We Are All Mortals

Chen Tao stood in the distance, his soul soaring through the night. Endless knowledge exploded in his mind. He could even clearly recall the warm sensation of blood splattering on his face from Bane's first murder, from the rupture of his spine.

"I am Chen Tao."

He said to himself.

The giant dinosaur shrunk to a normal human size of two meters in an instant, before the zombie Bane could react. A rising punch, like a comet, sent the opponent falling backward.

The monsters inhabiting Bane watched as the bat-shadow leaped into the air, and then a multi-ton dinosaur plummeted down.

BOOM!

Poison Ivy, sitting on a chair woven from vines, turned to Robin, who had suddenly appeared beside her. "The virus I made with Jason? He synthesized all the raw materials into that failed serum."

"This is all thanks to Professor Goldbloom."

Robin stood quietly beside Poison Ivy. "Killer Croc has already taken him to a safe place."

He tilted his head slightly and whispered to Poison Ivy, "Ivy, don't you want to do something with the power of The Green?"

Then he saw Poison Ivy lower her head, half of her face turning a rotten, ashen color.

This almost made the young Robin jump in fright.

"Shh, don't make a sound," he heard Poison Ivy whisper, her voice like that of a corpse. "The power of The Green has weakened to its limit here. I'm afraid I'm powerless now, and what you should be doing is maintaining the illusion that I can still fight, not freaking out here!"

"This is impossible!" Robin whispered anxiously to Poison Ivy. "The power of The Green has already been eroding Bane's body through that serum. Your power should have greatly increased, and The Black should have been driven away..."

"Wait, unless..."

Tim Drake's pupils suddenly contracted. He looked at where the Plant Master had been lying. "Where did the Plant Master, Jason Wood, go?"

"It's useless, mortal."

After a brief moment of panic, the servants of The Black regained their composure.

"Even if your power surpasses ours, you are still a mortal..."

BANG!

Batman's iron fist, imbued with unmatched strength, made the zombie Bane's head bob like a rubber ball on his neck.

"You can't kill me, I'm already dead..."

BANG!

Batman, transforming into a giant dinosaur once more, grabbed the opponent by the collar and slammed the zombie Bane headfirst into the ground, forcing him to swallow his next words with a mouthful of mud.

The creation of The Black let out a vicious curse: "You cannot escape Death, mortal. You cannot resist us."

"I don't need to resist you, I just need to drive you away," Chen Tao said. He pushed the zombie Bane to the ground.

"Bane was not part of my plan, but coincidentally..."

"You are part of my plan."

He pulled the tube from his back and connected it to the tube on the zombie Bane's back.

"Ha, what's this now? Is that so-called Titan Venom?"

The zombie Bane's numb, ferocious face couldn't form any expression of mockery. Half of his face had split open from the violent punches, revealing a rotten tongue and half his teeth.

"The so-called Titan Venom cannot awaken this body. Mortals under our control would never..."

"Shut up," Chen Tao said softly.

"I am Bane now... Although he is a bat, he is also Bane."

Chen Tao thought, then said softly, "Part of Bane overlaps with me. I understand him."

"And you don't understand who Bane is at all."

HISS!

Like the sound of sulfuric acid dripping onto skin, the zombie Bane let out a wail with two voices mixed together: "What is happening?"

"The Lazarus Pit, also known as the Fountain of Youth. A treasure I obtained from the League of Assassins' stronghold."

He heard the freak called Batman say coldly, "This tube can connect Bane and me. It can not only transmit venom, but also anything else I've prepared. I knew long ago that anything with vitality is your bane."

"I am always prepared. Listen, scum. Normally, I might tell a few bad jokes, but I've had enough of being called a mortal over and over again."

"I intend to show you how people from Gotham do things."

The scum heard the cold pronouncement: "You've never been to Gotham, have you? You don't understand what kind of opponents people from Gotham are. You see us as mortals... but you might have forgotten.

While The Black is a fundamental mystical force, you are merely its low-level agent. You are insignificant before Arcane."

"Arcane... How do you know the Master's name?"

"None of that matters."

It wasn't Batman speaking.

The zombie Bane's eyeballs rolled, looking to the other side of his face: "You..."

"I am Bane." The other half of Bane's face had already recovered human muscle, though it was devoid of any blood.

"So what?"

The hunters of the Black were still shouting, "How could mere mortals escape the parasitism of the great Death?"

"You are nothing but..."

But they quickly fell silent.

"Because I am Bane."

Grayish-white rotten flesh rapidly dissipated from Bane's face: "I am Batman's enemy, an unprecedented rival."

"Because as long as Bane's consciousness returns, Bane can do it," Chen Tao interjected. "As long as Bane wants to."

Grayish-white rotten flesh peeled away from Bane's body. Bane's pair of piercing eyes were filled with an indescribable meaning: "I never anticipated the current situation."

He said in a low voice, "You saved a viper, Batman. I am no less harmful than these filthy death monsters. Even if you help me, it will not change my resolve to break you."

Chen Tao replied, "But at least from the perspective of fellow living beings, our front is united. Your fate is to be defeated by me and sent to Blackgate Penitentiary, not to end up as a zombie."

Bane was silent.

He said, "I will spare your life—"

He shouted, "No matter what, we will be enemies for life! But before that—I will spare your life."

"And first, you must focus on the present."

Bane saw Batman give him a faint smile. The lines of his square jaw beneath the mask were mesmerizing.

He knew he would never forget this scene, even in 100 years.

Chen Tao said:

"The most important characteristic of the Black is its tenaciousness. I had long thought that they would likely take advantage of my absence..."

Boom.

Trees fell one by one.

Appearing before Bane and Chen Tao was the Plant Master, completely corrupted by the Black.

Bane's gaze was fixed on Batman.

"I never thought I would fight side-by-side with you, my enemy."

"And yet I had foreseen it, my nemesis."

Batman replied to him.