Never, Batman thought. Too many good people— including Rachel and his parents—had worked too hard to make the city a decent place to live. This masked lunatic needed to be stopped—just like the Joker and Rā’s al Ghūl.

He hurled himself at his opponent, knocking him onto his back beneath the foaming waterfall, where Batman hammered his masked face again and again. Clear water cascaded over them, making the Dark Knight’s black armor gleam slickly. Any normal thug would already be out cold, but Bane just absorbed the blows until Batman took a moment to catch his breath.

He let up, just for a moment, and Bane’s brawny arms shot out like rockets, smashing Batman aside.

The mercenary rose to his feet.

“You fight like a younger man,” he said, his voice betraying no hint of the punishment he had received. “Nothing held back. No reserves.” He flexed his own muscles as he advanced. “Admirable. But mistaken.”

Batman was breathing hard. He realized Bane was right. Eight years of retirement had taken its toll on his endurance and reflexes. He wasn’t the same man who had defeated Rā’s al Ghūl nearly a decade ago. That Batman had just begun his career.

A smarter strategy was needed. He flipped a switch on his belt, triggering an EMP that knocked out all the lights, throwing them all into total darkness. Then he retreated into the sheltering blackness. Night-vision lenses in his cowl allowed him to keep an eye on his adversary, who seemed to take the blackout in his stride.

Bane turned slowly, addressing the all-encompassing shadows. He didn’t seem worried.

“You think darkness is your ally,” Bane said. “But you merely adopted the dark. I was born in it. Formed by it…”

Moving as silently as a ghost, Batman circled, looking for an opening. There had to be some way to bring the other man down. He just needed to strike when and where Bane least expected. And he needed to make it count.

This could be my last chance.

“I didn’t see light until I was already a man. And by then it was nothing to me but blinding.”

Without warning, Bane lunged backward into the darkness and caught Batman’s throat in his grasp. Only the reinforced neckpiece kept his windpipe from being crushed in an instant.

“The shadows betray you, because they belong to me…”

He slammed Batman into the concrete floor, hard enough to dash any other man’s brains out. His bare fists pounded on Batman’s cowl with unbelievable force, blow after blow smashing down like a jackhammer. Concussed and breathless, Batman couldn’t fight back as Bane hammered on the cowl until finally, incredibly, the hard graphite shell cracked.

No, Batman thought. That’s not possible.

One final blow put him down for the count. Bane rose, towering above his battered foe. He gestured upward at the vaulted ceiling high above the vast subterranean chamber. Through blood-streaked eyes, Batman saw that a series of holes had been drilled into the ceiling. Explosive charges had been placed in each of them.