Author's Note:

This chapter has been updated in my attempts to correct errors and make the story more cohesive. The rest of this author's note is the original text. Thanks to all of you for reading!

Well hello there all of you faithful readers. Again it has been a ridiculously long wait, and for that I apologize. This chapter was hard for me to formulate, and I ended up writing it several times before I got a version that I liked. The chapter after this one will be the last, though it will be followed by an epilogue. I plan to have those chapters up much more quickly, perhaps even in the next couple of days. I want to thank all of you for your continued support and all of your kind words. I hope you enjoy this chapter and that you will be so kind as to leave me a review.

- I do not own any of the Nolan characters used in this story; I only own my original characters and ideas. I am not making any money from this story.

Chapter 18 - Recognize

Well I've had enough, Of these selfish crimes, I hurt myself again, Not knowing why, It seems so easy, To leave it all behind, And avoid the truth I think I'd rather just go blind

Then everything erupts, My life has come unglued, And the ties that bind have left me, What am I to do?

Can't seem to recognize, That stare behind those eyes, Who is this man I see? Who's looking back at me? Can't focus through the pain, And I am fading into nothing? The reflection must get clearer

- Flaw

The woman's fine brown hair swirled around her head in the faint breeze as she stood outside the diner looking around her with a mixture of amazement and confusion. Though she knew she must have seen the world back when she was whole, she couldn't remember any of it. Her only solid memories were from the last five years, though she did have bits and pieces of the three years before that, there was nothing of her real life. She knew that she had been found wandering the streets of Gotham nine years ago nearly starved and raving of monsters. They told her that she was lucky to have survived, that she was the only person to have lived with Crane's toxin in their system for that long. That long had been over a year, and the runner up had only been filled with fear for three months. Though he was nearly as damaged as she was, she knew that he at least knew who he was and had been sent home to a family that loved him. Until earlier that day she had not even known if she had a family that loved and missed her.

That had all changed early that morning when her sister had come and collected her from the Metropolis City Mental Health Center. The woman had been called Jane for her entire life - or at least the life that she knew - but her sister called her Maddy, short for Madeline. There was a part of her that responded to the name, but it was only a whisper, and the girl that was her sister looked no more familiar than any of the other random people that would pass down the halls to visit love ones. She wished it wasn't true, but it was, and that only made her feel more lost. She hadn't really wanted to leave with the stranger, but the redhead had produced ample evidence of their relationship and her psychiatrist had readily discharged Jane - no Maddy - to her sister's care. No doubt he had been pleased to be rid of her. She thought she would have been glad as well if she had been in his shoes. She wasn't though, and instead of gladness she had felt only trepidation.

When they walked out of the place she had called home for so long the fear had been nearly paralyzing, but as they had driven down the crowded streets of Metropolis her fear had diminished, changing into amazement. Hearing about the real world and seeing it on TV had not prepared her for anything, and even the most mundane things threatened to take her breath away. Her sister seemed kind and understanding, not pushing her too hard or forcing her to talk much. She told her some things about her past, though none of it was from their childhood. It seemed that her main topic was the man she had been engaged to at the time of Crane's toxin. It sounded as though they had been very in love, and she wished she could remember him.

It had been a long drive from the Center to the diner that she was standing in front of, but the time had passed quickly and she had been surprised when they pulled up to the old diner and her sister told her that was their destination. She was even more confused by the fact that the destination was a restaurant, not a home. She had said as much, but her sister had only smiled at her and said that it was only a temporary destination, not the end of the road for her.

That had been almost two hours ago, and now Maddy was standing alone outside of the diner with her stomach full and the early summer sun shining on her face. Her sister had told her that she would be watching, but that this was something that she had to do on her own. What this was Maddy had no idea, but she was no longer afraid. She wanted to know, she wanted to have a life, and she felt like her real life was not a place for fear. Her red haired beauty of a sister had said as much and somehow that little piece of information had made her feel brave, even if she had been a coward for memorable life.

She noticed a large black car coming around the corner a block down and suddenly she felt slightly light headed. As the car drew closer the feeling only intensified, until the car pulled into the nearly empty lot about ten feet away from her. At that point she almost felt like her brain had become a tornado, but instead of pieces of flying debris, there were memories flying by. They were moving much too fast for her to make sense of, but there were a few images that she grabbed on to. One of which told her that her sister was not really her sister at all. The others made less sense to her; greasepaint, bags of cash, a handsome man with a horribly scarred face.

And then the door of the car opened and a wingtip shoe hit the pavement, followed by a garish pinstriped leg, and finally a tall man with a painted face.

And she knew who she was. She knew she was home.

Bane stood with Barsad and five men from his original army; all that remained of the several hundred he had bought to Gotham all those months ago. He had given the rest of the men his leave to go back to their lives. Little did they know that those lives would only last a few short hours. The men around him did know that however, and the warehouse felt more like a funeral than a base of operations. Though all of them were ready to die for the cause, none of them was dying with joy. That hadn't been the case all those months before, when the same fate awaited them, but Bane knew that sometimes it was harder to lose your life when you had cheated death once. In his case he had cheated the man with the scythe too many times to count, but he felt that he was ready to stop fighting the inevitable. He no longer felt the need to be in this world; all of the things he cared for would be waiting for him on the other side. Or so he hoped.

The men were preparing to take their final ride, two of them having already climbed into the SUV, when the phone Bane had been using that week started to buzz on the table in his room. He knew that it could only be the damn Clown - who should have been there hours ago - so he turned away and strode back to answer it.

He didn't even have to speak when he put the phone to his ear. "Your Princess has, um... done the impossible and I won't be back. You can, ah… do what you want, but I want you to have the code in case something changes your mind." Bane roared into the phone. It was something about the Clown being a treacherous coward, but Joker completely ignored him and continued. "Its her birthday. Um, its, ahh Princess's birthday."

