"I told you that I wasn't going to run so why shatter my ankle?"
He hunkered down and started to unwrap my ankle, inspecting it. I was used to skin discoloration so the sight didn't unnerve me as much as it should have. I gripped the seat of my chair and gritted my teeth, trying to avoid whimpering—I didn't want to give him the satisfaction. Satisfied with his inspection, he began to rewrap my ankle; It was apparent that he had some medical practice in his past. Once he was finished, he cast his eyes to mine. Once again I was reeled in.
"Assurance," was all he said before he returned to the hospital bed. I sat up on a wobbly leg, keeping my ankle elevated as I hopped over to the bed. I braced myself on the bed and reached over to the table, taking an IV in hand. Bane presented me with his inner arm and I slid the needle into his vein. I taped the IV down and reached over to the table, taking a syringe in hand. I fed the venom into the IV, then hopped back to my seat.
We were back underground where I was starting to believe that Bane felt most comfortable. He rested on the faux hospital bed, my IV taped to his inner arm. As the steady stream of venom pumped into his veins, the green liquid became barely visible underneath his pale skin. The sun hadn't touched him for a very long time.
I decided to break the silence, albeit awkwardly. "Not to doubt your intelligence or anything, but I have to ask. Was putting me in Daggett's pad really the best decision?"
"It fulfilled a purpose, if that is what you are asking."
I scoffed, "Yeah? Showing me how shitty people really are? I already knew that one."
"People are deplorable, yes, but that was not its purpose. Your friend was bound to reveal herself. Your presence only acted as a catalyst."
I broke my focus on my ankle to look at Bane. He knew Selina was going to show up?
Hmm.
He knew more than he let on. There were a lot of blank pages in the notebook of Bane, but they would fill themselves in eventually. It was only a matter of time and patience. If I even lasted that long.
"Selina? You knew she would come?"
"She holds you very dear to her. Stryver's near broken state gave me a clear idea. She would do anything for you."
"What are you getting at?" I carefully turned myself to face him. His head rolled on the pillow, his eyes resting upon me. Even in his relaxed state, his presence was daunting- my skin heated beneath my shirt. I pulled at the collar, stretching the cotton.
"She will bargain for your freedom with whatever she finds of higher value" His air was breathy, but his voice held its constant intensity. "Now that she knows where you are and who you are with."
"She doesn't have anything to bargain with. You don't come off as a diamond and pearl guy."
"Jewels hold no value in my mind. No. She will trade a life for a life. Or rather, lives. We will hunt and pursue her until she complies. She has no choice."
My stomach roiled at his words and my throat tightened from anxiety and worry over Selina.
Oh god, Selina…
There wasn't anything or anyone out there worth trading. Besides, Bane wouldn't let me go. He couldn't. He needed my venom and he would do anything to keep me here. My ankle throbbed as I thought on it. I knew well enough from the rise in his blood pressure and the slow breath that escaped through a hiss whenever I slid the needle into his skin—he was following the path to addiction. He loved my venom. Needed it.
I covered over my fear with a sheer coat of pessimism, praying that he did not sense it. "That's funny. There isn't a life out…up there you would even consider setting me free for."
"Yes…You and I both know that, but she doesn't. She has one man in mind and she will become desperate as one does when they are faced with an imperative. Do you comprehend yet, Finley?"
"Batman."
The word escaped my lips in a faint whisper. Bane's eyes crinkled as I imagined they would if he were to ever smile. I ran my hand through my hair and my mind tried to fully grasp the situation. Selina would sacrifice Batman on blind faith, in hopes that I would be safe. My hero of yesterday, but not of today.
"You are in shock." He mused with morbid glee. "Why? Do you still hold some shred of fondness for the man who left you behind?"
"He saved my life eight years ago."
"Only to discard you like a dirtied rag he had wiped his faults upon" he said with his voice full of condescension. "And that was only yesterday. Tell me. What did he do to earn your blind faith?"
"What does it matter? You said it, he left me behind yesterday. Leave it at that."
He said nothing. He was waiting for me to speak. To open up and tell him everything. Tell him why Batman, despite his betrayal yesterday, meant so much to this anesthesiologist who twitched at the merest sound. Bane wanted me to speak, and he would listen. I didn't know if I should feel honored or terrified that this mountain of a man seemed so positively interested in me. I flushed under his intensive stare.
I sighed; there was no way out of this. Either way he'd get it out of me.
