This came to me through music and vaguely inspired by one fic on ao3 I cannot find. I thought I had it bookmarked. Thanks to @peterchubs for listening while this au took shape.
What if, like in Batman Beyond, Damian returns to League to lead it one day?
I think for this AU Damian meets his father briefly, but after seeing that he isn't the perfect heir, he goes back to Talia to reform the League. Bruce tries to stop him but finds there's not a lot he can do.
Since the year of Blood and Goliath coming into his life, Damian had started to doubt the wisdom of his grandfather. The killing of the Dragon Bats and Damian owns distaste for killing innocents have planted a seed of rebellion. One that meeting his father and seeing how he operated allowed to grow.
Damian believes that the world needs to be protected, that someone must fight for the earth, and it's innocents. He begins to recognise that killing is a hard choice and should not be the first course of action but sometimes can not be avoided.
After he gets back from Gotham, he discusses these ideas with his mother, not sure what to expect. Instead of a lecture Talia kisses his head and tells him that he is growing into the man she hoped he would become. A leader, a true mix of two great bloodlines and ideologies.
Talia Al Ghul looks at her son and pledges to aid his reforms. Talia embraces him as she promises to protect him. Damian learns love from her.
Next, Damian approached Mara, his cousin. It was a tough conversation. Mara is understandablely distrustful of him. The last time they met, Grandfather had made them battle, Damian had scarred her and won Grandfather's approval. Something he now has mixed feelings about.
Mara doubts him at first, and it takes a while, but even her loyalty is tested by Ras orders. Damian is the heir, and if he reforms the League he speaks of, Mara promises that The Demons Hand will support him.
Over time, Damian gathers more allies inside and outside the League.
A girl named Maya tries to kill him in revenge for her father but reluctantly befriends him.
Damian learns more about compassion and redemption from her. They become almost siblings in their closeness. Maya becomes his advisor and spymaster.
The turning point where Damian decides that he cannot wait to inherit the League but must overthrow his grandfather comes when Damian meets his brother.
Damian had heard rumours of his grandfather's labs. A place his mother ensured he never entered.
Damian isn't naive enough to think he was ever exempt from his grandfather's cruelty. But the way the lab in particular was avoided fills him with dread.
He finds it after Maya infiltrates a restricted wing of Nanda Parat. She says he needs to see this now and drags Damian to it.
Inside are pods growing versions of...him? He thinks? And on a medical table strapped down and unconscious is his mirror image.
He boy is taller than him, seemingly older, and instead of his mother's brown waves, the boy has striking white hair that is straight and fine.
His body is covered in scars. Damian looks around and finds files and notes of torture parading as science.
It is in that moment that he decides Ras Al Ghul must die.
Maya gets the boy out and hides him in Damians' rooms where only his most loyal enter, just in case Maya guards him and Damian destroys the lab.
He calls Mara and his mother and tells them that Damian will be the Demons' head sooner than expected.
They launch the attack at Dusk.
It is not an easy battle, but in the end, Damian drives his sword into his grandfather's chest and sets his body on fire, so not even the Lazarus Pit can restore him.
It is not an easy transition. For months, Damian and his family struggle to gain control of their forces and dismantle Ras more insidious operations.
Respawn or Alexander as he chooses to call himself helps. Damians brother is learning how to exist outside of training and the lab and becomes his Brothers head guard. The two grow close, and Damian learns to be gentle with a boy that was hurt similarly to himself but so much worse.
Damians League is very different from its predecessor.
All jobs that they do are vetted to ensure they don't cause unnecessary damage, targets family, networks, and history is considered.
Life is to be respected whenever possible. For all being. Death is never a first course of action, but Damian will kill to protect innocents and the earth.
They no longer train children. It's not allowed until the person can consent. Any found abusing or hurting their children are punished severely.
There are no more inhuman experiments. Instead, Damian puts the Al Ghul billions into health and climate research. He goes so far as to hire Poison Ivy to regrow rainforests and other suffering botanical areas.
He also covertly funnels money into the green energy sector and lobbying groups for better regulations on environmental issues, health, and care.
Damian invests in communities that safeguard habitats and endangered species. Freeing some from human trafficking and exploitative corporations.
Everyone working in the League or with it observes a strict code of ethics. Their life is forfeit if they are found to have harmed innocents or betrayed their ethos.
The reforms had been thought to be too idealistic. A childish dream. But they work.
The League of Assassins becomes what it was always meant to be, a force for good that operates in the shadows.
Damian is still ruthless. All of his people are deadly, and no one who breaks his rules survives.
Damian wonders if his father would accept him like this? If his improvements are enough?
One day, Maya suggests he will never be a Demon, and Damian is a Dragon. The name sticks.
Not many outside of the Assassin's notice the changes in League at first. Not even Batman.
Damian is 21 by the time he has enough time to consider trying to approach his father again. His mother has not forgiven her Beloved for not embracing Damian all those years ago, and Damian can't bring himself to reach out to the imposing man he remembers.
Jonathan Kent is the first to discover the new Dragons Head.
He only finds out what the League is doing when he interrupts the forceful dismantling of an animal smuggling ring. It is one of the rare times Damian is performing a mission himself but when he heard how many endangered species were being held he left before Maya and Mara could scold him.
Respawn joined him with a laugh and asked if they could stop for takeout. Damian reluctantly agreed.
