Chapter Three: Burnt Flesh, Melted Wings and Russian Vodka

If anyone had a drone flitting and floating around Gotham, they would've captured the two bulky vehicles tearing away from the courthouse with the eventual destination of Wayne Enterprises with an ending objective on the Applied Sciences department.

In the lead dark grey SUV, Barsad pressed the accelerator harder and the loud engine roared to life as it slurped down more high-octane fuel and continued to barrel down the boulevard where Lucius Fox was unaware of the incoming danger as he fiddled with the wiring on a newer model of the Bat Pod Selina was riding in pursuit.

In the closely following light grey heavy-bodied vehicle with a reinforced chassis and set of no-flat tires, Bane didn't make Lilliana wait long until he continued his interrogation.

"Who are you?"

"Liliana," she started and cleared her throat before adding. "Lily Carrington."

Bane took a second at her spoken name, no recognition in her saying it.

"Who was your husband?" he asked, not considering the coldness of the question. In the space before Lilliana answered, Robert's body was just being loaded into a van for the coroner after a thermometer had been roughly shoved into his soft belly and plunged into his dead liver for the initial report.

Lilliana took a breath and held it before she answered, avoiding the masked man's unreadable gaze.

"He was a hedge fund manager for a firm downtown and did a lot of work in Europe.

"Why was he rounded up for judgement?"

Lilliana shuddered at his question as she remembered the events leading to being dragged to the courthouse and awaiting their fate at the feet of the sociopathic judge.

"Those animals ripped us out of our home," she murmured. "They said I was complicit in Robert's crimes," Lilliana added and closed her eyes as she teared up thinking of her original Monet being torn off the wall, those mongrels' grubby paws on the delicate brush strokes of each waterlily, ragged cuticles snagging her three-thousand thread count bed linen.

"Was your husband guilty?"

Lilliana shook her head, still deliberately avoiding his gaze. "I really don't know what Robert did or didn't do," she finally admitted.

"You were comfortable spending your allowance and allowed him to operate as he pleased?"

Lilliana felt a surge of anger and looked up and met his hostile eyes. "I spend my own goddamn money."

"Your money?"

Lilliana's fiery indignation was smothered as she couldn't help but chuckle and shrug. "Well not mine exactly, the family company."

"Who is your father?"

"Viktor Kozlov, his father founded The Kozlov Distillery during the war."

Bane nodded, recalling seeing the name plastered on bottles some of the militants would swig from with great gusto.

"What do you do with your time, your money and life Mrs. Carrington?"

Lilliana couldn't help but laugh. "I don't really do anything," she said as she looked down at her bare wrist, accustomed to seeing her diamond-encrusted watch. "It's Wednesday?" she thought, "what was I doing today?" she asked herself.

"Hot stone massages with Wayne," Lilliana remembered with a groan before turning to look at the masked man. "Is this about money? How much do you want?"

"It's not a matter of money," Bane answered vaguely as he couldn't fight his eyes from returning to the bruised skin at her neck and wrists from where her sapphire necklace had been ripped from around her throat and her weighty wedding ring yanked from her finger from such force she was surprised it hadn't broken.

As Bane traced the reddened patches and striated irregular lines of burst capillaries under her smooth skin, in the lead SUV, Talia continued to seethe as Barsad navigated them closer to Wayne Enterprises.

Talia was full of questions that no one in the vehicle could answer at Bane's independent, deliberate deviation from what she had carefully directed.

In the following SUV, Bane's question was cut off when the young driver of their SUV hit a deep pothole. Lilliana bounced on the seat and lifted a hand to clap on to her clashing knit cap pulled over her blonde tresses.

Bane watched the movement of her hand and narrowed his eyes when the sunlight streaming through the windows illuminated the facets of the diamond necklace she had shoved under her designer cap.

"What is that you have hidden away?"

Lilliana shook her head, initially not having a real answer. "It's nothing," she finally stammered as she added. "It was my mom's, it means something."

"Give those to me?"

Lilliana looked over at his extended half-gloved hand, his palm hidden under the well-worn leather.

"Take off your hat Mrs. Carrington."

Lilliana shook her head, "please, if it's money," she implored. "My family has it," she insisted as he wordlessly kept his hand held out towards her.

Lilliana's breath became shallow and the only sounds were his deep mechanical rhythmic breaths.

Bane watched Lilliana blink rapidly and reluctantly pull her knit cap free, her mother's necklace falling into her lap, several other rings and bracelets raining onto the seat and floor.

He kept his palm out, wordlessly demanding her to gather them and place them into his waiting palm.

Lilliana was surprised he didn't eagerly snatch up the jeweled wealth. She didn't know that Bane wanted to retrieve the fallen gemstones but was afraid to come into contact with her. He was afraid her skin would scorch him, burn him until his charred flesh fell from his bones.

Bane knew that touching her would be like staring into the sun too long or rubbing coarse salt into a gaping, sucking chest wound.

