Batwoman: Victorious
Chapter Thirteen: Born into Darkness
We all have our stories...our joys, our victories, our sorrows...and our dark times. The room was cold; his bones were brittle, tired, and aching. Step after slowed step, the beast walked forward, making his way towards the sweet waters. Barely awake; barely alive, it finally reached the pool, and slowly sank deeper and deeper. I have been alive for six centuries...lived through pain, agony...and great conquest. Throwing himself out of the water, the man took in a deep breath as the smoke simmered off of his body. The demon...the terror that knows no end...I am the Ra's al Ghul. Before our forces grew apart, I was the head of the League of Shadows; a force for chaos...but order above all. The greater purposes in life...the end that justifies all means...it is what we exist for. Death; the fear of millions...the end, as many see it.
The bullet dropped on the floor, bouncing on the hard wood, then rolling like nothing more than a ball. It doesn't take much...life is easily taken...but it's never as simple as pulling the trigger...for each life lost, two or more people will suffer. A small number, it may seem, but to those two people...or those two thousand people who stand in mourning every day...it means so much more...
Love ties so perfectly in with hatred...emotions, to some, are the only thing they hold onto in life...whereas those who have claimed to be numb...having thrown away their happiness, excitement, and joy for the sake of forgetting their pain and sorrow...no longer see their lives as their responsibility...the pain is no longer theirs, or so they say. To hold that warm hand...to feel their breath on your flesh...to know what it is to feel more than you are...Soon, those emotions turn to habits. And those habits turn to control...jealous domination, and then...at the heart of it all...in that one instant of terror that we spend a lifetime hoping against...it all ends. But with that loss...with that terror...we find freedom.
I was a child...roughly eighteen years old when I found her. It was so long...but I still see her, vaguely...I cannot remember her name, though...but that doesn't matter. I held her warm hands, feeling her flawless skin against my own. She was everything I could never be...everything I dreamed of being. She was caring...loving...worth everything to me. But I lost her...and it was at that moment...that I realized love and life...are convictions...They have dubbed it the Lazarus Pit. For more lifetimes than others have dared to imagine, I find myself in a new conviction...but on a higher level. I no longer live...but walk. And as I walk, I am a force for chaos...but order above all.
I remember when the child came to me...broken...beaten...and alone. She told me that when she was a child; little more than six years old, her parents were killed right in front of her and her sister. She didn't know how to handle her feelings...how to control her emotions. She said she had worked to numb herself of pain, but she was far from ready. Sitting alone in his library, gazing into the darkness around him, Ra's let his fist gently fold around his chin. She was to be the one...the successor. The next in the dynasty. A young woman, roughly nineteen years old, set down a glass of wine on her father's counter. "Thank you, Talia," he said, not looking away from the sky. My own daughter proved unfit to take my place as the head...Victoria was only fifteen, but she showed such potential. It amazed me, terrified me...
She was trying to escape...not knowing what lay ahead of her. She was angry, but didn't know why. She claimed she was looking for a way to avenge her parents' murder, but I knew there was something more.
Tori stood before the man, her head down, her long brown hair strung down, and her eyes surrounded by dark bags and tear stains. Ra's gently went down on his knee, and wiped a tear from the child's eye. The less we feel...the less we are, he told her one day.
"I don't want to feel anymore," Victoria bitterly replied. "Nothing could be any worse than this." Retaining icy composure, Ra's extended his hand outward to take Tori's. No longer able or willing to give a smile, the teenager took the man's cool palm, and followed him into the Citadel of Shadow.
Training was brutal: Tori remembered the cold, hard staffs smashing into her arms an back. The punches and kicks that brought her to her knees. Her breath heavy, the teenager felt blood start to slide down her lip.
Darkness encompassed the room as Victoria waited. "You have to know the darkness...know your opponent." Two men, clenching a large wooden rod smashed down to the ground, knocking the teenager flat on her stomach and fighting off tears.
"You know how to hide your pain...to supress it," Ra's said, mixing the salts and herbs in a boiling pot holding a wash cloth. "But I have seen you cannot fight through it." The man put his hand out, gently holding the warm cloth.
"I'm working on it," Tori answered, taking the towel. "Thank you." Slowly touching the soggy fabric to her cut and tender forehead, the brunette clenched her teeth, then let the cloth rest on her face; warming it and easing her spirit. Ra's gently crouched down beside the child, his expression solemn but iced over with concern. "Why are you here?" he finally asked. "You told me the story, how you felt powerless...Is that why? You want to find strength? To know you can protect yourself and your loved ones should another beast come to take them from you?"
