Batman – The War Begins
By BenRG
Disclaimer
Batman, the characters of the Batman and the Justice League universes are the property of DC Comics and its owners. This is a not-for-profit fan work for free distribution through the world-wide web. The author and distributor make no claim of ownership
Author's Notes
First and foremost, this story emerged from some thinking that I did about whether or not Batman really fit in with the Justice League and its philosophy. It also includes some aspects of my thinking of how one could salvage the DC comics' Batman continuity, despite some of the more eccentric recent meta-plot developments without a total reboot.
This story exists in a similar fanon universe as my Teen Titans story 'Futures'. Although there are some differences, it has common characters and the same relationships.
I've decided to post this story, even though I'm not entirely satisfied with the way I resolved the Talia issue. Although I think the methods used here are credible, I'm not sure that this was the best resolution (or the one Bruce would necessarily have chosen). However, I'm not Batman; after a lot of brain-storming, I've given up finding another plot device to remove her from the game and will go with what I've got.
Censor: T – Not for the younger ones
Chapter 1 – The DEMON's Fall
Bruce Wayne sat in his high-backed armchair in the study of Wayne Manor, looking over the South River towards Gotham City proper.
Bruce took a sip of his mineral water as he thought back on recent events. It had been... even by his standards... a momentous few days.
The deed was done. The Justice League was broken.
In hindsight, as much as he had wanted to believe in Clark and Diana's vision, this day had been inevitable. As he had feared, super-powers corrupt to a superior degree. There was no doubt that the League had been formed with the highest and noblest of ambitions. However, all too quickly, it had lost focus. Instead of the root-and-branch world of fighting crime and corruption, of helping the helpless, the League tried to hold itself above the petty cares of the ordinary mortals. Oh, the League had done good work, facing down extra-terrestrial and other omniscopic threats. It had also been highly effective in dealing with natural disasters. However, in the field of bringing justice it had been a pitiful joke. Bruce had lost count of the number of times the League had ignored blatant misrule and criminality on a national or supra-national scale simply because the perpetrators had some measure of legitimacy in the eyes of some commercial, political or religious authority.
No, instead it followed Diana's lofty maxim: "It isn't our place to decide on who rules and what laws are enforced. We can only guide and protect, not rule!"
Or as Clark put it more than once: "We're a light to the roadway, Bruce. We can't decide what road is taken!"
Bruce managed to restrain a growl. What good was setting an example when no-one was watching? You couldn't be a good example to someone whose only value-set was arranged around self-aggrandisement. No amount of kind, wise words and good deeds were of the slightest interest to these types of personalities, other than to confirm that you are a weak-willed fool ripe for exploitation. The ordinary people of the world saw brightly-clad colossi bestriding the world and meaning close to nothing to their day-to-day lives. So they went on as they always had, with the possible addition of having modern-day Olympians to worship by their mindless purchase of League-branded merchandise.
Bruce wondered it was fear of one day walking the path of the Justice Lords that motivated this timidity. Or was it rather a naïve belief that, if given the chance, all people would automatically do the right thing?
In the end, the final breach involved, inevitably enough, Ra's Al-Ghul.
Bruce had never believed that incredibly hyperbolic story about Talia murdering Ra's and taking over the League of Assassins. Talia was, sadly enough, too completely programmed to mindless obedience to her father to be capable of even thinking of finally repaying his centuries of casual and indifferent treatment of her as either a pawn or a mobile womb to bear an heir. Bruce had never bought it.
However, a gut feeling is not evidence and it is not the basis for a strategy. Actual data was required and Bruce needed a way to get it. The only way to do so was to have someone on the inside in the DEMON organisation. Fortunately, Bruce had just such a potential agent.
It was hard to describe how proud he was of Cassandra Cain, Batgirl as she was then. The girl had come in leaps and bounds since she first came to his attention in the anarchy of No Man's Land. She had developed so far as a person and had done the nearly impossible in setting aside her monstrous father's programming of her mind to instead adopt the path of justice. In the costume of Batgirl, Cassie had found a meaning and direction in her life. She had even found love. Because she believed in Bruce, however, she was willing to risk all this, potentially give it all up and even to possibly lose her life.
