Hope you guys enjoy!
Mess Is Mine:
"Momma!" Sophie Allen cried, running into the house, her twin brother, Thomas, right on her heels.
"Slow down, Soph." Lian muttered, continually amazed that it was her non-metagene enhanced child that seemed to be the fastest to get in trouble.
"You hurt?" The four-year old asked, clamoring up into Lian's arms.
Lian shrugged, wiping blood off the cut on her cheek, "Not really, just a scratch, baby girl."
"Where's Daddy?" Thomas asked, taking her hand, the youngest by half an hour, and aptly their most sensitive child.
"Taking a shower, bud." She answered simply, sending a wave of reassurance to her empathic son so he wouldn't go rushing in to see his father and stumble upon the blood soaked Flash uniform she was going to be up half the night washing.
Anthony, her oldest at seven years old, fell into step beside her as she walked to the kitchen, "Can Daddy and I go on a run tonight?"
Before Lian could answer, Bart scooped their speedster son up into his arms, "We sure can, dude, but only if you eat your veggies and mind your Momma." Bart brushed a kiss to the side of her head, "You feeling okay?"
Lian nodded, grinning at him, "Yeah, you?"
He rubbed his side where he'd gotten clawed at by some creature she hadn't bothered to learn the background on. It was mostly a flesh wound, but she knew even his quick metabolism wasn't enough to heal it completely during his shower. "Been better, but I'll be good by the time we're done with dinner." He grimaced when Anthony accidentally brushed his foot against the covered wound. "Owe."
Anthony giggled, and they both practically vanished. Unsurprisingly, she found them both in the kitchen. Her hand drifted to her stomach as she wondered how she'd ever adjusted to feeding a family of five when two of them ate the same amount as twenty grown men. Truthfully, she used a lot of pre-made food, it wasn't what she wanted to feed her family, but the only way to get the job done and at least her parents were more than eager to come over on weekends and help her make mass quantities of meals.
Little did they know that soon the amount of food was going to be more, but that wasn't her biggest concern at the moment. She took the twins into the downstairs bathroom so they could wash their hands, and studied her youngest son, "What's wrong, precious boy?"
"Sophie found something near the well, Momma. I don't like it." Thomas said, leaking anxiety, and staring up at her with wide green eyes.
Lian gently pushed the emotions back into his little body, something she'd spent a lot of time doing in the last four years. She could only imagine how terrible she'd been as a child without anyone to rein in the wild emotions all the time. Sure Bart had been able to soothe her, but he hadn't been there all the time. Lian put her hands on her hips, knowing she looked just like her mother before Kat went in critiquing fighting form, "What did you find, Soph?"
The little girl set her jaw, clutching her closed fist to her chest. "It's mine. You can't have it, Momma." Well that answered one question in the game of Twenty Questions she was beginning to play with her four year old. Bigger than a breadbasket? No.
"I just want to see it, hun." Lian urged softly, becoming more than a little concerned over her daughter's reticence. Then she realized she couldn't feel the true depth of her daughter's emotions. Now she understood Thomas' anxiety, for the first time in his life, he couldn't feel his own twin. Even for Lian, her powers still stronger than her young son's, it felt like her empathy was sliding over glass, and the only other person who had ever felt like that to her had been her grandmother. Lian went rigid, the realization taking every ounce of levity out of her body, "Sophia Martha Allen, open your hand right now."
Sophie shook her head slightly, and Lian noticed a second terrible change in her daughter. Her eyes were no longer her father's bright green. They'd darkened, brown around the edges with only faint traces of the hue they'd been before clinging to the outer edge of her pupils. They were her great-grandmother's eyes. No, they were cat eyes.
Lian's voice shook, "Open your hand, Sophie. I won't take it from you. I just want to look."
Her daughter looked thoughtful for a moment, "Okay, Mama"
Then she opened her fist.
Lian stared at the red stone in her daughter's hand in shock, and it wasn't until Bart came into the room that the silence was broken, after he'd swayed a little in shock of course. "Well I'll be damned. Looks like the Catwoman mantle is staying in the family after all." His panic was barely masked, but enough to soothe Thomas.
"No." Lian cursed, watching a sly familiar grin overtake her daughter's face.
"Come catch me!" She screamed before bolting out of the room.
Bart grimaced at his wife, "I'll be right back. Feel free to go freak out at your mother. I can tell you're about to lose it."
Lian nodded, feeling short of breath. She fumbled with her phone, telling Thomas to go find Anthony, and go play in the game-room. She could hardly speak when her mother answered the phone, "Lian, sweetheart, what's wrong?"
"Grams." Lian choked out.
"What? Did you have a nightmare? I thought you'd grown out of those. Your Grams wasn't that scary." Kat said, harassing her. Silence greeted her and she turned serious, "Lian, what's wrong? Are the kids okay?"
"I'm pregnant." Lian blurted.
Kat didn't like the sound of her daughter's voice, and said cautiously, "I'm happy for you, baby." Silence again, "Lian, are you okay? Is there something wrong with...it?"