"Yeah," Tori answered, feeling like she was answering a question to a test; as always, she felt no closure.
"Is it?" Ra's insisted. "Do you think sitting in class...fighting some men in black suits...and carrying their picture with you will give you strength to control your life?" Those words hurt; they were true, and had enough depth to reveal everything. With all of her heart, she begged him not to, but kept her composure on the outside. "Is it going to take away from the fact that you have no master in your life?" Ra's words were growing vicious, and Victoria lowered her head to hide the vicious blushing and welling tears. "You blame yourself for that night, and you always will...whether you ever come face to face with that man again or not, you won't be ready. Because you don't know what you're looking for, and that is why you can't stop your pain!"
"Stop it!" Tori screamed, thrusting her body towards the man; her wash cloth falling to the floor, and her book flying towards him with the momentum of a dying phoenix. Closing his eyes, Ra's allowed Victoria to hit him time and time again, not unlike the way he'd hit hurt before. The book didn't hurt, though it would leave a small scar. When she was done, Tori sat down on the couch, pulled herself out of her emotions, only to break down in tears, and apologized; begging her leader's forgiveness.
Everything was forgotten, or so it seemed. Ra's remembered it all, as did Tori. However, neither saw fit to speak of it again. They both knew it was the only time Victoria had allowed herself to lose herself...
Fury bled inside of her entire body. Her hot breath burning on the older Italian man's neck, the vigilante glared into his very soul. "You've eaten this city's wealth," Tori snarled, her voice striking pure terror into the gangster's entire body. A young, terrified little Trina flashed in the girl's memory. The countless swarms of suffering drug addicts and abused children faded into the teen's raging mind as well. "Preyed on its innocent...and from this moment on...None of you are safe."
"You're afraid," Talia said, making Tori look up from her cereal.
"Huh?" the brunette asked, sweet and innocent, as she was meant to be.
Batwoman stood atop the gargoyle guarding a massive building. Rain was blowing along with the cold wind that October night. That sound still made its pleasant echoes in her tired ears. Blow after blow, driving of fists after driving of the fists into the hard, rubber bag chained to the ceiling. "Good! Good! Nice, keep it up!" the soon-to-be middle-aged Italian man called out. His voice was somewhat nasally, but strong and serious when it had to be. "Never throw single punches...only barrages unless you're making a point!"
Finally, Victoria earned a break, and sat down at a table, her towel wrapped around her neck to absorb the sweat and pacify her heat. "Good job today, kid," the Italian said, taking a seat across from the girl. "I've...never seen a thirteen-year-old fight like that."
"Thanks, Mr. Barone," Tori meekly replied. At this point in her life, the girl was far more soft-spoken and childish in tone than in her later years. "Thanks for everything..."
"Oh," the man sighed, setting his soda on the table. "I know what that means...You're packing up, aren't you?"
"I'm afraid so," Victoria answered, slinging her bag over her shoulder. "But I'll keep what you taught me...never start a fight but know when to end it...never throw the first punch unless everything's riding on it...always give second chances...Thank you Mister Barone."
"Hey...Call me Ray," the man replied, his voice calm and warm. "Take care of yourself." Raymond turned away, and slowly removed the tacks from an old boxing poster that featured a man in a black suit with an almost feline headpiece covering most of his face. In large gold letters, "Wildcat" was printed. The boxer held one fist high in the air, taking in the spotlight above him, all the while wearing an excited, professional smile on his gruff, Italian face.
"You too, Wildcat," Tori smiled, closing the door behind her and walking out into the city as the sun set on the horizon. Ray Barone taught me how to box when I found him. It was about a month since I ran away from home...and he seemed alot like me; down on his luck and remembering better times. Self-defense lessons only go so far when you know there are people with guns waiting around the corners...
I'd never be able to stop at sparring and kick boxing...I had to go deeper; it was the only way to make the pain stop. Don't think for one second the wild cat wasn't everything I needed in a father...but the thing is, he wasn't my father. I'd lost my father long ago...and learned never to completely trust anyone ever again. Of course, I couldn't hold onto that lesson my whole life.
Victoria thrust her arm out to block the punch, then threw her foot into her opponent's stomach. Her legs tied together, the girl forced her boy up and down as the weights hindered her push-ups. "I can tell you're angry...what happened? Why did you come here?"
"Mommy!" a young Tori screamed, standing with her sister in an empty alley stained with her parent's streaming blood. The man's cold, aching fingers pressed onto the trigger, and blasted the hot, searing lead through Thomas and Martha; they never did anything wrong. That didn't stop him, though. He took them in cold blood; standing still, the man watched the smoke clear in the freezing air, and saw the broken, lifeless bodies of the little girls' parents fall to the icy cement floor of that filthy alley.
