The Bat's Daughter

The Demon's Daugter (Orgins)

I was breed to fulfill a mission. To fight, make the world better, take my place at the Demon's side. That's what I was told, but what I didn't know or realize then that I would have to go to any length to do that. That meant torturing and killing, and I'm ashamed to say that I did it. No hesitation, no questions, it was all to make the world better, or so I thought.

From my birth I trained and fought to fulfill my mission. I did my best and became the best, beat every assassin in the league, including my mother Talia Al'Gul. As a result I was sent on all sorts of missions and assignments, and I did them with out hesitation with out thinking. I was elite, answerable to none save the Demon: Ra's Al'Gul, my grandfather.

Despite my perfect breeding, I was curious by nature. My mother did everything to discourage this. "No one questions the Demon!" She'd tell me with a swipe at my head, "he knows all and knows what is best." Over time I learned questions were not tolerated. When my curiosity vanished I was perfect. I had become what my mother and grandfather wanted.

I was the Demon's Daughter: Mara Al'Gul.

I lived like a princess, the heir to the great empire my grandfather and I would build. This all change one day...

I was eight years old, on a assignment, to punish a village for not paying the dues to the Demon. The village was surrounded by assassins with guns, I had my orders, no survivors. When the people of the village realized what was happening, they begged, they pleaded, I paid no heed. The children were scared, terrified, hiding behind parents. Most of them young, some younger than me and had no control over their parent's actions and were going to pay the price, I took no thought of it. I gave the order, some of the villagers started to pray, I ignored them.

As the assassins prepared to fire, a woman in the front of the group of villagers called out in lamentation. "Dear child! Sweet girl! What have they done to you?!" The assassins begin to fire, screams came from the villagers. "Be the darling lady you're meant to become!", the woman yells over the cries and gun fire. Her eyes never leave me, she looks on me with such hope and faith. As if she believes I can be better then I am, then all my grandfather and mother make me out to be. Bullets continue to rake across the villagers and a bullet hits the woman, she smiles and mouths one final word, "lady" before she hits the ground dead. I watch the last light leave her eyes, her smile of hope, still on her face, and the look of faith still in her countenance.

It's as if suddenly something has changed and I can't stand it, the screams, the blood. I look around me, bodies fall, children, some younger than me, terror still written on there faces, it's devastating. Suddenly all my past victims come to haunt me, I can't stand it. I run away never looking back.

I run until I reach a deep canyon, I stop to catch my breath. I recovered some from the haunts of my victims away from all the screams, but I'm still bothered. I vow then and there, never again. I will not put another soul's blood on my hands, it doesn't matter how deserving they are, never again. I decide not to go back to the League, all my grandfather wants is complete domination and he will go to any lengths to get it.

One does not simply just abandon the League of Assassins, I have to get clever if I don't want my mother hunting me down and hauling me back or killing me. I devise a plan, I decide to fake my death. I make the deadly climb down into the canyon, take off my armor, lay it over rocks, I lay my sword beside it. Now the tricky part, making the rocks look like me, I take my cape off and lay it askew partly over my armor, positioning it so it's like it's covering my "legs". Next I get some fine haired moss, which coincidentally has the same color of my hair and grows on the wall of the canyon, and secure it around my rock "head" laying it so I'm laying flat on my face. Then I take bright red berries that grow in the bottom of the canyon and whose juice looks like blood and squash the juice around my "head".

It's not perfect, but at the height of the top of the canyon it'll be believable and no one will risk the climb down to take a close look. Besides I'm already far outside the bounds of the league, by the time anyone find this scene, it'll be believable enough. No one would think I'd be able to climb down the canyon and up the other side, which is what I plan to do. Climb up the canyon and find some village far away where I'll be taken in and can live my life away from the League of Assassins.

My plan works, I scale back up the canyon, my knifes and throwing stars my only weapons, I have no armor for protection. All I have are my wits and skills, to survive from now on. I managed to make it to a village far away, where I am taken in my a childless widow named A'dab. I take on the identity of Mara Jade a orphan who was thrown out of my birth village for stealing.

A'dab treats me like the daughter she never had. I had nightmares of all the wrong I've done, and she comforts me. "Hush now," she says to me as I cry on her shoulder as she strokes my hair, "it's alright, I'm here. No need to fear aibnatu*." She rocks and holds me until I fall asleep. She teaches me things of humanity I didn't know before. Her teaching helps me understand the faith and hope I saw in the woman that day. She shows me the simple things of life and how to treasure them. She teaches me how to cook and clean. Most importantly she taught me how to do good, to serve and help others. A'dab and I spend 5 happy years together, until I'm 13. I come to love my new life and the peace and happiness I feel. I come to believe my past is all behind me. But all good things can't last...

One day while I was helping A'dab around the house, my past comes back to haunt me. A'dab is in the bedroom tiding and I'm in the kitchen cleaning. We're talking and I ask A'dab what is for dinner and she doesn't respond. Curious I go to see what is the matter, I enter the bedroom to a scene from a nightmare. My mother holding a sword at A'dab, my adoptive mother looks terrified. "Hello, aibnatu," my birth mother says, "it's been awhile." I stand in the doorway shocked, "how?" "Look how you've grown," Talia continues, " you're a lovely young woman now." She looks down at A'dab, "they grow up so fast, don't they?"

A'dab doesn't answer just looks at me and says, "Mara, aibnatu, run! Run for help!" "Let her go," I tell Talia, "I'll go back with you, just don't hurt her." "Too late for that aibnatu," she replies and thrusts the sword into my adoptive mother. "NO!", I cry as Talia pulls the sword out of A'dab. I rush to catch her as she falls, "don't leave me," I sob holding her close. "Never," my adoptive mother whispers, "remember aibnatu, I love you Mara, and become the lady I know you can be." I nod as tears continue to stream down my face, she reaches and touches my face smiling, "remember lady." Those were the last words she said to me "remember lady".

I watch as my adoptive mother takes her last breath, and I sob. I hold her body close and kiss her cold cheek, then I gently lay her down and close her eyes. My birth mother just stands there watching me, no comfort for her child. I wipe my tears away and face Talia, "you might as well kill me," I spat, "because I'm not going back." "I know," she replies calmly wiping the blood of her sword with a blanket from the bed in the room.

"What?", I ask confused. "You are smarter than this Mara," my mother snaps, "you fooled the Demon. You wouldn't have faked your death if you wanted to stay. Now come on, before the villagers come." "Where are we going?" I ask with no choice but to follow her. "To Gotham,"she replies, "we're visiting your father."

*aibnatu is the phonetic spelling of daughter in Arabic