Final Chapter: Maxine
The hospital in Gotham's Upper West was to the brim. Many being transferred to other hospitals neighbouring the city. The city, itself, now a compound of National Guard efforts to seal the sea walls and major flood recovery. Bodies being discovered everyday, insurance claims amounting to seven digits. The city had reached its point of Renewal. The true turning point that may have washed away precisely what Edward wanted. The moral decay. Not just military aid, but the city as a whole was coming together to help. To replenish what was still left and build a new foundation. No more skeletons underneath.
The masked vigilante, once feared and hated, now celebrated for his heroic efforts in saving the washed away. The breaker of dams, the killer of liars, Edward Nashton, fervently despised. The Batman had brought a resounding hope to the city. Even though hearts were heavy in grief, they were also weighted in redemption. The willingness to turn the tide and make Gotham a city to be proud of. Among the many the vigilante saved, he had saved her. Plucked her and Martinez from the crumbling building as first light crept over the water. A shot of adrenaline kept her from the light, but she still kept a bit of it for herself.
Yumi clapped down the hallway of Gotham General on a mission. Her eyes red and puffy from the days leading up to arriving. She was finally back in Gotham. In wake of the brutality of Edward's crime, she had no sympathies left to spare for him. Her only vulnerability lie with Max. Her daughter.
The doctor came from her unit and surprised to Yumi's panic.
"Is she in there?! Oh God! Can I see her, please! Is she alive?! Is she brain dead?!"
The doctor stopped her. "Whoa! Please, calm down. Who are you?"
"Who am I?!" Yumi battled in offence. "I'm only her goddamn mother. Don't you see the resemblance?! Is my baby awake?!"
"You're her mother? We didn't have a full name, we just know her as Max."
"Maxine Atkins. That's her name. Please… please just tell me she's okay."
The doctor sighed low, an immediate sullenness. Yumi animated then, "Oh, God! I saw that! She's dead?! No, no! She's brain dead, oh God!"
Yumi started to break down and wail, and the doctor clapped back. "No! No. We have a heartbeat. She's in a medical coma now. We're soon to take her out of it but… Mrs. Atkins. There were complications."
The doctor led her inside the room. Yumi could have fallen to her knees, then. A heartache and relief battling each other in her head. Max was entwined in tubes and wires. One through her mouth breathing for her. She was pale, almost white. Her eyes rimmed in dark shadows telling the trauma she faced. Another trauma she should never have had to battle again.
The most shattering of all, the change that Yumi knew would alter Max's whole world, was the remains of her left leg. Amputated and casted, held up in a harness. Only a stump above her knee remaining. Yumi clasped her mouth and wept hard through her hand. She came over to Max's side and sobbed into her shoulder, clutching onto her without the intent of ever letting go. She was alive, but changed. A loss in more ways than one. So many losses that could utterly break her. In the moment of despair, Yumi promised she'd be there for all of it. She's lost enough. She won't lose me.
The doctor explained, "There was a serious infection from an injury she gained in her leg. We tried to isolate and treat it from spreading but amputation became the only option. I'm sorry."
Yumi sighed, "Oh, she's not going to take it well." She knew her daughter. A creature of freedom with her wings clipped. She petted down Max's hair, smiling down with a few tears dipping down her cheeks. "I'm here, peanut. Ain't nothing gonna hurt you again."
Yumi stayed by her word like religion. The medication to wake Max administered, now the waiting for her to come to. Yumi was devout to the bedside. Hours lapsing hours. Her cot left cold as Yumi opted for her bedside, her head over Max's hip. The doctors made sure she knew early the small chance Max would not wake up, but Yumi refuted it like blasphemy. She knew her daughter wouldn't leave. Max had come so far in the fight, she wouldn't give up yet.
Two days went by, and nothing bringing optimism to the doctors. They ran tests after tests, persisting she should have woken up. However, Yumi was assuring these professionals that a hurt of this magnitude takes time, and to have some patience. She didn't know the first thing about medicine, but she was confident she knew this. That Max would need time. That a healing process wasn't over night. It was long and dynamic. Each one a journey different from the other.
