Edit:
This is fanfiction. I shouldn't even have to do this, since basically everyone who writes fanfiction knows that they won't make any money off of this. But, because I am a cowardly slime who doesn't want to get sued, I figured I ought to put in a disclaimer. Now listen up, 'cos I'm only saying this once, kiddies.
Sarah and Tori belong to me, along with their posessions, emotions, thoughts, relations, and backstories. Bane belongs to DC Comics, along with Batman, Robin, and any other recognizable character. However, The Dark Knight Trilogy belongs to Christopher Nolan, Syncophy, and any other respective owners. I will not make any profit from this story; everything you see written here is made for entertainment purposes only.
Chapter One: Excellent Play Indeed
It was dangerous to go out at night.
Gotham had changed so horribly in the past month, twisting radically from a time of relative peace to this chaotic monstrosity. Outside of her thin apartment door, she could hear the riots going on – explosions, screams, gunshots, and other noises of anarchy she couldn't identify. Nobody went out at night anymore, not if they wanted to keep themselves alive. The only people who roamed around after dark were the loosely organized army of Bane, and they caused more damage during the night than during the day. She swallowed hard and peeked out through the blinds which had been shuttered for weeks now, and closed her eyes. Her neighborhood was eerily quiet; during this time of night, there should have been kids outside on bikes, hoodlums marking territory, men staggering home from bars. But it was drained of people, empty of life, and she felt as though everything she knew around her was slowly bleeding to death.
She combed her greasy hair back in a ponytail and tucked it into her hoodie, pulling the hood up over her face. The danger was tripled to women everywhere, no matter the time of day; rumors had been floating around that women were cutting their hair and scarring their faces, trying to look uglier and attract less attention. Other women still were hunkering down with their families in basements, allowing their husbands to do all the heavy lifting and risk their lives. Sarah didn't have a husband or a brother to go out and get groceries, so she had been going around with her hood drawn and moving as quickly as possible.
Tonight was different. Tonight, they had to move.
The lower-class neighborhood they lived in was relatively untouched; it was the wealthy most of the rebels had been going after. But ransacking mansions could only buy so much distraction, and there was talk of the army moving through other streets. She couldn't risk getting her apartment demolished, not while they were still in it. She disregarded their scant belongings – very little mattered to her now. They needed to get out of here before the mobs started getting bored with the mansions. If there was still a God, she could make it to the shelters they had erected around the city. Thousands of people were moving there, and that seemed to be the safest place. If there was such a thing as a safer place these days.
Sarah hurried from the living room to the little bedroom she shared with her daughter. "Tori," She whispered. "Victoria, c'mon, wake up."
Her daughter was awake in an instant, her big glassy eyes alert and focused. Sarah doubted Tori had been sleeping much these past few weeks, and judging from how the sheets were twisted, she hadn't been sleeping very well now. "Are they coming?" Tori asked, her voice cracked and exhausted, even though she was practically vibrating with adrenaline. "Are they here?"
"No, no, sweetie," Sarah smoothed her daughter's tangled brown hair away from her forehead. "We're going to move. I'm going to take us to the shelter downtown, okay? Let's get your shoes on."
"Why are we leaving now?" Tori asked, wiggling her tiny feet into her pink shoes and pasting the velcro strap across her foot.
"Because nobody will expect us out at night," Sarah said truthfully. "If we're lucky, we can make it in only a few minutes. Remember where it is? It's by the library. It doesn't take that long to get to the library, right?"
The six year old blinked solemnly at her mother. "Will they catch us?" She asked flatly.
Tears bit at Sarah's eyes, and she sniffed as quietly as she could. "I hope not."
The two girls hurried out into the kitchen and Sarah swung her ratty beige backpack over her shoulder. It had the last of their food, some paper, and two bottles of water. Water was the price of admission in the shelters, seeing as they were running dangerously low. Sarah looked at her determined young daughter and nearly burst into tears at how serious she was. Dark circles were tugging beneath her eyes, and her skin was deathly pale. They were both skinnier than they had been when everything first started, seeing as food was low. "Victoria," Sarah said, dropping to her knees in front of her daughter, "Listen to me. If something happens...if they catch us...I want you to run. Okay? Run, and don't you dare look back. Find someplace to hide and I'll come for you."
There was a long silence as Tori's sleep-deprived mind tried to make sense of it. "Promise?" She asked finally.
