Author's note: I don't own anything Dark Knight related and I am not profiting from this story. Hope you enjoy.
Lena surveyed the collection of objects neatly spread across the large bed. It had taken her four days of continuous work but the rope was finally finished and coiled nicely at the center of her supplies. On her breaks from rope weaving Lena had covertly moved around the penthouse compiling all the necessary materials for her escape. Once she was satisfied with her inventory check Lena packed everything into a dark leather rucksack she had found and tucked it away in the back of the walk-in closet.
While she had all the supplies she felt she would need, Lena was painfully aware that her escape plan was lacking. There were so many unknowns that she would have to deal with on the fly and it made Lena apprehensive about the execution. Not for the first time a hint of doubt entered her mind.
"Should I really risk my life on this escape attempt and even if I do get away clean I'll have pissed off the most dangerous man in the city."
Lena contemplated the implications of a seriously pissed off terrorist as she walked back into her bedroom, Lena had given up chastising herself for thinking of it as her room. She had decided to wait a few more days before she put her plan into action, at that point there would be a new moon over Gotham.
"Optimal sneaking around conditions." Lena thought as she made her way into the bathroom.
She was determined to fully enjoy the lavish bathroom in what little time she had left in the penthouse so Lena drew another scolding bath and created a luxuriously thick layer of bubbles before stripping down and easing herself in. After a few minutes Lena's body adjusted to the heat and she slow slipped beneath the surface. With her eyes closed Lena could feel the tension dissolving from her body. Pain prickled around her still injured arm but she ignored it and focused instead on the void sound of water pushing against her ear drums. When the need for oxygen came, Lena slowly emerged pulling her wet hair up into high bun and rested her shoulders on the cool porcelain of the tub. Lena's eyes fluttered open and she saw the hulking form Gotham's reckoning crouching at the other end of the cistern.
Bane had returned to the penthouse after yet another day of dealing with outbreaks of rebellion around the city. He wasn't surprised to see his little captive was absent from the common living space. She had been keeping a low profile for the past few days and Bane had conceded to her avoidance of him, but now felt she needed to be rousted. Bane still had many questions he wanted answered and after short consideration he'd devised a plan to get them. He silently made his way to her door and could hear the sounds of faint splashing. The bedroom door swung smoothly open and within seconds Bane stood at the bathroom's entrance. The locked door gave way easily to Bane's experienced hand and he wore a sly smile behind the mask as he thought.
"People put so much faith in locks."
He noiselessly opened the door just in time to watch his little captive's head slip below the water's edge. Though he'd never openly admit it Bane did have a slight flair for the dramatic so he crouched near the bathtub's faucet, spreading his arms lazily across it's width and waited. His little captive crested slowly from the water and Bane watched as she pushed her hair back from her face. With her eyes closed she knotted her hair up to the top of her head and she finally opened her eyes noticing him. As usual he enjoyed her reaction immensely, Bane could see the shock plainly on her face as she comprehended his presence and for the first time he saw real uncontrolled panic in her expression as she blushed fiercely. His little bird looked ready to dive back under the water as she fully comprehended the trap she was in. The two adversaries stared at each other for a long moment before Bane broke the thick silence.
"I've been thinking about the time we've spent together these past days and do you know what I've concluded?" His mechanical voice echoed slightly around the vast tiled room. Bane paused for a beat then continued, not really expecting a reply from his captive.
"Every interaction that we've shared in which I've attempted to intimidate you physically or out maneuver you mentally I've come away well matched." Seeing that his little bird was still speechless Bane continued with the edifying tone of a school teacher,
"I've surmised that a more intimate approach might be required to facilitate conversation. So here are the rules my little bird, I ask the questions and you answer them in an honest and timely manner."
Finally the spark of defiance was back in her eyes as she softly inquired, "And if I refuse?"
Bane's eye lit with wicked amusement but instead of replying he simply reached into the tub and nonchalantly flipped the trip lever up. A sucking spluttering noise filled the room as the water level began to descend rapidly.
With a yelped profanity the girl ducked down farther into the tub following the diminishing liquid. Bane let loose a low and devilish chuckle. He flicked the lever back down again and the flow ceased. "Now that you understand the consequences for insubordination, shall we continue?" Her death glare was her only response and Bane conceded inwardly that he was enjoying his captive's discomfort far greater than he had expected to.
"We have spent these many days in each other's company and you have yet to tell me your full name, while Evelyn is a beautiful epithet I would much prefer your real title."
