Part Two

Eliza saw everything at once; the bits of drywall, electrical wires snapping and cracking, and cement, moving too quickly for her to raise her arms in defense. Her ears were deafened by the initial blast, and all she could hear was the ringing. She barely registered that the steel door was coming at her. The door was about to hit her when a force knocked her over from the side. What felt like steel bands wrapping around her were in truth Bane’s arms, she saw his face before the floor knocked her out.

Bane had barely saved the doctor before the door crushed the wall where she had been. He couldn’t let his ticket out of Arkham die; that would hinder his plans greatly. She was cut across the forehead and cheek, there were a few more bumps and bruises, and now she was unconscious from hitting the floor with a hard force, but otherwise intact. He couldn’t worry about that right now.
The new lungs she had given him were working perfectly, he knew his chest and sides were hurting, but the pain was softened because of the lungs. He could easily get them both out if they could get past the Joker.
“Well, well,” the Joker leered from the gaping hole he had just created. “Looks like were short one person for our dinner reservation. He giggled. See what happens when you have a plan Bane? Nothing happens like you want it to. That’s what’s wrong with people these days, they plan too much. Harley, why don’t you introduce yourself, and our little friends.”

“Sure thing, puddin’,” the girl walked in, and just as promised she was a Harlequin jester in red and black. The outfit was skin tight, yet flexible providing ample movement for close combat. “Hiya Bane! Puddin’ and I have been freein’ friends all around Arkham tonight. We wanna have some fun tonight. Wanna help unleash a little chaos?” She leaned her curvy body on the Joker, and he obligingly put an arm around her. “Here are our buddies tonight.”

An array of Arkham inmates started to step in to the laboratory. All of them looking pathetic and not any of them could fight. However if Bane allowed himself to be overwhelmed by them, that is where they would have the advantage.

“What happened to the mask?” The Joker started towards him.

Bane looked back at Dr. Charleston, she would be safe enough. Bane struck out, hitting the Joker’s laughing face, effectively breaking the clown’s nose. He tossed Harley aside, not caring what she did. The first five were easy to dispatch; the sixth one hit him in the side knocking the wind out of his new lungs. The rest of them tried to bring him down, but even in his weakened state, he was still more powerful. The other goons didn’t even bother trying to come after him.

“Bane,” the Joker stood next to the doctor, blood was gushing from his nose. He started laughing, “Wanna know how I got these scars?” A knife came out of his shoe and he kicked Dr. Charleston in the ribs, the bastard started laughing all the harder, “Well that’s not how, but it’s funny.”

Bane ran at the Joker, this time knocking him out. He grabbed the little doctor and walked out of the destroyed laboratory. The doctor weighed next to nothing and he carried her in one arm like an awkward football.

He made it easily to her office. That door was still locked and he rigged the secret panel to stay shut. Dr. Charleston moaned against his chest, her wounds were continuing bleed and get on his scrubs, and run down her neck and body. He put her in one of the office chairs and ripped her jacket and wrapped it around her head and ribs, gently tying it. Why he was being gentle with her was beyond him, but he knew he needed her alive in order to continue with his plans. He moved to the windows like a shadow.

“Bane,” she mumbled.

“What?” He parted the blinds. The hallway was riddled with bodies, some breathing, some cut in ribbons; the Jokers signature. No orderlies were coming, this was his opportunity. When Dr. Charleston only mumbled again, he looked back she was pointing to the bookshelf. Her eyes rolled back and she was unconscious again. He searched the bookshelf for whatever it was she had been pointing at. When he pulled the dictionary out it was heavier than it looked, opening it he found a nine-millimeter glock. He grabbed the car keys off the desk and turned towards the woman.

Once again he tucked the small doctor into his left arm and he entered the hallway. About halfway down the hallway an orderly came out. Recognition lit his face and he grabbed a baton off of his belt.

“What happened to Dr. Charleston?” Bane shot him between the eyes. The body hit the ground with a thud.

“I told you Doctor,” he spoke allowed, moving into the transport to the private parking lot where there would be minimum to no security because of the Joker’s antics. “You would be my ticket out of here.”