"Mr. Reese, some guy from Wayne Enterprises, went on GCN. Said he knew the identity of Batman. It seemed like a load of shit to me. Anyway, the Joker rung up the news channel and said that he was going to blow up a hospital if Reese said anything. I'm sure you read up on the Joker. He was a nutcase, a bag full of mangy cats. His name still terrifies the people who remember. People like me."
I shook at the thought of him and pulled my knee up, placing my good foot on the edge of the chair. My arm wrapped around my bare knee in a vice to keep my body from shaking too violently. The Joker chilled me to the bone, even after all these years. People didn't understand, said that I was just overdramatic, but I knew better. They weren't there. They didn't live with the memory of his rotten breath, the smooth steel of his knives. I shuddered and Bane was still, waiting for me to continue.
"I was off that day, but I knew that Gotham General would be a target. It's the biggest damn hospital in the entire city and he was…he liked the attention. I had patients there that I helped Dr. Ross with…I was worried about them. I left my house and hauled ass to the hospital. God, the streets were hell. People were losing their minds. I remember… I remember almost hitting a man who decided a green light was the right time to sprint across the road. Dumb bastard. But the streets…the streets didn't compare to the hospital. It was a nightmare. Nurses and cops running around, yelling at each other. They were evacuating the place, getting everyone out."
Bane shifted his position, taking the IV from his arm and placing it upon the table. I watched him as he readjusted himself, his eyes never leaving me even as he tossed this way and that. It was a bit unsettling, but I managed to continue telling my sad story.
" Harvey Dent…He was in the hospital too. He denied me giving him any painkillers, said he didn't want to get rid of the pain. Poor guy lost his fiancé when the Joker decided to blow him up. I had figured that he would be a priority, but something told me to check on him. I shouldn't have. I should have just left, but I…I couldn't. I just couldn't. I needed to make sure he was okay. I just remember going down the hallway and seeing a cop running to Harvey's room. He said something when he went in, but I don't remember. Then I heard it. A gunshot. My instincts told me to run and I did, but in the wrong direction. In the room…That room…He was there. The Joker."
My head ached at the memory and I buried my face in my hands, trying to gather my breath and nerves before I went on. I had spent years trying to bury these memories, but here they were, resurfacing again under Bane's orders.
"Painted lips, red like blood. But those were nothing compared to his eyes…Black and bottomless, like I imagine hell to be like. I remember the fear I had when he saw me and he just…he just smiled at me, like I was an old friend. Between the dead cop on the ground, the Joker in front of me, and Harvey Dent on the bed… I didn't know what to do. So I ran. I ran like all of hell was on my heels, but that wasn't enough. The Joker was fast for a scrawny guy. He caught up to me in no time. I remember turning and seeing his face as he laughed at me…God, that face."
I hid my own face in my hands, trying to block out the memory of his breath on my face. His little catcalls and whistles. I bit at my lip, chewing the skin to nothing. My hands twisted each other to numbness, my eyes staring intently at the floor. Memories flashed in my eyes. A bloody scalpel. Red lips and rotten teeth.
"He caught me a-and threw me to the floor like I was nothing. He was hysterical, laughing and twitching about like a dog that caught a rabbit. It was horrifying. I couldn't do anything other than lay there, paralyzed. He found it…funny. He had a…scalpel and he held it to my mouth…said I reminded him of his sister and said I needed to smile more. And I fainted, just like that. Gotham's most insane criminal and I just fainted under him. I couldn't tell you how much time passed, but I remember…waking up and not being able to see.
"There was so much sound going on all around me and when I tried to move, I found that I was tied to a pole and my hands taped together around a pistol. I couldn't remember how I got there. There was a mask on my face, but it was placed all wrong…too high. My mouth tasted like blood, but I couldn't remember why. I forget a lot when I get scared. It's like a defense mechanism. I was there for a long time, propped up against that pole with a gun taped in my hands. Then after some time, shots were fired and glass was shattered. The noise…So loud. It scared me shitless and people started hollering. There was a hand on my shoulder, but in my heightened state of freak out mode, I lost all sense of myself and just started thrashing. Anything to get away.
"But…but the mask that covered my eyes was gone in a second and all I could see was black. And then…then a pair of eyes. They were dark and all I could remember of dark eyes was the Joker and the way he looked at me. So I shut down and started to bawl, lifting that gun to my head. I wanted to get away, I was desperate. I didn't even think of Jen and Selina. I only thought of how I wasn't going to make it. But that hand on my shoulder lowered the gun from my head and cut the tape. He finally said something and that's when I knew who it was."