She still held her glare and her silence so Bane started the draining once again. A few long seconds passed and his captive finally averted her eyes. Her face flushed more deeply with embarrassment as she bitterly mumbled,
"My name is Lena."
Bane made no movement to re-stopper the tub and she looked at him in desperate confusion.
Finally understanding she all but yelled, "Lena, Lena Newman."
Bane flicked the lever upwards again and the water stilled. His little captive had her knees pulled up to her chin in an attempt to protect some small modicum of modesty. The thick layer of bubbles was dwindling quickly and the small amount of cover the girl still had reached to just below her shoulders.
Bane felt a nagging at the back of his mind at the discovery of his captive's name but he pushed it aside in lieu of his next question.
"Where did you learn to shoot?" He demanded in a quiet tone.
"About seventy miles north of the city." she countered quickly still casting her gaze downward.
"While I am more than happy to play this game with you Lena I fear you will not enjoy the outcome, when the water is gone and there is nothing left to hide you from me." Bane chided in a dangerously soft voice.
He saw the hitch in her throat at his threat and for her insubordination Bane drained the tub further. As he replaced the stopper she spoke in a quiet, slightly shaking voice.
"My father taught me, he was a U.S. Army Ranger, sniper division"
The pieces finally came together in Bane's mind and he thought aloud, "So the apartment where I found your first note, the one registered to L. Newman that was your father's place."
"It was a place he used to live, where I knew the riffle was registered to so I left the note there on the off chance you would track the registration." Lena clarified begrudgingly.
"Gotham's little defender skirting firearms registration laws?" Bane gasped in mock incredulity.
He watched as she glared down at her bare knees and Bane could see her shock and embarrassment finally melting into anger. The bubbles had dissipated into sporadic islands of foam surrounded by the opaque and murky bath water. Bane looked at the accumulation of raised bumps across her exposed flesh and sensed a tremble run through his captive that had little to do with the decreasing water temperature.
"Why did you start this little game of ours? Why not just shoot me in the head when you had the chance, it would have saved you a lot of grief?" Bane continued his interrogation.
"With your triggerman out there I couldn't risk killing you, but I also couldn't just sit and do nothing while you destroy all the good people in this city." She responded flatly.
Bane sensed that his little captive had specific people in mind when she spoke of "the good people" and he smiled behind the mask thinking, "She has people she cares for which means she has weaknesses, I just have to find them." Bane carefully observed his captive, this being the most exposed he'd ever seen her. Her skin was covered in small droplets of water which would collect together at her slightest movement and run down her tan flesh.
That indescribable impossible strong urge to touch her rose up again, with a tight clenching in Bane's chest and his mind was a chaotic battlefield of conflicting thoughts. Emotions that had been long ago buried, left to die alongside his innocence and weakness in the pit, were stirring.
The only sound that filled the large space was the strange melody of their collective breathing, hers soft and barely audibly, his harsh and mechanical. Bane couldn't decide if he wanted to protect his little bird or break her wings and watch the life drain way from those hard, determined eyes. The tension in his body was building like the electrical pulsing of a transformer on the verge of explosion. Finally, unable to stand his own immobility, Bane reached up and took hold of her chin and guided her eyes to his. They stayed frozen in that moment for an immeasurably amount of time until he whispered,
"You have been trapped in the inescapable net of ruin by your own want of sense."
His mind was so disheveled that Bane wasn't even sure if he'd spoken to her or to himself but his words had a galvanizing effect and he was up and to the door in an instant having flicked open the tub stopper as he went. He hesitated for a moment looking back at his captive, at Lena, her body unmoving. Her back was toward him and as the water drained around her Bane saw that Lena's back was overlaid with a vast landscape of scars. They knit across her tan skin like so many cracks in a broken road. Some were small and shallow, others were long and deep, but all had the paleness of long healed wounds much like the ones covering his own body. Bane ghosted from the room, regretting turning back, regretting seeing those scars, and regretting all the unanswered questions they carried with them.
Lena wasn't sure how long she'd sat in the empty tub after He had left, she wasn't sure how she'd gotten out of the bathroom and wrapped herself in the thick comforter on the bed, Lena just wasn't sure about a lot of things at the moment least of all the events that had just transpired between her and her captor.
"So damn stupid, you should have seen this coming."
