Prepare yourself for arguably the saddest chapter in the trilogy.
Instantly, reporters surrounded Bruce asking all sorts of questions. He nervously fumbled with his tie, so I gave his hand a reassuring squeeze.
"How does it feel to be one of the people, Wayne?" one asked.
"Mr. Wayne!" a valet exclaimed running up to him. "They're towing your car. I didn't know what to do. They had paperwork!"
The police attempted to hold all the reporters back and away from us.
"Looks like the two of you need a ride, huh?" I heard. I turned to find John Blake motioning us towards his police car. He was really good-looking too. Was it some kind of rule that the main characters in these movies had to be attractive?
Bruce and I left with him and I was forced to sit in the back of the car. It really weirded me out to be in the back of a police car, but I sucked it up.
"You must be Kristina Jacobson," Blake threw back.
"Call me Kris."
"It's nice to meet you in person."
Blake asked Bruce something, but I couldn't make out what it was. But then I heard Bruce say, "She knows."
"You know about his double life?" Blake asked me.
"I'm living in the Manor. I had to find out eventually," I laughed.
Blake then began to make conversation with Bruce. "When you started, why the mask?"
"To protect the people closest to me."
"But you were a loner, right? You didn't have any family. Well, I mean, until Kris came around." I smiled. It was so entertaining to see how all the conversations I knew oh-so-well were changing due to my presence in the story.
"There are always people you care about. You just don't realize how much until they're gone."
I knew he was talking about Rachel. Deep down, I knew that there would always be a part of him that loved Rachel. I had learned to accept that for the most part. I was just afraid that that part of him would never let him completely be with me…and perhaps love me.
"The idea was to be a symbol," Bruce continued. "Batman could be anybody. That was the point."
"Well, it was good to see him back."
"Not everybody agrees."
"They'll figure that out in the end."
"You got anything on Bane's whereabouts?"
"Yeah, I got five hundred pages of tunnel records and a flashlight. I could use some help actually."
"You know what? Drop us in Old Town."
Cool, I'd finally get to meet Catwoman.
When Blake dropped us off, Bruce led us upstairs to where Selina lived. Then we ran into one of the most annoying characters ever created. Jen. A woman who served absolutely no purpose at all to the story.
She tried to hustle us for some money when we went to get into Selina's apartment. Bruce tried to push past her, but she stopped him.
"Hey, hey, hey, I don't think so!" Bruce said angrily.
"We don't owe you anything!" I shouted over top of him.
"That's the way this works!" she answered.
"I don't think so!"
"That is the way—"
"They're not marks," I heard. I looked up to see none other than Selina Kyle. She was such a beautiful woman. She had one of those bodies that other women craved. "And he doesn't have a cent to his name anyway."
Bruce and I followed her into her apartment where she was evidently packing up to leave.
"Yeah, it's not much," she admitted. "But it's more that you've got right now."
"Actually, they're letting me keep the house."
"The rich don't even go broke the same as the rest of us, huh?"
"My powerful friend might hope to change your mind about leaving."
"And how would he do that?"
"By giving you what you want."
"It doesn't exist."
"He says it does. He wants to meet. Tonight."
Wait a second, tonight? Were we really at that point already? No, no, no, I was not ready for this! It couldn't be tonight! I had just gotten him back! I couldn't lose him again!
"Why?"
"He needs to find Bane. He says you'd know how."
"Tell him I'll think about it."
Bruce nodded and turned to leave. "Okay. I like your place."
"Mr. Wayne?" she called. He turned back to her. "I'm sorry they took all your money."
There was a pause, then Bruce answered, "No, you're not." Gosh, I loved hearing all these hilarious lines in person!
We hailed a cab outside (luckily for him, I had better experience grabbing one than he did), and made our way back to the Manor. It began to pour on the ride back. I had a feeling that even though I was here, Miranda/Talia was going to show her face. When we got back, Bruce grabbed a newspaper in the cab and he got out first. I gave some money to our driver and told him, "You may wanna wait a couple minutes before leaving. Trust me."
Bruce held the paper over my head, which didn't really help, but I commend him for trying. When we made it to the door, he tried to open it, but it didn't work.
"Nobody's answering," a voice said. Sure enough, there was Miranda/Talia. "Miss Jacobson."
"Miss Tate," I said with feigned kindness. I think she noticed. Good.
"No, uh, I'm on my own now," Bruce said sheepishly.
"Do you have keys?" she asked with a certain tone in her voice that I recognized immediately. It was the tone women used when they were flirting. Who knew I could hate her more than I already did?
"Never needed them."