Sarah hugged her daughter tightly, nearly crushing her to her chest. "I'll try, I promise you that," Sarah whispered into her daughter's hair. "Now we need to go."
The air was brutally cold, and snow was drifting down from the black skies in fat flakes. Every streetlight was out, and there were no cars on the streets. Far off, the sound of tumblers crunched through the snow, and Sarah spotted one of the camouflaged tanks rolling lazily down the street. If they were patrolling this close to the Narrows, then war was definitely on the horizon for her little neighborhood. Sarah wanted to pick Victoria up, but thought better of it at the last moment. People would know she was a mother if that happened. Sarah tugged her hoodie a little more over her face and they set off for the downtown area.
They passed demolished homes, destroyed cars, and carcasses. Sarah made sure to steer Tori away from the dead bodies, swallowing back bile and shuddering at the sight of the grotesquely twisted necks and old bloodstains. She didn't need her daughter scarred any more than she already was. They trotted swiftly across the streets, using crosswalks even though it didn't matter in the slightest any more, and Sarah began to get nervous. They hadn't seen a single living soul on the streets, save for one or two people sprawled in the road, either too drunk or too in pain to move. A nearby explosion made Victoria shriek in panic, and she clamped down on Sarah's leg. Sarah clenched her jaw and held her daughter close, throwing caution to the winds and scooping her daughter up.
It seemed to take forever to walk to Main Street from where they lived. On good days, nice days, not like this horrible winter night, they would journey up to the library on the corner and check out books. It was a twenty minute walk for them in good weather, but half-starved, exhausted, and trudging through unplowed snow, it seemed to take much longer. The only relief from the snow was the packed tracks that the big tanks made as they cruised around the streets, and Sarah gratefully walked on those. Her back was starting to ache from the heavy backpack and her shoulder was complaining from carrying her daughter, but Sarah avoided thinking about how cold and tired she was starting to feel. Where was that damned library?
"Going somewhere, beautiful?"
The voice was raspy and sounded slurred, and Sarah whirled around at the sound. He was a tall, lanky man with loose black hair and ugly, scarring blisters around his mouth and nose. She had seen that look before on people; it was a sign of someone who sniffed paint thinner or nail polish. She clutched her daughter close to her one last time, and then let her slide down onto the ground. "Going for a walk," Sarah said, trying to sound more strident and fearless than she felt. Her knees were shaking, and her stomach had tied itself in a knot; her heart banged against her ribcage. "Is that against the law now?" Sarah demanded.
"There's no law anymore," The man wheezed, grinning and exposing brown teeth. "Not for you and me."
"I don't want trouble," Sarah said, and her voice started to change as her throat grew tighter.
"Too bad," The man laughed. "You got it."
"Victoria," Sarah panted, "Run."
The six-year-old looked up at her mother with stricken eyes, and took a stumbling step away from her, when a shot cracked through the air. The addict convulsed, and fell to the ground, blood seeping onto the dirty snow. Sarah screamed and threw herself into the snow, taking her daughter with her, expecting more gunshots. There was a spatter of answering fire from a block over, and then she heard the snow crunching. Someone – several someones – were walking towards them.
"What you doin' out at night?" A voice asked above her, sounding halfway interested in spite of himself. Sarah scrambled to her feet and pushed Tori roughly behind her. The man was stocky, and he looked Middle Eastern, with thick black brows and pockmarked brown skin. A cigarette dangled from the corner of his mouth, and he cocked his head at the mother and child. There was something glimmering in his eyes, something she didn't like or recognize.
"We're moving," Sarah whispered, struggling to find her voice. "We're trying to reach the shelter."
"What's your name?" He asked with his heavy accent, and he took a step closer. Sarah backed up automatically, and Tori squeaked in alarm when she bumped against another man behind them. Sarah turned, and paled at the sight of the four other men, all bearing semi-automatic guns, and looking at her with wolfish expressions.
"Leave us alone!" Sarah screamed, her voice coming back in a rush. "Leave us the hell alone!"
"I just saved your life," The man continued, almost conversationally. It was then that Sarah recognized the glint in his eye – insanity. "You could repay the favor."
"I don't...want..." Sarah felt as though her head was going to explode if she didn't scream. "Go away!"
One of the men seized Tori's upper arm and yanked her away from Sarah.
