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olivia-anderson-fanfic · 6 months

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Extended fae-mily

“The people will not care. We are beings of Rules, Talia, and those won’t change until there is no other option. Even then…” He shook his head.

(Or: Talia needs an heir)

Talia’s real name was not actually Talia, just like her father’s name was not actually Ra’s (what kind of person would seriously name their child Head?), but it would be improper for a faerie of her status to release her True Name to just anyone. Much less to an author intent on telling her story to anyone who will take the time to read it. So, for the time being, we shall all pretend that everything up to this point and hereafter has not been recontextualized in any way, and that these thoughts are as historically accurate as possible.

After all, faerie cannot lie.

They do, however, twist the truth in any way they see fit.

And, regardless, is any one person’s perception of reality ever completely true?

Still, this story is not about any of that. It’s not even, entirely, about her.

It’s about her duty. As the heir to the In-Between.

She needed to bear a child. To carry on her family's legacy and ensure that they could continue to serve their people through future generations.

This did not mean she was exactly ecstatic about that particular responsibility, though.

The air behind her held more weight than it usually did. She craned her head back to look, and sighed when her eyes landed on her father, floating in the doorway to her room. She was pretty sure she had never seen the man touch the ground, not in all of the years she had lived. Now, he appeared to be sitting in an invisible chair, though leaning forward quite a bit, on the edge of his nonexistent seat.

“Father…” she groaned.

“I haven’t even said anything!” he defended himself, smiling.

She fixed him with a flat look.

He dropped pretenses. And his chin into his hands. He slumped back in his ‘chair’, but his smile never wavered. “I’m not getting any younger.”

“Nor is anyone else,” she pointed out. “And you are hardly frail.”

He gave a long, drawn-out sigh.

“I still do not see why my son could not —.”

“He is not a True Fae, you know this,” he cut her off. It was impolite to do so, technically, but the rules were never quite as strict when with loved ones. “Therefore, he cannot rule. The people would not allow it.”

“There simply aren’t enough True Fae for it to be sustainable anymore.”

“The people will not care. We are beings of Rules, Talia, and those won’t change until there is no other option. Even then…” He shook his head.

“None of us have ‘proper’ heirs. Superman’s oldest son is a Changeling. His wife was human, meaning their youngest child is not a True Fae, either. As for Batman, all of his children were once human, outside of his own Changeling.” She ran a hand through her hair, trying to soothe herself. “If we are to alter this, now is the time, when all three realms can agree.”

Ra’s looked at her for a long moment, something inscrutable in his eyes. “Changing tradition is not that simple.” Slowly, he made his way over, until he could rest his hand upon her shoulder. He didn’t apologize, for an apology would imply a debt, and what she would ask of him would not be something he believed he could give her, but he was still apologetic. “We are given power and, in return, our people ask us to prove we are worthy of it. How could we be worthy, if we cannot do one of the few things they ask of us?”

She looked at the ground.

“I understand.”

Talia made her way through the halls of her family home. A ball of light wound and weaved itself around her feet with every step she took, allowing her to see despite the darkness that loved to find a home there just as much as she did.

Like everyone else in the In-Between, her house was made up of a series of carved-out tunnels deep underground. The winds were simply too harsh for any structures to be built above ground, and it wasn’t as if the magically inclined couldn’t make the world beneath the surface a beautiful paradise, anyway.

She ran her fingers along the wall as she made her way down, further into their home. The walls were a deep, emerald green… at first. The light refracted off of the Alexandrite as she passed, making the gem look pink instead, leaving the area around her to feel far less cold, far more inviting.

It wasn’t long before she reached a door, her fingers coming to rest upon the dark wood for just a moment.

If she told Jason, it would be official.

That was… a lot of commitment.

She wasn’t sure if she was ready for a child.

To be clear, she was not against children. If she was then she would not have taken in Jason in the first place.

She was not even against having a child. She was a fae, she would not have to carry a child to term or anything of that nature. The hardest part of creating a child would probably be making the trip to the Water of Life, and the paperwork that would be boring and tedious, but otherwise painless.

But it was different, asking her to raise a child from birth. She had found Jason when he was in his teenage years, more than capable of taking care of himself so long as he was provided with adequate resources and affection, and additionally resourceful due to his less-than-stellar original parents (the thought made her want to tear into the man a second time, even if she knew he was long dead).

A baby, however, would be completely reliant on her, and she was a busy woman.

She would have help, though, she supposed, in the form of the baby’s other parent.

She already knew who that would be.

For Talia had made a Deal with Batman, many years ago, when they had been arguing over who got to lay claim to Jason — for Batman’s oldest children, as much as she loathed to admit it, had found Jason first, making her claim over the boy somewhat hazy, even if, ultimately, she had been the one with the claim. If it had gone to Court, she probably would have won… but, in the end, neither she nor Batman had wanted to steal their son away from someone who made him happy.

On the other hand, there was the matter of fairness...

A decision had been made: they could co-parent Jason, but only if they could also co-parent another child one day in the future.

A child of her choosing.

