#;;the most dangerous woman alive (talia al ghul)

[ellana-ravenwood]

Can you be friend with your husband's ex-girlfriend ? - Bruce Wayne x Fem!Reader

Synopsis : Everyone always think you and Selina Kyle don’t like each others, solely for the fact that she used to "date” your husband. But as usual in life, things are much more complicated than that...A fluffy Drabble mainly about how truly strong, Bruce and reader’s love is. 

Listen. My students were having quiet reading times, and I had a sudden burst of inspiration as one of them chose a French story in which a mother and a step-mother unite fronts to save their little magical kid (I love that story haha), and it suddenly inspired me. I LOVE Catwoman. Like. A lot. And in my head, her and Batmom have always been...Oh. No spoilers. The rest in this story ;). Hope you’ll like this little bonus story ! : 

My masterlist blog : @ella-ravenwood-archives

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“You look beautiful mom, do you have a date with father ? I thought date nights were on Thursdays.” 

You jumped a little in the air as your son’s voice resonate in the foyer. Definitely didn’t hear him, sneaky little bugger. You turn around towards him, and smile, saying : 

“It is on Thursdays, my little buddy. I’m having a girls night out, tonight.” 

“Girls night out ?” 

“Yes. You know, Cass and I are the only girls of the family. Sometimes we need to vent to our peers. Cass usually goes to see Steph and Babs, I go out with my friends.” 

You smile at him again, ruffling his hair, and he can’t help but chuckle a little bit. In recent months, Damian found that he actually loves, when the one he came to call “mom” (you), ruffled his hair. It made him feel like the little boy he was, as odd as it could sound to anyone not knowing him. 

“I didn’t know you went on such nights.” 

“I do, once a month. You just haven’t noticed because it’s usually on nights you’re out with your father rather early.” 

“I see. If it isn’t too -he hesitates- personal, can I ask with who you are going out ? Who are your friends ?” 

Your smile widens. Because just over a year back, that boy would’ve never cared about this. About who you hung out with, or about you in general. 

Ah, since he came in your life, he went a long way. The mere fact he wanted to know more about you was proof enough, and you felt absolutely touched. 

Even more so as you realized that he not only asked about your friends because he wanted to know you, but because he was a little worried about who you might spend time with, wether they’d put you in danger or not...So, oh so sweet. 

“Well, as cliche as it sounds, I’m going out with mainly other supermoms. We like to vent about...Things -you were aware that telling your son you and your friends love to vent about them wasn’t the best answer right now haha- So, Lois, you know her of course. Jon’s mom. There’s also Dinah, Connor’s mom. You saw him a few time at the Watchtower, although he’s quite younger than you so I don’t think you interact much. I bet you already know she’s Black Canary, and married to Green Arrow, I saw you snoop in your father’s files.” 

Your son’s face redden a little, but you give him a reassuring winks totally meaning : “I snooped around too”, and it makes him smile. You continue : 

“And finally there’s Diana. She’s not a mom yet, but she loooooves to listen to our stories. She’s also great at changing subjects and partying, who would’ve thought right ? I guess having thousand of years of practice helps. I’m sure you know she’s Wonder Woman eh. Oh, and of course, there’s Selina.” 

“Selina ?” 

“Yes.” 

“As in...Catwoman ?” 

“Yes ?” 

You can see your son wants to add something, and you’re pretty sure you know what it’s gonna be. But you let him ask naturally, leave him time to gather his thoughts and dare to ask. After all, you want to instal an atmosphere of trust, between you and your children. You want them to know they can always ask you anything. So you wait. Finally, Damian says : 

“Why are you meeting with this woman ? Don’t you like, hate her ?” 

"Why would I hate her ?” 

You know exactly why he’s thinking that. But you want him to elaborate, to make sense of his feelings about the subject. Simply, to talk. 

“Well...her and father used to...you know...” 

It’s not quite as formed as you were hoping for, but you do know. And at least, he tried. There was a time he would’ve just gotten mad you purposefully pretended not to understand his meaning, and would’ve left this instant.

You smile at him once more. To be honest, so many people thought you and Selina Kyle didn’t get along. 

You guess it would make sense, it’t true, she’s your husband ex after all. AND one of the only woman for whom he truly cared about. Those, were very few...

In fact, there was only three of you, in Bruce’s life, that truly made a difference. Sure, he had been infatuated before, with quite a few women. But only three, truly stood out. 

Talia Al’Ghul, of course. Not his first love (that was Julie Madison, although he was much too young to really know what love even was, and compared to you, it was just mild infatuation). But someone that used to be important nonetheless. The reason your sweet Damian (yes, sweet, especially when around you) was alive. 

She was important, once. When he was training under her father’s guidance, before he realized who Ras really was. 

Talia was a complicated woman who unfortunately could never truly get away from her upbringing, no matter how hard she tried. She was “too far gone”, by her own words. It was clear to Bruce, that if even herself thought she was un-savable, he couldn’t do much either. He did try, though. But it just never worked. 

You were certain that she left Damian in Bruce’s care, when the boy was barely ten, exactly because she didn’t want him to turn out like her. Which in itself, was a little redemption act, no ? At least, you thought so. 

Didn’t mean that you thought you could change her mind about those “world domination” plans that were ingrained in her mind since she was born. Fact is, she gave Damian a chance. 

You never hated Talia. You actually felt pretty sorry for her. 

She could’ve had such a different life, if, all those years ago, she had been able to leave her father. Not that you would want to, it’d mean that you and Bruce would never be (even if deep down, you knew that you and him would always end up together, no matter what...it would’ve just been a little lethal for you, if Talia was more around um um). 

Talia never even really tried to get “her” son back. It seemed she completely accepted to “give him” to you. She self-admittedly never really knew how to be a mother, and there was that time she had him killed because she thought it was meant to be...

Not that, anyway, you’d ever let that happen again. You made it very clear you wouldn’t. And your resolve and anger could be scary, even to Talia Al’Ghul.

Plus, the day she had Damian killed, she realized she didn’t want that...anyway long story short, she was no longer in his life. And although if one day she changed her mind and wanted to contact him again you wouldn’t oppose it, you knew Damian was yours. Everyone knew that if one day she would come back, beyond the fact you, Bruce, and his siblings would be here to protect Damian...The boy would never choose to go back to the Al Ghuls. 

He changed drastically, since he came with you. He was no longer her son. And she knew it. And didn’t interfere so far (and you knew she never would). 

He called YOU “mom”. He told YOU he loves you. You. Not her. he never interacted with you like he did with her anyway. And you still didn’t hate Talia. She was part of both Bruce, and Damian’s past (AUTHOR’S NOTE : a little reminder that Damian was born from a “test tube” with Bruce and Talia’s DNA (to simplify things), and had a surrogate mother to give birth to him (although sometimes he’s seen in literal “baby pods” like in Death Stranding haha). He was born A WHILE after Bruce left Talia and the League behind. He wasn’t born 9 months after. This is important infos so things fit timeline wise :)).

The second woman who had a great impact on your husband’s life, and who used to be “his”, was...Selina Kyle. 

For a long time Bruce felt like she was the only one to understand him. The only one accepting him for who he was, with no compromise. The only person on this Earth that wouldn’t try to change him. And although things were often “on and off”, and complicated, it was nice, to feel like he belonged. And Selina... Selina was the only one giving him this feeling. 

But...Well, he was wrong.  

Because then, you, the “third” and yet most important woman in his life, appeared. 

You arrived years after his love story with Talia, and quite a while after he started to realize him and Selina were maybe not meant to be. Too many differences, even as they understood each others (or at least he thought they did).

Then you barged in. A bit younger than him. Unafraid to be yourself, bold and utterly stubborn. Turning his world upside down, and making him reconsider if he ever knew what the word “love” meant before you.  

But that, was another story. Anyone seeing you with him, and particularly the way he looked at you, would instantly know how crazy he was about you. How desperately in love he was. 

Right now, the question wasn’t about how strong your bond was, and how he never loved anyone like he loves you. 

Nope. Right now, it was all about how you didn’t hate his exes (not even Talia). How anyway, they were part of his life at some point, that was a fact you could never change. 

Before you, Bruce had a past. Past. 

A past. A path. A path that lead him to you. A path that taught him to not make the same mistakes he made before, and a path that showed him it was you. That it has always been you. 

A past path, that couldn’t compare to his present with you. 

You didn’t even feel particularly jealous of them, you knew how Bruce felt about you, and that they were just that...part of his past. 

Now, sure. You would probably never even be friendly with Talia. Who she was and what she stood for made it so. The opposite of you, really. 

But Selina ? Well. Selina was another story. 

You smile at your son, and say : 

“Do you think of Selina and I as “conventional women” ? “

His answer came without a second of hesitation, Damian didn’t even have to think to say what he thought of your question : 

“Certainly not.” 

“Exactly. Now. Maybe society teaches girls they should instantly hate their boyfriend’s ex, but I chose not to listen. It’s a toxic view of life, and not all exes are crazy jealous psychos as the people make it sound ? Sometimes, like in your father and Selina’s case, the relationship ends on good terms. Selina is a great woman. As soon as she knew your dad and I were actually a thing, she backed off.” 

Well. That wasn’t entirely true. She backed off of Bruce. But she still LOVED driving him crazy jealous by openly flirting with you. 

“And I know how your dad feels about me. I trust him, too. Trust is important, you know that now right ? -he nods- So. Why would I hate someone I have a lot in common with, and with whom I’d probably be friend anyway if you father wasn’t in the picture ?” 

“I...I guess you wouldn’t ?” 

“And I indeed don’t.” 

Your son was visibly confused, and you couldn’t blame him really. 

Because of how the World was, but also because of who raised him (Talia was...a jealous woman), you understood how he couldn’t quite understand you not feeling threaten in the least by the fact Selina was your Broosh’s ex. So you say, kissing his forehead :

“I’ll tell you a few stories, soon. And I think you’ll get it.” 

“Ok, mom.” 

You smiled. He hadn’t call you “mom” for very long, and you quickly noticed he used every opportunity to use the word. It melted your heart. 

“Now, I have to go ! If I’m late, Diana is going to fly me out of here, and your father HATES when she does that. Goodnight baby, see you soon. Make sure to eat a proper dinner. I told Alfred but I trust you to listen. And force your dad to have one too, when I’m not here, he forgets things...even as important as literally feeding himself. Too engrossed in his project, you know. Anyway, love you. Good night !” 

“Good night, mom.” 

And with a last smile, you go out and leave behind a son that has a LOT of things to think about. 

************

A few days later, it was Damian’s mandatory night off and he was going to bed early. Your orders. You convinced him, by promising to read him a bedtime story.

Many would think your son was too proud to even admit you still read him stories before bed, even as he was approaching the age of 12. But many would be wrong. 

If there was something Damian wasn’t afraid of, it was to tell the world how much of a mamma’s boy he was. Nobody could blame him, he never really had a “real” mom. Not one like you, at least, who taught him with love and patience, and not hired assassins and blood. 

“Ok Little Buddy, what will it be tonight ?” 

"The story of how you became friend with Catwoman ?”

Your taken aback for a few seconds, you had totally forgotten about telling him about your “girls night out”. But then you smile, settle down next to him on his bed, and as he threw his heavy and comfortable quilt on both of you, you start your story. 

The day she saved your life. 

The first time you realized you and Selina could very well become friends one day, was that time she literally saved your life. Definitely a hint that she didn’t hate you, at least. 

And you ? Sure, at first you were a little insecure because you knew she was Bruce’s ex and Selina was...Well she was a gorgeous woman, smart, witty, and very VERY hot. 

But after seeing her a few times there and there, and seeing how she interacted with Bruce...you knew Selina Kyle was not the “home wrecker” time. That she would never try anything with him, as long as she knew you two were a thing. 

Sure she was a thief, unscrupulously taking whatever she wanted from whomever she wanted...but “someone else’s man” was definitely where she drew a limit. She felt absolutely no pleasure being a mean spirited person. 

And she saw how happy Bruce was with you...Which lead to that fateful night during which you two started to get closer. 

Because sure, you fought off your insecurities about her being his ex, but you weren’t exactly friendly. You just...knew of each others. 

The change happened not long after Bruce made it official with the media that he was no longer “Gotham’s most eligible bachelor”, and was in a serious relationship with you. 

To your surprise, the people in the city took it really well. Bruce was a beloved figure, they were happy that after years of clearly love life instability, he found someone. Sure, a few women and men had their heart broken, their dreams shattered, and were totally jealous of you but...

Anyone seeing you with him just instantly knew you guys were the real deal. That it was true love, as cheesy as it sounded. It was just that obvious. 

Maybe too obvious. 

Clearly, soon, everyone in Gotham knew how much Bruce Wayne cared about his girlfriend. How he would do anything for her. And...Well. 

This was Gotham. Do you get the picture ? 

It was a time during which you hadn’t moved in with him just yet. You’d do that only a few months later, not long before you and Bruce would adopt Dick. 

But for now, you still had your studio apartment in the heart of Gotham (refusing to take any handouts from Bruce, who could definitely get you a better place), and you were going back there after a few meeting with your publishers. 

You were suppose to meet Bruce the next day, as tonight, he was working on some important “Batcases”. You didn’t mind too much. Sometimes, it was nice to be alone with yourself, gave you a moment of self-care and calm. 

You loved Bruce of course, and loved being with him, but it was still nice to have some alone time nonetheless. 

Anyway. You were walking back, feeling rather good about the bath bomb that was waiting for you back home (it was from your favorite artisanal shop, a gift from Bruce, who definitely had no qualms buying you hundreds of dollars worth of bath bombs haha...If he couldn’t help you get a better apartment, didn’t mean he wasn’t gonna spoil you otherwise). 

That’s when it happened. You never even saw it coming. One second you were walking down the street, the next you had a damp towel around your mouth and nose, and everything went to black. 

************

You woke up in a warehouse. By the salty smell in the air though, you guessed you were somewhere on the docks. Which didn’t tell much, there was a lot of docks, in Gotham. Perks of living on a city with a seafront view ?

There was a group of men in a corner, playing cards. In front of you, a camera. You were gagged, your arms and legs were bound, and your head hurt like hell. 

“Hey, she woke up.”  

A shuffling to your side. The men playing cards were moving. They came to you, one turned the camera on. The other one put on some headphones and slowly directed a mic towards you, as the last man pulled on a ski mask and settled in front of the camera. 

Nothing made sense to you. Until the man in front of the camera started to talk. 

“Bruce Wayne. We have your girlfriend. If you don’t bring us-” 

Oh. Oh. You were kidnapped. And those men wanted a ransom. An insane amount of money. That you knew Bruce had, but still. Ah. 

You had to get out of here. You had to. 

You looked around you, nothing. And there were the three men. Oh. Oh but the edges of your chair were sharp. And if you slowly made a back and forth movement with your wrists, you could see it slowly cutting the ropes. And so, you got to work.  

Only...

“Believe me, we won’t hesitate to hurt her. Here, a proof of “good faith”.”

Huh ? OUTCH ! The man in front of the camera had just almost knocked you out with the force of his punch in your jaw. You were wondering if he hadn’t broken it. You couldn’t quite think anymore, and could feel the tears slowly falling on their own from your eyes... 

Damn, it hurt. You didn’t see it coming either, too focused on slowly cutting the ropes while making sure they didn’t notice. 

“Ok, I think that’s good. Whaddaya think, Rupert ?”

“We can do another take if you want, and then edit the punch in ? I’m not sure she can handle another hit like that, she looks pretty shaken up.” 

“Ah well we-”

“Oooooh booyyys !” 

Your ears were ringing, everything was blurry, and your head hurt so much. But you definitely recognized that voice. 

“Catwoman, you’re early.” 

Huh ? What was she doing here... 

“Well, I thought I’d pop in a little earlier knowing you boys would be around. I’m sort of in a hurry. I accept cash of course, as usual. I think you’ll find the array of jewelries I brought today to be...What the hell are you doing ?”

“Mm ? Oh, her ? A little side operation. She’s Bruce Wayne’s sweetheart. Rumors has it he’d burn the world for her, we thought we’d take advantage of it and expend our business.” 

“That’s quite a jump from fencing stolen jewelries, to kidnapping, isn’t it ?” 

The man shrugged, and turned back to you. 

“Well, you don’t achieve anything if you don’t start new ventures. And there’s big money to be made here. For sure. That idiot Wayne will pay up, there’s no doubt.” 

You heard the click-clacks of heels, and a shadow came into your vision. 

“What did you do to her, you animals ?” 

“Just a punch. And maybe we weren’t too delicate with her when we moved her to our van, and then here. But it’s fine. Nothing too bad really.” 

Slowly you were regaining your vision. And the pain was retrieving. You had never been punched before. You kinda hope it would never happen again... 

The way those thugs were talking about the all thing was so casual, from them talking about how they’d edit the video destined to Bruce, to how they were just saying they were expanding their operation...For a little bit, you almost forgot you were from Gotham.

Gotham. 

America’s capital of crime. 

Where little thugs like those ones were plenty. 

Men who thought they could “make it big”.

Gotham.

A place that bred someone like your Bruce, and his nightly activities... 

Selina’s voice raised again, harsh and dry : 

“I give you all the things I stole in the past month, in exchange of her.” 

There’s a short silence, followed by a chuckle from one of the man, clearly the leader, who answers : 

“Oh please. We ain’t stupid. We know her value. And we know someone like you, wouldn’t trade anything in for her if she wasn’t valuable. You’re not exactly known to be a nice woman.” 

There’s a hint of anger crossing Selina’s face, and you immediately understand where it comes from. Sure. She was a thief. A criminal. And sometimes, she’d rough up some security guards, or some fellow criminals that think they could cross her. 

But she was no brute. 

She would never NEVER kidnap anyone, and especially not an innocent. 

She protected children, and defenseless woman in her neighborhood, and whenever she could. She wasn’t exactly a hero, like Bruce; That’s for sure. But she wasn’t a bad person. No. She wasn’t. 

And those guys words ? Just infuriated her. 

“Mm. Too bad for you. Don’t go out and say I didn’t give you a chance. Really, too bad. I liked doing business with you.” 

“What are you-”

In an instant, Selina sprout in action, and knocked the three men out before they could even realize. That was impressive. Even gagged, you could hear yourself utter a “wow” as she rushed back to you to untie you. 

She smiled as she saw you made a good way through the ropes, and were most likely be able to get out of your bounds at some point. You were glad you didn’t though, because you weren’t quite sure what you were going to do once free ? 

You fall forward on the floor and she catches you. Your head is still ringing, as you look at Selina. 

There is genuine concern on her face. 

How odd. 

"Are you okay ?” 

“Yes, I’m fine.” 

“Good. Cause I refuse to be the one telling Bruce the person he loves the most in this world died. Again.” 

“Yes. Thank you I-I...”

“Hey, are you okay ? (Y/N) ? (Y/N) ??” 

You could hear Selina call to you, and it felt like her voice was slowly fading into the distance...The adrenaline gone, the stress of it all gone, you had simply passed out. 

************

“Is she alright ?!” 

Bruce arrived, bursting through a window, and ran to you. Your head was in Selina’s lap (she felt bad just leaving you laying down there on the hard concrete ground), and she was casually sitting, her back against a container. 

She was surrounded by the knocked out bodies of your aggressors. 

“Yes. Yes she’s just sleeping. She got roughed up a little bit, but I checked. Nothing too bad. It’ll leave a few bruises. Nothing time cannot heal.” 

After saving you, totally by chance, Selina called Bruce on his red phone, so he would know it’s an emergency. 

It didn’t even take him more than ten minutes to drop the case he was working on, cross town, and arrive. 

He kneeled next to you, and checked every part of you to make sure Selina was right. But it did appear you were just asleep. The shock was too big, probably. 

“How did you know she was here ?” 

“I didn’t. It was all luck. Those men were some...um...Associates of mine.” 

“You have associates that kidnap women ?” 

There was anger in Bruce’s voice, but Selina knew better than to think it was aimed at her. No. It was anger he felt towards those men who hurt you, and towards himself, too, as he wasn’t there to take care of you. 

“No. She’s their first.” 

