Chapter 5 - Meeting of the Blade

It was around 11 AM and I had only just come out of the shower when I heard the banging on my door. I peered out the door to see that no one was there, but that the people were all headed somewhere. So, I quickly stepped into some black baggy sweatpants and a tank top and put my slightly wet curls into a ponytail so they would be out of the way. For a moment, I just watched from my doorway.

Before my shower, I had slept in, opting to skip too early of a breakfast since last night Barsad told me that all his training sessions would start at 1PM from now on. I guess he liked sleeping in like me. I would eat just before we met up, but I had a feeling that whatever was happening now might put a dent in that plan. I only followed the crowd when I saw Talia walk by with that horrible woman from lunch a few days ago. I hadn't seen her since, nor did I care to.

I had just caught up to Barsad as we entered the room. We stood in one of the training room balconies overlooking the scene at hand. People were entering from all the different doors, stepping down the stairs and making their way to the centre of the large room. It was the same room from before that had all the men fighting with swords. I think it might have been the largest in here.

"What is this? What's going on?" I asked Barsad as I came up beside him.

He turned to look, noticing me standing there for the first time. He did not look happy to see me. "What do you think?" He asked me bitterly. He stopped walking and took me out the way of the line.

"This isn't ..." I began. "The assembly?" I asked him. "...The meeting of the blade thing?" I exclaimed. I took Barsad's silence to mean that I was correct. "Oh crap," I said in defeat.

Then I turned to him. "Wait - you knew about this since yesterday. You told me to be careful."

"Yeah well I got a heads up from a friend."

"OK", I nodded. "So what do we do?"

The people that were brushing past us were moving towards the centre of the room. So I decided to do the same. I started to walk forward downstairs, but Barsad pulled me back by my shoulder.

"Sienna. Do me a favour and just shut up and stay out of sight," He warned before letting me go.

I think that might have been the first time hearing him say my name. I nodded. Finally, Barsad gestured for me to move forward. Then we both descended down the steps together.

Not today. Not today. Please not today, I said to myself.

Barsad had me off to the side watching. People had already filled the room and made a circle. It was up to the rest coming in, to make it bigger.

I didn't seem like that much big of a deal. People were turned to each other chatting. They seemed relaxed. I looked around at all the people here. I noticed there wasn't as many people here as I had originally thought there might have been.

As Barsad and I stood side by side, a man came up to him and patted him on the back in greeting. I waited for him to pass before I turned to Barsad.

"How many people train here?" I asked.

"Currently...About 60 or so," he replied.

Ever since my first I assumed there where always people all over the building, hiding out somewhere or doing there own thing somewhere else. But seeing all of us together, realized there weren't really that many at all. My old middle school had more people than this.

He took his eyes of me for only a second, before someone brushed between me and another person. The other person stayed where there were, while I was knocked forward. Guess I was that light.

"Hey," I called out in frustration to no one in particular.

I turned to the front to, to see an army of men I had bumped into. who turned around to glare at me. Oddly when they looked at me, their faces softened. I sighed in relief. Maybe it was because they realized I was just a kid. I thought I would have been torn apart.

I just looked at them, until I felt Barsad latch onto my arm and yank me backward like a doll. I don't think he knew he was pulling so hard.

"Stay close to me," he told me.

I began to squeeze between people and head towards the group, but he stopped me. It didn't really matter where I went. I couldn't hide in such a small group of people. They left too much space between one another.

We were now a little behind the first row of people. I could see everything in the middle although it was still empty as no fighters were chosen yet.

"Not too far back so they think you're hiding, but not up front because he might choose you," Barsad commanded.

"Got it - wait - who might choose me?" I asked.

"Ra's... I mean Henri," he chuckled "I get them confused sometimes...Too any goddamn rules," he mumbled to himself. I didn't think much of it.

"Ra's al Ghul is which one?" I asked.

"Look over there." He pointed to a spot in front of us up on the balcony, away from the crowd of people where a man stood in the distance.

He was Asian. Chinese or Japanese or even Korean. I wasn't sure. He had a white moustache that was way too long in some parts. That's a very odd sounding Asian name. Ra's, I thought.

"If Ra's is in charge then why doesn't he choose?" I asked,

"I told you, he doesn't say much," Barsad said.

Ducard was standing beside him. He definitely did not look like a right hand man. His presence was too commanding. His eyes met mine and he smiled.

Oh crap. I hope that didn't mean I was going in there. I turned back to the middle of the circle without smiling back.