Eliza woke briefly to see Bane sitting in the front seat of a car. Her head was pounding and her breathing was shallow. She slipped back into blackness and felt like she was falling. She was sinking further and further into deep mindlessness. She saw the Joker standing there with Harley, and their laughter was ringing in her head. They were whispering to her about all of her past failures and miseries. They questioned her motives for actually inventing the lungs for Bane, and who she slept with to have all those doctorates.

When she eventually came through to consciousness and opened her eyes, she instantly wanted to go back to sleep. There was no light except in the distance, and it was dim anyway. Her breathing picked up and she tried to get up so she could be anywhere but here, but faltered and fell back.

“Does the darkness frighten you doctor?” Bane’s voice called out from somewhere in the black. They must’ve been underground because his voice echoed and she couldn’t pinpoint where it was coming from. “Don’t fear it, embrace it. It has been my companion my whole life and could be yours if you let it.”

“Hell no. Where am I?” Her eyes darted back and forth. Nothing gave away where they were. She tried moving and all she received was a searing pain in her ribs and back, making her yelp in pain. “The Joker stabbed me, didn’t he? Son of a b****! Let me out of here Bane! If you think I’ll recommend you for parole now, you really are insane!”

“I only ever needed you to replace my mask.” He finally emerged from the shadows and put a stranglehold on her windpipe; just enough pressure to make her gasp. “I knew about my degrading lungs. The man, who created my mask, mentioned the eventual degrading process. His name was Dr. Harris Galveston.” When Eliza gasped at him, his eyes menaced at her and he continued to apply pressure to her delicate neck. “That’s right, your father helped create me, he even mentioned his brilliant little girl that his ex-wife had taken with her. Of course I killed him after he put the mask on me.”

“Bastard,” she spat out. She clawed at his hand, but to no avail. “Your lungs will keep you alive for as long as you live, but the pain killer won’t last that long.” He squeezed tighter. “You will need a replacement pack every year.”

His eyes narrowed at her. “Then killing you will not benefit me. Neither will you leaving here. Gotham will fall, and I will be the one to bring it to its knees.” He released her neck. A bruise was already beginning to form in the shape of his massive hand, Eliza could feel it.

“Leaving… not leaving here?” Her voice cracked. “You won’t let me leave? It’s either you kill me or keep me? I am not your pet Bane! Let me go!”

“Do you think begging like a child will convince me to release you?” He went over to where the light was coming from and made it brighter, it was a lamp. “Gotham cannot know what you have done for me. The Joker will be dealt with eventually.” When the light was brightened it revealed concrete walls, with no visible doors and there were a few rats scampering without making any noise. “Dr. Charleston, welcome home.”

Gotham hadn’t changed much in the year he had been away. Bane walked about the ice coated streets in a high collared jacket and scarf. The bridges were in the middle of construction; therefore the main tunnel and the ferries were the only ways in and out of the city. The new mayor was working closely with Commissioner James Gordon to ensure security on the projects. Bane’s contact inside the mayor’s office had informed him that the City Council was considering a plan about having underground tunnels underneath the bridges as backups for if the bridges went out in a natural disaster, or terrorist attack. Bane smiled to himself.

The men he had liberated from Blackgate had progressively been rounded up by a police force with teeth, but the Dent Act had been repealed. A new act had replaced it, the Bane Act. Basically if it could be proven with surveillance and witness testament that a criminal acted with Bane during the Siege of Gotham-as they were delightfully calling it-they would be automatically convicted with no chance of parole. Depending on the individual criminal’s psych evaluation they could spend their jail time in Arkham, but that wouldn’t happen soon considering the Joker’s breakout.

The news was talking about the murders and horrendous scene at the Asylum. The Joker and his goons killed nearly fifty people. Most of the doctoral staff was accounted for, either dead, in the hospital or they had been at home that night. The police said there was only one doctor missing and they were not allowed to release any more details at this time.

The little doctor was still recovering in his new headquarters, and every time she was awake she threatened to kill him. She definitely had a fighting spirit, and she would make an asset if she would see his vision. Gotham made Las Vegas look like the holiest of churches; a rabid dog that needed to be shot. And this time with Batman completely out of the way, his plans would succeed.

