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The first time he showed her the stars, she was so small that he could carry her with one arm. He remembers it like it was yesterday…

Talia is jolted awake with a gasp. Visions from her nightmare dance before her eyes in the darkness and she reaches out blindly for Bane. He is already awake and places his hand on her shoulder, calming her. She shivers and lies back down, wrapping her thin arms around his neck, wanting to be as close to him as possible. The feeling of his skin against her own soothes her as she rests her forehead against his cheek.

"Nightmare?" he asks softly and she nods against him in answer. He knows that it is about her mother.

In his mind, he curses the woman. He will never tell Talia, for her love for her mother is pure and untainted, but he despises the now dead princess. In his eyes, the woman condemned her child to a life of Hell. She had chosen her lover over the unborn life in her womb, rashly deciding to take his place in The Pit without giving a second thought to the future of her daughter. He shakes his head to clear the dark thoughts.

"All is well, angel, you have nothing to fear." he assures her, stroking her shoulder soothingly. He feels her release a pent up breath and her body slackens against his. Believing she is drifting back asleep, Bane allows himself to relax and join her in slumber.

Only a few moments pass and he feels her fidget in his arms. He sighs, knowing that if she is not asleep by now, it will be awhile before she finds its peaceful refuge again.

He sits up and swings his feet over the small cot, stretching his arms high above his head as he does so. Talia is instantly pressed to his side, nervously reaching for his hand.

"Where are you going?" she whispers. He says nothing, but scoops her into his arms and quietly slips out of the cell.

The Pit is quiet at this time of night. All of the prisoners are in their cells, sleeping away another mindless day. Bane carefully makes his way to the mouth of The Pit, sending a careful glance around to make sure no one has caught him and his angel on their midnight stroll. Satisfied that they are safe, he lowers himself to the ground, placing Talia on his lap. Now that they are under the moonlight, he can see her large eyes staring up at him, full of questions. She has no idea what he is up to. She has only been in his care for a few months, and her mother had never dared to take her beyond the bars of their cell.

Bane places his hands on her shoulders and turns her so her back is against his chest. He feels her stiffen, a nervous tremble racing down her spine. He leans back and guides her back with him. With his left hand behind him to hold them up, he uses his right to guide her eyes upward.

At first, she is utterly confused. She looks up at the walls of The Pit, bathed in moonlight. What does he want her to see? He gently guides her head up farther, and finally she sees what he is looking at.

The sky in the desert is perfectly clear, and she is in awe of what she sees. A large, round ball of light, surrounded by thousands, maybe millions, of twinkling pin-points of light meet her eyes. They are different sizes, some so small that she is not sure if they are really there.

"That is the moon." Bane whispers to her, pointing at the large ball of light. She mouths the word 'moon' and stares up at it in amazement. She can clearly see the imperfections in its surface, and she asks him what they are. He is delighted by her curiosity.

"Those are craters, giant holes in the ground."

"Like this one?" she asks, and he smiles softly.

"Maybe. The little lights are called stars."

She once again mouths the word and cranes her head back farther to get a better view. She decides she has never seen anything more beautiful in her life.

Bane smiles to himself at her reaction.

"Someday, when we leave this place, we will sleep out under the stars." He tells her, and she turns to face him. Her smile is genuine and it gives him a warm feeling in his chest.

She has no more nightmares after their trip outside the cell. Instead, she dreams of stars, and all the wonderful things she and her protector will do when they are free.


They are seated on the roof of her father's dojo, once again staring at the night sky. It is too cold for them to sleep out under them, like he had told her they would, so she takes what she can get.

Bane's thoughts are on everything but the stars. He studies the young woman sitting next to him, staring up in to the night sky with a childish wonder. She has grown so much since the day she came into his life. Her hair has grown into long, wavy, chestnut locks. She has lost her once boyish figure and instead has the body of a woman. His eyes rake over her body and he feels something inside of him tighten.

Immediately, he turns his head away from her, ashamed. She has blossomed into a beautiful woman, there is no arguing that, but he reminds himself that she is more than that; she is his Talia. Feelings like the ones he just had are not acceptable. Looking at her in such a lecherous way makes him no better than the men he protected her from when she was a child.

"Something on your mind?" she asks him with a gentle smile. He shakes his head and pulls the collar of his long coat tighter around his neck, suddenly uncomfortable. She tilts her head to the side innocently and gives him a questioning look. Somehow, she can read him like a book.

"Nothing to concern yourself with, angel." He replies. "Let us go inside, tomorrow will be a big day."

