I WAS going to leave it halfway... but then thought it cruel to leave it there, with a certain someone's life about to end.

THANK YOU so much for all the commenters, I really really appreciate it and love talking about this story, so never hesitate to comment or chat!

A while ago there was a request for a sideplot, which I have written, but couldn't fit it into the storyline so earlier on, but please look forward to it in the future.

Also I listen to music while I write so let me know if you want me to leave a little playlist at the beginning of the chapters if you want the same feel I had when writing! (ie the second half was; Hurt by Two Steps From Hell (x5 ish) - Unwavering Emotion from Pokemon Black and White OST)

:)

There's so much deep connection in this chapter, and the bond between Evelyn and Bruce is beginning to truly shine and show its true colours.

I really hope you all like it.

By the time I'd come down Bruce was talking to Earle. And both spotted me appearing through the crowd.

'Evelyn!' Earle called happily.

I trudged over, less happy.

'I was just telling Bruce about Wayne Enterprises going public.'

'How did the stock offering go?' Bruce asked.

I squinted, noticing something glinting in his eyes.

'Prices soared,' Earle beamed, completely oblivious.

'Who was buying?' Bruce asked.

'All kinds of funds and brokerages,' Earle said dismissively. 'It's a bit technical. The key thing is; our company's future is secure.'

'Great,' smiled Bruce, looking quite smug at Earle treating him like he was stupid.

'I heard you went to the networking dinner with Mr Wayne,' Earle said to me.

'Yep,' I replied flatly, 'Lucius wasn't available.'

'Well, I'm afraid he won't be available for long anyway,' Earle said pleasantly, either missing or ignoring my mood. 'He's been poking his nose into board business, so he won't be coming into work tomorrow.' He looked at Bruce, pleased with himself.

My jaw twitched.

Bruce skilfully sidled out of the way. 'What's that?' he asked.

'I'm sure you'll be able to find other new scientists to take to the dinners, Mr Wayne,' Earle said, looking at me meaningfully.

It was at that point that Bruce remembered Earle had hired me for the specific intent of keeping an eye on Lucius Fox. His eyes widened a fraction but before he could say a word, Earle had excused himself.

I eyed his back distastefully.

'So there goes your job,' Bruce murmured in the tone he'd use if we were staring at a dropped coffee.

'I'll mourn it forever,' I replied sarcastically, staring flatly at Earle's back.

At this, Bruce left me stewing to go and speak to Lucius.

He returned to me for a fleeting moment after. 'Fox says Wayne Enterprises lost a microwave transmitter.'

'That can evaporate the drug to gas form,' I finished, eyes flying wide.

He nodded to confirm we were thinking the same and kept moving through the room.

I continued stewing until I heard someone mention a name that I was sure I misheard.

'…yes, yes, he's over here. Bruce, there's somebody here you
must meet-,'

'Not now, Mrs. Delane.'

'Now, am I pronouncing this right… Mr. Ra's al Ghul?'

Bruce's world flipped on its head, my world plummeted fifty feet and the party continued on.

Bruce faced him. A bald man, tanned skin, moustache. 'You're not Ra's al Ghul. I watched him die.'

'But,' said a voice we recognised from anywhere, 'is Ra's al Ghul immortal? Are his methods supernatural?'

Bruce glared at the man we both recognised in disgust, realising he'd been deceived by the man he'd saved. 'Or cheap parlour tricks to conceal your true identity, Ra's?'

I slowly began to make my way through the crowds.

'Surely,' said al Ghul, 'a man who spends his nights scrambling over the rooftops of Gotham wouldn't begrudge me dual identities.'

'I saved your life,' Bruce hissed.

'I warned you about compassion, Bruce.'

Bruce stared him down.

'And yet, I fear there is more than only us with dual identities among us here. Do tell who you managed to convert, Bruce. Thunder… an impressive woman. But not beyond the League of Shadows.

I reached Bruce, also staring al Ghul down, far more hostile than the forcibly restrained Bruce.