He looks at you, with a longing and love in his eyes that he never looked at Selina with. She recognizes it instantly. He’s more in love with you than he ever been with her. Was it even really love, between them, or a strong friendship ? Sometimes, the two were difficult to dissociate.

She stares at him, because it’s quite something, to see the Batman himself so desperately in love that he dropped everything he was doing to run to you, knowing that you were safe. 

It’s quite something, to see the Batman himself ready to give it all up just for one person. Something he was never willing to do before. Never willing to do with Selina... 

She stares at him, and smiles. An almost sad smile, because it hurts a bit, he never looked at her like that. But a smile nonetheless, because she knows now for sure, that he found his true love. 

Nobody would peg Catwoman for a romantic, but oh, oh she was a hopeless sap. Especially when it touched her dear friends. 

Bruce looks at her, and mistakes that look in her eyes for something that isn’t there. She can see it instantly. He thinks she’s sad, that she’s truly hurt he found someone else. That he moved on. 

She’s not. But of course, he would think so. 

“Selina I-”

“Don’t Bruce. It’s ok. You and I were never meant to be together, and we knew it. Doesn’t mean we can’t be friend. I actually think we work better, as friends, don’t you ? Take care of her. She’s definitely a keeper.” 

You slowly shift in Bruce’s arms, and he takes a look at you. At your wounds. His heart tightens, and he holds you with more force. 

“Thank you.” 

He barely whispers it, but Selina hears him. She smiles at him, happy that her friend found happiness. True happiness. 

All she ever wanted for Bruce, was for him to find a way to be happy. Clearly, she wasn’t that. But you...You definitely were. 

“I don't know what I would’ve done if she...” 

“Hey, hey come on Bat. Don’t think about this. She’s fine. Just tired from the shock. She’ll recover, she’s strong. And you’ll be here, right ?” 

“...Yes.” 

He didn’t sound too convince, and Selina could feel a big urge to slap him across the face. Because she knew what he was thinking. And he’d better not do it. 

“Bruce if you-”

“Thank you, Selina. I’m going to take her home, now. She needs the rest. And-And I do too.” 

And on that note, he exited the warehouse, holding you tight in his arms. And oh. Oh Selina hoped to everything she held sacred (and that wasn’t a lot of things) that he wouldn’t be a stupid idiot. 

The day she saved his heart. 

He couldn’t stop thinking of that time you got hurt. Because of him. Because he was Bruce Wayne...What if anyone got wind that he was Batman ? 

It’d be even worst. If someone like the Joker, or Penguin ever knew who he really was (and that was definitely a possibility), being with you would sign your death. 

He had to-

“Oh god Bruce you are SO cliche.” 

He slightly jumped in the air as Selina casually sat down beside him, looking down to the dark streets below. There was a slight fog, and she couldn’t help but roll her eyes at how even the weather decided to join in ont he stereotype. 

“Excuse me ?” 

“You’re a living cliche. What, brooding all alone on a rooftop, on a full moon night, wondering if you should ruin your life or not, sacrifice your own happiness for dumb reasons.” 

“What ?” 

“What, breaking up with her to protect her ? Really ? Do you even know how dumb that sounds ?” 

“I didn’t-”

“Your thoughts are plain to see. I know you, Bruce. And I noticed your face, ever since she got hurt. And what you’re thinking? Leaving her for her own safety ? D-U-M-B. So dumb.”

“Did you not pay attention to the close call she just had ?!” 

“I was there to save her. And if I wasn’t, you would’ve barged in and save her. Or better yet, when I arrived, she had made her way half way through her bounds by slowly cutting it on the edge of her chair ! She might’ve escaped on her own !”

“Or gotten killed.” 

“But she’s alive.”

“No thanks to me.” 

“So what, you renounce happiness because maybe one day she’ll be in danger ? This is Gotham, Bruce. She is always in danger. And if you leave her alone, like I know you’re thinking about, she will definitely be an easy target. It’s not because you break up with her that people will stop thinking you care about her. In fact, after she got attacked like that, and it was made public, I bet the opposite will happen. Criminals in Gotham are a lot of things, but dumb is unfortunately not one of them. They WILL come after you if you leave her to fend for herself. If you break up.” 

“You don’t know that.” 

“I do know that. Come on Bruce. I was born here. You too. And her too. Hell, I saw her give a nasty right hook to more than one person, in the short time I’ve known her ! One of those being Mayor Hady himself, and that was BEFORE she started to date you, how fearless is she, huh ?” 

“That’s the problem.”

“Her fearlessness ? Sounds to me like it to be taken advantage of. Train her. Teach her to fight, to defend herself. Give her the keys, to survive. Just like you gave yourself the keys to go on your “justice” mission.” 

“I...I can’t.”

“Why ?” 

“Because she...She shouldn’t live this kind of life.” 

“A little late, no ? She knows who you really are already. And she stayed. Even then, shouldn’t this be her own choice ? Shouldn’t she decide on what she deserves ?” 

“Selina-” 

“Nu-hu. Don’t start with this. You tried to do the same with me, and I didn’t have the patience to stay. But I know she does. I know you can try to push her through the front door, she’ll climb through the window. She, unlike me or anyone else, will see right through your bullshit. Does, see right through your bullshit. And is willing to put up with it...You’ll never find someone else who does.” 

“I know...”

“Then, what are you doing ?”

And with that, Selina rolled her eyes, grumbled something about him being a stubborn idiot, said : “think of her feelings for once, and not your own. Because you damn well know Bruce, that if you leave her, it will be out of selfishness, not because you think it’s truly the only way.”, and jumped from the building to the one next door, leaving Bruce with too many thoughts and dilemmas...

Even if in the end, the answer became obvious to him.   

************

“As if I would ever let that happen anyway.” 

“I’m sorry ?” 

Years later, Bruce told you the story of how he almost broke up with you not long after you two moved in together, shortly before you adopted Dick. 

“She was right you know ? I would’ve climbed through the window. See. If I knew for sure you were leaving me because you didn’t love me, then I would leave you alone of course. But I would’ve definitely called your bluff.” 

“How can you be so sure ?” 

He smiles fondly at you, bringing you into a warm embrace as you roll your eyes at him. Ah but of course, even him always knew you could see right through him, even when he tried to hide his emotions. 

“Please, Bruce. You can’t fool me. You were never able to, and I don’t think you’ll ever learn to. Or I’ll just learn your new tricks, and crack you anyway. And believe me, if you had tried to leave me at that time...I wouldn’t’ve let that happen.” 

He lays his forehead on yours, unable to say another word. Tonight, he was able to tell you this story that was now “silly”, but that almost tore his heart away from him. 

Because if he had lose you to his own stupidness, he would’ve become just an empty shell. Back to those dark days of loneliness, and acting like a machine while his entire soul was hurting. 

Sure. Now this story sounded silly. But oh, oh if he had gone through with it. If-

“I’ll have to thank Selina though. Because she avoided me going through the trouble of drilling into your thick skull that it’s ok to be happy. And be afraid for those you love. Especially in your situation...” 

“I know.” 

He holds you tighter. Just as every time he realizes how lucky he is to have another shot at this “family” thing. How lucky he is, that you’re here, with him. 

And Selina was truly to thanks for that, in a way. 

Because, you were almost sure you could’ve change his mind and not break up with you. But there was this slight possibility, this slight one you’d fail...

Maybe you would’n’t’ve been able to convince him to stay with you. Maybe. There was still a chance, right ? So you’re thankful. Your thankful for having such a good friend. For having Selina in your life. 

You’re thankful that one day, a stupid mistake you made truly started this dear friendship. 

The day she became a friend. 

You had always been quite a “lone wolf” sort of person. So you didn’t have a lot of friends. Your childhood best friend, Alex, had moved across the country years ago. And making new friends as the wife of Bruce Wayne was hard. 

This was a time BEFORE you met the others from the League. BEFORE any of them knew the Batman had a family. 

Of course, before introducing you to them, he had to make sure things were safe. That they could be trusted (A/N : if you wanna see the day he does trust them, here’s the story I wrote about it haha : “You have kids ?? And…A WIFE ?”). 

So, you didn’t have many friends. And sometimes...You wished you did. 

Someone that wasn’t your Broosh. Or your kid. Or Alfred. 

You told everything to Bruce, but sometimes...Well sometimes certain issues, you couldn’t talk to him about. Like for example the time he annoyed the hell out of you. Sure you’d tell it to his face, and you guys would fight, then work it out, and finally  make up, and you didn’t want to bring back the issues you know ? You wouldn’t vent to him about him, eh ?

Bruce was definitely your best friend. But he was also the man you loved. And sometimes, it was nice to have an “outside” perspective. 

Someone with whom you could gossip a little (although you did gossip plenty with your husband, when at charity balls and galas). 

And then, slowly, you realized what you actually were feeling...

Selina. 

You were missing her. 

It had been a little while since the last time you saw her. 

Ever since she saved your life, and knocked some sense in your Broosh, whenever you saw her, you’d have such a interesting and compelling conversations. 

It was oh so pleasant, to gang up on Bruce and make fun of him. His pride was always hit, and he’d frown in such a delightful way. 

At the same time, she knew him rather well, and you knew him rather well, and you three had a lot in common and it sometimes felt like you were a trio from a very cliched “chosen one” story. 

Hermione, Ron, Harry. 

Percy, Annabeth, Grover. 

Any trio really. It even inspired some of your stories. Yet...Yet you wouldn’t call her quite a “friend”. Why that ? 

You weren’t sure. It just was never made official, and in your anxiety riddled mind it meant that you weren’t friends, then. 

Yet you missed her. And earlier in the day, you saw something that made you want to call her and talk to her about it ! 

Should you call her ? Send a text ? You had her number. She once wrote it on a napkin and slipped it in your pocket right in front of Bruce, just to mess with him. You kept it, and put it in your phone, not really knowing why. 

Taking your phone, you started to draft a text (it had to be drafted before being send, it you were even going to send it...your anxiety made it so that even with texts, you had to make sure you didn’t sound stupid or such). 

You didn’t really have any intention to send it. You were just toying with a few ideas when...

No. Oh no. 

Oh fuck. No. No no no no no no. 

Instead of hitting the “back” key to erase the text for good and move on from this weird move, you pressed “send”. Shit. Fuck. Motherfucker. 

It was such a dumb text as well. 

“Hey girlfriend, wanna hang out ?” 

You were just trying out different ways of writing a text, and were entering “stupid silly mode”, which was the step right before you usually gave up and didn’t send something (you had MANY of those moments when starting to date Bruce...Moments during which you almost send some really sappy and silly texts, making the mistakes a few time to indeed press “send”...mortifying...why, why were you never learning from your mistakes ?!). 

You were in your office, in the Wayne Inc building (you settled your writing office there, so it was more convenient to see your Bruce, but also to handle taking care of your son, Dick), downright panicking about this stupid text, when you heard a knock on your door. 

How long had you been beating yourself down about this ? AN HOUR ?! Damn. Anxiety never let you keep track of time. You-

“Hey...girlfriend.”

Bollocks. 

It was her. Selina. And you could hear her smug smile in her voice. You were facing your windows, not wanting to turn around, and it was getting a little awkward. Selina broke the silence : 

“Listen, I thought you did want to hang out and was just making an inside joke by being overly girly, you know, imitating those models Bruce used to date ? But I realize maybe this was um, a mistake ?” 

She sounds so unsure. You never heard her sound unsure before ! So you turn around, and here she is, a little shy. 

Catwoman. A little shy ? 

And all of a sudden, you realize she must’ve felt the same about you. Consider you a friend, but since you never talked about it never took it for granted, for something sure, settled in stone ? 

And your text maybe confirmed you were, indeed, friends ? 

And here it was. 

From that day, and on. 

The official beginning of your friendship. 

Of course, you both saw the other as a friend since a while before, but it’s with this embarrassing text that it really changed everything. 

Made it “official”. 

Made it clear to the both of you. 

It never occurred to you that Selina too, could sometimes have insecurities and be anxious. But that day, as she shyly responded to your call, hopeful it meant you were really friends...

Being her, it was also hard to make friend. 

She had been friend with Bruce for a long time. The fact she was yours now too, filled her with joy. Because she really liked the both of you, in the most platonic way that ever existed. 

Yes. Her and Bruce worked better as friends anyway. 

Ah. But wasn’t this how the best friendship started ? With a push from fate, a little awkwardness, and a lot of laughter once the initial shock passed ? 

Girls night out. 

It happened a day during which you, Dinah and Lois were...not in a great mood. 

Your husbands were aggravating, your children got into troubles and shenanigans, you had so much to do...it was a lot of stress, and it was all released at the same time. 

You all left your house yelling that you “needed air”, and left behind rather stunned husbands and children. Ah but yes, everything wasn’t always perfect, even amongst loving families.

And your first reflex ? To call each others. 

That’s it. That’s how girls night out started. The realization sometimes you needed to wind down with some friends. But quickly, you realized that the three of you talked mainly about your kids and husbands, and by extension, the “superhero work”. Which was fine, you needed to vent but...It wasn’t helping you relieve some tension. 

And that’s when you got an idea. 

Who better than Selina Kyle to make you NOT talk about your families ? 

You joined in a bar every first Wednesday of the month, starting at happy hours for you, Dinah and Lois. Ranting about your families, and about annoying habits your husbands had etc etc...And then you were joined a bit later in the evening by Selina and Diana. 

And that’s when the fun really began. 

It became a ritual. 

Girls night out (A/N : maybe I should write a story about that one day haha). 

This was one such night, and you had let lose a little bit more than usual because...for the first night in nine months, you could drink a little bit of alcohol. 

Alcohol had never been your thing, but a sweet cocktail there and there was nice. Now, while being pregnant with your youngest, Thomas, obviously you weren’t going to do that. 

And you had missed a few “girls night out” because you were too damn pregnant. 

But now, he was OUT, and you were TOO. 

Well. Diana said something like that, as she kept giving you more and more cocktails. 

Long story short, you were a little tipsy. And definitely not able to drive. And so here was your savior, Selina. 

She didn’t really drink, knowing you would totally let loose. So she drove you home. 

You were coming back a little later than usual, and you had forgotten to send a little text to Bruce to tell him so so he wouldn’t worry (Selina did it for you though, true friend had your back eh ? And she definitely didn’t want the Batman to come barge in on your girls night fun). 

He opened the door as you walked up the stairs, saying bye to Selina. She had that smirk on her face, the one you knew she always had when about to tease your beloved husband. And as he slipped an arm around your waist, and turned to wave goodbye to her...She did just that : 

“Careful Bat, I’m making good progress with her. If you’re not wary enough, I’ll steal her from you.” 

On that note, Selina winks at the both of you, puts on her sunglasses (while it was night...Oh Selina), and drives away, smiling widely of that very Catwomanesque smug smile. Which makes you chuckle. She always made you laugh rather easily. 

You turn to your bruce and...

Oh. That adorable “jealous frown” got you every time. Your smile shifts from amused to utterly affectionate, and you put your hands on his cheeks. 

He was looking at Selina’s car fading into the distance, the arm he had around you tightening slightly (you were pretty sure he wasn’t even consciously doing it). Your hands on his cheeks didn’t seem to register in his mind. 

So a further distraction was needed. You brush your lips against his cheek, as an attempt to drive his attention back to you and...it works. 

You smile at him, and in your little hazy state you whisper in his ear : 

“I love you, my Broosh.” 

He can’t help but feel a surge of warm feelings towards you, and bring you in a tight hug. Partly because he can’t help it, partly because he’s trying to hide the slight blush growing on his face whenever you surprise him with “I love yous”, and that always made him snicker at him...Only you could fluster him so. 

“I love you too.” 

You tripped on air, as, once again, you were a little tipsy, and he catches you...Good, he needed an excuse to carry you bridal style anyway. 

He always liked doing so, any excuse to have you near really. And as your face approach for a loving kiss you-

************

“Wait wait wait mooooom !! You don’t have to leave this gross part in !” 

“What gross part ?” 

“The sappy declaration of love, and the kiiiisses !!” 

“Oh ? But don’t every story have to end with a kiss ? And a happy ever after ?” 

“Nu-huh ! Also HEY ! None of your stories end like this, I know, I read them all !”

You chuckle slowly at your boy’s reaction, and kiss him on the forehead. Quite touched he read all your stories. 

“Time for bed, little buddy.” 

You say, slipping out of his quilt and tucking him in. You can see he pensively thinks about your little friendship story, and finally he says : 

“I’ll try to be nicer to Miss Kyle. I never trusted her, because of her past with father. But maybe she deserves a chance ?” 

“She does.” 

“If you say so, then I believe it.” 

It touches you, how much blind faith your son puts in you. You smile, giving him another kiss to his forehead, as he says : 

“Thank you for telling me the story, mom. It was nice.” 

Behind this “it was nice”, there isn’t just the story itself, but the knowledge that as you grow up...Your feelings change. 

You change. 

And you go through a lot of heartaches, before finally finding the right persons to surround yourself with. 

Beyond the story itself, Damian related to how it took both you and Bruce a lot of trials and errors, before finding each others. How you loved before you met the other, but it never compared to how you love each others. 

How you found good friends along the way, and how even when things sounded desperate and lonely...you made it through. 

So he could certainly do so, too ? Even more so since now, he was a big brother. 

Thomas was barely a few weeks old, but Damian had already taken his role very seriously. And you knew he was going to continue to grow, to love, to hurt too sometimes...and to evolve. 

Just like you and Bruce did. 

So. No. You didn’t hate Selina Kyle just because she and your husband used to be a thing. In fact...

In fact, Selina had become both of your best friend. Unfortunately for Bruce, she often took your side on everything, and LOVED to drive him crazy by openly flirting with you. 

And she had been by your side through many good moments, and bad ones. The first to respond when your family needed it. The one you’d always be there for, and vice versa. 

A best friend. 

Quite an important find. 

When you met Bruce, not only did you meet the love of your life, but also one of your best and most precious friend. 

Conclusion : is it possible to be friend with your husband’s ex ? Absolutely. 

Especially when that “ex” was someone as extraordinary as Selina Kyle, and when the love that linked you and your husband was so impossible to even graze. 

__________________________________________________

And yet another bonus story that I had no intention to write but suddenly felt the need to haha. Don’t worry, the rest of the stories I announced are still coming ;). I guess there’s nothing bad in having little bonus ones in between hehe. I hope you liked this, again it’s just a little drabble.

As usual comments and reblogs are always greatly appreciated and motivating <3.

PS : I wrote this, like all drabbles, in like thirty minutes. Didn’t re-read. Sorry for any typos. Don’t hesitate to point any huge ones to me, Ill change it x_x. 

[soulmate-game]

I was feeling angsty. Read at your own risk, there is very little comfort in this and a whole shit ton of hurt. Probably a bunch of emotional triggers, so seriously be careful guys.

—*—*—*—*—*

Liquid pain ran down her arm like poison, the slash in it burning hot and spreading it’s agony like an invisible waterfall inside her flesh. But she did not grip her bicep where the wound had been inflicted, her gaze blank as she forced herself to hide her turmoil behind glass eyes. Her brother’s snarling face was only inches in front of her own, his katana moving from her arm to her throat.

“Useless! To think we share any blood relation is humiliating!” He growled at her. She did not move, did not emote. Her blades fans, the weapon she was loved most, lay half-opened on the ground beside her. Abandoned. But she knew Damian’s sword would not kill her. Blood family was a bond that was not to be severed by murder unless ordered by Ra’s or justified by the murdered family member in question betraying the League. She had done nothing to betray the Shadows, and Ra’s would not waste time and energy, or the breath it would require, to order her death. Just as he would not waste the precious waters of the Pit to bring her back again. She would not die today, and she knew it.

Sure enough, it was only a few more insults in various languages before Damian Al-Ghul stepped back and scowled down at the blood on his blade. Her blood. “If you don’t even have the stomach for real combat, you do not belong here,” he spat.

“That is where we agree, Grandson,” Ra’s sharp voice echoed through the room, his beady eyes never once bothering to glance at his granddaughter. “Maria, you are hereby stripped of the name Al-Ghul. Banishment from the League is the only mercy you shall be granted for your dishonor on our blood. Be useful and use whatever is left of your mistake of a life to stay out of the League’s way. Shall I, Damian, or your mother ever see your face again, your burial will follow shortly after. Am I understood?”