She doubted Batman had caught on to what she was really aiming for, but it hadn’t mattered regardless. Again, the actual act of having a child for a fae was basically effortless, so, for all intents and purposes, he was simply getting another child — one that looked more like him, perhaps, but simply another child regardless.

And, really, was Batman one to say no to another child? If she hadn’t known better, she would say they were collecting them simply for the sake of having as many as possible. Even while knowing better, she couldn’t help but wonder.

Either way, he had experience with children, more than even she did. Beyond that, his butler-dad (or was it dad-butler?), A, had experience helping raise children, as did her own father…

It shouldn’t be that bad.

With that in mind, she finally let her fingers rap against the wood.

“Jason, it’s me,” she called.

The door swung open without even a second’s hesitation, and she couldn’t help but smile a little, stepping further into the room, letting the ball of light disperse itself behind her.

She almost didn’t see Jason, at first. The boy had taken to her tigers from the day he’d met them and, accordingly, he never left their side when he was home. Now, he was buried beneath three piles of fur. The only evidence he was there at all was the set of wings, stretched over the top of one of the tigers to make sure they didn’t get crushed under all of their weight.

“Jason,” she said.

He didn’t look at her, really, but he waved a wing in acknowledgment.

“I have been thinking. It has been a while since you’ve gotten a new sibling, yes?”

Jason snorted. “Did you find another kid on the brink of death to steal away?”

“No, no, nothing like that… but… about that…”

Jason sat up, frowning just slightly as he tried to reason out exactly what she was getting at.

She gave him a slightly nervous smile. “If I were to create a new child, would you be okay with that?”

He raised his eyebrows in mild surprise.

But then he smiled.

“It’s not like the Old Man is going to be getting another kid anytime soon, since we got run out of town ‘n all, so…” Jason shrugged. “I have an opening.”

Talia hesitated. “I’m glad you’re open to the idea of another sibling… however… again… about that…”

Talia didn’t need to make nearly as long of a trip as the other two rulers would need to. After all, the Water of Life lay within the borders of the In-Between.

It was easy to think of those about to die as being within their realm, but was birth not just that in reverse? Neither alive nor dead?

Whether or not people agree, it is simply the way of their world. Meaning that, while the waters weren’t exactly close, they weren’t far, either.

She stepped out of her home, the winds immediately picking up in response to her presence, buffeting at her hair and clothes. The skies swirled overhead, the clouds smudged with pinks, oranges, and pale yellows. Beautiful, until you catch the crackle of lightning dancing among the otherwise pleasant sight, and realize that the clouds were not simply swirling, but instead churning with enough force to kill a fae even without iron. The pale, fine sand making up the ground reflected the light perfectly, and yet it was unsteady beneath her feet, threatening to sweep her up and away, never to be seen again – or, at least, to never be seen whole again, her body ripped into unidentifiable shreds.

She planted her feet beneath the sand, shouldered her bag, sighed…

And then, she walked.

She did not pout at the cliff face in front of her, doing so would be undignified, but she did send it a particularly nasty scowl. The cliff, being a cliff, and therefore inanimate, did not seem all that offended by her blatant disdain. It still made her feel better, though.

Hopefully, they will get Batman’s wings, she thought dully, making sure her backpack was as secure as it could be before she started climbing.

Jagged rocks dug into the skin of her palms, painting the otherwise white limestone a deep red (the splotches of color would surely be swept away soon enough, weathered away by the elements), but it was all worth it when she finally pulled herself up and over that last ledge. It was as if she had stepped into a new world entirely, the wind dying down in an instant, the roaring in her ears dying down in favor of the quiet trickle of water. The limestone falling away in favor of crystalline walls and floors.

The waters glimmered shades of blue and green. It was endless, constantly replenishing itself from an unknown source even when logic dictated that it should have long since run out. Especially because the pool before her was not stationary. No, it would roll over rocks and crystals, away from her, towards the opening on the opposite end of the cave. It spilled over the edge, and then plummeted towards the ground so far below.

It would never truly reach it, swept away by the winds long before it hit the sand, but that didn’t make the waterfall any less enchanting.

Talia smiled faintly despite her exhaustion, picking her way along the edge of the waters in want of something to do while she waited for the other two rulers to arrive…

And, for better or for worse, she found that 'something'.

Her eyes caught on the edge of a flower petal. Part of a dandelion. Minuscule in size, but she would bring shame upon the Ghul family name if she were to miss even the smallest of details. She picked it up, her head tilting to the side as she ran her fingers over the soft petal. The yellow of the flower shimmered just slightly, dancing with magic.

Someone had failed to clean up after themselves properly.

The sound of someone touching down behind her – quiet, but echoing strangely against the walls of the otherwise quiet cave – drew her gaze, and she raised an eyebrow at Superman. He looked windswept, for lack of a better word. His usually perfectly coiffed hair hung limp, having been shaken loose of its gel by the harsh winds of the In-Between.

It didn’t help that he was only just tall enough to reach her waist. He might have literally been windswept.

He didn’t seem as amused by this as she was.

He was only there for the sake of tradition. Bringing a peer along as an official witness was necessary when bringing a True Fae into the world, and he was the only person of similar status to the two future parents. However, she was suddenly glad to have him here:

“Someone under your jurisdiction used the waters without doing the appropriate paperwork,” she said, tossing the petal his way. It fluttered to the ground between them.