"This isn't a fight to the death is it? I asked Barsad.

"No - but close to it." He laughed. "And apparently one of us get to choose today." He pointed to a man in the middle of the circle who was tall and slim, but also muscular. He had flaming auburn hair that reached his shoulder. He wore the cargo pants that a lot of the men here wore - but he was shirtless... and it seemed normal here.

"That's Roman," Barsad said.

I nodded. Then after a moment, I said "Do you think anyone would notice if I left?" I asked him.

"Don't be an idiot," He told me. He was right. Lots of eyes were occasionally on me, and those included Henri Ducard's.

He nodded and then said, "See ya." He began walking forward.

"Wait where are you going?" I asked.

"I'm going up front. Sorry kid, but I don't hide in the back," he told me.

Barsad went to stand across from me on the far opposite side of the circle, but I could see Talia beside him and a bald man with tattoos on his head.

I continued to stare, until suddenly the room fell silent. I looked to the front of the room to see that Roman had his arm raised.

"Everyone listen up!" Roman shouted. He had a thick and heavy Russian accent.

"You all know how this works so we're just going to jump right in." Roman started walking around the room looking for the first victim.

"Our first challenger is ..."

He looked at a man who had tattoos covering both arms.

"Sticks," he shouted. A nickname I assumed. He was South Asian and had his hair in a neat bun. He raised his head to let him know he welcomed the challenge. I smirk lit across his face when he stepped forward into the circle.

Roman continued making his way around the group."Our second challenger is..."

Suddenly I heard someone call out. "Pick the girl," they said.

Roman's eyes met with mine in haste. I could feel my heartbeat quicken. Everyone stopped to look at me, He had a look of confusion on his face at first, then he smirked.

I heard chuckling behind me, but ignored them and turned to Barsad. He didn't look happy - but I could see from the look on his face, there was nothing he could do.

I would obviously stand out. I stood at about two inches shorter than Talia's 5'7, but just by looking at me you could tell I was younger than everyone else. Also because I was a female and there were only about five here as far as I could see, including Talia. There was nothing I could do, but lower my head slightly - not too much and hold my breath and hope he wouldn't.

"Well, what do we have here?"

Everyone could see and was just waiting for him to point. I heard a few murmurs, but that dumb Asian chick with Talia laughed loudest like she wanted me to hear. I felt like I wanted to cry. When I tried to look at Barsad again, he turned away as he was muttering something under his breath.

I looked ahead at Talia, who was beside Barsad. Her face was stone cold. I couldn't tell what she was thinking. Was she happy with it? Mad?

I looked up and saw Ducard who had moved closer to the rails, looking down on us. His hands tightly gripped against the rails in anticipation.

"Fresh meat! Fresh meat! Fresh meat!" Some of the men started to yell. Talia cut her eye at them for a quick second, then glanced up at Ducard. She saw his apprehension and the look of worry on his face. She didn't like it.

"Fresh meat," they continued to shout.

"Silence!" Ducard eventually shouted and the few that were shouting, fell completely silent.

Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone step forward. It wasn't a big movement, just something to be quietly acknowledged. I would barely have noticed if I wasn't paying attention.

I looked up to see it was Bane who had stepped forward. His hands folded in front of him and his head raised. He made a small nod towards Roman and he nodded back. They seemed in agreement.

"Bane." The Russian man simply pointed to Bane then turned swiftly on the balls of his feet, heading out of the ring.

I looked up as Henri calmly took a step back.

A few booming claps came from the crowd as Bane headed into the middle of the circle. Talia folded her arms, her mouth a hard line.

"You gotta be kidding me," someone called out.

"Don't like it...too bad," the man added as he stood watching from the sidelines.

After finding out I wasn't being chosen, I quickly put myself all the way to the back of the circle. I didn't bother, turning around. I wasn't even sure if I wanted to watch the fight.

Once I got to the back of the room, I turned back around to see.

From behind all the bodies, I couldn't see the fight, but I could see Barsad at the opposite end of the circle. He was looking right at me this time. If no one else was watching me, then I would quickly take my leave without an audience.

I turned and headed out the door.

"And just where do you think you are running off too?"

I quickly spun around to see that Talia was now behind me.

"You need to see this," she told me.

Before I could say anything, Talia replied. "It wasn't a negotiation or a request."

So I sighed and went back inside. I didn't feel like getting my arm twisted this time.

A/N: Maybe adding more to this chapter once I get home.