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Alea Iacta Est

Having changed into a long sleeved shirt, cargo pants, and serious boots, Blake leaned against the wall as he waited for Beta to join him, the wait not a long one since Beta was dressing down, not up for this. And he wasn't surprised that her clothing was basically identical to him when she came out of the bathroom, her hair now braided and wrapped up into a bun that wouldn't give Talia any hair to yank on. She did strike Blake as a hair pulling type, after all. And without her hair styled to cover up almost half of her face Beta's facial scars and the eyepatch were much more noticeable, Blake noted briefly, his attention more focused on her torso. It was just barely visible under the cotton of her shirt, but Blake could see that she was wearing her back brace underneath, which was good. Sometimes she was stupidly stubborn about wearing it, but she wasn't taking the chance that the previous damage done to her back could be used against her in this fight. She would never be able to handle being beaten by Talia.

"You know it would help if I knew what your plan was."

"It will be fine."

"If you've come up with a way to fight her, you know she'll cheat."

"I know."

"And I feel like I have to reiterate what I said last night, about how you will destroy Barsad completely and totally if you die in front of him. And I sorta like him, actually, even if he does have horrible taste in friends." She could do a lot worse, anyway. Though he, Arthur, and at least Bruce, would still give the wolf a hard time just because Beta was like a sister to them, and therefore no man was ever going to be good enough for her in their eyes.

Rather than comment, Beta moved in and gave him a tight hug, Blake sighing as he hugged her back. She was playing him, obviously, but he was going to let her get away with it for the time being. Especially since he did have enough faith in her to know that whatever her plan was, she'd have thought it through. Even if it was apparently so crazy she was refusing to tell him about it.

"Come on. Our mates are waiting for us."

Giving her a less than impressed look, Blake didn't bother to argue about who Bane was to him as he followed her down the stairs and towards the front door, the other wolves joining them when she called out to them that they were leaving now.

"Where are we going?" Barsad asked, though his expression said he already knew the answer to his question.

"Wherever Talia is. She and I need to talk."

"She will not fight you."

Beta turned her head to meet Bane's gaze, the feral smile that curved her lips sending shivers of awareness down the spines of every male in the room.

"Yes, she will. And I'll see her whether you come with me or not. Getting in my way won't end well for ANY of you. She and I have unfinished business to discuss, and her days of fucking with the people I love ends today." A glance in Bane's direction. "How this ends depends on her, but she and I are having it out. Today."

None of them were stupid enough to argue with her.

They knew a woman on a mission when they saw one. And none of them wanted to be collateral damage. So rather than argue they all exited the cabin, Blake locking up behind them before they headed for the vehicles parked in front of it.

Bane went to his car to lead the way, the rest of them thankfully all able to fit in Kingsley's car. Blake ended up riding shotgun, since there was no way Barsad wasn't sitting beside Beta and Salar pointed out that as the other alpha in the vehicle, technically, Blake should be riding in front anyway.

This of course led to a discussion of whether it was better for him to be in the front or in the back of the car, a ridiculous thing to get hung up on course, but it was something to talk about during the relatively short car ride, the last four minutes or so spent in rather awkward, anticipatory silence that ended when the car came to a stop, Blake ordering Barsad and Kingsley to keep Beta between them. He and Salar would bring up the rear.

The silence that had preceded that statement contrasted sharply with the outside world when they left the car, Bane had apparently made some calls while in his vehicle, and so the vast majority of Beta's former pack was congregating in front of the house Talia had been sequestered in, the woman herself standing on the house's front stoop with her arms tightly crossed in front of her, her pinched expression and the way she flinched at the sight of Beta gratifying. And to be expected.

Talia might not admit, even to herself, that Beta was her superior, Blake knew, but the fact that she was alive confirmed one, undeniable thing. That Talia's father had lied to her when he'd told her that Layla was dead.

Sandwiched between her mate and father, Beta didn't have a lot of room to move around as they headed towards the house, but the whole pack made it work as those who remembered her, the way she'd led and taken care of them before she'd been taken from them, and therefore embraced her as a pack member and not as an unknown. Others remembered but hung back, their training warring and winning over their more personal feelings about her sudden reappearance. And of course there were those who were loyal to Talia to the bone, and who stood as a protective wall between the two women, prepared to leap to their alpha's defense at the slightest hint of aggression from Beta.

Because no one believed that there wasn't going to be blood shed.

Greetings and nods exchanged, those who weren't protecting Talia from her moved out of Beta's way so that she could get closer to the woman whose actions had caused her to be banished and sent to the living hell that had been the Gotham compound.

Beta made no attempt to battle her way through the line of defense in front of her, stopping when she was just out of arm reach of the guards, the men protecting her all braced to defend as well, Blake's claws out and ready to maim.

"Talia."

"Layla."

