Talia's Secret

Besides that, Talia had a little secret: she had defied Ra's al Ghul's orders and secretly kept in contact with Batwoman. She was the only person in the League of Assassins who could freely enter and leave Gotham, as long as she remained under Batwoman's escort the entire time.

Because Batwoman did not trust her.

She differed somewhat from Bliss. She believed that the strong deserved respect, and that combat ability was the standard by which everything was measured.

Bliss, on the other hand, believed that a person's convictions and will were the true measures of strength. Only by overcoming one's own fear could one become truly strong.

Ra's al Ghul did not count, because he feared reality and this world. Talia did not count either, because she feared her father. Even Batwoman herself did not count, because bats were the source of her fear.

To Batwoman, only Jester, Deathstroke, and a handful of others could be considered strong, because they never felt fear.

Even Scarecrow, who had invented Fear Gas, wailed for his parents in terror after inhaling his own toxin. It left her torn between laughter and tears. If she had not been wearing the Batsuit at the time, she would have laughed until she could not stand straight.

But those differences had not stopped Talia from seeking her out. Whenever she finished a mission in Central City or Star City, she always liked to make a detour through Gotham.

Although Ra's al Ghul said Gotham was the world's cancer, the filthiest place there was, and that destroying the world had to begin with destroying Gotham.

Talia thought Gotham was pretty good.

It was filled with chaos and madness. Masked lunatics of every kind took turns appearing onstage, making it feel like she was watching a play.

She had lived too long amid barren ice and snow, bored out of her mind. She preferred livelier places.

Whenever she arrived in Gotham and wandered around places like Wayne Tower or the roof of the police station, Batwoman would silently appear at her side, staring at her with cold, suspicious eyes and keeping watch to prevent her from causing trouble in Gotham.

Talia liked it that way. After all, she only chatted with Batman about recent events, told her how many people she had killed lately, asked whether the lunatics had put on any performances recently, then left soon afterward.

Ever since their first fight, when Talia had lost to Batwoman, she had been deeply interested in the powerful masked figure and had unilaterally decided that Bliss was her friend.

Because Batwoman had defeated her without killing her. To Talia, that was unimaginable.

If she had no intention of killing someone, why fight at all? Wouldn't killing them settle everything once and for all?

In truth, she understood Batwoman far less than Jester did. Jester was absolutely right when she said Batman and she were the same kind of person.

Although Jester killed people, she did not do it often, because she preferred seeing everyone's hearts filled with the chaos and madness she had sown, before they all burst into laughter together.

Batman never killed, because she wanted evildoers' hearts to be filled with fear of her, fear of Batman.

She would break her enemies' arms, legs, or spines, torture them in the cruelest ways, and leave them permanently bedridden and paralyzed, allowing fear to torment them for the rest of their lives, just as fear tormented her.

Living in fear forever was far crueler than finding release in death.

Therefore, when Gordon and some others saw her as Gotham's heroine, Bliss never considered herself one. Her actions were steeped in vigilantism, all meant to vent her fear through violence.

Gotham was merely her hunting ground, and she simply hunted evildoers.

That was probably why so many masked people went to Gotham: they had discovered how similar Batwoman was to themselves.

Bliss's tactics had worked well at first, but later they began to lose their flavor.

Because Jester appeared. No one knew where that lunatic had come from. Even when Bliss beat her until the bones throughout her body were warped out of shape, she still screamed and laughed happily, as if Bliss had made her feel wonderful.

The next time she appeared, injuries that should have left her paralyzed or crippled had always somehow healed already, and she could continue playing new games with Batman.

Beyond that, more and more people with medical backgrounds gathered in Gotham. Even if Batman broke their fingers to stop them from treating themselves, they were always happy to help one another and continue the game.

For example, Hush had been Bliss's childhood friend, and their families had been old acquaintances as well. After growing up, she became a lunatic, but she was still a supreme authority in medicine. She could perform surgery on herself with nothing but a knife, without even needing a mirror.

Batwoman had crippled her countless times, yet she always appeared again perfectly lively.

Doctor Hugo, Professor Pyg, Mister Freeze, Scarecrow, and the rest were all experts in biology or medicine. They could heal any injury inflicted by Batman.

Not to mention the Court of Owls lurking in the shadows. They feared the world was not chaotic enough, so they also provided medical aid to evildoers.

This gave rise to rumors throughout the city that Batwoman had contracted The Mother syndrome, claiming that she was a weak woman who would not even hurt an ant, who indulged evildoers by letting them escape from prison again and again to harm citizens, and who did not deserve to be called a heroine.

Batwoman would not change her original intentions. She only wanted evildoers to fear her, so she continued doing as she pleased. There was no need to explain herself. She had never been a hero.

She only felt that she needed to update her fighting methods. How could she cripple someone so thoroughly that they could never recover?

For the moment, she had no answer.

She was not the only one. The Batmen of other Parallel Worlds probably had the same problem. Old-fashioned combat methods seemed somewhat outdated. It would be nice if there were some fighting technique that could vaporize part of an opponent's body with a single punch, preferably leaving only their brain alive.

Only then could enemies better experience fear, the fear the Batmen had endured in childhood and could never escape.

Thus, Talia believed that Batman was actually just like her: they were both cruel people, only cruel in different ways. Gotham's citizens had all been fooled by her. But Batwoman was always noncommittal. She seemed not to care at all what others thought of her, forever cold and aloof.

Talia was left speechless by Bliss every time and returned to Nanda Parbat with her tail between her legs. Yet after a while, boredom would drive her back to Gotham again.

Ra's al Ghul had not noticed her little secret, because in every respect, Talia was no weaker than he was. In fact, if not for his immortality, Talia could have fully succeeded him as the second Head of the Demon.

Talia could already be called a Demon's Head.

Stealth, combat, disguise, archery—she was proficient in every skill used for killing. As a ninja of the new era, she also knew hacking techniques and how to use all kinds of firearms, already surpassing Ra's al Ghul in many ways.

Although Ra's al Ghul believed that using firearms brought no honor to a warrior, assassins only got paid after killing their targets. If the target had no honor, then neither did they need to.

Aside from falling prey to his inner demons when it came to gender and Gotham, he was still a very competent organizational leader most of the time.