Chapter Text
Some millennia ago, A demon race fought for their lives and lost. Lost their lives to creatures that govern deep below the sea and demigods of the gods of old, who only now fight for righteousness. Those ‘demons’ were the souls of humans that died, infant, child, adult, it didn’t matter. These creatures were born of those that passed too early.
Some millennia ago, only two survived the final battle. Only one survived a year after that.
Fortune shined upon them as they finally found a home in what is now Gotham. After weeks of grueling travel, unsure whether they would find a home. The caves beneath the land offered protection from the outside world, and when modern times came to be, a manor erected over the entrance would serve the colony for generations to come.
With shelter offered by Lady Gotham, they settled deep below the ground. And when the world had long forgotten about the battle that raged centuries earlier, the creatures finally emerged from the earth, to live in a manor above their home. And soon after, the rumors would spread of a shadow of vengeance that stalked around the city at night, helping those in need.
And so was the life of Bru’xus , the sole heir to the demon race.
Bru’xus grew up inside miles of caverns, Alfe’fraed raising him and teaching him. He knew of the history of their species, knew of the battles and bloody past.
He was taught history and geography as it was made. Math as it developed, brought scrolls, then books. One of the first things he was taught was how to fight.
He would have a brief period where he would set out into the world at night, learning what he could from the evolving humans, but always going back to the caves when the light had sunk to an unseeable level.
Bru’xus settled after a while, coming back permanently after he felt he knew enough, though he would have liked to know more. It was then that he had his first child.
He had not even known that the manifestation process had started. Not until he woke beside a shadow egg, Alfe’fraed’s knowing gaze on him.
They put the shadow covered egg inside a nest on the warmest side of the cave and let it sit, though Bru’xus found his eyes wandering to it more than he would like to admit.
It was only a couple more days before his child was officially breaking his way into the world.
The shadows dispelled to reveal a baby, small and innocent with the biggest crystal blue eyes shining as he looked around at his surroundings.
He practically glowed when he spotted Bru’xus , awkwardly wriggling, raising his little arms to make grabby hands.
And really, who was Bru’xus to deny his child?
...
Bru’xus named his first son Ri’derich, the name meaning wise ruler. Bru’xus knew he would live up to the name, though their kingdom had long since fallen to ruins.
...
It had been years, and Bru’xus still wasn’t sure how he ended up with a child like Ri’derich. He was constantly moving, talking, doing acrobatic moves that looked painful, even though Bru’xus himself could do some movements that humans couldn’t.
Never let it be said that Bru’xus doesn’t love his child, but he thinks some strings may have been crossed while he was inside the shadow egg.
Despite not having wings (yet anyway), he acted strangely bird-like. Jumping off things, tilting his head at just the right angle. As of late, he had taken to creating his own language out of whistles and clicks, Bru’xus thought he was taking inspiration from the flying creatures that chittered from above.
Bru’xus supposed with the lack of playmates or siblings, he had to entertain himself some way, though Bru’xus could do without the canor.
...
Bru’xus had started going to the surface world more and more frequently, no longer for quick trips to places like when he was learning to use his own ability.
Before Ri’derich was born, he would travel through the shadows to different countries, sometimes on purpose, sometimes on accident (not that he would ever admit that), and he would watch the locals, watching them fight, how they interact, before heading back to his cave.
The result was Bru’xus collecting a myriad of fighting techniques, both from paper and watching live demonstrations.
All that said, now when Bru’xus goes out, he goes out to stop fights and takes care of any magic interference within the area. Lady Gotham had protected him for so long; he thought he ought to return the favor.
...
Ri’derich did indeed get wings, just not the type Bru’xus was expecting.
He expected bat wings, like the ones his father had, even if Bru’xus himself never grew his own; he knew it was genetically possible.
What should not be genetically possible is getting bird wings from a bat. They were in no way similar and really Bru’xus was confused.
That hardly mattered with how much Ri’derich loved them though. He would show them off while Bru’xus and Alfe’fraed nodded encouragingly.
On a completely unrelated note, Bru’xus watched birds as they preened their feathers on his next outing.
...
Bru’xus knew the moment Ri’derich got his powers because one moment he was normal and the next, a small bond was in place, connecting Bru’xus , Ri’derich, and Alfe’fraed together.
Ri’derich had just been jumping around as usual. Jumping off cliff ledges like gravity was merely a suggestion (and no Bru’xus didn’t have a heart attack, totally not), when he suddenly was next to Bru’xus , clinging to his side while making a sort of rumbling(?) sound deep in his little chest.
Then the bond was formed. A link between his child, himself, and his father figure.
It wasn’t until Ri’derich made a comment a few minutes later and with a wrinkle of his nose, announced how much hatred and fear he could sense from above, that Bru’xus realized he could sense emotions and form a bond with those he deemed family.