Yumi would sit at the edge of her bed for hours awake in the stillness of early morning, when three am had brought the hospital to a quiet hum. She pet down Max's black hair, the shade of hair passed down through the Chisaka bloodline. Her bloodline. Remembering all the features of her chubby cheeks in infancy, her small and heart shaped lips homing a toothless grin, the constant love for pigtails and tea parties. Evolving into a woman strong, stubborn, and a voice loud enough to bend the trees. That she had raised her from seed to tree. An oak of their family. Love so strong it could seep down to Max through her fingers, going into her.
"I know you're in there, peanut. Just wake up. Wherever you are… come home."
Then a hand shifted over the linen, catching Yumi's gasp. She shot up and ran to the hallway, alarming the staff. Soon, Max's room was a business of medical professionals. Removing tubes, getting tests ready, speaking to her as she struggled to cough the tube out her throat. Despite the two nurses much larger than her, they struggled keeping Yumi out the room. She'd push and battle, only speaking to Max. Reminding her that she was still there and not to be scared.
The doctors were asking Max an array of questions. Her eyes not even fully open yet, and it hurt to try. All she could hear was an ocean of noise. The waves of the flood. But a voice screaming out for her. Someone she had been praying to see again in her dreams and nightmares. During the flood and the Riddler's escapade. The only one who she needed when she was scared.
"Mom?"
Max's first word stalled the doctors', getting an answer they didn't ask, but the answer they sought. That Max was still her.
Yumi exhaled a weight of relief, pushing through nurses to get to her and envelop her in an embrace long awaited. Direly needed. After all the terror Max had been through, Yumi made certain to stay grateful she still had her. Even after the loss of a limb and more. Knowing painfully how close she came to losing her.
Two months later, Max and Yumi were still in Gotham. Taking up residence in Max's apartment. The flood shredded through Tricorner mercilessly, but Westinson's Apartments was haven on a hill of land, just out of reach from the summit of water. For Max, there was no haven. She had survived to return to a place she once found sanctuary with someone who stole everything from her. Now constantly taunted by his surroundings. So many memories. Left to revisit them in many moments of weakness, and the stump left of her leg. She sat on her bed wearing the baggiest shirt she could find. The easiest to put on. Her underwear, no pants. She dreaded slipping on pants as it always reminded her of the emptiness left. All because of a flood orchestrated by the one she shared these happy memories with.
However, Yumi was persistent. She was optimistic. She wasn't letting Max's wallowing swallow her whole. Much to Max's annoyance, it was the only thing getting her out of the apartment and to physiotherapy.
"Alrighty, peanut!" Yumi announced like a rooster. "Got your chair, let's blow this popsicle stand! Let's get you a leg!" She jammed the wheelchair through the bedroom door to be greeted by Max's stagnant and despairing brooding. She had enough of all of it.
"You mean, try on another alien, expensive, heavy, and pinching piece of shit that won't be compatible with me anyway?"
"Ah!" Yumi stuck her finger up, "What did I tell you? Positivity, Maxine. You need to go in that clinic with a go-getter attitude and take that leg by force. Make it your bitch! Like you're the Queen Pirate with the peg leg no one fucks with unless they want it shoved up their ass ninety degrees! Haha!"
Max grumbled scornfully, "Do you ever… listen to yourself?"
"Max, you should be excited! After everything you've been through, baby doll. You finally get the chance to grow from it. Blossom into the new you!"
"Like this?" She hissed. "This is the new me? I don't have a fucking leg, mom! What am I growing from this? There's no point!"
Yumi sighed in anguish, clearly having had this argument from a bitter and battling daughter much in the recent weeks. The trap of her lost limb a deeply grown affliction in Max's mind, making her lash out. "Max… you have to stay positive…"
"Shut up!!"
Yumi silenced, bowing her head sullenly. Max was in heavy breath, bowing her own head letting the black hair fold to her pale scowl. The stump of her thigh glaring back at her as she did so. Regret and self-hatred came far too easily. She knew she was being unfair. Becoming someone she despised. Her mother was the salvation keeping her from taking all the sleeping pills in the bathroom cabinet. She had not been grateful.
Max sighed with still a lingering agitation in her voice. "I can't stay in this house. This place. Everything is a fucking echo of him, and I can't."
"Then lets get you that damn prosthetic, and you're gonna train your ass off and make sure it's the right one. As soon we do that, you're damn right we'll be out of this shit hole and back home. Back in Blue Valley where you belong."
