#biodad! joker

[arty-shadow-morningstar]

Who Made Me a Villain (6)

[Masterlist] [Ao3]

(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4)(Part 5) This is a Halloween special as a treat. ------

Clark Kent, a mild mannered reporter, was drinking his coffee. Just like any other average Joe while editing Lois Lane’s latest scoop so there were no spelling mistakes and grammar errors.

Then, his super hearing picked up Lois’s heartbeat speedup. There was an ear-piercing scream that had him jumping out of his seat.

“Woah, Kent, what’s wrong?” A concerned colleague asked.

“Indigestion. Bathroom. Real quick.” Clark threw out the first excuse that came to mind before speeding down to the nearest bathroom. Being careful to keep it to human speed.

He had just finished changing into Superman when his phone rang, the caller ID showing Lois’s name.

“Who are you and what do you want?” Superman demanded.

“Name’s Rebel. And don’t worry your darling, I need her alive to do something I want.”

The voice sounded young and female. Superman went through his mental list of supervillains, trying to figure out who took Lois.

“Rebel…” Superman repeated, trying to put a face to the name. Then, he remembered Batman grumbling about Robin sending a picture of him covered in neon green paint and feathers to the Young Justice unofficial group chat who all were happy to show their mentors. It took everything for Superman not to burst out laughing when Kon had shown him the picture. The one responsible for Batman’s misfortune had been no other than Rebel.

“Aren’t you supposed to be Gotham, Rebel?” Superman asked as he flew towards where he knew Lois was.

“Ah. So the great Captain America has heard of me.”

Superman stopped in mid-air, purely due to confusion because Rebel sounded so confident that it was his name.

“Excuse me what?”

The French accent didn’t really help but make Clark think of those terrible Hollywood bad guys.

“You are excused. As I was saying, Captain, your beloved love is fine. I just need her to do this one little thing for me. Then, she’ll be free to go.”

“What do you want from me?” Superman asked again.

“Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Captain America, the world does not revolve around you. You aren’t the high and mighty god everyone thinks you are. I just need Mrs. Lane’s help in releasing a certain truth.”

“You will let her go right now!” Superman said.

He was narrowing on his wife’s location.

“I just told you that I will do that after I am done.” Rebel replied.

Superman arrived at the location but,

“This can’t be right.”

Rebel giggled over the phone. “Plot twist! Gotta love them.”

Superman was currently floating above Stryker's Island Penitentiary where the worst offenders of Metropolis were kept.

He scanned the buildings but couldn’t locate Lois.

“What did you do to her?”

“Chill, Captain. She’s fine. I just did something so you went after a fake heartbeat while I hid Lois.”

The fact that she tricked him using a complicated method that sounded like something Bruce would come up with had Superman raising his guard up. She was not an opponent to be underestimated.

“I am not going to repeat myself. What did you do to her?”

“Urgh. Can’t you overlook this little thing just this once?” Rebel complained, not concerned about the fact that she was provoking a man who could bend metal like it was rubber. “I am just stealing her for a few hours and then you can have her back. I even swear that she will be in the condition you last saw her in.”

“No. Give Lois back. Now.”

Rebel huffed. “You aren’t going to make this easy, huh? Then… beep.”

Superman was confused for a second when she made that sound with her voice.

Then, an explosion rocked the island below Superman. Instantly, the place was swarming with freed prisoners and guards trying to put them back.

“That should keep you busy. After all, the people of Metropolis need to be kept safe from the vicious criminals. Lois and I would probably be done with our girls’ day out by the time you are done. Au revoir.”

The phone hung up.

Trapped between the decision to save his wife and his city, Superman went to save the day.

—

“Man, your husband was a pain to deal with.” Rebel said after she hung up on Superman.

She turned back to Lois who was sitting unbound on a sofa with her recorder, notepad and pencil out. In front of her was a delicious spread of cakes, pastries and cookies with a mouth-watering scent which Lois tried her best to ignore.

“You kidnapped me and blew up a prison. I don’t think he would be happy to see you.” Lois pointed out. “This isn’t about him.” Rebel dismissed. “This is about you, helping me expose one of the biggest cover ups in history.”

“What makes you think I would help you?”

“What if I told you that four years ago. There was a supervillain in Paris that used negative emotions to turn people into monsters and the mayor had made sure news of it never got out.”

Lois snorted. “I don’t write fantasy, kid. I only write the truth.”

Rebel slapped down a bunch of newspapers dated from four years ago to the most recent one and a lot of documents.

“Here’s evidence. I promise that they aren’t faked. You can even use your phone to search all of this up if you still don’t believe me.”

Lois grabbed the one that was oldest and the front page talked about some stone golems wrecking the city. She read through it. Then, she looked at another paper dated a week later and read the front page talking about evil butterflies.

Fifteen minutes later and some google searches, Lois put down her phone and the newspapers.

She gave Rebel a professional smile. “Now… about that scoop you were going to give me.”

She watched Rebel’s eyes lit up.

—

Hours later…

Superman landed on the roof of the Daily Planet where Lois stood safe and sound. He scanned her with his x-ray vision and felt relieved to see that she was fine.

“Lois, are you okay?” Clark asked with worry as he hugged her.

“I’m fine. Honestly, it was the best kidnapping I've ever been in.” Lois replied, hugging back.

“Thanks for the compliment, Ms. Lane.” The unwanted spectator to their reunion said.

Rebel cheerfully waved from where she was on her bike as Superman glared at her.

“I am going to-”

“That’s my cue to leave.” Rebel cut off his threat as she took out a lead box. “Really lucky I stole this off the Big Bat the other day.”

Superman immediately backed away when the box was opened, revealing a glowing green rock.

“Bye, Captain America.”

Rebel tossed it onto the ground and sped off on her bike.

It took a moment for Superman to remember that they were on a roof and that Rebel was insane.

He watched Rebel drop down as gravity took hold. Superman immediately flew after her, only to find that she had disappeared in between the seconds his eyes were off her.

His brain finally caught up and Superman realised that he wasn’t feeling any effect of Kryptonite.

He turned around to see that the box was still open. Cautiously, Lois picked it up and closed it.

“You okay, Clark?” She asked.

“Can you give me the box, Lois?”

She nodded with confusion and slowly handed it over.

Clark slowly opened the lead box and laughed in disbelief. Inside was just some clear plastic crystals with a glowing green light underneath.

—

“Batman.”

“Superman.” Batman nodded in acknowledgement. “Why are you here?”

“I need you to run some tests on Lois’s blood. She had a run in with one of your Rogues. She said that she feels fine. But I want to be sure.” Superman answered. He handed Batman the vial of blood. He accepted it and put it in his pocket.

“I will do that as soon as I get back to the Cave. Who was it that she encountered?”

“Rebel.”

Batman stiffened at the mention of her name. “I see. What did she do to Lois?”

“Gave an interview I suppose. Lois was immediately on research binge about something that happened in France afterwards. She also had a few of the food Rebel laid out because she was hungry and I quote ‘they were the most delicious pastries ever’. She insisted that she was fine but I wanted to be sure.”

Batman’s frown deepened at that answer.

“Is something wrong?” Superman asked anxiously. This was the mother of his child and the love of his life that was in danger here.

“Lois is most probably fine but I will still run the test to ease your mind. I know Rebel won’t do something to the food unless it was for a prank. Even then, it’s nothing toxic or lethal.” Batman answered.

The answer didn’t reassure Superman.

“She blew up Stryker's Island, Batman.”

He couldn’t understand why Batman seemed so unbothered that such a dangerous villain was running around freely and causing chaos wherever she went.

“She regularly does it to Arkham.”

“Bruce. She lured me into a trap with a fake heartbeat of Lois. She fooled me into thinking she had kryptonite. She rode off the roof of the Daily Planet on her bike and disappeared into thin air. And Rao knows why she keeps calling me Captain America!” Superman ranted.

He took a deep breath to calm down before asking his question. “Rebel is clearly dangerous so why aren’t you taking her as a serious threat?”

Batman stared at him. Clark knew that this was his decision making face.

“You said that Lois was looking into something that happened in France.”

Superman nodded. “Yeah. Is Rebel related to it?”

Batman sighed. It was filled with regret and shame.

Superman knew that this was not good news.

“I was going to bring this up at the next League meeting but Rebel appeared to be getting impatient.” Batman started.

“What happened in France?”

“We, as the League, had made a huge oversight. There was a major problem in Paris for many years. A villain who could turn people into monsters had the city hostage. Rebel intends on making sure that we rectify our mistake.” Batman started.

He told Superman everything. About how Rebel brought the issue to his attention. What her plans were. Her past.

“Bruce, are you sure? She could be lying.” Superman said.

“I did my research. It’s all true. There is too much evidence to be faked. Some parts are still being investigated but it is largely the truth.”

Superman looked solemn. He couldn’t understand how something like this never fell on his radar. Batman had to rely on reports and technology to get his information. He was just a man after all. It would be easy for something like this to slip past his radar, especially how tightly controlled the information was.

Clark had super-hearing and this news about Paris had completely blindsided him.

“How could we have missed something so big for so long?” He muttered.

“Too many factors prevented news about it from reaching us. The past is done. What we can do is prepare so nothing like won’t ever happen again.” Batman said firmly.

Superman agreed. They had to do better.

“First, we have to catch a moth.”

It wasn’t the threat of Rebel unleashing her plans on the world that had him motivated to capture Hawkmoth. It was the determination to atone for his ignorance while a city suffered hell on a daily basis.

—

October 30th, Halloween Eve…

Spoiler looked through the binoculars to spy on the group of men moving a crate gently into a warehouse. Plastered in stickers that said ‘Fragile’, the crate was an object of interest for the vigilantes. 

“I got eyes on the target, O.” Spoiler reported. “They are moving it into warehouse number 32. East side of the Gotham Docks.”

“Hear that, Robin?” Oracle asked.

“Got it.” Robin replied as he ran towards the location.

“Oh. I see you, Robin.” Spoiler said.

“Eyes on the target, Spoiler.” Oracle admonished her.

“Sorry, O.”

“Hey. Can you tell me what you Bats are doing here?” A mechanical voice came from Spoiler’s left. 

It was lucky that Spoiler didn’t immediately scream and instead tried to punch the new arrival. He caught her attack easily with his one hand.

“Red Hood.” Spoiler greeted once she recognised who it was.

“I am asking again. What are you Bats doing here?”

“Spoiler, you okay?” Robin’s worried voice came over the comms.

“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just Red Hood.” Spoiler replied.

Looking back at Red Hood, she said, “I will tell you if you tell me what you are doing here.”

“I think we are both after the same thing.” Red Hood said, tilting his head in the direction of the warehouse.

“Black Mask’s mysterious package.” Spoiler nodded.

“It’s actually Rebel’s.” Red Hood explained. “Black Mask’s men intercepted the delivery and she asked for my help to get it back.”

“Do you know what’s inside?”

“She said it was supposed to be a fun Halloween surprise.”

“So it’s harmless.”

Red Hood shrugged. “All I know is that I should not be within a mile of it when the clock strikes midnight tonight.”

“We have five hours then.” Oracle’s voice came through Spoiler’s comms and inside Red Hood’s helmet.

“Jesus, don’t just hack into people’s helmets.” Jason complained.

“Well, we don’t have extra comms on hand.” she retorted.

“Hood, did Rebel tell you anything else about the package?” Robin asked.

“Just that it’s set to be unleashed the minute it is Halloween. Oh and don’t open it. I think it’s some kind of special bomb.”

“You didn’t ask?” “It’s Rebel. What harm can she do? It’s probably some kind of high quality glitter bomb.” Red Hood replied casually.

“You have no idea how destructive she has gotten lately.” Oracle said. “Last month, she blew up Stryker's Island. That was after she had kidnapped Lois.”

“Is she trying to go after Superman?”

“She wanted Lois to spread her ‘take down Hawkmoth’ agenda.”

“Hawkmoth? Never heard of him. Who the hell is that?” Red Hood asked.

“Rebel’s personal vendetta.” Spoiler answered.

“Sorry to cut this short, guys but Black Mask is coming.” Robin said. “We can fill you in on what happened later”

“Truce?” Red Hood offered. “I still owe Roman a beating.”

“No killing, Hood.” Oracle set as her condition.

“Fine. Let’s go.”

Red Hood loaded his guns and jumped into the fray with Spoiler in her purple glory following.

—

“Crap.”

Robin spotted Black Mask running into the warehouse. He slammed the goon he was fighting against the ground as hard as he could. 

“Somebody go and stop Black Mask! He’s going into the warehouse.” Robin said to everyone before he picked up his dropped staff and went back to fighting.

They were outnumbered and a few of the goons were trained from what Robin could tell.

“Oracle, what’s the ETA on back up?”

“Hang in there, Robin. Batman and Batgirl’s ETA is under one minute.”

“Good. Let’s hope that someone can stop Black Mask before we find out what Rebel’s Pandora box holds.”

—

Red Hood ran towards the warehouse as soon as he heard the report from Robin.

He had a score to settle with the other crime lord.

“Sionis, where are you?” Red Hood bellowed into the warehouse.

His helmet picked up the sound of someone running and Red Hood sprinted in the direction of the sound.

It became a chase and a gunfight with the two crime lords exchanging gunfire and one trying to lose the other in the maze that was the warehouse. Black Mask used every trick he had to throw Red Hood off his track.

However, it was fruitless as Red Hood continued to chase him like a bloodhound.

As desperation seized him, Black Mask picked up a crowbar that was lying around and ran towards the box he had stolen from that upstart Rebel.

Rumour has it that it is a weapon she had made for the Bats. Intended to drive them mad.

Red Hood rounded around the corner, just in time to see Black Mask pry the box open.

“NO!”

The lid was off. 

—

Last Month in Metropolis. A day before Lois’s kidnapping…

A young woman sauntered through the hallways of Stryker's Island Penitentiary. Then, she stopped in front of the cell she was looking for.

“Hello, Toyman.”

“Rebel.” Toyman greeted back. “What a pleasure to see you again.”

“I would like to contract you to make a few things for me.” Rebel went straight to the point.

Toyman gave her an interested look. “What would be in it for me?”

“Would getting you out of this place give me a discount?” Rebel asked.

Toyman smiled. “I suppose that might be possible. I’m a generous man after all. But that still doesn’t answer what you want me to make.”

Rebel chuckled. “It’s September. It’s practically nearly Halloween. And I really really want to make it a memorable one. Especially for the heroes in my city. I would like to commission a few toys. Here’s a list.”

She handed it to him.

Toyman hummed as he read it over. This could be a good deal. He would get his freedom and just make a few dolls with a bit of profit.

“How many would you like to make?”

“As much as you can before the deadline which is a few days before Halloween. Say the twenty-eight? Would that be possible? I would pay a set price for each one you can finish.” Rebel said.

“Can you back it up? I am not saying that you are not trustworthy but...” Toyman didn’t manage to finish before Rebel took out a wad of cash, all in hundred dollar bills.

She took half of it and handed it to Toyman through the bars.

“This is for the materials. Once I get you out of here, we are going to make a legal contract to discuss the finer details.”

“It is going to be an honour to work with you.” Toyman said.

Rebel grinned under her mask. “It’s nice doing business with you, Toyman.”

“So when do I get started?”

“Tomorrow afternoon-ish. That’s when something would happen and you escape in the chaos.” 

“How would I know it happened?”

“You will know. And try not to get caught by the guy who wears the ‘S’. A second breakout might not be easy to plan.”

After she left, Toyman felt giddy at the taste of freedom and to make so many new toys.

—

“WHAT?!”

Black Mask reached into the box and took its content out.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?” Black Mask said in angry disbelief as he held a doll in his hands.

Red Hood took that opportunity to tackle the man and handcuff him.

In his curiosity, Red Hood glanced into the box and saw that the box just contained dolls.

There was your typical Raggedy Ann, clowns, ventriloquist dummies, string puppets, those collector’s dolls with the pretty frilled dresses, a few Barbie dolls and some plushies that resembled some of the Bat vigilantes.

“Hood. Come in, Hood.” Batman’s voice came from his comms.

“Cool your jets, Batman. I got Black Mask. He managed to open the box but it’s just dolls inside. Rebel probably tried to scare us into not opening the box because they’re for a prank and it would ruin the surprise.”

“Good to hear.” Batman said with a hint of relief.

—

Tim curiously picked up the Robin plushie and inspected it.

The Bats had taken the box of dolls with them to the Batcave to later give back to Rebel.

“The quality is so good. The details are amazing and so accurate. Wonder who made it.” Tim wondered curiously before he discovered initials stitched in the inner lining of the cape of the toy.

“W.S.J” Tim read out as he traced the letters. There was a niggling thought at the back of his head that he should look into who the mysterious toymaker was.

Meanwhile, Steph was tentatively holding the Raggedy Ann doll and telling Jason about the true story behind the Annabelle movies.

“Did you know that the real Annabelle doesn’t actually look like the doll in the movies?” Steph said as she held up the Raggedy Ann to Jason, “It was actually a Raggedy Ann doll that looked just like this one.”

Jason frowned as he gave the doll a slightly wary look. “It doesn’t look creepy at all.”

“That’s what makes it so unsettling. Something innocent hiding its sinister nature.” Steph explained.

Damain frowned as he picked up one of the collector’s dolls. “I don’t see what is creepy about some toys.”

“It’s the terror of something that should be lifeless moving around. Something that should be harmless becomes something dangerous.” Jason mused.

“But why dolls? I don’t think a piece of porcelain dressed in lace could scare anyone. I would be sc…alarmed if Father’s dinosaur came to life but not these.” Damian said as he held up one of the dolls.

“You should try watching some horror movies.” Jason told Damian.

Cass picked up a ballerina string puppet she had found and showed it to Bruce with a questioning look.

