"So, tell me more about this Edward Nigma you've been working on, he seems like a quite interesting case. Did you have any breakthroughs yet?"

I dropped two pieces of sugar in my tea, stirred a little and then laid down the silver spoon unto my porcelain saucer. "No, frankly, there have been none successes whatsoever," I reluctantly admitted.

It frustrated me to talk about Nigma, because he would never really open up to me. "He really confuses me. Sometimes it seems like he's just a little criminal trickster with an inflated ego, and then he's really communicative and nice, but at other times..." I sighed and shrugged my shoulders.

Frankly, I liked Edward. He was nice to work with because you were never really in danger of an aggressive outbreak with him; plus he could be very charming if he felt like it, which made talking to him not only easier but also quite entertaining.

I looked up at my co-worker Robert who sat opposite of me in the Asylum cafeteria. We were not alone since the staff shared the cafeteria with the more harmless inmates, for example Humphry Dumpler, who was obsessed with taking broken devices apart and then setting them back together.

"Schizophrenia?" Robert asked, frowning at me. I rolled my eyes: "Gee, Rob, if it really were that easy, don't you think I would have figured it out myself long ago?" He just laughed and looked down at his cupcake. When I didn't say anything anymore, he looked back up again and made an impatient hand gesture. "Well then, Professor doctor Know-it-all, please enlighten me. Why are you so sure it's not schizophrenia?"

"Well, it doesn't seem like he has another character, it's more like..." I had to think about how to put it. "Sometimes he just realizes how much his obsessive-compulsiveness is in control of him. And then it renders him pretty depressed and confused. He's actually very anxious that he will never overcome his disorder, and well... we both know that he probably really won't."

Rob nodded and was about to reply, when he was interrupted by his pager blowing up loudly. "Sharp", he said after a quick glance at the display. "You should probably come too." We both got up immediately and headed for the elevator.

"What do you think is the matter?" I asked curiously. I worked at the Asylum for quite a while now, but Warden Quincy Sharp had never paged me personally; why should he, he surely had lots of employees to do things like that for him.

"I have no idea, but I'll guess we'll know it soon." We arrived at the first floor where Sharp had his office right next to the exit door, which led to the courtyard that connected Arkham East (cafeteria, doctor's offices, special therapy room and library), Arkham West (medical facilities and separate holding cells) and Arkham North (intensive treatment, Penitentiary and regular therapy rooms).

Rob knocked at the door. "Come in! Ah, Dr. Boyles! And you brought Dr. Baker too, excellent."

The Warden seemed very tense, staring out of the window into the dark, foggy landscape, but he forced himself to a little smile when he saw us."I have very important news for you two. A new patient is on the way to us and... well..." Sharp covered his face with his hands and gave a sigh of frustration. "Another new patient?" Rob asked confused. "Sir, with all due respect, we really don't have any place for new patients with all these Blackgate prisoners here." I nodded in approval.

Only a few days ago a fire had broken out in the walls of the old Blackgate prison at the opposite end of Arkham, leaving some staff members with severe burns, but all the inmates were surprisingly fine.

After that, they were transferred to Arkham Asylum where we now had to put up with them. The problem was not only that they were rude and highly dangerous, they also started to unsettle our own inmates, which was something I hated to see. We had worked so hard to make some progress, even just a little bit, trying to reduce their aggressions, just to see our work crushed by a few mediocre thugs.

"I know, I know, things have been chaotic with the Blackgate inmates here, but we can't turn this particular patient down." The warden inhaled deeply and then looked up at the two of us. "It's the Joker."

The Joker. Both Rob and I tensed at once. I hadn't worked in Arkham long enough to experience the Joker's last escape, but I had heard the stories. Everyone had, with Joker on the run and on the news constantly for the last two months.

"Batman is bringing him here personally. They should arrive in about an hour, so we have some time to get ready. I think it would be best if you went to the entrance with the security staff to wait."

When we were outside, Rob and I stood around in the hallway indecisively for a little while. "I think I'll go and take a look at the cell he's going to live in." Rob announced with a nervous look and then took off to the elevator again, waving me goodbye. He had always hated showing someone that he was scared, especially me.

Robert Boyles and I had been friends for as long as I could remember. Even when we were just little children, we have always been there for each other. He, being smarter and more thoughtful than me, had always kept me out of trouble and in return, I had helped him with his first clumsy attempts to talk to girls. After that, we had gone to the same college, sharing a flat and often studying together for big exams. We had parted after that, I had started to work for a big company as their spin doctor, he had accepted a job at Arkham Asylum. After a while, I grew more and more unsatisfied with my profession, and he managed to convince me that I come and work at the Asylum with him.