He stared at me in shock for a moment, then it seemed to make sense to him. 'Evelyn Pendragon… it couldn't have been anyone else.' There was far too much smugness in his voice.

'Your quarrel is with us,' Bruce said quietly. 'You let these people go.'

'You are welcome to explain the situation to them,' al Ghul nodded.

I put a hand on Bruce's shoulder as I turned around. 'I'll do it.'

The two watched as I took a glass of champagne from the waiters and tapped it. 'Sorry, excuse me, everyone!'

Silence fell on the room and all eyes were on me. I tried my hardest not to mess it up.

'I'm sorry, everyone, but I've just heard from my brother, in the middle of Gotham, that there is a dangerous threat to Gotham tonight. I implore everyone, to go home immediately. Celebrations for Mr Wayne's birthday can wait, but I'm afraid your safety cannot.'

There was a silence that hung in the air as I prayed my tactic would work. Then everyone began to file out, making me breathe a huge sigh of relief.

It took a while for everyone to leave, but they did. And Bruce and I were left alone with Ra's al Ghul and the league of shadows, standing in front of him, staring him down.

'Pointless,' he shrugged. 'None of these people have long to live, your antics at the asylum
have forced my hand.'

We started walking through the manor. 'So, Crane was working for you,' Bruce said.

'His toxin is derived from the organic compound found in our blue flowers. He was able to weaponize it.'

'He's not a member of the League of Shadows?' Bruce asked.

I trained my eyes on the men around the room, following us as we moved.

'Of course not. He thought our plan was to hold the city to ransom.'

'But really, you are gonna release Crane's poison on the entire city,' said Bruce, voice becoming lower and lower.

'Then watch Gotham tear itself apart through fear,' al Ghul nodded.

'You're gonna destroy millions of lives.'

'Only a cynical man would call what these people have "lives," Wayne. Crime. Despair. This is not how man was supposed to live.'

We stopped walking, entering a corridor. I eyed Ra's with contempt.

'The League of Shadows has been a check against human corruption for thousands of years. We sacked Rome. Loaded trade ships with plague rats. Burned London to the ground. Every time a civilization reaches the pinnacle of its decadence, we return to restore the balance.'

'Gotham isn't that,' I spat, ignoring the implications of history al Ghul mentioned.

'Gotham isn't beyond saving,' Bruce said calmly. 'Give us more time. There are good people here.'

'You're defending a city so corrupt we have infiltrated every level of its infrastructure.'

My muscles tensed further and further.

'When I found you in that jail, you were lost. But I believed in you. I took away your fear, and I showed you a path. You were my greatest students, both of you. It should be you standing by my side, saving the world.'

'You're not saving the world,' I growled, 'you never have been.'

'I'll be standing where I belong,' Bruce said. 'Between you and the people of Gotham.'

Al Ghul looked sad for a moment. 'No one can save Gotham.' He nodded to people behind him and a crash echoed.

Bruce stayed still and I snapped around, in time to sprint forward and kick a bucket of petrol out of a man's hands.

'When a forest grows too wild, a purging fire is inevitable and natural.'

Suddenly I was fighting four men off the manor. One swung for my head. I blocked it with a wrist, grabbed his arm with the other hand and twisted around, wrenching it straight from its socket, taking his pain as means to seize the petrol from him and kick it between Bruce and I, away from the men.

'Tomorrow the world will watch in horror as its greatest city destroys itself.'

One man managed to set a screen on fire. I charged, pulling it away off the wall and sending it onto the stone floor, away from anything flammable, breaking an unburnt piece off and hurling it towards him. He dodged and I sprinted forward, mind whirling as I pushed myself into overdrive.

Two fists came my way. I kicked out horizontally to block one with my foot and as soon as my foot landed, I kicked out with the other one again, under his arm and straight into his gut, while deflecting the other punch with my arm.

'The movement back to harmony will be unstoppable this time.'

