Author's Note:
This chapter has been updated in my attempts to correct errors and make the story more cohesive. The rest of this author's note is the original text. Thanks to all of you for reading!
I want to thank everyone for all your lovely reviews! It is so exciting to see that you are all enjoying reading my story as much as I am enjoying writing it! And so I bring you another chapter, and I hope that I will be able to get you another chapter in the next 24 hours. Keep your fingers crossed, and review so that I have that extra motivation!
Please be aware that this chapter is pretty dark, so tread with caution. Enjoy!
I do not own any of the Nolan characters used in this story; I only own my original characters and ideas. I am not making any money from this story.
Chapter Three – Black Balloon
You know the lies they always told you, And the love you never knew, What's the things they never showed you, That swallow the light from the sun, Inside your room, yeah
-Goo Goo Dolls
As soon as Tiana had seen the gloating look on Dr. DeAngelo's face she knew that this was going to be a bad day. They had something new in store for her. It was rare that they would collect her this many days in a row, and even less common that they would change her treatment plan so quickly. She knew that they were making up for lost time and could only figure that someone had come up with a special new plan for her. She also figured that they were somewhat less than pleased that both she and Bane had survived the night, seemingly unscathed. She had looked back at Bane with a feeling of despair that she hadn't felt in years. She could only hope that they would make due with her suffering for some time, he needed to gain his strength first.
The guards had led her down the noisy corridors and into a wing of the asylum that she was unfamiliar with. She was led into a room that looked oddly like a hospital operating room, with a single table/bed in the middle and shelves and tables littered with random items. Most of which did not look as though they would belong in an operating room. The thing that made the bed different was the fact that it was slightly wider than usual and had a multitude of leather straps hanging from it.
"Now be a good girl and take your medicine." DeAngelo sounded practically giddy as he spoke. He took Tiana's arm, after her cuffs had been removed, and led her toward the bed in the middle of the room, giving her a handful of multi-colored pills and a small plastic glass filled with a very unpleasant looking green liquid when they reached the bedside. "I think you'll be pleased to hear that we have had some new ideas for your treatment, and we will be starting a new round of medications and therapies today. Now isn't that exciting?"
Tiana threw the pills down her throat and chased them with the glass full of what tasted like a combination of swamp slime and fire. After she was finished she handed the empty glass back to the doctor and lithely jumped onto the bed. "Shall we begin?" Her warm voice was empty of emotion and she held her face completely still, in spite of the effects that she was already feeling from the medication they had just given her.
The assisting doctor, Dr. Phillmont spoke up then, with his high nasally voice, "Just lie back miss, we will begin shortly." Tiana did as she was instructed, and didn't even flinch as the straps began tightening all around her; she merely looked inquisitively at Phillmont. "We only need these to make sure you don't hurt yourself." She just nodded her understanding to the younger doctor and closed her eyes, attempting to prepare for the madness that she knew was soon to come. She had recognized two of the pills out of the handful she had just swallowed and she knew that one was the pill that sensitized her pain receptors, and the other was a synthetic substitute of Dr. Crane's mind bending toxin. Tiana took a moment to wonder why they bothered to give her that toxin anymore; they had to know that it didn't affect her in the same way that it did their other patients. She had no idea what the other four pills, or the liquid had been, but she was certain that she was in for one mind bending ride.
What she hadn't expected was the physical side of this session. As her mind slowly began seeing things that didn't exist and distorting the things that did, she watched as the doctors prepared for a shock treatment. That did not surprise her at all, what did, was the fact that they were also preparing scalpels. To her drug addled mind they looked more like giant medieval swords, but she was able to control her fear and rationalize with herself. She took a few deep and calming breaths, reminding herself that she could endure whatever they planned for her. She had no intention of giving them what they wanted, and she had a new purpose ahead of her.
She knew that she had drifted off for a few moments, losing herself in the shadows in her own mind, but she was abruptly brought back to the real world when she felt a searing pain on the left side of her neck. Her eyes flew back open and she found herself looking up at masked face only inches above her own. For a moment she could see the metal, spider like claws over the man's face, but that soon faded and she simply saw a plain, blue surgeon's mask and the cold eyes of Dr. DeAngelo. "I have exposed a small section of your muscle here. This muscle has a near direct connection to the brain, and therefore we have determined that it will be the best place to attach the electrode to stimulate your neurons. I apologize for the fact that you have to be conscious for this, but we really must watch exactly how you react…" She could see the glint of mad joy in his eye, and knew that he wasn't sorry for a thing.