Miranda smiled and I wanted to hit her, especially since she was discreetly flirting with him right in front of me. I saw right through that stupid smile. I looked over at Bruce and silently pleaded with him to send her away. He knew I didn't trust her, though I know he didn't really care about that, but I did want to spend time with him alone because…well, a lot of bad things were going to go down soon. Maybe I could try to prevent it. Emphasis on try. But Bruce going to the pit was what helped him gain his strength and confidence back. It's what gave him the power to defeat Bane and "sacrifice" himself to save the city. Would everything really be messed up if I kept him from getting sent there?
So far, I hadn't really proven that I was capable of changing the story like I wanted anyway. Every time I tried to make some kind of plot-altering change, it always seemed to go the same way it did in the movie. Maybe that's why I couldn't stop him from showing Miranda/Talia the reactor. Well, if he got sent to the pit, I at least needed his back to not be broken. He certainly would save a lot of time that way.
I would just have to wait and see how everything went. One of those cross that bridge when I get there things.
Bruce got my silent message and looked at Miranda/Talia. "Look, I appreciate you coming all the way out here, but Kris and I have some things we need to take care of. Don't worry, I'll pay for the cab."
If looks could kill, I probably would've died right there. Seriously, Miranda/Talia looked at me with eyes that sucked my soul out. Again, her problem, not mine.
"You have no money anymore, Bruce. I'll take care of it." I handed her some money and she looked like she was doing her best to not strangle me. To be honest, I was kind of milking it up. She deserved it.
She got in the cab I had made wait and took off. Sayonara, Miranda!
"I guess we have to find another way in," I said to Bruce.
"This way."
He held the paper over my head again and we ran in the rain to another entrance. When we made it in, both of us were drenched.
"Hope you didn't like me for my money," he said to me.
"Of course not. What kind of shallow person would I be if that was the case? I mean come on, I just yelled at a ton of people high up in the business world and lost my job for you. Proof enough?"
This place wasn't the same without Alfred's presence. It seemed different and…empty.
I wrung the water out of my hair then I lifted up the cover on one of Bruce's tables. There was a picture of his parents that he must've salvaged from the fire nine years ago. But I was shocked to find a picture of the selfie we had taken in Hong Kong on the way to the meeting with Lau. He had framed it and kept it where all his most precious pictures were. And then there was another picture of Rachel. I took a deep breath as Bruce came up behind me and put a towel around me. The two of us remained silent as Rachel's face stared back at us.
"Bruce," I finally said as I set the picture down and turned to him. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you."
"I know."
"I miss her too."
Ever so slowly, we drew closer to one another until our lips touched and he kissed me. We began kissing with more fervor as his hand went to my head. Suddenly, the lights went off.
"What happened?" I whispered.
"I think my power's been shut off."
We chuckled and resumed our passionate kissing. I was so in love with this man. If only I could just say it.
I felt his hand on my waist and he slowly began to slide my shirt up. I abruptly ended our kiss and gently pushed him away.
"I'm sorry," he said softly.
I had never thought about discussing with him that I wanted to wait to have sex after marriage. It had just never crossed my mind. I guess I never assumed he would get this far with me.
"Look, Bruce, I do have feelings for you. But this is my first real relationship. Can we just take it slower?"
"Of course. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to overstep."
I smiled and drew him back to me and kissed him again.
We started a fire since there was no heating and both of us were freezing from the rainwater. We changed into some warmer clothes, AKA pajamas, and got under a blanket right by the blazing fire. I don't think I had ever felt safer and closer to him.
"I used to hate sleeping on the floor," I laughed as I finished stoking up the burning logs.
"I'm guessing that's changed."
I set down the stoker and lied back down next to him. "Oh, you've changed me in more ways than one." I tucked my hands under my head and looked over at him. His eyes were so full of happiness and affection towards me. And yes, he was shirtless, and yes, I was trying very hard to keep it together.
I always wondered how Marion Cotillard was able to keep her head on straight when she did this scene with Christian Bale. Let's be honest, who wouldn't be freaking out about getting to be that close to him?
Bruce put his arm around me and pulled me closer to him. I thought I was going to pass out. My face grew so hot, I'm pretty sure it was about to burst into flame.
"The same goes for me," he said, pressing his forehead to mine.
I smiled broadly and we kissed once more. If we could just stay here for hours, I would be happy. This was by far the best time in the entire trilogy for me. This beat seeing him shirtless and doing push-ups, it beat seeing all those iconic lines for myself, it even beat our first kiss. In fact, I was so content, I wasn't even thinking about what was supposed to happen in a matter of hours.
