afewnovelideas:

No one yet knows that in a past life the entire Bat-Fam was actually once related by blood and marriage.

Bruce’s incarnation was a king in Avalon, before the bridge to that world was closed after the death of King Arthur.  Selina was his wife and she bore Dick, Jason, Cass and Tim (fraternal twins), and Damian.

Jim Gordon was the head of the royal guard, and his daughter, Barbara (a warrior in her own right), was the personal bodyguard of Selina.  It was during her service that she met Dick and the two fell in love.  Stephanie was Cass’s best friend and bodyguard, and Tim had a mad crush on her.

Dick was crown prince, though he had no interest in ruling one day.  Jason, on the other hand, was quite the opposite.  As they got old enough to express their opinions, both were in the process of trying to persuade their father to buck tradition and let Jason be the crown prince (part of this is because, by law, the crown prince had to marry a princess, and Dick wanted to marry Barbara).  Tim had no interest in the crown and had devoted himself to religious and mystical studies.  Cass was fine living her own life as she saw fit, though she hated all the feminine things her mother wanted her to indulge in.  She often dressed as a boy to go hunting in the forest.  Damian was still a child and very close to his mother and father.  All his elder siblings doted on Damian.

Talia was a princess of a neighboring kingdom who lost to Selina.  She was also secretly a sorceress and used her skills to lay a powerful curse down on the king and his family.  She used powerful magic to possess Damian, and forced him to kill his own mother before taking his own life.  This started a war between the two kingdoms that laid both royal houses to waste.

Part of Talia’s curse was to ensure that in every following lifetime (because at the time they all believed in reincarnation) their family would never again be related by blood or marriage.  Bruce’s children would be scattered to the winds, and any attempt to reconnect with his former wife would be doomed to failure.  Another part was that in each lifetime, one of his children would be reborn as Talia’s personal child.

Tim was the only family member to survive the war that took everyone else away from him.  Consumed by grief, and slowly dying himself, he used the last of his strength to try and counter Talia’s curse.  He wasn’t strong enough to cancel it, but he could alter it.  

He cast a counterspell that ensured, yes their family would have no choice but to start off seperate, but they would gradually come together in each lifetime.  Life would never be easy for their family, but at least they’d remained tied together, if not by blood then by the red threads of fate.

Once the counterspell was complete, then Tim’s incarnation died.

His was the only body of his family that was never given a proper burial.

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If ever any member of the Bat-fam ends up in Avalon, they will be able to happen upon the ruins of their kingdom, and the valley where the final battles of the war took place.  The bones and ancient staff of Tim’s incarnation still lay unburied beneath the willow tree he died beneath.

If they ever spent any significant amount of time in this world, travelling this land, their memories would eventually return of their past lives.

I’m a shameless Talia fangirl, so I immediately had a Talia centric idea for this verse. Posting my notes for use later.

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