History is Made at Night
by batmanbane
"Give us this day our daily mask."
― Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Chapter 9
"That body swinging at the far right? He raped a 15-year old girl." Barsad explained. "And the one hanging next to him raped a woman while her children watched!"
Bane, Barsad, Natasha and Stella were standing at the south side of City Hall, facing Gotham Square, where victims of Bane's revolution swung from power lines. Both bodies were dressed in black and white with the word 'RAPE' painted in prominent black letters on the front and back of their white tee-shirts.
"I accept that my speech at Blackgate may have misled some men, so I am adding a new wrinkle." Bane told the two women. "Those who commit rape can expect to lose their lives in this manner. The warning to Gotham males includes the men under my command."
Bane had desperately wanted the women's approval on this matter, but he could tell by their expressions that neither one was pleased with his methods.
Natasha pushed her glasses to her forehead and stared at the corpses with a troubled expression.
"Boss..." she began… "we talked about this when I first approached your crew. I swore an oath to my profession that I would do no harm, and you were okay with that when you took me on. Bottom line, I don't agree with your methods of punishment and prevention here."
"I understand your concern, Dr. Van Dyne, and I respect your oath. I swore an oath to my brotherhood as well." Bane reminded her mildly.
Natasha nodded in response. "I know you did. And I'm happy that you decided to right your wrong. But these men deserved a chance to make the right decision, if only they'd been aware of your new rules. Nothing can be done for them now, so my only hope is that their hanging bodies send a strong enough message, because I wouldn't want to see any more of this." She said, shaking her head sternly.
Disappointed in Natasha's reaction, Bane turned to Stella.
"Did you kill them?" the journalist asked.
Bane remembered the last time she had asked him that question, when his answer had caused her to avoid him for several days…
"No, I did not." He answered truthfully. "That task was assigned to other men."
"Well, I think you should broadcast your penalty for rape. Natasha is right. Potential offenders have the right to know what they're up against. You should go before the cameras, Bane."
Bane shook his head. "I have no wish to appear in front of the cameras again, Stella, because as you say, I have become somewhat of a celebrity. Therefore these bodies will have to suffice as messengers." He said.
Sensing Bane's deep disappointment in the reaction of the two women, Barsad spoke up.
"Leave it in my hands, Bane." he said. "I'll drop in on the pushy redhead at GCN. She'll love another reason to trash you."
"Good man!" Bane said approvingly, directing a proud stare at Stella and Natasha. "Until Barsad gets the word out, rapists will be arrested, but will not be harmed. I hope that meets with your approval, my dears?" he asked politely.
"That's great!" Natasha said happily. "But I have to break this up, kids. I'm due at Gotham General to assist in a C-Section, and then I have a new patient to see. So, how about a lift, Barsad?"
"With pleasure, Doc!" Barsad grinned. "Step this way, the tumbler awaits."
Bane watched curiously as Barsad and Natasha departed in the tumbler. "It seems you and I must return to the townhouse on foot, Stella." he rumbled. "If we take the back alleys, I can avoid that Kent woman from GCN." He confided. "Do not fear, you will be safe with me."
Stella grinned at his words. He'd never before mentioned an aversion to Jackie Kent, the dragon lady of Gotham City News. And there it was again, the assertion that Stella should be grateful for his protection.
"You are sporting your secret smile." Bane observed cheerfully. It was the smile that made his heart leap. "Now, what is so amusing?"
"It's nothing." She lied. "I um… presume Natasha's 'new patient' is the Harvard man you picked out for her?"
"You presume correctly." He chirped. "Worry not, Stella. He is the right man for Dr. Van Dyne."
"But what if she rejects him?" Stella argued.
"I have thought of that, of course." He said. "But, I am confident in my abilities."
They walked in awkward silence for a moment, and Stella tried to make conversation, until she remembered some unfinished business…
"Bane…" she said, turning to him. "Would you allow me to interview you for my story?"
The masked man wheezed in exasperation. "Have you not gleaned enough information about me by observation?" he asked. "I am a leader, and uncomfortable as the subject of a celebrity profile."
"It won't be a celebrity profile!" she promised. "I've never written a celebrity piece in my life and besides which, you said you looked forward to reading it. Why are you now expressing doubts?"
"Because, Stella, I am a man, not a tee-shirt transfer."
Stella's laughter reverberated through the alleyway. "There, you see? It's that kind of talk that makes you so interesting. The world sees you as a ruthless killer and terrorist—and you are—but you're also…very charming at times." She admitted.