I was exhausted from the events of today. I mean, I had stood up to a bunch of jerks, lost my job, got Bruce back, met Blake and Catwoman, and managed to push Miranda/Talia away. Not to mention that getting caught in the rain earlier in addition to the heat from the fire was making me drowsy. I ended up falling asleep in Bruce's arms. What a perfect thing for a die-hard fangirl like me.
When I awoke, I smiled as I remembered just exactly where I was. I opened my eyes, and saw that Bruce wasn't next to me.
"Bruce?" I called out sleepily. Then I sat up a bit more and a terrifying thought hit me. "Bruce?" I called more urgently. "Oh, no." I quickly stood up and threw some shoes and a jacket on. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no." I kept saying that over and over again as I searched for Bruce's keys. Under the circumstances, I don't think he'd mind if I borrowed his car. I eventually found the key to a Porsche that hadn't been taken from him yet. Racing down to where he kept his cars, I sped off as fast as I could to where I knew Bane was camping out and where Catwoman was leading Batman into a trap. I didn't even bother to think about that fact that I was still in pajamas.
Once I arrived at the tunnels, I leapt out of the car and tried to make it down before it was too late. I knew everyone there knew Batman's identity thanks to Bane's big mouth (um…bad choice of words), so it was okay for me to call him by name. As I got deeper and deeper into the tunnels, I could hear screams and punches. Oh, please don't let me be too late. Luckily, Batman and Catwoman had taken out all the guards so I just walked past their unconscious bodies.
"I am the League of Shadows," I heard Bane say. "I am here to fulfill Ra's Al Ghul's destiny!"
I finally made it to the grate Catwoman was watching from. "Bruce!" I screamed in a panic.
"Kris?" he said as he looked up.
"Ah, how lovely of you to join us, Miss Jacobson," Bane said to me. "You're just in time for the show."
"Please don't do this," I begged.
"Kris, get out of here," Bruce said to me with labored breathing. He tackled Bane, but Bane was able to throw him off.
"You fight like a younger man. Nothing held back. Admirable, but mistaken."
Suddenly, the lights went off all around us.
"Oh," Bane said. "You think darkness is your ally. But you merely adopted the dark. I was born in it. Molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man. By then, it was nothing to me but blinding!" I watched in horror as he grabbed Batman's throat and began to choke him. And there was nothing I could do. "The shadows betray you because they belong to me." He punched him over and over again on the ground until I heard his cowl crack. But that wasn't the last thing that was going to crack…
"Please…" I just barely whispered.
"I will show you where I have made my home whilst preparing to bring justice. Then, I will break you."
No, please don't break him!
Someone tossed Bane a detonator. He pushed the button and the ceiling caved in with a thunderous explosion that made me jump, sending a Tumbler down to where we were.
"Your precious armory. Gratefully accepted. We will need it."
Bane's henchmen crawled out of the hole he had made and began storing up their weapons from where Bruce and I had been just a couple weeks before. Batman slowly and painfully got up. I had never seen him so…weak.
"Ah, yes!" Bane said. "I was wondering what would break first!" He delivered a few more blows to the poor man that sent him into a crumpling heap. "Your spirit…" He hoisted Batman up above his head. No. No, no, no, no, I couldn't handle this. I couldn't do this. Please don't. I can't take it. "Or your body!"
He brought Batman down across his knee and a loud, sickening crack echoed all throughout the place.
"NO!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. Tears filled my vision as I put my hand to my mouth. The man I loved was being nearly killed right in front of me. Bane took off half of his broken cowl and tossed it into the rushing river. Two of Bane's henchmen took Bruce's arms and carried him away. Away from me.
"No. Bruce!" I screamed, banging on the grate. "Bruce!"
"Come on," a female voice said softly. Catwoman. "We gotta get out of here."
I allowed her to take me because I knew she was right. I watched Bruce for as long as I could, unwilling to let him go. When we made it back up to the surface, I leaned against the wall to support myself. I felt like all the air had left me and I couldn't stand any longer. My breathing came in short gasps as the sound of Bruce's back breaking echoed in my head. I had never been able to handle that sound when it was on my TV. So hearing it in person made me just want to puke all over the place.
I could feel Selina staring at me, still in shock herself.
"You did this," I said with venom lacing my words.
"I didn't know that was Bruce Wayne," she mumbled.
"Does it matter? I haven't seen him for years, and thanks to you, I may never see him again."
"I know. And there's nothing I can do to change that."
She walked off, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I numbly climbed back into Bruce's car and drove back to the Manor. When I got out of the car, I felt like I was living in a dream, no, a nightmare. I went back inside and slowly went to Bruce's room to hold on to him.
Once there, the memories were all too much and I crashed onto the floor in violent sobs.
I had lost him.