'd completely forgotten about her promise to help her friend. "What is it?"

"'Criminal Behaviors in Vigilantes: Are They Really the Good Guys?' Great, right!?"

"Yeah, but aren't you a bit biased?"

"I'm not biased." Elizabeth could hear the defensive tone in Alyssa's voice.

"Yes you are, or have you forgotten Star City Junior year? Out little scuffle with those thugs and the injury that ruined your chances at the tournament?"

"I wasn't going to mention Star City."

"Sure, but it still makes you biased because everything was fine until you took an arrow to the knee."

"Fine, fine, so I'm a bit biased, everyone is a bit biased, I wasn't going to mention Star City or Green Arrow, I was going to focus on Batman and maybe a bit of Superman."

"Okay, whatever, I'm glad you found a topic though. Hey, guess what!?"

"You grew a tail!?"

"Not funny. No, Victoria is in Gotham."

"No way, but she hates American cities."

"I know, all because of a boy. Antonio. He lives here and they're in love. I haven't met him yet but the Colonel doesn't approve so he must be good."

"Here, here but I hear that you've gotten a man for yourself."

"What?" Elizabeth was thoroughly confused. What would have given Alyssa that impression? She hadn't mentioned anything about her date—meeting—with Edward to anyone besides Jonathan and she knew he wasn't in contact with her friend.

"Your Facebook post: "Can't wait for Monday. Hope he likes the dress I'm sure he'll be as dashing as ever." Hang on its says your online. I thought you were at the park."

"I am," Elizabeth groaned, "this is going too far."

"What is?"

"Never mind, send "me" a message. Hang on," Elizabeth grabbed a piece of paper and a pen from her purse and began scribbling. "Write this exactly: foato uurou cedfa kdgfs yweys and put an exclamation at the end. Got it?"

"Yeah. What were those letters?"

"Nothing important but I don't have a date it's just a dinner meeting to work some stuff out."

"But you have a guy?"

"No!" Elizabeth said a little too quickly, her cheeks reddening just a bit.

"Suuure. Okay, I'll just talk to you later then; I have to get back to work. See you."

"Bye." Six hundred miles away Alyssa looked at her computer screen the person on her friend's account had just sent a reply.

'Now that's not very nice, I thought we were friends.' Alyssa paused wondering she should reply or not. It wasn't often that Elizabeth kept things from her and she wanted to know who would hack her friend's Facebook.

'I know you're not Elizabeth, I was just talking to her, the message is from her. Who the hell are you?'

'The answer is in the first message.' Alyssa frowned what were those letters Elizabeth had given her? She looked at them again trying to find a pattern. There was none she could find.

'What do mean? It that some sort of code?'

'Of sorts. More like a riddle.' A riddle? Alyssa swore loudly causing her co-workers in the break room to look at her.

"Sorry."

'Get off Elizabeth's Facebook! What you even doing on there!?' The Riddler didn't respond right away but while she waited something occurred to Alyssa. 'You're going to dinner with Elizabeth?' The message didn't go through; according to Facebook "Elizabeth" was offline. Well wasn't that just great. Alyssa played with the idea calling Elizabeth back and demanding answers but before she could a ping told her that she had a friend request. Alyssa clicked on it. It was one Mr. Ee. She didn't know anyone called Mr. Ee…oh. There was a second long inner-battle within Alyssa before she accepted the friend request.

Back in Gotham Edward smiled to himself. He admitted he had his reservations of hacking Elizabeth's Facebook for more than accepting his own friend request but when he saw that she hadn't posted anything about their date—meeting—he just couldn't resist. Edward knew that Elizabeth be pissed at him but he hadn't expected her to use her best friend to send him a message. A friend that could tell him about Elizabeth's high school and college years and one that just accepted his request.

A message popped up on his screen. 'You're going to dinner with Elizabeth!? How did someone like you even convince her to think about it?'

'Someone like me? You mean a dashing and handsome rogue?'

'No. I mean a Rogue! Proper title given to those in Gotham who terrorize the city and are nemeses of Batman. How did a criminal convince Elizabeth, who has always respected law and order, to go to dinner with them?'

Edward laughed openly. 'Maybe you don't know your friend as well as you think? I maybe a Rogue but she's not innocent.'

'No, but she was acquitted of her crime. The only reason she was in Arkham was because of the fucked up system in Gotham. You willingly commit your crimes.'

'Funny she said the same thing in Arkham but Alyssa I wasn't talking about that crime.' Edward chuckled darkly as he waited for Alyssa to respond. A minute passed.