“Yes Gr— yes, Ra’s Al-Ghul.”

—*—*—*—*—*

Maria Al-Ghul was seven years old when she was disowned and sent away from the League of Shadows without so much as a penny to her name. She was only allowed to take the change of clothes she carried, and one small backpack’s worth of items. Her mother— Talia— had watched vigilantly as she packed those items, assuring that Maria did not take anything of worth.

The girl traveled by foot, too small to get away with driving a vehicle. Unless she could manage to steal a motorbike— she knew how to adjust the seats and pedals on most models to accommodate her size. But she was far too far away from civilization for that.

She knew that most of the League expected her to die in the jungles that surrounded the temple. After all, there were ninjas scattered throughout it with strict orders to kill anyone who was not one of them. And Maria now fit that description.

But if there was one thing Maria knew better than anything else, it was how to hide. How to hide feelings, intentions, involuntary movements, or her whole body in almost any setting. She covered herself in mud, matted her hair with dirt and took off her shoes. Barefoot was always quieter, and her feet would be more sensitive to any change in terrain. She would have to move more slowly and be on the lookout for traps, ground litter that could harm her, or dangerous wildlife, but she would be much harder to track.

It took her a month, but she made it to her first Tibetan city alive and decently healthy. She begged for food for a day before snatching a child’s outfit off of some hanging laundry lines and stealing the first decent vehicle she found. It was an old moped, but it beat walking and was already built small. She made it work.

That was how she spent the majority of the next year. She traveled from town to town, stealing what she needed until she could earn money normally. She used that money to buy herself a fake identity, even if she had to use the skills she had hoped to never need again in order to afford it.

Marinette Shiwang was born when she was already eight years old.

It was only a year after her new identity was created when she bumped into a woman in a street market. That was nothing new, those places could get crowded. But when Marinette looked up and saw valuable bracelets and necklaces of gold and jade, she knew she needed at least one. The money she would get for it would have her living comfortably for a short while. So Marinette’s theft-experienced fingers darted out and unclasped one bracelet in a fluid movement. It took less than a second. She barely had the piece of jewelry in her hand before she started to take off, hoping to lose herself in the crowd.

But a small hand clamped around her shoulder, a sturdy thumb pressing against a very vulnerable spot right at the back of Marinette’s neck, at the base of her skull. A clear threat from somebody with experience.

The sweet voice that followed didn’t match the gesture at all.

“Oh, I need that back dear. It was a gift from my husband, you understand.”

Marinette did. She cared about survival more. The small girl twisted, knocking the hand away from her before it could do damage and darting down a side street. The woman followed. It took three hours, but Marinette decided she had finally lost her pursuer before slumping down in the tiny, closet-sized bedroom of her cheap apartment. Her eyes closed for only a second before the window opened, and the smell of newly-baked sesame buns filtered through.

It was the woman and a much taller, much more masculine man. He was practically a giant, reminding Marinette of a certain member of the League that she used to know. They were both smiling.

“My wife figured you would be more open to an exchange than just giving up the bracelet for free,” the man’s voice was deep and inviting. “You can eat as many buns as your stomach can handle, if you give it back.”

Marinette accepted. Mostly because of her fear for people who could track her to her home so easily, when she had been certain she had not been followed. The League has tuned her senses well, there was no way the couple had been close enough to see her when she made it to her apartment. Yet they were still there somehow. Then, it also had to do with the promise of food, and the heavenly smell of the food itself. And then, lastly, Marinette was tired. She didn’t like stealing, it was just a necessity. She would not hurt these people over a mere bracelet that she wished she didn’t have to take in the first place.

Useless, she thought. So much of a bleeding heart that she just gave up what could have paid for two months rent. Too soft to even protect herself. The Al-Ghuls has been right. She was a waste of space and time.

Marinette was ten years old when she became a Dupain-Cheng. Somehow, that strange, dangerous couple had become her new family. Not even she knew how. But she was grateful— they took her back to Paris with them and she didn’t have to worry about rent, or food, or money anymore.

She vowed, that day that she received her spacious attic bedroom, that she would repay them. She would make herself useful, for the first time in her life. She would stay out of their way, be the perfect most unobtrusive daughter ever. She would help in the bakery, keep a smile on her face so that they never doubted that they were doing a good job. So that they never wasted time worrying about her. She smiled, and laughed, and became successful for them. Competent and reliable even though her memories would sink into her dreams every day and make it near impossible to drag herself out of bed in the mornings.

And then, when Marinette Dupain-Cheng was thirteen, she was given a pair of magical earrings and a tiny fairy-god. And Tikki was thorough, at least. Diligent in her explanation. Marinette listened to every word, dread seeping in as she doubted her ability to carry out such an important task. Save a city? Defeat someone much more experienced and magically powerful than her?

Useless little Maria could never. Slightly less useless Marinette could never.

She was only ever meant to play a support role. Stay on the background and make everyone else shine, without ever succeeding in anything worth noting. That was who she was.

But then Tikki gave her the Warning. The catch that came with the Ladybug abilities, and Marinette felt the long-rusted determination in her begin to fire up again. Maybe she could be Ladybug. Maybe she could be useful, at least this once. At least for just this one scenario. She could fight and win the war against Hawkmoth, and that achievement alone could make her happy. Let her die knowing she did something worthwhile.

—*—*—*—*—*

Damian Wayne was seventeen when he and his family found out about the Paris Situation, and immediately went over to offer help. Damian Wayne was seventeen when he watched Ladybug stumble at the sight of him, and immediately run away. But the two of them were twins, and though twin telepathy might be a myth they always did have a certain instinct when it came to one another.

Damian Wayne was Seventeen when he said, aloud on the top of a random Parisian building and surrounded by his family—

“My sister is Ladybug.”

Damian didn’t wait for their reactions, having entirely forgotten about the existence of his father and brothers, before taking off after his spotted sibling.

—*—*—*—*—*

“I knew you were alive.”

In hindsight, those probably weren’t the best words for him to say when Maria clearly thought he was still an assassin.

Damian watched as Marinette spun to face him, her face so much more expressive than he remembered. He could actually see the resignation in the slump in her shoulders, he could feel the fear in her bluebell eyes. The eyes she was lucky enough to get from their father while he was cursed with their mother’s green irises. He used to envy that about her, especially after joining the BatClan. But now he only felt comfort when he looked into her eyes. Comfort that she was different than him, and always had been. In the best of ways.

He watched as his sister was enveloped by a bright flash of pink light, detransforming right in front of him. And without the mask, it was impossible to ignore the relation between them. She had their father’s eyes and nose where he had their mother’s, but other than that they were almost carbon copies of one another. Her blue-black hair was pulled back into twin braids though, something he noted distantly as oddly fitting. They suited her, he thought.

But all those thoughts instantly turned to dust as she dropped to her knees in front of him, head bowed in complete submission.

“Tom and Sabine are innocent,” she told him. “They adopted me out of nothing but goodwill, and they have been nothing but good to me. I never told them a single word about my origin, I swear it on our blood. They think I am just an orphan that was abandoned in Hong Kong—“

“Maria—“

“—so please, don’t harm them. I’m begging you. And there is no need for you to waste energy killing me. You are welcome to stay in Paris as long as no harm comes to Tom and Sabine, but just wait and watch. I know who Hawkmoth is, and our final plan is almost ready. I’ll have him taken down by next week. Just— wait until then, please. My death will take care of itself afterwards, but Paris deserves to be free, and killing me now will set this entire war against Hawkmoth back by at least a year. And I also need that time to pick my successor—“

“Maria! I am not here to kill you!” Damian had to yell to get her to stop babbling and begging. She froze, but didn’t dare to sit up or even raise her head. So Damian took the initiative and sat down on the ground with her, though he kept his distance so that he didn’t scare her too badly. He couldn’t blame her for her reaction, it had been ten years since they had seen one another and their parting hadn’t exactly been pleasant.

But he had changed a lot since then, matured a lot.

“I am completely disconnected from the League,” he admitted. Of the blurry memories he had of her, he did remember that being blunt was the best way to handle information with her. Beating around the bush had always done nothing but make her exceptionally nervous and jittery. Sure enough, his admission was enough to make her look up at him with disbelieving eyes. He risked a small grin. “I didn’t come in my old uniform, did I?” He gestured to himself in the bright Robin colors. Sure enough, Marinette’s rapid blinking proved his theory that she hadn’t even registered his clothing at all to be true. She had run as soon as she recognized his face.

But Marinette did not speak. She sat up a little, still eyeing him cautiously. But her silence helped him finally realize where they were— where she had led him.

The sounds of traffic and other big city noises were all muted, as if muffled by several layers of cloth. Shadows fell over them abundantly, and they were surrounded by dilapidated concrete walls.

She had brought him to an abandoned area far from any activity, where a body would take ages to find. She had then disarmed herself of her only weapon, her magic suit, and had gotten on the ground in total submission.

She had purposely given him the perfect setting to kill her, where there would be no witnesses and plenty of time before her body would be found for him to escape. That realization hit Damian square the chest, leaving him breathless for a moment.

“I am not here to kill anybody,” he reiterated, his voice noticeably much gentler than before. “Not you, not you adoptive parents, nobody. I left the league when I was eleven. Mother—“ he took a breath, but Maria deserved to know. “— she cloned me. Her clone killed me. He no longer exists, but that is of no consequence. She killed me, she and Grandfather disowned me when I made it clear I was not returning. Father— our father,” he was insistent as he leaned forward, not continuing until she met his gaze. “You remember who our father is, right? Bruce Wayne? Mother had dropped me off to be raised with him when I was ten, but of course it was all just one of her plots. It was her miscalculation though, because I ended up growing close to them. To Father and his adopted children. You would get along with Gra— with Dick, the best I think. Although T— Jason would also be a prime contender as your favorite brother, I think. He shares your love of motor bikes, if that hasn’t changed?” She just stared at him, clearly confused and experiencing a lot of feelings at once. He stayed silent for a moment to allow her to sort through them a little.

“I’m Robin now,” he made his voice quieter, but still easy for her to hear. “I’m a member of the Bats. I’m sure they would all welcome you, if you chose to meet them. Though be warned, they can be quite in—“

“Why are you doing this?” Marinette’s voice was barely above a whisper, Damian almost didn’t hear her. But he did, and fell silent. He watched as his sister licked her lips and tried to find the right words to say. “If what you say is true… you have a perfectly good family. Brothers, Father, a comfortable life. Why follow me then? Why offer me… any of that?”

Damian frowned. He didn’t remember Maria being so gloomy, but then again she had been raised to never show her emotions. Maybe, after years away from the temple like him, her true feelings were just easier for him to see now. Closer to the surface.

“I want to get to know you— to get to know my sister, again,” he told her. “Don’t tell them, but Father and the others have taught me to appreciate family. The way I treated you when we were children was not right, and though it was heavily influenced by Mother and Grandfather, I want to make up for it nonetheless. Maybe we can get to know the new us, together?”

Marinette’s eyes went wide with disbelief, but then she clenched her jaw and shook her head.

“We can’t.”

“... right, I understand if you do not forgive me. I didn’t even consider—“

“It isn’t that,” Marinette was quick to correct him. “When I said that my death will handle itself, I mean it, Damian. The Ladybug… the earrings that give me my powers, come with a price,” she absently ran her fingertips over the unassuming black studs in her ears. “If a Ladybug uses the miraculous for more than three years, the powers of Creation will demand to be balanced. Already, the Miraculous is powering itself on nothing but my life force now. Once I defeat Hawkmoth, there will be no need for Ladybug anymore. The moment I take the earrings off, they will cease keeping me alive.”

Damian’s face fell. No— no, that wasn’t right. He was finally able to find her, finally able to apologize and try to fix his past mistakes. This couldn’t be how the reunion went. This couldn’t—

“Not even the Lazarus Pits can bring me back from a Miraculous death,” Marinette went on. “So you and your family should go. You don’t need to be here when I—“ Marinette paused, gasping. “Damian, why are you crying?! Stop that!” Her voice became desperate, Marinette crawling over to him as quickly as she could and wiping away his tears as if they were something terrifying. Damian wasn’t sobbing or making any noise, it was just a silent stream of tears running down both cheeks as he stared at her wordlessly.

“I…” he finally managed to choke out. “I wanted to make up for everything. I wanted for us to be twins again, together.”

Marinette paused, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. “I know a magic user who can erase your memories of me,” she offered. “But you don’t have to feel guilty for anything. You never said anything that wasn’t true.”

Damian’s green eyes widened. He had said nothing but cruel things to her, that last year they spent together as children. Did she really believe all of that? Did he and their childhood really affect her self worth this severely and irreversibly?

“Maria—“

“My name is Marinette, actually,” she corrected him with a small smile. “I’m not Maria Al-Ghul anymore. Marinette Dupain-Cheng is actually useful, Damian. I can actually do things right— I’m doing something right right now. Beating Hawkmoth will be the first worthwhile thing I’ve ever done, don’t you see? Once it’s all over, I will have brought honor back to our blood. I’ll have proved to you that I really am your twin, that I wasn’t a mistake. That I was born for a reason,” Marinette’s eyes got dreamy even as Damian just felt like he was impaled again, this time by a spike of ice rather than a sword. “And I’ll be able to die before I ruin it. It’s a perfect scenario.”

“A perfect scenario implies that nothing important is going to be lost,” Damian breathed. Marinette just blinked.

“Yeah, I know. That’s the plan. Defeat Hawkmoth, save Paris, and nobody dies.”

“But you’re going to die!” He growled. Marinette leaned back, bewildered by his violent reaction.

“Yeah, but it’s not like I actually matter. Nobody needs me. Tom and Sabine might be hurt for a while, but they will recover just fine. And it’s not like I have friends or any—“

“Stop worrying about other people, damnit!” Damian surged forward, grabbing her shoulders hard enough to bruise and shaking her a little. “Even back then! Even when we were seven, you threw down your blades because you were more worried about hurting me than you were about how Grandfather would react, even though you knew he would be tempted to kill you for what he thought was cowardice! You never put yourself first, and it’s finally starting to piss me off!”

“Damian—“

“No, listen to me!” He shook her again, his tear stained cheeks only making his glare all the more potent as he stared right into her eyes. “You are alive, and your life matters! You were never worthless or useless, you just didn’t fit what our abusive situation wanted of you. They wanted a cold hearted killer, a tool they could use, and you were always too warm hearted and clever to fit either of those goals. But I did, I was the killer they were looking for and the pawn they wanted. If anything, that makes you better than I ever was! I was too young and naive to see it back then, but I’m trying to make up for it now. You are my sister, whether you go by Maria or Marinette, Al-Ghul or Wayne or Dupain-Cheng, I don’t give a damn! And so help me, even if I have to surgically attach those earrings to your skin, I am not letting you die before you gain at least a modicum of respect for yourself. Do you understand me?”

A wet sniffle met his ears, and he pulled Marinette in for a hug. She returned it weakly, sniveling and sobbing into his cape.

“D-d-Damian?”

“Yes, Shaqiqa?”

Another sniffle.

“I-is it really o-okay for me to stay with you?”

“Of course.”

“I-is… is it really oka-ay for… for me to live?”

Damian’s arms tightened around her. “Always. Always, always.”

Marinette buried her face into his shoulder, taking a deep shuddering breath.

“Th-then… I wanna try.”

—*—*—*—*—*

Not sorry. Ha 😎

[ravenforce]

Cheating Death VI

Warning/s: None

Summary: Natasha confronts you and finds out the truth. 

A/N: Now, shall end it at that? Also, stay safe. Stay home. x

Parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

“No,” Carol yelled at Natasha, making the team wince except for the redhead.

“I’m not asking permission, Carol.” Natasha continued to disarm herself, pulling all her guns and knives out and on the table, making everyone confused.

“Okay but you’re not going alone,” Carol tried to reason. “I’m coming with you.”

Natasha turned to her girlfriend and sighed. “I can very well take care of myself.” She’s trying really hard not to be aggressive with the blonde but Carol’s keeping her from being where she wanted to be longer.

“I know -”

“Then let me do this alone.”

“But that woman is dangerous.” The rest of the team couldn’t do much more than just sit and watch the heated exchange.

“She’s not gonna hurt me.” Natasha sighed, quietly remembering the moment your eyes connected. Carol crossed her arms and scoffed, making the redhead look back at her.

“You don’t know that.”

“You don’t know her,” Natasha countered.

“And you do?”

“I do, Carol! She’s my other Clint!” Natasha yelled in frustration. Carol opened her mouth but Natasha was already storming out of the room. Carol looked at the team and they all shook their head.

“If Y/N Al Ghul is her other Clint, there’s no force on earth or beyond that could stop Natasha from going to her,” Wanda tried to explain. Carol hasn’t been earth-bound long enough to see who Clint was for Natasha. They were best friends, partners, and Wanda knows by the look you gave Natasha a few hours ago, that the two of you are even more than just that.

***

Talia and Nyssa are having a drink by the bar at home when one of their guards announced that someone wanted to see them. They looked at each other and sighed. The breakfast fiasco with the Avengers rendered them in the mood for day drinking.

“Let them in.” Talia’s smooth voice reverberated around the room.

“Hello.” Natasha greeted politely. Nyssa cocked an eyebrow at her sister and took a swig of her beer. “I wanted to see Y/N. Is she home?”

“State your business with our sister?” Nyssa spoke with her serious CEO voice.

They’ve never met Natasha before but you have regaled them of so many stories about how you met in Budapest, how she had the most beautiful green eyes you’ve ever seen, how you have adventured through Europe with your other friend Clint until Ra’s caught up with you. They’ve probably heard it all, even after you’ve come back to the League, Natasha was still the topic of every whispered story you shared with your sisters at dead of the night when the three of you are sure that your father has retired for the day. They’ve never met her yet they feel like they’ve known her just as long.

“I just wanted to talk. It’s been more than a decade since I -” Natasha choked back a soft sob. Thinking about how much time has passed without her knowing that you’re alive hurts her like no other.

Talia sighed, Natasha looked tired like the big revelation of the day took years out of her life. “She’s not here, Natasha.”

Natasha bowed her head and was about to apologize for disturbing their time, again, when Nyssa spoke. “But if you know our sister, you’ll know where to find her.”

She looks back at the brunette and nod. “Thank you.”

***

“We’re being followed,” Natasha whispered as the two of you continued to walk hand-in-hand after just spending your first-anniversary dinner at one of your favourite restaurants in Scotland.

It’s been over a year since you two have me in Budapest. Your friend Clint called you for help on a mission, which you easily agreed to, to be away from your father for a while. The mission should have been simple enough for two highly skilled assassins like Osiris and Ronin but no one told you that you’ll have to put down the highly dangerous KGB agent Natasha Romanova. 

You didn’t know what possessed you to defect from your original orders but something about Natasha speaks to you even when she was doing her absolute best to kill you. Something in her eyes tells you she wanted the same thing you wanted most in life; freedom. You remembered it too well, the look on Clint’s face when you finally pinned down Natasha on the ground but instead of delivering the final blow, you offered her an out.

You remember the way she looked at you too like you just grew two heads. You told her about your predicament with your father, and how you wanted a life out of the league. Natasha was skeptical but she wanted nothing more but to get away from the path she’s on. That night the three of you decided you will be the masters of your own fate, and boarded the first train out of Budapest. 

Currently, you were living in Scotland but you will be moving again soon as to avoid being tracked for staying in one place for too long. The three of you didn’t mind, thinking of the situation as an opportunity to see the world rather than sulk about being fugitives from your own pasts and families. 

You shook your head lightly to bring yourself back to the present. You knew this day would come. You knew your time with Natasha is numbered. So you had put up a plan with Clint to ensure Nat’s gonna survive. 

“Y/N, where are we going?” She asked when you pulled her in the opposite direction of your apartment. You two are almost jogging on the side of the street for five minutes when Natasha recognized the route.