I kicked another's can of petrol, the liquid playing with his balance enough for me to swiftly and easily break his knee with a kick to the side and send him sprawling sideways to the ground, putting the petrol behind me.

'You attacked Gotham before?' Bruce breathed.

'Of course. Over the ages our weapons have grown more sophisticated. With Gotham we tried a new one. Economics.'

I glared at al Ghul as I spun around, smashing my shoulder into a kick headed toward me.

'But we underestimated certain of Gotham's citizens such as your parents. Gunned down by one of the very people they were trying to help. Create enough hunger and everyone becomes a criminal.'

'But then it's you who takes the blame for such a corrupt city in the first place!' I yelled at him.

He ignored me. 'Their deaths galvanized the city into saving itself, and Gotham has limped on
ever since. We are back to finish the job.'

I yelled in effort as I kicked one man out of the way and pulled another over my shoulder to land on his back in front of me. I sent my foot straight down onto his head, knocking him out and ducking a swing from a sword, hitting outwards in a blind punch that collided with flesh. I was too busy with the one to be able to do anything about the one slipping past me.

He made it to my other side.

'And this time no misguided idealists will get in the way. Like your father, Bruce, you lack the courage to do all that is necessary.'

The one behind me swiped and I couldn't block the two swings at once. I screamed in pain as a sword cut through my dress and under my arm, down my ribs.

It took everything in Bruce not to turn around, but he heard the sound of someone falling unconscious so assumed, correctly, that I didn't need help.

'If someone stands in the way of true justice, you simply walk up behind them, and stab them in the heart.'

Bruce whirled on the spot and took down the man who had appeared behind him, taking his sword and ending in a stalemate with Ra's. 'I am gonna stop you.'

'You never did learn to mind your surroundings.'

I turned in time to see a man throw one of the discarded petrol cans. It hit Bruce in the back of the head, and he crumpled.

I shoved my opponent back and turned. 'AAARGH!' I leapt into the air and kicked al Ghul as he turned toward the noise. I landed over the unconscious Bruce, staring the man down.

My hair was beginning to fall over my eyes and blood was running down my side, but in no way was I any less of an opponent.

He took a step back.

'Kill her.'

I was swarmed by the remaining members of the League of Shadows, five of them surrounding me as Bruce stirred infrequently.

The first attack came from my left. I grabbed the wrist of the punch that had come my way and leant back, pushing it forward. I ducked and twirled, wrenching the arm with me. The man stumbled and I got his arm behind his back before I couldn't do anything else.

I ducked the swing of a sword and blocked two more punches as the cramped corridor worked in my favour.

I found an opening and seized it, breaking the man's arm and whacking him hard in the back of the head. He collapsed over Bruce, but I couldn't do anything about it.

I still had one foot either side of him as I stood my ground.

I whirled when I noticed one's eyes look behind me in time to kick a sword away from me and leapt forward, hitting their armpit, wrenching their other hand away from me as it came in a wild swing dealing two blows to the gut, sweeping a leg under, ducking an attack from someone else, and sending him to the ground. I lunged and hit him between the eyes then stepped back over Bruce.

'Stop,' said al Ghul.

His men ceased and I watched him, arms still raised.

He walked forward, pointing his sword at me and taking the place of the man I'd just knocked out.

'You still fight well, Evelyn. But this is pointless. Even if we cannot burn Wayne Manor to the ground, the whole city will fall.'

'No… it won't,' I heaved. 'If Thomas and Martha Wayne could stop you, then so can Bruce. Your twisted mindset has gotten you only this, a twisted organisation. You will not prevail, I can promise you that.'

He seemed saddened by my reaction.

'You always were the strongest I'd seen.'

'That probably says something,' I spat, kicking out.

The man to my left collapsed as his knee gave out.

Chaos ensued.

Bruce's eyes flitted open and shut by tiny cracks, all he could hear were grunts and thuds. He thought he could tell me from the others, so knew I was there at least. The weight over his body, the other man, weighed on his mind again and he drifted back.

