Bane

November 20, 1993

Bane stared, wide-eyed beneath his bone mask, sunlight through thr cracked walls of his ruins, through swirling dust motes, gleaming off his polished bone mask through the gaping holes in his ruined keep.

"Her name is Celeena Sharif."

Bane felt a brief sensation of pain in his chest. It was not a physical pain (...and it was); it was not something he could ignore, or

He stared down at the baby, and the baby up at him. "Its eyes..."

Suheila smiled. "Her eyes. It's called heterochromia. She can see just fine."

Heterochromia? Bane sifted through Jonathan's memories, and was answered in silence.

Celeena made a brief raspberry with her lips, slobbering over her chin, and blinking her eyes, one blue and one green, as she watched her parents ramble in sounds that meant nothing.

"...when?"

Suheila made a face. "Are you asking me if it is yours?"

Bane shook his head.

"She has a sister. We have twins."

Bane dropped onto his backside and stared at Suheila and the baby. "How?"

"...well. When a mommy and a daddy love each other very much, they engage in special hugs. Adult hugs..."

Bane blinked from behind his mask.

Suheila smirked. "It's not like we see one another every day. It's been months."

Bane tilted his head.

"My aunt has baby Nadjia."

Bane clenched his eyes shut. The scent of perfume. A brief flash of electric blue eyes. Jeans.  No, genes. "...Nadjia."

Suheila stared at him with a sympathetic expression. "What's going on inside of you?"

Bane lowered his head, resting his masked face in the palms of his massive hands. He drew in a deep breath and exhaled. "Hide her."

"From you?"

He lifted his head, dropping his hands to his knees, and shook his head once. "Everyone. Hide her. Hide them. You, too. Hide."

Suheila stared down at Bane, or rather at eye level to him. "What's wrong?"

"Danger." Bane arched his neck and felt a succession of pops, a haunting phantom pain aching in his back where the faceless man stabbed him with the rod. "Go. Do not return."

Suheila lowered herself carefully to the wooden floor, Celeena cradled in her arm. "There is nowhere safe for me, now. Nowhere. If I go, someone will only follow me. If I stay, someone will just come to my door. You are the only one who can keep us safe."

Bane frowned beneath his mask. "I cannot protect you, Suheila."

Suheila blushed. "Suheila?"

He nodded.

"I've never heard you call anyone by their name."

Bane shrugged.

Suheila stole a final look at Bane, and then stared down at Celeena. "I'll go... but only to see her off safely. I'm coming back. If I'm in danger, if you're in danger, then hiding won't help anyone. We can take the fight to whoever it is you're worried."

Bane stared up at Suheila, and then past her to the cracked walls of his ruins.

Suheila cupped the side of Bane's mask, drawing his eyes to meet hers. "I'm coming back."