First, thank you to all my readers, followers and reviewers.
Secondly, as a biologist, I often react very sensitively to how some science aspects are showed in the movies and TDKR features a wealth of insultingly stupid movie physics. But I won't belaboring the discussion and I'll keep the same reasoning line of the screenwriters. If you want to know more about the possibility of convert a fusion reactor into a nuke visit these web pages:
http(colon, slash, slash)migre.me(slash)bq9Z1
http(colon, slash, slash)migre.me(slash)bqa1x
Thirdly, Cassandra is a hindu woman who was shown in "Batman Gotham Knight: Working Through Pain" and instructed Bruce on resisting physical pain, during his training around the world.
http(colon, slash, slash)migre.me(slash)bqa4r


XXVI - Butterfly On A Wheel

Through Gotham City Streets

By night, the darkened streets were all but deserted, as Gotham's cowed citizens took seriously Bane's admonition to stay indoors. Foley warily drove toward home, while Gordon slumped beside him in the passenger seat. The deputy commissioner kept the cruiser's lights and siren off and tried to avoid the craters, cracks, and rubble, but Gordon still flinched at every bump. The rough drive had to be hard on his wounds.

They listened grimly to the President's speech.

"As the situation develops, one thing must be understood above all others. People of Gotham, we have not abandoned you."

Foley scowled at the radio. "What does that mean?"

"It means we're on our own," Gordon translated. "I have to get in front of a camera..."

"Jim, they'll kill you the second you show your face."

"The mayor's dead," Gordon said. "I'm the symbol of law and order. Bane says he's giving Gotham back to the people. They need to know that I could lead."

Foley frowned.

"Bane's never going to let that happen."

"Then he'll show his true colors."

"And you'll be dead," he replied.

Gordon stared silently out the window.


Miranda's Loft, Midtown District, Gotham City

Damian were watching the broadcast still in complete horror due to recent events. Impatient, the boy kept his cell phone in his hand. He had been unable to speak to any of his friends from Monarch Theater since he had come to Miranda's home. Suddenly the phone rang, taken him by surprise. He eyed the screen and saw it was Stephanie Brown who was calling him. Anxious, he answered the call.

"Hi, Steph! Are you okay? How are you guys doing?" he asked her.

"Everything is under control. I'm fine so are the boys. But you're my concern right now. Where have you been?"

"I'm okay," he declared and looked at Miranda. She was staring towards the city skyline, keeping quiet and pale for a long time.

"I'm safe," he added. "But I can't go back to the Theater right now."

"Okay. Be safe and stay in touch."

"I will and you too. Bye," he bid farewell to her.

"Bye."

There was no time for a long chat. They just needed to talk about the essential.

Miranda turned and asked:

"Could you please lend me your mobile?"

Her eyes were puffed and had dark circles under theirs, as if she had been crying or not sleeping well. Damian mused that if she had been crying it was out of his sight.

"Sure. But why?" he asked as he handed his phone to her.

"I have reasons to believe that my phone could be tapped," she said flatly. He gave her a blank look and she turned, exiting the room while dialed Fox.

Damian kept alert and overheard her conversation.

"But we built it, Fox. There must be a way..." she paused and continued. "We have to take responsibility for it."

Damian realized she was keeping calm but a little bit distress by her tone of voice. Minutes later she said farewell to Fox and sighed.

"Is there something wrong?" he asked as he got the phone she handed him.

"Everything is falling apart because of a device built by Wayne Enterprises," she stated hopeless.

"Wait a moment! That damn nuke belongs to Wayne Enterprises?"

"Not anymore. And it was a fusion reactor designed to provide safe and clean energy, but it was stolen and weaponized by that terrorists." With my help, she added in thought.

"Is there something that you guys can do?"

Miranda shook her head.

"I don't know", she said tired. "Lucius Fox - the former CEO and responsible for Applied Sciences division - said that if we could recover the device, there must be a chance to reattach the fusion core and disarm it in the reactor chamber."

"But Bane said some ordinary citizen have the power to set the bomb off," he pondered.

"He's bluffing," she said with conviction. "He'd never give the trigger to an ordinary citizen," she took a breath and added, "besides the bomb is going to go off either way after about five months or so."

"What?" he asked with a terrified expression on his face.

"The fusion device spontaneously detonates after five months of decay. When the core are removed the reactor itself destabilized," she explained.

"But this Mr. Fox seems to have a plan..." he said with hope.

"I'm afraid we can't do it, but we could try nonetheless…" she said and quickly headed upstairs, leaving him behind.

Miranda needed some time alone and sought refuge in her bedroom.

