Memories Lost (The One They Know)

Chapter Five: Love Ends in Death

Bane kneeled before his fireplace and watched as the flames grew and crept closer to him. They were orange and red and yellow, and they roared with power. Eddie sat behind him, curled up on the couch and staring at nothing. Bane had given him a full bottle of vodka. Half of it was gone.

Eddie had started drinking a few months ago. He hasn't stopped.

Bane remembered when Lily sat on his couch. Crying. Now she was a murderer.

He never really liked Jonathan Crane, but the way he died. The way Lily killed him. Just to get to Eddie. Just to make him watch. How could she do this? What did Rha do to her?

"Bane..." Eddie croaked. "She... She..."

Bane gathered the courage to look at the broken man before him. Eddie's eyes were red as his hair. He was pale and more scrawny looking than ever. Blood covered his suit and his face. His nose was skewed so that you'd have to break it again to make it look normal. The worst thing, though, was the absence of that confidence, that self-assured smug smile. It was gone, maybe for good. Lily had taken it from him.

"We have to stop her Bane." His voice was a harsh whisper. "You know we have to."

Bane didn't react to what Eddie was suggesting. He was torn. He was confused.

"Bane."

The muscular man didn't notice that he was fiddling with the pouch around his neck. "You cannot ask this of me."

Eddie pushed himself upwards, into a shaky stand. "You have to. After what she did-"

Tears streamed down the Riddler's face. Bane, for all his strength, wanted to join him. But before he could offer any comfort, Eddie composed himself enough to speak.

"I know you love her, Bane. She was family to all of us. But this.... It's not her anymore."

Bane looked at the broken man's feet. "I do not want to lose her again."

"Its not her anymore."

Bane looked back at the fire. "I have an idea."

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Bruce Wayne sat at the computer in his Batcave. Crime had been almost non-existent since Rose or Lily, or whatever her first name was, broadcast that video after the attack on the city. People were still angry but the criminals.... She changed them.

She fixed them.

He found himself wondering if there was any need for the Batman anymore. Maybe he could stop. Maybe he could finally resume his old life. He could be normal.

She would've fixed everything.

He turned over his mask on his hands before putting it in a drawer. Was it all over?

He closed the drawer. A weight lifted from his shoulders.

But then the communicator rang.

He put it to his ear and the last person he ever expected to call him was on the line.

"We need your help."

"Bane?"

A/N
Hey, sorry it's short but more is on the way!
thanks to everyone who's still reading. I know the formatting is weird but it's because I write on my tablet.
Anyway, if you have a chance, please check out my other story The Hunting, it's my first real novel and I even got it published on Amazon.
Thanks!