"I wanna learn self-defense," Victoria told the man, looking at the floor. A young man thrust his fist out in a hook-punch, only to have it blocked by Tori's upward arm. Quickly rebounding, the girl jolted her left elbow out, smashing the boy in the stomach.
"Good job," Ray called out from the sideline.
"Stop her! Get her money!" the young woman cried, her shrill voice cracking through the city. A teenage boy and girl, both of which had excessive piercings, rammed Victoria against the walls of an abandoned apartment. "What's she got?"
Feeling the gruff, uncaring hands grabbing at her person, the brunette swallowed her anger, and let them see; "Nothin!" the boy hollered. "Stupid kid!" The mugger's hand smacking into Tori's breast, the girl felt darkness settle over her veins, and she chopped her hand through the air, then clenched it into a fist to deliver a vicious smack into the boy's face, cracking one of his teeth. Tightening her teeth, the gang leader charged forward, and was firmly kicked by their victim. The wind was completely knocked out of the young woman, and the pain wrestled her to the floor.
"Don't quit your day job," Victoria said before going on her way that night. As the brunette departed, the one teenage girl, who never spoke during the entire event, merely watched.
As the sun's rays faded from memory, the teenager kept going, moving farther and farther from the city's lights. "Why is it you choose to travel by night?" that comforting but scathing voice asked Victoria one long year later. "That way I don't have to see what I leave behind," Tori answered, looking on the horizon.
"Do you have any idea what kind of enemy you've made?" the young man demanded, glaring directly into the white eyes staring into his. He was frantic, scared, entirely kissed with cold sweat.
"I do," Batwoman happily answered, her gruff tone as terrifying to her foes as ever. "Do you?" Letting go of the rope, Tori watched the man plummet downward with her; draped in her black wings as she dove towards the cold ground. The gangster's screams tore through the silence of the night, and were followed by a confession...
"Falcone's made bail," Victoria snarled, throwing her mask on the floor. "I don't believe it!"
"The underworld has an endless tendency to crawl out from under the stones," Alfred calmly replied. However, he knew what was coming, and he could never sit still with that. "Don't worry, Miss Vega, he shan't wander the streets for long."
"No...he won't," the brunette whispered, looking at the Bat-Wave in her black palm. Sitting alone, the teenage girl watched the flakes of snow gently fall into her exposed hands. The mountain air was cold and hard on her lungs and throat, but she didn't move.
"Embrace the pain...the numbness," the man told her, allowing himself to suffer through the same conditions. "It won't be long until you become a part of it."
"Will it still be like this?" Tori asked, her voice younger.
"Yes, but you won't," Ra's answered, watching the darkening horizon. You will be strong...able to take more pain than you could ever give...and no longer a child, but a force. Victoria sat still in a meditative stance; her eyes so tightly closed that they felt like delicate veils. The blows and impacts viciously collided into her back and head, but she shut them out. However, inside of her, a young girl screamed and cried.
"I'm not strong enough," Tori declared. Like a flash of lightning, the image of Thomas and Martha's death; the gunshot, the grizzly splatter of blood into the air of the cold night flashed through Victoria's mind. Suddenly, the night grew colder.
Beck gently put his arm around Jade's back as she vomited into her toilet, sounding more and more like she couldn't take it anymore. Eva had the blessing of going to bed, or so Beck thought; the child lay awake under her sheets, trying to hide the gags and sounds of her sister's agony. However, she couldn't make it all go away. Her hair attempting to pour into the white bowl, Jadeyn felt hot tears well up in her swollen eyes and slide in with her wretches. It hurt; it burned, especially when she looked back on who she was; on how strong she used to be...
Her long brown hair gliding behind her as she walked, a young Jade West and her best friend of almost a month, Catarina Valentine walked down the hallway of the first grade building, readying themselves for their last classes of the day. No one ever messed with Jade; they said she was scary, like a witch. However, most of the kids decided it would all too much fun to pick on Cat, pull her long, dark-auburn hair, take her toys from her cubby, and call her names. Not Jadeyn, though; she thought Cat was the coolest, though she didn't tell people that. Finally, one of the boys was too mean, and decided to beat up the girl who he knew cheated at kickball. Little Catarina was so small, so soft and sweet, and was bruised, cut on her little forehead, and crying with her eyes tightly closed.
"Hey!" the scary girl screamed, leaving her spot alone under the tree and angrily stomping over to the bully. "Leave her alone!" Jade slapped the boy across the face, causing him to cry and run away; far away from Cat. The dark-haired girl crouched down next to the crying child. "You okay?" she asked, her voice still very young and higher-pitched.