Like any time she'd battle, Max lost. She was dragged from decay to rebirth with Yumi's ebullient smile encouraging her progress. Soon they were before the clinic. Max would slap her mother's hand away from the wheelchair handles, insisting she could roll herself. There she'd meet with her prosthetist. Hours gruelling with Max's pessimism and verbal abuse to medical staff, each day would end in the same conclusion – no progress.
Every day she was reminded of her youth as if it was the drive she should have to try harder, but only reminding her of the helplessness of her body. That she was young, now potential flushed away like the flood. The flood. Always coming back and haunting her. She couldn't let go of the horrors. She couldn't let go of her leg – of Edward. All the keepsakes, poisonous or not – kept greedily as if they were a safety net. Each one stalling her progress in the prosthetic. In healing.
Through all of it, Yumi's encouragement never dimmed. Max's darkness blew past her like an impenetrable force – nothing dimming her smile. When a prosthetic that fit Max was finally found, it was four months in Gotham after she awoke from her coma. Even so, the prosthetic no use if Max did not wear it. If she did not practice and shed the grief of her leg for something new to grow, she would never walk. Another month went by, and now the ten thousand dollar tool was gathering dust. Family would come to visit the two. Yumi having to be company for the both of them, as Max was lost in her own shroud. Listening to words but not participating. Letting family like Eiko, her father, her grandparents – fall into the background. But Yumi would not yield.
Max wallowed in bed, much like any other day. Her mother left to her own devices in the living room, until she wasn't. Yumi marched to Max's bedroom with spite. The heavy and expensive prosthetic in her arms being flopped to Max's bed, jolting her in surprise.
"What the fuck, mom!"
"Up!" Yumi barked, crossing her arms in a scolding gesture. "Get up. You're putting this very expensive and very curative thing on your leg, and we're going for a walk down the hallway."
Max scoffed petulantly, "As if! Fuck off!"
"Maxine Kimiko Atkins!"
"You don't get to just storm in here and tell me what to do with myself?! You can't force me to put it on! If I don't want to wear it, then I don't need to!"
Yumi battled, "I thought you wanted to get out of this city, Maxine?! Your leg is healed, you got your fucking peg leg, you're good to go! The only thing you have left to do is put on that goddamn thing. But you won't because you're clinging! You're clinging to this apartment, and you cling to who it reminds you of. Instead of fighting for yourself, you're rolling over in the past!"
"You think this is about Edward?" Maxine asked in a condescending tone.
"He's a huge part of it."
"I lost my leg! You think I give a shit about Edward?! I'm sitting here because I can't fucking stand, or walk, or run! I can't fucking get away from you! I'm stuck here! Broken! Useless! And I have to listen to your voice everyday like nails on a fucking chalkboard!"
Yumi egged her on, "Oh go on, then, baby doll! Let's here it. You got baggage, sure, take it out on me!"
"Yeah, well you bring up Edward, you're asking for it," hissed Max, wiping stray tears.
"If this ain't about Eddie, then why do I see his shit all over the place?"
Max raised her voice, "What?"
"Well, you didn't get rid of his computer, clothes are still in your closet, you got a fucking framed picture of you two in the goddamn living room! You're living in the shrine of what you miss about him, and you know getting off your ass and doing the work to heal from what he did to you is gonna change that. News flash, baby! We're in need of a little change!"
"Do you see me moaning and crying over any of it? No! It's just stuff, it's not any of your business, just go away!"
Yumi slapped her hands to the bed, "Okay, that's it." She stomped to Max's side and pulled at her arms, forcing her to the side of the bed.
"Get off of me!"
Max started to slap and scratch her, using her right leg to try and kick her back. Yumi ceased and groaned in spite, "You're impossible to deal with right now!"
"You're fucking psycho! Just get out! Better yet, go back to fucking Blue Valley! I don't want you here!"
"Is that what you want? Huh? To be alone in this shit apartment with a wheelchair?"
"Yeah!" Max screamed, falling into sobs. "I do!"
"I know what you've lost, Maxine. You think you're to blame, but you're not! None of this was your fault. It was him! You have to fight, if you want to live! This isn't living!"
