"What did you see, what did you hear? For all your gravitas, you certainly can be a dumb animal. She's left you, it was never part of your 'master plan' together, she played you, the little innocent girl, the one with the pleading eyes, the fragile soul, she's GONE, she's left you, and now she's with them, with him, in HIS arms, what, do you think she's still as loyal to you as you've been to her. WAKE UP, Bane, the next time you see her, look into her eyes, look deep, and you tell me who you see. Talia al Ghul, or Miranda Tate, loyal to the Batman to the bitter end?"
He left, the mercenary he'd appointed to head up his control of Gotham. He had seen Talia's interactions with Bruce Wayne, seen but he did not understand. How could he, a pawn? How could he be made familiar with those memories, those motives. No, he did not understand anything he saw in her. She played her part far better than he had given her credit for. She held the knife, and he who knew her so well could see as she entered that chamber, that glint, just for a split second, a miniscule slip of the mask… and there it was. The fire, the fury, the pure torturous intent behind her damsel-in-distress mask. The loathing, the flame was there, and oh, how it burned. How she longed to raise her father's killer to hell, and his precious, filth ridden Gotham along with it.
Bane couldn't help but smirk behind the mask as Talia continued the façade of the quaking, resentful accessory to mass murder. A pretty accessory to be sure, but look deeper into those flashes where only her protector, her best friend, her whole world could see, and then would you catch sight of the orchestrator of this whole operation. And now the clock was ticking, what pretty music to conduct, sweet symphonies to Talia's ears. The doomsday clock in her iron grip.
He couldn't stand it. He'd seen what Talia's father had taught her, amongst interrogation techniques of bodily torture and blackmail, her father had taught her the method that sometimes stabs deepest. Straight through the heart if done correctly, and Talia was an expert. To win a mans heart, to seduce him, lure him into her arms, into her bed where all secrets were laid bare, she had no equal. Bane had seen this in the days they trained together, when they had escaped the pit. She had grown steely, fiery, sharp and beautiful beyond any common rivalry. Still, while Bane knew Bruce Wayne, eccentric billionaire and cripple was moist clay in Talia's hands, ready to be shaped and moulded to do exactly what she wanted, he shuddered at the thought of her in his arms. All the years they had spent together had built up a wall of protection around his increasing soft spot for Talia, and protecting her was his first and foremost responsibility and occupation. In the pit, perhaps, but you know what they say about old habits, and these ones had no intention of dying anytime soon.
The man in the mask fought with himself, the protector and the monster, both fighting with equal vigour, both losing to each other.
The protector shouted down the monster, the heart versus the mask. Sometimes he forgot who he used to be, and without Talia, without his… his everything, his angel, his one true reason for living… the mask, it took over, and now when he looked in the mirror, when the dark night was penetrated by thousands of pinpricks of light, his own form would be reflected back at him, and the mask and the anger were all he could see behind that hulking monster. Until his thoughts wandered to Talia, and sometimes he would see his old self flicker in the glass against Gotham's downfall, fierce eyes full of not anger, but loyalty, protection. Short hair cropped and brown framing a young face. And her by his side. And the memories would begin…
Well, I wanted to create a fic that showed Talia and Bane's relationship in the league of shadows, how Bane protected her in the pit, and it was more of an older brother/ younger sister relationship, to escaping to Ra's al Ghul and becoming more like best friends, until Talia turns into a young woman. Remember, in this fic the age difference is not that vast, and Bane was only around nine or ten when Talia was born. So what i'm saying is that this leaves room for a possible… romantic relationship? Depends, I've done two other fics where they are strictly friends but… I feel like a change of pace.
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