PART 3

A Fatal Choice

The plan was simple yet elegant, as all of Ra's al Ghul's plans were. I thought that while I had been toppling the power of Gotham, Talia had been spending the bulk of her time recruiting children to the League of Shadows, but she also had another task.

"Gotham is not just figuratively unstable, but physically unstable as well," she explained to me. The two of us had gathered to informally discuss our latest set of orders in her quarters. After what her father had revealed to me, I was more than a little uncomfortable being in such an intimate setting.

"Nearly the whole city sits atop one of the largest cave systems in the state," Talia continued. "By simultaneously detonating explosives at strategic points, Gotham will be completely underground and destroyed. It will then be the task of the League to ensure that the destruction is complete by hunting down survivors, interrupting rescue personnel and destabilizing any remaining structures."

I listened to her lay out the lives of millions as bullet points and I felt my heart go cold. Was this what it meant to be in the League of Shadows? Would I be leveling cities as a part of my role from here on out? If I found a child crawling out of this manmade apocalypse, would I be expected to slit his throat?

I considered the man that I called master and shuddered.

He would expect me to do it without batting an eye.

"Well, Bruce," Talia asked, bringing me out of my cold contemplations. "What do you think? I mean, our own personal roles will mostly be that of supervision, but what is your opinion of the overall plan?"

I looked her dead in the eyes. I was sitting at the edge of her bed and she was standing, so my expression did not have its intended effect, but she did quirk an eyebrow in confusion.

"You know we can't do this," I flatly told her.

Talia frowned in confusion. "Is there something wrong with destroying the caves? I'll admit that you grew up in the area, but I did not expect you to have gathered much information on the geological qualities of the city."

"I mean all of it. You really don't mean to slaughter an entire city of innocents, do you?"

Talia returned my flat gaze. "Humor has never been your strong point, dearest. You and I were both in the same Gotham, were we not? Do you really think of the citizens of that cesspit as innocent?"

I ignored that remark. "What about all the work we did? Gathering children who could be trained to help the city, toppling the criminal empires, cleaning the slate for a stronger regime – was that all for nothing?"

"That was your interpretation of our orders. You were wrong. I think it helpful that your ego receives some damage from time to time." She smirked with that last jab, but I was not going to take the bait. "Bruce, use your head. We are both members of the League of Shadows. My father places a great deal of trust in us, but at the end of the day, we are his soldiers. He gives an order and we obey it. Period."

She was right. She was right.

So why could I not accept it? What was holding me back?

"Listen," she told me. Her voice had taken a softer tone and I looked to see an expression that matched it. "We have known each other for years, and you know that I take no joy in killing. I am loyal to my father, though. This is not mindless loyalty – if you would care to recall, you would remember that you feel the same – but an understanding of one's betters. Ra's al Ghul can see farther along the horizon than any other man on the planet. It is, and always has been, his will to return the Earth to peace and balance. If I can further the will of the Demon by taking a life, leveling a city, or burning down a rainforest, I will not only comply; I will light the match."

An uncomfortable silence fell heavily between us. I mulled my next words over several times in my head. My mind was still in turmoil, but the next things I would say had to be said.

"At one time, I would have agreed with you," I said. "And I can't find any rational reason to disagree now. But you and I saw him emerge from the Lazarus Pit. Di you see the utter madness in his eyes? How long has he lived? How many times has he emerged from that pit only to go into a temporary, mindless bloodlust? How can we even be sure that it is temporary – I mean, what possible good could come from the destruction of an entire city?"

Talia took my onslaught of questions with all the emotion of a mountain being struck by the tide.

"As I recall," Talia answered. "There were once two cities named Sodom and Gomorrah that were deemed so evil that they were wiped off the face of the Earth."

I gave her a rueful grin. I had never been very religious, even when my parents were alive, but my education involved the study of many religious texts.

"Is Ra's a god, now? A god that can decide to clear the map of any city he deems unworthy."

"My father has lived for centuries," she countered. "Who better to see the long-term advantages of a temporary – if great – tragedy? He is, after all, immortal."

"Immortal," I muttered. "But not unkillable."

I never saw the blow. My vision merely departed for an instant; followed by the sound of an open hand striking skin and the sensation that my head had been jerked violently to the right. I looked back at Talia whose hand was still withdrawing from the strike. Her face was expressionless, but her eyes burned with the very fires of hell.

I had not meant to say that last part, but I realized now that that was where my thoughts were headed. Ra's al Ghul was the closest thing to a force of nature that a human could achieve, and the only way to halt his machinations was to kill him. The thought was only countered by the sheer ridiculous concept of killing the man who had discovered immortality.

"Never," Talia whispered. Her voice was as thin and strong as a rapier. "Never again speak of taking my father's life. No matter your state of mind at the moment, you place yourself and everyone near you in danger. You are a member of the League of Shadows – one of the very Hands of the Demon! Should anyone else hear of such blatant disloyalty, your life would be forfeit."

Talia turned from me and self-consciously straightened her clothes. Her voice cooled and the heat from her eyes had died down to embers.

"I had duties to attend to, Bruce, and I believe that you do as well. Think carefully over our conversation in the coming week. I know that you will come to your senses in time and see the folly of your words. If you do not, however, I have only one thing left to say to you." She met my gaze and I could not help but think it may be for the last time. "I care for you Bruce. Our time together has been wonderful, but it cannot come before my loyalty to the League. I will not take your life, myself, but I will not stand in the way of the doom you bring on yourself."

Then she left me alone as abruptly as her father had just an hour before.

For an immeasurable amount of time, I struggled in vain to align my thoughts into conviction. Who was right? What was right? Where did my loyalties lie?

I had exactly one week to decide whether or not I was going to aid in the cataclysmic murder of millions.

What was I going to do?