The next morning Brady made his way to Gotham Field, where he had heard most of the players and staff of the Gotham Rogues and the Rapid City Monuments were living in the remains of luxury boxes and underground dressing rooms.
Brady was on the hunt for Jack Shantall, who was the Rogues team doctor and his cousin. It didn't take long to find him. He was a big man with a personality that filled a room.
They met at the foot of the imploded football field, where Jack greeted his cousin with a giant bear hug.
"So glad to see you alive and well, kid. How did you know where to find me?"
"When I couldn't find you at your place, I figured you'd be here. I would have come sooner except we've been kind of busy. The singing you might have been hearing on certain nights? Well, that's me and a few of the cast from our show trying to raise a rebellion in the city. Last night two of us were caught. Bane murdered Mateo Garcia and kidnapped Kitty Nash."
"We all heard it from here," Jack nodded. "It was a very chilling moment when the song just stopped the way it did."
"We're worried sick about her. The terrorists have released security video of Bane half-naked and roughing her up."
"Jesus," Jack grimaced. "I'm sorry, kid. I hope everything turns out okay for her."
"Yea," Brady nodded. "Listen, I came here because I need your help."
"Medical help?"
"I'll just cut to the chase. Look, there are two football teams holed up here who despite everything are probably furious at having been denied the chance to play one of the football season's most pivotal games. That's all thanks to Bane, am I right?"
Jack clenched his fists. "You're damn right they're angry," he said through grit teeth. "They're seething, and they want revenge. They may be plotting something for all I know. They've been pretty hush hush lately."
"If they want revenge, then maybe they're thinking about being heroes. I mean, the players haven't been trained by these Shadow League terrorists, but it's safe to say that most of the terrorists have never played football."
"What are you getting at, Brady?"
"I'm saying that football players know how to take out the opposition without guns and ammunition. Know what I mean?"
Jack's chest expanded. "I'm on it, kid. I'll pass it by both teams and if the guys are up for it, and I think some will be, we'll work on a plan. Come back in two days, and I'll have an answer for you. Meanwhile, you watch yourself."
"Will do. We have our eye on a certain son of a bitch. If your boys come through for us, we're gonna take him down first!"
"Don't mess with Bane, Brady. You'll lose."
"Oh don't worry. We're not going after Bane. We're going after someone far less mythical but equally deserving of having the shit kicked out of him."
"Good morning, brother! I have news to impart to you, but first there's another matter that must be discussed."
Bane signed, eyes narrowing as the morning coffee break he enjoyed in his underground lair was interrupted by Talia's voice sounding above the rush of water.
There had been no plans to meet with her on this day, but there she was, dressed in her Miranda Tate finery. Her silk blouse and skirt were complimented by a scarf and heels.
"I wish I could offer my congratulations for your actions at Daggett's townhouse yesterday, however I cannot. Your assault of Kitty Nash under the watchful eyes of your security cameras was a genius strategy, until you dropped the ball."
"I anticipated your disapproval," Bane rumbled nonchalantly as he rose from his seat. "Do go on!"
"Very well! Imagine the horror if all of Gotham could have watched you mercilessly violate a naked Kitty Nash in Daggett's guest suite. It might have plunged the people into absolute despair. We need them in despair until the end. There is too much restlessness and enthusiasm in the streets what with these theatrical performers that you have allowed to get out of hand. I've told you many times that you are too prudish and too much of a gentleman, and I'm worried that it's holding you back from becoming the man you were truly meant to be. You did not violate your stage door slut, but only wanted Gotham to believe you did!"
Bane frowned as he gathered his thoughts in order to convincingly reply to the daughter of Ra's al Ghul.
"I did not violate Katrina Nash," he readily admitted. "I had her in the palm of my hand as she grieved for her fallen colleague, Mateo Garcia. When I demanded that she tell me where to find her other colleagues, she refused. I then suggested that if she did not tell me I would pin her down and take her to hell and back, a process that she was welcome to enjoy."
"Good, brother! How is it that you failed, then?"
"I did not fail," Bane said without shame. "Katrina can be quite tawdry, thus she welcomed my threats. I intend to thoroughly break her, but I need her at an extremely low point before I begin. I thought I had control of her yesterday whilst she grieved for Mr. Garcia, but she rebounded. She is not to be underestimated."
"You should never have given the security video to the media. Without sex there's nothing particularly shocking about it, and it puts us in a position of weakness."
"On the contrary, my dear. It is a taste of what they should expect in the coming days," Bane assured her. "I am just getting started. I will break her little by little, day by day. I will show the people every sordid detail as recorded by the security cameras."
"Fine," Talia said dismissively. "Release the sexual savagery we both know lurks within, and do your work."
"You said you had news..." he rumbled, putting and end to the insipid conversation.
"I do. You must prepare yourself, brother. I've made a radical decision."
"Radical?" He warbled from behind the mask as his spine began to tingle.
"My father was a refined man but the punishment he devised for Gotham proved to be very inelegant. A plan to poison the water supply with the Scarecrow's fear toxin is the action of a man lacking in vision. What happens to nearby communities who are innocent of Gotham's crimes? Why should they suffer poisonous lands because of his broad strokes?"
"I do not follow you," Bane replied. "His were the actions of a man who led by example. He struck while the iron was hot, without concern for collateral damage!"
"Collateral damage is messy and crude. It's bad business no matter whose theory you subscribe to. I will honour my father and finish his work, but going forward I will do things my way."