"I'd say that you've brought dishonor to the pack, but those were just lines your father fed us, weren't they? We were never meant to be honorable or just. We weren't created to make this world a better place and do work we could be proud of. We were meant to do two things and two things only. Enslave the world so that your father could run it the way he wanted in to be, and to hell with what the rest of the population wanted, and to protect the two of you. Die and bleed for you so that you two could just sit back and let us suffer in your place."

Multiple sounds of shock echoed in the small clearing, Talia's father considered sacrosanct in their wolf pack. You did NOT speak badly of him. Ever.

"You dare to speak of my father that way!"

"Well if he wanted me to remain brainwashed where he was concerned, he shouldn't have written down his plans for us for me to read."

And on that note Beta reached into the large sized pocket located on her right thigh, removing from it a hand sized leather book, which she held up for everyone to see.

The shock was ten times greater now, the book one the whole pack knew and would recognize anywhere. It was their former leader's book. The one Ra's al Ghul had carried with him always, and had often been seen writing in. His manifesto, he'd called it, though none had ever been honored with the chance to read his words.

A book not seen since al Ghul had disappeared.

A book that had never left al Ghul's possession.

Talia's howl of absolute fury erupted and blasted the ears of everyone present, her face contorting into one of all consuming rage and hatred.

)

Bane barely made it in time to intercept Talia, only his nearness to her making it possible since he'd been frozen dumb along with everyone else at the sudden appearance of their leader's book, and more, the obvious conclusions one could draw from her possession of it. Because al Ghul would have given up that book over his dead body. And the man had not been seen since their capture and transportation to England to 'join' their genetic parent's pack.

They'd all concluded long ago that he was dead.

Breaking through her wall of protection as she did, Bane got in front of Talia and placed restraining hands on her shoulders as he spoke loud enough for all to hear. "She was too injured to have killed him. It wasn't her, Talia. Don't let her manipulate you."

Possibly too far gone to understand him, too deep in her rage and pain to hear or comprehend, Talia simply snarled up at him and tried to break his grip on her shoulders without success, the hands she put on his chest to try and push him out of her way further proof of her state of mind.

"I didn't kill him. Like Bane, said I wasn't up to it. But I do know who killed him. And a bunch of other information you might find interesting involving his death." Reaching into her pocket again, Beta held up a USB between two fingers. "And this and the book, why it can be all yours, Talia."

Arms sliding between Bane's arms and torso, Talia's fingers curved into claws as she continued to try to get at Beta, Bane remaining firmly planted in her way. "Give them both to me! That was my father's! I deserve to know what happened to him!"

"And I'm challenging you to a fight for position of Alpha of your pack. And don't say that I have to fight Barsad or Bane for that right. It's you and me, Talia. That's how it has to be. Agree, or I crush this USB and I burn this book. Which means you'll never see either again. They'll be gone forever."

Gasps all around.

The rules had been laid out long ago concerning challenges. A challenge had to be accepted. There was no weaseling out of it; the only way for the challenged to honorably avoid the match in question was if he or she could legitimately claim that their challenger was too far down in the ranks to be worthy of facing off with them. In that case the challenged could insist that their challenger prove this or her worth by defeating an individual close to the higher ranking individual's own level. Hence Beta stating that Talia wasn't allowed to pass on the challenge to Bane or Barsad, insuring that the prey she'd come for was the prey she wanted.

"BANE! Take them from her!"

Ideally he would do exactly that, to remove the treat from the trap, but Bane knew that realistically, he couldn't. "I'd have to get through Barsad, Blake, Salar, and Kingsley to get to her." And none of them would go down easy, particularly his kitten and Barsad. "You know that she'll destroy both items before I got through them just for spite. And if I harm Kingsley his pack will be after ours. You don't want that bloodshed."

The look she gave Bane said that yes, yes she did want that bloodshed. She wanted them all dead. Every single person that got in her way, dead.

"Talia. Think."

"Is that a no, Tally?"

Beta's words sinking in, Bane knew what was coming, the use of that hated nickname always the last straw. No one but Beta had used that particularly hated moniker in decades.

"I accept, you bitch! And I'm going to rip your heart right out your chest!"

"You and what army?"

"Ten minutes! The football pitch! Bane, let me go!"

Seeing no alternative, Alea iacta est, as it were, the die has been caste, Bane let Talia go, the feeling of her slip through his fingers making his chest ache and his hands shake a little as they dropped down to his sides. But what else could he do now? There was no way to stop her.

Whirling around Talia march back towards the house, throwing the door open and then slamming it shut behind her.

"All right…explain to me why I wouldn't have approved of that plan?" Blake's tone was utterly confused, as was Bane, for that matter, since now that Blake mentioned it, he couldn't see why she would have withheld the knowledge from Blake either. It was a simple, logical plan.

