Ilumination (Gotham story)

Chapter 14

   Having been attracted to the commotion emanating from Harvey's office, Arnold Flass appeared in the door way. He saw the scratch marks on Harvey's face and looked to the limp weeping girl next to the riddle freak. He put two and two together and grabbed the girl. Lilli didn't even fight him, she hung limp like a rag doll, no more fight left in her. Gordon couldn't bare the sight of her. Edward was still stunned on the floor, not sure what he was feeling in that moment. Gordon didn't look her way until he heard the click of handcuffs. Then Flass roughly dragged Lilli out of his office toward the holding cells. Entity watched wide eyed as he realized what was happening. Edward didn't seem to notice Flass and Lilli had left.
"Flass! What are you doing?" Gordon called out chasing after them. Jim saw that Lilli was in the same stunned state as Edward was. He knew she only got that way when she was overwhelmed and her shields that encased who she was inside were crashing down. He didn't know her and Oswald were that close. Despite her skill set and guts, despite her previous line of work, Lilli had always been a delicate individual.
"Your little pet here has a history of assaulting officers, especially me and by the looks of it Bullock as well...she deserves some time in a cage." He opened up one of the cells, the clank of metal woke Lilli up. Gordon knew what was coming.
"NO NO DONT PUT ME IN THERE!!" Lilli cried out. She thrashed and fought.
Entity's breathing quickened at her screams. He ran his hands through his hair. He looked toward the still stunned Edward sitting on the ground. Her cries not phasing him.
"LILLI NEEDS US! CAN YOU NOT HEAR?" Entity cried out.
But Edward did hear her. He couldn't believe that the girl who giggled and smiled at him just a few hours ago was capable of those sounds. The girl he knew was gentle and kind, she didn't hurt people, she didn't hit people. She would never hurt him or hit him because Edward always thought she was the exact opposite of the last person who had struck him...his father. That girl being held by officer Flass was not the Lilli he knew. That was a stranger. Entity could hear Ed's thoughts. It shocked and enraged him. He heard Lilli scream in fear. He gnashed his teeth at the sound.
"DAMMIT NYGMA!!" Entity screamed.
Harvey Bullock left his office storming into the situation. Flass had Lilli finally in a cell. It was the smallest one they had. Bullock was shocked at the sight of Lilli. The infamous Black Delilah was cowering and crying pathetically, her breath gradually getting faster. Harvey turned to see Gordon surprisingly not doing anything about it. His face was yellowing from bruises. Harvey shook his head looking at the obviously claustrophobic woman whimpering in the cage. They both knew it would be dangerous to let her out, in her current state she could possibly lash out again. This was in a way, the best thing they could do for her until she calmed down. Harvey knew Gordon wouldn't be able to coax her to calm down any other way.
Lilli couldn't breath, all she could see was the bars. So much like the ones she had been in years ago. The ones they had trained her in when her parents had died. Trained her to be nearly impervious to pain, where she wouldn't fear anything in the world. Sadly it had only resulted in adding a entirely new fear, the one crippling weakness.
Beg me for your life.
Lilli shut her eyes, the air leaving her lungs. When she opened them again, she wasn't in the GCPD. She saw the person she thought was once her world on the other side of the bars. She was in a extravagant and familiar mansion. She gripped the bars with her small hands. The girl on the other side, raven hair and olive skin, the complexion of a porcelain doll looked through the bars at her in her cage. She was the same age as Lilli. She reached through the bars and caressed Lilli's face. They both were the same age, 10 years old. Everything about this moment to Lilli seemed dejavu in essence. As if she wasn't actually living it but watching a rerun of an old sitcom.
"This is necessary." The girl spoke comforting. Lilli liked the feel of the girl's hand on her face. "Father said it will keep you and the family safe, keep you more loyal, after this no one can hurt you." The girl rubbed her thumb on Lilli's cheek before she slipped her hand away. Lilli whimpered at the absence of it.
Then Lilli saw a taser hit her cage. The steel bars of Lilli's cage lit up like candle, igniting Lilli once the current hit her skin. Lilli but her tongue from screaming, sadly Victor was not as successful in the cage beside her. Both of them undergoing this for the future that was to come. For what the two would soon become. Lilli didn't start screaming until they had put the taser on its highest setting. Lilli saw a bright flash, it blinded her.
Next thing she knew she felt kicks to her ribs and rain falling all around her. She looked up at the goons beating her. One had a pipe, she felt it connect with her arm. She curled into a ball on the alley way's asphalt. There was another blow. A flash.
You and me always
The lips, her face, her smell. Her name whispered and breathed in linen closets and closed doors.
A blow. Pain.
Seeing her smiling that Mona Lisa smile Lilli had always adored. Whispered nothings, bitter something's. The rain kept pouring, all the better to wash away the blood, hers. Lilli watched the pipe come down again.
A flash.
You know I'd do anything for you.
Hot breath on her neck making her want to shiver. The closeness confusing Lilli. Dark brown hair in the sunlight, red lipstick. The girls beautiful laugh tinkling over Victor's screams, and now Lilli's.
A blow.
Rain. Pain. Blood down a drain.
Lilli looked through her one remaining eye that could still see. Ice hit Lilli's shattered bones, it was nothing compared to the panic and betrayal hitting her heart.
Gordon heard her wheezing gasps for breath as Flass held him back. Harvey merely stared at her as she went pale.
"GET HER OUT OF THERE NOW!" Entity heard Gordon shout.
"EDWARD!!!" Entity screamed. Edward covered his ears and shut his eyes.
Entity then opened them.
Lilli blinked through the pain and the water that fell. She looked into the face of someone she loved. That once warm face of the girl was now unmasked to reveal a cold statue of sadistic cruelty underneath.
"Please...stop this, I forgive you for this, I still love you." Lilli pleaded.
The girl knelt down to the betrayed black Delilah, now broken and beaten in some alley way in the narrows. She cupped Lilli's battered face, the Mona Lisa smile a cruel smirk now.
"I never loved you, who would ever love you?" The girl cooed. Lilli felt her heart break.
A flash.