Bane immediately warmed to Stella's praise, hoping flattery was this very resistant female's way of expressing her attraction for him.
"Proceed with your questions." He allowed stoically. "But be warned, some I will not answer."
"Why don't you begin by telling me about yourself?" she suggested. "Just start talking."
Bane remained silent as they passed through a stinking wet alley strewn with garbage and mismatched shoes, and then he began to speak.
"I grew to manhood in a prison known to its inmates as the Pit." He began. "Father unknown. Mother a Spanish whore and pickpocket. She never recovered from the rigors of childbirth, though I'm told she lingered for six months. During her confinement, she was befriended by the man who became my guardian."
"Hold it right there!" Stella interjected. "How is it you grew up in prison, but speak like an English gentleman?"
Bane offered Stella his "Do not interrupt me, woman" stare and continued his story.
"Despite having been incarcerated for many years, my guardian was an optimist who encouraged me to prepare myself for a better life. He was a British army officer, imprisoned for stealing antiquities while stationed in Morocco. I admired his speech and carriage, and so I acquired his mannerisms. He also gave me a classical education.
"Do you think your guardian might have been your father?"
"I will never know." Bane admitted. "Apparently I was the very image of my—of the woman who bore me. If my guardian did father me, he did not reveal it."
It was obvious to Stella that Bane had spent time thinking about his parents, but kept those shadows at a distance. And she noticed he avoided using possessive pronouns when referring to them.
"I was an ambitious lad, a quick study, and told I was quite handsome." He boasted, ending the subject of his parents. "In time, I too became the guardian of a child."
Stella's head began to swim at the prospect of a handsome Bane. She already found him impossibly gorgeous with the mask. How much more attractive could he be without it?"
"Are you?"
"Am I what?"
"Are you handsome?"
Bane's brow furrowed. "I do not know if one could describe me thus now." He said with surprising honesty.
"Why? What's underneath the mask?" she asked, resisting the impulse to touch the mechanism on his face.
"Scars." He answered without hesitation.
Just as Bane was debating how much more he should reveal, circumstances interrupted his narrative. They had taken a short cut and found themselves in an alley between the Public Library and the Opera House, and when they entered the space, they discovered they weren't alone.
A pair of lovers engaged in the throes of foreplay noisily made their presence known in the narrow space, oblivious to onlookers. Their exaggerated sighs and moans bounced off the concrete walls as their mouths moved ravenously across willing flesh, and the woman's exposed breasts spilled generously from her lover's greedy hands. Despite the chilly temperatures, her feet were bare and she wore only a thin dress. The lover had tossed his coat aside and released his feverish cock. Now his insatiable hands moved from her breasts to her bottom, and he hoisted the dark-haired beauty roughly against the alley wall, right hand beneath her skirts to finish preparing a place for him.
Stella froze, unable to look away as the woman welcomed her lover, eagerly wrapping her legs around his waist as he pushed into her.
"Oh!" A startled Stella gasped, as the moment of penetration felt oddly personal.
The lover buried his face in the dark hair of his woman and began to taunt her with deliberate strokes, groaning loudly and kneading her tortuously in search of the position that would set her ablaze. It was truly frenetic, high speed sex. The woman moaned impatiently as he teased her to the point of frenzy. Then her sharp cry signaled him to accelerate, and he began pounding into her repeatedly and desperately –
"It is impolite to stare, my dear."
Stella snapped out of her enthrallment at the sound of Bane's tender reprimand and the feel of his warm grip on her hand.
"Oh…of course…" she looked away awkwardly. Her cheeks were crimson, and not only because of the intimacy playing out before them.
For a few moments, she had lived vicariously through the copulating couple. She'd felt every inch of the lover's thrusts, and silently parroted the woman's every shriek, gasp and moan. And she had the damp undies to prove it. At some point in the lovemaking she blinked, and could have sworn she was the woman, and the lover was Bane.
As her raging blush travelled down her neck to her intimate parts, there was no question in her mind that Bane was well aware of her fascination…and envy.
Awkward silence followed and Stella fought to steady her breathing, until she forced herself to say something...anything.
"Are you sure this is what you want for the city? People fucking in the streets like animals?"
She could see by his eyes that he was smiling, and she wasn't surprised that he took pleasure in her heightened colour and distress.
"We live in turbulent times, Stella." He rumbled, his soft, hazel eyes examining her with fresh interest. "We must seize love wherever and whenever we find it."
Stella blinked, and released a shuddering sigh. "If you're trying to seduce me, then that's the oldest line in the book..." she said, only too aware of the pleasing twinges down below.
