So I watched the new Batman animated movie: Batman Ninja or something like that and I have a bone to pick with it. Like Dick's voice constantly changes: one minute he's light and has a good baritone then the next it's like someone switched out the voice actor with a rock it's so deep. I liked the fact the Batfam was in it though, and Ivy had brilliant pink hair that suits her so much more than red does. So this is my Deep Claw universe take on it.
Disclaimer: I probably don't need to do this anymore cuz you guys know I don't own anything but I enjoy taking a moment to write this out so you're stuck with it.
Set in somewhere around before the Battle for the Cowl, before B dies, maybe a few months after Duke is introduced to the family because his portrayal has the feeling of being new to the atmosphere of a family. I wrote this before the chapters were even planned so it might not fit in perfectly. It's also being posted before the chap where Jason is even in the original book, Gotham's Talon. This is a story in a oneshot 'cuz I'm lazy.
oOoOoOo
Batman Ninja: Quick Tides and Caustic Wit
oOoOoOo
It was quick and sudden. One moment she's fighting with Ivy, Red Hood to her left shooting at Grodd who's decided to randomly appear, the familiar hum of the family comm link in her ears; the next, she's dead center in the middle of a stream.
There are screams and they draw her attention first, pulling her out of her dazed confusion, as her body reacts and tries to help. Then she realises the screams are from women, dressed in the common eighteen hundred Japanese comunal wear of kimonos, and they're screaming at her. Faces red, washing dropped in the stream and looking ready to bolt as they stare down the woman who's just appeared.
It strikes Rachel how strange she must look there and then. She's decked out in the highest of technology, her Nightwing gauntlets, although being sleek and slim, are sparking wildly at her stomach where she'd pulled them into a defensive postistion at the screams. Her suit is decades ahead of this time periods fabrics, nevermind the fact her cowl lenses are electricity based, and she's willing to bet the protein bar in her belt would be able to feed a family for a week here.
"(Who are you?)" One of the women shout, stepping forward, ununamiagiously deciding to be the strong one. She's wearing a beautiful flower design kimono that smoothly wraps around her body, there's some sort of flower in her bun-tied hair.
Rachel panics, not recognising the language until she realises they speak old Japanese. I never learned that, she thinks desparingly. Her hopes for communiacting with the people vanish before they even spawn. Tiredly, she finds there's only two options; she can try to talk to these women and persude them she's not a threat, but that will be hard with no language skills, or she can run.
She does what she's done for most of her life and turns tail and sprints. The cries of the women follow her downstream.
oOoOoOo
It takes three days, of ducking in and out of forests, avoiding places where people will see her and trying to blend in with the shadows at night, before she comes across clothes.
She steals them from a bathing woman who seems well-to-do so Rachel doesn't mourn over the choice. Stealing them with a startling sort-of fevor borne from the need to blend in. The woman looks as if she can afford fifteen hundred more so she'll be fine. There are common bandits in the area and if she must, she could chalk it up to them. Rachel's fine: she has no need to worry about being caught.
The kimono is just a tad too big but she fixes that by tightening it. It's a beautiful light red with dashes of purple and sometimes grey intertwining within the patterns of luscious flowers in full bloom. The sandels fit well and within a few hours she finds herself walking comfortably in them. She always had adapted quickly to new situations: it was what had made her such a brilliant assassin.
oOoOoOo
'People believe what they want to believe.'
Her tătic had told her that once and it had stuck with her. It had come in handy too, more than once had she thought back on it while the Talon ruled, using it as a guiding point for decievance. It had worked amazingly well.
That's why it still worked, really, it should've been no supprise to her; people's idealistics changed with time but not their minds, not their thinking processes. Sure they became smarter but they still followed the baseline of instincts to help them along on their way.
She told a man at a schoolhouse she needed to learn the language through some tedious shrimps and prawns, but she did it nevertheless. He had been hospitable, not asking questions, not assuming, merely teaching her what she needed to know.
His name was Tai-Shunn. He taught her the basics first; the alphabet, numbers, connectetives, preposistions and random vocabulary that was commonly used. By the time three months had passed with the man Rachel (her Japanese name, Ishna Kilhosha) was able to hold up a very small conversastion by herslef, sounding like a local.