I really liked this job, and I loved working with Robert, but sometimes he just really irritated me. Like right now, when he refused to show me how worried he actually was about the Joker coming here. He had - reluctantly - told me a part of the story of the Joker's last breakout, and honestly, even just hearing it scared me greatly.

I decided to quickly go to the general staff room in Arkham North, where I worked, to get my notes on the Joker just in case I'd need them.

When I passed the hallway leading to the inner courtyard of the Asylum, I caught a quick glance of my reflection in the mirror. I looked tired and nervous and dark circles started to form under my eyes thanks to the sleepless nights I often had recently.

My nightmares were the reason I was often up at night working on my cases, because I just couldn't bear to close my eyes again; and the problem was, as soon as I was awake, the nightmares dissolved, making them luring ghosts that I could not get a hold of, but that I knew were there.

I swept back my shoulder length light brown hair into a ponytail and tidied my messy bangs. I had extremely pale skin, which was great when I wanted to fake a sickness, but right now I could kill for some colour.

I tried to get a little blush on my cheeks by slapping them slightly and then turned away from my reflection since I couldn't do much anyway.

I had never considered myself a beauty - I thought my nose was to big, my eyes were to small, my lips were to thin, my belly was to chubby, the list was endless - but the truth was that I simply didn't really care. What I lacked in looks I made up in brains, and since I hadn't exactly fallen off the ugly tree either, there were more important things on my mind than my appearance.

As I crossed the courtyard, I ran into a group of inmates accompanied by a guard. "Hey Mike, time for the afternoon walk?" I asked casually. The inmates that were not considered a high threat were allowed to go on a walk once a day within the Asylum courtyard, accompanied by several guards of course.

"Yeah," he nodded. "But I'll have to take them back sooner then expected because of our new arrival." "Shame," I replied sarcastically. The guards hated being on walk-duty and Mike was probably more than happy to go back to his usual work. He laughed.

Right then, a tall and skinny man with short fire-red hair strode over to us, positioning himself right in between me and Mike, which seemed to cross the latter.

"Hello Edward, how are you?" I greeted my patient friendly, but he ignored it.

"Riddle me this, doctor!" He demanded. "I stare at you, you stare back at me. You're a copycat, I can see. Whatever I do, you seem to do, too. Who am I?"

I shook my head, determined not to play his game. „You're Edward Nigma, Edward, and you know that you don't have to talk to me in riddles, alright?"

The disappointment instantly showed on his face. „And I almost considered you a worthy opponent," he said frustrated and turned away from us.

I rolled my eyes, I just couldn't bear it when he was like this.

„The answer is a mirror, Edward," I shouted after him and straight away he turned around again with a wide grin on his face, hurrying towards me.

„I saw you looking at your reflection in the hallway," he proudly announced. „And then I quickly made this up. Do you like it?" „It rhymes. You know I like the riddles best when they rhyme."

I had set down a rule when I first met Edward, saying that I would only answer his riddles on every second meeting, and of course only when he told them to me in a calm, relaxed way.

I planned on narrowing the riddling down so much that we could someday have most of our meetings completely riddle-free, just talking normally, but it occurred way too often that I met him outside of the therapy room and let him talk me into solving his puzzles.

Now his face turned a little more serious and he took another step towards me, being a little too close for comfort. „Err.. Edward, private space?" I looked at Mike who understood and put his hands on Edward's shoulders, ready to pull him away at any second, but Edward didn't attack me.

„I think you should take tomorrow off, doctor," he whispered softly with a look of worry on his face. „You look tired. And tomorrow might get a little troublesome."

„Don't you threaten her, Nigma," Mike said sharply. „Get back in line."

With that he pulled Edward back and pushed him back to the other criminals. „I don't think he was threatening me." I tried to defend him, but then noticed that I was running out of time.

„You can tell me tomorrow, okay, Edward?" I offered walking backwards towards the door, but he just shook his head. „I am invisible and yet I am. I can make you suffer, I can make you weep, but without me you would not exist. I am the cause of almost all the discord in the world, as well as almost all cooperation. What am I?"

I continued walking to the entrance door, shouting over my shoulder. „It doesn't rhyme, Edward!"