One of them, overconfident, charged me. Ra's watched him.

We fought one on one, my footing never leaving Bruce for more than a moment.

He swung, aiming for my injury. I used my right arm, the injured side, to block and twist his wrist around.

He was stronger than me and bent my own arm backward, trying to knee me in the back as I was twisted into a backward lean.

My left hand reached under me and caught his leg. I wrenched it upward while leaning further back.

His balance had gone completely, and he was relying on his hold on my arm to remain upright.

I twisted and caught him by the throat, managing to lift him up off the floor.

Before anyone could make a move, I hit his groin and top gut before dropping him and sending a punch flying into his throat before he could land.

He stumbled back, out.

Realising they would have to attack at once, I was swarmed by the League of Shadows, furiously standing my ground.

'Very well,' said al Ghul, dragging Bruce's consciousness back. 'If you will not lay down, you can join your city in its fear.'

I turned to attack him, only was met with a burst of the fear gas.

I screamed and fell to the ground my vision changed and everything became terrifying. I was strong, I could withstand this... I had to... or I'd be gone. I crumpled over, coughing.

Before I could stop him with a feeble attempt he sprayed it over Bruce, who fell under again and then al Ghul turned it on me until it started to hurt to breathe, and I couldn't escape the cloud of gas, and the clouds beginning to claim my mind as their own, ripe for destruction.

Knowing blindly that they'd damage the manor, as a last conscious, rational thought I set my mind to attack and thrashed around as I felt my mind slipping from me, fighting against anything that scared me.

Ra's shoved me toward his men and looked down at Bruce, who was paling alarmingly quickly. 'You burnt my house to the ground and left me for dead. Consider us even.'

I turned and he pointed his sword at me. A being, that I couldn't see, filling the world with a darkness I didn't like. Its eyes bored into me, it knew me.

I screamed and twisted further, moving toward him so quickly he couldn't keep up. I leapt on the demon and my nails hurt as I tried to tear him in two.

'No one leaves alive,' he said, and gestured to his men to leave.

I felt myself hit the floor and screeched, turning wild and launched at the closest one.

They dragged the unconscious men out, pinning Bruce down with a chest of drawers to leave as my prey and left us.

Bruce, to me, looked like a decaying corpse, that animated and twisted and ran toward me suddenly then went back to lying on the ground. In the moments before my mind had snapped, I'd set it to fight anything and everything and so blindly scrambled away from him as quickly as I could.

Over the screams coming from somewhere in the house, Alfred was able to sneak up on the guard watching the house, knocking him out with a golf club and a whack to the back of the neck.

He hurried cautiously inside to see Bruce, unconscious and pinned down. He crouched down beside him. 'Master Wayne!'

Another scream scraped through his ears as Bruce woke up, staring at his butler in confusion.

'What happened?!' Alfred asked, trying to heave the weight from Bruce.

'Ra's… al Ghul… I'm immune to the gas, but he still-,'

Another blood curdling scream. Bruce looked up and his eyes changed as he realised what it was.

'But Evelyn isn't.'

'Didn't you think to inject her with the antidote?' Alfred cried, looking up at the ceiling in fright, growing more urgent.

'We didn't know she'd need it until we came back from the asylum today. There's a spare vial in the cave.'

Alfred nodded grimly.

Bruce breathed heavily as Alfred gave up trying to get the drawers off of him.

'Here, what is the use of all them push ups if you can't lift a bloody piece of wood?' He huffed.

Bruce stared at him for a moment before rising to the butler's challenge and throwing the drawers off of himself.

Alfred pulled him up and they looked around. 'Where is she?' he asked.

It sounded like a banshee was loose in the house, and the fearful, terrified and alone screams made both of them incredibly anxious, like they were tasked with finding and capturing a starving tiger.

'Was I like that?' Bruce asked stiffly.

'No, sir,' Alfred said in a very heavy tone, 'she is far worse. You could even speak.' He pointed upwards. 'I have never… heard a noise like that.'

