Chapter Six: Day Two at Sea: The Sick and the Tormented

Bane fought off sleep for most of the night, not wanting to miss any moment to be awake and revel in crushing their naked skin together. He suppressed his feral groans and kept his top hand gripped against the smooth curve of her hip, barely restraining himself from squeezing her tight and pulsing his fingertips until they made oval-shaped bruises on her supple flesh.

Several times, his body's basal need for sleep forced him into brief cat naps. Each time Bane awoke from those recharging sessions, he was borderline frantic as his pulse pounded in his ears as well as created a marked increased in his assisted mechanical inhalations. His hands urgently grasped at her bare skin and forced a whimper from her pain-wracked body shrouded in an opiate chemically infused blanket.

Outside the cargo container whose resting dead weight was more than 100,000 tons, the sun sank into the horizon and Bane fought sleep until the sun rose again.

Lena had slept deeply, her healing body needed further rest and for the better half of the day, Bane was left alone with his thoughts and the constant lullaby of Lena's light snoring.

She had stirred briefly when Bane checked the bandages, pleased to see there was the slightest of recession in regard to the reddened and inflamed edges of the seared skin.

Lena had mumbled incoherently as Bane had put another piece of paper tape on the corner of the gauze. She had cracked open her sleep-crusted eyelids and found Bane's eyes already on her.

Lena had held her breath and parted her lips to speak as Bane laid his large hand over her bandaged skin, the edge of his palm a whisper away from brushing against her naked femininity. Lena felt her face flush a becoming fuchsia as Bane splayed his fingertips and dropped his eyes to look at her exposed intimacy. Behind his mask his mouth flooded with saliva as he longed to trace his fingertips through her shell-pink folds, the softness inviting as it obscured her opening from his penetrative gaze.

Before Lena could speak or give herself an intracranial stroke with the amount of blood that was rushing to her head, Bane had blinked deliberately and tore his eyes away from her wet center and up to meet her wide, embarrassment-filled eyes. "Rest," Bane managed on a choked grumble and yanked the heavy, luxe linen up and around Lena's shoulders.

Bane stalked the perimeter of the pampered travel accommodations that Talia had secured as the shallow, vain and vapid Miranda Tate. He squeezed his eyes shut as he imagined what Talia had done to secure the cargo ship captain.

As Bane turned his attention to the guns he traveled with and tried to occupy his thoughts off of Lena by cleaning titanium barrels and checking the sensitivity of the triggers, up on the bridge, Captain Aleksander Dymtrus frowned down at his satellite phone which again reached an out of service number for Miranda Tate. Aleksander went through every number he had for Miranda and each time reached a disconnected line.

As Aleksander swore lightly and stalked out on the deck to smoke an imported menthol, down in the sleeping quarters of the cargo container, Bane looked up from cleaning his KG-9, which was outfitted with a mesh baffle, when he heard the steady tapping of lacquered, blood-red acrylic fingernails against the doorway which connected the two cargo containers.

Bane paused when his eyes found Talia standing in the doorway with her hands on her hips, wearing even higher heels and a low-cut bra with a matching pair of tiny, black panties.

"What do you want?" Bane asked as he went back to removing old gunpowder from the barrel.

"I'm just here to take your mind off that sleeping cunt over there," Talia said as she gestured over her shoulder in Lena's direction and cackled with glee when fiery anger flashed in Bane's eyes.

"You're not needed," Bane growled mechanically and watched Talia's laughter die as quickly as it was born before she collected herself and sniffed loudly. Bane watched as she pursed her full lips before pulling down her bra cups until her round tits came tumbling out, her fingertips were quick to snatch at her dark nipples and tug at them until they were assertively firm.

Cruelty twisted Talia's features into ugliness. "You think you can exist without me?"

Bane held her furious stare, nodding, under his mask his scarred lips twisted into a smile. "You are no longer necessary, anywhere, certainly not here," Bane grumbled.

Talia narrowed her eyes and dropped her hands from her firm, full tits and began pulling at the waistband of her tiny panties.