Not ten minutes later Ri’derich was up with the bats, chirping at them like it was the most normal thing in the world, and Bru’xus couldn’t help but feel that the bond should have more people.
...
Bru’xus started to hear rumors when he went up to the surface; Batman, they called him. He felt it was ironic. He bore no wings but had ended up as a bat anyway.
...
Ri’derich had decided he wanted to help and felt the best way to do that was to go and fight the bad guys too.
After the fifth time Bru’xus caught him trying to sneak out, he decided to teach him to fight. It wasn’t a bad skill to have anyway, especially since only Alfe’fraed knows what wiped out their entire species.
A year later, the humans were raving about seeing a child in bright colors flying with the shadow that seemed to watch over them.
...
Bru’xus felt he may have jinxed it, as he stared at the egg resting in the nest, Ri’derich watching it like a puppy.
It was only now that Bru’xus realized he didn’t want another one of his children growing up solely in this cave.
Settlement was meek above on the surface, but he felt in a few more decades, they may be able to blend in inside a building they could build on the above world.
...
His second baby was given the name Ja’cidon, and Bru’xus already loved him. As he grew, Ja’cidon was obsessed with the scrolls and books Bru’xus had acquired over time.
While he showed no sign of the same bird habits at first, he was as enraptured with Ri’derich as Ri’derich was him and soon picked them up.
The bird language was completed with another to add to it and Ja’cidon, while still having other interests, Bru’xus’s two children could often be seen hanging from the ceiling with the bats, identical wings of green, gold, and red folded in, but still visible.
...
He really didn’t know how it happened. First it was just himself and Alfe’fraed, then Ri’derich came along as a pleasant surprise, then Ja’cidon, Ca’sasnai very shortly after, Ti'moefe following with Ste’phasie a minute after, Duk’xue, and finally Di'amon.
He couldn’t tell if the universe was just messing with him or if his body had decided he was going to repopulate the entirety of his race alone. Honestly, he was thanking his lucky stars that he didn’t have to go through pregnancy like humans do.
At least by the time Di'amon came along, a small town had formed above, enough that Bru’xus felt comfortable going to the surface. While he himself had seen the surface, none of his children had, and Bru’xus wanted them to experience the sky, if nothing else.
It was early beginnings in the city, enough so that no one would think twice about declining help from multiple able bodies, even if they appeared to be kids, and Bru’xus himself to kickstart the town.
The extra help also meant nobody questioned their unusual family dynamic. No mother in sight but an elderly gentleman and an army of children.
It was also easy enough to make small progress day by day in the construction of what Alfe’fraed had taken to calling Wayne Manor (where he got the name, Bru’xus had no idea).
And so, on the surface, Bru’xus became Bruce Wayne, and his children followed suit, Ri’derich becoming Richard Wayne, a popular English name at the time and so on.
The only difference in names was the last name Alfe’fraed chose, Alfred Pennyworth, an elderly servant like most rich English nobles held (like Bru’xus or his children would ever act like Alfe’fraed was merely a servant).
Fast forward in history, and the Wayne’s would be credited as the main founder of Gotham. Even if nobody knew that they were the same beings, and not just descendants.
...
The others were slower to get their gifts. Ri’derich had gotten his after only a few decades but the next was Ca’sasnai after a full century, who inherited Bru’xus ’s ability to blend into shadows.
Ja'cidon complained that he was skipped but he also got wings (still bird wings, really how? -), unlike Ca'sasnai.
It wasn’t until the villagers raided Wayne Manor and killed Ja'cidon that his power manifested. Their reasoning was that they were harboring demons. Ja'cidon said it was funny in an ironic sort of way. Bru’xus did not agree.
They manifested after Bru’xus brought him back, pouring his own energy into Ja'cidon’s broken body with Alfe’fraed and Ri’derich’s help; superhuman strength, endurance, speed, etc. But at a cost.
Nearly uncontrollable rage and bloodlust.
The good news was that Ri’derich could pretty easily regulate the excess emotions through the bond. And Bru’xus never wanted to feel another one of his kids break apart from the bond again. It felt like someone had stabbed a knife through a piece of his heart and carved it out. Never again, he swore to himself as he watched his children wriggle around inside the new and improved nest (now made with calicoes, cotton blankets, wool clothing, and more).
...
Ti'moefe got his shortly after, a superhuman ability to notice extreme detail and hyper intelligence. Ste’phasie swore she knew what her's was but wasn’t telling anyone because it was ‘funnier’ to make them guess (Bru’xus would bet money Ti’moefe knew). Duk'xue glowed, literally, light-based powers (Bru’xus never figured that one out either; they were a demon race who had dwelled in the dark for centuries), and Di'amon quickly discovered he could talk to animals, now that there were more creatures he could readily see.
All in all, Bru’xus was proud of his kids, and he could feel every one of them though the bond links his oldest acted as a center for.