At Bruce's request, Cassie had returned to the League of Assassins and become one of their most feared and trusted operatives. Officially, she became a renegade in Bruce's eyes, a priority to be captured and stopped at all costs. In practice, she became his eyes and ears in DEMON. It was child's play for Cassie to ingratiate herself with the nearly pitifully-naive leadership of the League. So enamoured were they of their new pet assassin that it never occurred to them that she was, in fact, a poisoned thorn thrust into the heart of their organisation. They never gave her missions anywhere near the needed scrutiny. Never once did they check to make sure that her targets had ever actually been killed...
Finally came the report from Cassie that was, ultimately, the reason she was sent on this mission. The report that, in truth, Bruce had been expecting from the start. Ra's was still alive and still a poisonous spider at the centre of a web of intrigue, bluff and strategy.
With this revelation came the second, far more difficult element of Bruce's plan. Ra's was, as always, too paranoid to share his thoughts and strategies even with his new, up-and-coming Strong Right Hand as Cassie appeared to be. No, if Bruce were to know what the millennia-old megalomaniac was planning, he had to be so close to the old man that he heard his every word and thought. He needed to be Ubu.
It was nearly astonishing how easy Cassie found it to assassinate the current Ubu in such a way that not the slightest suspicion existed that it was anything other than an improbable fatal accident. All that was needed now was for Bruce to present himself as one of the candidates to replace Ra's's chief bodyguard and intimate attendant. However, to do this, no suspicion at all could be permitted that this candidate was, in fact, Bruce Wayne. Batman needed to die and die in a way that was sufficiently unlikely and not so spectacularly public so as to seem like a deception. With the unwitting assistance of a particularly violent and pitifully predictable drugs lord in Scotland, the simulated death of the Dark Knight was achieved.
In his new identity, Bruce was able to infiltrate the DEMON organisation. His fortune and contacts made it easy to have the surgical modifications to disguise his identity and appear a man of twenty years age. The average candidate for Ubu is usually a near-mindless drone, a slightly-better-than-average thug set apart from the average DEMON foot-soldier only by their even greater fanaticism in the cult of The DEMON's Head. Compared to these, "Th'nas" was a shining star and Ra's could not possibly turn down having such a one at his side.
Of course, working with Ra's day-by-day in the most intimate terms was an extraordinarily difficult trial. Ra's was always a cruel, venal tyrant and the atrocities he casually ordered inflicted on his followers and innocents on a whim turned Bruce's stomach. However, Bruce found strength to endure. So long as Ra's ultimate plan remained unknown, Bruce needed to keep his peace for fear that the plan may be executed with unthinkable results even if the old monster were finally dead.
There were a few near-misses with exposure, Bruce acknowledged.
The first was Talia. If there was anyone who had the ability to recognise Bruce through any disguise, it was Talia. She knew Bruce, her 'beloved', better than any person in the DEMON organisation. It was a testament to the quality and scale of Bruce's disguise that, despite a clear sense of deja vu, Talia never made the connection between the new Ubu and the supposedly-dead Detective.
The second was that, perhaps, he and Cassie had too many contacts during their time at Ra's's Nepalese compound. Ra's, paranoid and observant as he had always been, had noticed. Thankfully, the old fool, sure that the one man who he considered his near-equal was finally dead, came to the wrong conclusion. Bruce couldn't help but chuckle as he remembered Ra's loudly meditating on the possible advantages of marrying his top assassin, "Cass'ra", to his loyal and indispensable Ubu. He had to give credit to Cassie for keeping a straight face and keeping the horror out of her eyes. She, after all, didn't have the advantage Bruce had of Ubu's face-concealing ceremonial mask.
Of course, Ra's wasn't a total idiot. He knew that the remains of The Batman's organisation in Gotham could yet be a threat to him. Even without their leader, surely the Detective's apprentices knew enough about him and his ways that, as his master plan evolved, they might find some way to combat it. They needed to be neutralised. The way he chose to do it was fascinating and could possibly have been effective.