Lena chastised herself for naïvely believing Bane was just going to forget about her. She had felt so completely exposed sitting in that bathtub with the terrorist bearing down on her. Lena wasn't a fool she could see the delight in his eyes at her discomfort and embarrassment. Even though her instincts told her otherwise Lena had been utterly terrified in those moments that she was about to be violated.
In a way she had been and of course that had been Bane's intention, but something else had happened in that bathroom. When He had forced her to look at him Lena had seen things she'd never wanted to see from the mass murderer's eyes. Pain, confusion, sorrow, desire swirled there too obvious for Lena to miss or deny. She couldn't decide if she wanted to scream, cry, or throw up and in frustration she pondered aloud,
"How can that bastard express those emotions that strongly, half his face is covered by that fucking mask?"
Lena swallowed thickly trying to regain control of her racing thoughts as she pushed herself off the bed and walked into the closet.
"Fuck the new moon, I'm getting the hell out of this place tonight,"
Lena declared as she pulled the rucksack from its hiding place. She pulled out all of the essential supplies for the first part of her plan since she needed to minimize her time spent out in the common living space. Lena placed on layer after layer of clothing for protection against the bitter cold and she tucked and wrapped the oversized articles where she could to minimize heat loss and to avoid getting tangled up. After putting on several pairs of socks Lena pulled her last pair from the bag. She had found a set of thick nylon hiking socks and with a little luck and the gas fire pit on the balcony Lena had been able to melt the undersides into hardened, more water proof footwear.
Once she was suited up Lena moved back into her bedroom and checked the time on the digital clock by the bed. It was almost two in the morning and before she could lose her nerve Lena silently moved to the door and listened for a moment. Hearing nothing she snuck quietly into the hallway. The penthouse was pitch black, what little light the moon was giving off was covered by thick clouds and Lena said a quick pray of thanks for that. She stopped at the end of the hall and surveyed the living room, finding it empty Lena moved swiftly to the dining room table. The riffle still sat untouched since she'd cleaned it four days ago and with practiced efficiency she broke down the firearm and stowed it in the rucksack. After the gun was safely tucked away Lena felt a slight lessening of the nervous tension that had been building since she left her room.
Lena scanned the penthouse one last time and her eyes fell on to Bane's large coat hanging up near the front door. A flash of anger sparked up at the sight of the garment but it cooled in a moment as a smirk spread across Lena's face.
She was standing on the large balcony of the penthouse, wrapped in Bane's fleece lined coat and Lena was trying not to notice how nice it felt or how good it smelled.
"I'm about to dangle myself a thousand feet or so above the ground and I'm more interested in how pleasant a madman smells." She grunted in disgust.
Lena moved to edge and with skilled hands tied the rope to the railing with a double figure-8 fisherman's knot dropping the free end over and watching it swing. She took several deep long breathes and cleared her mind of all extraneous thought as she swung her legs over the railing. Once she had situated herself toward the penthouse again she took hold of the rope with one hand gave it an experimental jerk. It felt as solid as a handmade rope could feel so Lena wrapped it around her left foot and gently let go of the security if the hand rail.
The rope now held her entire weight and Lena slowly started to descend by sliding one hand then the next never losing contact with the rope. After what felt like hours she reached the bottom of the balcony and could see the lower level waiting for her. The wind was picking up and Lena began to sway violently, Bane's large coat whipped around her in a frenzy and for one terrifying instant Lena's foot lost its purchase on the rope and she was holding on with just her hands suspended hundreds of feet above the dark city. She felt a searing pain in her injured arm as she franticly struggled to clasp the rope with her legs. Lena finally righted herself and managed to scoot the rest of the way down. When she felt her feet on the solid ground of the lower balcony Lena almost cried with relief. She quickly entered the sublevel of the penthouse thankful that the sliding door she managed to covertly unlock the other day was still unsecure. Pausing for a moment inside Lena slide off her pack and shucked the coat. In the molted shadows she could see a small dark stain on her left arm where the strain from the climb had reopened her wound. Knowing that there was nothing to be done about it at the moment Lena replaced the jacket and scrounged in the rucksack.
"It's all about having the right tools for the job,"
She muttered to herself as she pulled out a kitchen knife and an ice pick scavenged from the penthouse above. Lena made her was to the front door and after listening for a minute then she poked her head into the hallway. Once she determined the coast was clear Lena headed to the far end of the corridor and stopped in front of the stairwell entrance. She painstakingly unscrewed the covers on the underside of the door hinges with the knife. After the pins were exposed Lena used the ice pick and a small hand weight she'd grabbed from the rec room to remove the pins. With a forceful pry from the knife and ice pick the door popped free from its frame and promptly fell onto Lena, knocking her to the floor with a muted crash.