“It’s a string puppet. Have you seen Pinocchio yet?”

“No.” Cass replied as she shook her head.

“Remind me at our next movie night. So the strings make the puppet move. Here look.” Bruce took the puppet from Cass and expertly manipulated the strings so the ballerina waved and walked a bit before breaking out a few ballet moves. Cass clapped with wonder at the end of his performance.

“Teach me?” Cass asked.

“Sure.” Bruce promised.

Next, Cass took out the ventriloquist dummy and inspected it.

“Scarface?” She asked.

“Yes. It’s a ventriloquist dummy just like Scarface. How it works is that the ventriloquist holds the dummy and throws his voice so it looks like it is the dummy that’s talking instead of the ventriloquist.”

“Show me.”

Bruce obliged as he slipped his hand into the dummy and the dummy started to move its mouth.

“Hello, Cass, nice to meet you.” said the Dummy as it held out its hand.

Cass shook its hand. “Hello.”

She asked Bruce, “Can I try?”

“Of course.” Bruce said as he gave her back the dummy.

Cass breathed in and out a few times and then raised the dummy up.

“Hello. Nice to meet you.” Cass’s voice came from the dummy this time.

Bruce smiled as he ruffled her hair. “You’re good at this.”

“Thank you.” said the Dummy.

“If you are all done playing, it’s time you all went to bed.” Alfred said as he brought in his famous after patrol snacks; cucumber sandwiches. “After a shower.”

Jason put the Raggedy Ann doll back into the box.

“Well, it’s late and I need to get back home.” Jason said as he walked towards his bike.

“You can stay the night, Master Jason.” Alfred said. “I have taken the liberty of cleaning your room.”

“Thank you, Alfred but…” Jason trailed off, not knowing how to convey that he didn’t want to stay in the Manor despite his truce tonight with Bruce but also not wanting to offend the butler/grandfather-figure.

“I understand, Master Jason. Perhaps another time.” Alfred said in his wise way.

“Thank you, Alfred.” This time, there was a look of gratitude in Jason’s eyes.

—-

The morning after was a busy and bustling day but there was something not right in the Wayne Manor.

Tim woke up from having fallen asleep while working on trying to find the maker of the dolls. His laptop had turned itself off sometime during the night. He stretched and yawned.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he spied the Robin plushie sitting on his bed.

“That’s strange. I could have sworn that I left you in the box last night.” Tim said, scratching his head. He picked the plushie up and examined it again in the morning light.

It was more accurate than Tim had initially found. In fact, it was like it was an exact likeness of him. Which was a very scary thought. He wondered how Toyman knew that he had a mole on his arm near his elbow and the birthmark on the side of his hips. Tim theorised that Rebel must be a very good stalker.

He put the plushie back on bed and headed down for breakfast. Tim didn’t see the plushie morphed its uniform into the outfit that Tim was wearing.

—-

Tim walked down to the kitchen and sat down.

He thanked Alfred who set down a delicious plate of pancakes in front of him.

“Morning, Steph.” Tim said to the blonde who was dressed in a purple cowgirl outfit and a white Stetson hat.

“Morning, Tim.”

“Who are you supposed to be anyways?” He asked.

“Barbie but with the Stephanie twist.” She replied.

“Ah. Gotcha.” Tim said after he finished his mouthful of pancake. “You look so realistic by the way.”

Bruce entered the kitchen and sat down with a groan, his hand massaging his neck.

“You okay, B?” “Just feeling a bit stiff. I’m not as young as I used to be.” Bruce replied with a grimace.

Slowly, the other occupants of the house trickled in and the kitchen was filled with the Waynes and Steph dug into their breakfast.

Dick came all the way from Bludhaven to help out on what is annually one of the worst nights of the year in Gotham. At least one Rouge would have plans for Halloween.

To break this peaceful moment would be one Jason Tood who angrily stomped into the kitchen, clutching a Raggedy Ann doll.

“Didn’t we agree on leaving me alone? That includes not finding out where my safehouses are.” Jason said.

He held up the doll and asked, “Which one of you left this at my place this morning as a prank?”

Several confused faces stared back at him.

“Was it you?” Jason pointed at Steph and demanded.

She put her hands up in surrender. “It wasn’t me. I was busy studying for the test I have today. Ask Bruce. He can tell you that he helped me with flashcards.”

“Then, was it you, Tim?”

Tim blinked at Jason. His mind took a few seconds to answer because Tim was not a morning person.

He shook his head.

“No. I was looking into who made these dolls.” Tim answered.

“Why?”

“The dolls all have the initial W.S.J. and they were all incredibly detailed. I also wanted to know why Rebel would need them. The maker turned out to be no one other than…” Tim dramatically paused: “Toyman.”

“Suddenly, I feel like we should have burned that box when we could.” Steph said to break the silence.

They should have.

—

“So how bad is it?” Dick asked Zatanna, anxious about what curse had befallen his family.

They had gone down to the Batcave to get rid of the box. Only to find it empty. It led to hours of searching for them. Except Tim never came back from his room to retrieve the Robin plushie.

Dick went to check on Tim only to find that he had turned into the plushie.

Imagine finding your brother missing and suddenly the mini plushie replica of your brother started moving and talking. It immediately went onto the top ten weirdest and scariest list of things Dick had experienced.

Then, the next to go was Steph who slowly became plastic. Her face was stuck in a smile while her skin hardened into shiny plastic. She was in class when it happened and they had to go pick her up.

Cass found the dummy but it got attached to her hand and started to speak on its own in Cass’s voice. Cass herself was unable to utter a word.

The stiffness that Bruce had complained about was the fact that he was slowly turning into wood and almost invisible strings controlling his every move.

The final terror was the Raggedy Ann doll that suddenly gained life and proceeded to hunt Jason down for sport. No matter how far Jason managed to get away from the doll and Dick’s best efforts to keep the doll contained, it still managed to escape to go after Jason.

Somehow, Dick, Alfred and Damian were the only ones unaffected by the ‘curse’. They managed to figure out why when Babara told them that Black Mask and his men were attacked by the missing dolls and some of them were experiencing the same things as the Bats and about Jason’s warning from Rebel before everything went down.

Desperate, Dick asked Superman to track down Toyman and asked him how to reverse the effect only to find out that he only made the dolls. The curse was someone else's doing. 

Which was why they had called Zatanna to see if she could reverse it.

“Well, there’s the good news and the bad news.” she announced. “Good news is that it is reversible and the curse only lasts for a day. I recommend to just wait it out because the reversing would take longer than the deadline. The curse is too complicated to simply undo.”

“So that’s the bad news?” “No. The bad news is that I recognised a bit of the spellwork. It is a bit similar to how my father would do it so chances are that whoever did this is a student of my father. The thing is I know most of my father’s students and what is bad is that I don’t recognise the magical signature of who put this curse on the dolls.”

Puppet Bruce jerked his head at the information that Zatanna had given them. Dick noticed.

“B?”

“Paris.” Bruce managed to get past with his wooden lips.

“Paris? Are you talking about the Miraculous?”

“Hero.”

“Wait, you think one of the Miraculous heroes is involved in this?”

Zatanna gasped. “I remember Batman telling me that Ladybug was a student of my father. I looked into his old journals and he mentioned a student named Marinette during his stay in Paris.”

“Marinette. Marinette. Why does it sound so familiar?” Dick tried to recall where he had heard that name before.

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng.” Damian answered for him. “It’s Rebel’s legal name.”

Just like that, pieces of the puzzle fell into place.

“Rebel used to be Ladybug.”

The revelation felt bitter on Dick’s tongue. He had seen the videos of Ladybug in action. He would say that she was inexperienced but she was compassionate and willing to lend a hand to anyone in need. He thought that it was nice of her to forgive her enemy instead of causing pain on the man who had caused her so much grief.

He couldn’t believe he saw the similarities between the two girls sooner.

Rebel was cunning and sharp enough to always stay a step ahead of them. Her planning and paranoia on par with the Batman himself. Useful skills to have as a hero.

Then again, Rebel couldn’t be more different from Ladybug. She was more cynical and petty. Rebel caused chaos wherever she goes instead of cleaning up the mess. She saw everything as a game and never took anything seriously. 

Dick wondered what it was that pushed Rebel over the edge. The line drawn between heroism and villainy. Then he remembered how Rebel was sent to Gotham in the first place.

“Damn. Rebel has really good valid reason to fuck that Hawkmoth guy up.” Jason said. “In fact, I am surprised she hasn’t razed Paris to ashes yet.”

“Can you imagine?” Zatanna said, having been briefed a bit on the Paris situation and had heard about Rebel’s kidnapping of Lois, “The city you gave so much to save, branding you as a criminal and sending you to one of the worst places on Earth.”

“People have turned to crime for less.” Damian pointed out.

“But Rebel used to be a hero. One of us essentially. It’s just sad that we had to meet her as people on opposite sides.” Dick said.

“It only shows her lack of will.” Damian said.

“I think Rebel had reached her breaking point and honestly, I might too if I face it all alone like she did.”

The Cave was in a sombre silence for the hero that once was Ladybug. Dick remembered something Bruce once said about Two-Face and Harvey Dent.

‘You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become a villain.’

—

The next day, just as Zatanna said, the spell wore off and everyone was human again and able to freely talk again. Other than some nightmares about the experience for a month or so, they were fine.

The Batfamily had a meeting about the new revelation that they had discovered last night.

“Bruce, tell us the truth. Did you know from the beginning?” Tim asked. “I only had suspicions but Zatanna confirmed them with her father’s journal.” Bruce answered. “This changes nothing.”

“It does, Bruce. You failed another young hero.” Jason said, his tone sharp and accusing. “Not even one of the ‘sidekicks’. You turned your back on the One Main Hero who had been there since the beginning and saw through it to the end. She didn’t get the happy ending she deserved. Instead, she was rewarded for her sacrifices by being sent to fucking Arkam Asylum in one of the most dangerous city in the world.”

“Todd, stop projecting. The way I see it, Rebel had seen the errors of her way and intended to fix her mistake regarding Hawkmoth. She should have locked him up when she had her chance.” Damian shot back.

“Boys, settle down. The fact of the matter is that whether Rebel used to be Ladybug or not, Hawkmoth needs to be arrested before Rebel does something more sinister than what she did yesterday.”

“Wasn’t it an accident?” Steph asked.

“According to Toyman, we had always been the intended recipients of that particular gift.” Dick answered. “It was dumb luck that Black Mask opened it while most of you were in the area.”

“After this latest incident, the League and I have decided that Rebel must be contained.” Bruce announced.

Jason jumped out of his seat. “Bruce, she’s just a kid!”

“But she’s a formidable threat. Who knows what else she might do if she is left unchecked and she doesn’t like the progress on the Hawkmoth investigation.”

Jason growled and then left.

Bruce told everyone that they should catch Rebel if they saw her before he ended the meeting.

—

Rebel stood in front of a half-finished mural, a spray can in hand.

“So we finally met, my dear daughter.” The voice belonged to the man who starred in Gotham’s nightmare.

Rebel didn’t bother to turn around and simply looked at him from over her shoulder.

“Which one are you?” She asked.

“I’m sorry?”

Rebel went back to spray-painting as she explained, “I know that there are at least three of you running around Gotham. I want to know which one you are.”

Joker laughed. A genuine laugh instead of the mad one he usually makes.

“You really do live up to your reputation, Rebel. I can tell that you are a real wildcard.” Joker said excitedly.

“You still haven’t answered my question.”

“Very well then. I am the Joker. The original one. Not the copycats I made because I was bored. And Rebel, I am your father.”

----- (Part 7)

Taglist:  @toodaloo-kangaroo, @iloontjeboontje, @buginetye, @angelwreckedd, @anoires-blog, @ever-since-i-was-young, @shutupandactuallylisten, @its-maemain, @vel-vee, @kashlyn, @officiallydarkgeek, @jayjayspixiepop, @cmouse, @transheso, @thecrazyfantrolls, @just-a-random-girl-loves-anime, @maddiesupdates, @the-dumber-scaramouche,

[sunfang]

(Batman & The Signal #3)

The more I read about Duke the more I realise the fandom knows literally nothing about Duke except:

"he's a Robin!" (not really, by any real standards of 'Robin'. He was a leader in We Are Robin, but he's never worked with any Batman under that title)

He's one of Batman's kids! (he was fostered for MAYBE 18 months our time and his parents were also living at the Manor at the same time. He's been with relatives since early 2018: first his cousin Jay and now I believe his mum Elaine since 2022 or so?)

He is a meta with light-based powers (which he does not discover until Dark Nights: Metal and rarely uses on page instead of hitting things with batons)

The other Batkids consider him a sibling! (Uhhh well he has a relationship with Cass, and appeared in several family group scenes while he was fostered, which mostly noted that none of the others knew him as more than 'the new kid'; since he moved out of the Manor he has not done so)

Look, at this point he's an outer Bat family member, on a similar level to Harper Row, Helena Bertinelli, Julia Pennyworth, Luke Fox or maybe at best Stephanie Brown.

Unless you're talking about WFA he's not an inner circle character who is a 'Wayne'.

[wheredostarsgowhenyoudie]

Just want to share my favorite Maribat stories' links (not arranged in any particular order). :) :) :)

Yes. Because I am in that phase again lol

If you are the author, let it be known that you are awesome!

1) Taking Chances by Undercover_fangirl - This is a biodad Bruce Wayne story. Mari gets to Gotham and faces Joker, and voila - you have a dad and a chaotic set of siblings!

2) for us to collide by LadyLiterature - This is a Daminette story which I love love love love!! And the dynamic of the Miraculous team? AMAZING.

3) Stalker X Stalker by oliviaandersonisntmyrealnamelol - This is Timinette story. Caffeine deprived coffee addicts + kwami unapproved stalking tendencies = hilarious chaos XD

4) No, Mr. Wayne, You Can't Adopt Me! by ggomoz - This is a Marinette as Bruce Wayne's secretary fanfic. It is chaos and very good if you wanna laugh out loud!! XD They have no idea she's MDC and has miraculous powers. They wanna adopt. Damian wants her in the fam, but not by adoption.

5) Joint Filing Status by ew_selfish_art - This is a new fav Daminette. Surprise, surprise, turns out they're magically married. Both are as chill as fuck about it. The RobinxLB epic power couple we all want without knowing we want it OMG!!!! 🩷🩷

6) 1-800 Emergency Magic Management by ew_selfish_art - A very amusing Robinette one-shot in which the Justice League is trying to recruit the operator of a magic helpline from Paris. XD Nth read. Like seriously. LMAO

P.S. If you know any more hidden gems, please for the love of us, feel very free to reblog and add it to the list. If it's an old fic in AO3, I probably have read it but add it anyway. And if you know any new awesome fanfic, then do tag me. I would love you for it. Thank youuu!!!!

[bluerosefox]

[2023 Prompt List 1][Previous] [2023 Prompt List 2][Here] [2023 Prompt List 3][Next]

|The MANY Bloodlines of Constantine (Its by pure dumb luck Danny is crowned Ghost King before his 18th, because he learns his biodad had sold his soul, its void now, and not just his but also his half-siblings as well... Constantine is getting decked.)  (Psst read the reblogs, everyone had fun adding to this one) |Daughter of Phantom, Lady Gotham. (Lady Gotham, is Danny Phantom’s daughter) |No Longer In Service (Ghost King Danny has an idea how to get summoners to stop summoning him) |Overdue Payments (Ghost King Danny finds Ra’s al ghul’s overdue payments and a request to repossess it) |For Them (Danny uses his ice to save Dani (Ellie) from melting and does so in front of one Dr. Victor Fries, aka Mr. Freeze) |In A Single Night (Vlad is taken down by either Selina or Tim in a single night due to being a creepy creep) |Assassin Heir? Crime Fighting Furry? NOPE NO THANK YOU! (Danny wakes up in a DC version of himself and tries to nope out of the Assassin lifestyle and avoid becoming a crime fighter. Now if only the others understood that) |Playing Dead AU (Danny is the dead body for those Murder Mystery parties and gets a gig for the Gotham elite. I strongly suggest reading the reblogs, they get amazing for this) |Of Godsons, Fruitloops, and Lois ‘I will drag all secrets out into the sun’ Lane (Lois Lane is Danny’s only godparent, Vlad better watch out) |Recluse Owner, Bookshelf Gremlin, and the Cute Cafe Guy (Danny and Dani have to leave their home dimension behind and decide to open a cafe with Ghostwriter whose been wanting a way to get new books without having to go out and deal with people. Jason is sus of the new bookstore that opened up overnight) (Very hinted Dead on Main) |Cujo is.... Trying (Danny gets hurt, Cujo and him are yeeted into the Gotham, and Cujo... Cujo is trying to do his best even as he’s chased after a sword wielding bird boy)  |Tim, buddy, what do you mean you might had accidentally made a Love Child?! (Danny learns is the love child clone? of Tim and Kon that Tim accidentally made during his bad year of losing everything and Danny gets deaged and tossed back into his home dimension. It was due to Clockwork that he never noticed the life he created (cause villain Tim timeline was nearly on set) but finds out what he created when said love child shows up at a Gala wandering around just after he announced he’s dating Kon) (a TimxKon story where they try to raise their clone love child) |Bellatrix Star ( a TaliaxDanny idea. Queen Talia and Ghost King Danny) |Joker Messed Around and Found Freaking Out. (Joker messed with the wrong person when he took a visiting class hostage) |Fenton Ethics and Test Tube Babies (Jazz and Danny aren’t Fenton’s but are half-siblings and cousins (basically same mom, different dad’s)...The Fenton’s have some... questionable ethics and moral) |Timelines, Red Robins, and Kings (dont ask about the title, it was only thing I can think of) (Tim crashes in on Danny’s ghost King lesson’s during his Red Robin run. Clockwork is excited for this timeline cause he gets to have some fun) |Beloved Beyond Time (Due to weird time-traveling, Ghost Prince Danny is summoned and mistaken as King by the LoA. There he meets a smitten young Damian al Ghul who proclaims they will marry... Later Danny finds himself cornered by a year older Damian when he returns to his own time) |Over Tea (Gotham gets a sudden and strange weather that shakes it to its core. The Batfam is trying to find the source, meanwhile a young Ghost King and Lady Gotham are discussing things over tea. |Good Doggos Give Hope! (A self-indulgant idea of Cujo wanting to help his fav ghost boy and meeting a very special ring wearing Corgi) |Taking a Chance (Good!Mom Talia! DannyxTalia (Royal Errors) and half-siblings Damian and Ellie (Danielle). Talia discovers Ra’s future he set out for Damian and is at the ends of her ropes, she is given a chance to leave in the form of a cryptic time being. Meanwhile Danny needs someone to become Danielle’s mother before she completely destabilizes)

[angellyslion]

BioDad Joker x BioMum Harley Quinn

Le dix-sept juillet 2005 Harley Quinn met au monde une petite fille nommée Marigold.Son père est le Joker. La petite famille a vécu heureuse pendant un an. La justice League ayant eu vent de ce bébé a décidé de leur retirer la garde. Ils l'ont récupéré pendant que les nouveaux parents dormaient. Ils ne pouvaient pas envisager qu'une enfant  soit élevée par des méchants fous.

