Author's Note: All right, here is like the BAM part of the story. I just want to alert my readers that if you haven't seen the Dark Knight Rises, this major SPOILER ALERT because you're about to get the whole detail on Bane's plan. Anywho, enjoy my chapter. This helped me clear my head; Bane's pretty calculating! :D

The City in Pieces

Chapter Twenty-Eight: All Part of the Plan

"Whatever Joker is planning, it isn't interrupting our plans." Bane told Chance as he snapped on Chance's made mask. He turned to her. "The plan requires air travel, though." He led her to the ad hoc command center that Chance had made (the new addition to the lair).

Bane handed Chance a file folder, it was stacked with papers. Chance opened it up when he gestured at it; she scanned them momentarily then turned to him.

"Dr. Pavel?" inquired Chance.

"Yes, a nuclear physicist." Bane clarified. "We need to arrange a few things with him, but the communication can't be done on phone or computer. I have to fly to Eastern Europe."

Chance stared at him.

"What I am about to tell you needs to stay quiet." Bane said.

Chance nodded. Bane sighed. He held up a blue print.

"This is a nuclear hydrator, designed to provide free air and water into the atmosphere if it so used. It's supposed to the clean the filth that rages through these sewers, to allow better life in Gotham. Talia, or otherwise known as Miranda Tate," he added, "is trying to get this in use at Wayne Enterprises; however, Bruce Wayne needs to be the one to authorize it in order to get it to be functioned underneath it." Bane indicated one of the tunnels with a hand. "One of those tunnels is located just beneath Applied Sciences of Wayne Tower."

"Why Wayne Tower?" questioned Chance, listening to Bane's explanation.

"Applied Sciences has the equipment we need in order to continue to let the fire rise."

Chance nodded.

"In order to have the nuclear hydrator working, it needs to be authorized by three of the members of the board, though it doesn't matter which three. Talia has been climbing the ranks, but she hasn't reached the director of Wayne Enterprises, which makes her eligible to authorize the machine."

"Why do you need Pavel?" asked Chance curiously

"He is the designer of this," he indicated the blue print. "And only he can work on it."

"You're going to use this to destroy Gotham?" said Chance skeptically.

"No, he has to diffuse it properly, take out the incapacitator, and the end result will make it a nuclear bomb."

Chance stared at him.

"I thought you were going to rip Gotham bit by bit."

Bane shook his head.

"The city thrives on the rich elite; we're bringing those top men to our level. After they despair and drench themselves in less hope, every bit of faith crushed from their bodies, then Gotham will cease to exist." Bane gave Chance a calculating gaze. "That is what you want, isn't it?"

"I was under the impression that Gotham would go mad before they were destroyed, Sir," she admitted.

"No," said Bane. "Apparently your friends up there, the two clowns, have decided to do that for us."

"Why not bring Dr. Pavel here?" asked Chance gently.

"We agreed to meet him cross-country. And if he does decide to stay in his homeland, we'll bring him here anyway."

Chance considered him.

"How will you keep all of the people here? No one can stop all of them from escaping. Despite the many times you've impressed me, Sir, andthere have been many times," she added respectfully, "even you aren't that many a person."

"That's where you come to play." Bane said. He placed a hand on her shoulder and guided her to the table. "There has to be order in the League of Shadows. I intend to keep it as such. But I must leave Gotham with my selected men. You have to run order in the sewers when I'm gone."

"Why not ask Talia?" said Chance coldly.

"Talia's posing as the innocent bystander." Bane informed her. "And even she did command the League of Shadows, she wouldn't be able to be down here at all hours of the day. She has to play her part as well. We all do." He handed her a profile. "His name's Daggett, in charge of Daggett Enterprises, namely a large construction crew company here in the city limits. He's a very wealthy man." Chance gazed at the photo of said wealthy aristocrat: she already could tell that this was going to be a dick. She bit her cheek, thinking it.

"Daggett has long desired to be on top of Wayne Enterprises, though the name Wayne has a lot of financial back-up, comprised in the stock exchange where several Gothamites have sent their paychecks. In the future, Daggett will request a favor, in my name. My name isn't well known, now, surprisingly so, but once we hit Eastern Europe, the world will know. As legend has it, you're known as the Lieutenant who works for a 'masked man'. An easy title to go by.

"Daggett pays small fortunes for favors," Bane continued. "In the future, if he requests our services, you are to require him to use his construction company to place cement along the bridges at each point of Gotham's coast. The men around here are very prone to explosives, they lavish on it," he informed Chance. "The cement that the crew will make will be harmless, but all innocuous subjects can be turned into a weapon."

Chance glanced at him. He apparently had been doing some research when Chance had been busy training recruits for the last few years. All of this spilled out of Bane effortlessly. All this time, he had been waiting for the right time to explain of this. Chance mentally slapped herself for thinking anything less of him. The fucking man was brilliant!