"I don't know, don't think so." Lian gasped, sinking against the wall, "Just took a test this morning. But, Mom... Sophie found the stone."
"What stone?" Kat asked carefully, waving her husband over and dreading their daughter's response.
Lian's voice was shaking, and she hardly registered the sound of Bart reentering the house with a squealing Sophie over his shoulder. "The red stone, Mom. The one Grams had, the one..."
"That denotes Bast's favored, the next Catwoman." Kat finished, and just let silence sit between them while she wrote everything down for Red to read over her shoulder.
"What am I going to do, Mom?" Lian finally gasped out.
Kat sighed, "Be her mother, Lian. She'll never have to live the way my mother did. Hell, with the Wayne name and fortune, she'll probably never even have to steal anything. It'll be fine."
"What am I going to do with four kids?" Lian said wearily.
Kat smiled at her husband, thinking of all the people she considered her children. "You'll be fine, Lian. You and Bart are better parents than the rest of us combined, and you know it. And just four? You're certain it's not twins again?"
Lian nodded when Bart came to sink down next to her, "Yeah, just one. I can feel it. But, God, Catwoman? My four year old just had every shred of a normal future ripped from her and she doesn't even know it."
Red took the phone from Kat to talk to their daughter, "Pumpkin head, her legal name is Sophia Martha Wayne-Harper Allen, she was never going to have a normal future. You weren't either, but you haven't had it so bad, have you? Everything's worked out."
"Yeah, you're right." They'd been through a lot, but it had only made them stronger as a family. She sighed, "I'm not going to be the one to tell Gramps though."
"We'll let Sophie do it." Her mother answered instantly, cheek to cheek with her husband so they could both talk to their daughter.
And so they did.
The next time the Allen's visited Wayne Manor, Lian urged Sophie to show her great-grandfather her new treasure.
Bruce had stared, and then pulled Sophie into a hug that was as tight as his weary arms would allow. "Do good, baby girl. Make us proud, no matter how you do it."
"I will." Sophie said, solemn for a four year old.
Bruce smiled into her shoulder, "I know you will."
He died in his sleep two months later, the day after Lian told him that their last baby would be another boy they intended to name James Alfred Allen. Although the public wanted a grand spectacle of a funeral, Kat, Damian, and Terry insisted that Wayne Enterprises allow the family to grieve as they saw fit, and not try to make money off their pain. As it was, most of the League members who had worked closely with him or any of his three children and several protégées attended, standing behind the family as the newest tombstone was added to the Wayne graveyard. It read in bold lettering: 'Here lie Bruce and Selina Wayne, soul mates, beloved parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and friends to all those deserving.'
A small bat carved into the stone stood shrouded by Isis, but once the service was over, the black cat left it's old mistress and her mate for the last time, twining himself around the ankles of his new mistress, a young girl with dark red hair her parents called Sophie. He remained by her side in a life he'd been denied for centuries, and was given the pleasure of being able to not only care for his new mistress, but the rest of his old mistress's family. He had never been so satisfied, but the day the girl turned eighteen, she decided their time living in the lap of luxury for free was over.
Isis had been afraid that his new mistress wouldn't be like those that had come before her, wouldn't have the drive and craft, but Sophie was perhaps better than her grandmother before her. She wasn't conflicted. She was fearless and even in temperament, sly and just coy enough to have anyone she wanted eating out of the palm of her hand. Her mother had been made from fire, but Sophie was fire personified.
She was also his first mistress to have siblings. Her three brothers pulled her into battle frequently, but she was fastidious about not killing, something she took from her great-grandfather. That didn't mean that she shied away from a fight to protect her family. Some nameless villain Isis didn't care to learn the name of had fourteen year old Jamie Allen by the throat, so Sophie went for his. She dropped the man, unconscious, not dead, onto the ground, and hauled her youngest brother to his feet, "You okay, J?"
Jamie nodded, "Yup."
"Where's Dad?" She asked, trying not to baby him like the whole family had a tendency to do, considering he was the only one not Goddess blessed or with a Metagene in their family. Sure Anthony mostly focused on taking the reins of the Wayne businesses, but he still used his speedster abilities when he wasn't needed in a conference room.
"With Momma." He said simply, nodding towards a building that had appeared out of nowhere on the landscape.
In the distance, Sophie could see their father running around defending their mother as she used her gifts to turn the tide of the battle. Sophie smiled at them, shaking her head, "They're something, aren't they?"
"Focus." Her grandfather's bored voice over the comm in her ear.
"Sorry, I'll get on it! Remember my fee, though."
She could feel J'onn laughing in her mind, and then heard her grandmother hiss at her, "You'll get the jewels, Soph."
Up in the Watchtower Katherine Harper rolled her eyes at her husband, muting her comm, "That girl is far too much like my mother."
Red scoffed, "She's far more likable than your mother ever was." Sophie had at least had the decency to ask for a couple Wayne pieces before just taking them.
