Chapter Text
Worm , Taylor and Danny Hebert and all their associated characters belong to Wildbow .
Ra's al Ghul was created by Dennis O'Neil , Neal Adams, and Dick Giordano. Talia al Ghul was created by Dennis O'Neil , Dick Giordano, and Bob Brown, and her rights belong to DC Comics.
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"Hell is full of good intentions and wishes." - Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
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I raise my eyes to the sky, filled with shining dots, each one of them being a galaxy.
My eyes filled up with tears and I suddenly understood with a desperate, crushing intensity, just how small we are and then, I felt two shots in the back of my head, but not the last one in my heart.
I see light, I feel a warmth I longed for so much (Mom, Dad?) embracing me, a voice that is everywhere telling me that it will take care of me, that everything will be alright…
And then I wake up and hear a cry that isn't mine. My face is covered in sweat and tears, and I understand with all my being that I have just given birth to a baby. The midwives cleaning him up and then proudly present him to me, telling me that I did a great job. That I just gave birth to the heir to my Household.
But I see those little eyes open for a second when I take him in my arms, and I see the Universe in them.
He is mine, a primal insect-like and ferocious part of my brain tells me so.
He is mine, my son, my Damian, and no one in Heaven or Hell can take him away from me.
I've killed a god before, and for him, I'll do it again.
I don't know who I am now.
All I know is that I dreamed of a life that wasn't mine. A life filled with pain and endless battles against increasingly powerful enemies, ending in a final confrontation against a golden god in which I commanded armies from across the multiverse, and through a divine act of luck, we were able to stop that monster.
And it all started with three words.
I close my eyes when I see my baby latch onto my breast and feed from me.
I know I am Talia Al Ghul, but everything pales in comparison when I hear a voice in my mind that tells me [CERTAINTY] [WELLBEING]. Two words full of all the possible meanings they can have.
And I know that my real name is Taylor Hebert, and that I should have died after defeating Scion. But now I'm alive and I have a baby.
I sleep and dream about my past life.
The next day, I receive a visit from my father in this life: Ra's al Ghul, the Demon's Head.
A title instead of a real name, because when you are a seven hundred years old immortal, only the legend matters, not the person.
I blink, and for a second, I see a tall, thin man with glasses and a receding hairline. An introverted man, filled with pain, but his eyes, when he saw me, were filled with an unwavering love. I blink again, and Danny, my father, is no longer here. I only see this man, and I remember how Jonathan Harker described Dracula: “What manner of man is this, or what manner of creature is it in the semblance of a man?”
He speaks to me, and I do my best to hide the deep rejection I feel when I hear his voice.
He speaks of legacies, of purpose, while he looks at my baby and holding him in his arms. I feel my heart freezing up with terror at the sight of him touching my baby.
I want to yell at him that his purpose has no heirs, only endless victims. But I lie, just as he taught me, to manipulate others, playing the role of the meek obedient daughter.
He just goes on monologuing about the world outside of Nanda Parbat: full of civilized rot, a hyperconnected world that ignores Nature. My Damian shall lead the purge against the fetid mass that contaminates Humanity, because if we don't act now, that rotting mass shall burn the world.
I see him and I… just nod. I want to tell him that I believed the same thing he did in my past life. That I dedicated myself to a higher purpose and killed my humanity, just a little day after day in that task. In the end, all that remained of me was a shadow that controlled the world, and the woman that I was, she was just an empty husk.
"There is no room for doubt, empathy, faith, or compassion," he says with the certainty that comes from a long life. "Soft virtues, mistakes that bring down empires."
I listen to him and I want to suggest that there is a way to achieve balance, that his war against the modern world will not save Earth, that this whole crusade only seeks to save him from the void that fills him, but I just say (PLEASE DON’T HURT MY BABY!!) I agree with you, father.
Nodding with a no longer real fervor.
In my past life, I had a father who was the opposite of this man. Weak, fallible, broken by his depression, but he had a heart full of love. I choose to be Danny's daughter rather than remain your daughter, Ra’s.
My son and I are not yours.
Ra's looks at me with eyes full of vanity, calling me his favorite daughter, the one who just secured his legacy. And in that moment, I understood that each and every one of his lessons, all that rhetoric about the power of seduction and supremacy of my Household… its sole purpose was for me to give myself to a man and have his babies, like a thoroughbred mare.
I never had any choice in this game... but now I do.
Ra's al Ghul, lord of the gallows and the knife, leader of the League of Assassins, kisses me tenderly on the forehead, like the loving father he believes himself to be. He tells me to eat well and rest so I can take care of the little one… “What did you say his name was, Daniel?” he finally asks, unaware that he just said the name of my real father.
I simply reply that my baby's name is Damian, feigning a pout at his "joke" about him being a grandfather now. His empty words taste like ash and gall when he bids us a fond farewell, only to go back to doing what... men like him do.
You think I can’t leave your Lazarus Pits, that I can't breathe without its stench. You think I'm the perfect daughter, and yes, I'll be your best student if you decide to come after us.
The villainy you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.
I feel my Damian moving, his little hand closing around my fingers. I feel that this is how our new beginning starts, and my new goal.
Nothing binds me here, and I will return to my true home, in America. We will be free qalbi alsaghir, my little heart.