Chapter 58 Chapter 58 [VIP]

Megan met Bane again one Saturday. He had escaped from Arkham Asylum and eventually returned there.

But he stayed in the narrow cell, meditating and thinking deeply, his thoughts traveled thousands of miles, and his soul was cleansed from the inside out, which made him calm.

Bane is undoubtedly a big guy. Even without the enhancement of venom, his height reaches 2.15 meters. Only a few monsters in Arkham with obviously inhuman appearance can be taller than him.

However, he is not easily angered and has the strong will of an ascetic. He insists on reading, acquiring knowledge, and constantly strengthening his mind.

However, after walking out of the cell, he ran into Megan. Bane knew about her "course" in Arkham. Many mentally ill criminals showed her tolerance and kindness. As the Joker's possession, her situation was getting better and better...

He had keenly noticed her problems, so he was more aware of her transformation.

——Last year, she was still longing for death, wanting to escape from the unbearable fear and pain, but in some details, she almost never looked at people, and her raised eyes had no focus.

Now he saw Megan looking at him seriously. She looked more lively and had her own little personality. She grabbed the ends of her two braids and curled them to the sides. When she looked at him again, there was still no fear in her.

Megan recognized her friend and walked up to him with bigger strides. Without saying a word, she just raised one hand with her palm facing him, not knowing what she was going to do.

Megan wore a satisfied expression as Bane calmly leaned over and 'high-fived' her, and when Bane tried to withdraw his hand, her raised hand turned into a grasping gesture, and he did not refuse.

But the huge height difference between them did not allow the two to walk hand in hand. Bane picked up the child. Even though he hadn't seen her for a long time, he could still tell that she had grown taller and a little heavier, proving that she was growing up well and was not being treated harshly in life.

Megan: "Bain."

He: "Yeah." He was not surprised that Megan could speak now. He could judge the realm of her spirit, saw the vibrant and expanding boundary line, and knew that she had come to this vast world.

There weren't many places in Arkham where they could freely enter, so Bane took her to the library, which was a vast sea of ​​books. He stood in front of the bookshelves, looking up at the upper floors and even higher.

Books carry knowledge, and knowledge can broaden a person's spiritual vision and bring them from a small body and a good or bad environment to a vast and fertile land. People can only survive if their spirit is rich. Once the spirit begins to dry up and disappear, it proves that his soul is dying.

Megan was left alone by him. She didn't want to read on the weekend, so she wandered around.

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There was an open space outside the library surrounded by greenery. Megan was too familiar with this place and did not go close to look at the plants. A small child was sitting on the steps, with her elbows on her legs and her cheeks in her hands. She looked cute. Bain followed and sat next to her, but his posture was straight.

Megan had nothing to say, and neither did Bane, though it was clear he was thinking about something...

Bane only spent half a day with her before leaving, but on Sunday, Megan found him outside his cell door. She would still knock on the door, but with little force and the sound was very small.

He opened the door for her without asking what she was doing there, and let Megan visit his cell, which was poorly decorated only because he was not materialistic. Bane's ideal was to conquer Gotham, but that did not mean he was doing it for profit or status. What he pursued was his own inner satisfaction.

Just because of that dream he once had, he told himself that he was destined to become the king of kings, and when this place became the promised land of his dreams, he should do it.

He waited until Megan had looked around before asking, "Are you still going to stay where you were yesterday?"

As an adult, and as a person of the opposite sex, you shouldn't bring a little girl into your cell and close the door. All the criminals in Arkham don't do that, including Scarecrow and Killer Croc who teach her. Their classes are held in the library.

As for the Joker? That's her dad.

Megan tilted her head, perhaps thinking for a moment before slowly nodding. Because she didn't stretch out her hand today, Bain didn't pick her up. She walked on the road with her short legs, and Bain accommodated her pace and didn't walk fast.

If he had walked a distance before waiting for Megan to catch up during their previous encounter in Arkham, now he was much more approachable, and the difference was probably...

At that time, Megan didn't have her own self. Even if she was not respected, she didn't know and Bain didn't think it was a big deal. But now it's different. He respects this weak soul who has walked out of the barriers and dared to face the world.

Some may think it is insignificant, but to Bain, it is her journey.

They slowly came to the open space outside the library again. Megan went to play by herself. She picked up a small stick from the grass, then squatted beside the flower bed and poked around with the stick.

When she noticed the spiders and bugs coming out, she dropped the stick and ran away.