Chills ran over Bruce as panic and concerned swirled right behind the front of his mind. 'Find the antidote. She'll be dead any second.'

Alfred ran for the music room while Bruce tracked the sounds.

It was like a very thick wall had been built around all sense of reason or reality, and everything else poured from the sky.

In front of my eyes flashed demons, ghosts, ghouls, bodies, everything. The drug fuelled my veins and forced my mind to feel so completely terrified. I didn't know if I was moving or not, I couldn't tell.

Bruce walked up the stairs, stopping to study a smear of blood near the top.

Fire, water, wind, darkness, bright lights, everywhere. Trapped. I could feel it burning me and writhed around the house, trying to keep quiet in case the walls were angered, my heart beating so fast it would be forgiven for stopping any second.

Make it stop. Stop... End. End. No more…

I ran through the house, or was the house running over me?

I rounded a corner to collide with something that felt as cold as ice. I looked up into the burning eyes of a monster, as dark consumed all of my vision but the creature. It looked like a photo taken at high exposure, and blood poured off from it.

Death. The incarnate of death.

I screamed so hard I could feel the pain in my vocal chords through the haze of fear and backed away wildly, wanting nothing more than to put distance, any kind of distance between me and it. The world shifted, the work of its power, and I felt searing pain tear through half of my body, now sliding as I felt like I was leaning against a wall, thrashing around, though my feet weren't touching any ground.

I was going to die. That was fine, I was fine with just accepting my death. If I wasn't so petrified of everything that surrounded me.

End it… get me out of this. I felt my mind rip a little further.

I couldn't tell which way up I was and then death descended on me. I screamed and slid on whatever it was in whichever direction, feeling like I wasn't moving at all as I was consumed by the eyes of death, swallowed by a void that chilled me and I felt like I was animating a dead corpse. If I was animated at all, I couldn't tell.

My arm hurt the most and I feared the light that had creeped through my head, pounding on my skull like it was demanding to be let in, even though it already was. I was pulled from the wall, or sky, or stand, or water by hands made only of bone, that scraped through my skin and tore my flesh open.

I writhed in pain and fought against the hold. Bound by the hold I was smothered in, trapped in I fought and fought from where I was hung upside down, falling toward a pit, swiping for the eyes behind me.

We turned and flew through the sky, flying distances that scared me, too fast, too wild… the impending crash sent more dread coursing through me and my mind was two seconds away from shattering completely.

It recoiled and a strange, muffled and muted sense of logic trickled in. They weren't supposed to be injured by me, no matter how hard I fought. I seized my chance and attacked again, trying to kill it.

It was toying with me, teasing me as it tore my thoughts apart before I'd registered them. I couldn't think, I didn't know who or where or how I was…

I began to hear metallic screeches of pain whenever I felt my disconnected hands hit something.

It stabbed a knife through my arm, and I twisted it away desperately, but it kept going no matter how hard I fought and came out the other side.

I writhed and twisted as we plummeted toward the sky, feeling it stab through my side, my leg and neck.

I shrivelled and swiped outward, no longer hearing my own screams.

I kept fighting until I began to feel more and more like I was floating sideways and up, feeling like I was about to surface from air into water.

When the water hit, I screamed and suddenly the eyes blinked. I stared, unable to look away as the fear held me in place.

The eyes morphed from red to black to brown to gain a little green. And the details filled in around it. Bruce Wayne.

I screamed in fear when I recognised him and I flew, turned, ran, or swam, or whatever it was, toward him.

The hell continued around me and I shut my eyes, screaming in a message to it all to go, trying to reach him as he laughed, too far away to be caught by my reach.

I was lying, the ceiling was above me.

I tried to roll away from a monster. It hit me in retaliation, breaking bones and I screamed, curling desperately toward the miles-away Bruce Wayne and writhing in pain as I could feel my bones melting through the cold.

My torso was off the floor, supported, held by Bruce Wayne.

The noises, the rasping yells and the clanging of bells attacked me again and I writhed, hands over my eyes as I tried to block the sound with my own scream.

