The parking dock, large enough for multiple bikes, cars, or trucks, and more than likely a bus all together, stretched far into the hillside before a set of metal stairs descended into the main base where the hard stone of the floor became exposed between the black grates of the steel plating beneath their feet. A few feet in front of them sat a large black steel desk that encircled almost the whole of the floor. On its top sat large computer screens, lit with numbers and letters scrolling horizontally across them. To the right, two chairs, both unoccupied sat side by side in front of the largest screen which once a black screen flicked on with a bar blinking in its center. Password encrypted systems. To the left, a much wider step well with one armed man on either side, led further down underground.

The ceiling was high above them and wrought with black pipes and sections of thick meshing wires with fluorescent lights attached to them. Crude vents were smashed awkwardly around the base of the floor, but the constant stream of fresh air flowing through the area was more than enough to overlook their crude placement.

"We have full surveillance on Pennyworth Manor where Bruce and his wife are staying with the butler," said Talia as Bane looked through the manila folder she had handed him, full of photographs of Bruce Wayne and his family, and recent documents his signatures had appeared on. "We've also infiltrated the home of Robin John Blake."

"The police officer," Bane had never seen him face to face, but he had known the boy had chosen his side during their first attempt at taking the city. He stood close by Gordon, and when the policemen of Gotham had been trapped under the city, it was Blake that had freed them- with the help of the Bat. His free hand curled into a fist at the thought of the cloaked fool.

"He spends most of his time at Gotham General, but his free time is spent with Bruce. One of my men reported that they've been looking for your accomplices under the city in the sewers. "

Bane placed the folder down on the table beside him and returned his attention to Talia as she continued on.

"Bomb manufacture is eighty percent complete. Above ground, all 30 bombs have been placed." Talia opened a second manila folder and handed it over to Bane. "Hospitals, churches, fire and police departments, city hall, the food bank, the blood drive, and the satellite towers are prepared to blow at a time of your choosing."

Bane placed the folder on the table, his eyes having never left Talia as she talked.

"The bombs designated for underground will be placed closer to when we are ready to strike to avoid being found by Bruce and his colleagues."

"What of Barsad?" questioned Bane. After their escape from Arkham, he had sent a group into Gotham to meet with Barsad so that they could raid Gotham General for extra information and a surplus of medical supplies. He had not seen his right hand for what seemed an eternity. Barsad did not speak unless spoken to, but his friendship was missed even so.

"Barsad intercepted the men from Arkham at the rendezvous point minutes before your arrival here. There have been minimal casualties, mostly the security, one of our own. The hospital has attempted to phone the police, but all phone calls have been routed to a secure phone here in our facility. They will return to us shortly."

"You have done well."

"As have you," she said quietly as she turned to watch Aurora through the bullet proof glass separating them from her. She stood with her back pressed back into the glass watching soldiers walk passed. She made no move to speak to them, though a few wanted to speak with her. Talia would have to keep an eye on the girl. She had been through trauma in her younger years, trauma that would forever follow her. It made her emotional and silent, a dangerous combination if left to mature, but a combination that if stoked correctly would fashion her a weapon of mass destruction. "She's not much older than I when I came back for you."

Bane stood silently behind Talia watching her as she stared thoughtfully at Aurora's back.

"What a day that was." She paused and turned to face him, her eyes finding a spot on the floor as she reminisced . "I had been so eager to see you again that I hadn't slept the previous night. Returning to the pit frightened me; the idea of returning to the place that had taken everything I loved and destroyed it, it shook me to the core. I wanted so badly to be firm in who I was, in my strength." Finally she found his eyes. "I could not remember my mother's face, but I remembered yours. Stepping foot into that place where my father had told me you were long dead; I was terrified. I was sentenced to death before I was born, sentenced to live in hell for eternity, and by some cruel twist of fate I was given an angel to protect me. To think of you dead, of my mission being deemed unnecessary, it sickened me. And for a time, even down in the pit before I found you, it incapacitated me."

She took two steps toward Bane and stopped. "I had you and thought I had lost you. This girl has had no one, and all those she believed to be with her only turned on her. She is a fighter, a decent one, but fear has crippled better fighters than she."

Bane took in her words and spoke calmly instead of reaching out to comfort her. "The girl is strong." He could feel the familiar sensation of a hard knot forming in his chest, urging him to do the impossible, to kiss her gently on the forehead. "Do you not trust my judgment?"

"I do," She answered without hesitation. "unequivocally."