“Why are we going to Clint’s?” She sounded confuse and a little bit scared. You wanted nothing more but to stop, pull her in a hug, and assure her that everything will be alright but you don’t have enough time.

You nearly kicked the front door to Clint’s building off the hinges in your haste to get inside. Clint opened his door after three frantic knocks. 

“What the fuck is happening?” He asked confused after you went directly to his room without so much as a greeting.

“We were being followed,” Natasha answered while retrieving her guns that she taped under his furniture. 

When you walked back inside the living room, Natasha was baffled when you handed her and Clint a backpack. Clint shouldered his immediately. 

“Wait -” Natasha started to say. 

“You remember the plan?” Clint nodded. 

“What plan?” She yelled making you and Clint turn to her. Clint took her arm lightly and tried to manoeuvre her towards the front door.

“No!” She yelled and yanked her arm from Clint’s hold and run back to you. You easily caught her in a tight embrace. “I’m not going anywhere without you.” 

You sucked in a deep breath to keep yourself from changing your mind, and backing out of your own damn plan. “It’s -” you chocked down a sob. “It’s only temporary.” You pulled back to look at your girlfriend’s face. “I will find you, I promise.” 

A hollow laugh sounded behind the closed door. A laugh you’re so familiar with, you subconsciously pushed Natasha behind you. Then the door burst open, revealing your father’s smiling face. 

“Y/N Al Ghul, what did I tell you about making promises you cannot keep?” He stopped at the threshold, Clint moved sideways to help shield Natasha too. 

“I never broke a promise before, father.” You spat out. Ra’s just shrugged since he doesn’t really care. “Let them go.” 

Ra’s laughed before pinning you with a look like he’s trying to search something within you. “Okay,” he said simply. 

“Okay?” Clint whispered confuse but you didn’t pay him any mind. 

“Give me your word. No harm is to come to them.” 

“Give me your word that you will be the heir to my throne, and I will make sure that these two puny humans you so care about will be unharmed and even be put under the protection of the league.” 

You stared at your father for a minute as you mull the situation over. You can feel Natasha tugging at the ends of your shirt from behind. “I give you my word,” you said softly. Your father grinned so hard, Clint wondered how his face hasn’t split in half. 

“Very well.” You father stepped aside to let Natasha and Clint passage. 

You looked at Clint before the guy was practically dragging Natasha to the door. You didn’t dare look away from your father. You know him too well to trust his words. You know that it can’t be that easy. True to his nature, you watched in slow motion as he pulled out his dagger from under his tunic, and right when Natasha has her back on your father, he made a move to stab her. You teleported yourself behind Natasha, catching your father’s dagger between your chest cavity.

Natasha gasped and yelled. Her knees buckled as she watches you bleed out. She tried to come back to you but Clint stopped her by wrapping his arms around her torso.

You caught Clint’s eyes. “Run,” you mouthed and Clint carried Natasha out of his own building.

***

Finding you wasn’t as hard as Natasha thought it would be. You’ve always had the affinity towards the altitude. So, it was no surprise to Natasha when she found you on the top floor of the Empire State Building, legs dangling on the side of the building. She didn’t announce herself, she knew you well enough to know that you know she was there. She just stood there quietly watching your back for a minute, trying to figure out what she’s feeling exactly.

She missed you. If there was a God, and if Natasha believed in Him, He would know that Natasha has missed you for the last decade that she hasn’t seen you. She misses you so much but she’s also confused. She thought you were dead for a decade but there you are, in front of her, alive and well. She’s getting frustrated and angry too.

“Hey, Tasha. Long time, no see.” She can hear the teasing in your voice but this time, she can’t think it’s cute and funny. Your smile dropped when you heard her grit her teeth.

“I thought you were dead.”

You frowned at the New York City skyline. “I was,” you answered simply. Natasha knew you weren’t exactly human by your ungodly ability in combat, and ability to heal quickly but she didn’t know you were almost immortal. She didn’t know about the Lazarus pit, as well. So, you started your brief explanation with that.

“Why didn’t you find me then?” You can hear the hurt in her voice, as clear as a summer sky. “You broke your promise.”

You gripped the ledge of the Empire State Building too tight, your knuckles turned white. “I did not.”

“Liar,” she spat out.

“I found you, multiple times.” It was your turn to grit your teeth in an attempt to reign in your rising anger. “But it wasn’t the right time.”

She was about to call you out on your bullshit but you turned around and faced her. “The first time I found you, you were with Bruce at Clint’s ranch house.” You crinkled your nose at the memory of her looking so beautiful and soft that morning, wearing a robe, and standing toe-to-toe with Bruce Banner. By the look on her face, you know that she remembers the day too.

“That’s not -” she tried to defend herself but you cut her off. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

You chuckled mirthlessly. “I had a plan. Until it was finished, it wasn’t the right time.”

“Is it done?” Natasha couldn’t hide the hope in her voice even if she tries. “Is that why you’re back now?”

You only stared at her for a minute. You wish so bad that you could cross the small distance and kiss her senseless but you had to remind yourself that she’s dating someone else. “It has been done. It took a while to be strong enough to kill my father but it is done.”

“You what?”

“I killed my father, and disbanded the league to ensure no one will ever stand in the way of us ever again.” You frowned deeper. In the end, you have lost her to Captain Marvel anyway. “I killed my father to keep you safe and imagine my anger when I found out you came to fucking space and sacrificed yourself for mankind.”

Even with only the city lights illuminating your face, Natasha knows you’re about to cry. So, she finally closed the distance and pulled you in her arms. And try as you might, your body couldn’t stop itself from melting in her arms after not being home for so long.

“I’m here now,” she tried to comfort you.

“Of course you are.”

Natasha pulled back a little to look at you closely. “You didn’t come to Vormir, did you?”

You rolled your teary eyes at her like she should know the answer to that. “I can live in a world where you’re not in love with me but not in a world without you in it.”

Natasha wiped your tear-stained face. “I was never in love with someone else.”

[what-if-i-imagine]

Days to be Remembered (Fifth)

(5/5) Five of Jason and Alfred’s birthdays they remembered most throughout the years.

Ao3

(Jason)

“Happy birthday,” Talia said the moment Jason entered the breakfast nook. Jason didn’t reply. He never did. He was still trapped inside his own head, even after ten months of living with the infamous and dangerous al Ghul woman.

“You will not be training today,” she said casually, placing a plate filled with food in front of him. “Damian has come down with a cold and hasn’t stopped crying since he woke up. Fevers always make him so upset. He’s asking that you read to him.”

Jason sagged his head, the closest he could seem to get to a nod, and began hollowly eating his food.

Deep in the back of his mind where his true consciousness was trapped, he wondered if the food he was eating was the same as what Alfred was having in Gotham. He wondered how Alfred was spending his birthday, and hoped the answer was with Bruce, Jim, and/or Dick.

Time blinked by. He never could follow how fast or slow it moved when he was like this, and had long since given up on trying to.

He was in Damian’s room. The book he selected from Talia’s library to read to the boy was Pride and Prejudice, a book he was sure the woman had bought only for him.

He settled Damian on his lap, and started to read the story he had read a million times a knew by heart.

Time passed slowly then, and Jason’s mind was spinning with fear that he would be trapped in that moment forever.

“Happy birthday Jayjay,” the young boy in his lap said when he reached the end of one of the chapters, jolting time back to the right speed. Jason distantly felt a kiss on his cheek, but didn’t react to it. He couldn’t.

When he regained control of his body, he hoped to bring Damian to Gotham with him, where he could truly spend his birthday with the boy, and with the grandfather he was sure he would always miss so dearly this time of year.

(Alfred)

A clattering down stairs stopped Alfred in his walk halfway to Jason’s room.

He didn’t hesitate in turning around to head back down, and would never admit to running to his destination.

In the breakfast nook he found the door to the backyard open, and the broad man standing froze by the fluttering curtains. He was a man now, wasn’t he? He was nineteen, only a few months past the reveal of his status of being alive.

Bruce had been tracking him, hunting him. Dick, Tim, and Cassandra alike had been helping him in his desperate search, but they had all come up empty handed. Alfred had never thought he would be the first one to see the boy—the man—again.

“Oh my,” Alfred whispered. He was shaking, he was sure he was, and he prayed to the lord who was supposed to be protecting his boy that he couldn’t see it.

Jason backed up, eyes fearful, and only seemed all the more startled when his back was met by the glass of the doors. He was breathing quickly, irregularly. When he shook his head, Alfred could see the still healing, gruesome wound on his throat.

“My dear, sweet boy,” Alfred whispered those words he always did when he found Jason like this as a child. Panicking, scared, and looking too lost and alone for a child he loved so much. They were the same words Alfred said at his grave only four years before.

“It’s okay,” he assured. “I will not tell your father or siblings you are here.”

Jason only shook his head again, but it seemed more hesitant. More blue was slipping into those cursed, unnaturally green and glowing eyes. Jason was shaking less, but Alfred knew he would still run the moment he felt threatened or cornered again.

“It’s okay,” Alfred repeated, holding open his arms.

Alfred waited while Jason seemed to debate his options. Jason came to a decision, and only hesitated another second before beralling into his arms. Alfred stumbled the slightest bit, but held onto the boy—because time be damned he was still just a boy—as tightly as he could.

There were only a few hours left in August 16th, but Alfred was still glad he got to spend them with the only person he had truly wanted to for years. Even if Jason had to disappear from the bed in the morning before Alfred awoke.

[mistress-of-nightmares]

So I have this weird headcanon that when Talia first met Dick and Jason (as respective new babies of Bruce Wayne), she was kind of really charmed by them. Bruce and her were on tense terms then, not enemies, but not exactly friends either (but they’re still definitely in love, just far too different (and dumb)) (timelines are weird don’t mind me, and I’m a god of my actions, so whatevs). And of course she would maybe sometimes have business in Gotham to take care of (probably secretly, so she doesn’t make Bruce more constipated than he already is) and would maybe definitely run into two oldest Batboys, them being all nervous in the face of the most dangerous woman alive while she’s all “N’aww, baby birds”

With Dick, maybe she’s walking around in Gotham and buying an ice cream for a hot sunny day when she spots baby Dickie doing the same. She of course heard about him and was glad Bruce would maybe develop more healthily when he had a child, and also found it incredibly amusing that a serious, stern Batman had a bright, former circus child as his ward. So she greets him and he falters when he recognizes her, stuttering out a “Miss, uh, Miss al Ghul” to of course she goes “Oh just call me Talia, habibi”

(I cannot help but think of Tals way earlier when she was preparing for the situation that would occur when she met Dick and she was thinking to herself like this: “He will definitely not address me as Miss al Ghul or Miss Talia. Maybe Auntie Talia. Or...Mom? Stepmom? Ex-mom?” so those few hours led to “just Talia” conclusion)

She invites him to sit with her and he nervously does, but after a few minutes of her asking about his school, friends, Bruce and ‘night life’, he opens up quickly and actually finds her quite nice and fun, commenting on all right things and making funny anecdotes. His liking to her was set for life when she went talking about embarrassing things Bruce did and does (”Once I saw him eat a burger with a fork and knife and-” “wHat???” “Oh, you didn’t know? Oh. Oh, child. Oh, habibi. Come close and listen”) and they ended up trash-talking him for hours (Dick had enough prank material to last him a few lifetimes)

With Jason, I like to think they met in a museum, Talia eyeing some lost League artifact she was definitely planning to retrieve and spotting Jason in the crowd, maybe writing an essay for school. (she also found his adoption into Wayne family incredibly amusing, like, honestly Beloved, where do you get them anywhere? Circus, street? What’s next, outer space?) She approaches him, he’s nervous, she’s casual and they started a first real conversation talking about some of the artifacts there and their history. To her delight, Jason’s much more smart than the elite would think of a street rat and fully engrossed in her speech about ancient history, League history and the like (and they also of course end up trash-talking Bruce because that’s a common theme between Demons and Birds). He also accidentally called her Tals in middle of his ramblings and questions, and while he furiously apologized, Talia was ecstatic. 

So you can imagine the three Waynes having a semi-normal dinner once and the conversations drifts to the League and Bruce says something like “They’re terrible people and Ra’s and his daughter the most-” but he doesn’t to finish that sentence because Dick and Jason SLAM their hands on the table and loom over Bruce with twin maniacal, angry grins and they growl out “Finish that thought, we dare you”

(oh and she also kisses foreheads goodbye, sorry, I don’t make the rules)

[multiverseforger]

Honor Guest served as a deadly assassin known as the Silencer for Leviathan until Talia al Ghul allowed her to retire. She then proceeded to create a happy, normal life, marrying a man named Blake and having a son named Ben. After a civil war sparked within Leviathan, Honor was forced to return to her role as the Silencer to protect her family.

History

Early Life



Honor as a student at St. Hadrian's

Little is known of the early life of the girl who would later become Honor Guest, other than the fact that she wound up in a clinic owned by the scientist Jonah Nine at a young age. Through unknown circumstances she gained the unique ability to project zones of silence from her body. The leader of the League of Assassins, Ra's al Ghul, learned of her power and hoped to recruit her to his organization. He sent her to St. Hadrian's Finishing School for Girls to be trained as an assassin. Ra's' daughter, Talia al Ghul, visited Honor at St. Hadrian's and saw her as the perfect candidate to help her forge a covert organization of her own, one that would replace the need of the superhero; she would call this organisation Leviathan.[1][2] Talia continued to train Honor for several years to become an agent of Leviathan who would do whatever she thought necessary to assist in the organization's cause.[3] Talia gifted Honor with the nanode, a microscopic device that would reweave clothes into a battle suit and provide Honor with various devices for her mission.[4]

Over the years Honor became more and more skillful and effective in her role as an assassin until she was given the codename of The Silencer by her mistress.[4] The Silencer displayed unyielding loyalty to Talia's cause, not once requesting for any form of release from her duty. Ra's would often send assassins from his League to combat Leviathan, hoping to sabotage the organization before it was fully created. However the Silencer was always able to cut these assassins down, thus keeping Leviathan floating. In time Honor came to see Talia and Leviathan as her family, as it was all she had ever known.[1]

Meeting the Batman



The Silencer's run in with the Batman

On one occasion Honor was sent on a mission to Gotham City by Talia, however she was not informed what the premise of her mission was. When she arrived in the city she met a real-estate worker named Blake Guest, whom she hired an apartment from. She waited in the apartment for days until she was given directives from Talia, who informed her that she was there to protect the Batman from assassins sent by Ra's al Ghul. While on route to the Batman's possible locations Honor noticed a mugging undergoing. Deciding to help the victims she descended on the muggers and murdered all of them, this brought the attention of Batman who attacked the assassin for murdering the thugs.[1]

After a brief skirmish between the two fighters Ra's al Ghul's assassin the Reaper arrived. The two fought together against the powerful cybernetic warrior, however his skill and body mods proved too much for the pair of them. As the Reaper beat Batman to a pulp Silencer saw her opportunity, she grabbed the Reaper's sword from his back and used it to decapitate him, she then took advantage of Batman's crippled state to escape the scene with no further incidents. After the completion of the mission Honor began dating Blake Guest as she started to believe that she wanted an ordinary life for herself.[1]

End of the Silencer



The Silencer's last fight

After a sparring match against Talia Silencer worked up the courage to ask if she could be released from her eternal work. Talia agreed to let her live a normal life as long as she fulfilled one last job for her old friend. Talia ordered her to kill a former Leviathan member, Guile, who was planning to trade Leviathan's secrets to the authorities in exchange for freedom. The Silencer shadowed Guile for days and learnt that he had a family and just wanted to live an ordinary life. [5]

A few days after this Silencer made a move on Guile hoping to eliminate him and earn her freedom, however she was intercepted by Deathstroke who was widely considered to be the most effective mercenary alive. The two battled until Honor was able to temporarily disable him by kicking him out a window, she then intercepted Guile and shot him in the head before Deathstroke could recover. The mercenary informed Silencer that killing Guile would cause a civil war in Leviathan as all trust in the organisation had been broken. Honor was then able to escape from Deathstroke with her life.[5] Honor was granted her wish and left her life as an assassin behind her, settling down in Charleston, marrying Blake Guest and having a son, Ben.[4]

Back to Business



The Silencer reactivates

During her daily routine, Honor was assaulted by an old Leviathan peer known as Killbox, who told her that she was on the wrong side of the supposed Leviathan civil war. After killing Killbox, Honor went home where she was greeted by Talia al Ghul. Talia told her of the dangers the supposed war might bring upon her and her family and gave her the nanode she used as the Silencer. Blake offered to have Talia for dinner but Honor wanted nothing to do with the Leviathan Civil War, and so decided to take Talia to the airport. While driving Talia out of her neighbourhood the pair were attacked by Bloodvessel and Breacher who worked for a man named Quietus - a leader of a rebel Leviathan faction. As the pair were about to kill Talia, Honor put on her suit and defended her former boss - becoming the Silencer once more.[4]

After a brief fight Honor was able to gain the upper hand on Bloodvessel and Breacher eventually killing the pair. When she turned around Talia had disappeared into the night. She then called for Leviathan Cleaners to put a lid on the whole incident, which managed to fool her husband and the rest of the neighbourhood. Since she had retired from Leviathan, she had to accept a meeting with Mr. Remedy, the right hand man of Quietus. The following day, she went to a meeting with him at a "Maulmart", a weapon depot for Leviathan, where she was ambushed by dozens of assassins, in violation of Maulmart's supposedly neutral status.[6]

She managed to escape by making use of stun grenades and her powers, but was badly wounded in the process. Honor exited the Maulmart just as an orbital strike destroyed it, ordered by Quietus, who sacrificed scores of cybernetic assassins and Remedy in the process. The Silencer also threatened Talia al Ghul, saying she would kill her if the Demon's Daughter failed to put an end to the civil war, which was putting Honor's family in danger.[7]

Captured by Deathstroke, Honor fought with the mercenary but was then convinced to sell Talia al Ghul to end the Leviathan civil war after she realized that her former mentor had blown her cover and forced her into a war.[5] The next Sunday, she brought her son to a diner, where she was approached by Talia. The two of them were then ambushed by killers from both Quietus and Gunn, two underbosses warring for the control of Leviathan. Honor and Talia made short work of the ambushers but when the former head of Leviathan threatened Ben, the Silencer killed her friend and left the diner, deeply shaken by what she had done.[8]

Protecting Nightwing



Honor destroys Nightwing's bike

A short time later, Honor learnt that a Leviathan assassin called Endgame was targeting the hero Nightwing, as he wanted Nightwing as a trophy for his faction of Leviathan. Silencer decided to assist Nightwing in repelling the would be assassin. She tracked him to the Isle of Harm where he planned to take place in a cosmos spanning annual race, where the winner would be allowed to receive the answer to any question. While awaiting the beginning of the race Nightwing was attacked by Endgame, but was driven off by Silencer after she opened fire on him from a distance. Before the race Silencer noticed Endgame plant a bomb on Nightwing's bike. When the race began Silencer destroyed Nightwing's bike in order to protect him from the assassination attempt.[9]

Silencer then picked up Nightwing and explained to him why she was there, he told her that he was there to protect his friends Willem Cloke and Vicki Vale from the villainous Wyrm, who wanted Nightwing to ask a question for him that would greatly effect the cosmos. Honor was then able to help Nightwing fend off Endgame once again, knocking him out of the race in the process. When the pair reached the finish line in first place Honor bid Nightwing a farewell and wished him luck with helping his friends.[9]

Ending the Demon's Daughter



Honor battles Cradle and Grave

After the skirmish in the diner Honor seeked to end her problems once and for all, she discerned that the only way to do this was to find the body of Talia and destroy it, thus ending the woman's grasp on her family. Honor knew that Talia's body would be taken to the Lazarus Pit in Khadym for revival and so hoped to intercept and destroy it from there. Honor planned a trip for her and her family to go to Action Land, a Superman themed theme park, as it was located in Sansaro which was near the border of Khadym. During the flight to Sansaro Ben pointed out that a little boy from the diner was present on the plane, Honor immediately recognized the boy and his partner as the freelance assassins Cradle and Grave.[3]

Realizing she had to take them down covertly she drew the pair down to the cargo hold where they revealed that they were tailing her so they could inform the underbosses of Talia's location, thus earning a hefty sum of money. After hearing there reasoning the Silencer engaged the pair in combat. Cradle shot a cannon into the side of the plane hoping to kill the assassin, however the Silencer used the opportunity to send the pair flying out of the plane to their deaths. Honor and her family then reached the resort without anyone realizing what had caused the damage to the plane.[3]

After reaching the resort Honor met up with Iverson, a Leviathan data broker who she believed could help her stay out of trouble in the rogue nation of Khadym. Iverson informed Honor that the best way into the lawless nation was through a smuggling truck that occasionally made shipments into the nation. Iverson also told her that the two major players in the war were Quietus and Gunn. When she went to intercept the truck she discovered Quietus was also attempting to cross the border in order to eliminate Talia. Believing she was still an agent of Talia, Quietus attacked Honor and a fight broke out between the two of them. The pair soon came to realize that they had been set up by Talia's magical lieutenant Lady Wishbone, who wanted to eliminate two of the biggest threats to Talia's Leviathan. At that moment Honor and Quietus became afflicted by a magical spell, this spell caused the pair to swop bodies with each other, meaning Honor was now stuck in Quietus' body. When Honor went to confront Quietus about what they should do she noticed he had left.[10

[svitia]

hi hello hey here’s a couple of quick oc run downs while i still set everything up

◈ clovis is bazett’s cousin that took over the fraga family when bazett left. after hearing word that bazett died, clovis summons berserker (alter cu chulainn) to fight in the holy grail war; only there’s a lot of shit wrong going on. clovis suffers from a lot of insecurity & abandonment issues as well as abuse she dealt with as a child. 

