Epilogue

Selina Kyle does not grow old. She does not live a long, full life. After giving birth to her twin children, she does not leave the town or their birthplace, does not see the world. Barsad looks after the three of them, forgoing both the rebuilding of the League of Shadows and the avenging of his friend and leader for the sake of fostering the man's family.

She has a boy and a girl. The boy is called Bruce; the girl, Talia. They are named for the people their parents were unable to protect.

She dies at a young age, from a disease passing through the area. Her children are only four years old, when she leaves them. In the days before her passing, she feels the cool of death approaching her. Bruce and Talia are young, hyper-sensitive to the disease and have been taken from her to keep them safe. She writes them a letter, instructing Barsad to give it to them once he deems them old enough to understand. The man promises to look after them and Selina does not doubt him.

She dies fitfully in her sleep.

Fifteen years later, the Bruce and Talia near twenty years of age. They are trained in combat, in the use of their bodies to take down any opponent. In the spirit of the Batman, Barsad forbids them from killing another person, just as Selina desired.

Talia has light brown hair, tanned skin that shines in sunlight. Sharp eyes and round cheek bones draw men to her, but she rejects each of them. She has the spirit of Selina Kyle, untrusting and unencumbered by lies and manipulation. Three years earlier, a fire broke out in the orphanage after the poor owners could not pay taxes to the local despot—a corrupt man backed by the group formed of the League's former prisoners, the men that killed them in their home. Most of the children escaped, but Talia, unable to allow even a single child perish, rushed inside and saved the three that had been misplaced. Inside, the flames took hold of her leg and a left behind a bright-red scar stretching up the limb to her hip. She was lucky not to have lost it completely.

Bruce has dark brown hair that he keeps cropped short, despite the style of the area. He dislikes the feeling of it in his eyes. His face is the spitting image of Bane, of the man he would have been if not for the Pit's toll. His body also reflects that of his father. Broad and muscular, Barsad has trained him to use the strength to his advantage, to move with speed, though he must act in the absence of the Venom. He inherited Bane's intense thirst for knowledge, already speaking four languages and in the process of learning another. Once Barsad had taught he everything he could, Bruce took it upon himself to teach the village children, male and female, how to defend themselves. Under the shadow of the League's replacement, even a small amount of strength could save their lives.

On a cool winter evening, Barsad sits them down and explains the conditions in which Selina wrote the letter, that he has not read it himself. He hands it to them and leaves the room, allowing them to experience their mother's words at their own pace.

Bruce and Talia,

If you have survived to be able to read this letter, I am eternally grateful. I know neither of you will have any memory of me, but I am your mother. This letter is no replacement for years of nurture and tenderness, but it is all I can do under the circumstances.

It is important for you to understand the origin of your names, because you are each named for someone very important to your father and I.

Talia—your father loved the woman with your name more than anything else in the world. She saw the strength in each and every person and saw value where others saw none. He told me his regrets, once, that he could not save her from herself. Do not fall prey to the same obsession for revenge that she did, but live life with the same passion.

Bruce—you are named for one of the greatest heroes the world has ever known. He saved millions of people countless times and inspired even more. He was a great man, but do not become the man he was. His greatest weakness was his inability to trust in those around him. No burden is yours to bear alone.

I could write words to you of how I wanted something different for the two of you, different than what your father and I had. I could write my wish for you to life a life far away from where you were born, far from where I was born, and to live without violence and without hatred.

But I know, with Barsad's tutelage and your father's and my blood in your veins, such a task would be quite the feat. Do what you think is necessary, but never cast aside your morals. I have complete faith in you.

Your father and I made many mistakes, but I want both of you to know that you are not one of them. That you could have came from all the destruction we created is a miracle in itself—both of us understood this.

I regret that I cannot see you, as you are now. I imagine the people you have grown up to be would make me proud.

I would like for you to know the whole story, if you would hear it, but I fear my strength is too lacking to write it here. It is a story of a prison, of a man that could not die and yet was destined to do so, of self-discovery, of the choice between life and death, and how even when annihilation seems inevitable, there is always another way.

If you show these words to Barsad, he will tell you anything you wish to know.

Know that I love you and that your father, who knew you only before you came into this world, loved you as well. We would have given everything we had to keep you safe.

Your Mother

Perhaps, someday, they will create a storm of their own.

A/N When I originally started writing this, I had the story ending after Selina tried to kill herself. The more I thought about it, the more anti-climactic this seemed. It felt like a copout. This ending seemed more realistic. Throughout the writing process I switched between Selina dying with Bane, her dying in child birth, her living a long life and raising her children, but nothing but this felt right.

I want to thank all of you for bearing with me throughout this story. I have been writing it for ten months and, especially for the last couple chapters, the wait between them has been very large. To those that have been with me from the beginning, thank you for sticking around. You guys have been the best readers I could ask for. This is the most popular of anything I have written and it feels really good to know I've (somewhat) succeeded in writing Selina and Bane.

I'm sorry to say that I don't have anything further planned for Selina and Bane. A lot of you were asking for Selina and Bane down the line, but obviously that isn't happening. If you have an idea for something feel free to share, in the hopes it may inspire me (or someone else) to write. I wish more people wrote this pairing. It has so much potential and it really kind of makes sense, in a sick way.

Like I said in the last chapter, I'll respond to all the review this chapter gets, so please make sure you are logged in. :) I am still writing, but I have basically picked up and moved to my AO3 account, where I go by luvkurai. You can find me there and on my tumblr: luvkurai . tumblr . com

Thank you so, so much for reading! I love you all. xxx