Lilliana slowly picked up every last piece of jewelry she had managed to shove under the brightly colored hat as she had tried to from the penthouse suite, being roughly gathered up by filthy hands of people that parked her car and prepared her coffee.

Bane watched as she leaned over to pluck an emerald tennis bracelet from the dirty, scuffed floor. His frontal lobe did backflips and his pituitary gland ejaculated copious amounts of hormones that dilated his pupils. He pulled a deep lungful of the Venom saturated analgesic into his body when the movement made her dress dip further at the neckline, exposing the very top of her latte-colored bra.

Lilliana dropped the jewelry into his hand, not noticing how he subtly moved his hands so that even the tip of her fingertips didn't graze the leather covering his palm.

As Lilliana dropped her jewelry into the masked man's large palm, Selina continued to urge the Bat Pod to devour the ground she had lost checking on the victims at the courthouse.

She breathed a ragged sigh of relief when she recognized the path was on the way to Wayne Enterprises and minutes later pulled the Bat Pod to an idling stop a few skyscraper's away and watched the two large, differently shaded grey SUV's pulled to a stop.

Talia jumped out of the first vehicle even before Barsad had put it into park. She marched to the second vehicle as Bane opened his heavy door and closed it before Talia could peek inside.

Bane beckoned towards Barsad, turning his back to Talia who tried to reach past him and pull open the door.

"Take her somewhere quiet and keep an eye on her," Bane stated and dropped his hand to Barsad's shoulder, adding with an assertive squeeze. "She is not to receive so much as a splinter in my absence."

Barsad nodded curtly, scrappy, and wiry since birth but not eager in any way to pull the apex predator's tail.

Bane turned towards Talia as Barsad walked to the other side of the vehicle and opened Lilliana's door.

"Ma'am, miss," Barsad stammered when he met Lilliana's large, unblinking eyes before absorbing the rest of her sharp, lovely features. "Please come with me."

"I have to?" Lilliana asked, shifting on the seat as she raised her hand to block the barrage of sunlight.

"Yes m…, you need to," Barsad said in an apologetic tone as she slid out of the tall car, landing on the asphalt with a sharp click as her heels landed. Barsad knew Bane was watching and tried to keep his eyes off the young heiress as she smoothed her dress down and pushed her hair back before reluctantly letting the light-eyed, kind-voiced man lead her to the sprawling brightly lit lobby of Wayne Enterprises and to one of the four elevators.

Talia pushed past Bane and began to march after Barsad as he led Lilliana away.

For the first time, Bane snaked a scarred hand out with viperlike speed and closed his strong fingers around her upper arm, his fingertips well on their way to leaving oval bruises in their wake.

Talia glared up at her protector. "Unhand me," she demanded lowly, her syllables carefully infused with danger.

Bane smiled behind his mask, "we need to focus on the task at hand. Applied Sciences has been secured."

Talia frowned up at Bane, being reminded suddenly of the magnitude of strength he possessed over her. Bane was suddenly Icarus deciding to fly into the sun as he insisted that Talia accompany him to Applied Sciences.

"What are you doing my friend?" Talia murmured as she allowed Bane to lead her towards the gold elevators and gaudy gold-accented tile flooring. She was careful to keep her expression soft and closer to that of Miranda Tate as she wanted none of the armed loyalists see her place at the top of the food chain was at all in question.

Bane kept his grip on her arm unbreakable and remained silent until the shiny doors slid open.

Talia turned inside out the nanosecond the double doors closed and there were no witnesses and began to struggle like a hooked fish, fighting for life against a greater predator.

"What are you doing?" Talia shouted, dropping all of Miranda's soft façade, fury distorting her features, spit flying from between her full lips.

Bane released her arm as she gesticulated wildly, she stumbled back to catch her balance against the mosaic tile inlaid elevator wall.

Talia pressed the elevator hold key before she whipped her angry face back towards him.

"Answer me," she demanded.

Bane took a couple steps back from her and leaned against the opposite wall of the roomy elevator car. "I haven't decided yet," he said evenly and crossed his strong arms over his broad chest.

Talia closed the distance between them and slapped him across his masked face. Her Miranda Tate acrylic nails clicked loudly against the titanium coils.

"You will stop whatever it is you're thinking of doing immediately," she demanded and added before she pulled her hand back to slap him again. "You will put a bullet in that bitch's head and end this little distraction."

Bane caught her wrist before she made contact.

"What are you thinking," Talia said as her face and voice became devoid of life as she hissed. "You are only standing here right now because of me, only living because I brought you into the light my friend."

"And you think that gives you power over me?" Bane murmured with a hauntingly melodic tone and tightened his grip around Talia's wrist until she was overcome with real pain.

"Let go," Talia ordered, trying like hell to suppress the pain in her voice.

Bane wordlessly defied her for a few heartbeats before he finally spoke.

"You will forget you ever saw her," Bane said in a more lifeless tone, adding before he released her wrist and taking the elevator off hold. "After we gain control of Applied Sciences we will continue with what you have planned."