◈ elisaviol is a homunculus created by the gressil family using a mix of alchemy and necromancy. the gressil’s are a small magus family that held a lot of hatred towards the eizberns. her existence in stay night kicks off an early apocrypha war.

◈ seri is basically a gudako replacement in fate/grand order. though, their personalities are completely different.

◈ athanasia is the daughter of leonardo in an alternate universe and master in the fate/extra setting.

◈ sae is the lieutenant of the 13th division and an anomaly. they were found one day in one of the districts in rukongai because of their insanely large reiatsu. it was a bit of goose chase for awhile as sae learned to conceal their reiatsu and hide away in the woods with a couple of orphans they picked up. they were caught not long after taking an asauchi off a shinigami in order to protect one of the kids they picked up. sae is a genius despite their laziness & habit of falling asleep in the craziest place; they tend to gear more towards long range than short range. 

◈ tsuyoshi was born through one of orochimaru’s experiments with hatake and tenro (not based on the game) dna. they escaped the lab they were stationed at with their older half brother shitsurai and caretaker mitori at the age of 5 but were found and taken in by konoha’s anbu and placed in (incredibly) kakashi’s care. they have a kouton (steel release).

◈ silla mysterious student and leader of the white dragon house which is aligned with the church. seems to be related to rhea in some way. 

◈ sigyn known more commonly on asgard as hylla who grew in the realm of light elves, alfheim, as the half-elf, half-asgardian daughter of freya and eldrinn. her mother, who once trained and led the valkyries, fled to alfheim in sorrow and grief after hela’s massacre. freya fell in love with king eldrinn, eventually having hylla. hylla was loved and adored by her mother, father and the people of alfheim. she is bound to loki by fate. when she becomes the asgardian equivalent of 18 she moves to asgard. as her mother’s daughter she’s skilled in the art of magic and war. 

◈ kira a powerful psionic mutant taken into xavier's school for gift children at a young age. her power rivals jean grey's, whom kira dates in their teenage years. she's the host for the cosmic entity kishin who amplifies her powers. kishin originally wished to destroy the world; feeding on kira's hatred for it when she was younger due to the abuse she'd gone through and the societal stigmatism against mutants- but as kira grows older and learns to be more of a person instead of a weapon, loving the world and all the good in it, kishin's morality shifts along with her. kira travels the world with logan.

◈ asha an omega level mutant with the power to create, shape, and manipulate aura; she was found by charles during the events of the movie first class using the cerebro. asha is extremely protective of the younger mutants brought in and acts as something like the team mom. out of all the recruits, she seems to be the one to have the most control over her powers and isn't afraid of them either, making her a powerful asset. her abilities allow for an incredible wide range of capabilities from enhance her own and other's strength to healing to telepathy and so on. her powers are based off the seven chakras.

◈ astaroth is a fallen archangel now archdemon of hell and twin sibling of asmodeus as well as the older sibling of the archangel anael. lives on earth with john constantine. they can shapeshift between male and female forms depending on their mood. goes by the human names venus and david constantine. asmodeus and them are able to grant wishes similar to djinn (judaism) and are the embodiment of lust.

◈ lyta demigod daughter of ares. spent a lot of her life unknowingly feeding off the anger of other people until it drove her mad. lived her life as a pawn for her father's plans to destroy wonder woman but wanted to part of it. after a long drawn out fight with wonder woman ending her lyta's defeat, she disappeared and was never heard of again for months. she turned up again, alongside red hood, starfire and arsenal, joining their team of outlaws. her and jason are currently in a relationship as well as the both of them flirting with tim drake. lyta has similar powers to her father; superhuman strength, speed, stamina, and endurance, being able to summon and control any weapon, as well as minor necromancy.

◈ nezha born zahra al ghul, known among the league of assassins as al sahira. the daughter of ra's al ghul. her parents sold her to ra's in order to repay debts they owed and growing up under the assassin's tutelage is all she's ever known. she's a decade younger than talia but the two were often pitted against each other and grew to see the other as nothing but competition. before damian was born, nezha was an unfeeling killing machine who held no remorse for her targets. unlike talia who seemed to grow no maternal instincts during the birth of her son damian, nezha grew it in her stead. nezha became extremely doting and protective of damian and in the process gained a something of a conscious and a moral compass. nezha later swore her allegiance to damian, acting as a retainer for the young boy as well as something of an older sister figure in his life. she helped damian to gotham and with meeting his father. when damian became robin, nezha stayed with him at the wayne mansion. 

◈ azrael deserter of heaven. she loved michael and lucifer so much their fight brought her to depression. during the war she faked her death and hid among humans for centuries. azrael resurfaces after fallen in love with a sickly human; bending laws in order to keep him alive. sadly because she was attracting the attention of heaven and hell & she was pregnant with a nephilim, azrael had to part ways with her human and allow him to die. leaving her and her son to travel the world hiding from angels and demons. 

◈ marcia formerly from a big and notorious hunting family, the clarks, marcia went into hiding to live a normal life after finding out her mother was actually her aunt and that her birth mother died in order to fulfill azrael contract and make marcia one of the special children who would become apart of lucifer’s army. marcia was unknowingly given small doses of demon blood all throughout her life until she turned 18 and found out the truth. when she left her family she went to school to become a doctor. when her husband dies from a demon attack, she goes back to hunting.

◈ bilith was once considered the weakest of the princes of hell until she developed a bit of cannibalistic tendencies towards demonkind. she gets stronger the more she absorbs other demons; taking their powers as well. bilith never had an interest in human souls, and only cared about knowledge and strength. she’s the only demon who’s been on earth the longest, making contracts with witches, hunters and humans alike but instead of their souls she’d traded them for a valuable/powerful item; growing her collection of trinkets. during her time on earth she developed an order of hunters that focuses on collecting magical artifacts known as the shield of saint benedict (who was known to protect against moral corruption and supernatural dangers)-- to outsiders they claim they are protecting humanity from dangerous magic items but in truth they hand them over to bilith in exchange for favors, these hunters capture any demons they hunt and bring them back for bilith to absorb. bilith doesn’t damn the hunters to hell either or bother taking their souls, the items they bring her sufficing for they’re deals. still, with all the powers she’s gained over the years she’s still rightfully terrified of lucifer, lilith and azazel and despite her confidence is quite a coward when it comes to them. 

[nothingofnotereally]

Unpacking Rebirth!Talia’s Upbringing

Okay so…. Can we talk about Rebirth Talia al Ghul? People who aren’t familiar with her history, her almost 50 year history at this point, and more importantly aren’t familiar with it in depth often have no idea why it is that Talia fans think that her treatment post Morrison, but even moreso post-Rebirth, is a radical rebranding of the character they’ve known for so long.   And I could talk about that, and maybe one day I will, but today I’m going to talk about something different, but related.

I’m going to talk about Talia’s background in Rebirth, how it accounts for her being a dramatically different character than she was in her classic form and whether she’s still salvageable as anything other than a mustache-twirler.

I. The Demon’s Daughter

Let’s be clear: the little we know of Talia’s rebirth childhood is absolutely horrific.  Pure nightmare fuel.  While their traditional dynamic was troubling and problematic, it was also loving in its way, and Ra’s was controlling of her, while also protective of her.  Now, instead, we have this:

This issue has been out for a while, but I haven’t seen anyone really unpack what it is Talia is saying here, because we’re all focused on the stupid swordfight with Selina. But look at what it is Talia is saying and what it means about her upbringing.

Talia is saying that, basically since she was a toddler, she has been physically abused, and forced to fight, by her centuries old swordmaster father.  In fact, her very first memory is bleeding from wounds caused by her father.  From then on, her life is a fight to survive against her own father, which I’m guessing was pretty damn difficult especially when she was an actual child.  And often, when she loses?

She dies.  Or rather, she is murdered.  Repeatedly.  By her father.  

And then he resurrects her and starts over.  

And about those resurrections?  It’s not like he just picks her newly killed body and immediately brings her back - check out that first panel on the second row.   Not only is she killed and revived countless times, he lets her corpse at least partially rot before resurrecting her, so that when she returns to life, she is treated to the sight  of her skin regrowing over her rotted flesh.  And as soon as Ra’s notices she’s alive again… they start again.

How long did that go on? Unclear, but she’s still fighting him as a grown woman in the equivalent of this time period in The Gift...

...so I’m guessing the answer is “it didn’t stop until she left him.”

To be honest, I’m not really sure what the Rebirth version of Ra’s and Talia’s dynamic even was.  The classic relationship doesn’t work at all with this backstory, and we’ve never really seen a lot of what the new paradigm might be since they’ve been out of contact since well before Rebirth.  But what we do know is, she was an active assassin from a young age.

Unlike Classic Talia who was actually never an active assassin at all:

We can also glean bits and pieces of information regarding her Rebirth upbringing from other appearances. Over in Silencer, we find out that despite her brilliance, the fact that she was carrying out assassinations for him, and the fact that she could defeat her ancient swordmaster father even as a child, she was never good enough for him: 

He was dissatisfied with her, and so he created metahumans using his genes to replace her.  Ultimately, this drives her to plot against Ra’s because... who wouldn’t?

It’s not entirely clear what her ambitions were, specifically but judging from this bit of Batman and Robin (New52, but seemingly still canon for Damian’s backstory):

It involved winning Batman over to her side and ruling the world through Damian.  This is further confirmed by her comment to Honor in Silencer Annual #1 here:

Where she indicates that Bruce is family to her, and still features in her future plans. What’s strange here is that she also says later that she intends to kill him personally, which is.  Weird and out of nowhere, but what else is new.  As a sidenote, Silencer is just strange because it ignores everything about Talia’s history not just in terms of changing her personality but in terms of ignoring the timeline of events, but... moving along...

Talia intends to form Leviathan to break free of him and pursue her own agenda.  But, while apparently finding her insufficient, Ra’s cannot let her go.  Not only that, he actively works to destroy everything she is trying to accomplish, including trying to kill Batman just because she desires him.  In fact, he also tries to have Talia herself assassinated:

Another thing is, Rebirth Talia is rather older than she looks, as evidenced by her having been an adult when she met Honor. 

Which means, in the end, we have a woman who was abused and repeatedly killed by her father, then thrown in a Lazarus Pit (but only after her body has lain around long enough to partially decompose!) and forced to repeat the cycle for who knows how long, but apparently quite a long time - decades, maybe centuries. Who even knows.  She’s been working as an assassin since her teens.  Despite her excelling and even surpassing him in various ways, he considers her inferior, and begins seeking to replace her with artificially created metahuman heirs.  Eventually, Talia decides she wants to break with him, and he responds by first trying to destroy everything she cares about and then trying to have her killed. 

OKAY, SO.  Nightmare fuel.  I genuinely can’t begin to imagine what it would be like growing up in that environment, and under the circumstances it’s certainly no shock that Rebirth Talia is warped.  

Even so, what stands out to me in the B&R issue is that, initially, even her wildest ambitions required her to exercise power through a man – it’s just her son instead of her father or her potential husband.  This says a good deal about how her upbringing, as well as her father’s fixation on marrying her off, has affected her self-image.  And for those who say Talia evidences arrogance and self-importance… yes she does.  Which is often a symptom of low self-esteem.  In fact even Narcissistic Personality Disorder typically stems from overcompensation for a feeling of worthlessness.

The traditional/original Ra’s/Talia dynamic had some elements of this story, but not all and not nearly to the same extent.  Furthermore, Classic Talia had something else - someone else - to love and look to for hope. Rebirth Talia does not.  Because as far as I can tell, in Rebirth, Talia and Batman’s relationship has very little in common with the conflicted romance they shared in their original stories.  And that’s how we transition to...

II. Beloved of the Bat?

So, Bruce Wayne.  

Again, the extent of their relationship in Rebirth is unclear, but it definitely isn’t what it was pre-Rebirth.  

The original Bruce/Talia story is basically as such:  Talia meets him when she’s kidnapped by Dr. Daark, and falls in love with him.  Bruce is also drawn and attracted to her.  This results in Ra’s deciding to test Bruce for suitability as Talia’s husband and his own heir.  Bruce passes, but unsurprisingly has no interest in running a criminal empire, though he does fall in love with Talia.  This leads to a rather intense on/off romance that ultimately results in Damian Wayne, and continues until Tower of Babylon when Talia finally tires of being stuck between her father and her lover and breaks away from both of them. With Bruce and Talia’s relationship having been called to an end (by her, mind you – one day I may do a writeup on Bruce/Talia and how often what happened between them is misremembered by writers and readers alike), Bruce becomes involved with Catwoman in Hush.  Even so, we see in Death and the Maidens that Bruce does still love Talia.

Meanwhile, Talia’s previously unknown sister Nyssa kidnaps and repeatedly murders and resurrects her (sound familiar?) until she more or less goes mad.  By the end of the ordeal, she can barely speak, and she willing to do anything for Nyssa to avoid being killed again.  This results in Talia disavowing her love for Bruce, which seems to be the catalyst for him to finally move on from her, though not without considerable pain.

Okay this is important to run down, because the Rebirth story has changed everything about their relationship.

Gotta love those evil expressions.  It helps us remember that she’s a heartless monster.

Anyway so, In Silencer Annual #1, Silencer does note that Talia had previously said she was in love with Batman, so we know that she loved him, okay.  But what does love mean to Rebirth Talia?  We can find the answer to that if we go back to Roles of Engagement:

She “loved” him because she considered him a potential equal.  That’s not really a bad basis for loving someone initially – and even Classic Talia’s love for Bruce was initially sparked from a place of admiration.  But while Classic Talia eventually grew into a more complete love for him, it seems like Rebirth Talia is still stuck on objective: seek worthy mate.  In fact, once it’s clear that she and Bruce are not coming back together, she just goes ahead and propositions Slade Wilson because she figures he can give her strong children, too:

Notably, this obsession with strong offspring sort of comes out of nowhere when Morrison takes over, but anyway, from that perspective it’s not hard to understand why Bruce’s feelings for her would also be somewhat muted in Rebirth:

Because while Classic Bruce/Talia was a love story that stretched for over 30 years in our time, and most of their adult lives in canon… Rebirth Bruce/Talia is repeatedly presented as a short infatuation on his end, and a dangerous obsession with genetics on hers. The above panel is from Batman #66, and is part of the Knightmares arc, which is important because while it appears to be Selina saying it… it’s actually Bruce’s thoughts about the women in his life coming out through his imagined version of Selina.  And to him, those women amount to nothing much – none of them even warrant a direct callout.  Everyone besides Selina is a “whoever.”

Interlude and Sum I

So... Classic Ra’s was controlling, possessive and dismissive of her at times, but he was also devoted, protective and genuinely loving.  The relationship was complicated and problematic but affectionate. 

Rebirth Ra’s is an abusive tyrant who repeatedly murders and belittles his daughter and, when she decides to break from him, attempts to systematically destroy everything she cares about and then have her killed.

Classic Bruce/Talia was a complicated romance between two people who genuinely loved each other, but were always separated by circumstances.  He loved her for years, and she loved him unconditionally, and they struggled over that from the day they met until they permanently separated as a result of her being brainwashed.   

Rebirth!Talia went in search of someone she considered worthy of her so they could have a genetically perfect child to conquer the world with.  Bruce briefly had feelings for her in a moment between romantic rounds with Catwoman.

My point is this:  Rebirth Talia has never experienced genuine love or support from anyone in her life, or for anyone in her life. Her relationship with the two men she traditionally loved, and whose love for her has imprisoned, empowered and defined her for much of her existence as a character, was utterly gutted in Rebirth, leaving Rebirth Talia’s life as a prolonged emotional void.  Which makes what comes next remarkable in some ways… and predictable in others.

Because this is where we talk about Damian.

III. Olympias to his Alexander

Now, I’m not going to get into the circumstances behind Damian’s conception because what the whole hell, there is absolutely no consistency there.  Various people are very invested in one or another of the myriad versions of his conception that DC has repeatedly retconned and revised, generally leaning to whichever one fits their preferred personal narrative, and that’s fine but objectively?  Absolutely no consistency, situation unclear.  So let’s just go with “Damian resulted from this mess.”

In Batman and Robin #0 we see that Talia basically raised him the way Ra’s raised her… with some major deviations.  She used his desire to know his heritage and know his father’s name as the carrot to motivate him to succeed, rather than the fear of death and pain as a stick to punish him  for failure. 

Talia does not kill her son, whom she duels with wooden blades rather than steel.  And she is not shown to physically abuse him… aside from the swordfights, which of course is already bad.  

Mind you, I’m not denying that his upbringing is still brutal.  What I’m saying is, placed in the context of her own upbringing we can see that she was trying to raise him with more kindness and greater love than her father had her – an improved parental style, but still reflective of the only style she, herself, has ever known.  

So it’s predictable that he’s essentially mistreated… because she literally has never encountered an emotionally healthy relationship and wouldn’t know how to raise him any differently even if she wanted to.  

But it’s also remarkable because despite that, you can see she is trying to be a better mother than Ra’s was a father, and not let Damian grow up feeling unwanted and unworthy the way she did, herself.

Unlike Ra’s, she never tells Damian he is insufficient – on the contrary, she holds him up as the chosen, a conqueror, and dreams of a future when he will lead with both parents at his back.  Remember, this is a woman who was never seen as worthy of inheriting Ra’s al Ghul’s organization, and she wants to make sure Damian knows the world is his to hold.  The bit about having both parents is important, too, because per Batman Inc, Talia felt deprived of her mother, whom Ra’s had discarded as soon as she was no longer useful to him.

In short, she does for Damian everything she wished Ra’s had done for her.  

But, in so doing, she falls into many of the same traps that Ra’s had fallen into: she doesn’t provide what Damian wants, or even what he actually needs.  Instead, she gives him what he asks for, and what she thinks he needs.  But for someone who grew up without love, trying to understand how to provide it is complicated, and difficult.  

Anyway, when Damian finally defeats her, she fulfills her promise and brings him to meet Bruce.  This involves a last ditch effort to unite their family: she offers to reform.  

But not only does Bruce reject her, ultimately Damian does, as well.   This is, from Damian’s perspective, completely understandable.  Who wants to live that kind of life?  But from Talia’s perspective she has now been rejected by her own child, in addition to her father and the man she hoped to spend her life with.  You can see the raw hurt this causes her clearly, as a woman who had always yearned for family starts having exchanges like this:

And while we’re at it, count Honor as another person who left her.