"Then I apologize for being old-fashioned." Bane responded amiably and briefly returned his own flushed gaze to the lovers, who were whispering feverishly between urgent kisses and gasps.
"Now, let us give the lovers some privacy." He insisted, gripping her hand and pulling her roughly away from the scene.
I'd spent a lot of time with the masked man, observing him for this piece. But I had yet to actually sit down and interview him. In fact, I wasn't even sure he would consent to be interviewed. I found myself alone with him at City Hall on the day he revealed his punishment for rape, and had my chance. He agreed to the interview and began to tell me his fascinating story, but the interview abruptly ended when we stumbled on a half-dressed couple engaged in loud, frantic intercourse.
Had the lovers just reunited after being separated by Bane's uprising? Were they strangers seeking comfort in a lawless city? Or were they former members of Gotham's elite, indulging in the only wealth left to them?
Whatever the lovers' reasons for urgent, outdoor sex, it was obvious that Bane heartily approved of the couple's audacity, and the incident wasn't the first to make me suspect that beneath the bullet proof breast beat the heart of a romantic.
Stella closed her laptop and returned to her untouched salad, her busy mind replaying the alley sex incident. The rest of the walk back to the Daggett building was the longest journey she'd ever taken. Bane eventually let go of her hand, but neither one of them spoke. Bane didn't have to. His body heat radiated pleasure, leaving the unwilling journalist spellbound. Damn him.
Stretching out on the office couch, she closed her eyes to think, until Abraham entered the office wearing a very grim expression.
"I'm s-sorry, Stella, but you n-need to w-watch this." He said as he pressed the tv remote button.
"BREAKING NEWS…Gotham City News is investigating the possibility that a citizen of Gotham may have been acting as an agent for the League of Shadows, the secret society thought to be the power behind Bane and his mercenaries.
Stella Louise Browning, a 27-year old magazine editor was reported missing and feared dead by her co-workers the day after Bane's attack on Rogue Stadium. But GCN has uncovered video that reveals Browning to be alive and well, and apparently cooperating with Bane's army.
Though none of this information is especially incriminating given the number of Gotham citizens who have willingly joined Bane's revolution, GCN has placed Browning at a Red Cross camp in Darfur the same day it was visited by members of the League of Shadows two years ago.
Browning, a former freelance journalist who reported on the activities of the Red Cross in Africa eventually returned to Gotham, where she became the editor of "Gotham Woman". Of specific interest to authorities is a magazine photo shoot arranged by her a year ago in the Gotham sewers. We now know that it was through the sewers that Bane and his army entered the city…
Working on the theory that Browning may have been recruited in Africa, and scouted the sewers in advance for the League of Shadows, the FBI and CIA have also become involved, but so far neither agency has issued comment.
For the next several hours, they watched GCN's breaking news coverage, where footage of Stella was played repeatedly. The cameras had captured her walking with both Barsad and Abraham, and she was also spotted in the crowd during the confrontation between Bane and the Blackgate inmate, Monk.
Larry Crowe, the photographer who had identified her, appeared as a guest in the GCN studios and was interviewed at great length about the winter coat feature he was hired to shoot for Gotham Woman in the sewers.
When asked about Stella, he claimed, "She's a nice woman…but kind of uptight, standoffish and really strict with the models she works with. I remember her boss was really hot for her. She's also a perfectionist, so the best part of working with her was all the overtime pay."
When asked if he noticed anything suspicious about her, he shrugged and said. "She's kind of close to the vest. I wouldn't be at all surprised to find she was working for a terrorist organization."
After Larry Crowe, GCN paraded a series of guests, most of whom Stella might have met once in her life, or not at all. There were false claims and plenty of conjecture about her academic, employment, political and sexual history.
She eventually left the room in abject humiliation seeking out the terrace of the 60th story townhouse.
"Bring Mr. Crowe to me." Bane spoke lowly to Barsad.
The townhouse terrace was protected by a three-foot brick wall, topped by Plexiglas. Stella had previously been fearful of the 60-story space, but now it gave her a strange feeling of exhilaration.
She'd been staring at the sunset, worried sick about her family and her future, when a massive arm suddenly wrapped itself around her waist. Stella gasped and tried to push Bane away, but her emotions quickly gave in to his masculine authority and care, and she held on to his arm for dear life.
"All those people, pretending to know me for two minutes of fame." She uttered. "I don't know who they are, they don't know me, and I never, ever dated a white supremacist when I was in high school!" she rambled as her voice shook.
