The family was stunned to hear that before Waylon said what they were all probably thinking. "Bullshit.", he said. "No way you can do that... that's impossible.". Talia laughed upon hearing that.
"Oh, how little you truly know... Shall we show them, father? In fact, perhaps a demonstration would be wise too.", she smirked. Ra snorted stoically.
"I know how your mind works, daughter... so quick to remove me and take your place as the head of the League?", he said. "How much longer must I wait?", Talia asked. "As many centuries as you have lived?".
Ra replied, "6 centuries, and yes, that would be acceptable before I even consider you to take your place as the head of the League.", and Talia narrowed her eyes, "I have brought you the most potential and profitable solution to you. You should reconsider that, Father.".
Ra gave an emotionless smirk as creepy as it is, "Then come at me, daughter. Let's see how you have done in Gotham. I shall not have a daughter who's rusty on her skills.".
"This time I'll make sure to keep you as far away from the Pit...", Talia growled as she grabbed a sword that was on the wall before screaming a war cry as she charged at him. Ra pulled out the blade that he had on the floor next to where he had been kneeling before the two of them locked blades as Talia unleashed a whirlwind of an offensive with her strikes that her father parried with each attack.
It was a frenzy of offensive and defensive moves as the assassins observed yet kept one eye on the family who somehow couldn't leave their eyes off, or forget any time soon, and it seemed to last forever, but only a short 10, maybe 15 minutes.
Ra and Talia were panting as both of them clearly were on the edge of exhaustion before Talia launched one more string of attacks which knocked Ra's sword away before a swift spin ended with Talia's blade plunged deep into his chest.
There was deep silence for a moment around the sanctum and all before Ra gave a proud smile, "You truly haven't gone rusty. Well done, Talia Ra al Ghul.", before staggering back and fell, and impacted the ground, dead.
There was a brief pause before Talia took a deep breath and looked to a few men, "Take him to the Pit...". She then looked to Martha and the family, "Now I think you'll see what we meant before... have them come along.". She ordered some other men as the family was dragged back onto their feet and followed Talia and the men carrying Ra's corpse.
The family probably went through many turns and switch rounds to confuse them before they felt the air becoming quite electric and hot, and as they walked down the stairs, their eyes widened to see a pool-sized hot spring, yet it doesn't quite look like a hot spring, but more like a volcanic smell and look to it, with steaming liquid of a strange color to it in the pit itself.
Kel's mental voice spoke, "I can sense the power of this place, this called Pit...How can they revive someone in this?", as Martha felt her confusion yet awed fear. Martha whispered reverently, "How can this Pit bring your father back, let alone Thomas, Caroline, and Jane?".
"Well, for starters, surely one of you has heard of the story of Christ and Lazarus?", Talia spoke. "Yeah...", Waylon gave a cautious confirmation.
"Well, this here... is what we call the Lazarus Pit... and you'll see why... but first, Mr. Pennyworth, would you like to check my father? To prove that he's dead before we begin?", Talia calmly explained, and then sternly yet sharply asked Alfred.
Alfred took a deep breath, not wanting to anger Talia, nodding, "As you wish, ma'am.", and walked to the corpse of Ra guarded by a group of men, and the men let him pass through, and went to check his neck, and his wrist as he knew where to find the heartbeat.
Alfred double checked, and looked at Talia, "Have double-checked, ma'am. No heartbeat in either spot. Your father's dead through and through.".
Talia smiled, "Thank you, Mr. Pennyworth, come back to your family now. Now, as Father has been dead for 10 minutes, it means he will be very quick to come back alive and breathing. I will explain later of why we do need Halloween for your husband, your fiancée and daughter. Now, let's begin!", with a hand signal.
The men grabbed Ra's corpse and moved him towards the edge of the Pit before they lowered him into the bubbling pool of glowing green liquid before taking a step back and letting Ra's body float towards the center of the Pit before his body went under and out of sight.
"Are you sure he was dead?", Martha whispered to Alfred as he sighed, "Completely. We'll find out if we're mistaken by their claims in a few moments, I'm sure...".
It was perhaps 10 seconds after the body went under and out of sight when suddenly, calmly yet with a huge gasp of breath, Ra appeared alive and breathing, soaked and all healed from his deep sword wound in the chest.
The family was stunned and shocked as Ra got up, walking through the Pit to the side, with the glowing green liquid water reaching up only to the top of his knees, showing that it isn't that deep straight out, and as he stepped out, many men surrounded him, and after a moment, Ra then was in fresh clothes.
"Couldn't keep to your word, could you, Talia?", Ra first said as she bowed in respect before him. "No, father... my time... is not here yet.", Talia said. Martha could take a wild guess that his men wouldn't have allowed her to keep him from the Pit in the first place else she probably would've just left him as dead.