"Stop," Bane demanded in an empty tone as Talia began stepping out of the miniscule swatch of stitched lace.

Talia never stopped moving and laughed hard as she was soon naked save for her high heels.

Bane raised his unloaded KG-9 and pointed it at the naked Talia who began stalking towards him, her tits bouncing with each stiletto-clad step.

"Stop," Bane commanded.

Talia raised her hands in the air, mockery staining her words as she stopped when the end of the barrel hovered over her sternum.

"You'll return to me, you'll remember your roots," Talia breathed bitterly and raised her hands to squeeze her full, firm tits.

Bane remained silent as Talia continued to fondle her supple flesh as she nodded again in Lena's sleeping direction. "No one can accept your emptiness, I'm the only home for your darkness," Talia seethed.

Bane flicked the safety of the KG-9 off with the large pad of his thumb as amusement rumbled through his broad chest. "You were never a home; nothing can grow within you."

"She will reject you," Talia huffed. "She will cast you aside," she added as her pink tongue darted out to moisten her full lips, misreading Bane's silence as though he was returning to her after hearing her speak the painful truth.

"What's wrong my friend?" she asked cruelly. "Isn't this what you always wanted?" Talia asked as she bent forward at the waist and licked the end of the titanium barrel before sliding it through her full lips until she was bobbing her head up and down the length of the titanium barrel.

Bane pulled the trigger in rapid succession, there was nothing in the magazine and only a hollow, empty click accompanied each pull.

Bane blinked when Lena gave a strained cry from under the plush bedding in the attached cargo container.

That was all he heard.

Bane shook his head and frowned as found himself alone with his thoughts and KG-9 in hand. He dropped the automatic firearm with a loud thud and was already at the bedside when Lena moaned and struggled upright, pushing messy hair off her sweaty forehead.

Bane kept his detached façade firmly in place when Lena squinted up at him before looking around. "Can I please have some water?" Lena asked before covering a dry cough.

Bane nodded and stiffly poured her a squat glass of purified water. Lena gratefully accepted the tepid water and greedily drained the glass, coughing against the back of her hand every other noisy sip.

Lena and Bane's fingertips bumped against each other as she passed him back the glass. A jolt traveled from the tip of her index finger to her wrist and made Lena feign sudden interest in the obnoxiously pricey bed linen.

Bane let the glass land with a dull thump on the bedside cabinet before he returned all of his attention back to Lena.

"Are you feeling better?" he asked and tugged at the bed linen.

Lena mumbled an agreeable sound as Bane continued to paw at the blankets in search of her damaged thigh. "It's better," Lena said sharply and tried to yank her legs under her bottom.

She couldn't suppress the hiss of pain that the abrupt movement caused.

"It's really fine," Lena insisted as Bane's hands seemed to be everywhere at once as he was on the bed with her before she could blink or speak.

"Stop," Bane barked in frustration as Lena tried to twist away from his seeking hands. He growled lowly, the sound crawling through his broad chest as he yanked the linen off her until his hands landed on her bare skin.

Lena felt the newly knitting skin of her inner thigh pull taut and threaten to burst like a sun-ripened peach if she continued struggling.

Bane let out the breath he'd been holding when Lena relaxed enough for him to cut away the stained bandages and curled edges of paper tape.

Lena stayed rigid as Bane's fingers moved across her skin, cleaning the just beginning to heal wound and applying a layer of fresh absorbent bandages.

Lena flinched when Bane shifted so he could rest his hand on the kneecap of her injured leg. She moved as far back until the headboard stopped her as Bane began to slide his large hand up the inside of her thigh, steadily growing closer to her naked center.

"You asked me a question earlier," Bane murmured musically, the tips of his fingers resting over her pounding femoral artery.

Lena looked up and met Bane's eyes as she nodded slightly.

"Do you remember what you asked me?"

Lena cleared her throat as the heaviness of Bane's palm seared her flesh. "I asked you why you're keeping me alive."

Bane smiled behind his mask and kept Lena hypnotized under his eyes. "Why do you think I'm keeping you alive?" he asked on a musical whisper.

