She had forgotten about everything; the burn in her insides, the ache in her head, even that there was life outside of her cell. She had been laying on the floor of her cell for hours it had seemed before movement beyond her glass door caught her attention. Across the hall, in front of Bane's cell, stood three men, each in the white garb of the asylum staff. They stood almost huddled together as if they were sharing the page of a book, and every few moments they would shift and look up at each other. One of them had a gun on his hip; definitely not regulation in the hospital. It wasn't until Aurora rolled to face her wall, trying to see what they were holding, that she noticed Bane's eyes still weighing heavily on her.

She knew what was happening without even thinking about it. Quiet whispers and guarded looks meant one thing; a plot.

"You're escaping," she said loudly before she could stop herself.

The three men dressed in their costumes turned to her all at once, the one armed reaching for his weapon. She ignored him, her eyes again entranced under the gaze of the masked man. He stared at her silent and without movement; an answer to her observation. She stood up.

"Take me with you."

The three men laughed amongst themselves, one shaking his head, the second turning his attention back to what Aurora now knew was a map, and the third loosening his grip on his gun.

"No," he answered without hesitation.

The silence behind his response left no room for question, but Aurora spoke anyway.

"You're taking me with you."

"Where?" he questioned, lifting his arms and crossing them across his chest, the corners of his eyes wrinkling as he mocked her in front of his men. "To the grave? That's all that awaits you out there. You will not fight the ones who harm you, but expect to be treated as a warrior?"

"I'm going." she said, her voice firm and unshaken. She wasn't going to back down, not after what she did to get put in here; not after Gregory thought he had seen the last of her. She could feel her skin begin to flush as her anger rose.

"You have much to learn, child."

Her foot struck the glass in front of her, as did the side of her fist. "I'm not a child!" she growled through clenched teeth, a portion of her hair slipping down into her face. The child in her had died a long time ago. "I did what you said. I fought him."

She took a few breaths, trying to calm herself. She had been on edge since Gregory had left her cell the night before. She had thought about him every moment of the day, angrily forcing herself through rigorous work outs trying to find a way to release what she was feeling. It was all for naught, she was furious all of the time, and all she wanted to do was hurt someone. Gregory in particular, but anyone willing to come within a few feet of her was welcome to try.

"Keep fighting!" he said, the mocking tone of his voice completely gone. He lowered his arms and took a step forward, his eyes still staring into her soul. "Never stop."

She pulled herself from the glass, turning her back on Bane and his men wishing she could get her hands around his thick neck. It would take work and strength but she was sure she could tear his head from his shoulders if given the chance. She put her hands out in front of her and dropped forward onto the ground, falling into a set of pushups, seething as she went. She would show him. She'd show them all.

She was weak when she was young, but she wasn't that small skinny girl running afraid through the streets of Gotham anymore. No, she was an animal, a beast set free. "I am not a child."

"We will see." His voice cut through her anger as easy as a hot knife through warm butter, and it chilled her to the core. She halted in lifting off the ground, listening to the drifting sound of his words, and then went back to her venting. If it's proof you want, she thought to herself, it's proof you'll fucking get. I'll show you all.

Four men stood around her, each dressed in white, and watching her sleep. Their faces were obscured in darkness, but she could see their hands, each pair more muscular than the pair before it. Maybe a pair belonged to Bane. Maybe he had come to rescue her and take her with him. Maybe the other three pairs of hands were his men waiting for her to wake up so they could leave.

She smiled. She knew they wouldn't leave her there. Not after everything Bane had said to her. Not after everything she had been through. She knew she wouldn't be forgotten again.

"Wake up," said the first nudging her shoulder. "Wake up," said the second, cupping her breast through her scrub top. "Let her sleep," said the third. "I like it when they're quiet anyway." He tugged at her pants.

Aurora awoke with a start, snapping up straight and forcing herself back against the wall of her cell as she realized the four men standing over her were not a part of a dream, and neither Bane nor his men were present.

"Well, hello there, sleepy head." Spoke the fourth, his hand reaching to touch the top of her head. Aurora stood up on her cot, her breathing ragged and her back pressed into the wall as far she could go.

"Come on down here with us." Spoke the first, Bradley was the name on his nametag. "We just want to welcome you to your new home." He reached into the pocket of his pants and pulled out a syringe. He pulled the safety cover off with his teeth and smiled at her.

Her stomach tightened and she felt her heart speed up.

"We'll be gentle," spoke the fourth, Stan; he had an ink pen in his pocket. "Don't you worry your pretty little head."

"Come on down," said the second, Frank, one of his hands reaching out to her and the other reaching for the ties on his pants. "I promise it'll be quick."