Two policemen were approaching where he was standing and he quietly slipped into the shadows unseen. Steam rose from their coffee and out of their mouths

“Man, were you called up to Arkham last night?” The younger of the two walked closest to Bane; he was a medium build, decent muscle, he would go down in about two minutes.

“Yeah. That place was already a nuthouse, but the Joker did a number on it.” The second officer had been on the force a number of years, Bane could tell by the doughnut and coffee belly that had grown on the man; he would go down in one second. “Joker likes using knives. Those poor people. There was one orderly that had been shot between the eyes; we think it was the Joker’s squeeze, this Harley Quinn. She probably got the gun off of one of the dead security guards. Why weren’t you up there kid?”

“The baby has a cough and my wife hasn’t been sleeping because of it. So I stayed home last night to take care of him.”

“All the same, you probably would’ve upchucked whatever Philly-steak you had yesterday. Arkham was covered in blood. Let’s head back to the precinct. I think the Lieutenant wants a word with us.”

Bane watched them move away. At least these morons had no idea he was still alive. He would see that it stayed that way. Moving back to the man cover, he went down the tunnel to his headquarters. It was not in an ideal place yet, but when he was back up to full man power they would move to a more ideal and resourceful location. He brought back a pizza for the doctor, he already had the three slices that he wanted, and she could have the rest. When he entered her room she wasn’t in her bed.

Pain cracked on the back of his head and lights flashed in front of his eyes. Dropping the pizza he swung around grabbing the little doctor’s wrists, she cried out in pain. He grabbed her upper arms and hauled her to his eye level. Tears brimmed and spilled over, but her eyes were defiant as ever. Her fists pounded into his chest and her legs were kicking out aimlessly, missing whatever target she was aiming at.

“You son of a b****, bastard!” She screamed at him. “Let me go! I should’ve just let you die, drowning in your own lungs. The world would’ve been better for it!”

“And then you would’ve proved exactly why Gotham needs to be destroyed.” He continued to hold her to his eye level. “If I don’t see to Gotham’s destruction, someone else certainly will, and they won’t be as kind.” He tossed her back on her bed and grabbed the ruined pizza. “A bomb was not the way to punish Gotham, this I now realize. This city deserves to die slowly, painfully.”

“How can you possibly do that? Children are out there and are completely innocent- Ah!” She grabbed her side. When Bane looked at her, her shirt was soaked through with blood. The stitches from where the Joker stabbed her must’ve come loose.

Bane grabbed the first aid kit and got out the sutures and rubbing alcohol. “Remove your shirt.” Early on he had decided it was necessary to learn such skills. She slowly removed her shirt, revealing a flat abdomen, and arms that were firm with hours of working out. Things like that had long ago ceased to please him; women were distractions, nothing more. He sat down next to her and began cleaning the wound. “Children these days are hardly innocent. Growing up in this city would only corrupt them further. Wiping the slate completely is the only way to ensure the world retains its balance.”

“What warped hell did you come from?” She hissed as the rubbing alcohol did its work. “Was daddy an alcoholic abusive politician?”

When he stabbed the needle in without warning, she slapped him. “My father killed a sheik’s daughter because she wouldn’t come back to America with him. The sheik offered him a choice. Spend the rest of his miserable life in the Pit, or have someone he cared for do it for him and he would be free to go. My father gave me to the sheik in return for his life. The darkness frightened me at first, but I learned to be molded by it. When Ras Al Ghul’s child’s mother was attacked I saved the girl for I did not want another to suffer as I had. But when I looked into her eyes I knew it was too late for her. She was so young and already corrupted, what’s to say other children are not like that?” He finished the suture on her side.

“Not all children are warped in the head like her. Even you weren’t always like this.” She gestured to her side. “You put me back together, and saved me from the Joker. There is some part of you that-”.

“There is no deep part of me that is good in anyway.” He put his hand on her freshly cleaned wound and squeezed, making her scream. “I take care of you, because I still have use of you. The disease that made me who I am will kill all of Gotham… thanks to you.” Surprise colored her face. “The notes from your research on me will help me re-create the disease. And then you will watch as Gotham suffers.”



To be continued…