There was a click followed immediately by a dial tone and he knew that Joker was gone. His fury burned bright and he slammed his fist through the flimsy sheetrock wall. He didn't know what Princess had done, but he knew that whatever it was, she had done it to thwart him from his prize. Until that moment he had held onto a sliver of hope that it wouldn't come down to the two of them fighting over the fate of the godforsaken city, but when he had heard those words from Joker he knew there was no other way. She was simply another Batman, only much worse. Not only was she a fearfully accomplished fighter, she was also a master manipulator and lier. Talia would have been proud of her if it wasn't for the fact that she was fighting on the wrong side. She would have also been disgusted with him for falling for Tiana's charming lies and masterfully used body. Of course, there was no way that Talia could be any more disappointed with him than he already was with himself. He was a fool to to have believed that the Little One cared for him. There was only one woman that had ever loved him with the same intensity that he loved her, and she was dead. He could only be thankful that soon he would be joining her.

He stormed out of the now abandoned room and strode back to the vehicle, climbing into the passenger seat while his blood boiled. Barsad gave him an enquiring look as he started the engine, and Bane had to restrain himself so he didn't knock his head off. Instead he took a deep breath to get himself under control and looked his brother in the eyes. "The Clown will not be joining us, but his charges are still set to go off at sunset. The plan remains the same." Barsad nodded and drove out of the dilapidated building.

Bane forced himself to look out the window at the city as they moved through the streets. The area closest to the warehouse was full of vagrants and whores, but as they moved further into the city the people changed with the buildings. In one area men poured out of buildings not so different from the one they had inhabited for the past several weeks; factory workers heading home after a long day. Further along they passed Gotham General where he saw people coming and going, families, doctors, an elderly man sharing a cigarette with a nurse in front of a no smoking sign.

Then, only a few blocks from their destination they passed a small park and his heart went into his throat. A little girl was running behind a rambunctious brown puppy, her red hair streaming out behind her and a breathless smile filling her face. For one instant he saw her not for what she was, but for what she could be if the world were not so cruel. In a world where he had not been born in a pit where people were sent to die. In a world where Tiana was not set on his destruction. A world where they were just normal people with a pretty red headed daughter and a little house with a garden. But the moment was gone as fast as it had come, and he turned away from the window.

Blake and Gordon had little trouble getting Nigma to talk when they asked him what his group's plans were. The trouble had come when they tried to make sense of what he said. It seemed that the man was incapable of speaking as a normal man would, only riddles and more riddles fell from his lips. By the time they figured it out they only had two short hours to save the world.

Blake was racing down the city streets on the Batpod toward the Courthouse. He found it almost comical that Bane wanted to make his last stand in the very same place that he had failed the last time, but he couldn't really find the humor in the end of millions of lives. He could only hope that he would be as strong as Wayne had been; that he would be able to do whatever he had to in order to save the people of Gotham.

He had called Father Reilly and told him to get out of the city any way he could, but he also told the Father not to tell anyone else about it. He thought that he and the children would most likely be able to get away clean, but he knew that if the entire city started fleeing Bane would just blow them all out to sea. He had also alerted Fox and Alfred, though they both had told him they would stay. He thought that their faith in him was much too great, but he didn't have the heart to tell them. He couldn't tell them that he was afraid, and had even thought of running away himself. That just wasn't something Batman capable of, and the only thing he could do was try to save them all.

He could hear the sirens all around him as hundreds of cars filled with Gotham's finest poured from all around the city. They weren't all going to the courthouse, many were headed to the few places that Nigma had told them there were bombs. Though there was little hope of disarming enough of them to stop the city from exploding, they had to try. He turned the pod onto Wayne Ave and finally saw the massive columns of the courthouse in front of him. The cops were in slower vehicles than the one he was driving, and so were a few seconds behind him, but he had still expected to see an army waiting for him. What he saw instead, shook him to the core.

Bane stood at the top of the large stairs leading into the building, surrounded by only six men. Those men were surrounded by no less than 50 civilians, all of which were bound and gagged. Bane only held a small plastic object in his hand - Blake assume it was the detonator - but his men shifted their guns around the crowd of helpless people. In one way he couldn't see how those people were supposed to save Bane and his men from the entirety of Gotham's wrath, but he knew there must be some sort of plan to it or else they wouldn't be there at all.

He had only just slipped off of the bike when Gordon's squad car squealed to a stop followed closely by at least ten others. For a moment there was no sound except for the soft sobs of the people huddled on the steps, and then Bane's voice thundered down to them.

"So nice to see you, Gordon, Batman. I'm sorry I couldn't have a better spread laid out for you, but short notice and all." He swept his hand around him, the red button gleaming like the eyes on a rabid dog. "All of these fine people are here for you to kill."

"We won't hurt them. We only want you and your men. Why would we kill innocents?" Blake's voice was stronger than he thought it would be, and for a fleeting second he felt brave again. Then Bane just laughed and he knew that he should never have opened his mouth.

"Why I never thought that you and your fine friends would. My friends however, well they will happily kill every last one of them. And that is exactly what will happen if any of you fire your weapons." He paused for a moment to let that information sink in. "You should also know that the nerves in a man will often cause his muscles to... spasm when he is shot, especially if the wound is fatal. With my finger already holding the trigger and my thumb resting on the switch, even the slightest twitch will blow this city sky high." Again he paused to let everyone feel the full weight of what he said. "I don't want that to stop you from shooting me, of course. No, no, no. That is the last thing I want. I just want you all to know that one little squeeze of your finger may very well be the last movement you make in this world."

Blake understood in that moment that there was little hope of stopping the monster before them, and one look at Gordon only confirmed that.