"Wow really smooth Lena, you've got some real mission impossible skills going on right now."
She muttered to herself after she'd managed to crawl out from under the heavy security door. Lena stepped gingerly into the stairwell and looked down, instantly regretting her choice of escape routes when she saw just how far she had to travel. Hearing no alarms sounding her breakout Lena began trudging the steps as quickly and quietly as she could manage.
Her labored puffs and throbbing arm were here only company on her long downward journey. Lena kept checking the time on the wrist watch she'd commandeered from the penthouse, it was the least gaudy one she could find and it was still probably worth more than a year's salary. It was a quarter after three when she finally reached the bottom of the stairs and Lena paused at the exit door calming her breathing.
This was the part of her plan that was most shaky, Lena had no idea what awaited her on the other side of that door, she wasn't even sure if it would lead outside or somewhere inside the vast building.
"Greater the risk greater the reward I suppose,"
she thought indifferently as she silently pushed her way out of the stairwell. It took a moment for Lena to orientate herself, she wasn't outside like she had hoped but there also wasn't a hoard of armed guards waiting to pounce on her. Lena was standing in what appeared to be a service hallway for the building and upon inspection she spotted the heavenly glow of a fire exit sign, the arrow pointing left down an adjoining corridor so Lena took off in that direction. She had been weaving through the facility stopping at each corner to listen for any sign of life all of her senses strained to their limit when she turned down the last hallway and spotted an exterior door. It took great restraint to stop herself from sprinting to the beautiful sight. Lena was about half way down the narrow passageway when she heard the sound of a key being turned in the door ahead. Without hesitation Lena dove for the only cover the sparse hallway provided and a millisecond later the door swung open admitting two men into the building. They made their way closer and closer to Lena's hiding spot and though her pulse was pounding furiously Lena could hear the echoing conversion of the two men. To her surprise she could tell that one of the men heading her way was her rival sniper Barsad.
"Talia is furious with these antics of the rebels and you know when she's not happy Bane isn't happy."
Barsad's voice was filled with a tired frustration. The man with him gave a derisive snigger, but was cut short by a hard smacking noise which she guessed was a disciplinary punch from Barsad.
"We have intel on the location of the largest rebel group the Batpeople and we'll be hitting them at first light." Barsad continued.
"Why not hit them now? We would have the advantage in the dark?" An unfamiliar voice questioned.
"Bane wants it videotaped and uploaded for all the citizens to see. That will go a lot further in quelling future unrest or at least unrest against our men." Barsad stated.
That was the last part of the conversion Lena was able to hear as the men passed by her hiding spot and turned down the nearest corridor. Lena poked her head out of the laundry cart she had dove in a few minutes ago and plucked a set of foul smelling boxers from her head. She brushed other articles of clothing away from herself and gracelessly tumbled from the cart. After Lena picked herself off the cement floor she sprinted to the exit door, razor sharp kitchen knife in hand and pushed out into the dark exterior. She was overwhelmed with a feeling of freedom as she took in the crisp night air but Lena didn't allow herself to linger in the open. She ducked into the shadows of the alley and careful to avoid the debris that littered the ground Lena made her way to the mouth of the alley.
Looking south Lena spotted a group of armed men circling a burn barrel near the entrance of the large apartment building. They were deep in conversation and didn't notice as Lena darted from the alley into the shadow of one of the numerous vehicles lining the desolate stretch of road, no doubt commandeered by Bane and his army.
"Jesus Christ, how did Bane get his hands on a Batmobile?...And I'm the dumbass that thought it'd be a good idea to piss him off." She brooded despondently.
Lena headed up the street knife in one hand and ice pick in the other prepared for trouble but it never came. She was three fourths of the way up the block when Lena reached a promising pack of motorcycles. She picked out a worn looking dirt bike and began hustling up the street.
When Lena rounded the bend she pulled up next to the corner building and kicked the engine to life. She opened the throttle and hoped that distance between her and those guards was enough to buffer the sound. Lena brought up the mental map of the city that all true Gothamites had in their heads and started determining which route would be best for her return home.
The penthouse was located on Hyde Boulevard in the southwest area of Downtown Gotham. Lena needed to get to the northwest section of the Red Hook borough in Midtown. She would have to weave diagonally across Downtown while avoiding trouble spots like Blackgate and gang territories.
