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Bane is not a woman. At least not by the Citadel’s standards. She is a war captain. She is an imperator. She is a soldier. She is a driver. She is a mechanic. She is a machine. She is a survivor. She is disposable. She is flesh.
John Blake is a woman. John Blake is Robin. She is fragile. She is soft. She is a wife. She is a mother. She is precious. She is property.
Year after year, John produces good strong boys. One little robin, and another little robin, and another. Bane does not. Bane has learned to live and hide with the mechanics. They no longer think of her as woman either. And Bane has no reason to associate with any of the wives. Her existence displeases Ra’s al Ghul. She is an example of a woman gone wrong. She can produce no heirs for him, and therefore she is worthless in that capacity. Never mind that she was stolen and brought here to live in this place.
But Talia is precious. Talia is kind and smart and loves Bane. From the moment she was small, Bane has protected her. Talia doesn’t need protection. She is Ra’s al Ghul’s child. But still Bane protects her. One day she will be sold off. She will go to the Bullet Farm or the highest general. Bane ignores John’s children, and all the other wives’ children. They produce boys, and boys need no protection in the Citadel.
---
John sits in the passenger seat. Talia sleeps tucked under her arm, the other wives sleeping in the backseat. John has taken inventory of every gun and every bullet. She has watched Bane drive and shift gears. She is smart. She is capable.
“Teach me how to drive.”
Bane glances at her.
“Please,” John adds. She smiles. Her face is not as enchanting as John thinks.
It is. It’s more.
“Why?”
“You need to sleep. And we need more than one driver.”
Bane shakes her head. “It’s too dangerous. Once we reach the Green Place.”
“No. Now.”
“Are you scared?”
John is quiet for a long time. Perhaps to make sure the other wives are truly asleep. “I’m terrified.” She puts her hand over her stomach. “I’m pregnant, and Ra’s thinks of the children as his property. Never mind that it’s our bodies that carry them, our bones that break. I don’t want another child to be trained as a warlord. And Talia is set to marry the Bullet Farmer. He’s a monster. We can’t afford to get caught.”
Bane doesn’t answer, but she gives the slightest of nods.
John reaches out a hand and ever so lightly grips Bane’s shoulder. “Teach me. You need a second in command, and we all need to be a team if we want to survive.”
---
John knows how to use guns. Bane has watched over her for years as the wives’ protector, but she didn’t know. She never asked.
John knows how to maintain and use guns. She knows how to match bullets and knows how to make her shots count. She provides cover for Bane. She fires at the War Boys when they run over Carolyn.
---
Bane won’t cry. There’s no point in crying. But to drive all the way into the desert, through the canyons, through fire storms, through swamps. To give women hope. To think she could find some sort of redemption herself.
It was futile. It always was.
She sits alone in the sand, closes her eyes. She can’t look at the last remaining women of her old tribe. She can’t watch as Talia laughs and cheers at the women’s seeds and guns. Can’t watch as a blonde woman cracks joke after joke as she presses her hands against John’s stomach. John smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes.
Bane has to look away from the women she failed.
It’s Selina in the back of the group, mouth twisted into a bitter grimace, who calls her attention. “What do we do now?” It shatters any temporary joy from the group. Calls them back to reality.
“We have motorcycles.” The blonde woman nods at her friend. “Ivy, we could go. Take them all away. Transfer the guzzoline from the rig and go.”
Ivy hesitates before nodding. “Yeah, Harley, we could do that.”
“No.” John shakes her head. “No. We go back.”
“I don’t want to go back,” Talia whines.
“We go back,” John says again, firmer. The other wives haven’t talked yet. John has had more children than them, she’s currently more pregnant than them. Bane knows this. Bane knows this means her word will be law with the other wives. But she won’t drive them back. She won’t let them take Talia.
“We could go to Gotham,” Selina suggests.
“We can’t go back to Gotham. Ra’s takes everyone from Gotham. Everyone good from Gotham is in the Citadel, and everyone dangerous enough to be free of Ra’s is lurking in Gotham.” She shakes her head. “We go back to the Citadel.”
Harley contemplates her words. “To the Citadel, but not to Ra’s?”
John nods. “Correct.”
Bane’s body hurts. Her bones hurt. Her muscles hurt. Her lungs hurt. Her face is wet with tears that she hasn’t let escape for the last twenty years. “You want to claim the Citadel while all the men are on the road.”
John’s face lights up with happiness. Complete and utter joy. When John smiles, Bane’s already weak lungs get caught.
“Absolutely.”
---
Bane is not a woman of faith. She does not find strength in any higher being. She does not easily trust. She does not believe in the plan. She does not have faith in the war pups. She does not trust the people of the Citadel.
John believes in God. She prays. She trusts Bane. She trusts the Vuvalini. She trusts the other wives. She trusts her sons to let them up. She trusts the Citadel to welcome them with open arms while Ra’s al Ghul’s corpse rots.
John doesn’t let Bane go far. She keeps her close. She keeps her close when the wives talk to the commanders and the milking mothers. She keeps Bane close when she gives birth to another little robin. She keeps Bane close to her during law making, during harvest time.
---
John’s sons are good boys. They are loyal to their mother above anyone else. They have Ra’s eyes and his manners. They walk like their father and talk like him, but they are all children. Their eyes light up when John looks at them. They are eager to be held and be loved by their mother. They are eager for the unconditional love John once gave them before Ra’s separated them for training.
When John gives birth, they sit nearby on the floor. They wait.
They tell John every secret Ra’s ever had, and John tells the other wives. Every nefarious plot Ra’s has ever conceived is unraveled by a small smile from a mother to her children.
---
When the Citadel knows peace, knows stability, knows safety, it’s because of the wives. They are the rulers of the Citadel, and they need nothing. They have their lost children. They have the resources of the city. They have the final say in all matters. They can turn away Bruce Wayne’s offer of help within the fortress. They don’t need it. The War Boys are loyal to them. They send Bruce to deal with the Bullet Farmer, and John keeps Talia and her sons far from the fight. Ra’s al Ghul’s other daughter is in Gas Town, and she is only too happy to find out her father has been killed.
During the nights when it’s just Bane and John awake, when the children aren’t being wild, there’s a feeling of comfort Bane has never known.
It’s the gentleness as John holds her hand. It’s the soft press of lips against her own. It’s the thunder in her heart.
Bane stays, and John loves her.