Chapter 11: Truth

A chilly liquid rushed over her in a matter of seconds, she jumped up from her unconscious state and looked around to find herself in darkness. She couldn't move, a thick rope wrapping around her torso and arms, strapped to the uncomfortable chair she was placed in. Her limbs ached, her head throbbed, her chest heaved, droplets of salty perspiration fell down her skin followed by the cold substance poured onto her moments ago.

Ren gasped for breath as best as she could, her eyes focused amongst the darkness, but she saw nothing.

"I do not think..." A dubbed voice was her light, it shines through the darkness and opened her senses. The scratching of a chairs legs against the ground reverberated through her ears till she could see the figure in front of her. Bane's towering figure placed the chair down, the backrest facing her, he straddled it and leaned into his cross arms. "You understand the trouble it was for me to keep your whereabouts secret." He finished, her lips trembled and no words left her when she realized there was no answer. Strands of her wet hair stuck to her forehead and dropped down over her shoulders.

It was quiet, dreadfully so, but she could see him staring at her, she could feel him near.

"W-Why-" She forced the word from her mouth, but it was the cold that prevented her from saying what she needed to say.

"There are things that your father would not want me to tell you, but you must know." Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes trying to make out his words. Her father was a horrible man, he was the reason she would forever be scarred, how did Bane know him? She said nothing in hope that he would continue. "Your father is Ra's Al Ghul."

The world paused for a moment, Ren knew nothing of what was reality and what wasn't. Not anything in her training could prepare her for the truth she would not accept. She had forever saw herself as unworthy of the League of Shadows, but here she sat because of them. Because of... Him...

"I was told to never tell you, I am the only one that knows-"

"Talia..." Ren breathed out, she sucked in oxygen through her nostrils and exhaled. "What of her?" The words were blurted out because Ren had trouble speaking. Her lunges began to burn and her eyes blurred slightly.

"She is your sister." Bane replied, his tone was stern and almost nonchalant. His words meant nothing to him, the reality behind this meant nothing because he had known it for so long.

"Why... D-Didn't he... Want... M-Me... To Know?" She took a deep breath in between each word, almost hyperventilating. Tears stung at her eyes, she used all her strength to keep them back, her head hung down as she tried to collect herself.

"It was too dangerous, people were out to kill him. At first he put me in charge of protecting you both until he saw that Talia had fallen in love with me and that was when I was excommunicated." He bellowed the last word, it almost echoed through the darkness of the abyss surrounding them. He stood up, the chair scuffing forward with a slight screech then he turned and disappeared into the darkness. "Your mother wasn't a princess, she wasn't the same woman that Talia had grown with in prison. He had fallen in love with another woman. He decided on leaving you both after your birth and when he returned years later to take you under his wing. He found that you had nearly died under the care of her. He decided to train you then." The pain in her chest subsided and she had found it was easier to maintain herself.

"I wish I had known."

"He respected you more than he had ever respected Talia. You are stronger..." Bane was back at the chair again, leaning into it glaring with his dark eyes. She loved those eyes, but could barely see them in this abyss that swallowed them whole. "Better even, but your weakness is obvious." He inhaled sharply, the mask causing his voice to be sketchier. She had learned over the years the emotions of eyes and his voice. She couldn't say that it was kept her alive, whenever she noticed his mood, but she certainly could say that it was a neutral feeling. His voice, however, was of a different pitch; it was a edgy, as though a pain she had never recognized in him before. She was not afraid of him up until she noticed this change, it scared her whenever something went from the norm. "Your feelings get the best of you." He knew her too well, he knew her better than she herself knew or understood. He knew her better than she knew him. "I know that you love me, Ren." Ren's breath caught, but it was a very small ounce of surprise that overran her. She, perhaps, had always known that he knew, but it best went unsaid. The hardest part was knowing that he didn't love her back, he loved Talia.

"It is hard to say that I reciprocate..." He sighed, his scratchy mechanical voice sent shivers down her spine. "It-" He spat it out, the heaviness of it all weighed on her chest. "Means nothing now." Did it ever mean something? How long had he known? She had so many questions, but she knew they would be left unanswered.

"I understand." She whispered mostly to confirm with herself, but Bane heard and he confirmed these words with himself also. She was dead, if not her body than her mind was lifted away by some unknown force. She didn't know why it hurt so much to know that he would never love her back, but it did. It heart like a cold blade directly into her chest and the fact that she allowed it, hurt her the worst. Ren was a tragedy within and without that man in her life.

