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In the end, Tanya decided to just be both of Cass' parents, blood-wise. Specifically, the Tanya Degurechaff body replaced David in the next iteration of the blood adoption ritual. Nothing could possibly be safer, honestly. It didn't even change anything of Cass' appearance, although the number of recessive genes lurking in her DNA had likely increased substantially. Having a solid chance of birthing blonde haired and/or blue-eyed children was an incredibly minor side-effect, but it was still there.
"...We are absolutely not selling this ritual." Tanya declared after reviewing the results of Cass' bloodwork. "It's an ethical nightmare." Widespread usage of it would tantamount to eugenics, to be frank.
"It probably wouldn't be safe without a powerful practitioner running it." Bruce said, and he had a point.
However… she still had some pride. "I could absolutely refine this to be usable by ordinary blood mages." Tanya insisted, idly putting a stray hair back into place with the rest of her blonde locks. "Eventually. But I'm not going to." As a tool to resolve very specific, concrete problems, on the other hand… It's useful to keep it up her sleeve.
The question is, was it worth going through the trouble… Well, proposing it now wouldn't hurt. "While we have it set up, however… There is one other blood magic vulnerability vector we could cut off."
Bruce grunted. "You mean yourself."
"It's not as urgent." Tanya demured, "Between the proxy, the sequestration room, and staying out of my true form, they don't appear to have any means of summoning me, which is the only thing I'm actually concerned about." Well, there were also them using regular demon-summoning, but they didn't appear capable of that particular workaround, and they'd need to go through some effort to do it in such a way that she couldn't reject the summon… "It may be too extreme of a step."
"Thank you so much!" Cass' hug shouted. "You're going to be the best Mom ever!" Once more, the girl's cuddling was more eloquent than any words could be. Probably because the girl deliberately ducked low enough to ensure a soft resting place for her head. Tanya's grown up body was only four centimeters taller than the nearly-fully-grown fifteen year old, so it could only be done on purpose.
Nevertheless, being under mind control for so long earned her a lot of leeway, so Tanya hugged back. "While I'm like this, that is an acceptable means of address." Tanya conveyed with some pats on the back. Releasing her, Tanya used hand gestures to finish: "But do not call me that when I'm younger than you."
"Understood." Cass said with her firm nod.
Having been incapable of understanding the depth of that exchange, Bruce continued their previous conversation. "We'll keep this ritual room set up like this and discuss it." He ruled, "Extracting Hecate would take some time, anyway." Depending on the criminal, Bruce had a habit of using their preferred alias instead of their name. Sometimes. Near as she could tell, it depended on which one he liked saying more, combined with the fact that he still didn't know The Joker's name and refusing to use anyone else's alias would be admitting to that. Nevertheless, Heather Graystone was on the list of Arkham regulars that he preferred to use the 'villain name' for.
"After the Court's dealt with, then."
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Dealing with the League of Shadows on the legal front has always been a challenge; because they can and will escape from all but the most secure facilities, and on top of that they had excellent lawyers that usually managed to get them deported rather than anything more severe.
Evidence was always light, their professionalism making casting doubt simpler than it should be. They had the ability to confuse electronic recordings with some magical talismans that you needed specific measures to counter, and for Talia in particular… her knowledge of Batman's true identity complicated things immensely.
More importantly, as a sizable chunk of the crime was in the Batcave, it was impossible for any investigation to not blow Bruce's identity completely out of the water.
At least, that would be the case in the past. As the crime was conducted on a Justice League property, specifically Wonder Woman's personal residence… That meant that they had the option to immediately try it as an international crime in the Hall of Justice (the old base having been converted into the official courthouse), and have the ability to secure the trial, redact choice bits of testimony, and ensure that everyone present was sworn to secrecy, as the Justice League did have the power to lock information behind a security clearance.
