~12 years ago, Nanda Parbat~
*WHACK*
A wooden sword slammed into a wafer-thin girl with midnight black hair and lilac coloured eyes. Spittle and blood dripped from the girl's mouth as she crumpled to the ground, the wooden floor of the dojo drawing closer to her vision. Her perception tunnelled down into a faint pinprick of light, the footsteps of the sensei echoing dully inside her ringing ears.
"Not good enough!" Anger laced the words but weren't observed in his movements. "You are an utter failure... You can't even deflect the simplest of attacks and we have been training for years." He spat on her hair in disdain, the dry sobs of the girl drawing sharp bouts of pain from her broken ribs.
"Your father will kill us both, simply because you fail to learn and adapt!" The wooden sword was thrown at the far wall with a resounding thump that was followed by a small clatter of wood upon wood.
Silence reigned supreme for several moments, the only noise breaking the oppressive quiet being the small wheezing gasps of the girl. Footsteps slowly petered away as the sensei left his pupil upon the floor, clutching her stomach and ribs. Much like a wounded animal she simply curled into a ball, hoping the pain would recede from the lack of movement. It was a false hope but the only one that she had in this present moment.
'Why am I such a failure...?' That single thought pervaded her existence... That was all there was. Tears would have leaked from her eyes but she had cried them all in times before this. All that was left of her sadness and despair was encapsulated in the wheezes she softly uttered into the empty dojo.
Memories fluttered by within her mind's eye. Her older sister calling her a useless wastrel. Her father ignoring her whilst praising one of her opponents for their performance. The blood and tears that dripped down her mother's dress as she was killed by her own father... All for disobedience. They passed faster and faster, each scene inside her horror-show of a life rolling by one by one. Most barely made an impact on her at this stage but this wasn't the case when she recalled being beaten by her own family members simply for the fact that she was weaker than them.
'Weakness... It's always weakness... I, I need to be stronger, so they'll love me...!' Determination dripped from her eyes like celestial teardrops of light.
...
~A Week Later~
Her hands grasped the pommel of her opponent's weapon, the metal sliding inside her sweaty palms as she attempted to twist in place to strike at them using their own sword. Her hips twisted, arms pulled back and angled to lunge forwards with her created momentum. A grin slowly slid onto her face at the surprise of her opponent before it was wiped off a second later as the man dropped his sword and punched her in the nose.
Blood, teeth and saliva exploded from her open mouth as she dropped back onto the wooden floor dazed. "Hah, I'm surprised you thought that would work. A weakling like you couldn't hope to overpower me, let alone injure me with my own blade." The sensei scoffed at her before kicking her in the stomach once again. "Get up, your father is watching. If you don't get up you will get me killed. Oh, and probably yourself..." His voice turned sarcastic at the end there, as if he'd ever had a thought of concern for her.
'W-weak, I'm too weak again...'
Looking up and to the side she noticed her father staring down in contempt at her. His eyes examined her own with a distinct lack of love and care. She was merely a tool failing to achieve its purpose to the man that she called her father. Inside of herself something snapped. Her eyes lost the light she held preciously close to her wounded soul. Despite what her father had done, despite his ignorance of her desires and wants, she had held hope of eventually living up to her father's expectations. That hope had died today. He wasn't her father, no, he was the sperm donor for her mother. Ra's Al Ghul was, she realised painfully, the demon present within all of her childhood bedtime stories.
'S-s-someone, anyone, p-please, support me...!?' She looked around and found her older sister scowling at her with utter hatred. Numerous staff that had 'cared' for her in the past ignored her plight and position, as if she weren't worth their time or notice. The wound inside her heart was torn wider, darkness creeping into the cracks and crevices. 'I'm, all alone...'
That realisation caused a void to form within her young mind, an ever present desperation for love, attention and power. If she was powerful no one could ignore her. They would giver her all the attention she ever wanted. It would give her the ability to find love, true love, not the fake stage-play-love her 'family' had shown.
Shakily standing she reached for a dagger that was hidden in her pants, the steel blade stealthily hidden along her palm. The sensei scoffed and lowered into a defensive stance conducive to launching an abrupt attack. Huffing in pain, her eyes dark orbs of absence, she sprinted towards her teacher, the man launching a punch towards her solar plexus. This was a mistake on his part however.
The strike slipped to the side of her shoulder as she slinked into the inside of his defence. She tracked the movements of his hands and legs, the posture he was currently sat in and the rapid beady flickering of his eyes. He was attempting to adjust himself but it was too late. With an upward flick of her wrists the hidden blade thrusted upwards as her arm contacted the exposed flesh of her sensei's Adams apple. A sickly choking sob croaked from the man as her hand yanked downwards and to the side, ripping at the soft flesh of his trachea and the blood-filled jugular.
Seconds passed as she witnessed the light of life leave her former teacher. His expression, once thunderous and disgusting, had turned pallid and pale as blood spurted from his slashed neck onto her face. After those seconds passed the body slumped to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut. Quietly, emotionlessly, she watched her abuser fade from this mortal coil all the whilst clapping echoed from the side. Her mother's sperm donor was apparently happy at her display, not that she cared anymore. Within moments she brought the blood up towards her face, for inspection supposedly, only for that same blade to tumble end over end towards Ra's Al Ghul.