"Real quick" spoke Stan, gripping his erection through his pants.

Aurora looked across the hall, and saw Bane standing in his cell, his chest rising and falling. He slammed the side of his fist into the glass, rattling his door, and stepped so close that when he spoke, fog covered the glass in front of his mouth.

"Fight them!"

The men in her cell laughed, the third, David, motioning over his shoulder with his thumb. "I see you've made a friend."

"I got a friend for you."

"FIGHT THEM!"

Bradley's hand, holding the syringe, darted towards Aurora's leg and she caught it with her left hand. She used the limb to balance her as she kicked out with her right leg, kicking Frank in the center of his chest and sending him stumbling backward into the glass of her cell. As he fell, Stan lunged at her from the right. In one fluid motion, she twisted Bradley's wrist, forcing him to let go of the syringe, let go of him and punched him swiftly in the nose, then shoved her arm backward, slamming her elbow into Stan's eye, forcing his head back into the wall, and swinging her arm back around, slapping David in the face. Stan fell back grabbing at his face while David swung a heavy punch into her stomach.

Aurora hunched over, grabbing at her belly and trying to breathe through the reawakened pain. Bradley grabbed a hold of her hair and pulled her down from the cot, turning her around to knee her in the face. She planted her feet firmly on the ground and as his knee came up to connect with her face, she shoved out her arm, palm flat, against his thigh, sending his blow outward into the air. With his foot still raised, she slipped her arm under his leg and rushed him, forcing him to topple over backwards. As he hit the ground, his grip in her hair tightened. She slammed her fist down twice into his exposed crotch and was free for only a moment. As the grip on her hair loosened, David's rough hands grabbed her from behind. She lifted her leg, and forced her kick backward into the man's kneecap. A crunch followed by shrill screams filled the tight space as he instantly crumpled to one side and then fell completely to the ground.

Aurora turned to look down at him and saw Frank rushing her. As he went to tackle her, she jumped, wrapping her legs around his waist, getting a good grip on the sides of his head. A grunt escaped her lips as her back slammed into the wall and the air was pushed out of her. With her hands on either side of the man's head, she pressed her thumbs into his eyes. He screamed and tried to pull away from her, but only took her with him. She forced her thumbs deeper, feeling the eyeballs jump and pop as they were forced back into his cranial cavity. Blood poured from his clenched eyes as she hooked her thumbs outward, latching onto the bones of his face. She head butted him. As he fell backward she let him go and watched as he lay unmoving on the floor, blood seeping from the holes in his face where his eyes had been.

"You bitch!" yelled Bradley, standing but hunched over from the pain still radiating in his crotch

"Fucking kill her, Brad!" yelled Stan from behind her, his eye already beginning to swell from the blow from her elbow.

Bradley came at her swinging his arm in a violent arc. Aurora threw herself to the ground to avoid being hit, and rolled under her bed just as his foot slammed down in the space where her head had been a few moments before. She knew in a few seconds she would be pulled from her place and so she searched for something, anything she could use to protect herself. There was nothing. And then Bradley's eyes were all she could see. She turned to roll away from him, further under the bed, but he grabbed hold of her hair and pulled her out.

Her legs kicked wildly, rattling the thin bed frame as she struggled against him. She saw his arm stretch back, and she placed her arms, forearms up, over her face just as his fist came down to hit her. He punched her arms once, then twice; and then let go of her hair and punched her instead in the ear.

The force from his blow turned Aurora onto her side as her vision blurred and went white, and her ear began to ring. Her hands wiped uselessly at the ground as her head began to spin.

Aurora. Wake up.

She felt a boot slam into her back, forcing her over onto her stomach.

You have to get up. Get. Up.

Her hands tried to clench as they dragged across the floor but they remained loose. She flattened her hands on the ground and tried to push herself up. Pain erupted in her spine as a foot came down on her back, forcing her back down.

Get up, Aurora. You have to fight.

She could feel Bane's eyes watching. She could feel his disappointment as she laid beaten on the floor about to be raped by the two men still standing over her. She could feel the mock of his voice and the pain when she finally came to and he was gone without her. She would be left here to die, to waste away under the bodies of the perverted men that would take her whenever they wanted, the sick men that would drug her with syringes when they didn't feel like fighting, men that would be in control of her until the end of her days.

"Get up." His voice; It was loud and powerful, and it drowned out every thought she had in her head.

Her hand slipped over a thin hard object and her eyes opened. She gripped the syringe tightly in her hand and rolled over onto her back.