Megan passed by Bain, who was standing there, and was about to look for a new toy when she heard him say in a low voice: "I once had a stuffed bear."

She stopped.

Bain looked into her eyes and asked, "Do you like bears too?"

He originally wanted to say something to her, but at this moment, he saw in the eyes of this young child... She seemed to have connected to a fragmented fragment in her subconscious through his words, but she could not break free from that layer of bondage, unable to break through the solid barrier.

He saw the throbbing of her soul, of what she had once possessed in that distant past, before she had given birth to me, before she had perhaps met the Joker.

But they are all gone, not even the memory is left. All the water has flowed away from her body and soul. Long ago, pain replaced them.

If the clown hadn't taken her away, revived her, and allowed her weak self to be reborn, perhaps the past and the traces left behind would have disappeared with the passing of her life, but now it seems that they can still be recovered.

Bane watched as tears welled up in her eyes. He had initially judged her to be emotionless, but just like the time he had seen her cry before...

As long as the key words are touched, even if she is not aware of it, her physiology will give the most instinctive response on behalf of her numb and weak soul.

Even if she hasn't figured everything out yet, as long as she lives well, her soul will give her the answer in the future.

Meghan didn’t understand what the water on her face was before. She only felt that when it fell, her nose was sore and blocked, and she felt a little uncomfortable. It was only a moment for her to break through the shackles, but she also understood something, and suddenly said: "Tears."

So she cried?

But she couldn't figure out why she was crying. The flow of tears slowed down and she just wanted to wipe them away. When she raised her hand, Bain took out a tissue from his breast pocket, bent down and carefully wiped her cheek.

Even though Bane grew up in prison and was born a 'guilty man', after escaping from that prison, he caused chaos in Gotham and brutally broke Batman's spine, but he still has the empathy of a human being, pity the weak, and retains a little kindness for their existence.

Megan's cheeks were wiped carefully. She was still unclear about herself and forgot what she had just felt in an instant. She just opened her eyes wide and looked up at Bain.

Bain didn't ask her to do anything, after all, she was not his responsibility. Besides, asking her too urgently was not good, as it would damage her spirit and self-esteem and cause harm to her.

Bane didn't speak to her immediately, but sat down again on the steps where they had sat yesterday.

They sat side by side. Bane was so tall that it was difficult for Megan to look at him sideways when she sat next to him, but their conversation did not require her to look at him.

There was no need to make micro-expressions or psychological analysis of him, and Megan's gazes usually contained no meaning and were meaningless.

He said: "That was the only toy I had until I was six years old. My mother gave it to me."

"Penaduro, where I was born, is an isolated island with only prison guards and prisoners. There are sharks in the sea around it. No one can swim out of here, let alone grow wings and fly away."

…

So what does that stuffed bear mean to him?

Did it mean the only thing he had? Did it mean the love and protection he had received from his mother before he was six? Did it mean that he was a weakling who loved stuffed dolls?

Maybe the first two were true, but his experience with the third proved otherwise, and when he left Pena Duro, he had thrown the bear cub out of the helicopter, and it was buried on the seabed.

But once he settles down, he will find a new stuffed bear. Perhaps it is not that it keeps coming back, but that Bane himself has never thrown it out of his soul. It is always there, accompanying him in his childhood, lonely adolescence, youth when he was acquiring knowledge and conquering prisoners... until now.

So what does he want to say to Meghan?

Bain calmly recounted those unknown experiences and turned his head to look at Megan, who continued to hold her cheeks. Because she was bent over, her expression could not be seen, and only the whorl of hair on her fluffy head could be seen.

He showed a small smile on his face, "Life is very tenacious."

“As long as you can overcome the biggest setback, nothing else can hold you back. Instead, it will guide you and take you to where you are destined to go.”

Bain placed his large hand on top of her head and said to Megan, who tried to look up, "And you've gotten over that setback."

So all Megan needs is time. Everything she doesn't understand and what she has lost are waiting for her ahead, and she will eventually arrive.

The author has something to say:

Bane's empathy can be referenced from a comic whose name I forgot (you). It's probably about him being defeated by Batman, reflecting on himself and making a comeback, and even taking a baby as a hostage, but in the end he handed the baby over to Batman (and told him to get out)

I don’t remember it very clearly, after all, I saw it in 2019, and I couldn’t find it when I looked for it.

Without whitewashing it, it is Schrödinger's empathy.