The Bane of Our Existence [The Dark Knight Rises]

30: A Great Woman

Bría entered the large town hall that had been re-purposed as a court; criminally insane Jonathan Crane sat atop hundreds of books, papers, stacks of things once important. He glanced down wide eyed at a woman who was sitting on a chair, begging for forgiveness for a crime she claimed to never have committed. She wore a large fur jacket, and that alone gave her away to what she was. Rich, having taken from the poor to ensure she stayed in the top one percent.

She slipped through the crowd, tuning out the shouts and crying, and stood solidly next to Bane. He glanced down at her only to show he noticed her arrival, then glanced back at the proceedings before them. Bría shifted uncomfortably, thinking about the woman she used to be, and wondering how she got here. How did she become one of the public faces of the downfall of Gotham? How had she let herself get there?

And why didn't she feel bad?

She loved her mother, her mother was only of the only people she loved in this whole world, and yet she didn't feel guilt for what she was doing. Her mother was far away from all of this; had she been in Gotham it would have been different, Bría would have been among the masses struggling to survive the day to day life, cowering in fear. But her mother was far away, safe, protected.

And Bría was still hurting her.

Slipping away from the hype of the makeshift court that was going on behind her, Bría disappeared into the main entrance of the building. Right where she expected one to be was a payphone, and she quickly scrambled for some quarters to phone her mother. Dialing the number that she always knew by heart, she waited for it to ring. The first ring never got to complete its first cycle, for Bría's mother answered right away, as though she had been sitting by the phone for months, just waiting for her daughter to call.

Bría didn't feel the guilt she should have.

"Bría?" her mother asked. Then again when she didn't reply, "Bría, please say something so I can hear your voice and know that you're still here."

"I'm here," Bría said steadily, too sharply.

"Come home, esklan, please," her mother begged.

"This is my home."

"I saw you with that... that thing." Her mother was referring to Bane, his appearance and mask making him seem less human.

"He's a man," Bría corrected.

"A dangerous man! Bría, I tried to protect you my whole life. When you moved to Gotham, I thought I might lose you. But you were so good, even when you took that man's life, you did it to stop so much pain. Tell me, Bría, have you... have you killed anyone? Truly killed them?"

She knew it would break her mother's heart when she said, "Yes."

Her mother sobbed on the other end of the phone. Bría should have felt pain in her own chest, agony searing through her like liquid metal. But she felt nothing, not even a skipped beat of her heart. That cold black heart inside of her that hardened over the last few years, and especially the last few months.

"Bría, only you can stop this... You're close to that man, you can stop him. You can stop him from the terror his is creating. You do not have to be a part of this, you do not have to cave into the dark side of yourself."

"Tell me about my father," Bría demanded.

"Please do not make me..."

There was a silence that suggested Bría would not ask a second time, and she would hang up if she wasn't going to get answers from the one person who should never have lied to her in the first place.

"His name is David Cain," Clara sighed when she spoke, clearly stifling more tears. "We fell in love when I was young, I became pregnant and my first mistake was telling him. That's when I realized he never loved me, Bría, he was incapable of it. He just wanted you. The minute you were born, I knew I should have left long before. He grew possessive over you, began teaching you horrible things, morals I would never agree with. I tried to take you away so many times, and I paid the price every time. The one time he hurt you... that's when he released his grip. I fled with you, and hid where he would never find us. I don't even know if he is still alive...

"You were old enough to have learned from him by the time I escaped, Bría. You had a mean streak, a part of you that was..."

"Evil?"

"No, not evil... Bría, just listen to me, Ja? You must not give in to this darkness, I raised you to be good... and you are. I know you are. Years of therapy curbed the darkness inside of you, and you became a great person, a great woman."

"You shouldn't have lied to me about my father. That is not a part of my life you had the right to hide from me. Maybe if you had told me, I would not have ended up here. But instead you sent me to therapists to make me forget he ever existed. Maybe I came to Gotham to seek out something I felt was missing... Maybe the League of Shadows was missing someone like me."

"Your father was a member," Bría's mother had given up, it was clear in the tone of her voice.

"Then it was fate," Bría replied, even though she did not believe in fate and destiny.

"It's not too late, just remember that I love you."

"Goodbye, mother."

Five more chapters! We're so close!! Comment your thoughts!