She agrees and the two slip from the roof silently back inside.


Talia has never felt comfortable in her father's chambers. They are dark and mysterious, lit only by a few candles placed sporadically around the room. Books line the entire side of one wall; Ra's is a firm believer that education is power. It is simple, yet complex, she thinks as her eyes shift from side to side. Every item in it seems to have some sense of importance.

She is seated on her knees in the middle of the room, breaking one of the most important rules of the ninja teachings; leaving your back open to danger.

Ra's enters and the candles seem to flicker in awe at the man before them. Talia regards him with apprehension, almost awaiting a strike. He brushes past her and takes a seat on the floor, facing her.

He does not speak immediately, instead using this time with his daughter to look at her. He feels like he is being stabbed in the heart as he takes in her heart shaped face, brown, doe like eyes, and dark, wavy hair.

"You look so much like your mother, my child." His words are thick with emotion, and Talia sees a side of her father that she has rarely seen before. Pity eats away at her once harsh views of the man and she cannot meet his eyes, in fear of seeing the tears that she knows will be there.

The subject of her mother is one that is not often brought to the table. She had tried, multiple times, to get Bane to disclose what little information he has about the woman. What was she like? Did she sing? I remember her singing…Her childish questions had all fallen on deaf ears, and he had not provided her with anything. It bothers the young woman greatly that she can barely remember her own mother. Not long after her arrival at her father's house, she had spent a whole afternoon, wallowing in her sorrow, at the realization that she could not remember the sound of her mother's voice.

Talia, feeling a flush of confidence run through her, looks up to her father.

"What was she like?"

The question was simple, but it caught Ra's completely off guard. His head snapped up and he looked at Talia as though he does not recognize her. Slowly, the shock wears off his features and he swallows thickly.

"She was so beautiful, and so smart. Your mother, she was an amazing woman, my dear."

"Can you remember her voice?"

Suddenly, and unexpectedly, her father is gone, replaced with the stone features of Ra's al Ghul.

"If she had not been taken from me, I would not have to strain to remember." His voice is hard like flint, and Talia winces away from it, as though it has bitten her. She longs for the soft, deep voice she just heard moments ago. The voice of Henri Ducard.

He is on his feet and pacing, obviously troubled by demons from his past. The lines on his face return, and he looks so much older than she knows he really is.

"I have summoned you here to tell you that I will be going away for some time."

Back to business, a voice deep in Talia's subconscious whispers at her. She pulls away from it to hear what her father has to say.

"Do you know that what we do is very much like the game of chess, Talia?"

Now, she is completely baffled. She hates it when her father talks in riddles like this, she desperately wishes he would just get to the point. She sends a thankful thought to whoever is listening that Bane is as blunt as he is.

"You see, we, the League of Shadows, are the white pieces." He has walked over to the chessboard in the corner of the room. He beckons her over, and she follows hesitantly.

"We are the white pieces, bringing down the oppressive black pieces. We sit on our side of the board waiting, watching, for one of their pawns to make a move; a move that will start the quest."

He idly brings his hand down to the board to pick up a black pawn. He twirls it between his long fingers, thinking.

"The little pawns are usually not worth our time, my child, for they pose no real gain, but, when a piece such as, say, a knight is moved," she stares at the black, ornate horse figurine that he has placed in her hand "the quest has begun. We have an opening to the King, to the victory at hand."

"Do you know what Golgotha is, my child?"

Talia squeezes the black knight in her hand so hard the ears of the horse dig into her palm. Just say it already, damn it!

She takes a deep breath, and releases the knight from her grasp, placing it on the chess board.

"Golgotha is where Christ was crucified."

He seems pleased with her answer, but continues.

"And what does Golgotha mean?"

She tries to think desperately back to her history class. It is in the tip of her tongue…

"It means, place of the skull." It is Ra's who supplies the answer this time. Talia refrains from rolling her eyes. If he had given her two more seconds.

He leaves her at the chessboard and stalks to the window, observing his army below training in the frozen mountain terrain.

"There is a place that makes me think of Golgotha, child. It, too, is a place of death and injustice. They call it Gotham."

She has no time to respond before he has resumed his pacing, lost, seemingly, in his own thoughts.

"Gotham's knight has made his first move. I must leave you to find what his next one will be."

He is standing in front of her again, and his hand comes up to gently cup the side of her face. His face, once again, looks years younger.

"Stay on the path, my child. Resume your training as soon as possible; I will need you in our quest against this corrupt city."

Talia breathes in deeply as she is dismissed.

I am sorry, father, but I will not be a pawn in your game.