A garble of surprised cries followed the tumbling of the blade before ceasing immediately, the man in question holding the blade between his index and middle-finger. His expression was one of mixed pride and annoyance. That small ounce of attention left a smirk on her face despite the completely dimmed eyes she now held.
"Finally, the useless child shows her use..." Her elder sister exclaimed in mild disappointment, Talia was always like that.
"Indeed. Come child, there is much to learn." The old coot looked far too happy in Yuna's opinion but she followed nonetheless, her position being such that she could hardly resist or stop him controlling her life.
On the inside she was broken still, though she would hide that from the world... Shelter herself from the judgement of the disgusting sheep around her... Protect that small little spark of hope, the hope that she would one day gain enough power to gain love, to gain a family...
...
~Modern Day, Freya's Apartment~
She awoke to the sensation of sweat covering her body, the lingering shards of her past flashing before her eyes until they passed into the malaise of the mid-morning rush. Artoria was sprinting around the room whispering something about finding Avalon once again. Susan was discussing something with someone she could barely see, supposedly a man who worked as a sort of middleman for death and the chosen of death. Freya had blown a kiss to everyone as she set off to empire build or something... She said something about ensuring that she was ready for Hogwarts as well... It was probably for the best she didn't know everything her lovers were up to.
That was a relatively new idea as well. Lovers. She'd found a family that accepted her for who she was and wanted to be. Every day she was gaining power and slowly eking out some shards of attention from those around her. Love was a fresh concept to her, especially considering the gaping hole that still swirled in her heart and mind. It was a... good feeling... she supposed.
Grumbles escaped her throat as she sat up, her eyes slightly drooping as sleep called to her once again. A lot of DNA scanning always made her tired and it just so happened that her scanning efforts yesterday had resulted in her gaining a multitude of Mutant abilities from the X-Men. That brought to mind other issues however... Demons. Why had the demons attacked her specifically. Oh sure they could have attacked at random or be targeting the X-Men but that was highly unlikely. She'd gathered many titles in her two decades of life: demon slayer, slaughterer of midnight, assassins' blight... The first was more important to her suspicion of the demons' target last night.
When Freya had first found her and shown care and perceptiveness to give her the power to face her foes she had gotten back from slaying minor demons. The Hand was an organisation she despised and many of their little minions got-off on summoning imps and other entities of dubious origin. It didn't help that she had been on the hitlist of the hand for a decade running...
Stepping into the bathroom she scratched her head. Black hair tumbled down to her shoulders as red and blue highlights ebbed in and out of the mass. Her eyes barely resembled her pasts' as they blazed with all the fury of phoenix flame. The phoenix was perhaps one of her favourite scans amongst the magical creatures she had scanned, loving the ability to flame-teleport and retain her youth eternally. It gave her power, garnered attention and lit a small flame in her soul that registered as pride to her poor understanding of emotions.
That small smirk that had been present from the age of ten when she first killed to now slowly retracted from her face as a deep sense of foreboding fluttered through her mind, her mutant powers warning her of something anathema to nature.
'Demons... What is going on of late?'
A loud screeching wind blasted from the opened apartment door outside their bedroom. Quickly gathering her guns from the bedside table and her holsters she sprinted outside to witness Freya grasping a longsword made out of starlight itself, perforating a greater demon like it was a mere imp.
"Tell Mephisto I say hi." The demon roared in pain as silver fire consumed it and sent it back to its home dimension. The door shut promptly after the display as another warning pinged off of her mind... Located in Gotham. There was something demonic, or demon-like taking place there. Fortunately she had been to Gotham before, her phoenix powers springing to the forefront of her mind as her entire body was set ablaze in magical fire; her clothes unharmed. An instant later she stepped out of the flames into an active shootout between criminals and the national guard, corrupt energies leaking and seeping into the surrounding buildings and earth.
"JOKER!"
Blinking back her surprise she looked towards the source of the noise, her eyebrows furrowing in frustration as Batman broke the arm of a goon in front of him whilst gazing at the jester-dressed man who was cackling in maddened delight. Something felt off about him, more than off... revolting.
"HAHAHAHAHAHA, the BAT has finally joined us!!! HAAAA-HAHAHA."
'Of course it has to be the batshit insane ones...' Her thought was interrupted by an intense explosion detonating next to an APC, the soldiers screaming out in pain or bleeding out as chemical fires slowly spread to the bushes and gardens around the square.
"You will pay for this JOKER!"
"Oooo... The Bat is going to break his rule of killing, is he!? Hah! I'll believe it when I see it, until then, I'll be sending a message...!" He flicked his uzi upwards and sprayed bullets into a car filled with parents and children.
'Fuck that!' She moved...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have a Patreon where you can get exclusive Discord roles, vote on Fan fiction decisions, and even suggest Extra Chapters for me to write. Join here: patreon.com/user?u=111976696.
If you'd like to further support my work, here's my PayPal: paypal.me/RBSMFF.
Feel free to join my Discord community here: https://discord.gg/wVZXpPpUQn.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------