LXI
One Thousand Years Ago
From the yacht's deck, Ra's al Ghul felt the cold wind of the Atlantic Ocean blow across Delaware Bay as he waved farewell to a departing helicopter ascending the star-lit sky. Aboard the helicopter, his daughter was now in place beside Luthor. Possessing Luthor's mind was no easy feat. Talia had required a great deal of concentration – she would be careful in her movements until she was safe once more and would remain by Luthor's side constantly for the next 14 hours. Luthor's spirit was strong, something all too rare in the modern world.
The helicopter itself was an air ambulance, procured from the hospital where Lex Luthor had been abducted only 3 hours ago. The president himself would land it back on the hospital roof – his daughter was an excellent pilot after all - and later offer an explanation that the entire medical wing of former Secretary O'Neil had been attacked by terrorists with poisonous gas…taking the lives of his personal detail of 20 security agents.
Luthor himself had been spared only because he had been inoculated against many types of poisons during his time at LexCorp. Alone, he had commandeered the helicopter and departed, fearing further attacks upon his person. He had then retrieved his previously undisclosed wife from Cape May as she would need constant protection from this point forward. They only needed the ruse to work for a very short time after all.
Lex Luthor seldom left the country and his whereabouts were meticulously reported. The man was brilliant and industrious, never taking vacations or permitting himself excursions. But he did have powerful friends in Qurac, and had visited that country two years ago… long enough for a secret wedding to transpire that no one - alive could deny… thanks to the trail of bodies left by the League.
As his yacht traveled north towards Gotham City, Ra's walked towards the bow and reflected under the starry sky. He had walked to Earth for a thousand years, how strange it was to say good bye. His only regret was for a daughter he had never known, taken from him before her birth by his first love.
Zara… beautiful, majestic Zara. His first wife who had shown him the path to his own immortality but had taken the daughter that was meant to be his when she left their world.
One thousand years ago, Ra's al Ghul had been a Sultan… rich, powerful, skilled with horse and sword. He could have had any woman in the nine kingdoms, but it was a beautiful mystic that had stolen his heart… Zara.
To woo her, he had presented her two rings of magic, the moon and the stars. He had won her hands, but she also wanted his. They would belong to each other. She believed in the purity of the soul, that man could return to his immortal form. Once married, her influence spread... Others from his land followed her, that they could turn his desert kingdom of Azarath into Eden.
His viziers secretly ridiculed him, that he would allow men to follow the gentle fantasies of a woman's heart. But it was the only peace he had ever known in his long life, lying beside her on pillows imported from Egypt. She had shown him that the flesh was temporary, simply a construct of the soul's desire. Spirits could travel beyond their earthly bounds to awaken to the wonder of the stars.
With his wealth, she had gathered rare, arcane books of magic. As his kingdom prospered with uncommon knowledge, his Zara grew more powerful in her arts… and desires. It was not only their spirits that could be transported to other realms, but the land itself… and her followers. They could make Eden far from the chains of earth. They would be as angels.
But Ra's al Ghul was not an angel. He was a demon of the sands who would not abandon his beloved earth. He would stay to raise his unborn daughter that Zara had promised him. The child would accept the Earth as her mother.
Zara's new Eden was to have no children. Lust would be cast through the Great Door. When the fateful time came however, she had lied to him as she had taken his lands, his people, his beloved Azarath and her belly large with his unborn child, to a place he could not go… He was left nothing except her discarded name, Zara. The desert winds still echoed his cries from where his beautiful kingdom once lay.
When she fled to the heavens, she had taken a new name…
Azar.
Author's Note:
Well… that's a new take on the origin of Ra's al Ghul!
Let's recap: Azarath is where Raven is from. It was created and founded by the powerful mystic and sorceress Azar. In my story however, Azar was the first wife of Ra's al Ghul when she was still called Zara. The daughter she carried with her, promised to Ra's, was born in Azarath and was also named Azar.
Unlike the comics, Ra's immortality does not come from the Lazarus pit. He was taught mysticism by Zara and grew so powerful in the dark side that his spirit can push another spirit from its host body. His soul is so strong that it can gradually change the physique of its host until it resembles his original physical form.
His exceptionally lovely daughter, Talia al Ghul, is also well versed in this technique so that she can possess the body of another. She has currently pushed Luthor's spirit to the shores of oblivion while her spirit controls his body.
She is powerful enough to inhabit someone else and still perform basic functions with her own body, but unable to maintain this control indefinitely. When she sleeps, the hold is broken and both consciousnesses return to their rightful physical forms.
Ra's is powerful enough to inhabit another's body permanently. His consciousness has achieved immortality by possessing hundreds of other bodies over the last ten centuries, a demon who possesses the bodies and identities of those he chooses.