Maybe you need the warning, or maybe not, but there is a MAJOR character death.

Chapter Eleven

While he was in the League of Shadows - not officially so - Jonathan underwent defense and self-defense training in weapons more than just his fear toxin. His weapon of choice, the ranger pistol, was long-range firepowered as much as the rifle version. However, one of the few things he remembered Ra's telling him was that the gun was quick to strike, but it could also deceive. Now wasn't the time, however.

He, the girl of his dreams, and the other two people he now considered his friends in these present circumstances, ran like the wind through the jungle without encountering any pygmy mummies; he automatically assumed the undead soldiers behind them raised by Anna would do the trick and protect their "mistress" if the little midget mummies tried to come near her. They had little Damien to rescue and an immortal dead man to kill. He laughed to himself. Oh, the irony.

The jungle air was heavy with humid and causing their skins to sweat through the pores, only adding to their determination to get to the pyramid deep within the heart of this godforsaken place. The earth was soft beneath their feet, but that didn't mean it would make it easier for them to run; there was also quicksand to watch out for. Bats would sometimes fly past their heads, and Sinéad would scream and try batting them away with both her free hand and the one that held her gun. He noticed her long hair fly out behind her like a raven's wing, the sight so enchanting and so distracting that he nearly lost focus of where he was going and nearly stumbled over a tree trunk fallen over and onto Rachel.

"My God, look!" she yelled, pointing ahead.

The sun is rising, Jonathan thought as he followed her gaze. Today is the day. And it was rising over the horizon fast, just a half-circle of gold outlined in pink and red amid smoky blue. The sun was coming into the sky for the final day...the beginning of the next apocalypse...the beginning of the end.

"It's not the end of the line yet!" Bruce shouted as they crossed the vast fallen tree serving as a bridge, getting to the other side of the endless chasm beneath them; it was so deep that Jonathan's head spun and he nearly fell himself if Sinéad had not been there for him. "We're almost there!" And he was right, for in the distance, there it was: the Gold Pyramid, its peak popping out above the forestry of palms, "winking" as the story went. However, it was a dull golden brown instead of the pure gold it was supposed to be. Ra's has not awakened yet, and neither is his army. They have to be alive in order for the temple to return to its former glory. The path cleared and showed the pyramid more and more as the group neared the resting place of the man they did not want to bring about the apocalypse on this world, as well as where the son of two of the members was held as ransom and possibly the next heir to the kingdom of hell.

Eventually, by the time they entered the clearing - and the view of the Gold Pyramid in full glory at last - all four of them collapsed right before the steps of the entrance, exhausted and tired to their bones, lowering their weapons to their sides to catch their breaths. Jonathan's lungs were burning with holding his breath in desperation and speed, and he leaned his head backwards, touching a step.

A sudden weight caused him to look down and see that Sinéad was leaning her head on his chest, gasping for air with him. It amazed him how strong she was, everything they'd been through so far. She had been there for him when he opened up to her about his dark past and his secrets, she'd saved him from those scumbags at the bar he would no longer work at once - if - they got out of Egypt alive. She was brilliant, fierce, and intelligent; she could have been anything she wanted, instead choosing a simple life as an artist and passionate about history, harboring a magical but dangerous secret like himself. And that kiss aboard the plane...Jonathan realized now that he was...in love with Sinéad.

They remained there for what felt like an eternity, Jonathan uttering a laugh that sounded hollow to his own ears. How funny was it, realizing his feelings for her in an exotic but death-ridden location of all places, when the world was coming to an end? He may never have thought it would come to this, but he had never felt so much better in his life. But could he be certain that she felt the same? He looked over to see Rachel in the position he was in, with Wayne leaning onto her this time; the sight he couldn't help but think befitting. Had I know earlier what love truly was, would I have turned out differently? Would I have had it in me to be married with a family now, actually helping people at the asylum and being respected?

He never got the opportunity to find those answers before they heard the sound of rifles cocking, and a gruff voice he remembered all too well. "Alright, get up, all of you."

Jonathan jerked his head behind him, Sinéad following him, and Rachel and Bruce, all four of them getting up right away at the sight of the four men in black, and he recognized three of them being his violators; Sinéad hissed angrily and was beginning to fire at them before the one who had been the one she drew the dagger on laughed and pointed his gun at her.

"Don't even think about it this time, sweet cheeks." Jonathan's blood boiled at the name insulting her; how dare he?! "The lady wants all of you in and unharmed." He grinned maliciously as he and his companions took their weapons and pointed them at all four of them, forcing them forward and into the place of their doom.

~o~

According to legend, the Gold Pyramid was estimated to be about four hundred and seventy feet tall unlike some others which could be up to four hundred and fifty to four hundred and eighty over time. It was built with blocks of gold and made to function more as a vast, elaborate temple than simply a tomb as other pyramids were. Within this place was a maze of corridors, rooms, and passageways; if Bruce were a child again, he should feel like he was on an exhibit with all the giddiness of a young child checking out the cool artifacts on a class trip or with his parents, but no. Not with two guns pointed at him, same with his friends and the woman he pined for and wanted to marry...if it weren't for the horrid knowledge that her life would end today, and they both knew it as much as neither wanted to. I lost her once, I can't lose her again.