'What?'

'Perhaps that's something she should tell you but tell me how did the two of you meet?' He could only imagine what was going through Alyssa's mind at the moment. While he waited for her to respond he rolled his chair over to a table laden with blue prints and diagrams. The blue prints were of the Rosa Luna, although he had dined there many times before and was not afraid of being caught there, as the restaurant was owned by Rupert Thorne, he wanted to make sure he had planned all possible escapes for two. Yes, yes, everything was in order tomorrow night would not go wrong. Elizabeth would have nothing to worry about on their date—meeting—Edward nearly slapped himself it was not a date. Sure it was a nice restaurant, sure it was just the two of them, sure his stomach still gave a little twist when he thought of her in his mask, sure he had kissed her but that didn't mean it was a date.

A little ping interrupted his thoughts and he rolled back over to his personal computer—very different from all his other computers he used to watch Gotham and hack the system. 'We went to school together.'

'I know that, how did you meet?'

'I was in fight, she stopped it. We got detention: cleaning the showers. During detention she slipped and fell on me = best friends.'

'Slipped?'

'Yes, we thought it was semen at the time, Elizabeth still tells it like that but we both know it was shampoo.' Edward smirked, Alyssa wasn't lying, in fact, it appeared as though Elizabeth had lied to him when she originally told the story. He'd have to bring that up to her, he didn't like being lied to.

'Interesting, this was at boarding school correct? How did Elizabeth get along there?'

'Yes, it was. Why don't you ask Elizabeth yourself, I can't comment on her life there. Quid Pro Quo. Why did you ask Elizabeth out to dinner?' Edward chuckled at her cheek but admired her bravery at interrogating a Rogue for the sake of her friend.

'Because she interests me, you of all people should know how complicated Elizabeth is, and I just love a good puzzle.'

'Elizabeth is not some toy for you to play with!'

'Don't worry I take good care of my toys.' Edward chuckled. He was just teasing her, Elizabeth was much more than just a toy to him; Rubix cubes were toys, Elizabeth was…an enigma.

'DAMN BASTARD! GO SCREW YOURSELF! YOU'RE LUCKY I'M IN METROPOLIS RIGHT NOW! YOU HARM ONE HAIR NO! ONE CELL AND YOU'RE GOING TO WISH YOU WERE CATATONIC IN ARKHAM!'

'My, my, how violent. I can see why you're friends. This conversation has been terribly enlightening but I must go. Ta-ta.' Edward logged off and rolled back over to table. Just checking over the escape routes one more time.

"Pick up, jerk, or are you to cowardly to face me?" Elizabeth said to herself. She'd been trying to call Edward for the past couple of minutes. He probably knew she was going to chew him out though, how dare he hack into her account like that and actually post something. Something that made her sound like an infatuated teenager. The ringing went to voicemail.

"Greetings, you've reached Edward Nygma, the Riddler, Prince of well you know the rest. Your puny mind might have realized by now that I cannot answer whether that be because I am working, Batman, or that I don't like you I'll leave for you to figure out. If you think you are worth my time feel free to leave a message but there are no grantees I'll listen to it. Ta-ta."

BEEP.

"Oi! You condescending twat. How dare you hack into my Facebook and leave that immature message. You're lucky I already brought a dress and can't return it or else I wouldn't be coming tomorrow. Also if you—"

"Ah! Elizabeth sorry, about that I was a bit busy."

"Edward!"

"The one and only. Please continue. If I what?"

Elizabeth growled lightly, his arrogant voice was starting to get to her. "If you do that again, I'll make you wish Batman was beating you up instead."

"Oh, Elizabeth you could never hurt me like that, I've been pushed out of fourth story windows by the Batman. So tell me, what are you going to wear?" Elizabeth was thrown off slightly; Batman pushed him out a fourth story window? He could have killed him.

"I—uh…" Elizabeth was trying to regain her head, "I'm wearing blue and that's all you're going to get until you see it tomorrow."

"Blue. You looked good in blue." The way Edward said it, it almost sounded like a passing thought, a vague observation but Elizabeth could tell it wasn't. She opened her mouth to speak but found she didn't have any words as red rushed into her cheeks. "Are you blushing?"

"No!" Elizabeth squeaked. Edward chuckled. "Shut up. You better be there on time tomorrow, I hate waiting." Elizabeth slammed her phone shut, still blushing and very, very confused. A surprisingly short mile and half away Edward's chuckle had turned into deep laughter.