J'onn sighed and left the room when Kat snapped, "You loved my mother."
"Only after I stopped hating her." Red said honestly, working the muscles in his right hand. He was in his sixties now, and felt every year and every arrow he'd loosed. Kat was every bit as beautiful as she'd been at twenty, but fifty-five left it's mark on the delicate silver color threading through her dark hair and laugh lines that made him smile every time he looked at them.
Darkness still followed Kat, but she'd found herself again, through Lian. The two had bonded tightly during the time Lian was pregnant with Anthony and her first months as a mother herself. Another year later, and Kat had come to him and asked him out on a date. It had been a big step for her to go past just propositioning him for sex.
Sophie had been the flower girl at their second wedding, Thomas the ring bearer. It had been perfect, even though Lian had had to walk her toddler down the aisle and Damian had stood as best man with his great-nephew in his arms.
Kat's blue eyes regarded him carefully, "Are you okay?"
Red slid his hand into hers, and smiled at the love of his life, "I'm perfect."
She echoed his earlier scoff, "Someone's full of himself today."
"I love you." He said simply.
A tiny smile edged up the corners of her mouth, "I love you too." A litany of curses came through the comm, and Kat sighed, refocusing on the task at hand, "Let's get back to work, old man, before our granddaughter starts insulting us."
Red shook his head, "I'll never know where she got that mouth from."
Kat's delicately arched eyebrow said it all.
Even as they directed the mission, their hands remained clasped together, like they were always meant to be and always would be. Red and Kat Harper would never be apart again, and for the first time in decades, the Wayne legacy was pulling out of the darkness.
When the day was done and they were all back at the Manor, Kat and Red found themselves on one of the large sofas with Lian sandwiched between them. A mother of four and nearly forty years old, Lian knew her attachment to her parents was odd, but she'd gone for so long with them apart that she didn't care, and relished being able to be near them.
"Momma?" Jamie said from the arched doorway, but Lian had already started moving when she'd felt his emotions.
"What's wrong, baby?" She asked, pushing dark hair away from his face.
Kat snuggled into Red's side, watching Lian comfort her little boy through his first break-up. "You were wrong earlier." Kat whispered, moving to ease the stiff muscles in her thigh, "You're not perfect. We're all messy screwed up people, and together we're pretty close to perfect."
"Close to perfect." Red echoed, leaning down to kiss her, "I'll take it. I love you."
Kat smiled at him, "I love you too, forever."
THE END
Epilogue:
Sophia stood beside her great-grandmother's grave. "James got dumped today. It looks like he's going to have the same luck Uncle Terry did, poor kid."
Selina chuckled, "He'll be fine, just like Terry was."
Sophie glanced at the Shade, "Are you certain?"
Selina shrugged, "I'm dead, Sophia, literally a figment of your supernatural imagination."
"It's not my imagination, Grandmother, you're a Shade summoned by Bast to aide me in times of need." Sophie said, sighing heavily, "It must be a time of need then. I can feel something coming. Do you feel it too?"
"Animals can always feel disaster before it comes. We're no different. Bast blesses us with many things, many ways that we are superior to the common man. Being my kin in itself is a blessing." Selina said smugly.
Sophie rubbed her forehead with the palm of her hand, "There's a whole pile of shit headed for us, isn't there?"
The smug smile fell off Selina's translucent face, and she reached out, ghosting a hand along her great-granddaughter's cheek, "Yes, little one, there is. You need to be ready. The stone chose you for a reason, you're the best woman for the job. Nine lives, Sophia, make them count. Protect our family, protect Bast's artifacts, protect the world she loves, but most of all, protect yourself. You're a protector, Sophia."
Sophie laughed darkly, "Don't I know it. You've been telling me that since before I knew what the stone even meant. And no one else could tell me."
Selina shrugged, "I couldn't come to you until you were ready. Some of our secrets have to be discovered on their own."
"I could have lived without nearly drowning to get to the temple." She said wryly, shaking her head, "I've got to go needle Jamie. I have a reputation to uphold, you know?"
Selina smiled fondly, "You make me proud, Sophia, you always have, just like your mother and grandmother before you." Sophie held back a comment about her wild red curls being nothing like the smooth hair the other two females had, and then another about how hard it was to be worthy of everything she'd been born into.
Isis followed her inside. She had her family, and they were more than worth the pain of the burden she carried. She could only hope to protect them from what was coming.
You're the reason that I feel so strong
The reason that I'm hanging on
You know you gave me all the time
Or did I give enough of mine?
Hold on, darling
This body is yours,
This body is yours and mine
Well hold on, my darling
This mess was yours,
Now your mess is mine
Oh
Now your mess is mine
Oh
Your mess is mine
Mess Is Mine
By: Vance Joy
That's it guys! Thank you for hanging in with me this long, and if you liked it, let me know! I love hearing from you guys! Be on the lookout for another DC story coming from me soon, I've got some good ideas coming together!
-Jenn0509