She had hoped to gain some time – before Bane and his men had showed off at Wayne Tower – to find a way to flood the reactor chamber. She was not a genocider and had no intention to inflict suffering upon innocent people. Her personal vendetta was against Bruce Wayne and nobody else. In her naivety, she had expected Bane would aid her in her quest for revenge and them she could trick him into a bluff. Her plan had been simple – make Bruce's life miserable and them fly away from Gotham, from Bane and from her past. However, she had underestimated her partner and now the entire city was under siege.

And there was still her son. She was not alone anymore and needed to take one step at a time, in a calculated manner to avoid a major disaster.

Sometimes, as it now, her conscience made her question her actions, which were having some seriously grave consequences. She just had wanted to make Bruce feel bad for hurting her that way. Nothing more.

Bruce.

The simple thought of him made her sick. Was he still alive? Bane would not bother to leave the country with a corpse in tow. He must be somewhere, suffering.

As the saying goes, 'revenge is a dish best served cold' and, apparently, Miranda took the dictum to the letter, as she had waited patiently for the right moment to get revenge on Bruce Wayne. What she did not expect was, that despite everything, she still kept being in love with him.


The Pit, unknown place out of Gotham City

Days and nights passed since Bruce had been thrown in the prison pit, and for him it was like a never ending feverish dream. Terrible pictures crossed his mind as he lay helplessly upon his cot. When he could keep conscious he was forced to witness the apocalypse that Bane had unleashed on Gotham.

Mixed nightmarish images of events and people so familiar to him came to hunt in his sleep. A child version of Rachel were running and playing with him through the extensive gardens of the Wayne manor. He fell into the dark pit and was surrounded by bats, lots of them. He could hear her childish voice calling him.

"Bruce."

Bang, bang. Shooting sounds came out of nowhere. He saw his parents being murdered by Joe Chill, then lying on the street, striking the pavement as a bloody wad. He looked up and reached out for his father. Thomas took his hand.

"It's alright... everything's going to be fine. "

Joker's sinister laugh came from somewhere and then Harvey Dent's voice took place.

"You thought we could be decent men in an indecent time. But you were wrong. The world is cruel, and the only morality in a cruel world is chance."

Miranda appeared to his sight.

"Bruce," she whispered and leaned to kiss him, "I love you."

She was wearing the necklace he had given her. Suddenly her face vanished and the robin pendant and the golden nest appeared together. A smirking Damian emerged.

"You don't understand," the young man said. "It's a family jewel."

Next, Alfred's voice came to him.

"You don't owe these people anymore. You've given them everything."

But he replied in his Bat-voice, "Not everything. Not yet."

Bruce woke up abruptly, opened his eyes quickly, looked around and realized he could not go anywhere. An excruciating pain took over his back as he tried to turn his body, making him almost scream. Every muscle in his body was yelling to break free, but the lancinating pain ravaged him every time he tried to move. Then he closed his eyes and opened them again.

He started to remember the lessons he had learned from a woman he had met during his travels around the world. Cassandra was her name and she had taught him how to minimize his pain to the point where he can control it.

Moments later the pain had been reduced to a low growl. But when he blocked out it in his back, it reappeared in his heart.

While managing his pain he reflected on his life. A life consecrated in an altar of justice a long time ago. Few women had shaken him up and none more than Miranda. She had brought a fire to his lips and a calm to his heart that no one else had. Not even Rachel. In another time it could have been her, her oldest friend with whom he had shared his most intimate secret. But Rachel was dead and Miranda had returned to his life.

Now he realized how much his life had been empty. Would be there a second chance for them to be together again... perhaps even as husband and wife? As a family?

Right now she was in a middle of the chaos that had become Gotham. She and other people with whom he cared for, such as Fox, Gordon and even Damian. The boy had won his admiration and respect and he could see a mirror of his own boldness and courage in him.

Would he be alive? Would Bane have done anything against the kid?

More he thought about them more he realized that saving them was the most important thing in his life.

He did not even have a clue of his exact location. The pit seemed to imprison people from all parts of the globe. The nameless European – who had been taking care of him – had told him that prison had been called the Lazarus Pit, after the parable of Lazarus the Beggar. People had been thrown in it for centuries, to be forgotten by the rest of the world and then revive if they could had managed to escape. The Lazarus Pit was where they put the ones they were ashamed of to live eternally isolated from the society.

Hope strengthened his spirit. He needed to find a way to heal his body, get out of that place and go back to Gotham. It would be a Herculean task but, at least, there did not appear to be any guards to stop him from doing that. Apparently, they weren't needed. The prisoners had been left to police themselves.