À leur réveil, le Joker et Harley ont cherché leur précieuse fille ensemble et de partout.Ils ont demandé de l'aide aux autres méchants.

Aucun d'entre eux, n'a pu la trouver. Le couple tombe dans une dépression.Ils ont cherché les responsables de l'enlèvement de leur précieuse Marigold. Ils ont découvert au bout d'un an que la Justice League est la responsable de l'enlèvement.Après cette découverte, tous les méchants ont été plus cruels envers les membres de la Justice League.

Dix ans plus tard, une classe de français arrive à Gotham.

Parmi ce groupe, une fille se tient à l'écart. Elle a une longue chevelure blonde aux pointes vertes et aux yeux bleus hypnotiques.

Les touristes rentrent dans le musée.

« Vous savez, j'ai déjà aidé Batman à arrêter le Joker et Harley !

— Ah bon ? C'était quand Lie-la ?

— Heu... C'était...

— Jamais ! Sinon tu aurais répondu directement d'une et de deux si tu étais approché par les héros et que tu les aurais vraiment aidés. Ils t'auront demandé de relever à aucun moment tu les ont aidé surtout dans la ville où l'action s'est produite ! Mentir sur ça cela peut te mettre en danger comme cela peut nous mettre en danger.

— Qu'est-ce que tu en sais Mari ? Se moque Lila.

— Plus tard, j'envisage de devenir psychologue. J'ai pu lire quelques livres sur le sujet et j'ai regardé des reportages dans les asiles. Et beaucoup de choses reviennent dans ses différents supports. Le premier est qu'un méchant accepte plus ou moins sa défaite contre le héros ou le groupe de herosd'héros qui l'a battu mais n'accepte pas les personnes qui proclament qu'un civil a aidé le bon côté à vaincre le méchant. Si quelque chose doit vous arriver, je ne suis pas avec vous !  C'est hors de question que je risque ma vie pour une seule personne !

La dénommée Mari sent des pas se rapprocher. Une voix confirme sa sensation.

— Qu'avons-nous là ?

— Des étrangers !

— Regroupez-vous au centre de la pièce ! Ordonne le Joker avec une arme dans la main. Tout le monde s'exécute. Maintenant que vous êtes tous attachés qui a menti sur le fait qu'il a aidé Batman à m'arrêter ?

— Mari ! Accuse Lila voulant se débarrasser de la seule personne qui lui met des bâtons dans les roues.

— Es-tu sûre de toi petite fille ?

— Oui, c'est la blonde avec du vert ! Le Joker tire très près de l'Italienne, faisant sursauter cette dernière. Ce n'est pas moi pourquoi me tirez-vous dessus !

— Je hais les menteurs et je sais les reconnaître quand je les vois ! Tu mérites la mort ! Tu as mis tes pauvres camarades en danger !  Il se tourne vers Mari. Toi tu viens avec moi.

Il la détache, lui bande les yeux et l'amène dans un camion. Le Joker la conduit jusqu'à sa base secrète. Harley durant le voyage surveille, la jeune française qui ne bouge pas.

— Bienvenue à nouveau à ta maison Marigold ! »

[just-an-enby-lemon]

Batfam age reverse AU:

- Damian Al Ghur Wayne is the adoptive son of Thomas and Martha Wayne, the biological lost son of Ra's and has the tittle of Batman.

- Duke Thomas is the first Robin [he got the tittle from his adoptive dad (though he does not know his dad isn't his biodad)], becoming Batman partner after impressing Damian by trying to defeat the Riddler by himself at age eleven and almost succeding. He is the first and only exception to the no metas rule (a rule that isn't Batman's in any media, but that it's Gothams in a sense, the city belives in no metas in the batfam and Gotham almost always gets it's way) and was adopted by Damian after his mom was infected by Joker toxin. After having a fight with Damian about his mom possible recuperation he becames his own hero, The Signal. Protecting Gotham at day.

- Cassandra Cain was Damian second kid. She was a child assassin who he rescued and took under his wing, partialy because he knew if not for his sister, Thalia, that would've been his life in the Order of Assassins. She mostly talks by sign language and non-verbal comunication even though she can speak. Her superhero debut was Orphan, but as she started to fell like part of the family it didn't fit her anymore, instead she went by Black Bat. After Steph was shot, Cass used the tittle of Batgirl for a while to honor her best friend (and future gf).

- Tim Drake is the second Robin. A smart little stalker that forced Damian's hand. The two of them didn't had the best relashionship at the start, but it improved a lot with time. He was adopted by Damian and they were very close until Tim was tricked by the Joker and murdered. He came back, but thanks to the Lazarus Pit he was never the same. Becaming the Red Hood, a cold logician who will do anything for what he considers the greater good. He started as a vilan, but since has rekindle his relashiomship with the family and turned into an anti-hero.

- Stephanie Brown was Tim's best friend and acted together with the Batfamily as Batgirl to try to alert Batman against her supervilan father. After Tim's death she temporarily taked the Robin mantle to honor him. While babysitting young Barbara Gordon she was attacked by the Joker and started to use an wellchair, starting Barbara into the path of Batgirl. After that she became the all-seeing Spoiler.

- Jason Tood was the official thrid Robin - though Steph contests the tittle. Damian found him stealing the tires of the Batmobile and couldn't stop being impressed. After a mental debate he decided to let the kid go as Batman and adopt him as Damian, as he wasn't ready for a new Robin after Tim (specially with the added bonus of Stephanie injury). It didn't work. Jason discovered the Batcave and somehow convinced Damian into becoming Robin. Nowdays he goes by Bluejay, choosing to pass the title to Dick and it's the atual leader of the Teen Titans (a tittle he inherited from Duke).

- Dick Grayson was the forth Robin and indiscutibly Damian's favorite. Being playfull, loyal and genuine and loving his family very much. Adopting another child was not what Damian intended when he took Jason and Barbara to a nice nigth in the circus but life had other plans and after the death of the Graysons there was NO WAY Damian was letting the kid with social workers. Besides the Robin mantle seemed to be made for him, the kid had a previous emotional conection to the name and fited the description "ligth to Batman's darknes" in a way only Duke had truly suceeded before. Jason says he gave Dick the name because he wanted to be something more than Batman's sidekick but Damin knows there is a story there. The truth is that Jason was the one that found Dick after he run away looking for the man who killed his parents and after seeing the kid almost get killed he decides that Dick needed Robin more than him.

- Barbara Gordon is the third Batgirl and the daugther of the aways helpfull Comissioner James Gordon. She was aways struck by Batman heroism and had a growing suspicion of his identity, but it was only after Stephanie Brown took a bullet to save her that she decided to confront Damian and promisses to honor Steph by one day becaming a hero. Stephanie gladly gave Barb the tittle of Batgirl.

- Bruce Wayne is the youngest batkid. A clone created by Lex Luthor using both Damian and Thomas Wayne DNA. Bruce is the closest Damian has to a biokid. He was found when the Justice League was investigating Cadmus, based on Superboy remembering a young child. He has problems adapting to normal life, is very shy and works better with Cass. He also acts as Superboy baby brother more than not. While Damian don't think he needs more kids in speedos, Bruce still became Batboy.

[krinsbez]

A Bat-Family AU in need of a name.

I worked hard on and am proud of this AU, which started out as a Birds of Prey thing with Black Canary following in her father's footsteps instead of her mom's and Huntress' family not getting massacred so she follows in HER dad's footsteps and got increasingly off-the-rails from there?

Anyways, I admit I'm playing fast and loose with continuity and chronology here. Initial POD: Larry Lance doesn't die helping the JSA save the world. As a result, his wife doesn't retire, and ends up getting sent to Limbo with the rest of the JSA. The now so-far-as-he-knows-widowered Larry relocates to Gotham with his daughter at around the same time the Waynes are murdered... -The presence of a single Good Cop, no matter how badass, is not enough to prevent Gotham's post-Wayne descent into mob-ruled Hell, but does change the dynamics of things a bit, so that the Bertinelli family doesn't get wiped out. Helena grows up to be her father's right-hand and eventual heir, and is currently one of the three most powerful crime bosses in the city. -Shake-ups from this cause Selina to become aware of her biodad (whichever mob boss he is) earlier, resulting in her setting out to take over his organization, become another of the three most powerful crime bosses in the city. -While Dinah still honors her mother by becoming one of the world's top martial artists, she also has a major influence growing up who wasn't a superhero, and becomes a cop instead, eventually becoming Gordon's right-hand woman, although she's also taken his willingness to work with...unconventional allies, a bit further... -Larry Lance's last case is the disappearance of a young postdoc named Pamela Iseley. He manages to rescue her before Woodrue can finish working on her (so her chlorokinesis is somewhat weaker and she isn't green), but is killed in the process. The combo of not getting the full extent of whatever Woodrue did to her in canon, a good man dying to save her, and bonding with his daughter afterwards causes Pam to not have a psychotic break, and becoming a more conventional activist rather than a terrorist (also, not a serial killer, etc.). It is in this capacity that she runs into philanthropist Bruce Wayne, shortly after he returns to Gotham. They fall in love, she finds out his secret and accepts it, become his crime-fighting partner...and they get married. Shortly after their wedding, there's a break-in at Ace Chemical Company, and owing to a slightly different mindset, Bruce saves the man who, in another life would've become the Joker at the cost of his own life. A heartbroken Pam decides to take on her late husband's cause and becomes Gotham's vigilante protector, Batwoman. -With no Joker, Dr. Harleen Quinzel focuses on Jervis Tetch as her meal ticket. Given that she's a blue-eyed blonde and he lacks Mistuh Jay's brilliance and charisma, she's easily able to wrap him around her little finger rather than the other way 'round, but he also makes her ambitions shift from merely writing a tell-all book to something grander. At the present time, Dr. Quinzel is head of Akrham and also has a successful private practice as therapist to Gotham's great & "good", and uses both of these as resources in her secret identity as the Queen of Hearts, the city's most powerful crimeboss, using her own extensive skill at psychological manipulation and Tetch's mind-control tech to use the patients at the former as minions and to manipulate the latter to her advantage. Batwoman, not being quite the detective her late husband was, hasn't quite put the pieces together and identified the Queen, but she's working on it. -Tim Drake was is one of Dr. Quinzel's clients and was smart enough to see through her web of deception and figure out that she's the Queen of Hearts. He was not, alas, smart enough to avoid falling for her manipulations anyways, and is now secretly her consigliere, the Knave of Hearts. -Since there's already a Batwoman running around, it doesn't occur to Dr. Barbara Gordon to dress up as a Batgirl for a masquerade party to add some excitement to her life as head of the Gotham City Public Library. Instead, at a fundraiser for the GCPL, she strikes up a friendship with "legitimate businesswoman" Selina Kyle, which becomes something more, as seducing the commissioner's daughter appeals to Selina's mischievous nature. Babs, being both the commishe's daughter and a highly-intelligent woman, is well aware of who and what her girlfriend is, but allows Selina to think she's been gulled so she can pass info on to her dad's protege. -With the death of his surrogate son, Alfred leaves Gotham and rejoins the intelligence community, becoming one of the top agents of Checkmate. Despite his...complicated feelings towards the city, he keeps ending up having to go to Gotham. -With no Birds of Prey to join upon emerging in the 21st Century, Zinda Blake likewise finds herself drifting into intelligence work, joins Checkmate, and becomes the Mrs. Peel to Alfred's Steed (thanks to Spacebattler comradepitrovsky for this idea). -While on a mission, Pennyworth and Miss Blake came across a young mixed-race girl living on the streets with extraordinary martial arts skills but without the power of speech, and end up adopting her. -Without The Detective as the obvious choice, Ra's Al Ghul keeps shopping around for a new husband for Talia, which increasingly frustrates her, causing their relationship to entirely break down, leading her to steal a large sum of money from him so she can start a new life in Gotham. As a deliberate "screw you" to her father, she chooses to adopt a lifestyle that she knows will irk him, specifically setting down in Gotham, and opening a nightclub/neo-burlesque house that also houses a not-so-secret casino and brothel. Talia's intelligence, strength-of-will, charisma, and the really quite enormous sums she stole from the League of Assassins enable her to ensure that her place is considered neutral territory by the various factions of Gotham's underworld and the police (to Gordon's occasional frustration, but let's be honest, this isn't a bad thing) and is able to persuade Batwoman of the same. -An outraged Ra's hires Lady Shiva to retrieve his wayward daughter. She gets whammied by Batwoman and sent to Arkham, where a positively delighted Dr. Quinzel starts working on her. Perhaps a bit too delighted because she starts in on her mind control stuff before Pam's pheremones are out of Shiva's system, and they end up counteracting each other. She escapes, but somehow the double-dose of mind control gives her a clear head for the first time since Cain explained why he killed her sister. Disgusted with herself for what she's done since, but unable to figure out how to atone, Sandra goes back to Talia's to drown her sorrows, and ends up getting hired as a dancer and bouncer. -Stephanie Brown's efforts to spoil her father's criminal schemes lead to her sneaking in to Talia's at some point. She is immediately caught, but Talia is impressed by her gumption and sees something of herself in the younger girl's loathing of her father, taking her under her wing and making her her protege. -The changes in the Gotham Underworld scene mean that Tony Zucco never target's Haly's Circus, and Richard and Mary Grayson do not die. That said, economic realities lead to the circus closing down, and their son finding alternative employment as a performer and gigolo at Talia's, where he is incredibly popular, and is a particular favorite of Helena Bertenelli. -Jason Todd got arrested by Dinah, who saw a spark of something in the boy and determined to find a way to keep him off the streets, convincing him to join the martial arts classes she volunteers to teach in her free time. Eventually, she enlisted him as part of her ongoing off-the-books effort to take down Gotham's gangs, and he joined a Bertinelli-associated street gang, where his brains, skills, and attitude allowed him to quickly ascend the ranks and catch the eye of the Dona herself, and he's now a member of her bodyguard, while passing info on to Dinah. He's also become friends (and possibly something more, I haven't decided) with Dinah's secret civilian informant in the Kyle family... -When Kate Kane comes back to Gotham, there's already a Batwoman. Instead, she decides to investigate her cousin's mysterious death, with her prime suspect being his widow. Pam is able to convince her of her innocence and they become friends. Pam's activism inspires Kate to likewise get involved in politics, and she eventually becomes the City's mayor. She may or may not be one of Dr. Quinzel's clients. -Bette Kane came to Gotham to work as an intern for her cousin Kate's political career, proceeded to develop a massive case of hero worship towards her friend Pamela, which ultimately led to her becoming Batgirl. -Renee Montoya left the GCPD for...reasons I haven't decided on yet, and ended up being hired as Pamela Wayne's bodyguard, figured out her identity, and now they're basically a distaff counterpart to Ollie and Dig from Arrow. Despite being of compatible orientation, their friendship is entirely platonic; I'm kinda imagining Pam playing matchmaker for Kate and Renee. So, what do y'all think? Any ideas or suggestions?

Random bits and bobs:

-Trying to figure out which of the Arkham crowd are still part of the Arkham crowd here, and which aren't, and if so, what they're like. Also, need to figger out what to do with Duke, Harper, Luke, Jean-Paul, Orpheus, etc. but I lack the knowledgebase to do so. -Other random questions: Is Holly still Selina's BFF? What is Leslie Thompkins doing? What is the status of Bruce's various love interests? -I want Bane to have been a foe of Pennyworth and Miss Blake, but they got him to do a heel-face-turn and become their ally, and Cass'  (who in this ‘verse is named penny Black, thanks to Spacebattler BlueShift14 for this idea) honorary uncle, but I'm not sure how to set it up. -That said, Alfred and Zinda absolutely are the ones who stopped Bane's biodad from destroying Hong Kong. -I was considering having Alfred be Ra's archnemesis and having him be a catalyst in getting Talia to leave him, but I was afraid that takes the connectivity too far.

-Thought: did Shiva still sleep with Jay's dad around the time he was conceived? It might be interesting to do something with that, say her commenting that he looks familiar while he's visiting Talia's*, either on his own or escorting Helena. -Weird mental image. Jay is bodyguarding Helena whilst she meets with Tim (well, the Knave of Hearts; he'd be too young to be allowed entry as Timothy Drake, he presumably wears a mask when he does stuff for The Queen, and people just assume he's short or summat) on business, and Helena does a bit of a powermove and insist that they have their talk while she gets a lapdance from Dick. *Should it have a name?