"You don't know anything!" Max wailed, "You don't know what I've lost! You can't even pretend to understand what I'm going through! What the fuck do you know?!"
Yumi exhaled a long breath, then. She went silent, but a shudder escaped her nostrils. She fluttered her watery eyes to the floor before stepping out of the room. Max gasped and whimpered into silent, yet painful weeps that were fit to burst from her chest. She clutched it and bowed her head, letting the tears fall to her amputation. Then Yumi walked back in, less aggressive, but dour.
"You think I haven't lost anything, Maxine? You think I don't know what this is? I've been where you are. Not just for months… I was here for years. With a broken husband, and a sad kid. I had to stuff all of this down so I could carry on. Be the mother you needed me to be. The only way I could do that was to fight through, and let go of what no longer sparked joy. My pain for Celeste… your sister will forever be in my heart. But I had to accept she had died, so I wouldn't. So, I let go. Made room for you, and let you fill my whole heart. So I could heal."
Yumi left her then, certain her own tears wouldn't do any favours for Max. As she left, Max grappled in the terrible gnawing of her words. She hated herself for the abuse, bitterness, ungratefulness for the quarter of the year she'd shown her mother. Tonight was the first night Yumi had snapped. The first time in five months, Yumi reached her threshold – and she wasn't even done. Yet, Max saw herself on the bed. Mourning for her former freedom. Always looking down at her leg and not grieving for the loss of limb as much as she grieved for the reason why it was gone. Edward's flooding had only hurt and tortured so many, herself included. The guilt and hatred for herself in still loving him was the greatest weight keeping her to the bedroom. Isolating herself. Grieving a relationship that brought so much light. Now leaving her in darkness.
The months in her bedroom she did not waste doing nothing. She wasted them on her phone. Reading about Edward. Seeing so much hate and disgust from the collective for a man she exalted more than anyone. A domestic terrorist. A serial killer. The one who loves you. The love interest of his horror story. That's all you are.
Thankfully, not many knew of her in the case. Gordon made sure to keep it out of public knowledge, but it still wasn't a relief. She still felt like even the relation was a stain of her moral objections. As if she was complicit. I deserve to be blamed and hated, too.
She had lost her leg in that guilt. In the desperate yearning to save the family from the flood, she chose death over life for just a moment. Any redemption even in the disaster. Yet, it was not enough. Her limb not enough to sate the guilt. The ache gnawed anytime she'd reach for her phone and see him on the news, see him in the papers. Memes mocking and shaming him – and all she remembered was the good. Then she realized her mother was right. I've been clinging to the good to make up for the bad.
She sat digesting that for a moment. Broiling in it. Having to finally accept that the Riddler's mask and Edward were two sides of the same coin from the start. Letting go.
Then she pawed for her wheelchair, pushing herself into it before wheeling herself to the kitchen for a garbage bag. Her mother was still sat at the couch with her head craned. Yumi animated, "What're you doin?"
Max didn't stop to chat, but she did say as she wheeled back to her bedroom. "Things that no longer spark joy…"
Yumi went to investigate, only to see Max throwing all of Edward's work shirts, pants, ties, and belts in the trash. Even his socks and fabrics to clean his glasses. His puzzle books. Anything and everything reminiscent of Edward. The necklace he got her for her birthday, the love letters he'd write her before he went to work. Everything was tossed away with little regard. Then Max sighed, "Let go, and make room to grow."
Yumi beamed an excited grin, "Alright! Angsty break-up ritual! I'm in, baby!" She ran to the kitchen and grabbed herself a garbage bag. "You were way out of that creep's league, anyway. Haha!"
Max smiled lightheartedly, "Right?"
Together, they cleared the apartment of all Edward. It nearly resembled the way it was before she met him in 2017 September. Max helped as much as she could, even taking her garbage bag through the elevator with her mother – before letting Yumi toss it in the bin for her. Her mother would race her down the hallway back to the unit, and for the first time in months, Max was laughing. The more the apartment was cleared, the more she strained her arms in pushing the wheels, the more she yearned to feel herself stand again. Before sadness and grief came, she remembered she didn't have to. That a possible solution had been breathing down her neck for months, and just now, she genuinely cared to indulge it.
Later that night, in the early morning before three pm, Yumi made her way to the bathroom. She stopped to the walkway light on, and Max's wheelchair sitting at the front door.