"LET HER OUT NOW." Entity's voice was deep and strong. His dark eyes glaring at Flass through his glasses. Flass merely spat a ignorant vulgarity. Entity tilted his head.
"Very well then." Entity said with a sinister smile that sent shivers down Gordon's spine. He'd never seen goofy Nygma so threatening before.
Entity walked up to Flass. His back straight and tall showing how much taller the forensic scientist was compared to the officer. Entity then punched Flass in the face. The officer let go of Gordon and fell to the floor. In a flash Entity snatched the cell keys from Flass and ran to Lilli's cage that contained her pale gasping form. The look in her eyes sent a chill down the alter ego's spine, he could tell Lilli was not with them, or in that cage, but light years away. Some place that wasn't pleasant.

"LILLI!!"
"LILLI OH GOD."
"SO MUCH BLOOD...HANG ON...don't die on me.."
Lilli opened her eye, the rain had stopped. Someone was holding her battered head in their arms. She blinked back blood, trying to get a good look at the face flooding her vision. He wore glasses. His face so pale it had its own halo.
"Hey! Don't worry paramedics are coming, you have a few broken bones and might be going into shock." Lilli found she liked his voice. She closed her eye. She felt him gently shake her.
"No no no don't go to sleep, stay awake talk with me." He said. "My name is Edward, Edward Nygma."
"E...Enygma." Lilli chuckled. This got a smile from the man. Through her battered brain, Lilli thought it was the most beautiful thing she'd seen in a long time. All pearly whites, nothing covered by red lips and mystery.
"That's right, what's your name?" He asked.
"P-....L-Lilli Rose, my name is..." Lilli struggled to speak.
"LILLI!!! Wake up baby come on open those pretty eyes for me."
Flash.
Lilli opened her eyes to see his brown eyes in her field of vision. Her lungs hurt and her head was spinning. She looked to see she was still in a cage.
"No! No no." She shook her head about to close her eyes again.
"Don't you dare! Lilli look at me! Look at me, we've done this before count to 3 with me come on." Entity pulled her face back to his. "We did this all the time all those months ago, don't you remember?"
Tears flowed down her face. The face Entity never wanted to see be covered in tears.
"123 come on do it with me inhale...come on Lilli 123." He pulled her into his arms, laying his forehead on hers.
"Inhale...1 2 3." He said. He saw her vision going unfocused. Entity panicked. He cupped her face, hiding her peripheral vision from seeing the bars.
"I...I...hurt you..." she whispered. "I...deserve this..."
"Shhhh....no you don't...now breath do it for me...123 breath..." Entity was trembling in worry and fear. He grasped her small hand and put it on his chest where his heart was. He inhaled deeply. Lilli could feel his heart pounding under her fingers.
"Feel that? Do that 123 inhale." He said. He heard a ragged inhale from Lilli.
"That a girl, exhale." Entity purred soothingly he kissed her forehead relieved. She shakily exhaled.
Gordon watched the two in the cage stunned. He remembered pulling her through attacks like this, but never as successfully as Edward was doing. He couldn't help but feel a little envious.
Entity got her to finally breath again. He rubbed her back, her Hazel eyes looking up at him as if he was the only real thing in the world. The same look he had seen on her when they had first met. Entity held her tighter remembering that night. He slid his arms under her legs.
"Put your arms around my neck and hang on okay." Entity said. Lilli did so mutely, she was shaken up. Entity then stood up, effortlessly holding Lilli, they walked out of the cell.
"Hey she's my prisoner!" Flass cried out. Entity looked his way with jet black eyes.
"My name suggests a black envelope, I am dreaded and not nice, I reveal but can conceal for a hot price what am I Flassy." Entity snarled his way.
Flass knew the answer, his eyes widened at what Nygma was implying.
"Get. Out.Of.My.Way." Entity's words were venom. Flass backed off. Entity then proceeded to the exit of the GCPD. Taking his limp mourning friend home. Entity walked passed Kristin Kringle, not even giving her a glance.
"I... can't believe it Jim...we just watched the Black Delilah fall apart...and get saved by Nygma, she really has changed...what happened?" Harvey looked to seeing Jim looking in the direction where Lilli had been carried away, a small bit of longing in his eyes.
"She was...someone had broke her." Jim finally said.
Leaving Harvey to wonder who he had been talking about.