Bruce scowled as he thought of Ra's's first chosen pawn, an easily-manipulated egoist named Katherine Kane. If there had ever been a woman less-suited to the style and name 'Batwoman', he could not imagine her. Venal, self-deluding, arrogant and prone to flaunting her sexuality in a way that suggested unresolved guilt issues, the woman was never more than a distraction and a lightning rod for Dick, Barbara and Tim's ire. Far more potentially effective were the clones.
It still astonished Bruce that Ra's associates had developed the science of cloning, growth acceleration and fast-learning as far as they had. Of course, a fortune built up not over decades but centuries had allowed the old man to purchase the services of any number of experts. The fool had also finally learnt the lesson that a willing tool was far more effective than a coerced one could ever be. He had thus allowed his research teams to operate with only minimal interference from his usual violent whims.
However, despite his grudging admiration for Ra's's finally learning some strategy, he couldn't restrain his visceral hatred for the casual violation of the innocent minds of the three helpless children whose creation the monster ordered. Two were clones of Stephanie Brown, Spoiler, and Jason Todd, the second Robin, based on stolen genetic material from the two originals. The third was a boy, Damien, based on a mix of Bruce's own DNA and that of Talia (and that must have pleased Ra's, although it was another of his casual brutalities that he denied Talia's desperate request to bear the cloned child naturally). The clones were programmed with facsimiles of their predecessors' memories and personalities and given a simple mission – to infiltrate the Bat Clan and do what Kane could not do: destroy it from within; to gain a position of trust and then, at a pre-arranged signal, to bring them down by hook or by crook.
It actually might have worked if it were not for Bruce's ace-in-the-hole: Catwoman.
No one had ever bothered to ask why Catwoman had suddenly become inactive a few years previously. No one had asked about the origins of her daughter, Abigail, assuming that the Gotham Post's libellous rumours of a past as a prostitute or a torrid romance with the son of a fourth-rate private detective was true. In fact, Selina had long tired of living a criminal life. It had never been more than an elaborate attempt to stave off boredom and somehow find again the security that had been lost when her parents died in a tragically random car accident. However, she had skills that were second to none in the field of security. Both Wayne Industries and, more importantly, Batman's organisation needed those skills. Selina was more than willing to accept a way out of criminality and the chance to start again when it was offered.
If, along the way, Selina had come to fill a hole in Bruce's emotional life and he in hers, well, that was their business and was not truly relevant to their professional relationship.
Selina had been Bruce's agent in Gotham from the moment of his presumed 'death'. As much as it pained him to manipulate Dick, Barbara and Tim, the more people who were aware of his plan, the more chance there was of a fatal security breach. It was Selina who marginalised Kane and then set about deprogramming the clones. The work was absolutely and stunningly successful with young Stephanie and Damien, who embraced the closeness of the Bat Family and were more than willing to train with Dick and Tim as the new Batgirl and Robin. Selina's cunning was more than equal to the task of convincing the two youngsters that their pre-programmed story of Stephanie's cryogenic suspension on the point of death, revival after Ra's's surgeons had repaired her terminal injuries and subsequent escape from Nepal with Damien's help had been accepted without question. With Selina's subtle direction and encouragement, Oracle was able to user her skill with audio-visual computer technology to identify the hypnotically-implanted triggers and neutralise them.
Their work was far less successful with the clone of Jason. The bitterness and alienation that was characteristic of the imposed memories of Jason Todd, combined with the DEMON programming as an assassin and saboteur, sent him into a deep, dark depression to which he responded by turning to borderline criminality as The Red Hood. Bruce intended to catch the boy one day, if only to ensure that his DEMON mental programming was never accidentally activated.
Meanwhile, at last, Ra's master plan was beginning to take shape. Bruce grudgingly admitted to being impressed. What was the single biggest flaw in all his plans to date? He used broadly criminal and forcible means to achieve his goals. Bruce didn't know when the old pseudo-immortal had finally realised how self-defeating these means were but, having learnt his lesson, he was applying it to a new master plan with the skill of a virtuoso.