Lena's breathing rate fell to non-existent as she shook her head.

Bane slid his hand down to rest over her bare center, the delicate pink folds that were hiding her tight opening were crushed under his palm.

"This is one reason why," Bane grumbled, longing to slide his fingertips through her wet, intimate folds. He clenched his teeth so hard that his jaw popped as he struggled to keep from fumbling his cock free and sinking inside her tight center.

Lena couldn't find her words and dropped a hand to close around his thick wrist, her brain buzzing with the overstimulation.

As Bane watched Lena try to find her words, caught between too many emotions to immediately process, he kept replaying Talia's words in his head.

"No one can accept your emptiness, I'm the only home for your darkness."

"Stop," Lena managed as she scraped together enough strength to manipulate his index finger, so he had to lift his hand.

"Haven't I kept physical demands at bay, not taken more, despite being entitled to such?"

"Entitled?" Lena scoffed as she tried to pull the luxurious top sheet to cover her exposed femininity.

Bane tugged the linen from her hands as his voice dropped in pitch and his musical murmur sent a shiver from the base of her skull to the tip of her tailbone.

"I took your city, killed the king, the spoils go to the victor."

Bane felt a jolt to his nervous system when Lena narrowed her eyes and pressed her lips together in a firm line, he smiled behind his mask remembering the moment she drew her service revolver on him.

Talia's voice once again encroached, crawling into his ear like a carnivorous multi-legged insect.

"You think you can exist without me?"

Bane's fiery orbs clouded over as Talia's toxic words burned through his ear canal.

"You'll return to me; you'll remember your roots."

Bane narrowed his eyes and felt his fury roil as Talia needled deep into the base of his skull, a place he couldn't reach.

"She will reject you, cast you aside."

Lena's anxiety spiked and then dramatically fell when Bane rose to his full height, his joints popping with the abrupt ascension. Copious adrenaline was dumped from Lena's brain's amygdala, and she found herself struggling to pull the heavy linen over her nudity as Bane stalked to the adjoining cargo container.

Lena stared at the empty doorway long after Bane's rushed exit.

As Lena wiped the corner of the multi-thousand count thread sheet across her sweaty forehead, staining the delicate dry-cleaning only linen, in the attached container Bane paced, clenching his hands in and out of fists. Involuntary feral growls and primordial grunts slipped from between his masked lips as he couldn't get Talia's voice out of his head.

Bane dropped heavily into an antique davenport and closed his eyes.

Any peace he might've hoped to find was quickly quashed when he head Talia chuckling in the practiced, velvet voice of Miss Miranda Tate.

Bane looked up to find Talia squatted in front of him, her lips glossy, inviting. Her full lips were the first thing Bruce Wayne had noticed about her.

"Our house is as one," Talia murmuredas she settled her bejeweled hands on the tops of Bane's knees and started to urge his thighs apart as she licked her lips, a single drop of lipstick-stained saliva fell from her wet mouth and soaked into the fabric of his pants. "What's wrong my friend, isn't this what you always wanted?" Talia purred.

Bane shook his head, "you are but a former shadow of yourself. You reduced yourself to a flesh puppet for the rich," he added cruelly.

Talia sat back on her heels and crossed her arms. "You still want that poorly paid officer with the shiny badge? You think you can make her accept you? You'd best just rut with her, cut her throat and end this useless distraction," she huffed.

"Officer Fischer belongs to me," Bane growled as stood carefully and walked right through Talia.

Bane never looked back to see if Talia's apparition remained as he passed through the doorway that connected the cargo containers. His footsteps were heavy, the pull of the Atlantic tide couldn't match the lust that began to circulate throughout Bane's nervous system. His pupils dilated as he walked back to the lush sleeping quarters to find Lena running her fingers through her tangled hair, pausing when the air seemed to scream when his large form parted it.

The shadows were afraid to encroach upon him and asked his permission to exist as Lena held her breath and stared up at Bane through her fringe of dark eyelashes.

"You belong entirely to me," Bane thought as he paused at the foot of the bed.