"The lowlifes probably have the city all carved up into turfs by now, should make my travel plans interesting."
Lena thought dryly as she turned the bike north onto Cass street. She knew that Cass ran parallel to Hyde Blvd but it was smaller and less traveled. Lena made it several miles north to the boarder of Little Kingston, the collection of city blocks that was home to the majority of the Caribbean demographic in Gotham. She could see torch light up ahead and pulled up short to assess the situation. Lena could see several heavily armed men milling around the line of burnt out cars blocking the street. On the asphalt fifty feet in front of that in large bright letters was painted,
"You don't live here, you don't come here."
While Lena commended the community's effort to protect itself it was putting a serious cramp in her escape plan. She backtracked and took McDole Street west towards Scott Boulevard. When the road she was traveling spilled onto Scott Blvd Lena saw a sight that stopped her cold.
The Gotham Major Crimes Unit building stood before her, a ghost of its former self. The place looked more like a bombed out war zone than a government facility, garbage and flame charred caucuses of patrol vehicles filled the scene. Lena saw that hundreds of flyers were scattered around the street and she leaned off the bike to pick one up. It was a head-shot of Commissioner Gordon, in his finest dress blues, and it read in big block letters,
"Wanted for Crimes Against the People of Gotham."
Lena flung the poster away in disgust and after giving the tattered building a final look she gunned the engine and continued on.
She wasn't sure exactly what had happened, Lena remembered turning up West Avenue, just a few short blocks from the Malcolm Bridge which would carry her across Gotham River into Red Hook. All of a sudden Lena felt an explosion of pain in her chest and she was knocked back off the bike. The last coherent memory she had was a pair of massive hands reaching out of the darkness toward her.
The first thing Lena was conscious of was a weight settled on her hips. She looked down and saw an all too familiar set of hands resting comfortably at her waist. Lena saw the steady rise and fall of the chest in front of her but a ringing in her ears blocked out the expected hiss of the exiting breaths. Her eyes tracked slowly upward until they were met by a set that were endlessly dark and deep. Bane, her own personal nightmare, was holding her easily again, his head bent down to catch her gaze. He was motionless except of the regular cadence of breath. In that moment Lena felt entirely disassociated from space and time, she took a short shallow breath and stretched slowly upward. Lena felt the cold contours of the mask press against the delicate skin of her lips. It was a kiss of innocence and of acceptance which was over in a second as she pulled way. Lena rested her forehead against his unyielding chest and she felt the deep rumble there as he began to speak.
"The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep."
Lena bolted awake with a wheezing cry, gasping for air. She felt as if a lead pipe was embedded into her sternum and when her battered sense came back into focus Lena found that she was sprawled out on the dirt floor of a dusty warehouse surrounded by a loose circle of men. A string of profanity frantically played in Lena's mind as she tried to pull herself together enough to get out of her current predicament. One of the burly men peered down at her and gruffly stated,
"Shit I thought she was a goner for sure when we clothes-lined her."
"Don't be stupid Phil she wasn't even going that fast it just knocked her on her ass is all, I thought we'd managed to catch ourselves Bane." Another man commented, he was the same build as the first but had an unkempt bread and a dirt tan trench coat.
"Now who's being stupid? Just because she's got his coat on doesn't mean you should have thought it was Bane. He doesn't go anywhere without an armed guard remember?" A third man spoke up, he was different from the others, younger and relatively cleaning looking.
"She's probably just Bane's whore, maybe she finally came to her sense and took off." A crude voice cut in from behind Lena.
She would have turned to face the accusation but there was the whole debilitating chest pain to deal with so she remained still, but Lena caught the glowering look of reproach on the younger guys face and her temper cool marginally.
"I have the solution, you're all dumb-asses and you should just ask her who she is and what she's doing with the Bastard's coat."
A Harsh voice cut through the muttering of the crowd and the men stepped aside allowing a figure to step closer to Lena. As she looked up Lena saw that the new comer was a young woman, but not just any girl, it was the teenager she had saved in the alley what felt like a life time ago.
The girl looked down at Lena and her eyes registered recognition before she stated authoritatively.
"My name is Barbara Gordon, my father is Police Commissioner James Gordon and I think it's time you finally introduce yourself to me."
Well there it is, hope you liked it. We had some quotes from Robert Frost as well as Aeschylus. Any Questions, comments, or concerns feel free to message me. Reviews as always are appreciated.