[consumeconstantly]

Bring Me To The Precipice of Victory

1| 2 | 3(you are here) | 4  | next

Summary: When Batman departs— just for a short time, just to patch things up in Gotham— things go horribly, horribly wrong in Paris.

He doesn’t know if he can come back from realizing that Marinette and Ladybug are one and the same (and that his daughter has died more times than he can count.) (all biodad bruce are posted in chronological order but can be read as stand alones)

______________________________________________

The moment of peace, of solidarity, that Batman shares with Ladybug up on that rooftop at night means the world.

After a minute or two, Ladybug pulls back, tear tracks down the sides of her face, eye and nose red. She takes another minute of silence,hugging herself in the muggy Parisian air. When she next opens her eyes, Batman can almost imagine that Ladybug never cried at all. 

But he knows that's not true. Ladybug seemed so fragile in his arms. He can imagine— he can imagine Dick in her place, broken over Jason’s death. Tim losing his parents. All of his children facing insurmountable odds with no team by their side. Alone. 

Ladybug is not alone, but functionally, she may as well be. He’s watched the fights. He’s analyzed them. Ladybug is always, always the leader. She strategizes with Ryuko and Viperion, but Ladybug is who everybody looks to for an answer when things don’t work out the way they want them to. She’s the one with the plan, the backup plan, the out. She’s the one who swoops in to save the day.

She’s also the one who has racked up the most hours on the battlefield. Even Chat Noir, her partner, only has three quarters of the hours that she’s put in. For most of the other members of her team, she puts in double, sometimes even triple of what they do. Over the course of six years, there have been a little under two thousand battles, lasting from under an hour to over five hours. Ladybug has shown up for every single one, without fail. That’s not even counting the patrols that they do; although Ladybug is given a lot of flack for not patrolling as often as Chat Noir, there’s a fundamental difference in how they patrol. Ladybug is methodical, Chat Noir is volatile. 

He’s not a bad superhero when it comes down to battle, but the two of them are fundamentally different. Ladybug sees her time as a superhero as a duty. Chat Noir seems to view it as a time to unwind— and while that’s worrying, considering the information he’s gathered on the Miraculous Team so far points to the majority of them beings teens or young adults— it’s not what is needed to deal with the Paris situation. 

Perhaps one of the easiest ways to see these differences is during patrol. Chat Noir uses patrol time almost seems to be an outlet for stress. He entices whoever he’s on patrol with to race to random places in Paris with no rhyme or reason. Whenever he comes across crime, he stops it, but Ladybug— Ladybug searches for crime.

Ladybug has a team and she trusts them with her life, but she cannot trust them to be responsible. That is perhaps the worst possible thing that can happen. And through the videos that he’s watched, it’s clear that the hours she puts in do affect her, and fairly heavily. 

Whoever she is, she’s young. Too young to be in battle untrained, because they are untrained— despite being in the field for years, all of their basic form lacks and tells anybody with an experienced eye that they’ve never had formal training in martial arts. 

When Batman and Ladybug leave the roof, they leave on a better note than where they started. Batman is still upset that Tom and Sabine are dead, but he cannot attribute it solely to Ladybug’s negligence. He admires the young heroine for rising to the occasion when there was nobody else to help. He has no doubt that with the resources and training that he can provide him and his operatives already on the case, Hawkmoth will be revealed in no time at all. 

He’s right, but in the worst possible way. 

It’s largely a mistake on hiss part-- he gets a notification that the Joker broke out of Arkham again, and Hawkmoth and Pavona are missing for the time being. Though Ladybug has made a mistake in not taking Pavona out immediately, she and her team have won every akuma and sentimonster battle. The logical course of action is to go where the most danger is. 

Bruce does not have any predictive powers. There is no way for him to know what’s going to happen. But when he and his team finally catch the Joker and put him away again-- a feat that takes just a little under twenty four hours, extreme concentration, and a good number of injuries-- Batman finally gets a chance to breathe. The adrenaline from facing off against the Joker’s latest scheme fades. Batman reclines in a chair as Alfred binds his  wounds and passes him pain relieving pills while he gets stitches in his abdomen. 

He checks the news in Paris. 

He almost drops the device that he’s using to view the news. 

Marinette’s existence has been hidden from his family. With Dick, he was more concerned about his existence as Robin, rather than informing him that he had a sister. As soon as he started contemplating bringing up Marinette, Batman and Robin had a bad break. Then Jason came along, troubled and angry. Bruce didn’t want to introduce Marinette into the mix then because he was volatile. 

Jason died due to Batman’s incompetence. Bruce grieved the loss of his ward; Batman was never allowed to mourn the loss of his second Robin.

Tim felt unworthy as the only child Bruce didn’t pick up off the streets, and Damian-- well, Damian was Damian. First he had a superiority complex the size of the Grand Canyon, and once he got accustomed to how they handled things in the Wayne Manor-- though Tim would argue that Damian is still not used to this kind of lifestyle-- he overcompensated every single mission and needed a remedial course on How to Interact With Other Humans 101. Add the overarching concern of Marinette being exposed to his vigilante life style and being unprepared for it, and he was never able to tell his children that he had another biological kid. A daughter.

When the news that Sabine and Tom died reached his ears, he told everybody he had business in Paris without elaborating what. With Wayne Enterprises opening a Paris branch of their R&D specialising in European artifacts, it was easy to draw connections that weren’t there.

“Bruce, you need to relax. Business in Paris can be dealt with later, you need to take the time to heal,” Tim says.

A clip in his shoulder from a bullet, knife wounds on his torso and legs, a sprained wrist. Whatever chemical experiment the Joker got his hands out still pumping through his veins. “I need to go-- it’s important--”

The pain relievers Alfred gave him earlier were also a sedative. 

Tim catches him before he passes out.

#

He wakes up three hours late through sheer force of will.

“Paris!” Bruce jolts upright, still in costume, lying prone on a medical cot in the Batcave.

The first thing that catches his eyes is the red and black flying across the screens.

Ladybug.

His kids are all watching the screens with abject horror. 

“Is this,” Tim wets his lips. “The business trip that you were on?”

Bruce drags himself out of bed, adrenaline washing out any residual pain. He doesn’t have the capacity to respond, he needs to get to the zeta tube, he needs to get to Paris, Ladybug is bleeding, the city is in shambles, and Marinette-- 

One of the news sites up on the screen declares the arrondissements that are obliterated. The one that houses Tom & Sabine’s Boulangerie is amongst their number. An approximate death toll fills the static.

-- Marinette is likely among those lost. He has lost another child due to his inaction. Due to his inability to push through, to look forwards and predict the future and the consequences of his actions. Marinette is another Jason, but if Ladybug doesn’t get it together, she’ll be gone permanently. And Ladybug is little more than a child. She can’t handle it, not by herself, not with her team. She needs an experienced hero, and Batman will be there for her, be the one leading the charge against Hawkmoth as the civilians hide in their homes and pray for her Miracle Cure to reverse the damage.

Dick places a hand on his shoulder. Bruce tries to shrug it off, but his fingers dig into the place where the bullet clipped his flesh. The pain is just a reminder that if he does not get to Paris now, there will be thousands-- no, millions-- more who feel this pain. How did Marinette die? Was it an akuma? Did the rubble of one of the destroyed buildings fall on her? Did Ladybug even try to protect her?

“I need to go,” Bruce growls.

“You can’t. While you were out, the majority of the Justice League prohibited all travel via zeta tubes. Nobody can get into Paris right now.”

Bruce knocks Dick’s hand off his shoulder and turns to his eldest. At the very least, Dick and the rest of his children look solemn. Damian’s gaze is fixed to one of the screens that shows Ladybug. “A city is in danger, millions of lives are at risk, Marinette--”

His daughter is dead. He can’t bring himself to say it out loud.

Standing by idly is the last thing he’ll let himself do.“Who put out the order? I’ll get them to reverse it.”

Dick moves so he’s between the zeta tube and Bruce. “B, you don’t understand. If you go to Paris right now, you’ll get akumatized.” 

“I can handle my emotions.”

Jason points at the upper right section of screens that’s replaying past footage. “I wouldn’t bet Paris’ survival on it. Not when more level headed superheroes got on the scene first and failed. They really don’t need any heavy hitters getting akumatized. Not when Superman put three members of their team out of commission.”

Superman arrived on the scene first; it took a matter of seconds for him to get akumatized. He was responsible for razing down three arrondissements in no time flat. Ladybug had to call for a Lucky Charm in order to get her hands on some kryptonite, which forced her to recoup after her time ran out. 

Black Canary arrived next. Then Red Tornado. 

Both were akumatized in mere minutes. 

“After Red Tornado got akumatized, Wonder Woman led the charge to put the rest of the zeta tubes on lockdown,” Duke says, grim. “All we can do now is hope that these Parisian superheroes can pull off a win.”

Bruce stumbles over to get a better view. He remembers Ladybug, small and slight in his arms. A child, crying over the loss of her pseudo parents. 

A warrior, bloody and bruised and broken.

She is one of the last ones standing.

King Monkey and an ox themed hero both died at Superman’s hands. The former got in the way of his laser beams, the latter a victim of super strength and getting thrown through two buildings and having their necks snap at an unsightly angle. Chat Noir was also sent hurtling through the air, and the only reason he was still alive was because Ladybug alighted from the sky and grabbed him before he got sent through a building in his unconscious state. Black Canary came shortly after, apparently informed of the Superman situation and carrying kryptonite. 

She didn’t last for long either. Almost immediately after helping Ladybug and Ryuko bind Superman in such a way that he couldn’t escape, 

Pegasus got hit by Black Canary’s sound waves and Chat Noir’s residual injuries from his fight with Superman forced him into a state of unconsciousness. Queen Bee and Carapace were able to pull off a win against Black Canary, but not without serious injuries. Ryuko faced off against Red Tornado alone, which normally would have been a thing of awe, but in the grander scheme of things, was a huge issue, as without her, the Miraculous Team functionally lost all of their heavy hitters. Rena Rouge and several Miraculous users that clearly had never been in battle before were the ones left to hold their own against the scores of akumatized Parisians.

The only ones left to hunt down Hawkmoth and Pavona were Ladybug and Viperion, and the former was already on her third use of Lucky Charm.

Ladybug pulls out her communicator, dodging an attack.

“Can we get sound on this?” Jason grips the closest table.

Dick shakes his head. “Zatara says there’s already enough interference just trying to get these images. And for some reason, Dr. Fate refuses to get involved with any of this.”

Bruce’s phone rings. He doesn’t pick it up on the first ring, too focused on the ongoing battles. He does take his phone out of his pocket to silence it the next time, but when he presses the sound off, an image comes through.

“Bruce.” Ladybug’s image comes through crystal clear, and it doesn’t make him feel any better. Ladybug, blood dripping from her mouth, costume torn open, hair burnt, wild eyed. 

He opens his mouth to speak, but the image goes blurry as she moves to avoid several attacks pointed towards her. 

“Before I go, I--”

“Watch out, LB!” Bruce lifts his eyes to the screen that displays Ladybug and Viperion in battle. The spotted heroine gets pushed out of the way of a laser, but the snake themed hero takes the hit.

The ambient noise coming from his phone is strong; he can hear blades clashing in the background as Chat Noir, already on his last legs attempts to hold off Darkblade. Screaming from civilians, a strangled sob from Ladybug. “Viperion.”

Ladybug comes back into view. Blue eyes filled with rage.

“If this doesn’t end in our favor, you need to make sure that Hawkmoth and Pavona do not acquire both the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous. Do whatever it takes to prevent that from happening.” She blinks, retreats into herself, and Bruce wonders if he’s seeing the girl behind the mask. 

“And If I don’t get to see you again--” If I’m dead, the words go unspoken, “I really did want the chance -- I-- you’re a good man. A good father. Your daughter-- she loves you. She really, really does. Stay safe.”

The transmission cuts off. On the screen in front of him, Ladybug closes her communicator, closes Viperion’s open eyes, and strides to the epicenter of the akumas. Blue fire flashes in her irises, and for a moment, she’s staring directly at the screen. And Bruce knows those eyes. He knows them. 

The next second, all of the computers simultaneously die.

Bruce is numb. No-- no.

He is nothing.

#

All his children-- no, not all his children, Marinette is missing, Marinette is Ladybug, and she’s out on a field that he can’t see grappling with magic forces strong enough to incapacitate Justice League members like their powers and abilities are inconsequential-- stare at him.

“That was… Ladybug?” Tim’s brow furrows. It’s clear that he’s thinking up a hundred different reasons why Ladybug and Batman are connected, why he’s the last person she calls before going into a battle that could very well cost her her life.

“My daughter.” The words are ash on his lips. An existence he’s never acknowledged. Not out loud. Saying it brings a sense of finality to the room. An impending death. “My daughter.”

Nobody asks how long he’s known or when he met her or why he’s never brought it up before. Everything is fuzzy. Floating. 

For a while, there’s silence. 

“Zatara says there’s too much interference to get the picture back up,” Dick opens his messages, frowning. 

Damian still stares at the screen Ladybug looked at directly, frozen.

Bruce picks himself up and moves. He may not be able to use the zeta tubes, but he has a private jet and a license, and he’ll be damned if he doesn’t do something.

#

It takes two hours too long to get to Paris. He shaved five hours off the flight length due to superior technology, and another hour and a half off due to sheer force of will. 

The landing is not a pretty thing, but Paris is already in shambles, and there’s no way that the ATC will approve his landing, so Bruce picks out the flattest looking spot of rubble before his jet meets the ground.

According to Tim and Duke, who stayed behind in case this turned out to be an attack spanning multiple cities, the battle ended mere minutes before they landed. Dick manages to get Zatara to broadcast the image in the cockpit of the jet, and on the screen lay three prone bodies. Gabriel Agreste, whose body type fits that of Hawkmoth, Lila, and a third that Bruce does not recognize. 

A bone sticks out of Marinette’s arm, the connected hand crushed and hanging limp. The opposing ankle is twisted almost fully backwards. She is covered in blood and ash and filth. There is no victory in her eyes. Only weariness.

In her good hand, she holds her yoyo. 

She raises her eyes skywards-- the roof of the Agreste mansion is blown clean off-- blinks slowly, and throws the yoyo into the air. 

“Miraculous Cure,” her lips read.

The corpses in Paris rise from the dead. Rubble reforms into buildings. The ashy haze that covered the city disappears.

Ladybug looks like she wants to disappear, too.

She collapses, instead.

Nobody is there to catch her when she drops to the floor. 

@biodad-bruce-month

Maribat tag list(to be added onto this pls send me an ask/dm): @our-precipreciousss @my-dear-friend-anxiety

Who Are You (and what will you become) tag list (to be added here just comment): @anjuschiffer @theunquiet-dead @certainmuffinbagelcalzone @cresentmo0n @allulily @myazael @zalladane @rebecarojas07 @keepingupwiththemalfoys  @frieddonutsweets @all-mights-asscheeks @thornalchemist23 @trippingovermyfeet @jiso-lee @redscarlet95 @ira-sairain @screechingflapbiscuitpeach @ramos123 @cutechip @theunquiet-dead @sleep-deprived-aroace @enternalempires @lilkymilky @woe-is-me0 @officiallydarkgeek @miyla-lokidottir @queencommonsense @demonicbusiness 

mb for not doing tag list right away i forgot i had these cued up already

[anjuschiffer]

Amira Wayne - Chapter 7

:3c

I exchanged @biodad-bruce-month‘s Day 7: Fashion Show with Fight!

Chapter 7: Fight

-

P.Tag: @theatreandcomicfreak @damianette-is-life @toodaloo-kangaroo @elijahcrevan

Tag: @vixen-uchiha @we-want-mini-mini @ramos123 @bluesimani @redscarlet95 @greatcatblaze @promiswords

-

MASTERLIST | FIRST | PREV | AO3

Amira looked at the white board inside her walk-in closet, reviewing the new information she got last night. During last night’s patrol, Amira took a break halfway through, using the time to ask Tikki more questions regarding the miraculous. 

They were earrings, which thankfully, can shift in design but can’t change its original form: earrings. 

So here was Amira, sporting all black studs. Simple and hidden in plain sight. Amira also found out that the appearance of the earrings can always be changed as Tikki doesn’t have to use too much energy to do so. Therefore, Amira has been planning on changing its appearance after every akuma attack, an easy tactic to see exactly how much Hawkmoth himself knows about the Ladybug miraculous.

Next up, her yo-yo. Turns out that it’s more than just that. While it works as a tracker and phone, it only works when Amira is transformed. No yo-yo, no way to communicate with Chat. Because of this, Amira decided to get him a burner phone to make sure the two can communicate outside the suit. Will also help in case they have to communicate during an energy break while there is an akuma. 

Her costume. Thankfully, Tikki had told her that it morphs into whichever design the holder has in their head. With more concentration on the design, the more the costume will have what the holder would want. After patrol, Amira made it her mission to get the utility belt in her design and after plenty of trial and errors, Amira got it. 

Now she had smoke pellets, a taser, a small utility knife and a first aid kit at her disposal. Of course, the belt came with a price - her dagger.

Brushing out her hair, Amira looked at her reflection. She always hated having long hair. While Dick always told her that he liked her hair when it was long (because he liked braiding it for her), Amira never took a shine to having long hair. 

It was a hassle to brush out, to clean. During track (even though she was only on the team for two years), Amira hated seeing other girls have their lucky amulets in their hair. A special pin or hair tie from their fathers and sometimes from their-

“-to Marinette!” Tikki yelled, snapping Amira from her trip down memory hell.

“Tikki, I live across the school. I won’t be late.” Marinette stated, continuing to stare at her reflection.

“I know that, but your phone has been buzzing nonstop!” Tikki said, showing her the multiple texts she was receiving.