...
Eventually, Ri’derich molted, and his muted green, red, and gold downy feathers fell out to reveal beautiful black with streaks of striking blue.
Ri’derich decided he needed a name change after that. He decided on Nightingale, a nighttime vigilante with no wings, Ri’derich having retracted them so he could learn to fly without them. He seemed happier than he had in ages, jumping from high object to high object with flips in between.
Bru’xus had been lucky so far in that only Ri’derich had joined the fight, but now with Robin up for grabs, the floodgates were opened.
One by one they took up their own mantles. Ja'cidon went from the second Robin to Cardinal after his own dusty red and black feathers grew in, Ti'moefe from the third Robin to Rook, wings displaying black, white and a bright red. Ste’phasie was the fourth and Gothamites were very confused when a Robin showed up with no wings but soon enough she moved on to Starling. Di'amon took on Robin and has stayed, waiting for his final feathers to come in. Neither Ca’sasnai nor Duk'xue were Robins, both lacking wings and deciding they didn’t want to, creating their own mantles straight off the bat, Ca'sasnai becoming Blackbird and Duk'xue becoming Lark.
The rumors spread, more and more tales of Gotham’s creatures that defended the night, and then the day when Lark took up his mantle.
Some theorized they were vampires, other’s demons, even more just shadowy creatures of the night, brought to life by Lady Gotham (Bru’xus was pretty sure half the conspiracy theories were caused by Ti'moefe or Ste’phasie, maybe even both).
And while he may not enjoy that his children risked their lives every night, he could admit they made a good team.
They each had their own strengths, their own weapons, their own way of thinking about a problem. Some of his children had gone through a similar phase he had, wanting to explore the world and learn on their own.
And while it hurt his entire being to let them, he knew if he kept them locked up; it would only drive them away. And so, when Ri’derich joined a circus, learning all new things and smiling brighter than the sun as he twisted his body well what any normal human was capable of, Bru’xus let him. Or when he occasionally had extended stays in Bludhaven, the city that had been constructed several decades after Gotham but equally as crime filled.
He did the same for any of his other children, when they strayed from the nest; Ja’cidon in a place that became known as Crime Alley, when two wealthy businessmen were shot and murdered in it. Ti'moefe, when he wanted to travel to solve murders as a detective. When Ca’sasnai wanted to dance in multiple cities around the world.
Eventually, all his children would end up back at the manor, celebrating with the humans as new holidays and celebrations were made and some would stay and some would leave for a little while, before coming back.
They always came back, and that had to be enough for Bru’xus . As long as he could feel their emotions and live forced through the bond, Bru’xus knew they were alright, even if he wished he could keep them in the manor and never let them leave.
And really, times were changing.
Bru’xus family was fully incorporated into the world and had been for many centuries. His family was not extremely famous, could not risk the exposure and questions of their unageing physiques, rather known to be wealthy and generous, but extremely mysterious to the public.
“The Mysterious Wayne Family...” was a common headline in the news paper, though Bru’xus had thought they would have lost interest after the first century.
Each of Bru’xus children had lived multiple different lives, once a detective, then a gymnast, then a teacher, but no matter what each of them chose, Bru’xus was always proud of them.
The town they had helped build had turned into a full-blown city, if a crime-riddled one. There were other heroes now, with their own sidekicks (“Partners!” Ri’derich would insist while formally asking for permission to meet up with a red-headed speedster with the moniker ‘kid flash’). It was no longer just a way to pay Gotham back for her hospitality; it was that, and more, a way to help the entire town. And as he stared at man that was inside his cave (“Batcave” Ri’derich had named it all those years ago), he couldn’t help but feel like that was about to be taken to the next level.
Bru’xus was not a man that scared easily. Some have even questioned if he is even human (they’d be right of course) and if he feels emotions.
He feels emotions. He feels the emotions of every one of his children and Alfe’fraed, every second of the day, and he is grateful for it.
But that is not why he is scared. A part of him longs for the old days, when he and his family lived well below the surface, dwelling in the caverns below Gotham, safe from everyone and everything.
Another part of him says those who do not adapt perish; and that is the way of the world.
But he and his family had adapted. Had stuck to the caves when other life was new to the world, had come to the surface when he felt it was stable enough.
He and his family had a long and trying past; the last individuals in an entire species of demons.
Their race had a long and bloody past, hunted to extinction by other supernatural creatures, until two remained. One of them had been his father, who gave his life for Bru’xus to have been saved, and Alfe’fraed, the man who raised him.
Of course their family has grown since; Bru’xus ’s children being his pride and joy. Why his body had decided he was going to repopulate his entire race by himself, he didn’t know.
Regardless, they were all centuries old, Bru’xus himself being over two thousand years old. Alfe’fraed was even older.
All this said, Bru’xus does not scare easily. And yet, now he is nearly petrified.