The corridors were as any other in any Egyptian pyramid. Sandstone and plastered with dust and centuries of unuse that somehow managed to remain in good shape despite lack of care; statues of guards and pharaohs from long ago still stood, with many hieroglyphs and pictures of the gods and goddesses shown obviously. Nobody uttered a word or even a sound as they were led down the corridors and up a few flights of stairs where more exquisite carvings and symbols were shown on either side of them, until Bruce and his companions were forced through an opened doorway where a woman in black stood, her back facing them even as they were brought in to stand before her.

Bruce quickly looked at their new surroundings; the various rectangular pillars supporting the ceiling were covered entirely in figures of the past and more symbols, providing more space for walking about than actually needed, but the Egyptians believed in supporting the departed monarch into the next afterlife, except Imhotep himself had been a fanatic and powerful than most. He wouldn't be surprised if the man was wealthier than the pharaoh of his time, Seti I. It would be dull if this place had no sacred treasury bestowed somewhere, not that any of it mattered now.

"So happy you could come, Bruce. And your friends." The woman turned around to show a face of twisted yet sensual beauty he would have found attractive if it weren't for the obvious fact that she was bad news. Her long dark hair was in a braid behind her back, her eyes blue as the cloudless skies and shining maliciously with ambition and power, her full lips twisted into a smile as she took in the small group. She began to walk their way, her steps slow and deliberate, stopping in front of him first. On her sun-kissed skin, he smelled pink grapefruit, vanilla, honeysuckle, and plum he would have found captivating if not for who its wearer was. What the hell am I thinking? he thought angrily. It's like she has me under a dirty "love spell" or something.

"I can see why my father picked you as his pupil of all people," the woman continued, leaning closer so she could look at his face more closely, still smiling which soon faded into an expressionless mask. "Strong, dashing, like a true knight in shining armor," she purred, her face inches away from kissing him before she drew back, disgusted that she'd even done that. Bruce was himself, glad he wouldn't have that opportunity to be kissed by this woman, who had revealed herself to be Ra's al Ghul's daughter, which had to make her...Rachel's half-sister. Then she laughed as though forgetting her manners, shaking her head. "Oh, my, where are my manners? I am Talia, the daughter of Ra's al Ghul as I gave away. Which makes you and I..." she added when her attention shifted to Rachel, who squirmed mildly and jerked her arm free from her subduer.

"Half-sisters," Rachel responded, glaring at her. "Glad I never knew you because I know you're bad road, as my mother used to say."

Talia snarled at her. "Your mother, a whore. My father was married to the mother who bore me, whom he was torn from and she was forced to take his place in a prison farther from here." Bruce was furious that she would dare call the late Lena Dawes a whore and make her daughter make way for her before being grabbed by the same man. "They were in a love frowned upon by her father, a warlord, until he found out their secret marriage and exiled my father. I was inside my mother's womb when she was sent underground, grew up in hell on Earth until Mother was killed, and I escaped to find my father. To know he was off with another woman he had another daughter whose existence he knew made me sick." Her face twisted before it dissolved into an insolent smirk. "But to also know he wasn't in her life while she grew was exhilarating."

"Bitch!" Rachel shouted as she tried one last time to fight off her captor and failed, making Talia laugh again. She moved away from Bruce, past her estranged and hated half-sister and stood before Jonathan, who remained stone-faced as Bruce remembered him from his days as director of Arkham.

"Jonathan Crane." She said his name as though it were a heavy drink that was too strong for her. "The man who failed my father...but who could still prove more useful than he'd be otherwise," she said with a smile to the right corner of her mouth that Bruce saw from the side of her face, which soon turned all the way so he saw the back of her head and her braid to where Sinéad stood with her lips in a tight line as she, too, glared at the wicked woman. "Ah, the holder herself. Search her, gentlemen, for the very tool we need."

Sinéad spat out a series of Gaelic curse words as the man behind her held her as Bruce's captor let him go to walk over there and begin to search her, patting down all her torso - including the parts best left for a man who cared about her, and it got his defensive side up and running, wanting to go over and punch the hell out of the man - until finally he reached down to her left boot; she tried to kick him when he grabbed her leg in a way that made her cry out, and he growled at her to stop or he'd tear her leg off.

Soon the Blade of Life itself was out and away from its sacred guardian, in filthy hands it shouldn't be. The silver blade gleamed in the golden lights around, clearly flashing in the eyes of Talia al Ghul herself. "Ah, yes," she hissed in delight as she took it by the handle. "Magnificent." She held it up to her eyes as though it were a prized trophy she'd just won, admiring it for a few more seconds before returning her focus back to Jonathan. "Now onto the start of the important part. Hasina, the goblet, please."

