Chapter 14

The burly man who'd been by the side of Ra's Al Ghul followed Bruce back to the room that he had woken in. Ra's had introduced him simply as Ubu. He spoke little, and each time with a thick middle-eastern accent. For a while, Bruce sat on the bed and watched him as he stood with his back against the door, his thick arms folded across his chest, looking stoically back. It was clear that even though Ra's declared that he wasn't a prisoner, he wasn't allowed to leave. At least not until he accepted the marriage that he did not want, and a permanent place in the League of Shadows that he wasn't keen on either. Accepting Ra's deal would get him back to Gotham, but at the same time, he would be a taking on a whole new form of shackles that he wouldn't be freed from anytime soon. "I was under the impression that I'd be given space to think," he told Ubu. "I can't collect my thoughts with you staring me down like that."

Ubu 'hrrumphed', "I stay. You turn the other way to think. Then you not see me."

Ever so obliging... grumbled Bruce to himself, turning himself around. He considered leaping off the balcony and making another dash for freedom, but there were no beams in this wing of the compound - besides, Ubu standing just an arm's length from him wouldn't make it easy. He wondered how long he'd be guarded this closely. Perhaps if he still refused Ra's offer, he'd be returned to his cell in the other wing. But if Ra's had intended him to escape the first time, he wouldn't be as loose with security this time.

For a while, Bruce considered the thought of spending a much longer time in Nanda Parbat - and the possibility of a cataclysm actually hitting Gotham while he was still away. The details of Dr. Welkin's research came back to mind. He spoke extensively of the dormant fault line not too far away from Gotham that had erupted in 1721, causing half the blossoming town to fall into chaos and ruin.

Gotham was left mostly abandoned for about a decade, aside from criminal nuisance that thrived off the survivors of the quake. It wasn't till 1732 that a group of men from neighboring towns and villages decided to gather and reclaim what had been lost. Together, they managed to get the criminal element under control, and worked tediously to rebuild the city to what it is today. That council of men became the new founding fathers of Gotham - one of which included Hezekiah Wayne, one of his early ancestors.

It was a tale that had almost completely faded to the pages of time, till Dr. Welkin had been alerted to some on and off seismic activity in the past year, and had taken time off to research it properly. With the way Gotham had been constructed since the 1700s, he figured there wasn't a way it would survive the tremors of a quake. Bruce had taken an interest in the Dr's research then, but when he quickly faded off the scene, he could only wonder if it'd been a false alarm or if the authorities had been so convinced of what was to come that they decided to silence him in order not to cause a mass panic.

To add to that, the similarities between Gotham's tragic past, and what Ra's had prophesied was to come, were highly uncanny. Something within his gut told him it was something to be heeded. But would braving those extra shackles be worth the opportunity to go back? Maybe... If it would save a number of lives, then he began to believe that his personal freedom might be worth the cost. 

A knock came on the door, and Ubu responded. Talia stood before him. She had a silk wrap with butterfly sleeves on, tied in a bow around her waist, drifting lazily around her ankles as she moved. "Father wants me to guard the chosen one till his visit to his quarters tomorrow," she said.

Ubu 'hrrumphed' again. "Mistress not strong enough to handle if he tries to escape," he complained.

She stood up to him. "Are you questioning the master's decisions?"

Immediately, Ubu backed down, tail between legs. "No Mistress. I will leave you alone." He let her in, departed and shut the door behind him.

The truth was that Bruce was as curious as to the master's decision to leave him with his daughter. "Is that true?" he asked, after he was certain Ubu would be out of earshot.

She nodded slowly. "He took some coaxing, but I managed to have him see that a little more time with me might convince you to change your mind."

Bruce turned around completely to face her. "Look Talia, I don't know about joining the League of Sh..."

"Shhh..." she'd moved onto the bed, pressing a finger onto his lips. When she knew he'd stopped speaking, she bent over his ear and whispered. "I've thought about what you've said, and even though I've never disobeyed Father, I know I won't be able to bear to see you unhappy. I must make a decision, one that will cost me." She leaned away from him. There were tears in her eyes, slipping down the contours of her cheeks.

Surprised at what he had heard, he moved a finger over her cheek to catch a falling tear. "What do you mean, Talia?"

She blushed at his touch, even as she continued in a harsh whisper, "I want to help you escape from here, beloved. You'll be able to leave before you see Father again - because he won't be as generous the second time around."

He dropped his hand. "Then wh... what will happen to you?" He didn't want to think about Talia taking the brunt of Ra's wrath over his escape.

"I will lie, that you overpowered me, and that I could not stop you from leaving. You could hit me, so that he would see the bruises and believe what I say."

Bruce looked at her flawless fair skin, the gentle curve of her face, and her bright brown eyes. He couldn't imagine hitting her anywhere, especially not after what she intended to do for him. "Why would you want to do this? You barely know who I am."

She pressed her hands against his shoulders. She was close enough for her fragrance to taunt him - she smelled like daffodils in spring, drifting lazily under a glowing sun. "Oh I do... I've known you for as long as I've been alive. I might not have been able to touch you then as I do now, but you've been in my heart...." Her tears streamed from her cheek to her chin, settling gently onto his lap. "You've been in my soul, beloved. We were meant to be together. I've waited for you for so long. But if you don't want to be with me, I can't possibly force you to stay."

"Talia..." His resistance against her was weakening, as her arms wrapped themselves around his back, and she touched his nose with hers. Electricity sparkled as he leaned into her and they met in a passionate kiss. A voice deep within him cried that he should not be kissing her, not the daughter of his captor. But being in her arms made him forget - just for those few precious moments. Deeper and deeper they fell into an embrace, as garments slipped to the floor and he soon felt the warmth of her soft skin, and the quickened breaths against his chest.

Night fell like a dark cloak and hid them there between the sheets - away from the grasp of Ra's Al Ghul, away from Bruce's destiny, away from everything that he knew.