Rory was trying not to cry in front of Jerome. Her teeth were highly sunk into her tongue as she held back her tears. Every time the van hit a bump in the road, she flinched, her tears getting closer to spilling. Her chest was tight, the stress of Tetch's hypnosis felt like barbed wire around her brain. She couldn't see anything, only Jerome and his campaigns, who were sitting in silence as one of the goons drove the vehicle. Scarecrow hadn't said anything he didn't even acknowledge that Rory was in the van, he simply stared at his feet, his breathing was heavy through his mask. Rory thought back to when she had met him whilst she was saying goodbye to Lola. Had he told Jerome about that?

Her stomach flipped as the van swayed. Jerome was sitting next to her, his arm resting over his shoulders. It seemed like he was aware that Rory's presence was affecting his companions and his closeness to Rory wasn't to show claim but for protection. The van was dark, Jerome's light green glow seemed to stick to her as he held her shoulders. Scarecrows honey-coloured aura seemed to swirl in with the pink that floated around Tetch's head. She had gotten so used to seeing the auras of the insane that she barely even acknowledged it. In fact, she had forgotten what someone looked like without the dim ring of colour glowing from their silhouette. The only person she could think of who didn't have some kind of glow to them was Lola, and she was dead.

The van lurched to a stop, rocking Rory out of her head.

"Right let's make this quick and easy, boys!"

#

The air was sharp as Rory clambered out of the van. They were surrounded by trees and there seemed to be a low fog that coated the ground. It had been so long since she had breathed in the fresh air. Despite her timidness and her harsh company, she still managed to take a slow inhale. The breath was quickly stolen from her as Jerome placed a hand on her lower back and urged her forward. He was uncharacteristically serious as he looked out into the woodlands. This unnerved her and an icy shiver shot through Rory, centring itself at the point of his touch.

The villains were silent as they slowly trudged into the wilderness. Jerome had one hand on Rory's back, guiding her through the forest. They walked for what seemed like hours until they found a small concrete hut protruding uncharacteristically out of the soggy, brown forest floor. A wicked grin pulled at Jerome's lips.

"This is it," he hummed, his hand slowly moving from Rory's lower back to the side of her hip. He pulled her closer to him and looked back at his companions. He pulled a small sheet of paper which was crumpled and handed it to Tetch. The Mad Hatter moved slyly over to the door, throwing his hat over the camera which was protruding from the side, he then jabbed in numbers and with a dull click, the metal doors of the strange concrete square opened. Rory expected alarms to be going off, some kind of show which detected their intrusion, but as she was brought to the entrance with Jerome, all she could hear was the eery moans of a draft. There were steps that led down to an unseeable bottom.

"Don't tell me you're scared," Jerome whispered to her as he watched his companions crawl into the mysterious hole.

"Only of you," she shot back.

She felt him smirk at her response and took a reluctant step forward. She managed to separate herself from his touch as she did this and sucked in a quick breath as she continued her descent into the mysterious base. She could hear Jerome's footsteps echo after hers and for a moment the terror of his presence sunk in. She felt like his shadow was looming over her, tightening its grips around her chest. But this moment of fear seemed to be jolted out of her mind thanks to Tetch's little magic trick. Scarecrow and the Mad Hatter were waiting for them at the bottom, the two reminding Rory of circus acts in their strange, unnerving costumes. They were standing in a corridor that reminded Rory of a parking lot. The pale grey concrete walls had splotches of light running through, everything seemed so empty and cold.

"You know what to do," Jerome said cooly to his companions.

The two criminals walked off down to the right of the corridor and just as they disappeared around the blank corner the sudden flash of red started to pulsate through the base followed by loud and uncomfortable alarms. Terror prickled under Rory's skin at the sudden nose. Jerome harshly gripped her upper arm and started to run through the dull corridors with Rory trailing behind. Each turn they took was sharp and it took a lot of control for Rory to not fall into one of the rough rigid walls. Somewhere in the distance, she heard gunshots and then all of a sudden they reached the exit, the purple neon light spelling it out, pointing to an opening which was palely lit by the sign.

Jerome pushed Rory against the wall which was behind the sign, looking at her with a strange smug expression.

"And now we wait."

#

"Where the hell's the house?" Harvey exclaimed as they approached the strange light grey box. Jim sent him a warning look and approached the door, noticing the camera protruding from the side of the small hut.

"James Gordon, here to see Xander Wilde," he announced, looking at the camera with a stern smile. The steel doors opened slowly and a blonde woman was waiting on the other side, the dark concrete steps leading down into the compound looming behind her.

"So this whole joint's underground?" Harvey muttered with a deep frown, placing his hands on his hips.

"Mr Wilde values his privacy," Ecco responded, stepping to the side allowing the two detectives to cautiously step inside. She led them down the steps, taking the men through the grey corridors and appearing in front of a similar steel door. There was an intercom attached to the side.