"Max?!"
Yumi ran to her room. She wasn't in her bed. In a triggered panic, she ran out the front door to have her fear replaced with elation. That her daughter was walking. Max held on to the rails of the hallway, her prosthetic taking its first test drive. She was slow and a bit wobbly, her gait a hard limp, but with every step those kinks started to leaven. Yumi clapped her mouth, certain she'd howl a celebratory cry and disrupt Max's moment. However, she let tears that had been waiting to fall for months finally roll. Like she got the chance to experience Max walk all over again for the first time.
For Max, it was all a new learning curve. An experience that seemed dejecting and impossible at first, now her first steps proving she could do anything. A smile filled her face, heavy breath accompanied with the greatest bout of exercise she had in months. Freedom was returning through a little drive. Opening so many avenues of possibilities. That her injury wouldn't stop her from living, neither would anything else.
A month later, Max's practice in the prosthetic was gradually building tolerance. The pinch and ache it initially created starting to subside. She and her mother walked a road in Upper West. Simply practicing gaining her posture and swagger back.
"Look at you, honey! Gotta say, the peg leg is doing wonders for the gluteals! You got yourself an ass lift!"
"Mom, we're in public and I can't run from you, please censor yourself."
"Such a cute little bubble butt!"
"Mother!"
Yumi broke into the famous and shameless laughter that felt like home. The same laugh Max could break all walls and be herself at hearing it. A man passed them down the street.
"Sir! Excuse me?! Don't you think she has an adorable derrière? Haha!"
"Please someone kill me and make it look like an accident…" Max grumbled to herself, still keeping an amused (slightly embarrassed) smile. Yumi's laugh filled the spaces, making even Gotham's streets a little brighter.
Yumi asked as her laugh settled, "So, how does it feel, really?"
"Well," she grunted as she flourished up her prosthetic for another step. "Kind of feels like a foreign weight of junk strapped to my leg. But… it's good. It's feeling better. I'm starting to get used to it."
"That's my girl. You know, they're making these things like robot legs, now. You could be a cyborg!"
"Those things are like in the hundred thousand dollars, mom."
Yumi grimaced, "Jesus. Price like that, they better give you super speed and make you jump twenty feet in the air. Where do people get the prices for this stuff?"
"Tell me about it," sighed Max. "Could of bought a house. Nope. I bought a leg."
Yumi cackled, "I can tell this is already doing so much for you, baby. You can start running again, taking hikes. That trail in Blue Valley is still fucking gorgeous."
Max glanced to her and smiled, "I can't wait." She explained, "I'm sorry… for how I've treated you. I've been a real dick."
"You've been my daughter. I knew you'd be a little shit, and I was expecting it. But… I knew you had a lot to get over. More still on the table. But thank you, honey. Apology accepted."
Max went to give her a side hug, but her phone buzzed her pocket. Max stopped with her mother curiously listening.
"Weird number…" she observed, "Ignore?"
"Nah, answer it! If it's a telemarketer, hand it to me, I'll get rid of em'."
Max sniggered, "You gonna talk them to death? Didn't know you were weaponizing your chatting skills. I give you credit."
Max answered the phone then, "Yeah, this is Max."
The phone led with an older man's voice, "Maxine Atkins. Hello, I'm Steven Bolger, I'm Edward Nashton's attorney."
Max flicked a glare of fear to her mother, then. Yumi animated in silent but drastic gestures, asking her who was on the phone. Max hummed in vacant thought, "Uh… why?"
"I know. I'm sorry to be bothering you, this has been an arduous request of my client, and with the time passed, I felt it was appropriate to call."
"What is this about, exactly?"
"Nothing bad for you, Ms. Atkins. My client has been insisting to speak to you and… well, I told him I would reach out and see if you'd consent to a visit to Arkham State Hospital for a visitation appointment. If you consent, I can send the paperwork via email, you just send them back and I'll have them into Arkham, asap. If you do not, that's entirely up to you. I won't ever call this number again,if you so wish, and relay that to Mr. Nashton, myself. I'm simply a third party, but it's under your discretion."
"Why does… why does he want to see me?"
