Bane rarely experienced troubled sleep, but he had tossed and turned all night long after an unknown woman who was likely part of Kitty's gang subjected him to a musical heckling.
Who told you you're allowed
To rain on my parade
He awoke feeling unwell, and in an ugly disposition that gave even his seasoned second-in-command pause.
"I shall assume this is no wild goose chase, brother," he threatened ominously as they made their way to the place where Barsad had met with the man who said he would give them Kitty. "If you would only find and kill these musical pests, we would not have to negotiate with any of them."
"We're trying, boss. So far they've been pretty slippery. But you know, I believe this guy. He's been traumatized by his relationship with Kitty and he wants revenge."
"It is not about what he wants. It is about what I want," Bane rasped. "He is merely a tool."
"Yea, and we'll handle him in the usual way," Barsad replied, saying what he knew Bane wanted to hear.
As they approached the meeting place, Bane hung back, allowing Barsad to open negotiations.
"Good morning, friend," Barsad said grimly when he found Mateo already waiting.
Mateo didn't reply at first. There was a lump in his throat and a weakness in his knees that nearly overwhelmed him. He was planning to destroy a woman he despised, and there would be no turning back from it.
"So, I took your offer to Bane..." Barsad started to say.
"Let's cut to the chase, shall we? Do we have a deal?" Mateo demanded nervously. "I can give you Kitty! All I want in return is to get off this island so I can go to the audition I told you about. It's for the lead role."
The actor's blood ran cold as he suddenly sensed a dark presence behind him, followed by the chilling sound of enhanced respiration.
Mateo spun to face Bane and instantly shrank away in terror. He had never imagined that Bane would be as big as the giant standing before him now. TV made him look so much smaller.
"It appears you wish to strike a deal with the devil to betray one of your own, Mateo Garcia." The mercenary's unnerving vocals sounded like two pieces of metal scraping together.
"I..." Mateo shivered, wondering how Bane had learned his identity. "Y-yes. Quid pro quo."
Bane's eyebrow rose. "Indeed? And why Katrina? Are you a spurned lover?"
"N-no," the actor sputtered. "She's made my life miserable. I already told your guy here. She abused and embarrassed the hell out of me the whole time we were working on the show. I need a shrink thanks to her. I need my masculinity back."
Bane's brow quivered with curiosity. "A man should take control when a woman tries to get the best of him." At that moment he couldn't help but think of the many times he had circumvented Talia when he disagreed with her. "Are you not a man?"
Mateo's gaze dropped to the ground. "That's not the way it works. She's the star. She's the one selling out shows. If I complain, they'll just tell me to live with it or else another actor would love to take my place!"
Mateo felt every moment of Bane's intense, chocolate-coloured scrutiny, as if the mercenary were gleaning information with x-ray vision.
"In truth, you are delivering Katrina to me to convince yourself that you do not love her," Bane observed. "In fact you despise yourself for loving her."
"That's bullshit." Mateo blustered. "Speak for yourself. After all, you kidnapped her from the theatre and you didn't ask for a ransom!"
"I deemed her the one thing in Gotham worth saving. I was quickly proven wrong," Bane admitted without shame.
"So, we're both on the same page. Look, I can give her to you at a moment when she thinks she's invincible. It'll be curtains for her, a triumph for you, and a wake-up call for the city."
"You theatre people might be the most corrupt of all," Bane growled. "Katrina offered her body in exchange for freedom. Now you offer Katrina in exchange for passage out of Gotham in order to pursue a Broadway role."
In the next moment Mateo found himself pinned up against the wall, feet dangling as Bane choked him.
"We are in business, Mr. Garcia," the mercenary hissed. "The moment you deliver Katrina to me I will have you flown out of Gotham. My lieutenant will coordinate the details with you."
The mercenary released him and Mateo dropped to ground, gasping for air.
Alia had eventually made it back to the apartment where she and her cohorts were hiding out. She had boldly stayed out later than planned, and had sung for a longer time than any of the others had. She was completely unaware of how much she had messed with Bane's mood.
As the group bumped into one another while competing for Detective John Blake's toaster, Brady Castellano was eager to brainstorm.
"As performers, there's only so much we can do to fuck up the mercenaries. What we really need is muscle, and I think I might have an idea where to source it."
"What do you have in mind, Brady?" Alia asked as her slightly burnt toast popped up. "And by the way, where's Mateo?"
"I heard him unzip his sleeping bag and go out at dawn," Kitty replied. "I thought he'd be back by now, especially since it was his idea that we should stick together."
Right on cue, as if he had been listening in the hallway, Mateo burst through the apartment door.
"'Morning all!" He was carrying a super-sized box of five-alarm chicken wings and fries.