Bane set his around her shoulders and walked her to another print, though it was a diagram.

"The cement that the company uses is composed of a volatile chemical, though it is very harmless when one is using it for simple construction purposes. What would needed to be done is that oil drums would have to be filled with this," he tapped his fingers on the diagram. "And rigged to blow."

He showed Chance to the outline of Gotham City.

"Six bridges leading the outskirts," said Bane, indicating each of them. "Only one of them will remain intact. With the only one, that is how the population will stay in order."

"But, Sir, you can't think that the police will stay quiet," said Chance. "Gordon, up there, is a loyal officer to the law. He's one person, but he's got friends."

"When this hits," said Bane—Behind his mask, he was smiling—"everyone, even the police, won't know what to do. The city is masked with terror now. I imagine that once the Joker has had his fun, the city will be partially mad anyway. And when panic surrounds them, there's only two ways they react. Fighting will only get them killed; and running away...well...there's only so much room they can go."

"And how do you intend to keep the Batman at large during this party?" said Chance incredulously, wondering what sort of answer she would receive. All of his other answers blew her away.

"I thought of that too." Bane said in a conspiring tone.

Oh, boy...Chance waited for the master plan of it all.

"And you're the one who needs to carry it out."

Chance stared at him.

"Pardon?"

Bane handed her documents, impending the new release of reconstructive surgery that had been rejuvenated by doctors around the world. Then he handed her the budget, which was higher than what Chance had imagined it to be.

"The DA, Harvey Dent, has gone back to the life of justice," said Bane. "He's long since lost his wife, Grace, and is in therapeutic recovery. You know him well, I imagine." At Chance's confused look, he continued. "Our financial budget is at a very good standing point. Throwing a quarter of million dollars away wouldn't skim our vault. I need Gotham to be built up and be brought down so hard, that hope is easily dashed away for a third time.

"Chance, you need to convince Harvey Dent to be financially backed up by the League of Shadows, but do not tell him that it came from us. The surgery he requires to relieve his scars is very expensive, even for a rich District Attorney. Dent is realizing that he is still a good man, and for the community to trust him again, he cannot have the scars he was given as a crook."

Chance stared at him.

"Bane, you want me to go to Two-Face and give him money to help him become a great guy again?" said Chance summarily, though her eyes were wide.

"Once you do," he confirmed, "he, no doubt, will accept it. As a distant lover, he will accept your gift as an apology for leaving him."

"I didn't leave him." Chance said coldly. "He ratted me out, and I gave him what he deserved."

"He won't see it that way," said Bane. "Men are always thinking up ways to make it seem as if their decisions are justified, whether or not the females were right. For all he knows, you were a mistake to leave alive, and you've come back to reconcile." At Chance's angry look, he said, "I'm not asking you to return to his arms. Merely to carry out my plan."

"What do you want me to do after I finance his surgery?"

"Rachel Dawes is a lawyer now," said Bane. "As I hear, she's quite strong in that department. Convince her to help Harvey Dent into becoming Gotham's White Knight."

"Why Dawes?" said Chance questionably.

"It's a personal thing," said Bane.

Chance didn't need it to be explained. Bruce Wayne, by rumor, labored a crush on Rachel Dawes. Chance only knew it a few years back when Bane had informed her of the identity of the real Batman. Bruce Wayne was the caped crusader, though she said nothing afterwards. A boy orphaned when a mugger shot his parents: it was no wonder why Batman hated criminals. Bane learned Bruce's identity when Talia informed him that Bruce once had been trained by Ra's al Ghul himself. That's how Bane knew about Applied Sciences. That's how he knew where to plant the base, under Applied Sciences.

Chance nodded.

"And what about Joker and Ace?" she asked, quite curious to know the reply.

"For your amusement while I'm absent, try to get in well with them. They seem to know the on-goings of Gotham nowadays. We both have been underground for quite some time." He sighed. "Follow their trail. Persuade the Joker to let you in."

"He's changed since I've met him, Bane." Chance said seriously.

"So have you," he added. "And when you meet Ace, since she believes that you're there to kill her, please avoid breaking her bones. That won't be a good way to convince them that you've reformed your leadership ways and want part of their action."

Bane was silent momentarily.

"Well, I believe that is everything."

Chance stared at him. She grinned.

"You are absolutely the most intelligent man that I've ever met," she cooed. "How long have you known about all of this?"

"Before I met you." Bane told her. That was a good way to put it.

"So you intended to make me your second-in-command?" asked Chance curiously.

"Actually, no. I intended to kill you," he said honestly. "Then I had a change of mind. And it must have been the way you put up a fight."

"Why is that?" asked Chance, slightly disturbed at her original intended destiny.

"You're the first person to remain breathing after intruding." Bane said casually.