"He seems convinced there was a… intimate relationship between you two. There's been some behaviours in Arkham that are getting concerning, he's willing to cooperate if his wishes are met. Which is…"
"Seeing me…" Max glowered, glancing to her mother who knew instantly what the call was regarding.
"Yes, Ms. Atkins. I'll stress it again, it's up to you."
Yumi started to hiss and battle silently on Max's end, telling her in whispers to hang up and release a library of swears at the attorney. Instead, Max said, "Okay. My email is…"
Max struggled to say it as Yumi flourished into action like a chimp trying to grab a banana, except it was Max's phone. Before long, Max had her in a headlock.
"Okay, thank you! Bye!"
Max hung up the phone and finally released her panting and disheveled mother. "You've lost the fucking plot now!"
"What?!" Max ranted, "you think I'm going to a conjugal visit in Arkham? Get a hold of yourself!"
Yumi expressed sarcastically, "No. You're just going to see your deranged, foaming from the mouth, serial killer ex-boyfriend in a mental asylum! Excuse me for having a bit of a mother's worry!"
"Wow. Say it louder. Don't think East Gotham heard you," groaned Max.
"This is not a good idea, baby! That man is a snake. I know exactly what is going to happen."
Max consoled, "Like what? There's a 3 inch layer of wired mesh window between me and him. That man could barely open a peanut butter jar, now you're worried he's gonna break out and get me?"
"Deranged murderer or not, they're all the same. He's gonna cry, bat those pretty green eyes and try to drive his hooks in. Make excuse after excuse. Or try and blame you again! He's being a narcissist, and that's that."
Max sighed, "He just wants to talk."
"He's talked too much, Maxine. He's taken far more. You don't need to listen to another word." Yumi explained, taking Maxine's shoulders.
Max nodded, "You're right. But it's not his time to speak. It's mine."
The drive to Arkham island was a dreary, sunless day. A foreshadowing of events soon to unravel as Yumi drove Max to the infamous State Hospital. Soon to be face to face with someone who still harboured a piece of her. Still kept in her world as she'd fall asleep. Perhaps a test of her resolve. A true goodbye. Maybe a confirmation he was truly the Riddler mask all along, or if something had changed. There was always a fondness and grief for the sweet, shy, and socially awkward man she invited to her home. The man that stayed for the first two months – until four digit numbers stole pieces of him away, leaving the ugliest parts. Max wasn't looking for an apology, she was simply looking for the man that she met at her apartment. That was the man she built a foundation with, and the Riddler came to crash it down.
Yumi held her hand the entire ride, sure she needed it. Max's fear only building as the peaks of the hospital came over the hill. When they arrived, a familiar face was waiting in the car park waving them down. Max had spoken to Lieutenant Jim Gordon the day prior of the visit, but she wasn't expecting his attendance.
As soon as they parked, he came to Max's door and opened it. Knowing full well her situation. Max nodded a thanks and he helped her out. No wheelchair, just a prosthetic and a cane for a little added support. She wasn't keen on showing weakness today. It would be her first time using the prosthetic solely in an unfamiliar place. All the stories of Arkham couldn't have prepared her for the breath of darkness the place seemed to emit. Instead of harrow, she was surprisingly in pity. To know Edward had been encased there.
"You're here?" Max asked Gordon.
"Yeah," he said gruffly. "I've got a friend who likes to keep tabs on Nashton. Plus… I figured you'd need some support."
Yumi chirped, "Well, what am I here for? Nice to meet ya, you're the cop who had Cece's case reopened, didn't you?"
"That I am. You must be Yumi, it's nice to finally meet you."
Instead of a handshake, Yumi ambushed him with a hug. A silent thank you for what he did for her daughter. Both her daughters.
"Well," sighed Max, already fighting for air. "What are we waiting for, I guess."
She walked forward, the same cold like the plunge into floodwater as she stepped up Arkham's entrance. Gordon tried to help her up, but she politely declined, assuring she could manage herself. They came up the security. Purses and pockets emptied. Even Max's leg needing to be removed for a small time to check for any contraband. Then the three walked the pale, fluorescent hallways. The distant screams of inmates and patients howling in the walls like wolves in the pine. A predator's nest. Max being one of their victims, bearing all her scars. I'm not a victim. I'm a survivor.
As they reached the visitation cells, Yumi pulled her back.
"You don't have to do this, baby."
