A/N: Hmkay, here's chapter two. I thought I'd add this pretty quickly, since the way the first chapter ended was just…I dunno, not quite conclusive enough. So here it is! The Joker and Sakura meet officially for the first time. Whee! Let his reign of terror rule forever!

Disclaimer: Joksie still not mine, he belongs to DC Comics, Leon (only mentioned in this chapter) belongs to Capcom, Sakura is mine.

Something smelled of coffee.

Sakura thought it was odd. She never drank coffee on a regular basis, and when she did it was with her best friend Leon from the small mom-and-pop shop down the street from her Gotham City apartment. Either she'd passed out in a Starbucks, or…

It took a great deal of effort to open her eyes; once she'd managed it, it took an even greater deal of effort to focus them. She shook her head, throwing an arm over her face as she tried to steady herself. She felt sick to her stomach and sore as hell, especially around her neck. She tried in vain to sit up; trying made her head swim and her stomach threaten to empty its contents rather violently.

"Jesus Christ, what happened last night?" she moaned to herself.

"Oh, nothing."

She did sit up with this attempt, gasping, bloodshot eyes wide. She was in an unfamiliar room. It had horrible blue wallpaper with white trim, but what Sakura noticed was the distinct lack of windows. The only light was coming from a grossly vintage white lamp on the table beside the bed she had been laying on. She looked around her for the source of the voice, but found nothing. It was that same voice from last night, the voice that had come from that face covered in clown makeup. The face of the infamous killer, The Joker.

"Behind you, sweetheart."

Sakura spun to her feet and whirled around, hair whipping out behind her, and what she saw made her feel as though her heart and lungs had ceased to function. There he was, sitting casually at a small table on the other side of the bed, sipping at a mug of coffee with a newspaper in hand. And he was grinning at her. She couldn't move her eyes away from his mouth…

"Not so fast, angel," he said as he set his mug down and stood up. "You had quite a rough night. You wouldn't want to fall over again, would you? You could break that pretty neck of yours."

Sakura began backing away as fast as she could, despite the fact that she felt dizzy and disoriented. All she knew was that she had to get as far away from this madman as quickly as was possible in her state. But she just couldn't take her eyes off him….

He was following her, crossing the room in long strides, and the look in his eyes made her think instantly of a wolf stalking its prey, circling it, giving it just enough time to be nervous before pouncing. But Sakura was far from nervous: she was petrified. Jesus Christ, he had a knife in one of his hands!

She gasped loudly, a heavy, sinking feeling of dread filling her belly, when her back met the wall. Where in the fuck was the door?!

The sinking got lower as she realized it was on the other side of the room. She had trapped herself. And he was advancing, his leer widening, reaching out to her with both arms like he expected to hug her or something. She visibly flinched, her eyes clenching shut, when the hand that wasn't holding the knife settled on one side of her head, like he was pinning her to the wall. A whimper escaped her throat.

"Aw, what's wrong, peaches?" he practically purred. "Why so nervous? I'm not that scary, am I? Am I?"

Sakura couldn't bring herself to open her eyes or mouth. Under normal circumstances, if this were any other guy, she would have shot back a retort so bitterly sarcastic, her assailant could drop dead on the spot. But this was The Joker, the man so famous for killing innocent people and laughing 

about it. He could cut out her liver and force her to eat it if he wanted to. His presence was overpowering; it was crushing her, suffocating her in this tiny little room and no one knew she was there. No one was coming to save her.

"Is it the scars? Is that it?"

Sakura managed to open her eyes wide enough to see that he was gazing into her face imploringly, quite obviously mocking her.

"Do you wanna know how I got 'em?"

Her eyes were shut tight again when the hand holding the knife grabbed at her chin and the hand against the wall seized the back of her neck. "Look at me," he told her, his voice soft and low. She couldn't do it. She couldn't open her eyes. She was too scared to move a single muscle.

"Look at me!"

She couldn't help it at that point. His voice had become a cross between roar and a growl and that deep hissing promise that he would hurt her if she didn't obey immediately startled her into throwing her eyelids wide open again.

He began slowly, in a calmer tone this time. "I had a daughter." He paused to lick his lips. "Very smart kid, always loved going to school. She was the light of my life, always smiling, always telling me that I need to stop worrying so much. Until one day, on her way home from school, she gets caught in the middle of a gang war. She's shot in the face; her bones and tissues are destroyed." Sakura flinched as he nearly hissed those gruesome words. "The docs say it's a miracle she can still see and breathe. Her mommy's not around to help pay for surgery, and I have no money, so the kid is left with half a face. She's down all the time. So I decide to help make her feel better, to show her that daddy still loves her very much. So I take a razor to my lips and do this…" He licked at the corners of his mouth, 'to myself. But daddy's little girl is too terrified of me to be around me anymore. So she runs off to go live with mommy and I never see her again." He paused again, his tongue laving luxuriously over the gaudy red makeup on his lips. "But you know what? I found the bright side. Now I'm always smiling."

Where Sakura found the courage and strength to bring her knee into the Joker's groin, she had no idea. But he went down laughing hysterically, a hand cradling his injured parts while he landed on all fours, which gave Sakura enough room to make a run for it. Her luck ran out fairly quickly, however; the moment she passed the Joker, one of his hands shot out to grab her ankle and she too fell to the floor with a loud thump.

"Don't think so, little lady," he rasped at her, relinquishing his hold on her ankle to take a firmer grip on her waist and then her shoulders. She was still thrashing, trying to throw him off, but to no avail. Shivers of disgust rippled up and down her spine when he bent down to whisper in her ear. "Hate to say it, hon, but you're mine now." With that said, he brought his tongue out to lick at the side of her face. His breath was hot on her skin and it made her shudder.

"Boys!" the Joker shouted as he sat up far enough for the sound of his voice to carry. "Bring the chains! We have to teach our guest a few manners."