"Get up. Come on, I know you can."

It hurts. It hurts like nothing you've felt before, and there's no point because he'll just kick you back down.

"I know you still have some fight left in you. Batman wouldn't have chosen you if you didn't."

Bruce didn't know Bane would be here, if he did, there's no way he would have let you come alone.

Your entire body aches, like the aftermath of a particularly gruelling training session with Jason, but you know that Bane can do, has done, much worse.

"Come on. I'll even let you catch your breath for a few minutes. All you have to do, is get up. You don't have to stand until you're ready, just sit up."

There's a crash behind you, and for a moment, you think you're dead, you think Bane has dropped a car on your face and you're dead, but when you open your eyes, there's a box behind you for you to lean on.

Bane crouches before you, and you can't help but notice with horror that his hand is big enough to engulf your entire head and pop it like a balloon.

He doesn't help you up, but you could swear that he's smiling when you finally manage to get yourself up from the floor.

"I'm not going to kill you, little bird." Bane says after a moment, "you don't need to worry about that. I just need to keep you busy while my men do their work. I'll leave you intact in enough to fly home."

Somehow, it doesn't help your fears. If anyone knows the limits of the human body, it's Bane. If anyone knows the precise ways to break someone physically to ensure they'll have just enough strength to crawl away, it's Bane.

You've seen the police reports, snuck glances of Bane's handiwork without Bruce's permission, and you know that Black Mask would kill you just to mess with Batman, Victor Fries would kill you to get rid of yet another vigilante ruining his plans, but Bane is perfectly happy to let you leave alive, to put the fear of the Quetzal into your heart when next you meet.

Not the Quetzal.

You remember hearing Alfred tell a story from his days tracking down someone named Deathstroke, about a boy who one day led a rebellion to free his island from war. A boy whose father spoke of the Quetzal bird that dies in captivity and how one day, the bird, and all of them will be free to fly.

But all the boy could see when he looked at the flag of the rebellion, the Quetzal bird flying free, was a bird with a skull on its back and a tail made of teeth.

It took you a long time to finally realise that that boy was Bane, and his mask is modelled after that bird, not the Quetzal.

The Quetzal bird never flew free as far as you know, and you're skeptical that Bane will let you fly back home.

"Would you like some water before we go again? I'd hate for you not to be on top of your game. I want to give you at least a fighting chance."