Ra nodded, "Well said. But your reward is that as you have brought this family of potential, especially with the She-Hulk, Bruce Wayne, and Waylon Jones, you have to wait less longer, three centuries before I then give you permission to take over the reins from me.".
Talia gave a satisfied smile, "Thank you for the reward, father. I will now wait more patiently until the day my patience runs out once again.", and Ra nodded, "That's what I can ask for.", before looking at Martha and her family, "Has your and your family's views on resurrection been proven wrong?".
Martha exhaled, "We now believe you and your daughter now...I now understand why you took to resurrect my husband, my friend and her baby, but I still am waiting to hear your daughter's explanation of why they need Halloween to be resurrected, if you could already...sir.".
Ra and Talia looked at each other silently for a split moment before Ra gave a nod to Talia and she then replied, "As I have said before, Halloween is the night where the spirit world and the mortal world's walls are the weakest of their strength, and of course, where spirits and souls can return to Earth to check up on their families unseen or unheard mostly, with exceptions of Halloween magic within their first year of death. But it's also when the Lazurus Pit is at its greatest power, to resurrect long dead bodies past. It has been a bit over two years for your Caroline and Jane, Mr. Pennyworth, so they are the freshest ones out of the group, and they can be resurrected in two minutes. And for your Thomas, Martha and Kel, since it has been perhaps a bit over 12 years, it would take 12 minutes for him to be resurrected, due to the fact he had been wounded in the heart and of course, slightly more degraded than Caroline and Jane.".
Ra added, "We have done surgery to help the Pit along with healing and perhaps some youth de-aging/advancing of a sort, which meant that we took out pieces of the bullet that the mortician couldn't find, and stitched his heart, and of course, soon, we will have some sort of synthetic womb which will become real, warm, and everything needed for Jane inside Caroline, for we have a week until Halloween.".
"To make sure Martha and Kel will go along with whatever your sick plan is...", Alfred spoke up. "You're not using your pit out of the goodness of your own heart. They would just be more hostages for you to torment and threaten her with.", he growled as Talia chuckled.
"They certainly aren't stupid; I'll give them that. Perhaps easy to fool, but not stupid.", Talia said. Ra nodded, "Indeed, daughter...Now it has been a long and big day, I expect. Take the family to their quarters and then come back to report anything interesting in my office.".
Talia nodded, "Yes, father.", before snapping her fingers, and several men surrounded the family, prodding and pushing them back to the stairs, and the family followed Talia and her men, once again taking confusing turns and such before they arrived on a higher floor, with two doors.
Another snap of fingers, Waylon, Bruce, and Alfred was pushed into the first door with some men to lock them up, and with the second door, Martha and Poppy was the same, and as soon as she saw the glass prison walls, which she had a feeling that is triple thick and just as hard, impossible to break even for She-Hulk, or even Waylon in his Croc form.
Martha was pushed into her cell room while Poppy was pushed into her other cell room, yet Martha knew that they couldn't hug or touch each other, only physically seeing, and as it turns out, the cells are soundproof as well, for Poppy tried to call out to Martha, but Martha couldn't hear her, shaking her head, gesturing to her ears, just across from each other in a hallway from the door.
In the back of the glass cell rooms are individual bathrooms, and of the side of them is a metal heavy-duty wall, which in a few minutes, was revealed to be actually an automatic electronic wall-size door, revealing the boys' side.
Poppy cried out to Waylon whose cell was next to hers, yet the wall kept them apart, tears falling as their hands touched yet not touching each other in reflection, while Bruce's cell is next to Martha's cell, with Alfred's cell in the middle between Waylon and Bruce's cells.
Bruce moved his lips to Martha as they did the same, "You okay, Mom?", and Martha sighed heavily, nodding, moving her lips back to him, "Big thinking.", with gestures.
Kel's mental voice replied, "I gotta get out in astral form...", and Martha mentally replied, "No, Kel, they could find out by camera soon enough if they hadn't already got cameras on us the moment we got in here.".
Kel mentally growled, "When the lights go out, then?", and Martha glanced at Bruce while mentally replying, "Yes, less risk there, and your dark skin, and dimming of your astral form would hide you better.", moving her lips at her son, "When was the sun before we got down by outside elevator?".
"Hard to tell, really...", Bruce moved his lips with his head shaking. "The blizzard was pretty bad, so it was hard to tell, but if I had to make a guess, we probably still have a few hours before sundown.". Martha gave a small nod before turning away to look back at Poppy.