Tai-Shunn went on to teach her about the weather, animals, homes, places, food, everything to anything one would find around the towns. He taught her how to live off nothing, teaching her the basics of farming the land and looking after animals: for that she was eternally grateful.
Five months in and he began to teach her the posh words, words common day folk didn't say or use. When she questioned him, he said, "You are a special one, my girl. You do not rise with the sun, but instead the sun rises with you. You hold power, that is what I shall feed."
To say she didn't understand him would've been an understatement but she got the gist of what he was saying. He thought she was destined for something. And to be honest, she did too. It was in her bones, the weary tingle of lusing power that allowed her rule.
She finished learning the language in seven months, an extradorinary feat according to Tai-Shunn. Rachel left him a month later, when her instincts became too much and she began to feel restless.
He waved her good-bye with a smile, a pouch of rice and her promises to visit.
She never got to visit as a few weeks later, Joker appeared, amassed an army, and flattened Tai-Shunn's village where it stood. Rachel swore she'd stand up against the bastard.
oOoOoOo
There where rumors going around: of a faltering lord; of no heir; of an open space for someone to sweep in should they hold power to rule a county. There where whispers of unhappy people, of a stupid man leading his people to death.
On the fifth of June, two years into her stay in Feudal Japan, Rachel (Ishina Kilvasha - she changed her name so no one could trace her back) challenged a county's lord and won. She gained his lands and his people.
She became a Queen; a true Lady.
She began to create protection for those against Joker, she began and fueled the rebels.
And no one could prove it was her.
Because as far as they knew, Ishna Kilhosha was a normal woman who didn't like the Joker.
Ishina Kilvasha was a Lady who spoke of nothing on the matter.
Two seperate people in their own right.
No one was any the wiser.
oOoOoOo
Tata appeared 68 years after she'd claimed her throne. She'd been there 70 years and was more than ready to leave, with people speculating she used dark, mystical magics to stay young and alive. Rachel silently laughed at those who tried to recreate whatever they thought she'd done. It was her blood that did it, but they didn't know that. They never would.
"I'm here to seek an audience with Lady Kilvasha." Bruce said, looking ragged with the rest of the family behind him. Tim and Damian were bickering like Rachel remembered they always used to, Jason was standing with Cassandra, both basking in silent companionship. Stephanie and Duke were playing Rocks, Paper, Scissors at the back of the group, uncaring to the odd glances Rachel's people were giving them. The sight of her family filled her with a renewed strength and hope that she'd thought long gone.
They didn't seem to recognise her, she supposed she wouldn't either. What, with all the changes over the years: her hair had grown longer, currently in a grand plait, and the tips dulled to a silken white that looked synthetic, she'd grown paler yet she'd gained a tan at the same time -lightening her skin tone- and the kimono she wore no doubt changed her a lot. With the sliken blues and purples bringing out her eyes and making them shine.
"The Mistress is terribly busy at the moment," she said and hid her smile as the people miling around smirked at her antics. This wasn't the first time she'd done such a thing. "May I inquire as to what travelers such as yourselves require of her prescence?"
She watched as Jason tensed and Cassandra put a nimble hand on his arm, seeming to calm him as he blew out a breath. Wonder what that's about. She thought as Bruce, head freshly shaven, spoke up in a rustier yet just as good old japanese brouge. "We bring matters important to her work."
He closed his mouth at that and didn't seem like he wanted to elaborate. Tim sighed behind him, obviously thinking the same as her. That all just made her even more curious.
Rachel raised her eyebrows, deciding to be annoying. "Work such as?"
"Her youth," Bruce said, painfully obvious that he was at a loss. "We know the truth."
Rachel blinked at him, putting on a neutral face, before the dam broke and she burst out laughing. She doubled over onto her folded legs, body tipping so that her nose nearly touched the front porch's bamboo floor. Rachel felt the air stiffen as her family assumed the worst and went into cautious mode.
It took her a moment to stop laughing and by the time she'd pushed herself back to a sitting posistion she found most of her people were smirking knowingly at her. Her family hadn't yet noticed that fact.
