#mostly because he borrowed some of his research from lexcorp

[nicomoon69]

the moment Bernard found out that Tim tried to clone Kon he demanded to look over Tim’s research and with a red pen started writing down corrections

Tim who didn’t think too much of it (big mistake), shrugged it off and forgot about it until roughly three weeks later there was a pile of papers on his desk with a sticky note on top that said ‘pro tip: get good at science first, then clone your totally platonic best friend’

[nothingofnotereally]

Hi, it's the same anon again. I really liked your answer to my previous question, so now I also have to ask: if you were tasked with turning her into a hero, how would you do it?

okokok!  I’m sorry this took so long to answer - I was just debating whether to start from her original personality or her current characterization, and whether to involve Bruce or Damian or neither or both, and whether I should talk about making her a costumed hero or a behind the scenes player... just.

So many options so lets see.

1. THE PRE-CHARACTER ASSASSINATION CONTINUITY ANGLE:  If I’m allowed to retcon a bunch of history out in a Crisis or something, and thus pick her up from the Lexcorp days.  So as a refresher she was at odds with both Ra’s and Bruce at this time, and was striking out on her own trying to take down LexCorp from within.  Meanwhile, she was pretending to be a ruthless Lex-jr.  Also during this time,. Bruce was trying to get in touch with her and/or observing her from afar with binoculars I guess.

SO.  We go with that.  So he’s trying to see her, and she’s still dodging him - sending her reps to meetings with Bruce Wayne, etc.  And when he sees the things she’s doing as CEO of LexCorp, it’s strange to him and at odds with what he  knows of her, so he starts engaging with her on a CEO level.  Proposing deals, making strategic moves to weaken LexCorp, just... playing chess with her with their companies as the pieces.  Eventually this leads to a conference where Talia and Bruce really do show up, and Bruce finally finds out what Talia’s doing - although being Bruce he probably suspects anyway but whatever. 

They declare a truce/alliance.  They start to investigate LexCorp together and eventually, with Clark’s help, manage to expose Lex as a murdering criminal which results in him being kicked out of office as president.  Talia sells off LexCorp’s assets (to... idk, Ted Kord or something, Bruce is rich enough, I feel like if he owned LexCorp that would break some laws about monopolies).  She then becomes involved setting up an environmental advocacy foundation.

Romance Option: Bruce and Talia end up allying on some environmental causes, and reconnect, thus rekindling their relationship.

Nonromance option: That doesn’t happen, though they may still end up allying.

Either way she eventually discovers that Ra’s had found out that she really did have the baby she claimed to miscarry, and had his adopted parents executed.  Ra’s is is raising him in secret to be a perfect warrior and the perfect heir.  When Talia finds this out, she determines to get her son back from her father, and this involves Talia and Bruce joining forces to find Damian.  Once they have him, Talia realizes that she can’t protect him from Ra’s with all his resources, not alone.  So she ends up joining forces with the Batfamily to keep close to her son, and keep him safe.

This results in either Talia eventually becoming a behind the scenes helper (thus an Oracle style hero) or becoming sucked into Bruce’s adventuring world, if we want her in a costume.  More details on some ideas about how that would work below, after the base idea for the second idea.

2. THE "LOVE IS REDEMPTION” ANGLE:  Starting from current continuity.  The League of Assassins turns on Ra’s and murders him, keeping his corpse hostage.  Then they kidnap Damian and start chipping away at his mind, trying to brainwash him into becoming their new leader.  Bruce and Talia are forced to put their differences aside to rescue their son before his mind can be irrevocably changed.  There is also some disagreement as to whether Ra’s should be saved - Bruce thinks it’s his time to go.  Talia believes that, for all his faults, Ra’s is the only thing that has kept the League from going off kilter until now.  This turns into a long campaign, and during their travels and investigations, they’re forced to face some truths about their history together. 

Anyway once they find Damian, he’s sort of on the line between lost to them and fighting to retain himself.  He’s not responsive to Bruce’s attempts to get through to him because he’s angry at Bruce for being such a neglectful ass... and at first he isn’t responsive to Talia either - instead his rage over her treatment of him during That Morrison Thing is vented and he attacks them both.  Eventually, desperation to get through to her son forces her to break through her own emotional walls and apologize.  She ends up explaining how she never wanted him to die, how it was all talk and he wasn’t meant to be there.  And she didnt want to hurt Damian, she wanted to hurt Bruce, because when she needed him most he left her alone.  At this point, it comes out that she had been tortured and murdered hundreds of times in Death and the Maidens, and it broke her, and he hadn’t even realized there was something wrong with her, he just. Left her there with Nyssa.  But she begs Damian not to be broken, too - she told him once that she had never had a choice, but he did.  And he still does.

This results in Damian finally coming to himself, and we have a family hug.  

Talia initially wants to resurrect her father, but she realizes she has to let him go - centuries of constant lazarus exposure had changed him just as much as it changed her, it was just done in slow motion, and she’s sure the man he originally was would want the thing he became to rest, now.  

At this point we can go in two main directions.

- Talia could take control of the League but start to repurpose it from an assassins group/terrorist organization to a more prosocial organization - this borrows from Arrowverse where Talia recently agreed to help reform the League, but as a League of Heroes this time.  

OR

- They could attempt to dissolve the League, but have someone manage to resurrect Ra’s anyway once they’ve left, perhaps by summoning his spirit into another body or some suck like that.  At which point the League would return mostly to normal.

Either way, Bruce and Talia still have their spark, but they still go their separate ways.  Talia has a lot to do to make up for her actions for the past years, after all, and if we’re doing CURRENT current continuity then Bruce has a girlfriend already anyway.  But even so we leave them in something like their older status quo - their feelings exist, but life keeps them apart... but maybe one day.

From here we branch again, and much of this applies to the Lexcorp idea, as well.

For a behind the scenes hero!Talia: she spends the next few years doing charity work, familiarizing herself with the superheroes and vigilante world as it currently exists, and developing a network of allies.  Eventually, she naturally gravitates toward filling some of the gap left by Oracle and Alfred: she uses her engineering and technical skills for research, networking and ops for the superhero world at large, and her medical training as the medic of the Batfamily. 

For a costumed hero!Talia:

Option 1: She joins Batman’s Outsiders as a redemptive measure, and to remain close to her Beloved and her son.

Option 2: She eventually gets wind that the League (or a splinter, in the case where she took over herself) is behaving in nefarious ways.  She suspects that her father may have returned, but in order to investigate she cannot be recognized.  Therefore, she decides to blend with the costumed crowd by taking on a costumed identity, supposedly as a temporary measure, but in time she realizes that being a proactive hero helps her deal with her guilt, and makes up in part for everything she did while she was suffering lazarus madness.  ...then I’d put her in the Outsiders anyway.