"What do you mean by 'going forward'," Bane demanded. "This is to be our last mission."
"I'm afraid not. There is another. Gotham is mine, my friend, and I've decided to remake it in my image. That is to say, I intend to remake it in Miranda's image."
"You are talking nonsense!" Bane's brow furrowed as he cracked his knuckles.
"I never expected it to happen to such a disciplined soldier such as myself, Bane. However, I find that I rather enjoy being Miranda Tate. I enjoy her business connections, her friends, and her wealth. Indeed, brother, I am so comfortable in her world that I feel I was born to it."
"You were born in prison! If you are serious about this, then Gotham has made you soft and foolish!" Bane raged.
"The truth is that my father Ra's al Ghul was a fraud and a hypocrite," Talia continued, unconcerned by Bane's reaction. "He levelled civilizations when he deigned them corrupt, but where was his punishment for deploying toxins that poison the environment? He was feared and hated throughout his life for his methods. Now, history has began to judge him harshly, as it should."
Talia paused dramatically and tossed Miranda's mahogany waves off to one shoulder.
"As for me, I've decided that I don't want to be hated," she continued in a soft whisper. "I want to be loved, as Miranda is, and I want to know what it's like to build a city instead of destroying one."
"I can hardly believe what I'm hearing." Bane's mask wheezed erratically. You made this life-changing decision, and you never once consulted me."
"I truly regret that, brother. But wait until you see my shiny new city. The streets will be clean and homelessness will not exist. Good government will abound. Infrastructure will be rebuilt to the highest standards. There will be free clean energy for an entire city, and rent controls. Arkham Asylum will be demolished. Crime will be non-existent, and there will be no place for scarecrows and clowns."
A lump formed in Bane's throat as an unfamiliar feeling overwhelmed him. For the first time in his life he felt untethered. He had been so blind-sided that he barely noticed that he'd taken a seat on a nearby bench, staring at but not seeing the cold concrete floor.
"If there is no place for Scarecrow and the Clown, there is no place for me," he reasoned with a hollow tone. "I am a born killer. I would shrivel up and die without the opportunities the League has given me. I cannot pursue them within the confines of your new city."
"Let's not concern ourselves with specifics just yet," Talia said as she stood over him, caressing his bowed bald head. "Just remember that wherever I go, you go, brother. It has been that way since the day you chose to become my protector."
Bane nodded, his expression bleak. "You said you were going to finish your father's work your way. How?"
"It will be necessary to disarm the bomb. I will enlist Mr. Fox to reconnect it to the reactor, or flood it. Miranda will not die in a bomb blast. She will be reborn as a tenacious leader who never gave up hope that the bomb could be disarmed. Miranda will the hero of Gotham that Bruce never could."
"This bomb was the crown jewel of our plan. Have you really thought this through? So much time and millions of dollars have gone into the West African coup, bringing Dr. Pavel into custody, and the laying of explosives."
"I know, my friend, but my father was wrong. We were to punish Gotham by destroying it, yet how can the city and its people endure that punishment if they are all dead? Gotham is a war zone now. The people will continue to live in fear of death until the last moment, when the bomb will be disabled. Psychologically they will be scarred for the rest of their days. That is an acceptable punishment in my estimation."
Bane's fingers twitched as he took the stairs up to Daggett's penthouse. Inside he found Barsad and Vlad enjoying scrambled eggs as they watched cartoons.
"Get out," he snarled. "All of you!"
Barsad glanced at Bane with some concern, recognizing that he was in a state about something. He had rarely seen his brother in such a wild mood.
"Alright, everybody out!" Barsad shouted. "You guys on the second floor. Out!"
As the townhouse emptied, Bane made his way down the hall to the guest suite, not really looking where he was going. His stomach was tied up in knots. He couldn't remember ever feeling so excluded and rejected.
He could count the times on one hand when he'd fought back tears, but when he had done so, the situation always involved Talia.
Bane caught his breath as Kitty Nash appeared from behind the door of the guest suite.
"You want me to leave as well?" She asked playfully. "I'm your prisoner, remember?"
Almost immediately she sensed something was amiss.
"What's wrong?" she frowned as she noticed the unshed tears hovering in his dark chocolate eyes. "You're hurting! Did Lady MacBeth hurt you?"
For an answer Bane pushed her inside the suite and closed the door behind him, drinking in the sight of her raven hair, brilliant blue eyes and the toned legs beneath the long hem of her plaid shirt.
Yes, he was hurting, and at that moment Kitty Nash was the perfect antidote to his unhappiness.
He shoved the barrel of his rifle into the security camera's protective globe and smashed its contents.
When he was done, Kitty cautiously took the rifle from his hand and set it aside.
"Show me where she hurt you. Was it here?" she whispered as she placed the palm of her hand on Bane's heart.
Bane said nothing as his chest heaved beneath her touch. He was strangely comforted by her perceptive words.
"I can be a handful sometimes, but I'm a good listener in moments like these," she insisted as she removed his shearling coat. "You don't even have to talk about it if you don't want to. There are other things we can do besides talk. To make you feel better, I mean."
Blood coursed through Bane's member like nothing he'd ever experienced since his youth. Instinctively he reached out with his coarse fingertips and slid them upwards along Kitty's warm, naked thigh.
"Will this do for a start?" He weezed.
Author's Note: Happy summer everyone! I'm so sorry for the long delay in getting this chapter posted. I hope you enjoy.