A woman in white priestess robes stepped forward. A black band was over her eyes, and Bruce assumed she was blind but she could still see things more than anyone knew. She obeyed without question, handing her mistress a goblet of gold encrusted with rainbow gemstones and bowing her head once before backing away. Then Talia shifted her whole body to Jonathan and reached to rip open the front of his shirt, exposing his chest completely. Bruce couldn't believe she did that and in front of the girl he knew cared about him. Sinéad gasped at what the witch did next:

Jonathan's screams were louder than the cries of the damned of the underworld and Tartarus as the point of the knife slashed his unmarked skin, starting at the middle between where visible pectorals were supposed to be, then moving down south and stopping above his belly button, cutting deep enough to cause a bloodflow fast enough to drip down into the cup that she held to receive the blood of eternal life for her father's remains somewhere in this unholy place. The man's breathing became labored as he struggled to keep his pain under control and failed. Sinéad cursed at Talia, threatening to kill her for that, but the latter only laughed and shook her head, walking away from a bleeding Jonathan and back to where Bruce stood with Rachel beside him.

"That leads us to one last thing..." she started. "But before I do, Lee, go get the boy and bring him in here," she called over her shoulder to the man who had "searched" Sinéad, who nodded and left for outside the chamber.

Bruce couldn't - wouldn't - let her take away the woman he loved, the mother of his child, whom he would see again soon enough, but also knew Damien would witness the loss of his mother who had raised him before the whole family reunited. He moved for Talia only for her to strike him hard across the face and send him backwards. It was as if a force knocked the wind out of his body. Bruce sailed backwards in the air and crashed into one of the pillars behind him, his body numbing in mild pain coupled with the uselessness of his back from lack of exercise while confided in Wayne Manor for nearly five years.

Rachel's cry of pain brought his head back up; through his half-blurred vision, he saw that Talia, her jealous half-sister, had done what he had tried to prevent. The blade in her... "NOOOO!" he roared, jumping up and running for her, only to once more be thrown back by an invisible force when Talia threw out her right hand that didn't hold the blade. He didn't hit the pillar again, just slid along the sandy ground, remained there until he heard the woman bark orders to leave the boy with his family and their friends, just like that.

"Your lady is dying, Bruce," Talia called over her shoulder as she was the last one out the door. "Choose between following us and leaving her to pass away alone." And then she was gone, leaving them the way they were.

~o~

"Rachel! Rachel!" Bruce ran over to his lover's side. Rachel lay on her back, clutching her stomach, bleeding deep red that it stained her tank top, her breathing sharp gasps as she allowed herself to be taken into his strong arms.

"Mommy!" All heads turned in horror at the sight of the little boy they'd come all this way for, standing there as he watched his mother bleed to death in his father's arms. He ran over to them only to be stopped by Sinéad, who found it in her to support a healing-by-himself Jonathan, miraculously so. He squirmed in her arms despite her best attempts to keep him away as much as it hurt her. "She's gonna be fine, is she, Daddy?" Damien asked nervously.

Bruce nodded. "Just stay away," he ordered gently, and the boy stopped struggling in her arms. She held him close to her, feeling helpless herself. It was like the day Gran lay dying in her bed all those years ago, losing someone she cared about so much. Seeing the mother of this sweet little child slowly die broke her heart into a thousand smithereens. Rachel was a very good friend to her, so to lose her even though it was anticipated was opening another wound inside her. Bruce looked down at her pain struck face, pushing hair out of her face. "You're real strong, Rachel," he promised. "You're going to make it."

His voice shook and booked little room for actually keeping that promise. Even Rachel knew it, for she was nodding weakly. "Take care of Damien," she whispered, shakily raising a hand to touch the side of his face.

"No, sweetheart, no...I lost you once, I can't lose you again."

Sinéad felt a tear roll down her cheek at the words, even more when Rachel uttered her final words to him in that same breathless whisper. "I love you." And then she said no more, her eyes closing for one final time, her head lolling back onto his arm. Bruce broke down then, the almighty Bruce Wayne Sinéad had grown to know over the last week or so, collapsing into a storm of tears he was unable to control over the loss of the woman he loved.

"No, Rachel...come back...come back..." He repeated the words over and over as he laid the body down onto the ground, leaning over and holding onto her as he grieved.

Damien began to cry himself, leaning into Sinéad and bawling into her arms over the loss of his mother. She felt like crying herself as she held him, his warmth and innocence lighting something in her that made her realize she wanted to one day get married and have a little one like this one, but now wasn't the time to think about it. She rested her chin atop his soft dark head, looking at the heartwrenching image before her, feeling Jonathan's arms wrap around her to comfort her and the boy the best he could.

A fiery rage consumed her then. Talia al Ghul, you'll pay for this. I know you will. You may have won this round, but the fight is far from over.

I remember the first time I saw the leading lady being stabbed to death in the movie, and even though I don't cry anymore, it still hurts to this very day. Obviously enough, this isn't the end of it. Two more chapters to go, and it's a promise. :D I have to say I had as much fun with this story like the others before it.