Tiana had drifted in and out of reality while they had repeatedly shocked her exposed muscle. Her session had gone on for several hours past its normal length, but she had never weakened, never faltered. She had not spoken a word of complaint; she had said nothing about herself, just as she had been doing for the last ten years of her life. She had not exposed any of the secrets that she was so aware of in her new cell mate. She had even managed to torment her tormentors right back when she had quietly whispered her thanks for their attempts to right her twisted mind. The look of hate that flashed from DeAngelo's eyes almost made the pain worth it. Almost.
Her mind was still very deeply affected by the drugs that she had been given and she could only hope that Bane would have the good sense to stay away from her when she got back to her cell. She was handcuffed and marched back out of the cold and frightening hospital room, leaving the monsters that inhabited the place behind. As she passed the cells in the different wards she noticed the distinct changes of the sounds the prisoners made. In Ward C the talk was often odd, but mostly it was made of complete sentences at least. When she reached Ward D she could recognize the more demented nature of the talk she could hear, that and the random laughter and tears. Once she reached the ward that housed the worst of the worst, her home, the sounds had changed completely. It was actually rather quiet comparatively, hushed talking was the norm, but there was also a rather large amount of maniacal laughter thrown in for good measure. These were the sounds she had lived with for her entire adult life, and when she walked in it felt like home.
They reached the door to her cell moments later and she fought to control her mind for fear of what she might do if she was not in control. The door opened before her and it seemed as though it was in slow motion. She felt as if she was moving through a thick gelatinous fog as she made her way into the cell and watched her cuffs being removed. When she felt the wind generated by the door closing behind her she took a tentative step toward her little window seat, but suddenly felt incredibly exhausted, like it just wasn't worth the energy that it would take to walk the few steps to her safe heaven. So, instead she gracefully dropped to the floor, sitting with her knees in front of her and her feet beneath her.
She knew that Bane was standing only a few feet away from her. She could hear his strained breathing; she could almost even hear his heartbeat in the silence that reverberated in her skull. She wanted to look at him, assess if there was a threat to her safety in his eyes, but instead she just closed her eyes. Unwilling and unable to deal with any more input at that moment.
When the girl had reentered the cell Bane had been shocked to see her condition. She walked like someone in a dream, and the eyes that had seemed to blaze earlier that day were now hollow and glassy. Her skin was a sickly green color, but with the blue that comes from lack of oxygen haloing her full lips. The grey of her shirt was mottled with bright red blood and more blood sluggishly flowed from a four inch long gash that ran down her neck. As he watched her, she slowly sunk to the floor and closed her eyes.
While he was not a man to feel much pity or concern for the suffering of others - especially those that he didn't even know - he was strangely drawn to aid the girl before him. In the condition that she was in at that moment she looked like nothing but a small and broken child, a little girl in need of help. He had always had a protective instinct, and that instinct had been nurtured by his love of Talia, but this girl was not his Talia, and so he held back for several minutes, finally resuming his slow pacing of the cell. He managed to complete six passes of the room before he could no longer stand looking at the broken girl in front of him.
He walked slowly to her side and deliberately reached down to touch her shoulder. In a movement that was too fast for him to even see, the girl vaulted off the floor and onto his back – which roared in pain at the extra weight, in spite of how little it was - and wrapped her small hands tightly around his neck. He felt her over-hot breath against his exposed cheek as her smooth voice whispered into his ear, "Stop." And then she was gone from his back, and in fact seemed to be gone from the room for a moment. His body was in overload, screaming out from the pain that it was now feeling and the exhaustion from the lack of sleep he had gotten in the last several days. He was also perturbed to notice that his body strangely felt as if something was missing when the warmth of her body was removed.
Bane turned to look for the girl that had so suddenly outmaneuvered him, and at first he didn't see her anywhere, and then, there she was in the window again. The lights outside the asylum were only bright enough to show her silhouette, but he was taken by how strong she suddenly looked. But as he watched her, trying to decide what his next move should be, he saw her strong and powerful exterior crumble. One second she was sitting straight up and calmly breathing, and the next she was curled in on herself hardly able to stop herself from hyperventilating.
