A Commission from Wayne Manor

When I was 17, the director handed me my first contract: secretly protect a rich young man who seemed determined to get himself killed. The client was his butler. Looking at the photos of the person I was supposed to protect and his employer, along with the enormous fee, I asked curiously, "Aren't the client and the person being protected usually father and son?"

In other words, I suspected the kid wasn't really his son. The director looked at me coldly and said, "His parents were murdered when he was eight, just like yours."

Oh.

For the sake of this little "both our parents are dead" connection, I dutifully followed Wayne around for over a year. I even nearly froze to death in a Himalayan blizzard, and he was the one who dug me out of the snow. It was pretty embarrassing.

What I didn't know was that he'd seen the tattoo on my back that time: Lux In Tenebris.

Later, Wayne made it back to Gotham alive, and my job was done. I officially became a Kikimora of Ruska Roma.

Three years later, my dance company went on tour in Gotham. Wayne, Gotham's undisputed beautiful disaster, chartered a boat and took the whole troupe of girls out to sea.

When the girls egged him on to jump into the water to prove his love, he grinned, vaulted over the railing, and plunged in like a rock.

Me: ? Is he serious?

Amid my companions' shrieks, I jumped in after him and chased him through the water for several miles. Just as I was about to drop from exhaustion, a private plane emerged from the clouds and hauled him aboard.

Me: ...What a waste of my concern.

Three more years passed. My senior, Wick, slaughtered his way through the High Table over a dog, then got chased by the High Table like a dog himself. The director was punished and forced to step down for sheltering him, and the relic of Ruska Roma vanished without a trace. Whoever finds and retrieves it gets to become the new director (Mother).

I got word that the relic had ended up in Gotham, and set out to retrieve it.

Just as I was using my pointe-shoe-clad feet to crush the throats of the Owls, a real "Kikimora" burst through the window and kicked me flying several miles away.

I recognized him at a glance.

Tsk...

I shoved the relic into my bodice, got back up, and leaped out the window.

I forgot to mention: today's costume had a very low back, and I was certain that anyone who saw my tattoo wouldn't live to tell about it, so I hadn't covered it up at all.

Tsk, tsk.

He chased, I ran. There was no way I was going to be caught!

+++ Bruce's POV +++

Somewhere along the way, while I was traveling abroad, I acquired a "tail." No matter how many times I changed course or how often I deliberately headed into the harshest environments, I couldn't shake him. I eventually guessed what he was after, and went along with it to put Alfred's mind at ease. It wasn't until I dug him out of the Himalayan snow that I realized it was "her," not "him."

She looked very young, not even of age. It was hard to imagine Alfred had come up with the idea. To get her warmed up as quickly as possible, I had no choice but to remove her soaked clothes. I saw the tattoo on her back: Lux In Tenebris, light in the darkness. I told her the job was over, told her to stop following me and go live the life of a normal girl, then left.

The next time I recognized that tattoo, its owner had just crushed the throats of a room full of Talons and Owls. I couldn't believe that my "bodyguard" had become an "assassin."

I regretted it. I regretted leaving so hastily back then. I should have taken her to Gotham and let her grow up properly under my supervision.

When I captured her as Batman and tried to offer her a new choice and a new identity, she smiled and said, "Dear Bruce, although I do miss our time together, I killed someone when I was eight. I don't want you locking me up in Arkham."

I never could have imagined that after I let her go that time, the next time we met, she would have become the "Mother" of Ruska Roma.

+++++ A Gotham Citizen's POV +++++

The Court of Owls' shadow had loomed over Gotham for hundreds of years. Then one day, the Owls suddenly disappeared, and a mysterious group calling themselves the "Kikimora" took their place in Gotham's underworld.

Their leader was a very young woman. They called her "Mother."

Gotham's politicians, businesspeople, and both the criminal and law-abiding worlds were eager to pay a visit to this new power player.

Mother put out the word: Whoever gets Gotham's sweetheart into her bed first gets to meet her first.

The kidnappers: ...How did we never realize this useless rich guy was so hard to kidnap?!

Reader's Guide

1. The timeline serves the story. Characters may be out of character. If you want to argue, you're right.

2. The main story is told in third person.

3. The heroine has no superpowers, but she's a formidable fighter. Her combat abilities grow over time; she's not overpowered from the start.

4. There will be a fair amount of melodrama, because the author is a country bumpkin who loves melodrama. Overall, though, it's a lighthearted story. The main settings are the second-generation films, with a few comic elements. It crosses over with John Wick and Ballerina, and may also include some others, such as The Day of the Jackal.

5. The blurb may be tweaked a little later.

6. I'll add more if I think of anything.

Theme: Find the light in the darkness