Was this an abuse of power? Absolutely. However, they were literal assassins and slavers, criminals of the worst sort. More importantly, there wasn't any ambiguity there, these were the correct people, and Lady Shiva was an internationally wanted terrorist/crime lord on top of that. So while Tanya involved herself (as both Batman and as expert witness Tanya Degurechaff to explain the particulars of the blood magic) to ensure that the trial was as fair as it could be, several particulars of the events becoming public knowledge was not required for the trial to be fair.
So while several personages of high security clearance now knew that the Batcave was somewhere within the massive cave complex that Wayne Manor was built on top of, Batman's true identity was still safe. Several of them may suspect that the defense's assertion that the Batman presented was just Rhine in disguise was accurate, but the ability to manifest a shade of themselves that was visually indistinguishable from her full demon form and do things such as have a complete conversation with themselves muddied those waters substantially.
Tanya was genuinely impressed with the legal skill of the lead lawyer on the case, Kate Spencer. She led the League of Shadow's lawyers by the nose, practically, managing to get vital testimony in on the record while minimizing the amount of extraneous damaging information they had to get out, even if it was redacted.
It was, however, pretty funny to see the look on Talia's face when Tanya made sure to find the time to inform the court in her capacity as said expert witness that she was pregnant, as an example of the ability for blood magic to gather information.
But that took place over about four months, a blisteringly fast pace for a legal proceeding, but there were more important things as that was going on while that was happening.
Such as the Court of Owl's final takedown. Tanya was quick to report to Jacob that the League of Shadow's local leadership was captured and shipped off to the Justice League's underwater prison for trial, and the alliance was quickly dissolved. Furthermore, December was promptly… well, they tried to kill him off, but he was able to escape because he was slippery like that and while the Talons were incredibly lethal combatants by normal standards… they were just durable punching bags for someone who had superhuman strength and speed, and that was one of the first spells the vampires that invented blood magic created.
Still, it meant she could attend the meetings again. Well, openly. She still snuck in some listening devices as Batman in some of the places she knew about, and all of the places she knew about that Jacob didn't know she knew about. Did the Court of Owls know about Batman planting listening devices in their meeting rooms? Yes, actually. They had the Talons sweep for them before every meeting. They actually find most of them. But not all…
But with the removal of the League of Shadows, comes the backup plan. "You may be wondering why I've called you here." Tanya said, pacing dramatically. She slammed her hands on the table. "For you see: Tonight, we kill the Batman!" Tanya laughed, having had a lot of practice with her villain laugh for this moment. The younger members of the Court clapped enthusiastically. The older ones were impassively observing the proceedings.
Jacob, wearing his Voice of the Court mask, cleared his throat. "Dramatics aside, please share with us your so-called brilliant plan."
Tanya took out a projector from her dimensional storage via her purse, and opened up the phone app that synched up to it. Her slideshow presentation started up, titled: 'My Master Plan, by Horned Owl, Master of the Arcane Arts.' "Incidentally…" Tanya turned around and switched masks, changing which species of owl her mask was patterned after. "My supervillain name is now Horned Owl. Please use it."
Jacob sighed, ashamed at her enthusiastic participation. "Continue."
She went to the next slide. 'Previous Attempts' was its title. "Okay, so before, we only made one attempt to kill Batman, by hiring the world's best assassins." She went down several other slides. "The Demon's son-in-law? Jailed in the secret Justice League Prison, and also brutalized. His degenerate harem?" Images of Talia and Lady Shiva. It amused her to phrase it this way. "Locked up, never to be seen again."
"The Justice's League's prison isn't a secret." Deadpanned one of the normal members.
"That's what they want you to think!" Tanya said, pointing at him. Acting like The Question was fun. Also, they do actually have a secondary, secret jail they send the people who are likely to be broken out to. "Anyway, the League of Shadow's finest assassin?" She went to the next slide, a picture of Tenko and Cass having ice cream in a public park, no one having noticed Batman's supposed secret identity in their midst, despite him once more wearing a T-shirt with Batman's logo on it, with a Batman mask badly edited onto Tenko's face. Cass' rapturous expression was one more piece of evidence that David Cain was the world's worst father. "Turned against us."