Bradley's foot was lifting up to come down on her abdomen, and while it was raised, she swung her arm, and jabbed the syringe into the back of his leg. She sat up, emptied the syringe into his leg and grabbed his ankle with her free hand. The overdose of medication took effect immediately as a shudder ran through him. Aurora shoved his leg away from her, pulling the syringe free, and he fell to the ground beside her, his body convulsing.

Stan went to kick her, but she rolled over on top of Bradley's body, twisting around so that her back went sideways over his belly. As Stan lunged to grab her, she caught his stomach with her legs. She shoved her hands up to his neck, stabbing him with the syringe, and flipped him over her head. Adrenaline pumped through her veins like a freight train and she quickly stood to tower over the man named Stan before he decided to try to keep fighting.

"How about I fucking kill you?" she asked before she fell to her knees on his neck. The syringe dug into his throat and filled his mouth with blood as he stared wide eyed at her. She stared back, and though she shook, partly from her nerves, and partly from the knowledge that she had just killed 2 other men, she only looked away when the light left his eyes.

When he was dead, dead enough to not rise from his short slumber in seek of revenge, she stood again, steadied herself against the glass wall of her cell, and took slow deep breaths. David moaned and she turned to see him still lying on the ground, his leg twisted in an agonizing position and blood leaking all over his white scrub pants. He certainly wasn't hard anymore.

She walked over to him until she stood over him, and watched as he cowered below her. A part of her, the part that knew she would never be him again, enjoyed the view. She would never look up at a person in fear or in terror. No. She reached down ignoring the flinch he gave as she snatched his key card from his bloody pant leg. She would never be left broken again. She would fight, always.

She slid the key card down the slot in her door and stepped through as it slid open.

"No, please. I need help, please don't leave me here!"

She paused in the hall, the nurses pleads banging in her ears. She hadn't meant to hurt him so badly, she hadn't meant to hurt any of them. She just didn't want to be hurt either. She stared hard into Bane's eyes, a part of her, the part that didn't enjoy watching people cringe, hoping he would tell her to go back, maybe even put the ma out of his misery. But Bane watched her as if nothing and no one else was around. The man trying his hardest not to scream so loud because it had begun to entice the other prisoners on the floor did not exist to him.

"Unlock my cell."

Without hesitation, Aurora stepped forward and slid the key card down the slot outside of Bane's door. The sound of air escaping was heard as the door unlocked and slid open. She stared up at him, at the strength in his chest, at the power in his limbs, at the firmness of him, at the size of him, and she could smell the heat coming from his body. Finally she found his eyes, mysterious and threatening, and intense and forceful, and deep, and she let out a breath.

In one large stride he stepped out of his cell, almost knocking her out of the way with his mass.

"Unlock the security door."

It was bold of Bane to assume she knew anything about security in Arkham, but she knew he was more than he seemed. He knew her history in Arkham better than anyone did, and he had been correct with his assumption. She gave a quick nod and walked down to the opposite end of the hall and swiped the key card through the slot on the wall. As the door slid open, a shot gun was thrust in her face. Immediately, she gripped the barrel, and shoved it forward, knocking its owner to the ground with a bloody nose. Several guns replaced it.

"No," came Bane's voice from the other end of the hallway.

A small smirk crawled onto Aurora's lips as she stared into the faces of the men who had laughed at her earlier in the day. She had been claimed as one of Bane's, as one of them. One of them smirked back, one of them grimaced, and the third went to help his fallen colleague.

"Unlock this cell."

Aurora walked back toward Bane, her head higher than it had ever been. She unlocked the cell he stood in front of and stepped to the side.

"It's Bane, right?" came an overconfident nasally voice from inside the cell as the air lock gave way and the door slid open. A pale man with blonde hair shuffled up to the cell door. His hands were cuffed in front of him, and he had a plastic mask over his mouth; He had been a spitter.

"Twinsies," he said, as he motioned to the spit mask over his face. He cackled loudly and the sound sent a chill down Aurora's spine.

"Remove his mask." Said Bane.

Aurora stepped closer to the man, unease beginning to build in her core. She unhooked the corners of the mask and pulled it away. Her eyes landed on two large scars that stretched from the corners of his mouth up through his cheeks. She knew this man well, all of Gotham did; The Joker.

"I must say," he said quietly. His eyes did a once over on Bane as his tongue flicked out to the corners of his mouth. "I love your work." His lips pulled back over horribly yellowed teeth as he cackled again.

"What's the matter, sweetheart?" he questioned, as his eyes finally fell on Aurora who had yet to look away from his face. "You not into scars?"

He lifted his hands and Aurora tensed with fists clenched and ready to strike him if needed. He cackled again as one of Bane's men stepped up, dropped a duffle bag, and unlocked the cuffs around his wrist.

