THOMAS SHELBY HAD SPENT NEARLY five years in Arkham Asylum. What had started as a routine 72-hour hold had quickly divulged into a hellish nightmare that did not end until he’d found a way out. He’d been experimented on. He’d been shocked & drowned & manipulated. It had changed him. It had changed everything.
According to Gotham’s records, Thomas Shelby had disappeared after being released from a 72-hour hold at Arkham. According to the records, Tommy had been declared legally safe and released onto the streets, where he had never been seen again. The Shelby family had held a funeral. They had burned all of his things and his photographs in a traditional Romani funerary wagon. The only thing missing had been his body, which was rotting somewhere in the depths of Arkham Asylum. No one knew.
There is one thing Thomas will never forget about his time in Arkham : the Batman. He had been a sort of God to the people trapped there. All hours of the night had been filled with the disconcerting din of rambling prayers and hopeful shouts to the Dark Knight, & when morning came & the prayers remained unanswered, the hatred inside of Tommy’s chest grew. Hatred for a man who claimed to be a savior. Hatred for someone who did not even know that he was a beacon of hope for hundreds of tortured souls.
The Batman had never come. He had abandoned the ones who believed in him. Tommy had never been one for prayer or faith, but watching those around him slip deeper into madness & cling to the image of the Dark Knight had been something that he will never forget. It is burned into his soul.
Tommy had risen in power and stature since his escape from Arkham. He’d been elected to the boards of various hospitals & schools. He’d started a scholarship fund for the very University that had begun this awful chain of events. He speaks at fundraisers and charity events. & now, he’s running for city council.
All of the best people in the city had been invited to the campaign dinner. The District Attorney, the doctors & lawyers & billionaires who live so far above Gotham it’s a wonder they claim to live here at all. Bruce Wayne had been on that list. And Bruce Wayne had actually showed up.
Tommy extends a glass of champagne to the man. An olive branch. There is nothing in the world that Tommy hates more than a man who has more money than he does.
“ Mr. Wayne, ” he says, his smile not reaching his eyes. “ Thank you for coming. I’d heard you rarely ever leave your mansion nowadays. ”
He says the word mansion like it’s made of acid, but his face betrays nothing.
“ What makes tonight so different ? ”