And to be clear here, I’m not saying they were wrong to leave her.  Rebirth Talia is not a good person, not a kind person, not really anyone I’d want to willingly hang around.  And yes, she’s clearly manipulating Honor with her affectionate words, although I’d argue this is largely because manipulation is all she's ever experienced and all she knows how to do. 

So, what am I saying?

Interlude and Sum II - Why Is She Like That?

Just to catch it all up, we have a woman who was abused by her father, including being repeatedly murdered and resurrected, treated as inferior and insufficient despite being Ra’s’ equal or superior in many ways, who spent her young life performing assassinations and otherwise conforming her behavior to her father’s demands only to discover he was creating alternate heirs because she’s somehow still not enough for him.  She has never experienced love, seemingly has no real understanding of what it is.

When she settles on someone she believes that she loves, she is ultimately nothing to him but a “whoever” - a temporary respite from the yo-yo relationship he has with another woman.  

Then Damian happens and, from her perspective, she raises him with all the love, pride and approval that she herself never had.  In an effort to unite the family, she also attempts to do what would please Ra’s - conform her behavior to Bruce’s preferences - but he still rejects her.  

Meanwhile, she has “adopted” Honor Guest, whom she also shows favor to, but who also wants to leave her, and ultimately does just that, without even saying goodbye.   

And then we have some.  Quirks in her story - some specifics that really bear looking at in greater detail.

Repeated murder and resurrection:  So how bad is that?  It’s bad.  The first time Talia experiences this kind of thing is in Death and the Maidens, which is probably no longer canon.  But okay this was Classic Talia and for comparison, this breaks Talia’s spirit so completely that she essentially becomes Nyssa’s puppet.  

She is literally never the same again, even after Nyssa is killed.  In fact, it’s this that turned her into the monstrous Talia that we meet in Morrison’s run to begin with, so we already know she can be broken by this kind of treatment… but let’s use another example.  

Let’s use… Batman.  

He’s got one of the strongest wills in DC, right?  Well, lets rewind to a story called Emperor Joker, where the Joker attained Mr. Mxyzpltck’s omnipotent powers which he uses to repeatedly torture and murder Batman and resurrect him every day.  

This completely destroys Bruce to the point where the Spectre has to erase his memory of it in order to make Bruce functional as a person again.

So imagine that happening to Talia, as a child, at her own father’s hands.  And not for days, for years. And that’s without even considering the method of resurrection, which brings us to…

Lazarus Madness: Let’s talk about the Lazarus Pit.  It’s a magical mystical ley line-powered bath that resurrects and heals.  We all know that.  But the thing is, that’s not all it does: it also drives the one bathed or healed mad. For a short time, they become superhumanly strong, and also overtaken with violent bloodlust.  The first Lazarus pit was used to resurrect a sultan’s son, who promptly murdered Ra’s al Ghul’s wife Sora.  Since then, Ra’s himself has been the primary beneficiary of its benefits, with interesting results… namely that Ra’s has been slowly going mad for centuries.  

Because even though the intensity of the bloodlust and madness fades, it never completely disappears, and cumulative effect eventually twists a person’s nature beyond recognition.  In his first life, Ra’s was a good-natured doctor, but over the many exposures he has found himself becoming progressively worse. 

A quote from Denny O’Neil, Ra’s’s creator:

“...we gave Ra’s a benevolent motivation.  You can certainly quarrel with his methods ... But Ra's is a loony bird.  He’s been alive for 400 years and he’s become a maniacal sociopath.”

Dick Grayson concurs, and acknowledges its cause:

Even Ra’s himself is aware of it – this is why he didn’t want Jason bathed in the Lazarus Pit, because he is all too aware of the demons it stirs in a person.

So, what is the impact on Talia, who is quickly and repeatedly tortured and killed, and then resurrected using a method that is known to drive people insane?  I’m going with “not the best.”  It’s frankly astounding that she still resembles a human, psychologically.  

Assassin work at a young age: While there has been a long-standing debate about the effects of exposure to violence on all people and children in particular, in general the consensus is, yes, exposure does cause desensitization.  Obviously this doesn’t mean people are going to generally become serial killers because they played a violent video game, but it does have a numbing effect – just think about how people who watch enough horror films are harder to scare with horror films.  

Now imagine that, instead of watching people murder and commit violent acts on television or on film, a child is instead expected to perform said acts themselves.  How desensitizing would that be?  

Frankly, to see all we need to do is look at Damian, who grew up under similar circumstances and, as a result, initially exhibits what I can only call red flag behavior.

The thing is, Damian isn’t so dissimilar from his mother in this regard.  Like Talia, he becomes morally twisted, emotionally empty and ultimately tethered not to his own sense of morality or self but to other people’s perceptions and demands of him and who he should be.  Before he meets Bruce, he adheres to the League’s expectations, and when he meets Bruce, he instead aligns himself with Bruce’s code of behavior, even though he does not actually believe in it.  It takes a good deal of time and work for him to begin developing his own beliefs and boundaries.  The difference between Damian and Talia is that he had Bruce and Bruce, despite his flaws, loved Damian enough to try for his sake.

Arguably, this is a defining difference between Classic and Rebirth Talia, as well.  Classic Talia also viewed Bruce as her beacon and her path to salvation and hope.

But if, in Rebirth, Bruce never really loved her, and in fact she barely loved him, then there is no catalyst for her to begin seeking another path.  Rebirth Talia didn’t have anything but the League, and even Ra’s barely cared for her.  As a result, she was boxed into her role by fate, which she acknowledges in Teen Titans, as she wishes better for her son than she had herself.

Anyway, obviously, there are no studies on the effect of taking assassin work as a child, but my general guess here is that she has a twisted understanding of the value of life and the significance of death.  Which brings me to another massive issue that permeates the character and may even help explain her choice to put a hit on Damian at one point.

Death as Optional: Death is an inevitability, right? Like taxes. Nothing you do can prevent it, or reverse it, so all you can do is live with it, and make the most of what you have. It’s said that the existence of death is what lends meaning to life, and while I’m not sure I’m quite on board with that, the fact that death is permanent certainly does lend a certain gravitas to it.  It’s also the reason we fear death and what lies beyond it.

Unless you’re an al Ghul.

For an al Ghul, death is opt in.  Because Ra’s is essentially immortal (which is also a new thing, by the way) and because Talia herself has been repeatedly resurrected, as has her brother Dusan (assuming he’s still in continuity post-Rebirth), to Talia death has no weight to it.  No gravitas.  It is easily doled out, and just as easily forced into retreat.  

Given that, it becomes exceptionally easy to threaten death, even to those she loves, because there’s nothing to say she can’t change her mind and take it back.  

Now to be clear, my argument is not that she had the intention of taking it back – she didn’t really intend for Damian to die to begin with for one thing.  It’s just that, because of who she is and what she has experienced, Talia would always act with the knowledge that she can choose to endanger someone’s life and think about whether she’s comfortable with the result (their being dead) later.

This is evident in both Ra’s and Talia, each of whom are willing to use death and resurrection as a tool to restructure people they don’t even want dead, as Ra’s attempts to do with Damian and Talia, and as Talia does with Honor Guest.

…as a sidenote can I just say that the Lazarus Pit’s effects are so weird.  In some stories it can’t resurrect at all, and in others it can resurrect after decades without a problem.  In some it just reduces age, and in some it also heals memories.  Here it’s being used to erase memories, which makes no sense since a Pit his how Jason Todd got his memories back. Also, this is the first I’ve ever heard of al Ghuls having especially strong resistance to the Pit’s corrosive effects on personality.  Considering it’s just a bunch of chemicals on a ley line, I’m not sure how that would work, but now I’m just imagining Ra’s with a book of Lazarus recipes like, Well, I’m needing one that restores memories today so Ima add an extra pinch of ginko.

ANYWAY.

V. “R” Stands for Redemption

There was a time, a few years back, when Damian had his own series, Robin: Son of Batman.  And therein, you see one of the few efforts to explain and redeem Talia’s character.  There, while she was still presented as colder and more aggressive than her Classic counterpart, she was still capable of compassion, protectiveness and love.

It was essentially explained as a result of her being cleansed of the toxin that was Ra’s al Ghul’s influence, via having darkness physically removed from her body.

Now, to be honest, I’m not sure how I feel about that particular route – I feel like it would have been more honest to have her resurrection heal the Lazarus damage, for example, but it’s a start.  And, in the end, Damian left her with the chance to redeem herself and earn back his and Bruce’s trust.

Aaaand she has failed. Or more precisely, writers have failed to follow up on this thread, and have instead doubled down on her as the evil Dragon Mother.  I’ll be honest, I’m not really sure what’s going on with DC’s fixation on evil Asian ninja moms but I’m just going to… pretend that isn’t a thing in order to suggest some paths that could salvage her character.

I’ve seen it said that she’s been too evil for too long to be redeemed, but honestly that’s pretty silly. First of all these are comic books, anyone can be redeemed.  The same writer who wreaked havoc on Talia also had Magneto, a Holocaust survivor, going full Nazi on humans, which was incredibly out of character, and Marvel basically fixed it by saying “guess who that wasn’t? Magneto.  It wasn’t Magneto.”  Technically DC could just Hal Jordan her, or let the rumored upcoming continuity shuffle bring her previous history back.  As for the “been this way too long” argument, I mean she was Original Flavor Talia for more than twice as long and that wasn’t too long for DC to flip her entire motivation and personality.  Catwoman was a villain for decades, and yet here she is, protecting people, making out with Batman on rooftops and leaving him at the alter for altruistic reasons. Same with Ivy, except for the parts about Batman, soooo… you know….

Anyway. I’m going to work with the assumption that we have to use what we have, and that we’re trying to get her to something like her pre-Morrison personality.

The first thing she would need is the experience of love. Someone to anchor her, who won’t judge her or abandon her even when she’s in a dark mood. Even when she’s showing her pain and her anger.  Someone who recognizes how broken she is, but decides to try to help her rather than rejecting her.  Someone who, in essence, will do for her what Bruce did for Classic Talia, and what he does for Damian in his flawed way.

Now, I’m a massive Bruce/Talia shipper, no lie.  However, I do not think Rebirth Bruce and Talia have the kind of connection that could provide her this essential first need. Someone like Superman or Wonder Woman would probably be a better choice, simply because they have greater warmth of character and a drive toward helping lost souls.  

After that, she would need some good old fashioned redemption time.  Maybe a miniseries where she goes Xena on the world: a redemption quest.  Maybe joining a team like the Outsiders or the Suicide Squad where she can earn her way back from the brink.  The Outsiders would be cool, especially, because it would allow Bruce and Damian to monitor her and judge her as she progresses.  

…and I mean, from a character perspective that’s all she really needs.  From a writing perspective, she needs a writer who will nail down things like where Damian came from without going back to the drug-and-rape well, which was a retcon to begin with and has been retconned out and then back in over and over again.   And most importantly, she needs a writer who has the interest in exploring her internal world to the point where they can actually draw these things out of her instead of just ignoring the fridge-horror implications of things like… the way she was raised.

If we could get these things to coincide, then Talia, too, can be saved!

Or we could just reboot the timeline again, whatever.

Anyway, that’s all folks, thanks for reading this far, I have no idea how you did.  If you’re interested in this kind of thing, feel free to drop me a line and ask me… whatever, because God knows I have plenty to say about Talia and about comics in general.  

In closing, something to remind us of the character we’ve lost.

Until next time!

[nightsstarr]

Hot take: Demonfire isn’t incest

I wanted to preface this post by acknowledging that this is a controversial topic. If I get a whiff of incest I usually keep pretty far away and I'm really going to actually try to explain why I feel like Mar'i Grayson/Ibn al Xu'ffasch or Damian Wayne is not incest. If you just want to fight about it I'm not interested in that, but if you actually want to have a discussion I'd prefer to do it over asks or messages rather than reblogs and replies because I don't need to be fielding responses from people piling up and attacking me.

Mar'i Grayson is not a canon character. People like to insert her into the canon/fanon universe by deaging her to a toddler and leaving Damian the age he is in canon comics and inserting him into some nuclear Grayson family where Dick and Kory are the parents and Damian and Mar'i are the children. This take is cute and the most prevalent, but it's not canon and has no basis on judging the characters. I think that people forget this and get very angry when people play around with the family dynamic of the Graysons, and this is a huge factor in the incest argument.

Mar'i Grayson is only canon to Earth-22, the universe of Kingdom Come. Kingdom Come was very popular when it first came out in 1998 and it has a spin-off mini-series featuring Mar'i Grayson trying to put together a team of her friends to save their universe from erasure. This arc crossed over into the canon comic Titans and is probably where a lot of people first saw her.

In Earth-22, Kory has died of an ambiguous illness and Dick and Mar'i have a contentious relationship. One of their first scenes together in the Nightstar book of the mini-series shows Mar'i literally throwing starbolts at him. Mar'i has also been estranged from Bruce, since Bruce is regarded as a more aggressive vigilante. Dick appears not to have a good relationship with him or any relationship at all.

On this Earth, vigilantes have become violent and dangerous to civilians in Superman's absence. When Superman returns, he is dismayed to see what has happened to the vigilantes and he tries to reform them. He forms of team of good guy vigilantes who want to stop those who have become too violent, and on his team are Wonder Woman and Red Robin AKA Dick Grayson. He ends up going too far and just imprisoning most of the other vigilantes, and Batman gathers his own team of vigilantes called the Outsiders to oppose Superman.

One of the most interesting things about Mar'i Grayson is that she seems to realize that the vigilantes are too powerful and have become corrupt, and she teams up with Batman in an effort to find a way to stop the aggressive vigilantes without imprisoning them indefinitely. For me, this was when I really started to fall in love with Mar'i. As someone who has a pretty bad relationship with my own father, it seemed really cool to me that she was able to make her own decision about something so important and stand up to her father to do what she thinks is right.

I know I've said a lot already, but I realize that a lot of people haven't read Kingdom Come and I think it's important to understand the context to really know Mar'i's character. Basically, Mar'i Grayson is headstrong, she doesn't just do what her father wants her to do, she's had no relationship with Bruce throughout her adult life, and she reconnects with him by defying her father. Mar'i does still love her father, and she saves his life by flying him away from an atom bomb.

Now onto Ibn. He ends up being pretty pivotal to the plot. He teams up with Lex Luthor's Mankind Liberation Front, which is basically a bad-guy Justice League that wants to have the villains in control. He ends up double crossing the MLF and was teamed up with Bruce the whole time and helps save the day, sort of. We find out in his book in the mini-series that he was raised by Ra's al Ghul and NOT Bruce, and that he was tortured and buried alive as part if his assassin training and he's pretty traumatized by that.

So to recap: Ibn and Mar'i both had no contact with Bruce any time before they were fully grown adults. They don't even meet each other until the last installment of Kingdom Come, and it's clear that they're mutually attracted to each other.

To me, this setup works because it seems more like their love and yes, sexual attraction, is pulling the batfamily back together. At the end of these events, while Mar'i is in love with Ibn, she has a better relationship with her father, an actual relationship with Bruce, and she and Ibn have this crazy passionate relationship where they try to help each other deal with their anger, which is an issue for both of them  in healthy ways. The only time incest is ever brought up is by Dick, who is only bringing it up because he objects to his daughter dating the heir to the League of Assassins. Mar'i brushes him off because she's already made it clear that her father can't make her decisions for her.

Mar'i Grayson is so important to me because her entire arc in Kingdom Come is centered around her desire to make her own decisions for herself. She forges her own relationships with people important to her but she still ultimately forgives her father, and even realizes how important he is to her.

I think that's a really great journey for a character who's really only a side character. I love how strong and sure of herself she is.

When people try to reduce their relationship to an uncle/niece relationship, it really defeats the entire purpose of Mar'i's arc in Kingdom Come. She's a grown woman who has made a decision she feels comfortable with and she explains this to her father, and then for people to literally subvert her whole arc and diminish the relationships she built from scratch to who her father is really squashes any agency and independence she shows us.

And, because it's related, I want to defend calling Ibn Damian instead of Ibn. The only name he's given in Kingdom come is Ibn al Xu’ffasch, which is really not a name at all and translated from Arabic means son of the bat. I love Kingdom Come but I feel that it's racist of Waid never to have given him a proper name, and because Damian is the name of Bruce and Talia in canon, I think it's much more appropriate to call him that. Ibn al Xu’ffasch is a title, not a name, and I guess Waid thought it sounded cool or whatever. Also Ra’s doesn’t have a name, his name is also a title (Head of the Demon), but Talia and Nyssa have names so I don’t think this is a good reason.

If Mar'i Grayson was dropped into the canon universe the way it's set up right now, and she had a good relationship with both her parents and with Bruce, then yeah! I concede that it would feel incestuous. But I really don't know many people who ship it in terms of the canon comics. I'm just really tired of people who haven't read Kingdom Come interpreting it as incest without bothering to take the context into consideration. Mar'i Grayson's arc is incredibly empowering to me as a woman with a complicated family, who lost her mother, who doesn't get along with her father, who has a complicated relationship with her grandparents. The fact that people are so quick to take all that away without a thought as to what it actually means is pretty sucky and I just wanted to get my two cents out there.

Because I'm sure some people are thinking about it, I've seen the meme going that if you need to defend something from being incest it's not a good start. But I think that people lately are having a problem where if something seems controversial nobody wants to think critically about it because they're worried they might be giving stock to something morally wrong. Which is a huge problem that definitely has ramifications in real life. If you really think that demonfire is incest after reading this, that's fine and I purposefully never add the Mar'i or Damian tags to any demonfire content because I'm trying to be courteous. But I had to say something because I've never seen someone defend them outside of an active argument.

TL;DR: Demonfire isn't incest unless you take it totally out of context. Demonfire is part of Mar'i's extremely empowering arc in Kingdom Come about asserting her own identity that's separate from the men in her life. Their relationship is empowering to both parties which is kind of rare in comic relationships and part of why I love it so much. Ibn's name is swapped out for Damian's name commonly even though they aren't the same character because they are mirrors, and it's kind of racist that Waid never gave him a real name.

[leatherxandxlead]

Before anything.

This eventually will end up on a page on my blog, but I want it to be visible as people find me.

I’ve played Jason Todd since I was 18 years old, and because of that I have a very specific idea of who he is and I have basically told canon to fuck off.

The very basics are the same, so don’t worry its not some super out there take, but still.

here is a list of headcanon to start.

Jason was raised almost entirely on her own by Catherine Todd, who knew she wasn’t his mother, but never did anything but treat him like she was. Before she met Willis Todd; Jason’s father, she was an aspiring actress, and had become to make waves in the local theatre community before developing addiction problems she fought for the rest of her life. After Willis was arrested, Catherine began to fight towards true sobriety, to help support Jason. She died of an overdose when Jason was eight. He, to this day suspects foul play from inside the big house.

Willis Todd is still alive, currently survive two consecutive life sentences, plus 90 days for pissing off a guard. He has an option for parole ever ten years and not once has even come close to gaining said parole.

Willis’s sentence is bogus, he took the fall for Two-Face early on. Jason doesn’t care. He’s glad the old bastard rots.

 Jason was killed, and revived before Joker gained the services of Harley Quinn. In fact, during his stint as Arkham Asylums newest John Doe, he was one of her few patients before the fall. He thought she was a good doctor. 

Jason hates above all else drug dealers who sell to kids, and anyone who lays their hands on a woman. He’s pretty sour on animal abuse too.

As the Red Hood, Jason takes particular care to make sure sex workers are kept safe, and are able to get out of the life if they wish to do so, for those who chose to do such work, he promises them protection when he is around, and even has purchased and gifted buildings in Gotham to act as safe havens.

Jason has one cat, her name is Stripes. she’s an orange tabby. He was drunk when he named her.

Jason is a problem drinker, whiskey is his posion

Jason is a neat freak. His safe house is intensely cleaned and organized in between every major mission.

Jason’s favorite food is chili dogs.

Jason possesses a genius level intellect, he reads constantly, is a mechanical wizard and a tactical master. He speaks over a dozen languages, and is passible at about ten others.

Jason’s Russian is terrible, as is most of his slavic, but Russian particularly.

Jason is of Irish and Italian descent. His paternal grandmother was a first generation immigrant for Italy, his grandfather, second from Ireland.