If there was one thing that he knew, the Justice League, for all its power, would never act against a 'legitimate' or 'legally elected' government, no matter how tenuous or laughable those claims to legitimacy or legality. Nor would they act against a 'legitimate' religion, no matter how vile its creed or godless its ceremonies. Ra's had realised that everything was there for the taking without out risking the slightest resistance from the Earth's so-called 'mightiest heroes'. All that was needed was patience and time, something that he had in abundance.
Ra's had already identified his first target. All that he needed to do was to provoke a revolution against a sickeningly corrupt and violent dictator and sweep into power as the 'great liberator' of the oppressed masses. From a secure and internationally-recognised power base, he would then be able to begin with the second phase of his plans. He would use the long-perfected means of indoctrination that had turned him into nigh-on a god to the cultists of his DEMON organisation on the population of his new country. He would then send out missionaries to surrounding nations, many of them as corrupt and failing as his initial target. Eventually, this growing religion would be in the position to start violent uprisings. As the wise leader of the faith of the disaffected populations, he would, of course, be in a perfect position to come as mediator and peace-maker. It would be simple enough to impose his own agents on the governments of these other countries as part of a 'power-sharing' deal, effectively taking control of them. So it would be that, nation by nation, Asia would be united under the banner of DEMON.
Oh, there would be violence and those who would not be indoctrinated, Ra's knew that. Nonetheless, he had the protection of 'international recognition' and 'legitimacy'. No other country would officially aid these hopeless hold-outs and he was confident that they could be manipulated into being self-defeating. It was even possible, and here Ra's had to laugh as he regaled Ubu with this proof of his genius, that he might even be able to persuade the Justice League to assist his forces in 'keeping the peace' and arresting the 'foul anarchists' who threatened the peace of his empire. Even if they refused, he knew that they would remain neutral and that was all he really required.
With a continent-sized power base and a population of billions on his side, it would be child's play for Ra's to move on to either convert or conquer every other nation. Environmental disasters would be manufactured, plagues released and wars provoked. Before anyone realised who was the architect of these seemingly-unrelated catastrophes, it would be too late. The DEMON's Head, the master of the last government on Earth with any significant level of functionality, would kindly and paternally offer assistance in restoring order and essential services. Before anyone knew what was happening, the world would wake up to realise it was effectively ruled by DEMON, reliant on Ra's's largesse for their continued existence. It was probably be at that time that the so-called 'heroes' would finally respond, along with the tattered remains of his rival rulers. By that point, it would be simple to portray them as traitors, anarchists and monsters seeking to impose their will on the peaceful commonwealth of humankind. The battle would doubtless be destructive, but the outcome would not be in doubt.
Bruce had to admit that it was a fine plan, one worthy of a master-strategist. However, it all hung on one immense vulnerability – that no one realise what was happening until Ra's was in a position to present himself as the legitimate ruler of tens of millions, fighting to defend his people's peace and prosperity against malcontents seeking to impose their own rule. It assumed that there was not an enemy already at the heart of his organisation.
Of course, against a strategy of this scale, it was necessary to apply a counter-strategy of his own. Ra's had to be led to his own destruction in a way that the man believed that he was taking those steps of his own free will. Through Cassie and Selina, it was possible to arrange confrontations with Dick and Tim and their friends in the Titans that convinced Ra's that he had the upper hand and that the Bat Family was in disarray. The old man never realised that he was being directed along a path and time-table of another's construction. Win or lose, every confrontation moved Ra's towards a trap.
One of the problems faced by any paranoid absolute ruler is that he very rarely is aware of what is really happening in his empire. He knows only of what his most trusted subordinates want him to know. And the most trusted subordinates in DEMON right now were Cass'ra and Ubu.
Bruce sighed. He was truly sorry for what had happened to Talia. She had been a victim, tool and pawn so many times and had never once moved to free herself. It was possible that she didn't even understand the concept of being free of her father's total control, even in the most abstract of ways. She was the only one smart enough and loyal enough to her father to realise what was happening and stupid enough to dare accuse his loyal Strong Left and Right Hands to his face. There was no question of being able to bribe or manipulate her into silence.