"Oo, we've got a feisty one here." He said as he rubbed the sore spots on his wrists, his cuffs clattering to the floor. Aurora allowed one glance over of him and saw that his wrists were red and raw where his cuffs had been. She had been about to comment on them when one of his hands wrapped around her throat and the other one went to tangle in her hair. "I'm sure you know my track record with" he smacked his lips "spicy women."

Aurora grabbed his wrist, digging her nails into the swollen flesh and twisting his arm. She only needed to jerk her arm the right way to break his, but he cackled loudly and she released him, taking a step back, closer to Bane.

"Oh, I see." He laughed. "You're the big guys' b-" He paused in his speech as Bane brought the barrels of two shotguns to his eye level. "I was going to say business partner."

"Hold your tongue." Spoke Bane as he flipped the guns around and handed them both to The Joker.

"Tough crowd," said the Joker with a chuckle as he put the guns over his shoulders. He hummed an odd tune as two guards led him down to the door they entered from.

"Have at it!" one of them called as they pushed him through the door. It was silent for a moment but soon the sound of shotgun blasts and the Jokers shrill cackle filled the asylum.

As sirens began to wail, Bane led the group to the end of the hall where a small metal gray door sat locked and impenetrable by anything they could survive. On its left sat a small window with steel bars on the outside, and a small terrified man on the inside. His gray hair was messy as if the commotion had awoken him from a nap, and his eyes were glazed over in panic as the group appeared before him. He had a walkie talkie to his lips that was shaking with the rest of his arm. "C-c-come in! There's been a breach! Is anyone there? Hello!"

"There's no one there," spoke one of Bane's men. "Open the door."

"N-no!" he said, shaking his head in distress. He lifted his walkie talkie again. "Please, someone. Is anyone there?" The computer screen next to him began to blink red as simultaneously alarms began to sound in other parts of the building. "There's been multiple breeches!"

Aurora watched the man for a moment, watched him tremble in his seat. That was her a few years ago, hell, a few hours ago; too afraid to barely stand up. There was no way the man would willingly open the door for them. But she knew a way in. There was a small rectangular window above the door. It was used to try to vent the floor in the summer though it didn't do much of anything. It was there to appease the commissions that would shut the place down if the patients weren't treated justly. It was just big enough for her to squeeze through if she angled herself correctly.

"Open the fucking door!" yelled a guard next to her. His intentions were as good as the rest of theirs, but the tone of his voice did nothing but frighten the man inside even more.

Aurora moved the man in front of her out of the way and looked the security guard in his eyes. She spoke calmly, "Open the door."

The man's eyes went wide as he shook his head. "I can't, please. I have children."

"I don't care about your children. If you let us in, we'll be gentle with you." A lie, but Aurora smiled sweetly. Her eyes motioned up toward the small window and then fell back to the man. "If you don't, I will come in." Her voice lowered as the smile fell from her face. "And I don't think you're going to like that very much."

The man shook his head and lowered his gaze. "Please, I can't."

Aurora's lips curled into a snarl. She could smell his weakness through the bars. It was an infection that needed to be scrubbed clean; to be beaten down. Bane was right to force her to fight. He had been right about everything. She never wanted to be like that man again.

She looked back at Bane. He gave a slight nod, readied his gun and watched as she jumped straight up, just reaching the ledge, and pulled herself up, slipping easily into the room.

Shots rang out immediately. A row of dents exploded against the metal door as bullets slammed into it from the other side. Soon screams from the room joined the chorus of others coming from all over the asylum.

Pleads of mercy went unanswered as sentences halted abruptly. Finally the small man behind his bars stood from his seat. As his mouth opened, a cotton clad foot connected with his jaw and his body fell slumped onto his desk. The air lock gave way and the door slid open.

Inside five men, six including the man at the window, laid beaten yet breathing out in the open. Two were on the floor, one was strewn across his desk, and two still sat in their chairs, one of their heads leaking a small trail of blood down onto his face. Bane did a once over of the room and then nodded slightly to the men to his right. They returned his nod and one, dark brown and brow haired, took to one side of the room as the other, faired skinned and redheaded, took his opposite.

Bane continued through as Aurora stood and watched as the men put bullets in the heads of the unconscious guards. She flinched at the first shot, gagged at the second, and when the soft gray matter of one guards head splattered out of the back of his head and onto the floor just near her foot, her thoughts raced back to the men she had killed in her cell and she dry heaved hard. It hadn't been the first time she'd killed someone, no, there was one before them. But it had been in self-defense just as the nurses had been. But these men… She dry heaved again, gripping hard to her stomach as air forced its way out of her gut in clenching waves. She coughed to try to bring something up, but her stomach only clenched harder and she heaved again.