He’s not sure about his ancestry from Shelia, his birth mother’s side. She seemed very white when he met her.

Jason drives what, visually at least seems to be, a black 1966 Pontiac GTO, internally of course it is a Batmobile, with all the bells and whistles. He calls her The Deadbird.

Because Catherine was a stage actress, Jason grew up with Showtunes and listens to them to this day, mixed in with the sort of music you’d expect from him.

Catherine was pregnant when Willis was arrested. The baby didn’t make it. It was a girl, her name was going to be Isabel.

Jason keeps a .500 Magnum handgun at all times. He never uses it, he just wants it ready because he wants the biggest, and most comical looking revolver to be the one he uses to pop the Joker’s head off. He’s fired it 4 times. He hates that he missed.

Jason’s helmet houses a micro supercomputer, hooked up to a backdoor version of the Batcomputer’s network. He’s pretty sure Bruce knows he’s there, but its sort of a “don’t ask don’t tell” agreement. He has a running HUD that helps him track, mark, and collect evidence. He had a rudimentary collision detection system as well, but it was just annoying during a fight. The hood can manage a full light spectrum, allowing Jason to detect large heat signatures, and several types of dangerous radiation. The levels of each need to be somewhat high, as fine and minute detection would take more memory than the space of the hood allows. He also has a rebreather present in the hood, which is air tight. He thinks it’s stupid so many people run around with their mouths exposed when so many villains use gases and spores.

Jason is blatantly embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from Bruce, again he’s pretty sure Bruce knows and lets him out of pity.

He really hates being pitied.

In order, from least to most Jason hates the other Robins, Steph, Dami, Dick and Tim.

In fact he’d go so far as it say he enjoys the company of Stephanie Brown.

He loves all the Batgirls. Not like LOVES, but you know what I mean.

At 17 Jason Todd was taken advantage of by Talia al Ghul. He doesn’t like to talk about it.

Jason developed claustrophobia after waking up in his own coffin. Its why his safe houses are all open design.

Jason’s a little bit bisexual.

He won’t let a man top him though. He doesn’t trust other men.

Jason Todd smokes Lucky Strike cigarettes.

Jason chooses to never attempt to fight the Sirens. They’re alright in his book.

Jason tends to stick to the Narrows of Gotham as his stomping ground. He will fight bats and birds who cross into his turf without asking.

[adventurepunks]

◎ 𝙻𝙴𝚃'𝚂 𝙳𝙾 𝙰 𝚆𝙴𝙸𝚁𝙳 𝙷𝙴𝙰𝙳𝙲𝙰𝙽𝙾𝙽 𝚃𝙷𝙸𝙽𝙶 for Talia

WHAT THEY SMELL LIKE. Jasmine flowers, vanilla, and if she chooses a perfume for a night out it will be la vie est belle, Chanel n5 or candy all depending on where and which kind of crowd she is mixing in.

HOW THEY SLEEP. SLEEPING POSITION. SCHEDULE. ETC....Side sleeper on the right arm, usually she sleeps quite well although she is the sort of person to only need about six hours to feel rested, in a AU universe where the Dreaming turned hostile against her it’s how she knows she altered someone’s destiny out of the book of Fate for she is more and more gradually plagued by nightmares.

WHAT MUSIC THEY ENJOY.  It really is a blend of multiple genres so easier to say that she doesn’t enjoy ruckus. It has to have melody and structure. Music has to be an art and evoke feelings much like art, from dancing to sorrow, it has to mean something for her to find it enjoyable.

HOW MUCH TIME THEY SPEND GETTING READY EACH MORNING.. Long. Her appearance is her armor and her deadliest weapon, she has to hone every feature to perfection with the pride of a sculptor and a painter creating a masterpiece.

FAVORITE THING TO COLLECT. Books and weaponry (primarily those with historical significance), she also buys first edition fashion for she is quite the fashionista and can stop up and coming talent. Once the runways know their name they are no longer as appealing or unique.

LEFT OR RIGHT HANDED. Right-hand dominance, ambidextrous.

FAVORITE SPORT(S). Falconry, horse riding.

FAVORITE TOURISTY THING TO DO WHEN TRAVELING...she does not travel for leisure often but it would have to be tasting local cuisine.

FAVORITE KIND OF WEATHER. Blazing scorching heat or melancholic autumn evenings.

WEIRD / OBSCURE FEAR THEY HAVE. too triggering to put in a public post.

THE CARNVIVAL / ARCADE GAME THEY ALWAYS WIN WITHOUT FAIL. Any sort of marksmanship game even if they are extremely rigged, she is quick to calculate adjustments and compensate for said rigged game.

tagged by : @jp-todd-rp

tagging: you who hasn’t done it and wants to do it as im late to all the meme parties.

[bluboothalassophile]

Not a Pawn...

“You must choose, save her and watch the planet burn, or save the planet and watch her die,” he said. The girl in his grasp teetered dangerously on the edge, her braids being grasped tightly by the mad man and the toes of her boots scrapping the edge as she clawed at the man’s arm despite her restraints.

He couldn’t choose!

Her blue eyes flicked defiantly to his, her proud face seemed almost ethereal right then. “You don’t get to make me your pawn!” She hissed, he didn’t see her obtain the knife but he saw her slice the braids holding her from the abyss as she lost balance and teetered off the edge.

He screamed, the Sith looked so stunned at her move he couldn’t even catch her as she twisted and fell, he ran for the Sith then letting everything in him snap as he felt the Force flow into him.

~~~*~*~*~~~

It was a simple peace keeping mission to the dangerous world, Gotham, the dreary planet was not the most welcoming, but the mission was simple. The death of a crazed terrorist known only as the Joker had brought his acolytes to light and the use of the Dark Force unhinging the planet. The Jedi had been requested to interfere, and as it was his native planet he had been asked to come and bring the peace. Well, actually King Bruce had requested his presence.

King Bruce was a revered man of justice and compassion; a warlord and scholar, a ruthless leader and a compassionate one. The contradictions were unusual.

The King had many children, and a large harem of unique women who had provided him these children, but the only heirs to the King’s throne were Prince Damian and Princess Athanasia, twins bore to the King by his only true wife, Talia al Ghul. King Bruce also had one child with his Ambassador, Diana Prince; Prince Richard. Two others who were rumored to be sired from his top assassin, Lady Shiva; Princess Cassandra, and Prince Timothy. There was also Prince Duke, son of Bruce and the Queen of Mtamba, Jezebel, and his younger sister, Princess Nell. There was also the bastard Princess Stephanie, daughter of the court scribe, Vikki Vale. And three other daughters of unknown parentage but were proven to be King Bruce’s; Princess Carrie and Princess Alina.

Jason had thought it odd the King would personally request him, but he was not going against the orders of the Council; again, after the last time and found himself heading for Gotham with a new padawan he had never requested. Mostly because the last time… well, he and his Master had gotten in a bit over there heads and may or may not have started a slave revolt which they won and it was completely against orders because they had been ordered not to interfere with the planet, merely to secure the trade route needed for massive troop movements. Needless to say, they hadn’t gotten the trade route secured, and it was all Hal’s fault for falling for his Master’s weakness for pretty women and their beguiling wiles.

V1C, affectionately nicknamed Cy; was chirping in the cockpit then.

“We’re almost there,” he informed his rather bored padawan. Kyle perked up a bit.

Kyle Raynor was rather young to be a padawan, but as Jason had started younger he had seen no problems Kyle’s age. Kyle was a rather creative individual, and clearly in need of massive stimuli given the trouble and antics the boy frequently got into. If the creche master was to believed, then it was easy to believe Kyle could find trouble easily enough. No, Jason’s problems with taking on a padawan was in the simple fact he had no desire to teach, he wasn’t patient, he wasn’t kind, he wasn’t personable, he was a General, he was a warrior, he was very poor at the peaceful aspects of the Jedi way. Were he was informed Kyle was actually challenged at the warrior aspects but good at being peaceful and a pacifist.

“Master, is it common for a certain Jedi to be requested to a planet by the ruler?” Kyle asked, breaking the silence.

“It is not uncommon,” Jason said carefully. Rulers interacted with people they thought they could trust, people they knew to relay the message they wanted. King Bruce, though reclusive, was no different.

“Are you close with King Bruce?” Kyle asked then, very curious and bright, his enthusiasm caught Jason off guard.

“No, I’ve never… I never met the man before,” Jason omitted.

“Then why did he request you personally?”

“I don’t know,” Jason admitted. It had been bothering him, but wasn’t a thought he was dwelling on. “Prepare to land,” he warned his padawan as he strapped in and they broke through the cloud line of Gotham, landing where he had been ordered to when summoned. The engines rumbled and thrummed as they died and he unstrapped to check on a few things, pulling the hood of his cloak up before walking out of his craft into the rain to finish the landing routine and security. Kyle was shyly standing on the ramp with Cy when Jason turned to see the welcoming party.

Motioning for Kyle to follow him he and Kyle quickly made their way through the rain and paused under the auning as they shook off the worst of it.

“Come, the King is awaiting you,” the dark woman said.

“We were honored to receive the summons from the King,” Jason said as he hid his hands up the sleeves of his robe, to warm himself and to hide the agitation at being summoned into a castle like this.

“We are honored to have a legendary Jedi Knight come to our aid,” the woman said with a kind smile.

Jason revealed nothing until he walked into the throne room. He didn’t notice all the people gathered there, the royal family no doubt, no, his eyes immediately narrowed onto the continuous pain in his eyes since his days as a senior padawan.

“What the kriff are you doing here!?” he snapped.

“Great to see you too, Red,” the bounty hunter chuckled.

Rightfully called the Dark Angel, the woman’s cascading black hair was thick and long, her ivory skin seemed to glow a bit, giving her an ethereal appearance and her blue eyes were bright with amusement even if her proud face was apathetic of her emotions. He wanted to smile at her, but settled for glaring because their last encounter had had Raven trapping him upside down dangling as bloody bait for an outlaw known as Kill Croc before she had disappeared for the last year. Hal had tormented him about it relentlessly all year.

“Raven,” he growled.

~~~*~*~*~~~

He stared rather dumbly at the young man, who’s hair was dark and soaked curling as it dried with red undertones showing. He had green eyes, and freckles, was a rather handsome lad.

Bruce had ulterior motives for requesting this particular Jedi Knight. Normally the Knight whom he spoke with and dealt with was Master Kal-El, who was a senior member of the Jedi Council and a wise kind man. However, it had been through Kal-El that this particular Jedi had even come to Bruce’s attention. But not for the reasons one would suspect.

Jedi Knight Jason was an… odd find for the Jedi. Brought in to be a padawan at the age of ten, never a youngling raised by the Jedi, and a former slave from the All-Caste assassins. He was a unique Jedi according to Kal-El, but what mostly had Bruce’s attention for the boy was who his mother was recorded to be. There was no proof, of course, but the slave records had been incomplete but a link to someone Bruce had lost. Looking at the young bristling man he felt his suspicions were correct, he looked almost exactly as she had when she had been here and alive; Jedi Knight Jason looked exactly like his missing wife, Selina.

However, the Jedi’s entire focus was on the bounty hunter who had brought Bruce Joker’s head. The hybrid seemed rather amused to even have Jason’s attentions.

“What the blazes are you doing here!?” Jason hissed menacingly.

“Collecting a paycheck, how’s it been?” Raven asked sauntering up casually. The apathetic appearance of the stoic bounty hunter seemed to ruffle the Jedi as Jason lost his composure.

“How’s it been!? You left me dangling by my ankles over those teeth!”

“It wasn’t for very long,” she offered.

“I was there for the night before my Master found me!” he snarled.

“Semantics,” she dismissed.

“I should have your head!”

“Awe, I see you have a youngling now!” she said her attention snapping to the young boy who had been hiding behind Jason.

“Padawan!” Jason snapped as the boy hid in Jason’s robes now.

“That’s adorable, and good to see you Cy,” Raven said. The R unit droid chirped happily seeing her.

“Miss Wilson, I would like to hire your services,” Bruce said, which had the young woman turning to him.