"Chicken and fries for breakfast?" Kitty frowned. It was on the tip of her tongue to further criticize his choice - but she was genuinely trying to rein in the negative part of her that increasingly made her feel ashamed of past behaviour.
"Um, sorry," Mateo said as he rubbed his sore neck, still shaken from his earlier encounter with Bane. "It's all I could get, Kitty. Take-out is the only reliable source of food right now. The mercenaries hoard all the good stuff."
"Of course, Mateo. I didn't realize..." Her voice trailed off. "You did your best."
"Glad you're back, 'bro," Brady said as he took the packages from Mateo. "We're talking strategy here."
"Huh?" Mateo mumbled, as if he'd forgotten all about their plans.
Kitty frowned again, sensing that there was something off about him.
"Brady has an idea," she replied. "We're all ears, Brady."
Later that day Mateo and Kitty began preparation for their performance, accompanied by the small keyboard they found in John Blake's office.
"I see this song as like church," Kitty explained. "Except that church is nature - a public park in this case, right? So let's sing it like we're a choir, even though it's just the two of us, worshipping Gotham."
Several times Mateo's train of thought wavered as he found himself staring intently at Kitty, but not always listening to her.
In a few days she would very likely be dead, because he had sold her out to Bane.
"Is there something wrong, Mateo?" Kitty sighed. "If you don't want to sing this song with me, I understand." she said, stumbling over words that didn't come easy to her. "I...I regret that I can't change what I said and did to you in the past, but I want to do better. I will do better. If you'd prefer to sing alone, I'm okay with that. Honestly, you'll kill it!"
The winter sun shone through the office window and illuminated Kitty's face in a way that Mateo had never seen. Free of make-up and other artifice she was blue-eyed, freckled with lustrous black hair that tumbled down her shoulders. He saw no sign of the volcanic temper that frequently dwelled beneath the surface.
Even if Bane were right and he was trying to convince himself that he didn't love her, it was too late. He had made a deal, and to go back on it now would surely mean Bane would kill them both.
Besides, he had to get to the audition in New York City, where he would begin again. Whether he could live with himself after turning Kitty in remained to be seen, but he was willing to take the risk.
"No. No, let's sing it together, Kitty. It's like you said the other day. We make a great team."
Dwarfed between two ultra-modern skyscrapers, the Baxter Mercantile Building was a relic from a bygone era that had somehow been overlooked by redevelopers. The 16-story 1940s era structure hosted a dwindling population of 20 tenants, and still bore some of its original windows despite its age.
It was the building Danny and Brady had chosen for the next performance after scouting around during the hours Bane allowed people out of doors.
They had settled on inconspicuous office space on the 14th floor — a time capsule covered in decades of dust and soot. There were drafting tables, swivel chairs, ancient typewriters and an office door with a frosted window. The business name "Archer and Dean Architects" was barely discernible on the filthy glass. Clearly financial ruin had struck without warning and the office had been shuttered ever since, with no further interest from perspective tenants. Danny and Brady used dry wall scrapers to pry open the windows, preparing it for Mateo and Kitty.
Because they wanted to catch Bane and the mercenaries unaware, the group allowed five days to pass before Kitty and Mateo made their way into the building an hour before Bane's curfew kicked in. They had planned to begin their performance at 2:00 a.m., which was hours away.
Although Kitty was disgusted by the filthy office, she wisely chose to hold her tongue as she and Mateo swept and cleared an area by the windows where they could wait until it was time for them to sing.
At last the scheduled moment arrived.
"I've got butterflies," Kitty confessed. "I just hope we can get through this safely like the others have."
Regret stabbed Mateo in the heart, but he stayed the course.
"We're going to be fine," he assured her.
They sang contemplatively at first, standing side by side as they embarked on their musical stroll through an imaginary park.
Sunday, by the blue purple yellow red water
On the green purple yellow red grass
Let us pass through our perfect park
Pausing on a Sunday
By the cool blue triangular water
On the soft green elliptical grass
As we pass through arrangements of shadows
Toward verticals of trees
Forever
Their voices rose in the the third verse, and Kitty began the approach to her sweet spot, the point where she reached the shattering emotional crescendo for which she was famous.
By the blue purple yellow red water
On the green orange violet mass of the grass
In our perfect park
Made of flecks of light
And dark
And parasols
Ba ba ba ba ba ba
Ba ba ba
Instinctively Mateo knew he was headed for that place as well, and joined hands with Kitty as they reached the higher plain. They locked eyes, smiling as they sang, sensing from the depth of their souls that they were accomplishing something very special.
In that moment Mateo not only forgot that he had betrayed her, but he also forgot that Bane was scheduled to burst in and take her.