She closed the gap between them and placed her hand on his chest and let it stay there for a while before she spoke again. "I just wasn't expecting a…a-"

"A child." finished Bane as he gripped Talia's hand and removed it from his chest. There was nothing he wanted more than to bury his face in her neck and inhale the small bits of her scent that would infiltrate his mask, to grip her small waist in his hands and pull her to him, to get his fist in her hair. But for now they had work to do and so he hardened his eyes and waited until she did the same, stiffening in her posture and turning away from him, before he spoke again.

"The girl is more than she seems."

Talia intertwined her hands behind her back and spoke without turning around. "I don't doubt your choices."

"You worry. " he responded taking a step forward. The fabric of his scrub top brushed against her knuckles and her shoulders slackened, her head lowering slightly as she turned her head, her eyes trying to find him without her turning completely around. His gaze was firm as he stared out through the glass window separating them from Aurora. "She is valuable. "

"She could prove to be a problem."

"She is young and her mind is easily influenced. Your training will combat any behaviors you deem unpleasant."

Talia turned away from the window and again looked up at Bane, her hands itching to reach out and touch him.

"Do not lose sight of why we are here, Talia." He placed his palm against her cheek, gripping hold of the back of her neck with his fingers, the size of his hand causing her head to move though he was being as gentle as he could. He held her firmly there and forced her to hold eye contact with him. "Ra's sought ruin for Gotham and Gotham killed him."

The mention of her father, Ra's al Ghul, returned Talia's slackened shoulders to a straight posture. He remembered her grief and fury when word of her father's death had reached them during their seizure of a small village in Israel. It had been dark times then, what seemed endless nights of dejected moaning into the pillows in their tent, and several days of wrathful killing of civilians.

"You will have your revenge." His hand slid down and wrapped fully around her throat. He stared down at her and his grip tightened slightly as images of Bruce Wayne defiling her formed in his mind; images of her tears blessing his flesh when she found her way home that night, images of the Bat's soiled hands against her skin. "And I will have mine."

Aurora stood quietly, unsure of what was happening, unsure of why she was in what looked like a secret government base in the side of a mountain, and strangely unsure of why she was still alive. She had followed Bane and his friend down the second set of stairs but had been unable to follow them into the office they had entered. The glass separating them was a mirror but she knew they could see her through the other side. She was blind, and being unable to hear their words made her deaf. She was unsure of whether she wanted to know what they were saying in the first place.

Men walked freely here with guns slung over their shoulders like backpacks. They eyed her suspiciously and then walked off as if she weren't standing there, as if they'd never seen her. The way they walked reminded her of Bane. Slow, and deliberate; but none of them were him. They were petite and their eyes all twitched the same way, as if they were looking for something. She noticed a few of their hands twitching as well and she made a mental note to stay away from them. Itchy trigger fingers.

She didn't recognize any of them, but she could smell the crazy on them, and that was enough for her to press her back up against the glass when any of them strayed too close. She had been that way, pressed against the window watching a dark haired, grey eyed man as he walked in her direction when Bane emerged from the room. The man stopped in his advance and slithered off to a dark corner instead, his fists bulging in his pockets.

"Where are we?" questioned Aurora immediately, her eyes connecting with Banes.

"The outskirts of Blüdhaven," spoke the woman as she emerged from the room and filled the space between the two of them, forcing Aurora's eyes to connect with hers.

The woman was a few inches shorter than she was, but under her scrutiny, Aurora felt small. Her eyes sparkled with a sinister quality that made Aurora question why she had followed Bane down further into the cave without knowledge of her surroundings. Suddenly she smiled; a polite smile that reached her eyes.

"I am Talia al Ghul," she said as she offered her hand.

Aurora stared at it. It was slightly smaller than her own, a shade or two darker; it looked soft.

Talia retracted her hand after a few moments of Aurora's silence and instead took a step closer. Though her smile was gone, her tone remained the same. "Who are you?"

Aurora watched her while she pondered the question. The woman knew who she was, there was no way she didn't. Talia seemed the type to ask for exactly what she wanted. If she had wanted her name, she would've asked specifically for it. "I don't know yet," answered Aurora quietly, as her eyes fell from Talia's face; a small piece of her hoped she had answered correctly.

The feeling of her hand on her shoulder pulled Aurora's attention from the floor and she watched as the smile returned to Talia's face. "You will."

"Who are you?" questioned Aurora, the skin beneath Talia's touch beginning to crawl.

"I am your teacher."

"My teacher?" asked Aurora as she rolled her shoulder to remove Talia's hand from it. Suddenly she felt suffocated and she felt her fists clench at her sides. She watched Talia's eyes slide down to her hands and then back up to her face. "Where are we?"