"How long has he lived here?" Jim asked, taking in the strange surroundings of the compound. Ecco had turned to the door, not bothering to look to Jim

"He finished construction six years ago. Ecco. 496," she spoke into the intercom box.

"Welcome, Ms Ecco." the doors responded before hissing open.

"He'll see you now," she announced, once again stepping aside for the gentlemen to enter into the room.

"Thank you for seeing us, Mr Wilde," Jim spoke courteously as he walked into the room. There were several TV's on the opposite wall, a wide metal desk was placed in the middle of the room with several papers sprawled over it. Decorating the sides of the office were model buildings and awards hung on the grey concrete walls. Wilde was standing in the centre of the room, facing the televisions. He was wearing a deep crimson suit, his hair dark and slicked back.

"I expected you might come, Captain," the architect spoke as he turned around to face his visitors. The two detectives instinctively pulled out their weapons at the sight of his face. He was identical to Jerome. He had thick-rimmed glasses on. His face was clean, no sign of scarring or disfigurement seemed to taint his expression, his hair darker than his brothers.

"My God. There's two of them." Harvey exclaimed as he pointed his gun at the stranger. The architect had put his hands up but didn't seem bothered by their response to his appearance.

"May I put my hands down now, gentlemen? Please?" He said patronisingly, his eyebrows lifting as he spoke to the detectives. Jim holstered his weapon first as he studied Wilde's expression and recomposed himself.

"Apologies, Mr Wilde. You took us by surprise," he apologised, rolling his shoulders as he spoke.

Wilde nonchalantly put his hands down, pulling at his cufflinks. "That's understandable. You can call me Jeremiah. That's the name my mother gave me. You solved her murder, Captain Gordon. I owe you a debt of gratitude for that and for putting Jerome in Arkham, where he belongs." He spoke in a genuinely sincere tone, the only similarity that he had to Jerome was his looks.

"He never mentioned you before," Jim spoke cautiously, frowning at Jeremiah's gratitude.

"No, I suppose he wouldn't have. From the letters my mother sent me, he never spoke of me after I left." His expression seemed to shift. His tone becoming sterner as he responded to the Captin.

"Left where?" Harvey interjected, the detective echoing his bosses caution.

"The circus. They hid me away to protect me from him. See, we were always different, Jerome and I. From an early age, I showed a proficiency for maths and design, and Jerome, mainly the mutilation of alley cats. On my tenth birthday, he held a cake knife to my throat. A few weeks later, he lit my bed on fire. It was like living in a nightmare. My mother knew eventually one day he would succeed, so one night, my uncle came to my room while Jerome slept, and told me that he was taking me away. I had no idea where, but I kissed my mother goodbye, told her I loved her, and I never saw her again."

Both Jim and Harvey let Jeremiah's story sink in, both placing the pieces together.

"He took you to St. Ignatius," the Police Captain spoke as the information set in place.

Jeremiah nodded: "Got a new name, a new life. And I was finally able to live without fear. But in my heart, I knew one day Jerome would come for me."

"Well, that day is today, pops." commented, shifting his weight and looking to Jim as he sassed the architect. Jim looked at him with the same stern glare that he had given his partner before they entered into the maze.

"We have reason to believe Jerome knows where you are, he stole blueprints from one of Wayne Corporations buildings a couple of weeks ago. We need to move you to a safe location until we can apprehend him." Gorden explained, taking a step towards Jeremiah. His tone was serious. Jerome's twin didn't look bothered by this information, in fact, it didn't seem that he was interested at all in his brother's motivations.

"That won't be necessary, gentlemen. I've spent the bulk of my life preparing for this eventuality. I am safest here in my home." He said dismissively

Jim, who was becoming annoyed by Jeramiah's disinterest, spoke sternly. "Not anymore. Jerome knows the name of your proxy. He got it from your boss just before he executed him."

"I heard about Jerome's visit to the St. Martin building, I didn't realise that he had taken blueprints though," Jeremiah frowned

"You're lying." Harvey jabbed at the twin, which seemed to catch him off guard.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Yeah, there's something about this guy that's fishy. The security cameras outside. They were turned on. So why aren't any of your monitors showing the entrance?"

Jeremiah whipped around, staring at the plethora of TV's stacked behind him. Several screens had gone black as the three men had been talking. The architect tensed at the sight.

"I believe it is time for you two to leave," he spoke, the stern tone slipping with the sense of emergency in which he spoke.

"What's going on, Jerimiah?" Jim asked, his hand resting against his gun. Jeremiah looked at the two officers and sighed, turning back to the monitors.

The architect didn't respond immediately, instead, he turned his back to the detectives and flipped up the covering of a button and slammed his palm against it. All of a sudden, the lights shut off and the blaring sound of alarms started to screech through the base.

"It appears that we have some unexpected guests."