Max smiled, "I know. I want to."
Gordon let her inside what was a four by four room. Darkly lit and had a camera following her every move to the chair. A large screen of mesh wire window before an opaque gate. Max released one last, fragile breath, assured now she'd be steel from now on. Cold and unfeeling. Her bricklayers stacked high and unwavering. There was time waited in silence. A few gates cried open, leading in footsteps to the other side of the gate. She clenched down her nerves and remembered all the pain he had caused. The lies and absence. His reserves not bending to her arms reached out for him. How he drugged and kidnapped her from her home. How he hid so well his intentions were so morbid and perverse.
The gate started to lift and she took one last sweep of air into her nose and straightened her posture. Already prepared with a still glare and mind for what was waiting before that window. His colours in beige and orange. Shackles along his wrists and brace over his neck. Then the gate passed his shoulders, and all of Max's intentions crumbled down. The shock was first, then a rush of every emotion she could think of – bringing her to tears. Shock, horror, sadness, and relief. Love.
She clasped her hand to her mouth and wept, and on the other side of the glass, Edward did the same. No words uttered. None needed. A mutual despair shared in each, their unspoken language coming back like muscle memory. His hand clasped the glass slow and shaky. As if he doubt she'd return it. Max could see the toll of the place in Edward's eyes. No glare of his glasses, just his eyes. That his own retribution was a cold and unforgiving one. Max reached her hand to the glass in turn planted before his. They kept their hands there, the glass the only barrier between their skin. A luxury they both indulged and took for granted. Now the shattering reality neither would feel it ever again.
The time to mourn and grieve their year together displayed long and silent. Small sniffles and weeps in a desperate yearning to comfort and console – but things were forever changed. Both had changed.
Time passed, and Max finally took her hand back. Edward's shackles rang as his hands returned to his lap. He weakly uttered, the first word between the two in months. "I'm sorry."
Max only saw tortured and disordered. A victim of his own elements. Perhaps a guilt that his signs of mental illness sang through their relationship – and she ignored it.
"Me too."
He sighed then, glancing down to his hands. He nervously said it. An exact mimic of his shy croon when she sat before him for the first time at her kitchen table. "You're so pretty. You're always so pretty. I almost forgot… what you looked like."
Max whispered back, her voice breaking. "You're beautiful." It was the first time she ever said that to him, and she meant it. Despite everything he did, she would not deny the life he gave her in their brightest moments. As of now, it was all she could recall. She continued, "I shouldn't have done this. I felt… confident I'd come in here and see a monster staring back at me. I look at you and that's not the case. I just see… you."
"I… have missed you… so much it breaks me to see you. Knowing there was a time I could hold you. Kiss you. Feel your hand going into mine. I was almost content with the you I'd imagine in here. Seeing you… she doesn't come close."
Max smiled sadly, glancing down to her hands. He leaned in then, "But I told you I'd keep you safe, didn't I? I only drugged you because… I knew you'd never leave Gotham if I told you why."
Max admitted, "I came back. I… drugged the guy you had taking me and I drove myself back."
Edward went stunned and horrified to hear it. He asked in a weak yet soft voice, "Why would you do that?"
"Because what you did was wrong, Edward," she replied, a firmness coming back into her tone. "You flooded the city and hundreds died. Many of those being common, destitute, and good people. The people in your following were not the collective of good. In fact, I think most of them are psychopaths. You needed to be stopped."
He dejectedly sighed, glancing down, as well. He muttered, "So… you haven't changed your view of me, then."
"It changed… but maybe not in the way you'd expect," she replied. "I was caught in the flood, too."
Edward's sad eyes went even sadder. He straightened his posture just a little. He sighed on a verge of tears, "… Max." He started to plea, "You weren't supposed to be anywhere near it. You have to believe me when I say I wanted you safe. Warm and dry. I never meant for – "
Max cut him off, "I know. I know… in your own warped way, you were just trying to protect me. But I needed to protect them. I lost my leg to protect them." Her voice shook, fighting back tears. Especially as he clasped his mouth in despair. "But worst of all," she wept, "I lost you."
"Max…" Edward reached his hand back to the glass, but Max did not return it. "I love you. You haven't lost me. I'm here. I know I'm in this place… but we've weathered so much together. We can weather this, too."
