Chapter Two

Emily Daggett is a spoiled little brat, to put it kindly. After being raised by one of the wealthiest and most manipulative men in all of Gotham, she's grown accustomed to her luxurious lifestyle. She never expected to get caught up in the utter chaos Bane inspires, nor did she ever expect what horrors she would face after ending up in the hands of the honorable Judge Crane.

XXX

"ANGELA!" screeched Emily. "TORI WANTS SOME FOOD, NOW!"

Tori, who was watching Emily in horror at the treatment of her maid, hurried down the hall into the kitchen to greet Angela herself. She truly loved her best friend, but honestly, her constant mistreatment of others (especially those in a lower social class than herself) was absolutely appalling.

"Um, Angela," panted Tori upon reaching the kitchen. "If you're not busy, I was wondering if you could make me some- oh, Angela, are you crying?" She walked hesitantly toward the young woman, who was sitting in a chair against the kitchen counter, hot tears silently pouring down her cheeks. She made no attempt to even conceal them.

"I-it's my mother," sniffled Angela. It was easy to assume that Tori genuinely wanted to know what was wrong, because it was in her nature. She was an honest-to-god caring young lady, and on nearly every occasion, Angela was ecstatic when she came over - as it made Emily and her father easier to tolerate. "Sh-she was struggling with cancer last year, but fortunately it went into remission. Until…" Her voice trailed off and was replaced by a choked sob. She buried her face in her hands and continued to cry.

"It's back, isn't it?" said Tori sympathetically.

Angela nodded shakily, reaching to wipe her runny nose with the back of her hand.

"Oh, Angela," said Tori sadly. "Here, let me get you a tissue-"

"Angela, what the hell are you doing?" said a furious voice from the doorway of the kitchen. Angela's head snapped up at the sound, and she immediately stood up out of her chair, straightened her apron, and smeared the messy mascara off her cheeks with her palm. "What the fuck are you crying for? Can't you cry on your own time? Not when our guest wants to eat," she snarled.

"I'm s-so sorry, Miss Daggett, I'll get right to work-"

"You do know that my father is going to hear about this, don't you?" said Emily warningly, a tantalizing sort of smirk spread across her lips.

Angela emitted a quiet sob, fresh tears glistening on her cheeks. "B-but all I have is this job, Miss Daggett. And with my mothers medical-"

"Take it up with my father-"

"EMILY, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" roared Tori. Emily glanced up at her friend, whose entire face was savagely red - presumably from anger - and cocked an eyebrow at her reaction. Although she was used to Tori being the kinder side of their entire friendship, it was very rare to see her express anger of any kind, especially to such a severe extent.

"What, Tori?" she huffed.

Tori went over to Angela and gently handed her a tissue before responding with a fierce, "You know that my own mother died of breast cancer, and you're going to threaten Angela's financial stability because she's crying about her own mother on the job?"

"This isn't a psychiatrists' office, she's not here to express her emotions."

"Well, clearly it isn't," spat Tori, "because if you had even a single shred of empathy-"

"What the hell is going on here?" said a masculine voice from the doorway. Emily spun on her heel to face the source, and a huge smile broke out across her face.

"Dad!" she ran over to embrace her father, who was looking quite irritable and returned the hug with hesitance. "Angela's just going on about something for a change," she said with an amount irritability to match her fathers expression.

"Angela," said Daggett sternly, glancing in her direction. She winced when his gaze washed over her, "Go home for the evening, we'll discuss this tomorrow morning. And you," he pointed his finger at Tori, "you leave as well."

Emily's smile immediately broke. "But, dad," she whined, "it's so boring around here."

"I don't want to hear this right now, Emily. I have some important business to take care of."

Emily quit her complaining instantly. Recently, whenever her father suggested that he had "important business" to attend to, it was almost always something involving the masked man. And that was certainly the sort of business she did not want to be the person to interfere with.

"All right," she mumbled miserably. "Tori, go home."

"Gladly," huffed Tori. She took Angela carefully by the arm, and once they had both been dismissed from the premises, Emily turned to her father in excitement and said,

"This is about the masked man, isn't it? What do they call him again?"

"Bane," replied Daggett flatly. "I need you to go wait in your room until I've taken care of him."

Emily groaned internally. This was a typical occurrence; she was never allowed any physical interaction with Bane, despite how much she had pleaded over the last several months. It was quite exasperating for her, as she figured that if Bane was aiding her father in taking control of Wayne Enterprises, it also directly affected her. And there was also the point about her being eighteen now, a legal adult who could fend for herself. But Daggett was always able to rebuff said point, easily pointing out that despite her ability to now "fend for herself", she was still living in his house and thriving off his finances. It was an argument that Emily was never able to win, so she no longer bothered to fight back. "All right, tell me what happens when you're done," she said miserably, slumping off to her room.

XXX

Every minute that passed seemed like decades to Emily as she lazed about in her room, doing whatever she could to ease her curiosity about her fathers current situation with the masked man - er, Bane. She was growing increasingly tired of being left out of the loop, especially since she had turned eighteen a short three months ago. She felt as though her father would not ever quit treating her like a naïve little child, which exasperated her to an unimaginable point. She was a fucking adult, for Christ's sake. She could handle whatever it was that was currently going on in the main room of the house, whatever it is they were discussing - she wanted in.