"Well... then we wait, I guess...", Martha sighed as Poppy continued to look over things. "They're not taking anything to chance. Quite modern in many ways for an ancient society...", Poppy said, moving her lips in front of Waylon.
Waylon read her lips, and moved his lips, "It's going to be alright, Poppy.", with gestures, sad and upset that he can't hear Poppy's voice or hold her, but seeing her alive and breathing, it's something at least.
Poppy gave him a small smile, moving her lips, "I hope so...I can't believe I am saying this, but I am...terrified yet excited to see Daddy and Caroline again, with her being pregnant again, if that Talia and Ra is right...".
Waylon knew what she meant...He himself is both selfish, wanting to see his mama again and hug her baby bump, yet not wanting to see the rest of his family threatened and all to behave from getting killed because being useless or something...He knew Alfred felt the same too.
Indeed, it was a dissimulating and long few hours of trying to be occupied while suffering this type of isolation, with bathroom breaks which they discovered with relief to have showers and in Poppy's case, plenty of necessities next to her backup pads and tampons she had tucked away in her fur coat and boots.
Perhaps for behaving, they got a good meal for dinner, through in their cells, they got slightly itchy, comfortable sleeping clothes, and an hour after dinner, lights went out.
Martha waited a bit longer, to be safe before mentally replying, "Okay, go.", and Kel's astral form zoomed out of Martha, her glow dimming as much as possible and almost hiding in the darkness, she kissed Martha on the lips, whispering very quietly, "I got this...", before moving through the glass of Martha's cell transparently, much to her relief, figuring that they didn't have the holy touch to the glass to stop astral forms, through perhaps spirits/souls might be a different case.
She went into Poppy's cell, whispering quietly, "Poppy, my sweet pup?", as her hand stroked Poppy's back, seeing her still awake and in tears.
"We're all going to die here... aren't we?", Poppy whispered as Kel felt a true pain in her heart by hearing that. "You and Mommy will die before Ra and Talia will get what they want... and if that's the case... what's the point of them keeping us?".
"Poppy...", Kel spoke in a soft, comforting voice, trying to help her during this dark moment. Kel brushed her daughter's hair, and continued to speak softly, "Sweet pup, you are the greatest gift in this family...You brought us all together...It's never your fault. Remember the story of your birth?".
Poppy whispered, "Yeah, that Daddy was there in spirit, comforting you like Mom, that it's much emotional like you never exactly remember how much you were feeling when you were in pain, and it all went away when you first saw me...".
"Well, that's not exactly true. I still have the memories of the pain, it never exactly isn't forgotten, but it's barely brought up since then...You wouldn't believe me, but I was actually, truly scared, not of the pain and everything to bring you into the world, Poppy, but I was scared of not being a good mama...", Kel said softly.
Poppy looked at her as Kel saw, thanks to her superior vision, shock and surprise in Poppy's eyes, "You were, mama? But you are a good mama, I mean, you fed me, you loved me, you put me to sleep, you helped me when I cried.", still in a quiet, yet urgent whisper.
Kel's heart swelled as she smiled warmly, and spoke quietly, "Thank you, my sweet pup...I know, it was a surprise, but if it wasn't for your mother, and the others, I wouldn't have believed that I would raise such an amazing, wonderful daughter in you...Did you know that your father did the same like with Bruce when he was first introduced to him, in speaking to you and holding you in his arms?".
Poppy widened her eyes, "He did?", and Kel nodded, speaking warmly, "Indeed. He said this.", before reciting what her other love said, "'My beautiful Poppy...You don't need to compare yourself to your big brother...you are also part of me, but also those beautiful women in your mother and mama...I love you so much, Penelope Kel Wayne.'".
"Thank you, Mama... I love you too...", Poppy whispered as Kel continued to gently brush her hair. "Don't worry, we'll figure a way out of this, somehow... you and Bruce are so smart... there has to be a way...", Kel said.
"Unless they've gotten complacent about their security from probably being hidden for so long... it would be difficult...", Poppy huffed softly.
Kel quietly replied, "I know...Your mother pointed out about possible vents or needing to know where the sun touches in this place...There are upper floors and such, and the temple would be still real to fool stranded and lost people...But be patient, okay?".
Poppy nodded softly, "Okay...I want to help, but the pain is keeping me away from having full focus on finding a way out...I hate having this at the worst possible time...", with a quiet sigh, and Kel kissed her forehead, "I know...Try to get this running along faster with any way you can, and then you'll be back to normal...Now, I have to check on Bruce and the others, okay?".
Poppy smiled in relief, "Thanks, Mama...", as Kel dried her tears, and tucked her blanket over her, and listened until her breathing changed to deep sleep, and then she headed over to check on Bruce, Alfred, and not last, but not least, Waylon.