Cat pouted and shook her head back and forth, her eyes shut. "I'll take you to the nurse," Jade said, taking the girl's hand and leading her into the nurse's office. The brown-haired girl was so excited she didn't even think of how much the other child was hurting. "Why'd he hurt you?"
"I don't know," the auburn-haired girl screamed, her eyes welling up with tears. "Thank you, though." Jade glanced back at the little girl, who seemed so much younger than she really was.
"Do people pick on you alot?" Jadeyn asked, setting Cat down outside the office. The girl nodded, making her hair flap over her sad little face. "...I could make them stop," Jade decided. "If you want?"
"Okay," the scared little girl sobbed, feeling better with her newest friend. "Thanks, miss."
"Call me Jade," the dark-haired girl replied, her voice turning warmer. "And I'll call you Cat."
"Okay," Catarina said with a smile.
"What did you just call me?" Jade snarled, forcing the teenager against his locker. "Where do you think you have the right to say garbage like that?" Of course, the boy said nothing; as if he were in the right. She wouldn't hit him; she'd never let him get off that easily. Instead, Jadeyn forced the boy into the darkest room in the school, closed and locked the door, and listened...
Obviously, the Gothic girl's behavior wasn't tolerated, but standing up for herself and Cat was more important than a suspension. "Let me out!" the boy screamed, trying to get out of the darkness and the emptiness around him. "Ah!" Believing his captor had exited from the door she locked, the boy had no idea that Jade was right there; taking in everything the bully wished no one could hear; every scream he tried so hard to let out so that someone far off could hear, and help him. The girl began to laugh quietly. "Who's there?" Covering her mouth to block a malicious smile, Jade turned her laughter into vicious snickering.
"You didn't have to do that," Cat said as her and her friend walked down the hallway.
"He deserved it," the dark-haired girl replied, looking forward. "Besides, he's fine..." Cat was still upset, Jade could tell. "You wanted to do what to my hair?" The young, auburn-haired girl smiled a huge but restricted smile, jittered through her teeth as he did a little jump into the air, then grabbed her friend's hand and rushed her into the bathroom.
The blue and pink streaks looked amazing; even Jade had to admit that. "Thanks, Kitten," she said, quickly stroking her dyed streaks down on the side.
"No problem, Jadey," Cat happily replied, giving her friend a hug. "I was thinking about changing my hair...maybe during summer, though."
"Your choice," Jade warmly replied. "Why not now?"
"You know my mom," the girl answered. "She'd have a fit." Jade nodded in a somewhat grim agreement. I had friends...but I never needed anyone, Jade told herself, taking a breath from tonight's ordeal.
"Hi...I'm Beck," a long-haired young man with naturally gorgeous features and a sensitive look and spirit to his face.
"Hi," Jade replied, keeping her cool, even though she was feeling something different; her heart was fluttering, her body was light, her breath was alittle heavier than usual, though she didn't really notice. "...Don't get lost here." With that, the semi-Gothic girl gave a brief smile and walked off, leaving Beck bewildered. That was in ninth grade; when they were all freshmen; when things were so much better, even though I was too stupid to appreciate it.
Beck sat alone in the West family's living room. His once-warm and optimistic eyes gazing into nothingness, the boy thought about his relationship. He needed to love Jade; he was all she had right now. But Tori...those feelings had always been there...why did they matter so much now? Why wouldn't they go away?
Maybe Jade's the only thing making me a good person...maybe that's why I became the Hood... Images flashed back; desperation, loss, helplessness. Jade was dying right before his eyes; he wouldn't let that happen. He couldn't become that monster. "I live in this trailer...it's better than crashing with my parents," Beck told his lover on one of their dates. "It's not much, but it's home."
"It's cute," Jadeyn replied. Then, the two kissed, and it was perfect.
With a flash of lightning, Red Hood and Batwoman were facing off one another; hating each other, and at one another's throat. "Beck...Beck!" a voice snapped through the memories, making the boy jump. "Oh...hey, kid," he said as Eva entered the room.
"You okay?" the girl asked. "You look spacey."
"I'm okay...thanks," Beck replied. "Thanks...how's Jade doing?"
"Better," Eva answered, taking a seat on the chair across from the young man. "She's not throwing up anymore...I know she wanted you to go...but you can probably come back now."
"I'd love to," Beck continued, sounding almost hurt. "But I have to get to work at the lab...tell her 'love you,' please."