The young mother didn't even think about how to react – she slipped her bag off her shoulder and sent it smashing against the soldier's face. He shouted in pain and grabbed the bag as Sarah drew back for a second blow, but she kicked him hard between the legs and ripped the bag back. Two other men converged on her, grabbing her by the wrists and pulling her away, and it was then that Tori began to scream. The young child ran, screaming without stopping for breath, and skidded on the snow. Tori fell face first onto the wet ice, but picked herself up as quickly as possible. Tears were streaming down her face, and she bolted for someplace to hide, anywhere away from those men, and hid behind a mailbox. Fearfully, she peeked out from behind it and saw the men tearing at her mother's jacket, ripping through the material. Her mother was thrashing, kicking out at anything she could reach, and Tori bit her wrist to keep herself from sobbing.
She heard his mechanized breathing first.
"Is that your mother, little one?"
His voice was almost a wheeze – raspy and guttural, punctured by the regular intake of breath, and Tori stared at him with huge eyes. He was a monster of a man, taller and broader than anything she had ever seen, with sharply hewn muscles bulging against the confines of his sheepskin jacket. His face, oh, his face was covered by a menacing metal mask which was obviously helping him talk, but it was the most horrifying thing Tori had ever seen. This was a man she had seen in all her dreams, this was the terrible monster who picked her out from the crowd and cracked her mother's skull in all of her nightmares. Night after night she saw this man in her dreams, always with that awful black mask covering his face. He was huge, bigger than she remembered him, and he was staring down at her like he was standing on a skyscraper. Intelligent gray eyes glared down at her, fierce and curious, and Tori knew that if she didn't move or scream, she never would. She had seen this man before, seen him at the football game her mother had taken her to – he had snapped a man's neck with one hand, effortlessly, like it was a twig.
"Yes," Tori croaked, pressing herself so hard against the mailbox she felt the metal nubs digging into her back.
"And you are going to let her die?" He asked, gripping the lapels of his jacket. She saw grenades belted to his waist, and there was blood on his clunky boots.
Tori ran then, ran away from him, ran towards her mother, just ran. "Mom!" She shrieked, and to her utter amazement all of the soldiers stopped trying to hurt her mother. They all spread apart, leaving her mother bleeding and choking on the ground in the snow, nervously looking at Tori. The little girl didn't even try to wonder why the men were listening to her, but she stumbled next to her mother, still crying. Sarah was barely conscious, and there was a large gash on her head, and her jacket was in shreds. The loose jeans she had been wearing were down around her thighs, and she was twitching numbly. "Mommy!" Tori sobbed, shaking her mother. "Mommy, wake up!"
"Your spoils must be growing thin if you're accosting children in the street," Bane said, his regulated voice suddenly louder than the world. "Are you so weary of your loot already, my brothers?"
"We..." The Middle Eastern man started, and then cleared his throat uncomfortably, breathing hard. "We were patrolling, Bane, and we came across them." He seemed to grow more confident at Bane's silence. "You said any woman in the city was ours, Bane."
"And so they are," Bane rumbled, and Tori knew what was going to happen a second before it did. She squeezed her eyes shut and clung to her mother, turning her head away. There was a hideous crunch, and some tiny gurgle, then the man dropped into the snow heavily. Bane flexed his fingers, and Tori shuddered. "Every woman in the city is yours...save the ones I claim for my own."
The men scattered into the wind, leaving the body of their leader behind. Bane looked down at the mother, who was struggling to see with one eye crusted shut with blood. "You have a choice," He said, almost sounding bored. "Stay here, and leave my protection, or come with me."
Sarah coughed and tried to sit up, even though it felt as though her head was going to implode. Everything was blurred, and her hearing hadn't yet popped back into place. "G-go to hell," She rasped.
"My offer of protection was not to you," Bane said flatly. "It was to your daughter."
Tori looked up with huge eyes. "Help my mommy," She whimpered.
Bane wordlessly scooped up Sarah, throwing her over his shoulder as though she weighed nothing, and Tori trailed along behind them fearfully. Bane's huge hand kept Sarah in place, and as they walked boldly down the middle of the road, Bane began to smile beneath his mask. His gray eyes flared.
All work and no play made Jack a dull boy. And this mother and daughter would make some excellent play indeed.
Authors Note: So, um, yeah. I recently watched TDKR, and WOW. What an incredible villain. This is only the beginning, I hope, and I know Bane's not terribly in character, but I do hope to rectify that in later chapters. I got pretty tired of all the Bane/OC's turning him into a mushy little teddy bear, when...he's not. He's really, really not.
Anyway, please leave a review and tell me what you think! More reviews = quicker update! :D