Chapter 1

"Bane. Bane."

He forced himself to focus. The old image of her running away played in his mind, more vivid than ever. Suddenly the light grew brighter and brighter. He woke.

His limbs felt heavy and his mind slow. As his vision cleared, he saw a pair of large grey eyes, wider still with alarm. He concentrated, and saw the eyes were set in an a heart-shaped face framed with dark hair. Hair that was not there when he saw her last.

"Talia. No... cannot be Talia. Talia is a child."

A small smile crossed her face. "Talia is no longer a child. I am Talia, Bane. We are here to take you away." Her expression clouded again as her eyebrows pulled together. "My God, what did they do to your face, old friend?"

Bane struggled to explain through the searing agony. "Whe-when you...you climbed, I was overcome and...well, I will spare you the details."

Tears clouded the great grey eyes. "You are sick, Bane. Very sick. We will help you."

Bane felt consciousness slipping away. Before he blacked out, he managed to say "Who is we?"

Talia stood outside the great hall for what felt like decades. Her father had not looked her in the face since they had climbed out of the Pit. In spite of his weakness and ill treatment, Bane was still a very large man and it had taken three men to hoist his unconscious form up out of the Pit. Talia had insisted on staying with Bane despite the inconvenience and her father's objections. No-one had ever stood up to Ra's Al Ghul before, least of all a child of his. Least of all a woman.

He gave in after they stood there for fifteen minutes arguing. The panic and desperation in Talia's voice had worn him down, and the expression on his face as he looked at her mingled pity, revulsion and self-loathing. Since then, he had not addressed Talia unless strictly necessary, had avoided her company and if he did have to address her, spoke to a spot above her head.

Talia resumed pacing outside the great wooden doors of the League's great hall. Her frustration was building and she felt helpless. An unnatural hush had descended over the Headquarters. Strangers were rare, and doctors rarer. All sorts of apparatus had been installed in the great hall, clinical and harsh against the darkness of the home of the aptly named League of Shadows.

This had gone on for several days now. Doctors came and went, but still the muffled moans of agony continued to leak from behind the solid old doors. Today had been different.

A man with a suit and a briefcase had arrived four days earlier, with several doctors in tow. He had met with Talia's father in his room, away from the hall. Talia had asked to be included, but had been denied to her surprise. This time, her attempts to persuade her father had not worked. The man with the briefcase had left, but the doctors remained behind.

Today, the man returned. This time, he had a much larger bag, a silver metal case with enough room in it to fit a human head. The doctor had paused next to Talia on his way into the great hall.

"You are this man's friend, correct?" he said. He had a clipped voice with a slight French accent.

"Yes. He saved my life."

"And now you return the favour. Your father was not forthcoming with how he came to be in such a terrible state."

"Perhaps I shall tell you then. How do you intend to help him?"

"By repairing some of the colossal damage to his face, which his fever has not helped. It is impossible to completely repair, but I have something which will stop him from being in agony. It is the very latest in medical technology and this is the first of its kind in the world."

"What is it?" Talia asked, her curiosity and hope piqued.

"Your father has forbidden me to tell you until the operation is complete. I understand that you have been told nothing about your friend's condition, else you would not be sat here day after day like a guard dog."

"No. No, I have not. Nor have I been allowed to see him."

The man's harsh green eyes softened. "I will tell you after I have helped your friend, then. Rest assured, his pain is nearly over."

Talia got up and climbed the stairs to her father's room, the highest room in the building. She knocked twice on his door, two loud short raps.

"Enter."

Talia opened the door. The room was dimly lit and full of wooden furniture. The only light came from candles and a small oil lamp on her father's desk. On the furthest wall was a small balcony overlooking the Himalayan mountains.

"Father, I must speak with you."

Ra's Al Ghul looked up from the small table where he sat. His face was weary and reproach filled his eyes as he heard Talia's voice.

"Talia." The single word weighed heavily in the air.

"Father, this has gone on long enough. What will happen to us?"

"Sit down, Talia."

Talia reluctantly sat in one of the low couches opposite her father. "I owe that man my life. I must know, Father. Why will you not allow me to see Bane? How is he?"

"He is over his fever."

"And his face? Who is that man?"

"I have consented to allow him to tell you everything when he is finished. That will take hours. Please, Talia, be patient."

"I cannot wait much longer, I am so worrie-" She stopped as Ra's Al Ghul cut her off.

"Do you know exactly how you came to be raised in the Pit?" He looked her in the eyes, finally.

"No, my mother told me very little. She only told me your name and where to find you, in the event that I ever escaped. She always reassured me that I was born from love and that you loved us both."

"It is time I told you. You have been with us for months now and I could never bring myself to tell you the whole truth, but now I see you at risk of suffering what I have suffered and I could never allow something so cruel to happen to a child of mine."

Talia grew more confused as she entertained various possibilities in her mind. Before she could speak, Ra's Al Ghul continued.

"You see, Talia, about seventeen years ago I worked as a mercenary. I went to Mongolia at the summons of a very rich warlord. He summoned me to kill a man, a rich man who had refused to marry his daughter for someone else. This had greatly displeased the warlord. I agreed to kill the man for a very large sum of money, the most I'd ever made.

I killed him, and the warlord threw a banquet in my honour. After we feasted and drank, the warlord summoned his daughter, Sora, to dance for us. She was mesmerising. The warlord took my fascination as a compliment. "Too good for him, yes?" he said. "Too good for him anyway. Much too good." I nodded, never taking my eyes off her.

That night, I took a walk around the warlord's house to find Sora's quarters. I slipped a note under the door asking her to meet me. Despite the strict watch she was under, she managed to meet me late that night. Sora was your mother."

Ra's Al Ghul paused, an expression of deep pain on his face, then continued. "We continued to meet and I fell further in love with her. I asked her to marry me and she refused at first, knowing her father would never allow her to marry a mercenary, even if it was me. So we married in secret and consummated our marriage in the room I was renting. She snuck back to her room in her father's house at the crack of dawn. You were conceived that night, Talia.

"Two days later, her father found out. One of his servants had been running an errand the night we married and saw us together. His immediate decree was that I be confined to the Pit- which was infamous even then- and Sora exiled. However, when I was taken away, I was not thrown in the Pit but the next country. It was then that I realised that Sora had taken my place.

"You look just like her, Talia. It shames me that my wife was exiled into that hell, but shames me further that an innocent child was raised there. My child. This is my great shame, that I allowed this to happen, that I allowed my family to suffer. I am refusing to allow you to see Bane because I am doing all that I can to ensure that you do not lose what I have lost. If you so wish, Talia, you and Bane can train with us, the League of Shadows. "

Talia found her voice at long last. "I will consider it, Father. I-I will leave you now."

She got up and left, her thoughts a blur.