Another chapter ready and waiting. Thank you to everyone for giving this story a chance, and an extra big thank you to those people who followed me here from the meme. I should never have been worried about coming clean with the response you have all given me. Anyway, it is time for the moment several people have been waiting for. Bane's first meeting with John. Or should I say, Eames meeting with Arthur?
Forging was a breath of fresh air for Bane. The feel of the dream scape and the familiar habit of slipping into another's skin was refreshing after being trapped in his own body for so long. Once again being in control of everything was a joy compared to being trapped in reality. And yet, it was bittersweet, the memories taking some of the joy from the experience. This may have been the first dream he had willingly entered in years, but it also severed as a reminder, a reminder of the person who was no longer by his side.
Still, Bane found himself enjoying the feel as his new form shifted and twisted around him, settling into the correct image.
The Eames personality was the most difficult Bane had ever attempted. Not because it was unknown, but because it was so familiar. This was the skin he had lived in for so long, the face he had worn for so many years. Yet this was not him. This man, Eames, had died in the warehouse that day, holding onto his dying partner until the end. He wasn't the man who had awoken in Hospital with terrible burns and his whole world in ashes around him. He wasn't the man who had attended the funeral, crying by himself as the coffin was lowered into the ground of the empty cemetary. He wasn't the man who had felt the bitterness seep into his veins, turning to poison as it reached his heart and turned his mind to anger and revenge.
No. The Forger and thief known as Eames was dead long before Bane had risen.
And yet, there was a definite difference between reality and the dream. Bane couldn't pinpoint the feeling but something inside him had changed. It had been changing since the moment he had looked at Barsad's photograph. It was still changing now, as he looked around the warehouse which he himself had chosen for this dream.
It was an exact replica of the warehouse in Paris which Arthur and Eames had sent so much time in during the Fischer job, trading sneaky comments and working towards a job they had different degrees of belief in. Every detail down to the placement of the desks was straight from Banes memories, creating a comfortable environment for everyone.
Well, a comfortable environment for everyone except John. The young detective was looking around wildly. Like an animal caught in the headlights of an approaching car, John seemed frozen in place, no idea what to do next as he watched the team.
In the years they had been together, Bane had never seen Arthur confused or scared. He had even tricked himself into believing that the point man didn't know how to show those emotions. But now, seeing John like this, dressed in the style of clothes Arthur had always favoured and in an environment Arthur had made his own, Bane realised he could now guess what that would look like.
In a way, it was heartbreaking.
If it wasn't what the team needed, Bane would immediately call off the job, just to try and wipe that look off their subjects face. But they needed John to be scared. They needed the young man to believe that everything he knew to be true was false. They needed to get John off balance, leaving him with nothing but his teammates to cling to. They needed him to trust them. Only then could Bane proceed to the next level. To start planting the false memories which would bring Arthur back.
Yes, the part inside the man that was John Blake would have to disappear. But it was no great loss. The little bird was a solider in a losing war, a cop with no authority in a city tearing itself apart. The detective was blind to the streets around him, clinging to a lost idol. It was a mercy erasing Blake before he was forced to witness Gotham crumble.
Yes. A mercy.
Christian, a former Extractor and makeshift medic who had joined Banes team during the Saito job, stepped closer. He had been the first into the dream after Blake, playing the part of the team's Chemist and planting the seeds of the idea in Blake's head. It was not an easy job but one Bane had been confident Christian could handle. A confidence which he already knew would pay off.
Bane looked at the older man. He wasn't as physically intimidating in this form but the older man still ducked his head, his body language showing his respect for the other man. A respect which would have been odd if the rest of the team didn't know the truth about the smiling British man before them.
"I have started to plant the beginnings of the idea." Christian said, dropping his voice so John wouldn't be able to hear them. "He doesn't understand half of what I said but with a little bit of reinforcement, we should be able to gain his trust enough for him to start believing Gotham is just a dream."
"Very good Mr Christian." Bane replied. He tried not to flinch at his voice, higher then he remembered without the restrictions of the mask but still very much his own. "Then it is time for me to have a talk with the little bird."
Swiftly, he glanced at his two companions. Barsad was at his right side, standing in the defensive position. His other companion, the already named scapegoat of the team, Mike was bringing up the rear. The two men nodded, understanding their bosses command, even if it was from a different face, and stepped away from the group, heading towards their assigned desks.
Barsad moved a few models off the Architect's desk which had once been Ariadne's while Mike claimed the Extractor's seat, where Cobb had once sat. Christian followed the other two men's lead, heading over to the Yusuf's old desk and picking up a takeaway coffee.
Bane turned to look at John who was trying to angle his body so he could see any threats from the men moving around the building. Walking slowly over to the skittish man, Bane smiled softly as the man turned.
John immediately tried to back away, dropping and ice pack and knocking over a glass of water and he shifted to the far corner of the deck chair. Bane kept his movements slow, trying not to frighten the younger man anymore then needed as he seated his newly minimised bulk onto the edge of John's chair.
"Well Darling, Christian certainly had an interesting little tale to tell." He said, his smile widening.