“Never one for hellos, are you?” Superman sighed.

“Hello,” she said. “Someone under your jurisdiction used the waters without doing the appropriate paperwork.”

He gave her a long, tired look, before picking up the petal and running his thumb over it. It looked much larger when held in his tiny hands, though he only did so for a short moment before tucking it into his chest pocket.

“I’ll look into it,” he promised.

“Look into what, exactly?” A new voice said.

Superman flinched and whirled around to send the Batman an exasperated look. “You and Talia are practically made for each other. Neither of you know how to greet someone.”

“Hello,” said Batman, his lips quirking upwards at the corners in amusement. “Pleasure seeing you today, Superman.”

Superman, always so impossible to please, simply shook his head, apparently deciding that it was best to simply move on:

“Should I worry about you two’s alliance?” he joked lightly. “I mean, you’re already painfully alike, this might become a problem.”

“If you were going to worry about any of that, you should have worried when we adopted our human son,” Talia said. “We are hardly any more bonded now.”

Batman, of course, had other plans. He leaned over Superman, smiling. “I could always have a kid with you as well. It might even things out for you.”

“You only want me for my potential to have kids,” Superman gasped.

“True.”

Superman pretended to wipe away a tear, but his twinkling laughter could never be mistaken for crying.

For just a moment, Talia thought that Superman was so… light, like the realm that he ruled over. So unbelievably bright that it felt like he would have been able to float even if he hadn’t been a fae. He was so pleasant. Much more so than the people of her own realm, not hardened by the elements in the way that the people of the In-Between were.

She quickly dismissed that thought. It was a common misconception, but a misconception nonetheless. Because, for all that Superman was seemingly endlessly happy, small enough to throw, and prone to literally glowing when he was happy enough… he was also a Sprite. And that was their entire method of garnering victims. They would lure humans in, and only once they were so hopelessly lost that they could never get back home and their legs were stuck in a terrible bog they couldn’t escape from, would the Sprite get close enough for the person to realize that their teeth were razor-sharp.

Perhaps it was a good thing that she was going to be gaining a proper heir, while Superman wasn’t. She hadn’t been paying enough attention to his movements as of late, too easily disarmed by his charming smiles and pleasant demeanor and insistence on seemingly useless things like whether someone had greeted him properly or not… and now the idea of him gaining even that little piece of power made her skin crawl. At least it seemed as if that would not be happening anytime soon, since he had fallen in love with that human and started bearing children with her instead of having True Fae children. That, plus the uprising in the land of the Day that she had heard whispers of, led by a faerie who called himself Kryptonite, should keep the man in front of her sufficiently distracted. He shouldn’t become a problem, much less a threat.

She smiled faintly at the thought, clapping her hands together once. “Let’s get this underway.”

Batman seemed relieved, though she doubted it was for the same reason as her. He started pulling a few jars from the satchel on his hip. They were all filled with tiny balls of light – of pure magic. They bounced around within their tiny walls, beating against their confines, the glass already starting to crack.

They wanted out.

Batman was happy to grant their wish, though perhaps not in the way they were hoping for. He dropped the jar in the water and, before it had even been allowed to shatter against the bottom, it collapsed in on itself. The water enveloped the magic, and even a few shards of glass, picking it up and starting to compress it.

Batman breathed a short sigh of relief.

She was grateful that the traditional offering of her people was far less complicated to obtain. Expensive, yes, and sometimes requiring a trip deeper underground in search of rarer gemstones, but this was hardly as exhausting as dealing with live magic.

Carefully, one by one, she set each and every gem in the water.

Pyrite for protection.

Moonstone for perceptiveness.

Carnelian for compassion.

Amber for balancing emotions and logic.

She hesitated here. The last gem in her bag wasn’t like the other four, which were either customary (what kind of parent would neglect to protect their child?) or traits that were necessary for the title and power he would one day possess, but what she considered next was not necessary.

Still, she wanted her child to have something beyond all of that.

So, quickly, as if she thought she would be stopped if she allowed people time to process it, she added aventurine for creativity.

The gems, too, were swept away to join the magic at the bottom of the pool. They began to press against each other, congealing into one mass, forced to combine under the water's strength, and then combine even more. As if the mingling gemstones and magic wasn’t enough, the water seemed determined to make them one on an atomic level. The magic and the minerals reacted, lighting up a too-bright red.

She hadn’t wanted to look away, she had wanted to see the exact moment her child was brought into the world, but it became too much to bear.

Regrettably, she turned her head.

Until she felt something brushed against her leg.

A small faerie came to wash up on the shore, bumping against her knee. They were curled up in a tight ball, tiny bat wings wrapped around themself tightly. Despite the fact that they had just come from the water, their dark locks were not the slightest bit wet.

She leaned in to tell Batman the names she had come up with, but he simply held up his hands, palms facing out.

“The deal was that the child is of your choosing.”

Talia mouthed a thanks before ducking down to whisper.

“Welcome to the world, Damian.”

When they opened their eyes, they were a vibrant green.

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