Beta's tone was lightly amused. "Not telling you meant that you could honestly say you didn't know what I was going to do before I did it."

Turning around to face them, Bane locked eyes with Beta. And while normally their audience would give him pause, there was no point in holding back. In pretending they all didn't know how this was going to all go down. "Please don't kill her."

"That depends on her. You know it does."

Technically a challenge to increase one's rank within their pack ended when one of the combatants either lost consciousness, or yielded. And it went without saying that Talia would never yield. Which meant Talia would either have to lose consciousness…or die.

Even with rage on her side Bane knew in his heart that Talia couldn't win this fight. Not in a fair fight, anyway. That Talia wasn't likely to fight fair also went without saying, Bane under no illusion when it came to what Talia was capable of here, especially when there was not just Talia's pride and rank riding on this, but the not at all small matter of the book and USB Beta had used as bait to get Talia to agree to the fight in the first place.

His gaze dropping to the items in question, Beta very pointedly turned and handed them off to Blake, who took them and put them in his own trouser thigh pocket.

The way his kitten looked at him had Bane looking away, unable to bear the sympathy and understanding he saw on the other man's face.

Instead he turned his attention to giving orders to his men to head for the field, knowing that they'd need to witness this. Not that he could probably keep any of them away without giving them orders to do so, and he couldn't in this case.

All of this, according to the rules set forth by Ra's al Ghul, was beyond his control now.

)

Ten minutes later the majority of both Kingsley's pack and Talia's were present on the pitch, spread out in a large circle while the two women stood in the middle, dressed for combat as they circled each other while their silent audience hoped for various outcomes. Kingsley was bracketed between Eames's father and Barsad, while on Barsad's other side Bane stood with Bane's father on his right. Blake stood a slight distance away from them all with Salar, knowing he couldn't stand at Bane's side, and that even if he could…his presence would not be welcome.

When the women went at each other, they did so silently and with lethal grace. It had been years since they'd fought, since that last, life changing struggle that Beta had both won and lost, but as the first few punches and kicks were avoided and deflected as they fell into a rhythm, it was obvious that they both knew each other's fighting style.

And then Beta started to make clear that she'd been trained in a whole other way of fighting.

Playtime was over, it seemed, as blood scented the air and the sound of cartilage breaking broke the silence as Talia's nose broke.

But Talia was far from beaten, the kick she aimed in Beta's direction just brushing by her as Beta dodged out of the way, grabbing the leg in turn and twisting it hard, her intent to break it obvious from the hold she was using. Talia was not about to let that happen though, and contorted backward so that her hands steadied her Talia kicked out again with her free leg, freeing herself for the moment.

They returned to bobbing and weaving, thought that didn't last long before Beta was delivering full body blows that featured lethal right and left hooks, and a roundhouse kick that had Talia flying backward onto her ass, Talia's curses painting the air.

"Gym fit ain't street fit, Tally. That all you got?"

When she got to her feet there was a new gleam in Talia's eyes, one that suggested that she'd burned through the earlier rage that had driven her to blindly accept the challenge Beta had issued. Now an icy, though not quite sane cool seemed to have overtaken her.

And with it proof that she had noticed what was underneath Beta's shirt.

The brace could only do so much, after all, and the grievous injuries Beta had received while leaving the Gotham compound still affected her ability to twist and bend her spine, which Talia had also noticed and now did her level best to take advantage of.

Which meant she got some hits in now as the battle continued, Beta's blood hitting the ground too and new bruises blooming, but Blake, Arthur, and those loyal to them had spent hours upon hours training Beta to find ways to get around her weaknesses. And more importantly, they'd taught her not to fight with honor.

They'd taught her how to win at all costs because the alternative, especially in Gotham, was death.

Hence the punch to Talia's throat, followed by Beta getting a good grip on one of Talia's ears and tearing it partly before Talia managed to get loose.

Stumbling back as she screamed in pain and outrage as she clutched her torn ear, Talia's other hand seemed to brace on her thigh as she recovered, and then suddenly she was bolting forward and swinging out at Beta, the blow just making contact, the light hitting metal on that fist as three thin scratches bloomed on her cheek.

Hissing a curse, Beta grabbed that fist and twisting it painfully forced Talia to punch herself in the face a couple of times before kicking Talia away from her. Talia landed on her ass, the look on her face as she clutched her scratched up jaw a mixture of fury, fear, and foreboding.

Standing in front of her, Beta stared down at Talia with knowing eyes, her gaze landing on the ring Talia had slid on moments before. "Laced it, did you? That ring you slipped on? Because if you did, you should know that in Gotham, Crane dosed us all regularly with poisons and paralyzers so that we'd build up an immunity to them. Unless you have Arthur's venom on it, odds are I'll be fine. What's it going to do to you?"

Talia didn't answer.

She was too busy falling backward, her body shuddering in small, spastic convulsions.