Marinette took it, smiling when she saw they were from Wally and Dick, telling her to have a better day at school than yesterday’s disaster. “Are they from your friends?”

“You can say that.” Marinette said, tucking her phone into her pocket, looking at her reflection once again. “Tikki. Can you grab my fabric scissors on the table near my monitors?”

-

“It suits you.” Alya randomly told Marinette after the end of their first class. “Your hair, I mean. Don’t think I didn’t notice it.” Marinette simply blinked, wondering why people always said a compliment before bringing up their actual motives. “Name’s Alya-”

“-Cesaire. I know. Now if you excuse me, I have a class to get to.” Marinette filled in, getting up to leave, only for Alya to grab her wrist. “Let go.”

“Sorry!” Alya apologized, letting go of Marinette. “I just...I just wanted to tell you that you were a bit too harsh on Mlle Bustier yesterday. You should apologize.” Alya didn’t expect a scoff from Marinette.

“I’m not going to apologize for standing up for what I know is right.”

“Mlle Bustier-”

“-should’ve done her job correctly instead of enabling, especially now that Hawkmoth is a threat. But even with Hawkmoth out of the picture, Ms.Bustier shouldn’t have just assumed it was Ivan who instigated the argument. There’s always two sides of a story and we should always make it our job to figure out who is right. Sometimes, we even figure out why things happened the way they did. Sometimes, we find out we are wrong and when that happens, we have to accept it. If not, how else will we grow?”

With those words, Marinette gave Alya a little bow before going to her next class. Hopefully Marinette can find M. D'Argencourt during her break to try and convince him to let her join the fencing club...again.

 -

“Well, that went easier than I thought.” Marinette told herself, walking down the school steps. M. D'Argencour had happily accepted her into the team, proceeding to tell her the team’s schedule.

While it took a while to hunt the coach down, Marinette was about to find him towards the end of the day.

“Why exactly do you want to know fencing?” Tikki asked her from the pocket inside her sweater.

“I just found it...interesting.” Marinette lied, knowing she couldn’t tell Tikki that her father never let her take up the hobby. While Bruce had allowed Jason to learn how to use a sword, Jason quickly dropped it. Dick was also taught how to use a sword, but he complained how annoying it would be to carry it around, hence the reason why he carries escrima sticks.

While fencing wasn’t the same, fencing will help her gain more skills she can use during her fights. You never know after all.

After greeting Tom and Sabine and squishing Bridgette’s cheeks, Marinette made her way to her room, only to find him in there...again.

“If it’s about the Miraculous, I’m still not giving it to you.” Amira said, throwing her school bag to the floor. She whispered the renouncing spell before reaching into her jewelry box, where countless dupes rested. Oh how she wanted to cackle when she saw her father look at her with wide eyes. 

“Amira, hand them over.” Bruce ordered, stretching out his hand in hopes of Amira doing the correct thing.

“Why won’t you trust me?” Amira gritted, balling her fists. “Why don’t you trust me to do the right thing?”

“I do trust you.” Bruce said, taking a step forward. “That’s why I expect you-”

“I can’t just hand earrings over! The people need me! They need Ladybird to-”

“You don’t need to be running around Paris playing hero, Amira. Let Diana-”

“Must I remind you that I was given the earrings? It’s me who they want! Me! And no! I’m not playing hero! Hell, I’m not even a hero! I’m a vigilante! I’m doing what’s right by being Ladybird, by protecting the people the only way I can.” Amira reasoned, looking at her father. “And trust? Doesn’t that go both ways?” Amira set out a sigh she didn’t know she was holding in. “After all, when were you going to tell me about Batgirl? About...the new Robin?”

How Amira wanted to scream when Bruce remained silent. 

“How did you find out?” Amira scoffed.

“Find out? The whole internet was talking about it! My class was talking about just earlier today!”

It happened during break. Just as Marinette was leaving the class, she bumped into the second surprise of the day in the form of teen model Adrien Agreste. 

Adrien apologized for the accident when Chloe pulled him into the class and began to ‘teach’ him what it meant to be part of a school. The only reason Marinette even remained in class at that point was because she heard Adrien talk about this being his first time in a school...meaning that up until now, he had been homeschooled all his life.

Kinda how like she was up until she was around seven to eight years old. But to be homeschooled until 13? How lonely he must have been. Especially when she heard he was the only child at home.

You’re really ungrateful.

Marinette stiffened, feeling her heart pick up in pace upon remembering Jason’s words. She already knew that...she knew, but was it wrong of her to want something else? To want to have something different than what she currently had?

As Marinette was fighting off the beginnings of a breakdown, Alya’s sudden burst almost triggered it.

“Since when did Robin come back to Gotham?!” Alya yelled, rising from her seat. 

Marinette didn’t need to hear any more, running out of the classroom and locking herself into one of the girl’s bathroom stalls. While she hated having breakdowns, Amira was glad to have had one, as it helped her gained more insight on how Hawkmoth’s powers worked.

He can’t control you if you’re in the middle of an emotional breakdown and can’t register his words. In other words, he can’t control you if you’re already out of control. 

Guess it’s good to know that if Joker were to ever come to Paris, Hawkmoth wouldn’t be able to take over him. 

Amira looked at her father, awaiting for his response. “Under different circumstances, I would have forgiven you for replacing Jason with another guy. But it hasn’t been a year since he died and you’ve already replaced him. 

You know how Jason felt, you know he lived with the fear of doing a single thing that would give you a reason to kick him out of the manor. And while you always assured him you would never do that, here you are, doing just that.” Amira watched as her vision went blurry, wiping them away as she collected herself again. 

“I wasn’t replacing-“

“You were. You are. And not only have you replaced Jason, but it seems you’ve also replaced me.” Amira looked at herself. “Batgirl? Really? You know that was the name I wanted to use if you ever let me fight crime alongside you. Of course, that never happened.”

“Amira.”

“At this point, I don’t care what you do.” Amira gripped all the turmoil inside her. “Right now. I just want you to leave.”

“Amira.”

“Leave! I don’t want to see your face Bruce!” Amira yelled, shocking herself at her outburst. 

Bruce? Why did it feel so wrong, yet so right? She tried it again. “I don’t want you anywhere near me Bruce, so leave! Just leave!”

And he did.

As she watched Bruce leave her room with a heavy heart, she slumped to the floor, standing back up when she felt something approach her. “Tikki!” Tikki appeared before her. “Spots on!” A second later, an akuma appeared before her, Amira quickly capturing it. Before letting it go, Amira quickly searched for a glass jar and a box in her desk.

She let the now purified butterfly go into the jar, surprised to see that it didn’t phase through the jar. So it was just a normal butterfly after all. When coated in magic, the magic allowed it to phase through whatever it wanted to to ensure that it made it to its target.

Calling off her transformation, Amira quickly got to work, carefully placing a tracker on the butterfly’s wing. 

“Are you alright, Marinette?” Tikki asked, looking at her holder with worried eyes.

“I’m alright Tikki. I’m alright.”

-

No, she wasn’t alright.

The next day at school, Chloe tried to stick gum in her seat as a revenge plan for once again chewing out Mlle Bustier for allowing Chloe to interrupt the classroom with another one of her stupid excuses. Not to mention Chloe using her father’s position to get away with said excuse.

It didn’t help when Marinette was stuck with Alya trying to ask her about her past in Gotham and Alya claiming to be her friend.

They barely knew each other and this girl was already clinging to her like a newborn chick. 

While Marinette tried to avoid her at all costs, Alya always found her, Marinette hating it. Didn’t she know about personal space?

Her week got worse when Chat accepted the burner phone but refused to be trained by her. Something about him not needing it.

Thankfully, she was able to vent to Dick and Wally, although more to Wally since Dick was busy with university. 

Days went by and even then, Amira knew she was never going to adjust to life in Paris.

It’s only been four akumas and this city already thinks they saved the world. 

While technically they saved Paris, Ladybird and Chat have yet to fight off a Victim that can become a potential threat to the world. Bubbler and Mr.Pigeon weren’t exactly the worst to deal with, but they weren’t the easiest to take down either. As for Stormy Weather and Lady Wifi, Ladybird realized that it was Victims like them who posed a threat to France. Victims with intangible powers were a force to be reckoned with after all. 

But just because the duo saved Paris four times, it didn’t mean their work was done. They had yet to find out who Hawkmoth was.

Oh, did she mention the ridiculous statue they made in her and Chat’s honor because of the four Victims they took down so far? Long story short, she didn’t go to the ceremony and Chat must’ve told the artist something stupid because here they were. Fighting a Victim all thanks to Chat and his loud mouth.

“Chat! Stop trying to regain your honor and let me-” Ladybird yelled, only to get pushed back by his bo.

“No! This is my fight!” Chat hissed, attempting to land a hit on his copycat. Copycat grinned as he parried all of Chat’s hits, flinging Chat’s bo to the side when he saw an opening. 

“He’s good.” Chat said, landing next to Ladybug as he retreated. Ladybird scoffed, gaining an arched brow from her partner.

“He’s good? Got some pretty low standards there Chat. Have you ever seen Nightwing in combat? This guy is nothing compared to him.” With that, Ladybird charged into the fight, picking up Chat’s bo and using it against Copycat.

The two fought, Ladybird noticing Copycat starting to hit her with less force, more sloppily. He was starting to become more aggressive, half of his hits missing. 

“Chat! Switch!” Ladybird yelled, knocking Copycat’s staff from his hands and throwing Chat his own back to him.

With Chat distracting Copycat, Ladybird waited for the perfect- there!

Chat had launched Copycat into the air, Ladybird using this to wrap him with her yo-yo and slamming him down. Holding him down, Ladybird turned to Chat.

“Where’s his akuma?”

“Here!” Chat said, taking out a photo from Copycat’s pocket. Ripping it, it released the akuma, Ladybird unwrapping her yo-yo and capturing the akuma. Now purified and having the tracker implanted, Ladybird released the butterfly. 

“Miraculous Ladybug!” Ladybird watched as everything was returned and fixed. Turning to Chat, she glared at him. “I’ll be done here in a few minutes. Meet you at the rendezvous in a few.”

NEXT

[arty-shadow-morningstar]

Who Made Me a Villain (5)

To the ppl who read my fics only on tumblr, I am sorry. I have been posting a lot on ao3 and I keep forgetting that I have a tumblr acc. I will try to be more mindful in the future.

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[Masterlist] [Ao3]

(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Here) (Part 6)

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“B, what’s all this?” Dick asked during one of his visits to Gotham. He was here for Alfred’s cooking.

Upon seeing the eye bags on Bruce, Dick was understandably worried. “Have you slept at all, Bruce?”

“A few days ago, Rebel brought something serious to my attention.”

Bruce had spent days working on the case Rebel had dropped into his lap. He felt that she had summarised the situation too simply. Or she was unaware of what the full extent of the situation was due to her lack of experience and knowledge.

John Constantine was unhelpful in getting more information on the Miraculous but did confirm their presence in Paris in the same period Rebel had given. Rebel had given more information than him.

Zatanna said that she would sort through her father’s journals to give him a definite answer but told him that it was likely Rebel was telling the truth about Paris. There were surges of the magical equivalent of earthquakes from Paris which her father had gone to check out a few years ago.

Diana had overheard their conversation and talked about how her mother used to wield the Ladybug Miraculous. She promised to talk to her mother for more information. Bruce decided to ask Doctor Fate later if his research wasn’t enough.

However, the thing that had Bruce tearing apart his training dummies like they were paper was the good-for-nothing, sham of a man that Paris had for a mayor.

Mayor André Bourgeois had blocked all news about the akuma from getting out of the city. He didn’t report about it to the Justice League European branch and blocked all attempts to prevent others from reporting it. His reasoning was that the child heroes were enough. That was just the political side of things.

To further make things worse, the heroes who were stationed in France all claimed to have been told to be relocated to other cities by the Justice League Headquarters. They did as they were told under the assumption that someone else would be filling in for them. Just before Hawkmoth struck.

Bruce investigated that lead and it appears that someone had sent out that order but Bruce hadn’t figured out who it was yet or whether it really was sent by one of the Justice League. Either they had a mole or the JL Headquarters needed a new update to their systems.

Then, one of Zatanna’s contacts in Paris had informed her that magic helped in preventing news of akuma reaching outside of Paris.

By the time Dick came to the Manor, Bruce was hours deep into the many footage he had spent the most of the day collecting from the internet. He started with the first akuma where Ladybug and Chat Noir were practically strangers shoved together and forced to rely on each other. He didn’t like that the Parisians were forcing the love narrative between the two of them. Ladybug had the sense to focus on her job and remain professional while Chat Noir tried to enforce the love story. He was not pleased with that interview.

The Ladyblog that was run by a very dedicated teenager was very helpful in getting raw footage of most fights, albeit a bit shaky and blurry. He was currently watching the blog owner’s interview with Ladybug. How she got an interview with the very elusive heroine Batman doesn’t know. There was something about the heroine that caught his attention. It felt like he had met Ladybug before.

Dick skimmed over the notes Batman had taken. He whistled. “This is pretty crazy.”

“Why are you doing all of this research?” Dick asked.

“Hawkmoth. I am trying to track him down.”

“Wait, you are telling me that there is a powerful supervillain in Paris and these kids are heroes? They look like babies. They don’t even know how to properly fight.”

“We are already too late. Hawkmoth has been defeated and stripped of his powers.”

“So what’s the problem? Is he coming back?”

Bruce sighed heavily and showed off his days of research to Dick.

“Rebel had been planning something for months. Something big. I asked the reason behind it all. She asked me to bring him to justice and she would call it all off. Apparently, the leader of the hero team, Ladybug, gave Hawkmoth the equivalent of the slap on the wrist and Rebel doesn’t agree with him being off the hook that easily. He got his wife in exchange for giving back the Miraculous under his possession and didn’t face consequences for his little foray into villainy.”

“How does she know what happened to Hawkmoth?” Dick asked, “It just says that no akumas was seen for a month and then, Ladybug announced that Hawkmoth was defeated before disappearing forever.”

“According to her, Rebel used to be one of the heroes going against Hawkmoth.” Bruce told him.

Dick nearly fumbled the file in his hand due to the surprise.

“Oh. Um. That- That explained a few things. The experience in fighting. Those acrobatic stunts. Former hero, huh.”

It left a bitter taste in his mouth. The thought of somebody who was once a hero turning to the dark side.

Dick changed the subject. “Any luck finding him?”

“I have one suspect. He’s the one that fits the profile.”

Bruce handed Dick a file.

“Gabriel Agreste.”

Dick looked through it. “He’s a fashion designer. That doesn’t exactly scream evil to me.”

“Even without Rebel’s hints. He’s still suspicious.” Bruce said. “I am meeting him in a month to get a feel for him.”

Dick closed the file. “Even if he is Hawkmoth, it’s been a few years since his defeat. We can’t just take him in.”

Bruce suddenly looked very tired.

Tim popped up from where the pile of blankets besides the Batcomputer that Dick hadn’t noticed. Dick’s and Bruce’s voices have woken him up.

Dick definitely did not scream.

“Tim! How long were you there?” Dick asked, putting his escrima sticks away.

“A few hours I think.” Tim replied and yawned.

“Anyhoo,” Tim started, “Rebel had already taken care of that part. She had been using different accounts to sow seeds of conspiracy theories and rumours for people online to find Hawkmoth’s true identity. No mention of Gabriel being Hawkmoth or it won’t be taken seriously if the truth comes out. I think she is trying to spread the idea that Hawkmoth must be taken in to face the legal system.”

“Why is she going that far?”

Bruce was silent for a moment. “Hawkmoth was part of the reason she was framed for murder.”

“Framed? Why do you think that she was framed? Her father is the Joker. The Joker. The one who killed Jason.”

Bruce stiffened. Jason had left Gotham after their last showdown. Last Bruce heard of him, Jason had teamed up with Roy Harper to form his own mercenary team.

“I know. But children are not their parents.”

Bruce handed Dick another file.

“Her case file and the transcript of her trial. Read it and draw your own conclusions.” Bruce instructed.

Dick took it.

“You are not going to like it, Dick.” Tim said.

—--

A day later, Dick came back, storming into the Batcave.

He slammed the file in front of Bruce.

“What the fuck is wrong with people? How did something like this get past you?” Dick demanded furiously.

There was the last thing that was cherry on the icing of the cake that was this whole situation.

-

Rebel was not supposed to be in Arkham Asylum. She was not supposed to get a life sentence. She was not supposed to have fourteen charges of first-degree homicide to her name.

Dick read the trial proceeding.

It was way over exaggerated and very dramatised. He thought that he was reading the script for a courtroom soap opera drama. Dick even went as far as to hack into the French government to get the untranslated copy of the files and it was just as bad but in French. It didn’t take him long to find the blatant amount of bribes that were tossed around. The very obvious abuse of power. Every odds was stacked against Rebel. The unnecessary DNA test that unfortunately brought her to Gotham.

No wonder Marinette Dupain-Cheng turned to a life of crime. Everyone was dead set on labelling her the bad guy.

Then, he read Gabriel Agreste’s involvement in the case. His son was part of Rebel’s old class. Their classmates spoke about Rebel’s stalker tendencies towards him. But Dick kept an open mind, knowing how exaggerated everything was. Gabriel had blacklisted Rebel from every company in the fashion industry he had connections with. That move confused Dick until he found out that Rebel was trying to be an aspiring designer. It was essentially salt in her wounds.

Dick simply couldn’t understand the witch hunt against Rebel. 

-

“Bruce, we have to do something about this.” Dick said.

“The only thing we can do right now is bring Hawkmoth in before Rebel takes it into her own hands.”

“What do you mean by that?” Dick asked.

Tim injected. “You already know that Rebel had been acting suspicious for the past few months. She had been meeting up with several different villains and secret projects we couldn’t figure out until now.”