Max bowed her head to silently cry as he continued, "We can run. I've been in here and there's already so many chances I could have escaped. We'll run and never look back."
"Edward, stop."
"We can start again. I promise… the man you fell in love with is here. My work is done. The Riddler is done. It'll only be you and me, like it used to be."
Max had gotten the confirmation she needed. It didn't grant relief. It only made the next step far worse. "I need to leave. I'm going home."
Edward wilted to hear it. He asked her in defeat, "I thought you told me you were home wherever I was?"
"That was then," she said, letting tears fall down a still face. "This is now."
Edward shook into his hands, his tears a pain in Max she needed to feel. She leaned in and placed her hand to the glass. "I have always wished light and peace for you, Edward. Even after everything you've done, that hasn't changed. I hope one day you find it. Because I love you. I will always love you. But I have to let you go."
Max stood from the chair, and his eyes followed her in a panic. "No, wait… don't go!"
She grabbed her cane and limped to the door, dreading Edward's pleads to come back. His voice not left behind the metal door slam. Max finally allowed that moment to break down. Yumi and Gordon came from the other side of the hallway. Max had her palms to her ears as she wept. Stressed inhales greeting far more tears than she could anticipate. A river of grief falling from her face as every tender moment between her and Edward flashed back. The fight to not run back into the room and console him nearly lost if not for Gordon and Yumi. Max tried to walk with them, but her prosthetic nearly gave as she lost her concentration. Gordon caught her, "You need help?"
Max replied in a hoarse whisper, "Yes."
They led her out of the confines, back through the fluorescent halls and through security. Max's grief was the act of finally letting go of one of the greatest comforts she ever had. Far exceeding Mr. Trunks. As comforting as it was toxic and sad. And as she greeted the pale skies, a sweep of wind hit her first, bringing clarity. A weight she never knew, yet so unimaginably heavy, was finally lifted. As painful as it was to let go of Edward, the act was healing even as the wound was fresh. She could finally breathe freely.
Mom and I spent that night packing. Getting ready for an adventure that would hopefully be the first of many. There were some painful memories, sure, leaving an apartment that I called home for four years. It wasn't a home until Edward and I made it one. Letting it go after him – well, it came naturally. We rented a moving van, but opted not to take a flight. My mom isn't one for flying, anyway. We took the roads, the exact roads I took on my way to Gotham for the first time. Her SUV becoming the next Nissan Altima. Our womb that grew us stronger and happier together. Together, I took her down my memory lane. We revisited the Grotto of Redemption, the Franklin Park Conservatory, left our footprints in the Independence Hall of Philadelphia. Parked by the water and howled at the moon. Drove with the window down the entire way, letting the music pound in our ears. In our hearts so loudly it synced with the beat. So many laughs about things I can't remember now, but I wish I did. Two days, six states. We slept in the car like migrants, becoming one with each nature we passed. The true, ungodly, feral power of Chisaka women, we finally sealed all the wounds. Opened all the doors. Mother and daughter, forever.
I came back to Blue Valley like the fold of family had finally found me. Saved me from the dark I thought was safety. My mom and I have had a few squabbles, but always full of love and teases. Eiko and James come visit frequently. I face-call dad every weekend. He'd love to come down but he's still got a few warrants here. He won't admit it, though. Sobo and Jiji sense something powerful in store for me, and I'm so ready for whatever that may be. I'm home, where my heart truly lives. Where the buildings are built from the ground up by the honest working. Where every face is familiar. Where it's pure and clear, and my journey of healing can finally begin.
My 'peg leg' as mom endearingly calls it, is one of many growths from all the loss. The constant reminder that I survived and endured. Everyday I get better with it. I can run, I can jump. I can dance! My first jog was to Lake Pach, where I remembered him for the first time in months. I remember we swayed by the shore, and I almost cried. Then I remembered it's okay to grieve. It's okay to take some comfort in the happy moments. Otherwise, why would it have been so hard to let them go, at all? I blink and greet the lake like it's a majesty. I scream into the air until my lungs can't take no more, hearing the birds startle from the treetops. I dance in circles in my own universe, letting all the elements of nature kiss me. To know I am a force to be reckoned with. Unbeatable. Fearless. Divine. I am her. I am Maxine.
THE END