"Please," spoke Talia softly, her eyes flicking over to Bane and then back to Aurora. She stood straighter in her spot but the tone of her voice remained unchanged. "We'll speak more after you're cleaned up."

"Cleaned up?" Aurora's eyebrows cinched together as Talia called over her shoulder to man not far away. As the man approached, Talia's eyes slid down to Aurora's right shoulder and Aurora followed her gaze. Blood soaked the sleeve of her scrub top. She heard herself gasp lightly as the pain began to register.

"Aurora, this is Dr. Amir," said Talia as a copper toned man with deep black hair held his hand out to her. She looked at his hand briefly before she returned her attention to her bleeding shoulder. "Dr. Amir, this is Aurora."

"I think I've been shot."

"I think so too," he said with a chuckle.

"Clean her up, Dr. Amir and then show her to her quarters." Said Talia.

Amir nodded and slid his arm around Aurora's waist to guide her along. If not for the pain building in her arm and the sudden realization that there was a bullet lodged in her shoulder, she would have moved away from his touch as well. Doctors made her uneasy.

The infirmary was a small grey room with five bare hospital beds squeezed into it. There were cabinets on the wall and several cardboard boxes strewn about on the floor. Some of them were packed with supplies, others were empty. The ceiling was lined with fluorescent lights. But the glow only made the room feel smaller.

Aurora sat quietly on the first bed and watched as Dr. Amir rummaged through the cupboards. He pulled out gauze pads, alcohol, and what seemed like an industrial sized pair of tweezers. Her stomach clenched. He bent down and opened the cabinet beneath the sink to reveal another large cardboard box. He dug around for a moment and lifted out surgical tape and a plastic pack full of silver instruments.

"Our stock is a bit low, but I'm certain I have everything I'll need for you." He said quietly, as he prodded through the pack. "Ah yes, here we go."

He pulled out a large pair of scissors and walked over to where Aurora was sitting. His free hand gripped the top of her shirt as he raised the scissors, but Aurora bolted up, pushing the bed as she went. She grabbed hold of the hand on her shirt, and his wrist of the hand holding the scissors. She backed him up, twisting his free hand as they went and placed the points of the blades against his throat.

"Aurora," he said quietly, calmly. Her stomach clenched again. There wasn't a lick of fear in him. "I need to cut your shirt so that we can remove it."

She watched him for a moment, her arm holding the scissors to his throat beginning to tremble under the pain in her shoulder. She breathed slowly, letting go of his free hand first. She moved away from him and returned to her seat on the bed. "I'm sorry. I just-"

"It's fine." He responded, fixing the collar of his coat and stepping up to her again. "I'm going to cut your shirt now."

She gave a curt nod and looked away as the scissors cut through the scrub top fabric. The cold air hit her immediately and the sick hard knot in her belly felt as though it was expanding. The back of his knuckles brushed the skin of her belly and she closed her eyes, fighting back the memories of her shirts being torn down the middle when she tried to fight off Gregory.

The doctor moving pulled her out of her own head. He stepped around her side and started cutting her sleeve up along her wounded arm. His momentum had slowed greatly compared to him cutting the front of her shirt. His hands were calloused and aged, but he cut around her wound with a gentleness Aurora hadn't felt in what seemed an eternity.

"Are you okay?" he questioned, his eyes never leaving his work.

She nodded but didn't speak for fear of the lump building in her throat.

He continued on and only stopped when he had cut through to the neck of her top. He placed the scissors on the table and gently peeled the saturated sleeve away from her arm. The first part of her top fell away, revealing her bloody throbbing shoulder, and the right side of her chest. Instinctively, she covered her breast with her free hand and lowered her eyes to the floor, the coldness of the room beginning to creep up her spine.

Dr. Amir peeled away the back half of her sleeve and pulled the shirt around to her healthy arm where he slipped the rest off as if it were a jacket. "Alright, let's have a look."

Aurora watched the floor. She felt his fingers prod her back and shoulder and flinched when he came too close to a tender spot. She sat painfully quiet and exposed in the small cold room, listening to the shuffle of the doctors feet. "It looks like you're pretty much in the clear. The bullet passed right through."

She nodded again, but refrained from speaking. She felt a cool cloth touch her skin and the burn that followed was almost unbearable.

"So what made you join us?"

"What?" she questioned loudly, clenching her teeth against the disinfectant being applied to her shoulder.

"Our collective,"

"I haven't joined anything." She said quietly as she tried to separate herself from the burning she was feeling.

"No? Why so stubborn?"