“We found a warehouse in Washington connected to her that contained these strange stone statues.”

Bruce pulled up a picture of the stone statues in the warehouse.

“Now look at the clip of the first akuma attack.”

Bruce played a clip of Stoneheart attack. The monster looked similar to the stone statues in the photo.

“Going through the akuma fights and her movements in the past few months. It is obvious what she is trying to plan.”

Picture of Rebel talking to many different ice villains with a powerpoint presentation and a clip of the Glaciator attack.

Picture of a machine that could create floods that the Teen Titan had managed to shut down a few years back and picture of Paris being flooded.

Picture of Weather Wizard, next to a picture of Stormy Weather.

“She’s trying to recreate akuma fights.” Dick concluded. “And making it seem like Hawkmoth was back.”

Bruce nodded gravely. “I wouldn’t have figured it out if Rebel didn’t deliberately let me in on her plans. She exposed a great problem we had missed. She is giving us, the League, a chance to rectify our mistake.”

Rebel was not counting on the legal justice system to bring Hawkmoth to justice. She was counting on him as Batman to make sure that Hawkmoth ended up with the same fate as her. His reputation torn apart and dragged through mud. Behind bars for the rest of his life with the supervillain mark following him everywhere.

Or she will forcefully do it by bringing the whole world down to force the Justice League in carrying it out.

“Without Ladybug’s miraculous power, it would be disastrous for us and we would have a lot of civilian casualties.”

“I don’t think she would do that, Bruce.” Tim argued.

“Then, lock her up.” Dick suggested.

“Arkham is currently in no position to take her in.” Bruce said. He looked resigned.

Dick looked at Tim for an explanation which he helpfully provided. “It was being renovated a few months ago to put in a new security system. In the chaos, her records were wiped out from the system and her physical reports went missing. Every copy was gone. So even if we arrest her now, we have to find a pretty good justification to keep her there legally. We only have these copies because Bruce regularly back-ups the Arkham database onto the Batcomputer and the Bat-net.”

Dick cursed. While they could just put it back, it wasn’t worth the headache if it was erased again.

“What about the police? Won’t they have her records?”

“Same thing. We think she did it when Clayface attacked the police a while back.”

“How about her original case that sent her to Arkham?”

“It was erased too. We need to get to Paris in order to access their database or if she erased her case, then we need to get the physical copy and we would have to go through so much legal bullshit to get it. That will take months.”

“She covered everything.” Dick said, amazed.

“She thought of all the possibilities and covered all of her bases. She had been staying under the radar and not getting caught.” Bruce said.

“He means that he got caught in her traps if we try to catch her.” Tim said with a shit eating grin on his face.

Bruce grumbled.

“You? How did you even get caught?” Dick asked.

“Rube Goldberg machines.” Tim answered.

“Rube what?”

“Here.” Tim opened up Youtube and showed Dick a video of a marble rolling down a pipe and then knocking down a row of dominoes in a spiral which continued to set off a chain of reactions that ended with a ball going neatly through a hoop and triggering a banner that said ‘WOW!’ to pop up.

“So that’s what it is called.” Dick commented. “Aren’t these like super complicated to do? She couldn’t have set them up that quick …unless she had them set up beforehand.”

“According to my research, she has at least 50 of these set up in different locations around Gotham. There are videos of people setting these off on purpose. Rebel is always making more. They usually have victims stuck in a net or a hole. Or have water, paint or liquids splashed onto them.”

“She did that? That picture you sent me where Bruce had yellow pain all over him?”

Bruce glared at Tim.

A derisive snort came from the entrance of the Bat cave.

They all turned to look at the newest addition to the house.

Damian Al Ghul. Well, Damian Al Ghul Wayne now.

“I find it hard to believe that this one petty criminal got the better of all of you.” He said mockingly.

“Damian.” Bruce said. “Even if she is just a petty criminal, she cannot be underestimated. You must never underestimate your opponent, no matter how deceiving they look.”

“Perhaps Father, you and Drake aren’t good at doing your jobs.”

“Like you would be any better catching her.” Tim said under his breath.

“If it was up to me, she would be killed on sight.” Damian continued.

“Damian, we do not kill here. People deserve another chance to redeem themselves.” Bruce explained like he had a thousand times before.

Damian scowled. “I don’t need to kill. I have brought in targets alive before.”

The way he said it implied that those targets were in a state where their hearts were the only things that could still move.

“Do you really believe that you can catch Rebel?” Tim asked.

“I don’t have to believe. I know I can.” Damian answered, disdain in his voice that Tim dared to doubt his skills.

“I bet you can’t.” Tim taunted.

Damian lunged but was stopped by Dick who grabbed his shoulder.

“Boys!” Bruce shouted. “Tim, stop antagonising him. Damian, you know you aren’t allowed to go out on patrol.”

“No!” Damian demanded. “Drake has issued me a challenge. I will not back down. I will prove to him and you that I can catch that petty criminal that goes by Rebel.”

His declaration was filled with the determination and stubbornness that all eleven year olds seemed to possess.

Bruce rubbed his head at the oncoming headache.

He knew that despite whatever he gave, Damian would go behind his back and against his orders to fulfil his self-assigned mission of capturing Rebel.

“Tim, this is all your fault. I am blaming you for this. You will be washing the Batmobile for a month.” Bruce said after some thinking.

“Bruce!” Tim complained. “What did I do?”

“You started it. And Damian, I will let you go after Rebel.”

Damian gave Tim a smug grin.

“However,” Bruce continued. “There will be a few conditions.”

Damian stood up straighter and paid attention. “One, Nightwing will be with you.”

“What? Why, Bruce?” It was Dick.

“I am busy with the Hawkmoth case. Tim and Damian shouldn’t be together. Cass and Steph are busy with their own things. I don’t think Jason wants anything to do with me and he’s out of town. Babara has no desire to watch Damian.”

“Thank you, Bruce.” Oracle’s voice came from the Batcomputer.

“Tch. Grayson is an acceptable choice.” Damian said with a sniff.

“Fine. I can stay for a week or two. Give me a few hours to sort some things out.” Dick threw up his hands in defeat.

“However, he will not be helping you. He is going to be monitoring your every move and he will intervene if it was a life and death situation.” Bruce added.

“Fine.” Damian replied.

“Two, when you bring Rebel in, she should not have sustained any life-threatening and fatal injuries. She should also possess all of her limbs intact.”

Damian scowled harder. “I know my limits. Anything else?”

“Three, do not kill anyone to achieve your goals.”

“Got it.”

“Your deadline to bring her in is in three months. You will report to me on your progress every morning. That’s all. Any questions?”

“No. I will not fail you, Father.” Damian said seriously.

“Does anyone else find this funny?” said Dick. “Son of Batman hunting down daughter of Joker. Children of two arch-enemies repeating history.”

“That only means that I am destined to bring her in.” Damian further solidified his mission.

—--

Forty-eight hours later, found Damian, currently going by Redbird, tied up, covered in green paint and dangled upside-down over a vat of something that smelled utterly foul.

Rebel landed near Nightwing and asked, “So what’s the deal with the new kid?”

Nightwing extended a hand dramatically towards Damian, “That’s Batman’s blood son.”

Rebel frowned. “Is this going to be a thing now? Child of Batman versus child of Joker. Because I really don’t want to hurt the kid that much.”

“I AM NOT A CHILD.” Redbird yelled as he struggled against his restraint. “Nightwing, help me get untied and catch the villain!”

“Would a dip in that kill him?” Nightwing asked, pointing at the vat of whatever that was. He wanted to stay more than 20 feet away due to the smell alone.

Rebel shrugged.

“Probably not. It’s just water from the Gotham River with the contents of the nearest dumpster emptied into it.”

Nightwing shivered. He had taken a dip in the icy cold waters of Gotham River before. It was not pleasant. And the amount of showers he had to take to finally get rid of the smell.

“Good news, Redbird.” Nightwing shouted back. “You won’t die if you fall.”

Redbird threw some words in Arabic that sounded a lot like swears.

“So… I ask again. What’s up with the kid?”

“He thinks that Batman would accept him as the one true heir of the Batman title if he catches you.” Nightwing explained. “It has nothing to do with the blood rivalry thing. He’s trying to prove Batman wrong by trying to succeed in catching you when Batman and Robin - especially Robin - couldn’t catch you.”

“It’s there like a deadline for this? Because I really don’t want to play cats and dogs forever with the gremlin.”

“Oh yeah. There is.”

Rebel smirked. “That means I just have to up my game then. Thanks for the heads up, Bluey.”

Nightwing’s smile faded as he realised his slip-up. “Damn it. Baby Bat is going to kill me.”

“Hey, can I use that nickname?”

“Does it matter if I say no?” Nightwing said.

“Nope.” Rebel said with a laugh as she slipped away into the shadows. 

—--

A Bat signal shone in the night sky. Calling Batman to action.

However, it was not Commissioner Gordon who met Batman on the rooftop that night.

“Commissioner-”  Batman immediately went on guard as a petite figure of Rebel greeted him instead of the broad shoulders of the Commissioner.

“What did you do to him, Rebel?” Batman growled out.

“Chill, Mister Bat, he’s dealing with an anonymous tip off for his latest case at the other side of the city. I just flipped the switch to your nightlight to get your attention. Less messy than other methods, don’t you agree?” Rebel explained as she switched the Bat-signal light off.

He glared at her. “What do you want?”

“A week is up. So what are you going to do?”

Batman gave a tired sigh. To be honest, he had forgotten about the deadline. There were so many things he had to take care of. Starting with the possible Justice League breach. An entire city being under attack and no one noticing until the problem was gone. The investigation into who Hawkmoth was. Finally, dealing with a testy Damian who didn’t take his loss against Rebel well.

“My conclusions showed me that you were telling the truth about akumas. I would like to apologise on the behalf of the Justice League for our massive oversight. You were a child that had to fight a war without support.”

“I won that damn war. Without your help.” Rebel said defensively.

“Yes. You did. I am not criticising your achievement, Rebel. I am just pointing out that you were a child fighting those monsters everyday and some of those monsters had been a family or a friend. You shouldn’t have to carry a burden like that on your shoulders. Even Nightwing had me to look after him until he could step out of my shadow to fly on his own.”

“We weren’t alone.”

“You weren’t. You had other people who were as clueless as you about what to do. No one taught you the basics. You had to learn how to fight all on your own. You had to learn to do it right on the first try because a mistake would cause you everything. I am sorry that we weren’t there to provide that guidance.”

“Why are you apologising for that? You didn’t know.”

Batman’s frown became deeper. “That is exactly the problem. Something this big slipped under our radar.”

He went on to explain about how the oversight occurred. If anything, Rebel looked surprised by the news.

“So you're telling me that I could have had help. I wouldn't have to do it all on my own if it wasn’t for a lot of people meddling.”

She sounded angry. The comment about her doing it all on her own confirmed a theory Batman entertained. There was a little evidence that pointed out otherwise but with magic there was no telling if the evidence wasn’t faked.

“We never realised until now. We have failed you.” Batman apologised.

“Kwami. All this time. I thought you were too busy with your own world-saving to pay attention to Paris. Fucking Mayor Bourgeois. Fuck Magic. Fuck whoever mess with your systems. Fuck Hawkmoth.” Rebel screamed. “What else? What else do I have to know that I didn’t know?”

“That’s mostly it. I am here to get your account of what exactly happened during those years.” Batman paused (Dramatic bitch) “I also need you to confirm the identity of Hawkmoth.”

“Well…” Rebel inclined her head for him to continue.

“Gabriel Agreste.”

Rebel smiled from under her mask. “Bingo. As expected of the World’s Greatest Detective.”

She pulled out a flash drive from her pocket and handed it to Batman. “Here’s everything I wrote down from what I remembered.”

“How did you know I would ask for it?” Batman asked as he took it and put it away in his utility belt.

“I didn’t. I was going to send that to every news station when I start my Armengeddon plans.”

Batman stared at Rebel, waiting for her to hand over her Armengeddon plans she had given the other villains.

Rebel stared back at him defiantly.

“Hand them over.” Batman demanded.

“I already gave you what you needed.” Rebel said with a raised eyebrow, pretending to be oblivious about what Batman wanted.

“What about your Armengeddon plans?”

“Oh. Those plans. Yeah. Gimme a minute.” Rebel reached into her jacket inner pocket and took out a slim notebook. She tossed it to Batman who expertly caught it.

He flipped through it and noticed the jagged edges of pages torn out. He also noticed that none of the plans that involved other villains were in the book.

“Where are the missing plans?” Batman asked harshly.

“You thought it was going to be easy?” Rebel said amused. “I want definite proof that you are working on taking him in.”

“How long do I have to get you proof?” Batman asked cautiously.

“When is the deadline for your son to catch me?”

Batman knew that tone. He had heard that tone from the clown before Joker pulled out the punchline.

“In three months.”  He answered.

“That’s around when the plan is supposed to start anyways. Then, if you don’t have it by the time Redbird catches me, you won’t get the plans. However, if he doesn’t catch me by the three month deadline, you will get the plans and I will tell the others that everything is called off.”

Batman had a feeling that if Rebel wasn’t wearing her mask, there would be a smile on her face identical to the one Joker would usually wear for his maniacal plans.

Children aren’t always their parents. But they sometimes inherit their parent's worst traits.

“Deal.”

What other options did he have but to play along with her games.

—-

After Rebel was gone, Redbird came out of the shadows.

“Father, what is the meaning of this?” He demanded. Redbird had been hiding to unleash a surprise attack when Rebel proposed that inane condition to Batman.

Batman sighed. “We will talk more back at the Cave.”

“I want an explanation now.”

“Just hold off trying to catch her for at least a week, Redbird. I am not going to stop you from your task. Maybe use that time to observe her instead.”

Redbird huffed but nonetheless accepted the compromise.

“Fine. It gives me more time to make more well thought out plans.”

“Since she would mostly be at school, you won’t have to do much.”

Batman grappled off the roof and Redbird followed.

When they reached the Batmobile, Redbird turned to his father and said.

“Father, I have been thinking. Perhaps I should infiltrate her school in order to get closer and gain more information on her movements.”

Bruce looked at him in surprise, remembering the first time he suggested Damian going to school and being told that he was never going to step foot into a subpar teaching environment.

“Are you sure, Damian?”

“I am sure.” Damian said firmly.

“I will call the principal in the morning and arrange everything.” 

—

“Come back here, you-” The insult was lost as Redbird comically stepped on the rake. The handle hit his face like those old cartoon gags.

A slew of Arabic curses were unleashed.

"Tick-tock, birdy." Rebel taunted as Redbird held his broken nose. "It's nearly midnight and I am not still not in chains or behind bars."

"I should have your tongue cut out for your insolence." 

"That threat lost its charm about two months ago." Rebel replied in a bored tone.

"Be more creative. Like ‘I will slowly take a small piece of your tongue a day, roast it and force feed it to you’." Rebel declared with an imitation of Redbird’s voice but slightly higher pitch than it actually was.

“I will gladly do so.” The threat probably would have sounded more intimidating if Redbird wasn’t still holding his broken nose and didn’t sound like he had a very bad nasal problem.

Rebel covered her mask with her hand as if trying to hide a smirk.

“Well, little bird, if you are done with your threats, I will be off- WHAT THE FUCK!”

Rebel didn’t look where she was going and had fallen down the hole in the roof that was hidden with a tarp..

Redbird grinned as he peered over the hole where Rebel had fallen into a cage he had set up to work like a bear trap.

“You aren’t the only one skilled with traps in this city.” He boasted.

Nightwing landed, giving Redbird an appreciative whistle and applause.

“Good job, baby Bat.”

“Call the police, Nightwing. Tell them I have the fiend, Rebel, in custody.” Redbird said.

“Sure thing.”

Redbird turned to give Rebel a smug look at his sure victory. It immediately got wiped out as he saw Rebel dangling her legs over the hole she fell down a few minutes ago.

She gave him a cheeky wave.

“HOW?” Damian exploded. “HOW DID YOU ESCAPE MY FOOLPROOF TRAP?!”

“It’s not foolproof if a fool like me could get out of it that easily. Nice setup though. Gave me a few ideas for my next project.”

Redbird growled and launched himself at her. Rebel rolled out of his way.

Landing nimbly, Redbird charged at her and threw a few attacks. Rebel effortlessly dodged every one of them.

Nightwing watched with a bored look on his face as Redbird chased Rebel around the rooftop.

“Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk. I'm a woman's man, no time to talk ....”

Rebel took out her phone and turned off her alarm as she ducked a birdarang.

“It’s midnight! And you know what that means. You just failed your mission.” Rebel announced cheerfully.

Redbird yelled in anger and charged at her.

Nightwing stepped in between the two to restrain Redbird.

“Chill, baby bat. You need to calm down. She won, fair and square.”

“And just as promised, I will send over the plans I made for the other villain to the Big Guy.” Rebel continued as she walked backwards to the edge of the rooftop.

“See ya around, Birdies.” She said as she jumped back off the roof while giving them a finger salute.

Nightwing hurriedly let go of Damian and ran to look over the parapet wall. Rebel appeared to be perfectly fine after a five-storey drop and was calmly putting her helmet on. She got on her bike and drove off.

“Um… guys.” Oracle’s voice came over the comms. “There is actually fifteen minutes left until midnight. She lied.”

The two vigilantes looked at each other and cursed. They grappled off, trying their best to catch the cunning villain.

—

“I am sorry that I failed you, Father.” Damian reported.

Three months should have been more than sufficient for him to complete his assigned task successfully. He even had subjected himself to the establishment called a school in order to catch Rebel.

Each time, he thought that he was close to capturing the most slippery villain in all of Gotham. Something would interfere in his plans and Rebel continued to walk free.

Head down ashamed as he kneeled on the cold floor of the Batcave to receive his punishment. Damnit, why was his vision getting blurry?