"Youth," She snorted, rolling her eyes. "Please do tell me what I use to stay alive, tata."
She watched with a long lost glee as the expressions of shock and sudden understanding bloomed on her family's faces.
oOoOoOo
"So you became a Lady?" B asked for what must've been the fifteenth time. Jason snorted for her.
"Yes, B. That is what she said or do you need her to retell the story a third time?"
Rachel smiled at Jason's sarcasm as Tim rolled his eyes, leaning forward to ask her a question. The boy had been oddly interested in her story. Rachel honestly didn't know what was so great about them.
"Who taught you Old Japanese, R?" Tim asked and the room, where she'd settled them all in to talk privately and catch up, went silent as if everyone had been thinking the same thing. "'Cuz I know it wasn't on your known language list back home.
"Is it so hard to believe the old man was just a nice guy?" She asked, smirking at them all. She supposed she should catch up on her decievance skills, testing them on her family was a good start.
Jason cast her a look, "Knowing you, Rachel, you probably bribed him."
Damian -tt-ched, glowering at Jason's jab. "As if Rachel would do such a thing."
Cassandra, Rachel didn't know if it was a compliment or a jab, spoke up. "You'd be surprised, Baby Bird."
Damian scowled at both Cassandra and the name. "As if," he huffed, sitting the way he did when he was annoyed. "And do not call me that retched name."
"What?" Questioned Tim, "Baby Bird?" He mocked.
Damian scowled and Stephanie spoke up before someone lost their head. "Hey Rachel," the teenager said, halfway through plaiting her hair in a copy of Rachel's. She was doing well considering how she was going off Rachel's messy version of it. "I don't recal you telling us how long you've been here."
Rachel raised an eyebrow as Tim nodded, "Yeah, the rumours of Lady Kilvasha are at least a century old and judging from your appearance, Talon blood or not, you haven't been here for a hundred years."
Rachel shrugged, deciding to deflect the statement. "How long have you all been here?"
Tim raised an eyebrow but answered her anyway, "I arrived after Damian, I've been here two years."
"And I after Jason," Damian said, casting the eldest brother a sour look. "I have been here a subtotal of two years, seven months and nineteen days."
Stephanie snorted at that, chiming in her own opinion. "If I didn't know any better, Baby Bird, I'd say you've been counting."
"Well," Damian said hautily, ignoring the nickname in favour of a quip. "I, unlike the rest of you baboonic fools, have the higher education and the ability to count over ten."
"10, 11, 12," Jason said, then stuck his tongue out and went cross-eyed. "I think you go to 19 next."
Stephanie and Cassandra snorted, Tim rolled his eyes but smiled and Rachel swore she seen B smirk. Damian scowled and muttered under his breath, "See: a baboonic fool."
"Think the kid's ran out of insults," Dukd smirked from where he'd been analysing a katana on the wall. He pulled it off the stand with a whistle of appreaciation. "Yours?" He asked.
Rachel shook her head, "My predessesors great-grandfathers. You can have it if you want."
Duke stowed it away with a grin, Damain glowered at her. Rachel smirked at him, "You've got enough of those things to last you a life-time, kid."
"Anyway," Stephanie said, pulling the conversastion back on track. "Me and Cass were together when the time bomb went off and we popped up here together. We've been here a year."
Rachel nodded at that, it seemed the closer one got to the time bomb the later they appeared. She reasoned that she had been the furthest away from it. She was just glad it had only been her, if it had been anyone else they would've been dead by now. Rachel stifled a shiver at the thought.
Duke raised his hand obligingly as he plopped down beside Cass, where she was playing with a flower she'd stolen from one of Rachel's vases. "I've been here a couple of months and am, quite frankly, very happy I was interested in history and languages at school."
Everyone laughed in some form at that. Duke smiled, proud with himself for breaking the silence they'd suddenly fallen into.
"Been here five years, learned the language from a dying woman and roamed for a good part of three. Found Timmers somewhere in the west, hiding out in a miserable old shack." Jason grunted, fiddling arouns with his empty guns. Rachel doubted he had any bullets left, or any origninal ones at least. Tim had the decency to look embarassed about being found hiding in a shack but Rachel gave him a reasuring smile, small as it was. That seemed to help him, she knew being found in a shack was less embarrasing than being found a mindless, insane assassin.