Bruce revealed himself to her and gave her the opportunity to either flee her father's service or end her own life on her own terms and with all the dignity she required. Naturally, she declined his offer. Talia really was an amazingly heroic personality, for all she had a bizarre, romantic approach to the world. Did she really think that Bruce would have casually confronted her and given the opportunity to run through the one unsecured exit in the room? Cassie was waiting. He had no reason to doubt the young woman's assurance that Talia's end was essentially instantaneous and utterly painless.
It was simple enough to simulate Talia's suicide. Although the al-Ghul family's long-extinct culture had no equivalent of a 'suicide note', Bruce had previously gone to the trouble of forging poetry in Talia's handwriting mourning her "Beloved's" death and expressing her heartbreak of never once holding "their" child (Damien) to her breast. Ra's was distracted and, frankly, didn't care too much, being too close to his ultimate goal to worry about Talia, who had been a waning star in his organisation since her disastrous tenure as the CEO of LexCorp. Ubu's report on her tragic death was accepted without question. Ra's idly informed his bodyguard that he was already working on using his cloning science to make an heir more to his standards.
Then the day at last came when Ra's made his move. For a short time, between his departing Nepal and his arrival at 'his' new capital, he would be a revolutionary and a former terrorist leader involving himself in another nation's insurrection rather than a national leader in his own right. This left a vulnerable window when Bruce could move in an environment when he and Cassie were Ra's's only significant protection and in a territory where their escape would be easy.
Things would likely have gone off without a hitch. However, Bruce remembered the truism that no battle plan survives contact with the enemy. So he already had some flexibility in place when Ra's, in a late wrinkle, decided to involve the Justice League. Ra's had identified the same vulnerability that Bruce had done and had attempted to mitigate this by having his agents in the sitting tyrant's government make conditions in the country even harsher. The League, predictably, wouldn't move against the government or even the local-level bullies, but they did deign to engage in 'peacekeeping' operations to prevent 'misunderstandings' between the security forces and the ordinary people. Ra's had calculated that, when his revolution began, the League would be just sympathetic enough to the cause of 'the people' that they would ensure that their mysterious leader reached the capital unharmed. Only then, with Ra's in the presidential palace and addressing his new nation, would they realise who it was behind events. By then it would be too late, Ra's agents would have already ensured that enough international approval had been given for the uprising that the League would be stymied by its own rules.
The time had come to inform Dick, Barbara, Tim, Stephanie and Damien that Bruce was still alive. Informed of the truth by Selina and realising that the current situation was too dangerous to spend time debating the ethics of his plan, the Bat Family moved at once. Accompanied by their associates of two generations of The Titans (whose unquestioning faith in their kin and mentors Tim and Dick had been unknowingly undermining for years), they reached the imperilled country just in time to carry out their role – to prevent the Justice League from interfering. As Ra's had predicted, Diana and Clark had convinced the rest of the League to ensure "a smooth transfer of power with a minimum of violence" and were ensuring that the dictator's forces were neutralised and unable to interfere with the rebels' march to the capital. Naturally, when the native groups of insurrectionists, clued in by two mysterious informants to the impending attempt by Ra's to subvert their uprising, turned on their DEMON 'advisers', they tried to "ensure that the rebel leadership could maintain order". Fortunately, the Bat Family, the Titans, and the Wayne Protocols, were more than able to keep them out of the fight.
In the resulting chaos, as the DEMON army, scattered through dozens of cells, was obliterated, it fell to "Cass'ra" and "Ubu" to evacuate Ra's. Alone and reliant purely on his two Strong Hands, Ra's was more vulnerable than he had been in centuries. Bruce did not intend to allow this opportunity to go to waste. Cassie later told him that she felt his solution, tying the raving old megalomaniac to a nuclear bomb and dropping the resulting package into the Lazarus Pit, was "extreme but effective".
It was then just a matter to show the League how completely they had been fooled, to the point that they had been fighting to assist a fanatic religious terrorist in turning a native population's uprising against tyranny into his taking control of their country. Bruce wasn't even slightly surprised when Diana arrested him and informed him that the League would have a disciplinary hearing to judge his fate.
To be continued…