They are finished dealing with the leader of the traffickers when Superman 2.0 busts in.
He is very confused about finding a masked man comforting an injured baby orangutan while his companion teases him.
It's adorable that the man glares while still babytalking the scared primate.
Jon almost doesn't notice the body on the floor.
"What is happening here?"
The two turn to him and their guard rises immediately.
The one holding the animals clears his throat. "We are freeing these animals, you can either help or be removed Son of Kal El."
"How do you know who I am?"
"It's my job. So are you helping or no?"
Jon glares. "I don't know who you are."
"You can call me the Dragons Head and that," he points behind him "is my guard Respawn."
"I am the head of the League of Assassin's."
Jon is suddenly much more on guard. The man looked too young to be Ras al Ghul.
"He was wanted in three countries for trafficking and animal abuse. We offered him a choice, and he decided to attack us." The Dragons Head says reasonably.
Jon sighs, but in the end, the well-being of the animals takes priority right now. He can just try and arrest them later.
A part of him as he looks at the cages, the misery doesn't feel particularly bad for the man.
The Super secures the animals, and when he turns to interrogate the duo more, he finds them missing. With the orangutan.
After he reports the incident to the Watchtower, there is concern all round.
The bats are called in for an investigation. What they find shocks them all. Ras has been dead for five years, and the new head has even more connections worldwide.
They still kill, but they also do so much good. It causes a divide in the Justice League.
Those without a no kill rule suggest an alliance.
Those with one refuse to entertain the possibility.
So, a compromise is reached after days of debate, a fact-finding mission, and a diplomatic envoy to discuss their options with the Dragons Head.
Batman offers to lead it because of his contacts only for said contact to refuse to entertain them if Batman is there.
The League doesn't know the reason Talia Al Ghul glares at the vigilante, but the Batman is forced to stay put. Nightwing takes his place.
Jon is chosen to be part of an envoy to meet the new head, given he met him before.
They are greeted at Nanda Parat by an army. A show of power and strength to the heroes now in their midst.
Jon and Nightwing approach cautiously only for the crowd to part as they approach, revealing Talia Al ghul and a group of young people.
"Richard, good to see you again." She begins.
"I'm sure." The man in question quips.
Before the tension gets even worse, Jon interrupts. "When will we be meeting the head?"
Talia smirks and moves aside. The people behind her do the same. "My son, Damian Al Ghul the Dragons Head."
The man that steps forward is beautiful. Very clearly his mother's son with sun-kissed skin and green eyes. Jons breathe catches.
"It is a pleasure to make your acquitance, officially." The Dragons Head greets them.
They two heroes are invited inside and assign guest rooms. It's not until dinner that any actual negotiations take place.
The League of Assassin's is not opposed to the alliance with the Justice League, but only if their ethics remain intact.
They debate terms for days.
"The League respects life but understands that sometimes you have to kill what destroys the natural order." Damians argues.
Jon fights the urge to raise his voice. They have been going in circles of hours. "Because you never know for sure! You can't be certain that killing won't make things worse or that the person wasn't framed or can't change for the better."
Damian smirks. "That is true for every decision, that if I don't kill than that person kills others because I didn't stop him when I had the chance."
Jon groans. He can find fault in the logic, but some part of him agrees with it. It does not help that Damian is unfairly attractive.
"I'm getting tired of this. Would you like to walk with me to the garden?" Damian asks, gracefully standing and dragging Jon with him by the arm.
Jon finds himself distracted from escaping the Assassin's grasp by the sudden closeness.
They walk together in silence in a courtyard filled with jasmine flowers.
"I admire what you are trying to do. I get frustrated myself at never seeing progress, but ideals can be corrupted. Just look at the previous head." Jon says quietly.
"That is why I am open to trusting heroes. I'm terrified of becoming like my grandfather. If I allow the Justice League to know some of my activities, then there is a check and balance. If I go too far, they will be able to stop me."
"What!" Jon is incredulous. Damian looks so at peace discussing his own death.
"If I become what I swore to destroy. Death would be mercy."
Jon doesn't know what to say to that. His eyes fall to how Damian holds him arm still and lays his hand over his.
Jon stays at Nanda Parat for weeks, even when Nightwing leaves.
He and Damian spend every day together always ending sitting side by side amongst the jasmine. Their conversations starts drifting away from either League.
Jon learns that Damian has a small zoo of pets. That his innermost circle consists entirely of his family. That when he smiles, he has dimples.
Jon opens up about his doubts, about his temper and the weight of his fathers legacy.
Jon tells Damian about how he agrees that killing might be necessary but how he fears what he'll become if he allows himself to take a life.
Damian holds his hand and promises that he would never ask that of him.
They strike up a friendship, then something more.
Damian kisses him one day, and Jon sighs in relief.
Jon decides to go back to Watchtower after he receives a call from his father. He promises Damian he will return.
The Justice League makes him report on his findings and then almost immediately sends him to space.
He is away for two months.
When he flies to Nanda Parat Damian welcomes him home.
The two Leagues sign the alliance. Jon is named the diplomat between the two.
Some object, especially after Damian and Jon get married but are soundly ignored.
People like to think Damian corrupted Jon. But his rage and need to affect change for all has always been a part of him.
Damian is his anchor, his safe haven.
Jon is Damians guiding light.