The shadow from his father’s cape moved closer and blocked out the light. Damian braced for the pain.

Damian was confused when he felt his Father placed his hand on his head. It felt… odd and comforting.

“It’s alright. You did your best. Even with the restriction I placed on you.” Bruce said.

Damian’s confusion increased.

“But… I failed.”

It did hurt to admit his failure but he was more confused by his father’s actions. Grandfather would have given out some sort of punishment by now. Like going against some of the League’s Finest on his own.

The hand moved from his head to his shoulder.

“Look at me, Damian.”

Damian obeyed and met his father’s blue eyes. The colour reminded him of the flowers his mother would sometimes wear in her hair when Grandfather was out of Nanda Parbat.

“Even if you had failed in your task, you still had helped me.”

Damian was flabbergasted.

“How?”

“In order to capture her, you monitored her every move. Because of you and your reports, I knew her every move. Avoiding your attempts kept Rebel so busy that she wasn’t able to work on her plans as much. Which gives me more time to work on how to bring Hawkmoth in.”

“I still failed.”

“And I am telling you that you still did a good job. You can learn from this experience and learn how to do better.” Bruce said.

“Aren’t you going to punish me?”

“No. I am not going to punish you for this.”

The answer seemed to have shifted Damian’s worldview. It broke Bruce’s heart to know how Damian had been treated. Being punished for failure which made Damian scared to fail.

“How.. how can you…”

Damian didn’t seem to comprehend that there would be no punishments for failing.

“Damian.” Bruce said gently. “I know that this is hard for you to comprehend but we do things differently here. We do not kill. And we do not punish people for simply failing.”

“But Drake… Batmobile.”

Oh right, grounding.

“I will reiterate. I will not physically hurt you as punishment for failing your mission. I do not like raising my hand to people I call family. Yes, you are part of it now, Damian, no matter how unexpected your arrival was. I prefer giving you chores to do instead. Like washing the Batmobile. Giving Ace a bath. Organising the case files. Helping Alfred around the Manor. Even then, it’s only if you misbehave and go against the rules of the Manor. And you may see them as pointless but they were put in place to keep you safe. I don’t want to see any of you hurt. Yes, including you, Damian.”

Bruce hoped that he got through Damian. Made him see that things were different now but they were a good kind of different. Maybe now Damian would let him in and be the better person Bruce knew he could be.

Bruce thought all of this as he hugged the slightly shaking boy in his arms who hid his face with Bruce’s chest.  ------ (Part 6) ----

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He Who Laughs Last

He Who Laughs Last by legends live in memories

“Do you want to be here?” Her breath hitched at the question.

Two years of her returned servitude to the Order and no one had ever asked her this. No one had ever asked her what she wanted. She felt her nails dig into the flesh of her palm, the sting a distraction from her racing mind.

“No, I don't.”

“Then go.”

BD!Bruce Wayne Day 18- Heroes/Villains

Words: 2777, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 18 of Welcome to The Family- bd!bwm21

Fandoms: Maribat - Fandom, Miraculous Ladybug

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: Gen

Characters: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Bruce Wayne, Su-Han, Joker

Relationships: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Bruce Wayne, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Su-Han, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug

Additional Tags: MariBat, mbdbwm2021, MaribatBDBWM2021, biodad!brucewaynemonth, i swear i can be nice to the characters, marinette gets some much needed closure, Marinette Dupain-Cheng Needs a Hug, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Joker is his own warning, I'm Sorry Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, WHY IS THAT ITS OWN TAG IM DEAD

Read Here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/33961609

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

He Who Laughs Last

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3ApheNp

by legends_live_in_memories

“Do you want to be here?” Her breath hitched at the question.

Two years of her returned servitude to the Order and no one had ever asked her this. No one had ever asked her what she wanted. She felt her nails dig into the flesh of her palm, the sting a distraction from her racing mind.

“No, I don’t.”

“Then go.”

BD!Bruce Wayne Day 18- Heroes/Villains

Words: 2777, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 18 of Welcome to The Family- bd!bwm21

Fandoms: Maribat - Fandom, Miraculous Ladybug

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: Gen

Characters: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Bruce Wayne, Su-Han (Miraculous Ladybug), Joker

Relationships: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Bruce Wayne, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Su-Han, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug

Additional Tags: MariBat, mbdbwm2021, MaribatBDBWM2021, biodad!brucewaynemonth, i swear i can be nice to the characters, marinette gets some much needed closure, Marinette Dupain-Cheng Needs a Hug, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Joker is his own warning, I'm Sorry Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, WHY IS THAT ITS OWN TAG IM DEAD

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3ApheNp

[virgil-is-a-cutie]

Okay, hi Netty, I love how you write...But imagine this: BioDad!Joker (Marinette's), just imagine that messed up shit, ml class salt, except for Nathaniel, Chloe, Adrien, and Nino... I love your writing and thanks, bye...

Oh wait what??? Awww thanks! Omfg really? Why???

I love this but like...which joker?

The Dark Knight Joker?

Suicide Squad Joker?

Or Jerome from the show Gotham who I like to hdc becomes Joker?

Which one??? Like...tell me and I will absolutely fucking tutly do it but I need to really work on othet things but I promise I'll make headcanons.

Just...which of the 3????

Send Me Asks

[brutallytiredofbeing19]

Between the choice of doing my essay on animal experimentation and Bio!dad Joker AU, i chose Biodad! Joker.

[arty-shadow-morningstar]

Who made me a Villain (3)

[Masterlist] [Ao3]

(Part 1) (Part 2)(here) (Part 4)

------

Rebel hummed to the tune of Jagged Stone’s newest single as she spray-painted her newest masterpiece on the wall of some office building. The full moon shone bright enough for her to see without the need for a flashlight.

Then a dark shadow loomed over her.

Rebel ignored the glare Batman was giving her, focusing on the shading of her mural.

“Rebel.” came his one-worded demand.

She didn’t look at him and took a step back to admire her nearly finished handiwork instead.

“I feel like something is missing here.” she said, slightly tilting her head and tapping her lips in thought. Or the approximate location where her lips would be since the lower half of her face was covered by a mask.

Batman kept staring at her. Perfectly still but his impatience was still obvious from his body language.

“Oh.” She clapped her hands as inspiration struck her. “What if I added some thorny vines here?” she said. She motioned with her hand where the vines would spread out from her portrait of Poison Ivy.

“Add a subtle threat, don’t you think so, Monsieur Bat?” She turned around to face him, finally acknowledging his presence.

“Rebel.” He narrowed his eye lenses to show that he was giving her the ‘tired dad glaring at her’ face.

“It’s not like I am doing anything bad.” She shrugged her shoulders and rummaged through her duffel bag for her green paint can.

“You are vandalising the property.”

“So do you on a regular basis.”

“Hn.” He grunted, not able to refute that statement.

A snort came from behind her, “Hah. She got you there, B.”

Rebel jumped, startled.

“Damn it, Robin. You know I hate it when you bat-people sneak up on me like that.”

Robin just smirked at her.

“This is completely unfair, you know. Ganging up on me like this.” Rebel complained as she uncapped her green spray paint can and shook it.

“What do you know about the Red Hood?”

Oh no. Rebel hated that voice of Batman. If she was on less friendlier terms with Batman, like the Penguin, she probably would have been thrown to the wall. She would have to get an arm cast, just like the Penguin had for the past month.

Rebel paused in what she was doing.

“Why are you asking me about that?” She asked, genuinely confused about why Batman had asked her of all people about the newest vigilante/maybe villain in Gotham. “Like you aren’t the head of the Rebellion, the biggest gang in all of Gotham.” Robin said, with a wide grin. “And best information network on all things criminal.”

“Don’t call me that.” Rebel groaned. 

People seemed to think the ‘Rebellion’ worked for her no matter how much she corrected them on the misunderstanding and she was getting tired of correcting them.

“I am not leading the gang. I am just their consultant. For commiting crimes. A Consulting Criminal if you will. They were shit at planning so all I did was come up with the plans. They get great results and a good rep. I get paid. Mutually beneficial arrangement. Just because they named themselves after me, doesn’t mean I lead them.”

“Riiight.” Robin didn’t sound convinced. “Anyway, you gotta have heard something.”

Rebel sighed.

“Red Hood. Red Hood.” 

She tried to remember what Lay, her main contact with the gang and the actual leader of the Rebellion, said at their last regular meet-up at Bat-burger.

“Oh, the decapitated-heads guy.”

Batman’s face became frownier. Rebel took that as a sign to continue.

“Yeah, the guy showed up at the latest meet of every top group in Gotham. The big players, you know. Which was only held in the first place to discuss what they were going to do about him.”

Rebel chuckled at the slight irony of it. She had turned back from Batman to continue on her mural.

“Ten minutes in. He showed up with a duffel bag filled with the heads of every lieutenant. Said that he accomplished the act within two hours. Doesn’t seem to be a lie. Lay said that she last saw Erwin’s head on his neck 2 hours before the meeting.”

The sounds of spraying paint stops. She grabbed a new can and shook it.

“He threatened them to give him a cut of our profits each month and laid down a few strict rules. Lay said it was all already what we are doing. Don’t involve kids. Don’t sell drugs to kids. Main point, don’t get kids involved in the drug trafficking shit. And human trafficking.”

“Anything else?”

“She thinks the Red Hood dude is trying to be some enforcer type guardian angel of Crime Alley. Described him as a big guy. Built like a fucking tank and wears leather. No face because he has a red helmet even though he called himself Red Hood. The name sounds like that old gang Harley told me, used to run around with Joker.”

“Joker did once have a crew that called themselves the Red Hood.” Batman mused. “He also called himself that too.”

“Thank you for your help. Let’s go, Robin.”

“Bye, Rebel. I will come see your painting when you are done.”

Rebel absentmindedly sent them a wave. Too focused on her mural.

-

A moment later, a dark shadow blocked her light again.

Rebel sighed. “What more do you want from me?” She turned to give a glare to Batman. 

Only to see that it wasn’t Batman.

Rebel squinted.

“You are the new big bad in town that everyone is gossiping about, right? Decapitating heads and taking over the drug market scene.”

“So you heard of me.” Red Hood stepped closer towards her. She remained unfazed.

“I try to keep up with the latest gossip in the city.” Rebel shrugged. She tilted her head, “Any reasons why you came to see me? I hope it’s not to kill me.”

She said as if being killed was just a mild inconvenience. But that’s just how most Gothamite lived their lives

“Rebel. Relatively new to the Rogues Gallery. Mainly works with Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy. And… Daughter of the Joker. Following in your father’s footsteps, are you?”

Rebel’s face became dark.

“I do not like associating myself with him. I am more of… the occasional chaos maker than whatever insane and mad thing he usually does.”

“Is that Daddy issue I hear?”

“Are you sure you aren’t just projecting?” She was definitely smirking under that mask.

“Fuck no.”

Rebel laughed as she stepped closer to Red Hood, unafraid. His stature meant that he completely dwarfed her petite figure but he still subconsciously took a step back.

Whether or not Rebel didn’t like to be related to him. They sounded the same, especially when they laughed.

“Because I am pretty sure you are the one with Daddy Issues. After all, it comes with the territory of being a Robin. Having the Big Bat for a father.” 

How did she-

Red Hood whipped out his pistol. The nozzle was a few inches away from blowing Rebel’s head off.

“How do you know?” He growled out.

“Like, it’s hard?” Rebel moved the gun away from her head. “Besides, the writer won’t be happy if I spoil a story which everyone already knows.”

“What on earth are you talking about?”

Rebel hummed instead of answering like the little shit the rumours claimed to be and said, “How many Jokers can be found in a pack of cards?”

“For someone who claims not to be like her sperm donor, you sure do have that same vague philosophy thing going on.”

Rebel frowned. Jason thought he finally hit a nerve on the teenager.

“Two Jokers.” She calmly continued instead of getting angry like he thought she would. “In countries like Germany, you can find three in a deck. In video games, you often get three lives. Unless you have a cheat code. Or get very lucky. Or you don’t die, ever because you are in creative mode.”

“What are you trying to say?” Red Hood demanded, done with Rebel’s riddle-talk.

“What I am trying to say is, Buckethead. You do have to wonder, despite all the wrong he has caused, why no one has managed to off him yet.”

“My name is Red Hood.”

Rebel walked to the edge of the roof, stepping up onto the parapet wall.

“Whatever you say. Well, it was a pleasure to meet you, Buckethead.” Rebel said, turning to face Red Hood. A few inches was the only thing that kept her from falling to death.

Red Hood tensed, realising what Rebel was going to do as she leaned backwards.

“NO!”

Rebel took a step back.

The former Robin leaped and tried to catch her. He failed, missing her fingers by a few centimetres. 

After what felt like an eternity, he stared unseeing at the corpse decorating the sidewalk below and twisted at an awkward angle. The sickening splat when her body hit rang in his ears. The streetlight nearby illuminated it like it was some grotesque artwork.

What the fuck just happened?

Jason’s thoughts were jumbled as he tried to make sense of it.

The girl just stepped off a roof. She didn’t even use a grappling hook, no secret trampoline on the ground or even a rope. Just stepped off and Bam! 

She was lying dead on the ground.

Was she insane? Given her father, it would make sense but why jump off a roof without a back-up plan?

Red Hood sat there for a while in shock and tried to collect himself. A girl, he was talking to, killed herself for no reason. That was fine. It wasn’t important. He shouldn’t care. She was the clown’s daughter. All the more reason he shouldn’t care that she just died in front of him.

But he did care. Despite the fact that he had only talked to her for a few minutes.  He had killed people without mercy but the fact that he couldn’t save the daughter of his murderer made him feel… like a failure.

The clank of metal broke him out of his reverie. He looked up to see a very much breathing, walking and very much alive Rebel who had a deer-in-headlights look as she was caught slowly putting her paint cans back into her duffel bag.

“What?” He gasped out, his voice coming a tad hysterical. He slowly looked over the edge of the roof. The bloodstain was still there but the body was gone. Like Rebel’s corpse had gotten up on its own, walked away, gotten up to the roof via the fire escape and currently, standing in front of him.

Jason closed his eyes and opened them again. Nope, the bloodstain from her fall was still there on her jacket.

“How- how did you- ” Jason swallowed before asking the obvious.

“How am I alive?” Rebel shrugged. “I just am. I am alive so I am.”

“And you are fine.”

He looked at her leg which he had last seen being bent at an unnatural angle moments earlier.

“No one could survive that fall.” He said.

“Eh. I did.”

“That’s cause…” Jason got struck by a horrible realisation, “The Joker is an immortal motherfucker, isn’t he?”

“In a way. Yes.”

“What do you mean ‘in a way’?”

Rebel opened her mouth.

Then thunder boomed and lightning struck the nearest lamppost. Making it dark for a moment before the lights came back on. No rain fell from the sky.

“Alright! I will keep my mouth shut. Happy?” Rebel screamed at the sky. Then, she gave Red Hood an apologetic look.

“Sorry, looks like I am not allowed to tell you.”

“Why the fuck not?”

“Someone would be angry if I revealed too much of its secrets.”

“Who? The universe?”

“Yes.”

“I can’t tell if you are genuinely insane or your life is actually that crazy.”

“I would like to think that it is both. But you got the message, right?”

“The Joker can’t die by any means. He will just come back to life.”

“Eh. Close enough.”

Jason was quiet for a moment.

“Does that mean he can still feel pain?”

“When I fell off the roof, I felt my bones break so I am going to say yes.” Rebel replied as she finished packing up her things.

“How the fuck is he even an immortal anyways?”

Rebel looked around, looking for a sign that she won’t be hit by divine punishment if she told Red Hood the answer. When there was no thunder.

She answered, “This sounds the most hippie shit ever but the closest analogy I can think of. Imagine that the Universe is a writer and our lives are the stories it writes. It loves a good story. The story of Batman and Joker is one of them. Because it is such a good story. It never wants it to end and it has the choice to not write an ending. So the Joker is written to be the most evil, the silliest, the most dangerous, the luckiest, the smartest and the most insane man to ever walk the planet so he can be Batman’s enemy in a war forever locked in a stalemate. Until the Universe gets tired of the story.”

“And then, what?”

“I wouldn’t know. I have never heard of a story that ended.”

Jason stared at his hand and closed it into a fist. “Is that why I am alive? Why you are still alive?”

Rebel shrugged as she picked up her duffel bag. “Probably. Then again,” She walked to the edge of the roof, stepping onto the parapet wall.

Jason got hit with intense deja vu.

“I might have made the entire thing up just to mess with you.” Rebel said as she stepped back for the second time that day.

Instinct made him try to grab her again. This time, however, he watched her hands glow and a portal appeared under her. She disappeared through it and the portal closed.

Red Hood stood there on the rooftop, blankly staring at Rebel’s half-finished mural when he heard a familiar thud behind him. That’s when he finally realised her plan.

He laughed and then turned to face Batman. Right on cue, thunder boomed and rain fell.

----

(Part 4)

-----

Taglist:  @toodaloo-kangaroo, @iloontjeboontje, @buginetye, @angelwreckedd, @anoires-blog, @ever-since-i-was-young, @shutupandactuallylisten, @its-maemain, @vel-vee, @kashlyn, @officiallydarkgeek, @jayjayspixiepop, @cmouse, @transheso, @thecrazyfantrolls, @just-a-random-girl-loves-anime, @maddiesupdates, @the-dumber-scaramouche

[arty-shadow-morningstar]

Who Made Me a Villain (7)

Confused? Yeah, I am too. [Masterlist] [Ao3]

(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Part 5) (Part 6)

------

“Rebel, I am your father.”

“I know that.” Rebel said, cutting him off in the middle of his glorious speech about reuniting their Joker family. “We met before. Remember?”