"Talia has gone mad. The moment she knew you were alive, she told me to kill you..." She closed her eyes and nodded her head. "You know what I must do."

"But you have already done it." She stated, he coughed under his mask and sat much straighter on the chair, which he was still straddling.

"I cannot kill you, but what I have done is worse and what I am about to do I so very regret." Regret? She wanted to scream at him, he had hurt her more than anyone else and he knew it. The immortality of her pain would last forever, she was too far in, too in love with a man that would never be hers. A life she would never have, but a dream she would always know.

"I understand. I don't expect your mercy." She closed her eyes, having spoken upon her own accord, she knew her life would be short after this moment. She felt the gentle touch of a rough padded thumb against her cheek, then over her lips. She felt his mass in front of her, hovering over her, his forehead pressed against hers. She bit her bottom lip, her mind was a puddle of confusion. She wasn't sure what their relationship was anymore, but it certainly wasn't any less than it was. He pulled away quickly as if she had burned him, as if he had been burned from the inside out.

It was all gone, he was gone, there was nothing and it seemed the darkness had taken her completely yet again. It was broken apart by the loud screeching of a metal door being open, followed by the bleeding light that leaked through it. She closed her eyes and turned her head away, the chair that was once in front of her was gone. The door's shape trimmed the light directly onto her, her bright blue eyes almost opaque under the glare of its power. The warmth was what she welcomed. Bane's towering figure stood at the door, his shadow was all she could see. Nothing more was said and he was gone, shortly after his disappearance another shadow walked in. He was hunched over and plump, a shroud wrapping his body by the looks of the light past the thin material.

She gulped and waited patiently for what was to happen next. She felt the binds loosen around her and then drop drop from her. She placed a hand over the man's cheek, the lower portion of his face covered in stubble, he was old and broken. The light shun on his eyes, which appeared dull and sullen.

"Who are you?" She whispered, he took a deep breath and then continued to releasing the binds around her feet.

"Bane has instructed me to watch over you, make sure you do not leave." His. voice was touched by an accent she had heard before, but thought nothing of until now.

"Where am I?" She knew that he had hidden her, but she had not known where.

"You shall see." He stood up and held his hand out to her, the binds were relieved from her body. She took his hand and she was helped out of the seat, her legs trembled, her body still half asleep. She stared up into the light and she walked towards it, when she was strong enough she released his hand. Like a doe taking its first few steps into life, she exited out into the sun. It's rays beamed down onto her and accentuated the hell she was in, the hell she knew she was in.

Her face was wet from tears she did not know were there and her heart was pounding faster than it ever had in her life, causing a physical pain and draft in her breathing. She looked around at the unfamiliar faces covered in dirty rags of clothing, strutting around with no real reason. She breathed in the scent of death and the earth, the prison she had found herself in seemed like a pipe crawling up towards the sun. Catwalks went this way and that, the railings rusty from age and broken to certain degrees. The man who had helped her before walked up beside her, he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"He told me about you. He respects you."

"It is a respect of a little amount."

"No, if he hadn't respected you he wouldn't have explained why you were here." She angled her head slightly, eyes had not met his yet.

"He explained nothing, it was not necessary for an explanation." She was exhausted, but it seemed as if she had slept forever. "What is your name?" She received no answer, she turned her head in his direction. He was staring up blankly at the opening of the prison towards the empty sky, where the sun was all he knew. She could see the longing in his eyes, she cocked her head to the side.

"I don't remember it." He muttered out, her features softened, this place would made her wish she had never known Bane. This place would be her end, break her, make her grateful she actually had things at some point. But she had lost those things now, it would be the little things that she would miss first. Bane's brown eyes, the glint of Ra's al-No! Her father's swords, the wind in her face, the night moon, and most importantly the freedom. The killing would follow, she was a killer, a monster at heart, and eventually she would miss taking another's life. Then she would forget her name, it was a simple name, but would be forgotten nonetheless. The memories, the memories of where the scar came from... Of what he did to her.

"Well, then I will call you Nazir." He awkwardly looked back at her with confused eyes.

"Nazir?"

"Yes."

"No one has ever called me anything before. Not that I can remember." She nodded in response, her hands gripped tighter onto the railing.

"Where am I?"

"A place of darkness, a place of death and destruction, escape has only ever been accomplished by one..." Her eyes flickered to the rope hanging against the edge, a tiny ledge stood there and stones of such protruding out until freedom. "The pains of sorrow drive you here, where monsters lurk, hell, a place worse than it..." He began to drift away, her mind fluttering with fear, fear of uncertainty. "Welcome to the Pit."