People strolling through the trees
Of a small suburban park
On an island in the river
On and ordinary Sunday
Sun — —
A sickening crunch broke their concentration. Mateo's hand trembled and fell away from Kitty's grasp as his body dropped to the floor.
Before Kitty could react, a meaty hand closed over her mouth. Instantly she recognized the scent of leather and gunpowder.
"I have you now!" Bane's cold, metallic voice whispered in her ear as he held her in place with his free arm. "Gaze upon your fallen comrade — for he willingly led me to you."
"Mmmm! Mmmmmm! Mmmm!" Unable to move or scream, Kitty struggled against him, her eyes wide with shock. "Mmm! Mmm!"
"I'm afraid so, my dear. He gave you up in return for passage out of Gotham, to attend an important audition in New York City. I agreed to fly him out of Gotham, however, I neglected to tell him that he would be leaving in a pine box."
"Mmm! Mmm! Mmmmmm! Hmmm...Hmm...Hmm..." Kitty panted until she finally gave in and collapsed in his arms.
Hot rivulets of tears ran between Bane's rough knuckles and over the back of his hand. He couldn't determine whether they were for Mateo or for herself.
He didn't care either way.
"Chain her to me, brother," Bane ordered Barsad, who was lurking nearby. "I shall drag her through the streets of Gotham as an example to all."
"It's the middle of the night," Barsad protested, "And we're under curfew. There's nobody around."
"Alert the media! This will be a sight they will never forget."
Dozens of shocked media people filled the dark streets within moments after Barsad sent the local news networks video of Kitty chained to Bane's wrist as he pulled her through the main doors of the Baxter Mercantile Building.
Among the first to see the news of Kitty's capture were the horrified actors, who had waited up to listen to Mateo and Kitty's song.
"Oh God!" Brady sobbed. "He's got Kitty, he's got Kitty! What's he done with Mateo?"
"Pack up your things! We gotta go, people," Danny ordered. "We gotta get out of here now before Bane forces her to tell us where we are."
"We can't just abandon them!" Brady screamed. "What are you? Some kind of cold-hearted bastard?"
"Danny's right, Brady," Alia insisted as she gripped his arm. "We all knew the risks. We can't help them now, so let's cut our losses and go. We'll be back, okay? We're not done yet. We owe it to them to continue!"
Surrounded by mercenaries, Bane dragged a yelping Kitty for three large city blocks before deciding the media had seen enough, and shoved her into a waiting van that took them back to Daggett's penthouse.
"Cut her loose," he ordered Barsad once they were inside the penthouse's great room. "And leave us! Every last one of you!"
The room emptied and Kitty finally found words.
"Monster." She whispered, with a hoarse voice. Her elbows and knees were scraped from falling several times as Bane dragged her along concrete sidewalks. Her wrists bled where the handcuffs had dug into her skin.
Her accusation wasn't unfounded. Bane had watched Kitty and Mateo's performance from a shadowy corner in the dark, dank office, completely captivated by her. Then the spell was abruptly broken when she smiled at Mateo, took his hand and together they entered a private world where there was just the two of them.
At that precise moment he was overwhelmed by a rage he couldn't control. His chest heaved so violently that he feared he needed medical attention. In a split second he had crushed Mateo's larynx and taken hold of Kitty.
That was the plan all along, but he had never expected jealousy to play a part.
"I am no monster," he croaked. "He betrayed you. Not I."
"I don't believe you!"
"You are so full of yourself that you cannot believe anyone would wish to harm a hair on your precious head. You have left a trail of resentment and bad faith behind you in the course of your career. Garcia came to us seeking vengeance."
"Shut up, shut up!" Kitty yelled, blocking out all suspicions she had about Mateo. "I don't want to hear it any more!"
"Believe it now, or believe it later." Bane rumbled. "It is the truth."
"Do...do you think you humiliated me by dragging me on a chain through the streets? All you did was rile up the city," Kitty seethed. "Mark my words, nothing good will come of what you've done. This is the beginning of the end for you."
Bane examined her with furious eyes, sensing fear.
It was fuel for his stiffening member.
"No one cares about Kitty Nash," he rasped ominously. "Better her than us, the people will say. I will soon round up the rest of your friends."
"Good luck with that," she said as she tossed her tangled hair. "You'll get no help from me."
Much to her shock, the mercenary grabbed Kitty by her bleeding wrist, yanking her face-forward against his warm chest. She was forced to crane her head upwards, where she had no choice but to stare into his fierce, fathomless eyes.
"We shall see about that," Bane spoke lowly. "I am the conductor on this train. I will say when the ride is over."
Author's Note: Thanks for reading! "Sunday" is from the musical "Sunday in the Park With George" by Stephen Sondheim. Feel free to leave a review. :)