“You have the Jedi here,” Raven stated.

~~~*~*~*~~~

Raven hadn’t been particularly surprised to see Jason here, once she had heard of King Bruce’s interest in her Jedi she had decided to take a job on Gotham. The reasonings for this were simple:

Jason was the Jedi she loved, even if he didn’t know it, and she wouldn’t permit anyone to use him. She thoroughly vetted most the unknowns she didn’t trust to keep him safe, and King Bruce was an unknown that she didn’t know what to think of.

Gotham was home to the most wanted terrorist who had the largest bounty on his head in the galaxy, Raven had decided to collect that bounty.

Now she turned to look at the King who was the unknown who she had come to investigate, still knowing nothing about him, and looked between Jason, the kid and the King, the other children. Jason was glaring at her right then. She love ruffling the Jedi, and working with him was fun, so she could see the appeal of the job, even if she was merely being paid to annoy the shit out of him. And believe her, she knew there was nothing here that she could do to aid him or detract from his mission, no matter how Force sensitive she was.

But there was also the child to consider which had her looking over at the King.

“And you have the experience with terror cells,” Bruce stated.

“I don’t deal with Force related issues,” Raven stated blandly.

“Oh that’s the largest pile of bantha shit you have ever said, too my face!” Jason snapped at her.

“Well, maybe I just don’t want to be around your ugly mug, you ever think of that, you laserbrain!” Raven deadpanned.

“I will pay you to aid the Jedi in bringing me the head of Joker’s wife and lover,” Bruce stated.

“How much?” Raven demanded turning fully.

“Double what I paid for Joker’s head.”

“We are not bounty hunters!” the kid squeaked which had Raven looking down at the padawan who was hiding against Jason then. Kid was small, humanoid, she could see the mixed blood in the green tint of his skin and his slight markings on his cheeks.

“I am,” Raven stated.

“We do not seek to kill,” the kid persisted.

“But they do,” Raven pointed out.

“We are here to bring balance,” Jason stated looking at her. Raven said nothing, her Force sensitivity permitted her to feel the turmoil of this planet’s balance, and she knew she was going to be dragged with Jason into the grunge of Gotham.

“I’ll take half now, half when I finish the job,” Raven stated looking at Jason. “I’ll go with you.”

He said nothing now as he nodded. She could sense him weighing the options here, the options for her aid or not against the two terrorists. She would go either with or without him, but going with him meant she ensured this danger proned Jedi was safe.

She just had to go and fall in love with a laserbrain!

[crimenight-a]

ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS ATTRIBUTES ASSOCIATED WITH BATMAN is his seemingly uncaring    &    stoic nature.    it’s also one of the generalizations i openly despise;    the more recent batman media has shaped our understanding of his person in the wrong way.    while i agree that he does seem cold at times,    it’s not for the reason most people immediately think.    so,    in this meta,    i’m going to walk you through bruce’s story    &    explain why he is the way he is.

first,    i want to address the general perception concerning his emotional state.    readers/watchers,    alike,    think bruce’s apathetic nature is related to his trauma.    they’re only half right,    for it did indirectly lead him to change his outward expression of self,    but it’s not the direct reason.    even characters in the DC universe comment on bruce’s apparent lack of distress-like emotions:

❝   your ward    &    my daughter are in mortal danger !    indeed,    batman, they may already be dead !   yet you show no signs of agitation–   nor do you exhibit any curiosity concerning my humble self !    have you no feelings ?   ❞                                                                                                                                    -- batman (1940) #232

ra’s al ghul says this upon meeting bruce for the first time    &    enlisting his help in saving his daughter,    talia al ghul.    we see many variations of this repeat with superman,    wonder woman,    green lantern,    the flash,    &   many more.    so,    it’s not only the general public in our world that thinks batman doesn’t feel anything,    that thought process is also preserved in characters from within DC’s universe.    another type of media that’s to blame are the comedic types.    there’s so many cartoons    &    comics that depict a younger bruce to be very stoic    &    cold,    batman’s voice    &    intimidating nature are ridiculed by many heroes   (  i’m looking at you,    mcu tony/peter   ).   i won’t deny that these moments are very funny    (   especially when DC retaliates like in that batman lego movie where batman screams ‘IRON MAN SUCKS!’   ),   but in actuality,    it still adds to this prevailing idea that he really feels nothing.    i won’t lie   &    say i thought differently before i made this blog,    because i didn’t.    much to my surprise,    however,    it only took me a few issues from detective comics/the original batman run to understand that we’ve been wrong all along.

you may now be asking,    ‘if he’s not truly uncaring,    then why does he act like he is ?’    well,    let me point you to this single issue that i wish i could have every one of these new writers that dc hires read,    it’s detective comics’ (1989) second annual issue    (   if you’re interested,    you can read it here !     although,    a quick warning that this issue deals with the K/KK    &   it’s displayed as such on the cover;    be careful if you decide to read   ).   it follows a young bruce,    only seventeen    (   already quite buff    &   skilled,    might i add   ),   who asks to shadow a famous detective in what i believe is rural new jersey.    harvey harris was hailed to be one of the greatest detectives on the east coast,    there was nothing he couldn’t handle.    at that point,    bruce didn’t really know how he was going to go about waging a war on crime    (   he juggled with options like the FBI,    GCPD,    district attorney,    more legal positions   ),   but he knew detective work was something he’d probably have to do no matter what he chose.    so,    he sent a letter to harris,    asking to shadow him under the name frank dixon,    harris accepted with a warning that the case he had on his hands was incredibly violent    &    horrific.    throughout this issue,    we see many instances where bruce lets his emotions get the better of him    &    it ultimately leads to harris’s demise    (    indirectly,    yes,    but this is a pattern in bruce’s story.    if he did just one thing differently,    he could have saved his parents,    harvey harris,    &    COUNTLESS more people.    the fact haunts him to this day    ).   bruce    &    harris eventually track down the person who has been killing people in that small rural town,    &    he sees that he’s in the process of another murder.    i’m sure you can guess what bruce did,    he screamed    &    lunged for the man in a hot flash of rage,    the man pulls a gun.    bruce knocks him out in one swift punch,    but the gun still goes off    &    it, unfortunately,    hits harris.    in his dying moments,    he tells bruce something that sticks with him still to this day:

❝   i never tried to teach you detection.    you already got the mind for it.    but when you let your emotions take control,    you just go blind.    i don’t know where you’re headed from here,    bruce,    but wherever it is,    remember…    you gotta control that anger.    when you get that into your head– really know it– then ol’ harvey will have done right by you.   ❞                                                                                                             -- detective comics (1989) annual #2

harris had been commenting on bruce’s anger for the entire time they’ve been together,    &    we can really see how bruce struggles with understanding his own emotions through his many warnings:

❝   nice spottin’,    by the way.    now,    if we could just do somethin’ about that temper..   ❞ ❝   son,    it’s rare i see a man who carries such rage so close to the surface.   ❞ ❝   harvey was right.    because i was a hothead..  ❞    (   bruce says this   )

the thing is,    bruce had been incredibly polite to mostly everyone.    the only times he lost his cool is when people didn’t cooperate with him    &    harris on the case,    or if they made fun of him for being a “pretty,    city boy.”    most of the time,    harris had to physically hold bruce back from doing something he’d quickly regret,    such as picking a fight with grown men twice his size    (   i would like to proudly add that bruce beat these guys shitless,    but they trashed his fancy red porsche :/   ).   i know i’m spending a lot of time on this single annual,    but it’s SO important when you realize that bruce really does have anger management issues to the point where he can’t hold back his own outbursts.    let’s compare that younger bruce to the one we know today,    there’s quite a stark difference,    isn’t there ?   the batman we’re familiar with would never jump into anything without thinking about it many times over.    that’s because bruce took what harris said to heart,    &    he worked damn hard to implement his advice:

❝   i had a crazy hate,    too.    but unlike carr,    i refused to let it blind me to reality.    to the truth.    i went over the entire case eleven times,    in each instances extracting more    &    more of my emotional involvement.    &    on the twelfth pass through–a coldly logical pass–i saw what had been bothering me.    &    i knew that it wasn’t over.   ❞                                             note: carr is the murderer that bruce lunged at    &    the one that killed harris.

for us,    removing our emotions    &    thinking about something logically can range from being impossible to incredibly difficult.    imagine,    then,    the mental strength bruce,    a boy who had always been obnoxiously transparent with his feelings,    had to exert in order to go through this case without feeling some immense distracting rage    (   this ties into one of his character’s core ideas:    batman’s will/willpower is insurmountable compared to even other superheroes    ).   he eventually found out that carr was nothing more than a human weapon that someone else had been manipulating,    but the point is:    bruce realized through this issue that he wasn’t good at solving cases because he could never separate his own emotions from the victim’s.    from then on,    he tried his best to be “coldly logical” with every case he comes across,    &    he eventually adopted this state of mind when he was in the batsuit regularly.    being batman requires a ridiculously high amount of awareness    &    general perception.    if he’s constantly angry    &    jumping to rash conclusions,    he’s not going to last long.

however,    this doesn’t mean that bruce doesn’t slip up    &    let his emotions get the best of him even as an adult.    one of the most apparent examples of this is when jason dies.    i think most of us know how terrible that was    &    how bruce blames himself.    in order to keep this meta from getting unnecessarily longer,    all we need to take away from that arc is that bruce quite honestly drowns with guilt because if he had chosen to go after jason instead of go after someone else,    jason would still be alive.    with that anger directed at himself    &    at the world in general,    he recklessly starts to fight anyone he sees while in the batsuit.    even petty criminals would be beaten within an inch of their lives,    he’d make mistakes that he never did before,    &    come home with horrible injuries.    he had no sense of self-preservation,    all he cared about was his anger    &    guilt.    notice how throwing caution to the wind puts bruce in considerably more danger,    thus this supports my point that bruce struggles with his emotions,    but learned to suppress them for the sake of helping    &    saving people.

it actually surprises me when people don’t seem to realize that bruce is empathetic almost to a fault.    he holds onto hope,    &    he always had,    even if it’s foolish to do so.    hope that someone is still alive,    hope that someone still had good in them,    hope in his own abilities.    there was once a case where the entire bat-family understood immediately that a boy had killed his own parents,    but bruce clung to the hope that maybe it wasn’t him,    maybe it was some other greedy politician or hired gun.    bruce knew he was wrong    &    that he was chasing essentially no one,    but the sheer hope that the boy was innocent kept him going in circles.    i wholeheartedly believe that bruce is an empath,    someone who is incredibly sensitive to another’s emotions,    with how quickly he understands how almost everyone feels.    there are times where bruce will show compassion before he shows anything else.    yes,    he aims to scare people with his dramatic antics:

❝   gotham city is hell.    we are all in hell.    &    i am the king of hell !   ❞                                                                                                      -- batman: legends of the dark knight #6

but the purpose of his promise was to make sure nothing like what happened to him ever happens to someone else again.    i’ve said this before,    &    i’ll say it again:    BATMAN IS A GLORIFIED BABYSITTER.    really,    scarecrow said this    &    i stole it from him,    but he wants to care for his city.    that’s why he funds all these free health clinics throughout gotham,    it’s why he opened new soup kitchens    &    funded existing ones.    he revolutionized gotham’s orphanage system,    he forced wayne enterprises to make new jobs,    he single-handedly dropped gotham’s unemployment rate by a substantial amount.    he hands money    &    opportunities to struggling families,    he sits with them    &    helps them through their pain.    he does all of this against his playboy persona,    i remember how most of gotham was confused when he was starting his charity projects since he was immediately said to be ignorant or even uncaring towards gotham’s poverty    &    crime issues.    he started the ‘rebuild gotham’ project(s),    he funded arkham.    he’s in active member of the gotham’s    &    new jersey’s political scene,    influencing massive changes.    his infamous ‘no killing’ rule can be attributed to the fact that bruce doesn’t know what led someone to doing the horrible thing that he’s chasing them for;    HE TRIES TO SEE THE GOOD IN EVERYONE.    i know that comes as a surprise,    mostly because bruce openly despised superman    (    despite clark being one of the kindest people anyone has ever met    )    in that batman v superman movie,    but this blog has never taken any inspiration from those films,    so we’re going to ignore that    &    i ask you to do the same when you’re referencing my portrayal.

bruce would never go to such lengths to bring gotham back from its dark days if it wasn’t for how much he cared for its people.    &    he wouldn’t care at all if he seemingly felt no emotions.    yes,    a part of him doesn’t know how he’d deal with his trauma if he hadn’t passionately pursued something like this,    but that doesn’t take away from the fact that bruce is a fundamentally compassionate man.    the way he takes care of the victims in each case,    personally comforting them    (    hugging, etc.   ),    accommodating them in any way he can.    there’s times where he gets so angry after seeing certain victims,    that he finds it hard to control himself even after decades of training his willpower;    THAT’S how vehement his emotions are.

seeing the good in everyone    &    personally feeling everyone’s pain are both very emotionally taxing traits,    &    he doesn’t suppress these qualities.    he allows himself to feel guilt    &    practice empathy because it keeps him going when all he wants to do is collapse.    bruce has never denied feeling emotions,    he never does it to intimidate his allies,    he just has a harsh way of looking at things because,    again,    he removes his own feelings from the mix.    most other superheroes,    like in the justice league,    sometimes marvel at how bruce almost never gives into his anger during important decisions.    i keep repeating my main points    &    this is all quite the speel,    but it’s INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT that you understand that bruce has never not felt his emotions just as strongly as everyone else,    if not stronger.    to end this off,    let’s see what bruce said in response to ra’s al ghul’s earlier question    (   this is something i find that summarizes what i’ve said in this meta really well    ):

❝   plenty of them !    but it won’t do me any good for me to allow my emotions to gain control…    not while there’s a job ahead !    for years,    i’ve trained myself to concentrate on the thing at hand–    later,    i’ll cry…    if i must !   ❞                                                                                                                                 -- batman (1940) #232

&    because i know how hard tumblr’s tiny font is to read,    here’s a link to this same meta, but on google docs !   read whichever version you want !

[darkspellmaster]

Some options on who the Mystery lady with Lady Shiva and Death Stroke is.

So with this picture coming up I have a few guesses as to whom the mystery lady beside Lady Shiva and Deathstroke is. 

Option 1: Terra...

Yeah I know she’s not wearing her normal outfit, but the look fits in with what we saw during the assassination with Black Spider. 

Notice very very carefully that the eyes on the figure are glowing red, and what do we see with our black clad lady? Red goggles. Now why would they be covering her up like that, well to make us guess probably, and for those that have no clue about the Judas contract to be like “Oooh what a twist.” 

On the other hand...this may not be Terra. The girl that threw the rock with Black Spider, sure that’s probably her, but this new person may be another member of the LoA. 

Option 2: Onyx. 

Onyx Adams was an assassin for the League until she felt that her path was leading her the wrong way. She quit the league and later became an ally to Batman and a Monk. This could be the pre-going good version of her, as she and Shiva were friends and allies in the LoA. 

Option 3: White Willow

Don’t know much about her other than she’s good at hand to hand combat and that she was an enemy of Cassandra Cain’s in her Batgirl run. It should be noted that she works for the LoA and Greg likes them rare characters. 

Option 4: Tigris

Another member of the League and a villain of Cassandra Cain. She worked with the other women during the time that Nyssa Al Ghul was running the LoA. Again I don’t know much about her but Greg tends to like rare characters and she would be an interesting person to contrast Halo with. 

Option 5: Kitty Kumbata

Kitty is a member of the Circle of Six, a inner circle that was created by Lady Shiva of her hand picked members. These members do Lady Shiva’s bidding and are her closest allies. She trusts them with her life for the most part. 

Kitty, hails from  Nacogdoches and trained in  Muay Thai boxing under Richard Dragon. She’s fought Bronze Tiger, Nightwing, Richard Dragon, and Cassandra Cain. Other than the fact that she’s among three that made it out of the League of Assassins alive, I really don’t know much about her, she’s very young though. 

Option 6: Red Talon

Red is an associate of the Green Arrow villain Merlyn, who trained her in archery and hand to hand combat. She was working for the League for a while but eventually seemed to have left for less dangerous work. She’s the least likely on this list to be the one in black. 

Option 7: Nyssa Raatko, aka Nyssa Al Ghul

Second daughter to Ra’s, she was born in Russia and several years later discovered the truth about her birth. Upon discovering Ra’s was her father, she, who had been trained in hand to hand combat previously, went in search of him and found him in North Africa. The two had a reunion and he introduced her to Talia. The two women became fast friends, leading to both eventually wanting to leave their father. 

Nyssa chose to, with Ra hoping that she would come back to him, she refused but he gave her a pit so that she could live on along with her children. Unfortunately her family was later killed in WW2 and she vowed revenge upon her father and her sister for “Abandoning her”. 

If this is Nyssa it would explain the outfit and her being there hiding behind Shiva as the two became friends, and it would keep the likes of the Light and Deathstroke from knowing that she may be coming to take back her father’s League, since she’s probably one of Ra’s allies in this vs. how she was in the comics. 

Honestly for me, 1, 2, 5 and 7 seem the most likely to be the woman in black. 

[winterwolf0916]

How the BatBoys met you.

There are many ways how they met you or even first words. I'll give a few places and dialogues here and there. So enjoy~ also a bit of a warning, my writing might seem horrible. Anywho, here ya go.

Dick

You both met while you were on the roof tops eating your cereal and gazing at the beautiful city lights since you felt bored and cramped in your apartment. Dick thought you were about to jump off considering the fact you were on the very edge of building and it was really dark so he couldn't see the utensil in your grasp or the bowl. He wrapped his arms around your shoulders and pulled you back. Your cereal fell in the depths of the city.

Y/n: WHAT THE HELL?!

Dick: what the hell? WHAT THE HELL?! You were about to jump to your death! A simple thank you would be nice for saving your skin!

Y/n: jumping off?...to my death?...

Dick:...wasn't that what you were going to do?

Y/n: Dropping my CEREAL TO DEATH IS WHAT YOU DID!

Dick:... Woooops...

Dick: I can make it up to you...

Y/n: that is?

Dick: I'll bring cereal and we'll talk.

Y/n:...fine... But bring f/c! If not cancel the meeting!

Dick: yes ma'am.

2. You were one of the new recruits in the GCPD. Once you walked in and you were introduced to the other officers. Dick's heart couldn't be calmed, it was beating rapidly, and his hands became sweaty once he first saw you.

Random officer: and this is officer Richard Grayson.

Y/n: hello~

Dick:....

Random officer: *whispers to Dick* Dick! Introduce yourself to the new recruit. She ain't gonna bite.

Dick: *secretly wipes hand on pants and extends a hand to you.* H-hi name's Richard Grayson.

Random officer: *facepalm*

Y/n: *giggles* I know that.

Dick: you do?! Oh right...You don't have to call me officer Grayson. My friends call me Dick-I-I mean you can call me Dick.

Y/n: *shakes Dick's hand* haha. Name’s Y/n L/n, Dick.

Let's just say you both were assigned for a steak out for petty crooks. You both enjoyed talking in the car and became friends right away. You both caught the crooks and he offered to buy you some donuts after. ;)

Jason

At the bar. Basically Jason just came to drink his problems away. And you came because Riddler's Henchmen we're doing a weapon trading in the building. His eyes caught your figure and his heart started to beat faster. You sat on the stools and he scooted next to you. You were looking through your phone boredly and he finally spoke.

Jason: Want a drink?

Y/n:*keeps looking through phone*

He thought you were one of those girls that are hard to get so he decides to flirt.

Jason: Hello there~ care for a drink?

Y/n:*keeps ignoring but actually heard him. Though he was just a drunk pervert.*

Jason: Hey, do you-*places hand on shoulder and shakes you a little*

You took alarm that someone was touching you. You flipped him on the table that sent splinters to fly. He groaned loudly then he opened his eyes. You held your breath of how gorgeous his eyes are. 

Y/n: Oh! Sorry sir-I didn't I thought you were- I thought you were drunk.

Jason: Its fine hehe. Nice reflexes. 

Y/n: Thank you.

Later on you both spent time together in the bar talking. You quickly excused yourself to the bathroom and you changed to your suit. Right when you were about to take down Riddler’s men guess who came to the party to stop him as well. Red Bucket-I mean Red Hood. You both teamed up and took them down. You both shared your identities and bought a drink for each other.

2. He was driving around in Gotham after a heated argument with Bruce. And surprisingly maneuvering his motorcycle calms him down. Along with small stunts. He stopped on a red light and a deep breath remembering the arguments and yelling. His eyes wandered to the buildings but stopped at a coffee shop. You were sitting on a chair in nicely and comfortable attire while typing on your computer. His eyes never left your figure and his mouth was slightly open. The way how your h/c locks is naturally resting on your head. Your face lighting up when your beverage arrived. And he’s not forgetting how gorgeous your eyes look. He’s been staring for quite a while that he forgot the light turned green and cars honked behind him to move. He shook his head and drove forward but stopped by another red light.

Should he go back? What kind of beautiful woman is doing in a dangerous city like Gotham? He wanted to know more about you. He took a turn and entered the parking lot trying to find you. His heart dropped that the seat you were sitting in, was empty. Was he hallucinating? Or did she actually left? He lost hope and drove full speed to the exit. But you came out of the coffee shop and strolled to the middle of the street where he was about to leave. Right when you heard the engine you gazed at the driver and Jason gazed back at you. He took alarm that you were there and turned sharply. The wheels of his bike squeaked on the pavement and his motorbike was turned to the side and rolled into a wall of the coffee shop along tumbling onto chairs and tables. 

You took alarm and ran to him to see if he was ok. Customers came out of the shop and helped by moving the chairs and tables off of Jason. His bike was crushing his leg. The customers lifted it up while you and another person dragged him away. He was heavy. As you took off his helmet, you couldn't stop staring at his jawline and raven hair that matted his head. As he caught your eyes you snap out of your trance and scanned his figre to see if he had any other injuries.

Y/N: Are you alright?!

Jason: *stares at your eyes with a dreamy look* I am now.

Tim

There was an attack in the city. And a car was flying right at your direction. You shut your eyes shut and braced yourself for the impact but instead of a hard and crushing moment, a strong arm wrapped around your waist and pulled you fast. The sound of the car crashing onto the pavement made your eyes flicker. As you gazed at the broken vehicle that was about to end your life, your eyes travels to your hero. Red Robin (yum!)

Tim: are you alright?

Y/n: *wraps arms around him tightly for an embrace and squeeze your eyes shut.*

Tim: o-oh...u-uh...

You can hear his heartbeat rising that might explode in his chest. You couldn't help but squeeze tighter. He saved you. An innocent citizen about to be killed. Even thought he saved others in the past, you felt amazed and relived that some people wanted you alive. He hugged you back even though he didn't know what else to do. And you smiled a little of how pleasing it is for the hero giving a your welcome gesture. Dick noticed about the mini scene but he knows that they need to get back to work by defeating the villain thrashing around in the city.

Dick: Red Robin this guy ain't gonna stop for your romanticism. Were gonna need help. You can get back to your girlfriend once we're done.

Tim: *runs after Dick* SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!

2. You were a new member to the Young Justice. You’re powers are telequinesis and your name goes by s/n (superhero name). When Tim first saw you, he couldn't stop staring and his expression soften and yet astonished of you.

Y/n: hi I'm-

Tim: y/n...

Y/n: you know me?

Tim: w-w-what...o-oh nono it's just I already k-know your name but we haven't met.

Y/n:...what?

Tim: OH! I didn't meant to make that sound creepy it's just I saw you on the computer- NOT that I was stalking-I would never stalk- it just says the files about you-I'll stop talking.

Y/n: no please. You seem very interesting.

Tim: I-I-I d-do? Sorry let me restart*clears throat* I'm Tim Drake AKA Red Robin *extends hand*

Y/n: *shakes it* nice to meet you*smiles*

Tim:*chokes on his own spit because your smile is the most beautiful thing he has ever seen*

Y/n: are you ok?!

Tim:...yep..

The whole team laughed at Tim of how he is dealing his first impression meet you. As you were introduced to Tim, you couldn't help but your powers acted by itself since you couldn't control it, Tim was lifted off of the ground.

Tim: what is HAPPENING?!

Y/n: oh my Lord! IM SO SORRY ITS MY POWERS I CANT CONTROL IT!

Tim: what are you talking about? This is awesome! I can fly!

Y/n: oh er um... Thank you :')

And that moment on you both became friends or should I say have a crush towards each other.

Damian

1.) You were captured at a age 5 to the League of shadows along with other children. Ra’s Al Ghul and Talia Al Ghul had a project of making you and the children great followers and guards of Damian Al Ghul as he gets older. At age 10, after a long day of training, Talia knew it was time for you and the other children to meet Damian, so the bonds would be stronger with him. The children surrounded Damian greeting themselves to him, but you didn't take much interest of meeting with him so you snuck at the roof. Another figure snuck there and notice your presence.

Damian: Tt. Are you thinking of taking my place here? Get off of this rooftop or I’ll say a word to my mother about you.

Y/n: *stands up to face him* Who are you? Unlike you I have been at this top longer.

Damian: Do you not know? Damian Al Ghul. Grandson of the Demon’s Head. And I order you to leave.

Y/n: Oooh I’m so scared. *waving hands in the air* Are you going to blast your demonic powers at me?

He snarled. He challenged you to a fight of who would get the rooftop. Surprisingly it ended up with you both laying on your backs taking deep breaths.

Damian: You...fought...well.

Y/n: Hehe learned it...from Talia...

Damian: What...is your name?

Y/n: you’re going to tell your...mommy aren't you?

Damian: No. We both lost and won, therefore we are going to have to share this.

Y/n: Y/n L/n

Damian: what a beautiful name-I mean- its sounds decent.

you laughed. That's when you both became best of friends.

2.) You were a villain. v/n (villain name) is what they called you. One night you were thieving for jewelry. Two large bag sacks filled with diamonds, gold, and silver. You were about to take your leave until-

Damian: leaving so soon?

Y/n: If it isn't the Boy Wonder I kept hearing in the streets. You look shorter than I thought.

Damian: I’m taller than you...v/n

Y/n: yeesh. They are right. You do talk faster than acting. *pulls out gun and shoots him but he keeps dodging*

You both fought for a while till Damian won and you were dangling upside-down from the ropes. 

Damian: My guess you’ll be staying. And you are fun to knock around.

Y/n: Grrr… until we meet again Boy Wonder!

Damian: Good to make a first impression, v/n.

That's when later on you both start to get...feelings toward each other.

BONUS: For Damian x reader. 

3.) You were a new student at Gotham Academy. So many classes and hallways to get used to. Until your final class you were call up to the front to talk to the entire class of who you are and where were you from.

Y/n: H-Hello... My name is Y/n L/n.

Damian was doodling on his notebook until he heard your sweet voice. His head lifted up and his beautiful emerald eyes caught your figure. His expression softened from looking at you. He looked at you that you seemed gentle and delicate. He blinked his eyes many times that he has never seen anyone like you in Gotham Academy.

Random Kid: Speak louder I cant hear you!

Some kids in the class laughed that caused you to feel down. Until Damian grabbed a book, from a classmate behind him, and threw it to the random kid that interrupted your speech. 

Damian: Then how about you shut it. 

He snarled. The teacher told them to calm down and sent the boy, who interrupted you, to the nurses office, because the kid had a bleeding nose from Damian. Damian sat properly on his chair and placed his elbows on the desk, waiting patiently for you to keep going. After class the children left the campus to go home. But you sat on the stairs waiting for your mom to arrive. It started to rain and the front doors behind you were locked from the outside. You cradled your knees close to your chest as the wind whirled to you. Some how you couldn't feel the rain but you could still hear it. You looked up to find the same emerald eyes that saved you in last period.

Damian: Tt. What are you doing in the rain?

Y/n: My mother isn't here yet. How about yourself?

Damian: *sat next to you* I was talking with the principle about the incident in the class. 

Y/n: I don't know you. Why did you stick up for me?

Damian: Tt. Because you looked lost. And needed help. I haven't introduced myself. Damian Wayne *outstretches hand to you*

Y/n: Y/n...Y/n L/n.