So, she was going to take matters into her own hands.

Emily slipped quietly out of her bedroom and began her journey down the hall, treading softly so as not to allow the floorboards to creak (not that they often did, considering they were relatively new) and made her way to the main room. Upon her entry, she could immediately hear her fathers voice criticizing another man, whose own voice was somewhat robotic, muffled, and intimating all in one. The voice frightened her some, due to the fact that she had never herself come in contact with Bane. She had expected him to be at least somewhat muscled and large, but when she peered over the corner and was finally given a full-view of him, she was outright frightened by his appearance; as well as felt that his voice fitted him quite appropriately.

"Your hit on the stock market didn't work, my friend," she heard her father snap furiously. She gazed around the corner at certain intervals, being careful not to be seen by either her father or Bane. It was somewhat hard to hear them, especially Bane, but she strained herself to take in every bit of the conversation that she could.

She had already missed some of it, which aggravated her, but she could now see that her fathers associate had exited the room, and Bane had his hand rested on his shoulder - almost gently - but in such a way that Emily was very grateful that she was not the one in her fathers situation right now. She could briefly make out Bane saying, "Do you feel in charge?"

The conversation continued with her father mentioning something about a small fortune, and Bane something about power, and quite honestly, their exchange was beginning to bore Emily until…

"You're pure evil."

She heard that quite clearly. She had never seen her father so terrified in his entire life. Her breath instantly hitched in her lungs as Bane took her fathers neck in his hands, and everything inside of her head screamed at her to do something, to call the police or scream or something, but for some reason she could not move at all. It was as though she was paralyzed, pasted to the floor underneath her.

"I'm necessary evil."

She held her breath as her fathers muffled screams echoed throughout the corridor.

XXX

"HELP, SOMEONE, PLEASE, HELP ME!" roared Emily. The moment she had been sure that Bane was gone and her father was certainly dead (and have been removed by Bane), she had bolted out of her home and sprinted down the street, tears streaming down her face, grabbing onto random strangers shirts' and pleading for their assistance. Most of them had rebuffed her, pushed her aside as though she were completely insane, while others look at her with deep concern, but despite that, did little to help.

"SOMEONE. PLEASE. HELP," she screamed. Several blocks away from her home, and made a turn and collapsed into the nearest alleyway, sitting beside a garbage can with her face buried deep in her shirt. She sobbed so loudly that passersby gave her quizzical looks, as though to say what the hell is wrong with that girl? Still, no one stopped to aid her, which simply increased her feelings of utter terror and helplessness. She wasn't accustomed to such emotions, seeing as her father had protected her for her entire life and she had never had anything to feel so afraid or helpless over. They had always been financially stable, and she had never been in any danger, always cooped up in her fathers mansion with absolutely nothing to harm her…

The only time she could remember feeling such fear and helplessness to this degree was when she was ten years old and on that ferry, that ferry that the Joker had sworn to demolish did they not choose to blow up the other boat first. At such a young age, she had been positive that this was it, that she was going to die and she would never be able to kiss a boy for the first time or start high school or say goodbye to her father or…

"Miss, miss! Are you all right?" said an unfamiliar voice from above her. Emily removed her tear-streaked face from her shirt and looked up shakily; a police man stood over her, worry lines etched into his forehead as he gazed down at her with unease. His badge read "Officer Blake."

"Officer," Emily sputtered desperately, "my father… John Daggett… dead." A tiny sob escaped her throat, and she continued to shake uncontrollably as Officer Blake helped her up from her fetal position.

"You're Emily Daggett," said Blake, suddenly recognizing her. Emily was unsurprised by this; it wouldn't be the first time that someone had recognized her appearance by association through her father.

"Y-yes," sniffed Emily. "He's dead. My father's dad." She tried to remain calm so she could explain, but with her emotions overwhelming her the way they currently were, it was exceedingly difficult.

"Do you know what happened?" inquired Blake calmly.

"Masked man… B-Bane," she whimpered. Blake's eyebrows suddenly perked, a look of curiosity replacing his concerned expression. "He… he cracked his neck. Threw away the body. I don't know exactly-" A wave of something she could only recognize as dread suddenly washed over her, sending her into another wild frenzy of sobs. "I'm so, so sorry." Emily found it odd that she was apologizing to this man, who was clearly in a social class far below hers. Police officers were paid terribly, and although many of them did very little or abused what small amount of power that they possessed, she was currently begging this man - a man she would typically turn her nose up at - for assistance. It was unbelievable what someone would stoop to just to obtain assistance from another person, no matter how much said assistance was genuinely needed.

"Miss Daggett, try to calm down," said Blake soothingly, "I'm going to call in some other officers, okay? They'll take you down to the station… get you something to eat if you'd like… so you can calm down, does that sound all right?"

Emily nodded her head in a frenzy, and Blake took her by the arm gently.

"It's all going to be okay, I promise."

XXX

Reviews would be greatly appreciated. :3