A miniscule smile curled on my lips as I remembered. I didn't know when I began crying as I recalled the memory, but I had. The warm tears formed dusky trails on my face.
"He knew who I was…He even called me by name. He told me…He told me that I was safe, told me to keep on living, because my life didn't need to be cut short because of a mad man. He said I had reason and worth, unlike the Joker. That was the first time I had ever met the Batman, but even in my scared state, I never forgot what he told me. That night was the most horrible, yet wondrous moment of my life. Being told to keep living by a living legend was such an...it's hard to describe it accurately."
I looked to the hospital bed, but Bane was gone from there. I didn't even hear him sit up, nor did I hear him stand and walk away from me. I was lost in my own memory, but he never seemed to lose interest in my story. He leaned against a stone pillar that was closest to the waterfall that cascaded to my left. My hands wiped at the tears that formed in my eyes. Jesus, how many times had this man seen me cry?
"He gave me hope and another chance at life. That's all I could have ever asked for. A second chance to try and gain back what innocence I had." I chuckled humorlessly, shaking my head, "If you couldn't tell, I did a shit poor job."
His eyes cast down. He was quiet again. Whenever he became silent, the quiet rang in my ears and dulled my senses. It bothered me, but I remained where I was. A feeling grew in my chest, a warm feeling. I felt…relieved that I had told someone, even if it was my jailer.
"I have given you a true chance at redemption, Finley." His eyes were on me again. "Whereas your Batman has abandoned you."
"I think you breaking my ankle almost is worse than his abandonment," I didn't wait for his reaction. "Besides, I took the gift he gave me and blew it to hell. I became a fully fledged doctor, only to use that to my advantage in drug dealing. I let my hero down."
"That was Dr. Robinson. The title that became your mask and that has recently been broken. You are no longer a doctor. Finley Robinson is your true face. Finley the woman who would give her life so selflessly to a man who ordered her capture, only so that her sister may live."
His eyes ran over my face, gauging my reaction. My forehead was creased, my dried lips pursed as I listened to his words.
"However, there is also the Finley who stabbed a man and tore a woman's face apart with her bare hands." He raised his hand, pointing to me before dropping it to rest by his side.
"You have only encountered darkness; you have never become it entirely. You have felt the light of the sun, but it has never enveloped you. There is no black and white to you. You are a shade of grey. There is innocence and darkness within you. Despair and hope are one and the same inside you. You are starting to bloom, Miss Robinson."
"Bloom? Into what?"
"Into something that seems…familiar to me." His voice was elusive. He was in as deep of thought as I was.
"As poetic as that is, I'm not like you. I don't thunder around, breathing hellfire and devouring the weak."
"Perhaps you are right to doubt our similarities. But you, Finley, are something greater than you know. Perhaps, someday soon, you will realize your full potential and evolve into something else. A living, breathing fire that will remain constant and expanding."
What in god's name is he talking about?
"And I hope that I will be there to see it, because something of great beauty must have a witness."
I couldn't even process what he just said. I only sat there, my mouth in a tight line and my brain a scrambled mess. This seemed too surreal. Just everything these past few days seemed unreal.
He chortled at my silence, shrugging himself away from the wall. His form advanced towards me, his steps heavy and calculated. I hated how small I felt near him. It made it hard to breathe. The sight of his mask still unnerved me and I remembered last night and how he regarded me with gleeful and horrendously morbid curousity as he shattered my ankle. His mask looked more like it was designed for fear factor, not functionality.
"Where…Where did you come from? You're not from Gotham, so what's your story?"
"You wish to hear my story? Ah, you know not of what you ask."
He seemed almost surprised by my request, the pitch of his voice rising even through his breathing apparatus.
"It's only fair."
"Even after all of your past occurrences, you still hold belief in what is just and fair. You are resilient even in your partially broken state." He quirked a brow at me, arms folded loosely over the great expanse of his chest.
It would take a lot more than a broken foot to disassemble me to nothing.
"Partially suggests that I'm half broken. As of right now, I'm only a quarter broken. But enough about me. I'm asking about you."
He ran his eyes over my face, trying to sense a lie in my interest. When he found none, he creased his forehead. He knew, sooner or later, that I would ask.
"Do not ask me again. Go back to your work. Tomorrow, the fire shall begin its ascension."
A/N: Final edited chapter before I start the new one. Wanted to thank Loretta Lolita once again. She's great. As always, review and let me know what you think! I love hearing from you guys.