"Get to the point." Constance Cobblepot snapped.
The next slide, 'Who is Batman?'. "The Batman is an elite combatant." Tanya summarized, "We've tried to defeat him with elites of our own, but have failed. However, he is merely mortal. He never uses magic personally, only by wielding his pet demon, Rhine." She took some Bat Demon Repellent, with the bat logo taken off, out of her purse. "Once neutralized, the weight of numbers will win the day."
"That's your plan?" Maxwell Powers' aged voice said incredulously. "Just swarm him with a bunch of guys?"
"In the same way that a nuclear reactor boils water, yes." Tanya said simply. "The Devil is, of course, in the details." She went to the next slide. "Step One: Logistics. The first step of overwhelming Batman with numbers is making sure we can bring those forces to bear in large enough numbers so as to be overwhelming. Batman is, at his core, a master of ninjutsu, so we must force him to fight in the open, where he is unable to disengage. To that end, we must draw him to a prepared battleground."
"Yes, you mentioned using the Talons as the bait." Jacob mused.
"It's the only prize we have that's great enough for him to take risks." Tanya said seriously. "Naturally, we use our resources to stretch Batman's resources thinly, but not too thinly lest he call backup from the Justice League, but invariably, he will take on the most important task personally. He's arrogant like that." Tanya moved to the next slide. "Now, this is where my plan has too much guesswork for my liking, as I've never seen where the Talons are animated, so this part of the plan may need to be thrown out entirely and replaced." If she knew, this farce wouldn't be necessary. "But once lured, we prepare the battlefield, force him into the open, and swarm him."
"Optimistic." Commented another Council member. "I notice you haven't mentioned how you'd address the issue of Rhine."
"That's what this is for!" Tanya announced, shaking the previously extracted vial of holy water. "This is potent enough holy water to make an Archdemon sneeze. One spritz and Rhine's out of commission." It would actually work, too.
"Holy water?" Commented yet another masked rich guy. "That's your plan?"
"Sure, it works." Tanya said, shrugging. "I mean, if I used it against a weaker demon, their faces would melt," Literally. "-but for a Rhymer it'll just give them a huge coughing fit. That's when you break out the demon-killing knife." As it turned out, Talia had brought quite a bit of anti-demon armaments, but they still required that they strike flesh to work, and the Batsuit's armoring prevented the few that made contact from doing anything. She took the one knife she brought out from her purse. "Like so." She said, stabbing at the air with it.
"...Do you think you're going to be joining the fight?" Jacob asked incredulously.
"I'm the most powerful practitioner you have." Tanya deadpanned, "Also I carry around enough magical firepower to take over a small country." Of course, her wallet could also conquer small countries, but that was less impressive. She brandished her knife again. "But I'm not sharing!"
"If the girl wants to fight Batman so badly, I say we let her." Said a council member. Mr. Kull, she thought that one was. "She'll be at the head of an army, after all."
"It's not like Batman will kill her." Maxwell pointed out, "Any court member that was caught directing Talons is already out of jail." Several of them got charges that stuck, but were invariably sentenced to community service, fines, and house arrest at worst.
A few others spoke in favor, and none against. "...The Court has spoken." The Voice of the Court announced."You will get your fight with Batman."
"Awesome!" Tanya said, to all appearances, just being an eleven year old girl who thinks she's invincible and can thus succeed where over a hundred supervillains have tried and failed. Well, she actually looked more thirteen at the moment… Not important. "Now, the only question is where I shall hold my victory party…"
"Does your plan have anything else?" Jacob asked, annoyed.
"Huh?" Tanya aped confusion. After a moment, she pretended to understand the question. "Oh, yeah, I got a few things." She went through a few more slides, explaining some of the surprises she had in store for Batman, plus her ideas for how to adequately distract all of the backup that he may call. "Now, the most important part of this plan is that Batman walk into the trap alone, or with Robin and Rhine only. It is critical that he not receive assistance from… any of these people." The next slide had the list of failure states for the plan. It started with 'Wonder Woman', went through the more dangerous non-Batman Gotham vigilantes, and ended with 'Or any other Justice League Member from out of town'. "The good news is that Wonder Woman has completely stayed out of Batman's vigilante activities, bar the one obvious exception. My sources-" i.e. she made it up, but the implication was that she received it from the horse's mouth, so to speak. "-indicate that this is because, and I quote, 'she's tied up for other business', whatever that means."