"And I've been here for a few weeks." Bruce chimed in, pulling them all out of the gutter. His voice rumbled in a way Rachel remembered from her early days of Robin, of times where everything was simple and they had each other and Alfred. "How long have you been here, Rachel?"
She grinned, and imagined her canines flashing in the evening sunset. "Oh," she hummed innocently. "Only around 70 years."
She wished she'd offered them tea in that instant, if only to see them choke on something other than their saliva.
oOoOoOo
They didn't need Grodd, Rachel reasoned to B one late night as he mulled over whether or not he should recruit the gorilla's help.
"We've dealt with a lot more than that walking, talking ape will ever know or have to do." She reasoned, "If he wins in stupidity, we win in experience and cunning."
That seemed to do it. Or maybe it was the only advice Rachel'd given B in a while, and the fact her advice had always been right.
oOoOoOo
Rachel wasn't sure when she'd arrived but Catwoman was apparently in Feudal Japan too.
At B's insistence they recruited her for the final showdown. Rachel greeted her with a smile too bright to be entirely real. She greeted her in kind.
oOoOoOo
"Holy shit," Jason swore upon seeing the secret room Rachel had hidden behind her throne. In a neat row, gleaming in the fake lights, sat eight gleaming suits, each individually tailored for each membor of the family.
They looked like their real time suits but more Feudal-y and less techy.
Rachel hid her proud smile. "It was the best I could come up with at such short notice."
She threw him a cartridge of bullets and couldn't help but smile back at his beaming grin.
oOoOoOo
The thrill of a fight was instant, adrenaline coursing through her damned black veins as she cut down the Joker's foot soliders. And oh god was it fun.
"The castles are rising!" Someone, possibly Tim, shouted from the other side of the field. They'd been lucky, no matter how much Jason had cursed the land out, for being put in a wide, broad area. Sure, it made hiding hard but in a fight like this the last thing Rachel wanted anyone to do was hide.
They'd fight till the last breath was drawn, from friend or foe.
oOoOoOo
They made it out with a few scratches but few true casualties. The Clan of the Bat won, Rachel handed her throne down to her second in command (a responsible man whose name she knew was in the history books because of truth and loyalty. She knew he'd do the right thing.) and after everyone had gathered their things (Catwoman nicking one of Rachel's old vases worth quite a bit in their time and Duke skillfully managing to hold onto his katana.) they said goodbye and left.
Rachel was met first thing with a faceful of dog slabbers as Ace pounced on her. She laughed as he woofed happily, tail wagging like a windmill in a storm. "Hey, boy! I've missed you too!"
She was home.
oOo NOTES oOo
TĂTIC : Daddy in Romanian. Rachel calls John Grayson (her real dad) this. Apologies if wrong, I translated it from Google Translate.
TATA : Dad in Romanian. Rachel calls Bruce this, seperating him from her real dad. Again, apologies if wrong, it's translated from Google Translate.
LADY: I've used this term to describe Rachel as a ruler. And that's all it is. I thougt it was nice to use and decided to use it, I don't kniw what people were called back then if they ruled a county (I don't even know if there were countys I'm just going off my limited knowledge of the places all the villains owned in the movie. It seemed to me like there were sections so I decided to make Rachel a ruler of one. I don't know where's free for her to take but just think about it like Rachel opposing the other baddies on owning land and not giving it up. She must've been a real pain in the butt. Anyway, Lady is just the term I've used to call Rachel a ruler.
All the names of my OC'c (Tai-Shunn - it doesn't sound Japanese but go with it) and Rachel's multiple names are made up by me on the spot and if they have any meanings they aren't intented as such. I put them in 'cuz I thought up of them and thought they were cool. A bit like Kill-Vash-A (or Kill-Vas-Ha) for Rachel's surname. (Kill because she's killed peoplw before, vash -I thought- sounded a bit like rash and Rachel is here to be annoying to the baddies so it makes sense and a was just to make it sound a little more Japanese-ish.) I thought it fit.