The pain I was in was from earlier fights, minor falls and trips, and the gash in my upper side.

'Evelyn.'

It sounded like it wasn't the first time the name was said, but it was the first time I'd heard it.

Alfred Pennyworth was standing nearby, looking like he'd been told to stay back for his own safety. There were tears streaming from his eyes as he looked at me. There were tears streaming down my own face from the pain.

I looked up to see a hellfire swooping towards us and immediately ducked under Bruce Wayne's arm, curling into and around him as tightly as I could, scream increasing in volume until it never reached me and I gasped, opening my eyes and panting, flailing around like waking from a dream when falling.

Nothing was attacking me.

It scared me and I curled around again, face down to the floor, whimpering.

I felt warm as arms wrapped tighter around me now that I'd stopped thrashing and I was held gently in place, shaking and shivering.

The only sounds were caused by me.

The walls scared me, Bruce Wayne scared me, the floor, the air… everything around me made me shiver and tremble, shutting my eyes and hiding.

It passed, it always did.

Bruce gently rocked back and forth, equally for his benefit as for mine, putting his forehead on my shoulder in sheer relief as he wrestled with his heartrate to calm himself down, breathing heaving in an unsteady rhythm as the fact they'd made it in time slwoly sunk in.

I was still making sobbing noises, coughing and shaking, head spinning as it still felt lighter than the clouds. I focused everything I had on Bruce, ignoring the sneering walls and chilling air.

Bruce was nearly suffocating me, his hold was so tight, terrified to yet let go.

'Evelyn,' said Alfred, appearing in my vision looking more settled now as I looked up, rolling onto my side, facing away from Bruce to look at the concerned butler. He was looking at me in shock. 'You shouldn't have your mind. You should be dead.'

That explained why Bruce seemed so utterly shattered as we sat in his still-intact manor. I put a hand on one of the arms he had around me. 'I'm sorry for scaring you,' I said to Alfred, while I anchored my alive presence to Bruce, who put his head on my shoulder again for a long moment before finally recovering enough to speak.

If he wasn't so fond of me himself, Alfred might have studied how quickly Bruce had grown to care about me to this extent. Though, in fairness, I had nearly died while protecting his family home.

'Are you alright?' He asked shakily, looking carefully and deep at my face and into my eyes to hopefully find a steady mind.

My head swayed, trying not to think about the gash under my arm in an attempt to ignore the pain a little. 'Yeah.' I grabbed his hand, holding it. 'Yeah, I'm alright.' I let my head fall back, finally at peace.

I glanced at Alfred, who looked as white as his cleanest plates and reached out to also pat his arm. He nodded his thanks and then produced a bandage.

I nodded forebodingly and Bruce sat me up with ease, not letting go of me. I gasped from the pain, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be.

'It's a really shallow cut,' I said as Bruce moved to stand us up, 'I can bandage it and I'll be fine. We have to stop Ra's al Ghul.'

He nodded and stood up, taking me with him.

When upright I immediately slumped. Bruce pulled me against him and held my arm over his shoulders to keep me standing. We waited a moment for my head to stop spinning and I leant sideways against Bruce, who steadied me with his free hand, and we walked back through the manor to the music room, Alfred walking behind me like a watchful mother duck, silently able to communicate when to slow, when to turn and when to take a moment to steady ourselves.

Alfred hurried to open the secret door and we got into the lift.

By then I was standing by myself, Bruce keeping a hand on my arm as the lift jostled on its way down. He bore a bruising mark on the side of his jaw and a faint scratch on his forehead that made it look like he'd ducked.

'Did I do that?' I swayed as the lift rocked around.

Bruce nodded, looking at me, finally relaxed and impressed.

I blinked. Wow. I nodded my thanks once again to Bruce and Alfred as the lift stopped.

Alfred opened the grate and we stepped out. Bruce opened the cupboard to his suit and took it, ready to get changed.

No time to rest.