The Bane of Our Existence [The Dark Knight Rises]

24: He'll Destroy You

"Tell me," Bría said as the sat on the private plane that was flying them to wherever Bane's home, or prison, was. "Tell me about the League of Shadows. Tell me about Bruce Wayne."

Bane was sitting across from her, his bulky stature taking up the majority of the space between them. Even with the extra room that private jets offered, Bane was still too large for it. His feet would have touched hers, but she had hers tucked underneath of her body, the seatbelt long since removed as they were mid-flight.

Bane glanced across at her, studying her; he felt inclined to tell her everything, including everything about Talia al Ghul. Conflicted was the only way to describe how he felt, conflicted about how he could love Talia and how he could love Bría. It was a different sort of love, he knew that, but to accept such an emotion was out of his nature. A long time ago he had saved Talia from the horrors that her mother endured, and suffered more than any man had before him in that prison. Bane loved Talia like one would love a sister, with an instinctual need to protect her, even though he knew he no longer needed to.

He loved Bría in a way that was so different, different from what he knew, different from what he could understand. He could not tell her. Even though Bría was standing beside him after all the evil he had done before her, and this proved that she was both loyal and had a darkness inside of her not unlike the one inside of himself, there was a danger to loving someone. Especially when Gotham would be nothing more than ashes in four to five months, and she would be dead like the rest of them.

Admitting that he loved her would mean admitting that he did not want her dead.

Admitting that would, he was sure, open a part of him that would want to get her out of all of this. Perhaps there was still time, but he also knew that Bría had already made her choice was had no interest in leaving his side for her own safety.

And so, Bane was conflicted.

"Bruce said you were excommunicated, is this true?" Bría asked when Bane said nothing, lost in his own thoughts.

"Yes," Bane answered. "Until Ra's al Ghul's death."

"And then you became the leader of the League of Shadows?"

He more or less nodded.

"Why didn't you kill him?" She asked.

"A swift death is to simple for such a complicated man like Mr. Wayne," Bane explained. "He does not fear death, he needs to understand what it is to feel fear, to suffer as the rest of us have."

"Does anything scare you?" Bría asked.

"Yes," Bane answered, but did not continue.

Bría had a choppy sleep for the rest of the flight until they landed, and found herself surprised at the desert wasteland. Men carried an unconscious Bruce Wayne out of the plane, and then he was carefully attached to a basic rope, then lowered into what could only be described as a gaping hole in the Earth, a Pit.

Bría realized where she was, this was Bane's home, the Pit where he had been beaten nearly to death. "What is this place?" she asked him.

"My home," he said, then tossed down a rope ladder. It was at least one hundred feet down, but the heights didn't frighten Bría. They climbed down in silence, and she could feel eyes all on her. The moment she landed, a man in what she could only describe as prison garb stepped forward. One of Bane's many men who had come with them rose his gun and pointed it at him.

"Go back to your cells," Bane told them, and to Bría's surprise, they obeyed.

Once inside a cell where Bruce Wayne was placed, Bane pulled up a chair and waited for him to wake. Bría leaned against the cell bars, looking around at the people. There was a blind man in the cell next to her, and he looked both afraid and ready for death. She wondered how this place carried on, how it was possible for such a place to exist.

Then Bruce Wayne began to stir, seeing only Bane in his vision. He whispered something so quiet that Bría had to strain to hear him. "Why don't... you just... kill me?"

"You don't fear death," Bane told him. "You welcome it. Your punishment must be more severe."

"Torture?" he asked.

"Yes," Bane admitted. "But not of your body. Of your soul."

"Where am I?"

"Home," Bane said, then stood up to overlook this place. "Where I learned the truce about despair. As will you. There's a reason why this prison is the worst hell one earth; hope. Every man who has rotted here over the centuries has looked up to the light and imagined climbing to freedom. So easy. So simple. And, like shipwrecked men turning to sea water from uncontrollable thirst, many have died trying. I learned here that there can be no true despair without hope. So as I terrorize Gotham, I will feed its people hope to poison their souls. I will let them believe that they can survive, so that you can watch them clamber over each other to stay in the sun."

Bane sat back down on the cot.

"You could watch me torture an entire city. And then, when you have truly understood the depths of your failure, we will fulfill Ra's Al Ghul's destiny. We will destroy Gotham. And then, when it is done, when Gotham is ashes, then you have my permission to die."

Bane pressed down on Bruce's chest, making him cry out in pure agony. Bría winced, for she had seen many people with broken spinal columns, vertebrae protruding out of their backs like some caricature, overexposed and unsightly. She looked down, and then she felt eyes on her. They were not, however, Bane's eyes, but Bruce Wayne's.

"Why?" he asked after he'd stopped panting in pain. "Why help him?"

"He's given me purpose," she replied quickly, feeling Bane's eyes on her now. Something inside of her twisted, it felt so good.

"He'll... destroy Gotham..." Bruce managed, "He'll destroy... you."

"Gotham destroyed me a long time ago," she replied. "Gotham made me what I am today."

Bruce said something, but she did not hear it. She didn't need to, for her choice could not be changed by anything, by anyone. Bane saw this, and stepped over to her, his hand on the small of her back as he guided her almost lovingly out of the cell, then shut the door behind him. It was a show of power between men, Bane had proven that people would flock to him when he offered them purpose, to take back what they believed was theirs, that the good citizens of Gotham would embrace their darkest of natures. 

If anyone doesn't know, the GIF of Gemma Arterton in this chapter is from Byzantium. If you're into great vampire movies that break the norm and expectation, Byzantium is for you! It was excellent.