“We did?” Joker said, confused.

“ Yeah. I was still locked up in Arkham.” -

Rebel hummed in her cell as she doodled. Her therapist was kind enough to allow her a sketchbook and a pencil when she found out about her artistic background. Dr. Fenton was already a step-up from her last one who thought he could harass her and she had kicked him where the sun doesn’t shine in retaliation. Alarms sounded and red lights filled the room, making her lose concentration and accidentally ruin her drawing of the Gotham skyline. Rebel cursed in a mix of French and English because now security was going to be tighter now and she had been planning to break out that week.

A feeling of unease filled Rebel and her gut instinct was urging her to find a way out. She ran towards the door and yelled for someone to tell her what was going on. There were no answers.

-

“Then you came to my cell.”

-

Under the blaring sirens, she faintly heard the sound of manic laughter. Her heart raced, as the uneasy feeling increased tenfold.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The door shook under whatever was trying to get through its feeble resistance. Rebel slowly backed away and tried to look around her cell for something she could use to defend herself. It was bare except for her sketchbook and pencils. The bars were too narrow for her to use. While she could use magic, teleportation was still outside of her skillset. She should have learned that one before she left Paris. Maybe if she could just-

The door fell down and a grinning face, one which she desperately wished to never see, grinned down on her before pulling back.

A slim figure dressed in a purple suit stepped through the doorway. A wide grin on his face.

“Hello, my dear child.”

-

“You kidnapped me and tied me up. To try and convince me to do your bidding.”

-

“Come on, Darling daughter of mine, smile. Give your Daddy a big smile.”

“No.” Rebel replied vehemently.

“I guess, I have to make you them.” He snapped his fingers and some Joker goons appeared and lifted her throne.

Joker stepped away and gave Rebel a good view of the vat of green glowing chemicals, bubbling away.

She struggled to get out of her bonds, panicking at what was going to happen. She heard horror stories of the infamous Joker toxin which made her father into what he is. Turned Harley from Harleen Quinzel into a psychotic clown sidekick.

A moment before she was tossed in, Joker said, “Well, sweetheart, you excited for your makeover?”

“Go burn in hell.” Rebel snarled.

The goons tossed the heavy throne over the railings with a short scream from Rebel. A giant splash was heard and when they looked over, the top of the throne could be seen, slowly sinking into the vat.

“A few minutes soak and a new Joker will be born.”

Then, he pointed at one of the goons, “You there, jump in there and get her out. Tying her to a heavy throne was not a good idea in hindsight. We don’t want my heir to drown.”

“Me?”

“Yes, you and hurry up. Or else,” Joker pulled a gun out of his jacket and waved it in the goon’s general direction, “Bang!”

-

“It didn’t quite work.”

-

The man walked to the edge and looked down into the vat. He hesitated, looking to and from the gun and the vat of chemicals. As he looked over, preparing for a dive, he saw something dangling from underneath the catwalk.

“What is that-” The Joker goon didn’t get to finish his sentence before Rebel kicked his face in, knocking him out.

She had managed to get free from her restraints with magic and grab hold of the chains which were connected to the bottom of the catwalk the Joker was on.

Rebel used enough momentum from swinging the chain to jump back onto the catwalk and coincidentally, kicked the Joker goon .

She lifted the heavy crown which the Joker had put on her head and threw it. The crown spun in motion and hit its mark on Joker’s face, knocking the Clown Prince of Gotham out.

When he was down, she kicked the nearest goon in the crotch. Upon seeing the others draw their guns, she grabbed the one dropped by the Joker goon and shot at them.

-

“In the end, I kicked your ass and got away.”

“I don’t recall any of that ever happening.” Joker said, still confused. This was the first time that they had met. He wondered if the madness was hereditary. Or if it was something else.

“Oh. Wait. That was a different timeline.” Rebel exclaimed.

“So we have never met before today. I keep forgetting.” she muttered.

“So you know the truth of this world.” Joker stated instead of asking. He looked unusually serious that Rebel was a bit caught off guard.

“The fact that we are nothing more than people’s fantasy written down in ink on paper.” Rebel remarked dryly.

“Sometimes, just words on a screen.” Joker added.

He laughed his head off like he just told the funniest joke in the world.

“So you know. That we are not real. Nothing is real. So nothing matters except for me and Batman.” 

“I know. You told me before in the timeline that never happened.” Rebel drawled out.

“So you agree with me? Will you join me by my side?” Joker loomed over her with a pleased smile.

“Not really. I just see it differently. If you hadn’t noticed, I am an anomaly. I am not really your actual canon kid.” Rebel pointed out. “Just someone else’s idea of that reality.”

“Not in this world and time. You are my child. Even if you aren’t in other universes and timelines.” Joker dismissed.

“This world is our playground and you are the clown princess of this entire place. Even if you want to deny it. Right here and right now, I am your father and you are my daughter. This is a fact that currently holds true.”

Rebel huffed. “That doesn’t mean that I share the same ideology as you on your views of this world. So no, I don’t think I will be joining you in your eternal war against a guy in a fursuit.”

Joker frowned. “Then, you won’t matter. They won’t know about you. They won’t care about what happens to you. Unless you matter, they will just kill you off and put you into the void.”

Rebel couldn’t take the way that Joker was looking like he was borderline concerned for her existence. In his own twisted way, Joker was trying to look out for her.

Rebel took off her mask and gave him a smile. “I don’t care either way. I used to matter to the world once upon a time. I suffered because I was the important main character. If my time in this world is now limited because I am no longer one of the main ones, then I will make sure that I was memorable enough in my current run so I can have another go.”

“There’s a chance that you won’t be able to make it back. Not dead in the way that you won’t be brought back to life later on. A permanent death. Forgotten. Never existing. Forever lost in the limbo.”

“Oh. Please. This isn’t my first rodeo. I am here, aren’t I?” Rebel replied nonchalantly.

The meaning behind her words clicked for Joker.

He roared with laughter.

“Bravo.” He said with a hint of fatherly pride. “You brought yourself back from the limbo, didn’t you?”

Rebel tried not to grin too much at the praise.

These moments of lucid madness, where her father was sane enough to comprehend the truth of their world but still insane to not care about it, were rare. Coincidentally, these moments are when Joker acted the most fatherly.

Was it wrong of her to engineer these moments to feel fatherly affection?

Probably. But she had a feeling Joker would approve of the manipulation if he knew.

“Besides, I know you won’t let me stay dead.” Rebel said.

“Do not take that chance, Rebel.” Joker warned her. “I did not fully remember the previous times until you mentioned it. I didn’t know that you were my daughter until I saw the paper about your little crew.”

“Crew? What crew? I don’t have a crew.”

“The Rebellion, of course. Aren’t you the one in charge?”

“Nope. The leader of the Rebellion and I are just friends. She stole my jacket and masqueraded as me for a bit. Now, everyone thinks I lead them.”

Joker chuckled. Not laughing that the manic laughter that everyone was used to. Instead it was the light-hearted chuckle from hearing a good unexpected joke.

He came near Rebel and ruffled her hair.

She swatted his hand away because it took an hour for her to style it that way.

Joker gave another delighted chuckle.

“Now. Now. My rebellious spawn, I heard that you pulled the wool over that Big Blue Boy Scout in Sunny Metropolis. I want you to tell me about how you pulled it off.” Joker said, hugging her sideways.

Rebel tried not to seem too eager. She knew that she would have this version of her father for at least a few more hours before his more Joker-ish traits would set in again. Until then, she was going to enjoy being a daughter to a somewhat loving dad.

-

Rebel gasped for air as she sat up. Her arms immediately wrapped around herself. She was solid and alive and breathing. Rebel grabbed onto those facts like a lifeline.

Even until now, she felt like every move she made was being watched and in the back of her head, she heard the ominous click-clack of the computer that controlled her life.

She was real. She had to be. She can’t be-

“- a figment of someone else’s imagination.” A voice came from her right.

Rebel instinctively looked in that direction.

She tried to scramble away upon seeing the purple suit and green hair.

“Hello, my rebellious spawn. Quite the fitting name you have chosen for yourself.”

“What did you do to me?” Rebel asked. If she sounded freaked out, who could blame her when she just came out of a death experience and found herself in the same room with a psychopath.

“I didn’t do anything.” Joker paused, “Well, it’s slightly my fault as your progenitor. But other than that, I have to assume what you saw was the true reality of our world.”

Rebel tried to calmly assess her situation. She needed to get the hell out of here. Joker was spouting nonsense as usual. Who knows when he would snap and kill her. Judging by the place, she was in the morgue(?).

“What the fuck?”

She looked down and saw that she was wearing nothing. The only reason she hadn’t accidentally flashed her ‘father’ was because she had a white sheet covering her. 

“Am I some kind of fucking zombie?” Rebel said.

“No, my offspring. As I was trying to kindly explain, this is our Joker birds and bees talk.” Joker revealed.

Rebel glared at him. “I am not fucking doing the sex talk while I am naked. The French thing about being okay with nudity is not true.”

Rebel didn’t know what possessed her to follow the Joker. He tossed her usual outfit of t-shirt, leather jacket and ripped jeans but they were eggplant purple and green to match his suit. At least she wasn’t naked anymore.

She summoned one of her emergency masks out of her magic dimensional space pocket. It was a simple dark purple instead of her usual red to match her outfit.

She didn’t have to follow him like he asked but curiosity about what she saw made her ignore her instinct, screaming at her to not trust him. Joker had her answers and her gut told her that he would be forthcoming about it.

“Ah… this is perfect.” Joker said as he stopped.

Rebel looked up from her musing. They had stopped in front of an abandoned apartment building. Against her better judgement, she followed Joker into the building.

Joker seated himself comfortably in the armchair that the one of the past owners must have left behind while Rebel remained standing up.

She glared at him.

“So talk.” Rebel demanded.

Joker tapped his chin, “Where do I start?”

“Let me help. How am I alive if I died? I didn’t have enough in me to cast a spell for a shield.”

“Tough question right off the bat.” Joker giggled at his little pun before continuing. “Because you are still needed for the story. You aren’t the only exception. No one important can die. That means both heroes, villains and everyone in between can’t die. Even if they die, there is always the chance you can come back. Look at the Red Hood for example. The child was supposed to be dead but he was brought back to the land of the living for the sake of the story.”

“How am I important? I have been nothing but a nuisance. The fucking Universe doesn’t care about me. I have you for a father for fucks’ sake.”

“If you haven’t noticed, every hero or villain has some type of tragic backstory. Batman has his parents’ death. His current Robin had been neglected by his parents. Harley had been fucked up by me. I can go on and on. But there are some exceptions. You however are not.”

“Gee. Thanks, I didn't notice.” Rebel said with heavy sarcasm.

“Another reason you aren’t dead right now is because we are slightly immortal.”“What do you mean ‘slightly immortal’?” The finger-quotes were obvious in her statement.

“Slightly immortal as in we are more durable than your average human, spawn. It is also something that has to do with your mother.”

“My mother?”

“She is not human, that's for sure.” Joker said. “I don’t know exactly what or who she is. Even the creators didn’t give her a proper name. She was delightful company though. She was intrigued by the fact that I also knew the truth about this world and she was the one who explained it all to me.”

“Then the two of you had a fun one night stand that ended up with me?”“We fooled around a bit, had some laughs and caused some trouble for Batsy.” For a moment, Rebel thought that the Joker looked like a forlorn man who regretted letting go of a lost love.

“There was this one time that I miscalculated a plot and thought that I was going to die. Then, I woke up perfectly fine. She told me that she had given me a gift. Not true immortality. Even she can’t give me that. But I will not die by things that would kill other humans.”

“But doesn’t that mean you are the only one who would have that invincibility?”

“I thought so too but then, you survived an explosion head-on.”

Rebel remembered those last moments. Her taking her jacket off and covering the bomb in hopes to somehow dampen the explosion.

“You are crazy. Crazier than me even.” Joker remarked.

“I should be dead.”

“But you are not, which means you are one lucky girl. My theory is that your mother gave you the same gift she had given me or you inherited it from me.”

“You don’t know?”

“Rebel, my dear, I didn’t know that you existed until one of my Joker goonies showed me the newspaper headlining you. After another fun heist, your mother disappeared and I never heard from her again. I only assumed that she got bored of me.”

“How are you so sure that that being was my mother? Even if you are my dad, how can you be sure that my mother is not someone else you had your fun with.”

“You have her eyes.”

“Blue is the second most common eye colour.” Rebel shot back.“Her eyes weren’t blue. No, your eyes have that same calculating glint where you look at random objects and be able to make it work.

Rebel sat there, processing the information that she had been given.

“So now what?”

Joker gave her a confused look. “I don’t know either. Currently, the creators are giving me a break so I have nothing going on.”

“No invitation to join you? No threats to throw me into a boiling vat of what made you ‘you’?”

“I realised that you were never going to join considering what you chose for your name. You are crazy enough even without the chemical.”

“The Joker being calm and reasonable? Never thought that I would see the day.”

“I can be calm and reasonable. Can’t be crazy all the time.” He said, shrugging.

Rebel felt like her whole world had been slightly turned upside down. She

“You know what. Let’s go bowling.” Rebel suddenly suggested. The day is crazy enough as it is, might as well make the most of it.

“Bowling? That’s a strange request.” Joker said, cocking his head to one side.

Rebel shrugged. “We have nothing better to do. Let’s do something fun.”

Joker stood up and straightened his jacket. “Then, let’s go, my dear rebellious spawn. Onwards we go!”

-

Extra scene:

After Rebel scored three strikes in a row, Joker turned an accusing look to her and said, “YOU ARE CHEATING!” “I’M NOT!” Rebel denied. “I’m just better at this than you.”

The not-enough-to-deal-with-it bowling alley employee gave them a bored look before going back onto their phone.

A lady with a death wish approached the bickering pair from behind, dragging her son along.

“Hi, excuse me. I saw you and your daughter playing together and I was wondering if she would like to join us. We are having a birthday party for my son, Jerry. Wouldn’t she be happier playing with kids her own age?” The lady said with a bright smile on her face.

Joker and Rebel stopped their bickering, and gave each other the same look of disbelief.

Suddenly, the same thought struck them and grins of mischief replaced the earlier disbelief.

Joker laughed, causing goosebumps to run up their arms.

Rebel joined in, giggling. Making the civilians realised that they may have made a mistake in approaching the pair both dressed in green. The mother and son tried to subtly take a step back.

Immediately, Joker and Rebel turned around on their heels in sync.

Blood drained from their faces at the sight of the famous faces.

“You… you are…” The mother hyperventilated.

Joker leaned forward, his face barely inches from her pale frightened face.

“The Joker. Very kind of you to offer.” Joker laughed and then wrapped an arm around Rebel’s shoulder. “But I think my daughter prefers my company over some floozy.”

“Floozy? I am not a floozy.” The woman screeched with indignity.

Rebel stepped in front and pushed her father back.

“Lady, if you value your life, fucking leave us to our game and mind your own damn business.” Rebel warned. “Or else…”

The woman thought it might have been her imagination when she saw Rebel’s eyes flashed red.

The son, who had more self-preservation than his mother, covered her mouth to prevent her from digging her grave further and dragged her away.

Joker laughed.

“Did you see their faces? I don’t know how you did it but you scared them good. They looked like they would have shit their pants.”

Rebel simply rolled her eyes and said, “Come on, let’s see how ridiculously we can throw these bowling balls until they kick us out.”

-----

“Harley?” The voice said. A voice she never thought that she would ever hear again.

“Stitches?” Harley turned around and exclaimed with disbelieving hope.

Standing there in the doorway, in her green mischief leather jacket was Rebel. Without a scratch or scars to tell the tale of her death.

Rebel removed her mask and gave her an impish grin. The sight was familiar to Harley. A memory from a different lifetime rose to her mind.

Harley ignored those thoughts for now and rushed forward to hug her ward/child.

“Stitches! You are alright!”

“I am back.” Rebel said.

“Oh, we gotta tell Red.” Harley said. “She’d been mopin’ in the house since we foun’ out about the incident.”

Harley tried to drag Rebel along but was confused when the girl refused to move.

“Stitches?” she asked, concerned at the look on Rebel’s face.

“Aren’t you going to ask how I am perfectly fine? When I am supposed to be dead?” Rebel quietly asked.

Harley gently cupped the two sides of Rebel’s face. “Rebel, sweetie, I used to work for your father. If there is anyone who knows most of his secrets, other than the big Bat, it’s me. I have seen him die in a hundred different ways and always go back runnin’ without a scratch. I’m glad that you got this part of his genes from him. The world without you seems a bit darker.”

Harley gently knocked her forehead with Rebel’s own.

“Any other problems that we need to address?” Harley asked with a smile.

“Other than my traumatic experience of my death and then finding out the truth behind our reality?” Rebel said as sarcastically as possible so Harley would think that she was telling a joke.

“So you met the people behind the voices.”

“You know about it?”

“I asked the Joker once. If the voices were normal. He tried to explain it to me but my mind kept forgettin' for some reason and he gave up. All I know is that I can hear the truth but I can’t know what it is. How do ya know what it is?” Harley asked.

“Joker told me about it.” Rebel confessed.

“Kid, are you okay?” Harley asked in worry. Any encounter with that monster is never pleasant.

“I am fine. He’s different this time.” Rebel said. “It’s like he feels more real than how he usually acts.”

Harley gave her a sad smile. “I know what you are talking about. It’s not real, Stitches. It’s just another mask he wears to make him believe in him.”

Rebel didn’t say anything. Because Harley was neither right or wrong. The Joker from last time and the Joker she just met were the same man after all. They were both real. Or not real since they are aspects that the people outside their reality perceive Joker to have.

Rebel stopped that line of thought there. She had enough of an existential crisis for one day.

Rebel just smiled at Harley and said, “Let’s go home.”

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