An awkward silence punctuated by several people slowly realizing the implications of Tanya's statement. "What if he does receive such assistance?" Jacob asked slowly.
"I have some backup plans, I just don't like them." Tanya said dismissively. "Of course, if it all goes to soup, I have one final, sure-to-succeed fallback plan in the event that victory becomes impossible. But I'll keep that one up my sleeve."
"...You're just going to cry until your lawyer shows up, aren't you?" Jacob deadpanned.
"Sure. To. Succeed." Tanya reiterated.
-----------------------
Of course, her "Master plan" had one fatal flaw. Well, it actually had several, it had too many moving parts and was developed with insufficient knowledge of the battlefield that must be prepared, but it had one flaw above all others, which was to be deliberately exploited.
The process of making a Talon was very good magic, and while she knew there was something wrong with the Talons, it was only after studying the material, easy to access in the laboratory, that she understood the specifics.
A Talon was killed right before reanimation, a loyal soldier that is then treated as an eternal slave, and that's because… they lack long-term memory. By ritually killing and preserving the servant in the moment of death, their personality and memories are locked into that state, so their current loyalty becomes eternal. Additional spells get around the problems with this by allowing them to remember orders and commands. They would literally obey anyone wearing a Court of Owls mask, as long as they didn't have any conflicting orders from a higher ranking member. The voice changer in the Voice of the Court mask wasn't just an identity concealer, it functioned as an authenticator for the Talon's highest authority, a particular infrasonic frequency that was, unfortunately, not detailed in the notes she had access to. It was surprisingly scientific, for a necromancer. Apparently the old Doctor Gotham, which was the name that penned these notes, was a bit of an acoustics buff.
Naturally, an important part of the process was concealing exactly what they were doing to the Talon candidates before the effects of the conversion made any objections they had to the idea of dying irrelevant.
Attempts to use the Dionysium, the precisely corrupted variety of ectoplasm, as a life extension treatment did have some success… but there were rather substantial side-effects, to the point where each and every one who had been given new vitality via that method had been put down by the other members of the Court.
She had already put the documentation in her dimensional storage, and all she had to do now was wait for Batman, as the rest of the Court executed her plan. Well, their own spins on her plan. Her own 'distractions' were a bunch of carefully calibrated public nuisances that didn't hurt anyone and weren't even illegal, technically, and as such the other members of the Court replaced that part by bribing whatever villains they could find to cause trouble at the proper time.
It was unfortunate for the victims of those crimes, but all was proceeding according to her designs. "Boooooored…" Tanya whined. She looked over the arena. As it turned out, the Talons were primarily housed in a series of coffins in a giant mausoleum, a fantastic arena to ambush Batman in. "Has he taken the bait yet?" She asked the head Talon, who was apparently named William Cobb.
"The message has been delivered." He said simply. The plan to bait the Batman was to strategically leak the location of the Talon's created by faking a shipment of dionysium, miraculously located in the tunnels underneath Arkham Asylum, and having just enough lapses of discipline that Batman could find out about it, plant a tracker, and follow it to his demise.
"Well, he should hurry up!" Tanya complained, "Is the fake Dionysium back yet?"
"Yes."
"Then where is Batman?" Tanya shouted, stomping petulantly as she once more looked over the arena. As she spoke, a set of Talons carried and placed the cask filled with green gelatin dessert mixed with a single vial of liquid sunlight, giving it an ethereal glow. It will serve as her victory dessert.
"Right here." Growled Batman as he walked into the arena, the numerous tightly packed coffins and vaulted ceilings giving him nowhere to cling to.
Ah, showtime