Riddler Alliance

Once upon a time, Bane decided to try something new: working with a partner.

Bane had never truly needed help to win a fight. His muscles were strong enough, and his mind was sharp enough, that he usually managed just fine on his own. But even the cleverest strategist knows a simple truth — sometimes two clever minds can solve a puzzle faster than one. So when a villain named Edward Nygma, known across Gotham City as the Riddler, came to Bane with a plan, Bane listened carefully.

The plan was this: deep beneath a building called Gotham First Trust sat a locked vault, full of valuables Riddler wanted very badly. Riddler's part was simple — he would scatter tricky riddles across the city, clues so puzzling that Batman would spend the whole night chasing them down, running from clue to clue. Meanwhile, Bane's part was to dig. Using heavy equipment borrowed quietly from a nearby Wayne Enterprises construction site, Bane would tunnel straight beneath the bank and crack the vault open himself.

Bane agreed to the partnership, but only under one condition. "The plan stays exactly as I design it," he told Riddler. "No changes." Riddler nodded eagerly, though anyone who truly knew him might have wondered whether he could really keep such a promise. Riddler loved riddles, and mystery, and drama — patience was never quite his strongest quality. Still, the two villains shook hands and set to work that very night, each trusting the other just enough to begin.

Down in the earth, Bane dug steadily, patiently, the rumble of the drills echoing through the tunnel walls. Up above, Riddler's clues appeared one by one, scrawled on riddles left in clever places all across Gotham. It should have worked beautifully.

But there was one thing neither villain had planned for: Batman was remarkably good at riddles. Instead of taking all night to solve Riddler's puzzles, Batman cracked them in mere minutes, and he headed straight for Gotham First Trust while Bane was still cutting through the vault's outer wall, dust and rubble scattered around his enormous shoulders.

Batman found him there, in the cramped, dusty tunnel, lit only by the glow of a single work lamp. "Clever plan," Batman said calmly, stepping closer. "But you built it around Nygma being patient. He never is."

No sooner had Batman said those words than — sure enough — Riddler came bursting in from a side passage, unable to wait quietly outside any longer. In his hurry, he tripped straight into a hidden alarm wire, and a shrill bell began to ring through the tunnels.

Bane let out a long, tired sigh behind his mask. He had planned carefully for Batman. He had planned carefully for the bank's guards. But he had not planned for his own partner's impatience, and that, he realized, was a mistake worth remembering.

Rather than stand and fight in such a cramped space, Bane simply turned, placed both enormous hands against the old brick wall beside him, and pushed. The bricks crumbled apart with a great crashing sound, opening a gap just wide enough for Bane to slip through, down into the wide storm drains that ran beneath all of Gotham City. He left Riddler standing there, blinking in the alarm's flashing light, for Batman to deal with alone.

Batman didn't chase after Bane. Instead, he gently but firmly walked Riddler out of the tunnel and handed him over to the waiting officers of the Gotham City Police Department. Batman knew, without a doubt, that Bane would return. Bane always returned — and he always returned having learned something new from whatever had gone wrong before.

Far beneath the city, wading quietly through ankle-deep water on his way back to a hidden hideout, Bane turned the whole night over in his mind, the way he turned over every problem, like a puzzle waiting to be solved correctly. He decided, quite calmly, that next time, he would work entirely alone. Partners, he thought, made for interesting company — but not for reliable plans.

Above him, high in the tower of Gotham First Trust, Batman watched the sun begin to rise over the city, and allowed himself a small, tired smile. Bane had built a clever plan. He had simply built it around the wrong partner. Somewhere out there, Batman knew, Bane was already sketching a better one — and Batman would be ready for it, whenever it came.