He took a slow step forward and when nothing changed he continued to move toward the girl in the window. When he reached her side he reached his hand out toward her once again. His movements were excruciatingly slow and he had to wonder if the additional pain it was causing him could possibly be worth it. And then his hand reached her shaking knee and he ever so gently touched her. Her flesh seemed to vibrate under his hand, and he was reminded of a small and broken rabbit that he had once found in the woods. It had quivered under his hand just like she did then. He only hoped that the girl before him didn't meet the same end that the rabbit had in his hands. The rabbit had been beyond any hope of survival and after he had soothingly petted the soft fur, he snapped its neck like a twig… and then he had eaten it for dinner.
He looked up into the green eyes of the girl and was pleased to see a small fire returning to their depths. As he looked into her eyes he was once again confused – a feeling he loathed – just seconds before she had looked like a child and now he thought that her eyes must belong to an old woman. He finally tore his eyes from hers and breathed out a question, "Do you have a name, Little One?"
Her eyes widened at the sound of his voice, but the fire deepened and he felt heartened by the reaction. She straightened her body a bit and took a deep, calming breath. When she spoke her voice was shaky, but it still sounded like sweet honey to his ears, "Yes… my name is Tiana."
Bane felt the oddest sense of recognition at the name and racked his mind to remember when he had heard it before, but finally decided it was just a name that was similar to others he had heard. Similar to the name of the women he loved. But even after he made that decision the name still tugged at his mind, nagging for him to remember. He shook his head and looked back up at Tiana's neck, which was still bleeding slightly. When he spoke his voice still annoyed him, its weakness was disgusting to him and the way that it betrayed his pain brought a tickling of fear, but he spoke yet again to the girl/woman before him. "Let's get you cleaned up…. Ti… Little One."
Bane sat in the same place that he had spent the previous night, watching Tiana's slow and even breathe as she slept on the cot. She had only been asleep for a short time, and he mainly watched to make sure that she wasn't going to reawaken. He had helped her out of her window seat and cautiously led her to the bed. She hadn't fought him as he tore a small corner from the sheet and wet it with the trickle of water from the sink. He had been surprised when she didn't even flinch as he washed the drying blood from her neck and cleaned her wound. Her eyes only stared at something at the other side of the room, and she had tried to breathe through the pain he knew he was causing her.
They hadn't spoken a word and he was thankful that he hadn't been forced to push words through his stinging throat. As he sat on the cold concrete he couldn't shake the feeling that he was missing something. He racked his mind trying to find what was escaping him, but he was unable to find it, in spite of the knowledge that it was something very important. His eyes traveled back to the sleeping form before him and slowly he drifted off with the sound of her soft breathing in his ear.
The little girl spun out of the grasp of the large man that had grabbed her shoulder. Using the man's own strength as leverage, she flew in an arc around his body, planting three solid kicks on her way. The first kick struck his lower back; the second hit the man squarely in the side of his face – rocking him to the side – and the final kick hit him hard in the stomach. He fell hard to the ground and the small girl turned to look at the tall, thin man that had been watching the match. She hoped that his eyes would hold some pride, or at least a glimmer of happiness, but instead she found nothing but the arctic cold that they always held. Her small heart fell and she dropped her eyes, waiting for the harsh commentary that she knew was coming.
The man's voice was rich, but frosty as he addressed the child, "You nearly allowed yourself to be taken down. You must never allow an adversary to get the upper hand. All of your battles must be won. You do not have the luxury of defeat. Again. This time with two." The man gestured his hand and two fresh fighters stepped up to take on the small child.
The girl looked warily at her new adversaries. One was a smaller man that she knew to be fast and ruthless. The other was only of average height, still more than twice her height however, and she knew that he tended to be brutal in his attacks. She suddenly raced toward the larger man, her hands reaching out in front of her like claws. She grabbed his shirt and scrambled up his front, her small fingers finding purchase on his firm body. The man grabbed her around her narrow waist, but she ignored the discomfort and wrapped her fingers around his ears, digging her thumbs into his tender eyes. As he began to release her from the pain, she used his head as a pivot and firmly kicked his left temple, landing softly on the ground as the man toppled down.
She took a quick breath, scanning the area for her other opponent, but was abruptly rocketed off the ground by a hard kick to her ribs. She flew several feet and lay gasping for a second, trying to scramble away from the fast little man, but he was above her before she could move more than a foot and she saw his fist fly down at her sweet young face. And then her head felt like it was being blown apart and all sound seemed to come from far away. She could feel blackness closing in around her and welcomed it.
The black eyes of her opponent were replaced by those cold blue eyes that never held any love for her, and she fought to hear what he said to her. His voice biting at her like a winter wind, "You are a worthless daughter, Tiana." A single tear rolled down her five year old cheek and then the blackness closed around her.