#bda

@aurora-starshine Credits to aurora for letting me use inspo for the background and intro💖💖💖.

"Mother Gotham loved her children. She loved all her children…it's just…there are children she didn't just love but cherished. Children she brought back from the dead so they could stay with her forever. Children born within her walls, children born from afar. Children that should've been hers from the start. She took them all, and oh, did she cherish them."

The Gotham vigilantes are rumored to be myths, demons that protect Gotham from evil. In an attempt to gain information, they go to Gotham directly and try to do some undercover work, but that doesn't pan out because Mother Gotham is possessive, and so are the Gothamites. The rest of the world has given up on Gotham, and they won't allow their protectors to be taken from them so easily.

Unfortunately, as they're investigating, they come to realize that there are some cult like activites going on, which causes them to (incorrectly) assume that Gotham's problems are because of the demons. So in a horrible, misguided attempt to "correct" the problem, they kidnap Bruce with the intention of getting him to let go of Gotham or sending him to whatever realm he came from.

Little do they know that Bruce was a demon created by Gotham itself, but they don't know that because they don't know Mother Gotham exists. Needless to say, when her child, her favorite child, is kidnapped, she's pissed and she isn't the forgiving type.

Soon after kidnapping Batman, the Watchtower is attacked by the rest of the demons, who are upset that their father was taken from them. Things only get worse for the League when Gotham herself comes to help rescue her first demon.

Plot Points, not all, but the major ones, I suppose. A lot of this fic has a dark undertone.

Bruce was killed with his parents, but Mother Gotham revives him, unwilling to let go of the last Wayne. No one realizes that Bruce was murdered because his revival was quick and easy. He's now a demon that cosplays as a human.

Members in the AU are Bruce, Dick, Jason, Tim, Stephanie, Barbara, Damian, Cassandra, Duke, Kate, and Alfred.

Each member was killed and then revived by Mother Gotham except for Damian, who was conceived. Damian's storyline is the same for the most part, but he is taken to Bruce earlier. Most members died canonical deaths, but I rarely follow the storyline. Jason was murdered by the Joker in Ethiopia, but he wasn't taken to the League. He was revived by Mother Gotham, and he crawled out of his grave. He was found by Bruce, so the Red Hood storyline is basically moot. Tim drowned like he did in Infinite Crisis, only it happened by someone different, it was in Gotham, and it happened before he joined the batfamily. Stephanie was still tortured by Black Mask when she caused a gang war, trying to get her father arrested. I basically combined two storylines together. Barbara was killed by Scarecrow when he pushed her off a roof. This is still the same as it is in canon, but it's not just a hallucination caused by the fear gas. I don't feel like having Gordon chase down Batman, so I made Barbara's revival just as quick as Bruce's is. She suffers "injuries" instead. Cassandra was killed by Lady Shiva before the No Man's Land storyline. Instead of testing a businessman, she was tested against her mother. Stuff happens in between, she's revived, and then she finds her way to Gotham. Duke's death comes from the Gotham A.D storyline, where he was killed by the Joker for not revealing Batman's whereabouts. However, I placed that death after he was saved from the Joker in his original storyline. Kate died when her plane went down during her travels. She comes back to Gotham and joins up with Bruce. Very easy and simple since Kate's journey to Batwoman didn't include Bruce, but things are a bit different, so Kate as a character is the most changed out of them all. Alfred dies by Bane's hand, but I switched it up so he dies during the "War of Jokes and Riddles," which doesn't take place in my AU, but I wanted Alfred to die during Batman's second year, so his death is the same, but like the others, the storyline is different. Dick doesn't have a canonical death. He dies with his parents, and I decided to use Tony Zucco, revealing that killing Dick was his true goal as inspiration. So other than that, Dick's revival is, of course, just as quick as Bruce's; no one realizes he's dead, and he comes home with Bruce.

Mother Gotham operates somewhat similarly to Ubuyashiki from KNY. Like Ubuyashiki, Mother Gotham is cursed, but no one knows who did it or why. It's the major plot point they need to figure out.

Mother Gotham does not remember how she came to be, but there are signs that she, too, used to be human.