"Sure thing, Beck," the girl said. "Have fun at work." The boy chuckled at the sweet notion. "Thanks, kid," he said before departing into the cold night. Thank heaven for Ace Chemical, the young man said to himself as he pressed his light jacket to his neck. And thank heaven for Jade...
Watching his mother and father scream and shout at one another in the kitchen; trying to hide himself in the shadows of the living room, Beck started imagining a better life. Finally, he got it; when he turned fifteen, he took his parents up on their words: "You live under our house, you follow our rules." After coaxing his folks, the boy convinced them to let him pay rent on their old r.v., which he soon moved in to.
The first breakdown came in seventh grade; when everything became too much. His family was tearing itself apart, he had no friends, and everyday life was just too horrible. Clenching his hair until it nearly tore out, Beck screamed. Soon, those screams turned to tears, which faded into the water of the r.v.'s sink. "I hate my life," the boy whispered, so hurt. Finally, his parents sent him to a mental hospital.
"Please, let us stay with him," Beck's mother begged, sounding so vulnerable.
"I'm sorry," the young nurse replied, her voice sensitive. "That's not allowed...we have to get Beck to tell us what's wrong with him...it's the only way he can get better. We'll take care of him...you can trust in that." Beck, teary eyed, gazed at his parents, holding his hand out to them before being gently walked away by the doctors. For so long, he didn't feel right; he didn't feel at home at all. Worst of all, he was all alone.
Dreams were horrid and laced with pure terror. Nights were long and dull due to the drugs that were supposed to help. "What started all of this? If you can tell me," one of the doctors asked. Beck shook his head, too uneasy and shy to talk. It won't be like last time. I'm here...I'll always be here for you, Jade told him. "...Even though I can't even be there for her," the young man whispered, taking his gloves off at the end of his shift.
Tori lay on the ground, trying to find movements or positions that didn't make her throb. Ra's did nothing but watch her; disapproving of her in every way possible. Finally, the young girl managed to get up, and looked at the man with weak eyes.
"Your strength has its limits," the master told his student. "No matter how hard you try to deny it. But I've seen you go beyond those limits...when you have something to fight for."
Tori lunged forward with the sword, knowing Ra's would block with his. The two clashed, then pressed against one another's blade. Forcing her weapon down, the girl brought her master into a vulnerable position, then lunged at him quickly. Ra's held out his arm, and absorbed the sword's glow with his spiked arm guide; the armor was thick, layered with a Gothic design, and extruded three blades to catch an opponent's blades or snare their fists. "No matter what you do, Victoria..." Tori threw her sword back, then raced towards the ma once again; he blocked her effortlessly. "You can't undo your parents' death...it wasn't your fault to begin with..." The girl tightened her eyes, violently shook a tear into the air, and continued to slash blindly at her master. "It was your father's."
"Shut up!" Victoria commanded, slashing viciously at her enemy, then pulling herself back in fear and weak constraint. Her body numb, the child kept at the fight, only to be blocked and rejected time after time. "My father did what he could!"
"But it wasn't good enough!" Ra's declared, his voice so strong an violent. "He wasn't enough!"
"Stop it!" Tori shouted, her voice like the scream of a little girl as she slashed down the sword at Ra's' head. The man raised his blade above his head, and the two collided; locked in time for a moment.
"The choice has been made," the man declared, his controlled again. With that, Ra's thrust his foot into Tori's chest, knocking her flat on her back. When the girl started to get up, she found her master's blade touching on her diaphragm, and a very confident look on her master's face. "Always expect the unexpected, Victoria...as your parents should have done." Ra's slid his sword into its holster, and departed from the training area.
I know how to learn from past mistakes... The gruff man swung the wooden bat left and right, only to have it caught between two black blades on Batwoman's arm. Smiling, Tori thrust her fist into the man's face, knocking him out on the ground. "...But what am I fighting for?...Right now, to stop Falcone." Gazing towards the sky, the woman grappled away into the night. Trina wouldn't even know her sister was out this late; she was fast asleep and concerned over her auditions.
It wasn't that long after the Vega family moved to California that Katrina changed. Then, when Tori left, there was on reason for her to hold onto her old self. Thankfully for her, the older of the orphaned sisters had the talent needed to attend Hollywood Arts, which pacified her desire for fame for awhile. However, the child often stated that this was just the first step to her stardom.
Alfred tried to keep Trina down to earth, but she didn't want his advice on this. Still, he tried; just as he did with Thomas, and as he would continue to do for his family. Seventeen years he worked for the Vega family...now he was the father of his charge's children. One of which had dropped off the face of the earth.
"Who is that?" one of the women on the street screamed.
"...I'm your worst nightmare," the Batwoman answered, gazing at the criminals under the cover of night.