"I'm not stubborn, I just - FUCK! - I just don't understand what this place is."

"Well, I'm sure Ms. Al Ghul will fill you in when the time is right." Aurora eyed him quietly as he stepped around to her front to begin cleaning the front of her shoulder. The first prick of the cloth on her shoulder was so potent she felt she might pass out. "Trust me," he continued, his eyes softening at the sight of her discomfort. "If you weren't meant to be here, you wouldn't be."

Meant to be here for what, thought Aurora to herself as she watched Dr. Amir pick up his large tweezers. She made a move to stand up but he caught her arm and shook his head.

"Calm down, Aurora. You have a bit of fabric from your top in the wound. I'm going to pull it out with these, I'll irrigate it, and then cover it up and you'll be done."

She steadied herself against his arm, the throbbing of her shoulder resounding in her head. She felt sick. How long had it been since she'd eaten? How long since she'd had a drink? Her mouth suddenly felt dry.

"I'm guessing you haven't had any good run-ins with doctors?" he chuckled as he lowered himself down to see into her shoulder better.

"With people." She corrected quietly, as her eyes flicked down to watch the doctors face as he began digging into her shoulder.

He made a sound. It was low and tight, as if he'd heard and understood but was too focused on his task to really respond. The rest of their time was spent in a silence that Aurora was grateful for.

Long last, Aurora stood, arms covering her bare chest, her shoulder deeply sore but covered with gauze and surgical tape, and on its way to healing. "Thank you." She said quietly as he held up her cut scrub top. He smiled as he helped her slide it on backwards to cover her front.

"Let that breathe for a few hours a day. Clean around it, not in it. I'll check it in a few days and let you know if you can leave it uncovered." He handed her a stack of gauze and a roll of tape and stepped out of the room.

The walk from the infirmary to her quarters was a short one. They took a left out of the door and walked in silence down a long metal hall. At its end, it curved to the right and opened up into a small living space. The walls were a lighter gray here, but they were bare of windows or anything that told of life outside of them. The floor, more than likely grate like the rest of the place, was covered in a dark blue carpet. There was a full sized bed in the corner with black sheets and a tan blanket folded neatly on its top.

Aurora walked in and pulled open what she thought to be a closet and saw that instead it was a small shower; she smiled.

"It's small but its something." Said Dr. Amir.

Aurora turned around to reply and saw that Talia was standing beside him holding a bundle.

"I brought you some clothing" she said quietly, the same smile plastered on her face, the same chills running down Aurora's spine. She lifted up a large maroon knitted sweater, and made a gesture toward the gray sweatpants still hanging over her arm.

"Thanks," answered Aurora, stepping forward to retrieve the clothes from Talia, who had not made a move to step into her space uninvited.

"Certainly," replied Talia. "You're a bit thin, but they should fit all the same. Make yourself at home. The good doctor here will grab rations for you for dinner tonight. I will be back to fetch you in the morning. We'll begin your training then."

"Training?" questioned Aurora, the chills in her spine beginning to grow wings and spread to her belly.

"Yes." The smile slid from her face as she turned to Dr. Amir. "Doctor."

Dr. Amir lowered his face from hers, and as she turned to walk away, he did the same, never looking back to say goodbye to Aurora.

What the hell, thought Aurora as she slid out of her ruined scrub top. She pulled down her bottoms and stepped out of them, leaving them on the floor. She stepped into her shower and turned on the hot water.

What the hell, she thought as she stood under the pour of the water. Steam rose up all around her as she stood still, letting the hot water run down over her face. She tried to close her eyes against the stream but when she did all she saw were the faces of the three nurses she had murdered. She couldn't remember their names, but their faces. She could see them as clear as if they had huddled into the shower with her. Tears brimmed in her eyes and mixed in the water from the shower.

They had in a way huddled in. They'd come piled on her shoulders; dead weight if you would. And at the thought, her body sagged down onto the floor. On hands and knees she sobbed, shuddering under the weight of them.

She thought of the man with the syringe in his neck and the burden of her small frame forcing it through until it stopped at the concrete. She had done that. She had killed him and watched his eyes as he died. And she was afraid.

What the hell, she thought. What the fucking hell? What did I do?

"What did I do?" she cried, her head hanging in the flow of the water, the sound of despair reverberating back to her from the shower walls.

Her thoughts drifted to Bane and gradually her sobs subsided. She felt strange, like she was waking up from a bad dream to see that she had been awake the entire time. She had blood on her hands, blood that she had spilled; blood that she knew if she didn't get out now, would be multiplied. She was in over her head; pulled into something she wanted no part of and it was lethal.