"Pull yourself together," spoke the redhead in a thick Irish accent as he put a bullet in the last guards head. "Or you won't last." He smiled at her and shook his head, dropped his empty firearm and grabbed a full one from the holster on his hip.

Just outside the next door was a lot used for cars and the occasional helicopter landing in the case of emergencies. Bane took his shotgun to the handle and kicked the door down. Aurora followed directly behind him out into the sunlight.

She didn't get a chance to smile up at the sky or feel the breeze on her skin. Three bullets whizzed past her head and struck the man standing behind her in the chest. She turned and watched him fall dead to the ground. Across from them on the other side of the lot was a large dark row of police, squatting and kneeling and ducking behind their car doors.

Life seemed to slow down around her as bullets began to fly in every direction. Men fell screaming as bullets easily pierced through the car doors. A rough hand on her shoulder pushed her to the ground where she stayed, listening to the bullets as they hit their targets. Bane stood over her, firing his gun until it was empty. She watched as he grabbed another gun and began the process all over again. There was no fear in him. Was there anything at all he was afraid of? He threw his empty gun to the ground and pulled a pistol from his hip. He fired as he walked toward the dwindling row of officers across from him. No, there was nothing he feared; nothing at all.

The air came to life with the hum of a helicopter.

"Aurora!" Bane's voice rang out above the sounds of the guns and the radios going off about back up and officers being down.

A man with red hair fell down dead beside her but she couldn't tell if his hair had always been red, or if it was just filled with blood.

"Aurora. The detonator."

Her eyes traveled the length of the dead red heads body until they paused on a small black metal box attached to his hip. She crawled over to him and pressed the blinking green button. Heat rose up behind them as flames burst up toward the sky. Debris rained down on the lot while the men that were left shot down the few officers still trying to radio for backup.

The silence that followed the death of the final officer was tranquil and Aurora basked in it for as long as she could. Screams still filtered through the asylum now up in flames, and the sound of the helicopter got louder as it hovered over the lot; but the guns, the guns had stopped.

Bane reached down and gripped her arm, lifting her easily from the ground and forcing her to stand on her feet. He looked at her momentarily but didn't speak. Instead he turned his back to her and conversed with the men that were still standing. "Go into the city, Barsard will be waiting for you."

The men nodded and headed off, quickly making their way over the dead and out into the street. Bane turned toward the helicopter that had landed and watched as a black BMW F 800 GS was rolled out onto the lot. He walked over and Aurora followed after him. "We will meet you underground." He said to the pilot before he took hold of the motorcycle and climbed on.

Aurora followed suit, her voice caught in her throat. There was nothing to say; she had killed today, she had watched men die at her own hands and at the hands of the man she planned to leave with. She wrapped her arms around his waist as he started the bike. Her heart hammered as they pulled off of the lot and out into the street. The air chilled her to the bone but all she could think about was the warmth coming from Bane's body as he leaned side to side, maneuvering the bike through the streets.

She wanted to know where they going. Why they were riding away from Gotham instead of toward it, but she refrained. She should've grabbed a gun. She shouldn't have stood there like a fool, watching. She should have done more. He had been expecting her to fight the way she had in her cell, she could feel it. She could feel the displeasure coming off of him as she held tight to him. If he threw her off the back of his bike she wouldn't be surprised.

The sun was setting and the orange glow filled the air with a sense of trouble. They pulled into an abandoned lot what seemed 5 or 6 miles outside of the city and rode on until they came to a large brown metal door hidden in the side of a hill. As they got closer, Aurora caught sight of a man speaking into a walkie talkie, and the door opened. They rode past him and into the hillside.

Bane shut off his bike and stood, turning as if he were going to offer her assistance on getting up, but she had already followed him. She pulled her helmet from her head and as she watched him pull off his own, a young woman stepped into view. Her hair was dark and it curled gently about her face and neck. Her face was still, and her eyes cut through Aurora like a dagger.

"I send you for a soldier, and you bring me a child?"

Aurora stared at her, still too focused on what exactly she was doing here to be upset at the insult just thrown at her. Her eyes slid up to Bane whose eyes had formed their happy wrinkles and she could feel a hard knot forming in her belly. He turned away from her and faced the woman, placing his helmet on the handle bars of his motorcycle. "I've acquired your soldier." He said quietly.

The woman smiled and Aurora could feel the heat beginning to build in her limbs. She watched silently as the woman walked towards them, her eyes never leaving the eyes of the man before her.

"My love," Aurora's fists clenched. "I've missed you."