"The authorities will soon discover there are no connections between you and the League of Shadows." Bane assured her. "The fraudulent characters will disappear, and you will be in a position to sue GCN for defamation of character. Now come away from here, Stella." he said cautiously. "We are 60 stories high and you are distressed. I do not like the equation."
Stella squirmed out of his hold and turned to look at him. "But what about the stigma? I know they'll find me innocent, but ... my reputation? My name will always be associated with the League of Shadows and your revolution. That's going to make it difficult for me to get another job, That is, if I survive your bomb blast…"
Bane stared wordlessly at the blonde journalist. She was, as always, thinking of her career. He believed she was overreacting, and that the scandal would soon pass. As for the bomb, as far as he was concerned, she would be leaving the city with him, even if he had to knock her on the head and carry her out unconscious.
"I have a favour to ask of you." Stella said, breaking into his thoughts. The very last thing she wanted was to be in debt to Bane, but now she had no other option.
"I will do what I can" he stated evenly. "What is it?"
"There are people who are going to be angry, believing that I helped you destroy the city, and they'll want to hurt my family in retaliation. I have relatives here in Gotham that I lived with for four months every year while my parents were stationed in Africa, and I need to go to them now. I need to make sure they're safe, and to assure them that what they hear about me isn't true. I should have tried to contact them before now, but I've been too busy working on the tabloid and chasing fame!" She said bitterly, thoroughly disgusted by the thoughtlessness she'd shown the lovely couple that cared for her in her teenaged years. "Now I wouldn't blame them if they believed the stories about me."
She shivered and appealed to Bane. "I'm asking you to let me go to them."
The mercenary shook his head immediately. "I cannot let you go." he said firmly. "Your image is all over the news, and if you were killed because you were recognized, what good would it do your family? Even if you reached their home safely, you might be greeted by an ambush just waiting for you to arrive."
Stella groaned and hid her face in her hands. "Please, Bane? Can't Barsad take me?"
"I refuse to risk either you or my best man on a sentimental rescue mission. You are valuable to me, Stella. I need you for the tabloid." he wheezed, his eyes hard and shiny. "And furthermore, you are barred from leaving this building until further notice." he added, uncomfortable with the fear he was feeling. "It is the only safe place for you now."
Following Bane's refusal, Stella tossed and turned most of the night. She'd half expected him to refuse her request, but she never expected him to react so coldly.
Perhaps he was right in calling Stella's request a sentimental rescue mission, but all she could think about was the danger and distress facing her beloved aunt and uncle, and she spent the long night trying to figure out a solution.
She could make an escape attempt in order to get to the house. But Bane was right; She would be alone, it would be very dangerous and there might very well be an ambush waiting for her.
Scratch that.
So, could she be approaching the dilemma in the wrong way? Maybe the answer was to be found in the lengths to which she would go to get what she wanted...
She rose from the bed to stare at her reflection in the mirror, hugging her pillow.
Just how far was she willing to go? And would she be able to look herself in the mirror afterwards?
She crawled back into her bed and stared at the ceiling, mentally preparing herself for the day to come.
Next morning, with her courage firmly in place, she sought out Bane and found him in the kitchen, dressed in his tight black shirt and tossing the remains of his tea cup into the sink.
"Good morning." She greeted him shyly, making a mental note to ask him how he was able to drink tea from a cup.
Bane was speechless, instantly stirred by the early morning sight of her, fresh from the shower, her hair damp and loose, and her complexion freckled…
"I was wondering… if you might have reconsidered your decision to allow me to visit my aunt and uncle." She said, coming straight to the point.
Bane's brow rose. "Did you not hear what I said last night?" he wheezed as he strolled dangerously towards her. "It is far too dangerous."
To Stella he looked exactly like a lion, about to jump its prey. Taking a deep breath, she swallowed hard, advancing three steps out of her comfort zone to cautiously rest the palms of her hands on the chest she'd so often dreamt of touching. The heat of his body traveled through her fingertips to her arms, and ignited a rash of goosebumps all over her body. Instinctively, her thumb began to stroke the soft black fabric of his shirt.
"Let's put aside the concept of 'danger' for a moment." She suggested as she focused on his dark hazel orbs. "I have an idea, an idea that we can call a trade. If you were to allow me to go to my relatives' house, then isn't there something I can give you in return…something that you want?"
Author's Note: :D :D ;) I hope you like my version of Bane's backstory. I didn't want to use any details from the DC Comics version. The backstory I wrote is derived completely from unanswered questions about Bane in TDKR. As always, I'm so grateful for your reading and reviewing. Please continue, and tell your friends. :D :D :D
