By the time I finished my tale (peppered with some recording of the invasions), Rachel had a look of utter astonishment on her face.
"You are a g-." She began to say before I interrupted her.
"Not from this dimension." She knew what I was, and I knew what I was, but I didn't want to be reminded of it. Brought memories, painful ones, that I did not want to dig out from the deepest reaches of my mind for reasons that were my own. "Other than that, you're now safe. Your father has no power here."
But she wasn't convinced. "Nowhere is safe for me. There's no place in this universe that my father cannot send his forces to get to me; even if we kill them, he'll just send stronger and more of them, pushed by either lust of power or fear of Trigon's wrath"
"Then I'll just have to kill every last one of them until they fear me more than they fear him. I've fought worse, killed worse than any demon, devil and fiend that this dimension's Hell can spawn... or deities for that matter." Getting rid of Trigon permanently had been one of the goals I had added to my list, but until that moment it hadn't come up for various reasons.
Her eyes locked onto mine, not exactly wide horror or astonishment, but it was obvious she had an idea of what I was thinking and wasn't keen on it.
"I don't plan on a trip to Hell just for a chance to fight him, if that's what you fear." I reassured her. However, seeeing that her apprehensive stare didn't leave, I decided to clarify: "At least not yet. But believe me, I'm not going to do nothing as he loses his patience and decides to send all his legions to take you, and neither will my friends."
Rachel sighed. "Still, despite everything you have shown to me, everything you have done, I don't think you nor your friends can kill my father just like that. And even if you do, killing a god of his caliber could have unforeseen consequences." She then looked down. "And I'm just some halfbreed bastard."
"Don't say that." I didn't know what had compelled her to call herself a bastard despite the fact Trigon didn't even bother to seduce Arella and raped her outright.
"It wouldn't be just because of you. Your father has been a scourge to this realm for far too long. But again, the trip will have to wait, at least for the foreesable future. But for now you are safe in my Fortress."
I spent the rest of the day showing her around the Fortress, its history and layout mostly.
And then she saw Grundy.
There are no words in this universe capable of describing the sheer joy that Rachel felt when she hugged Grundy, and when he hugged her back. She still remembered him even after all these years, partly because of just meeting him, partly because Solomon Grundy was her mother's favourite lullaby.
"Never thought I'd ever see you since then."
"I'm happy to see you too."
And then there was her second meeting with Garfield. Let's just say she had never met children like him before.
Still, her words about her father had lot of truth behind them. I could take on him, even kill him, but it was not yet the time for it, and even if I decided to invade Hell that would force to leave Earth for an unknown amount of time, time certain people would gladly take advantage of even with the others still there, especially with those who weren't metas... unless they could go to the disturbance in a second's notice. That, and it simply being fate.
It was time for the Justice League to be born in this dimension.
And so, a week after Rachel woke up, I asked all the heroes I knew of (Bruce, Clark, Arthur, Pausanias and Ayame, and all their friends and companions) to come to the Fortress for an important announcement. Needless to say, the castle had never been host to this many people before in its life. As for why all of them instead of just the aforementioned five, I did it for several reasons, one of them familiarize them and Rachel with each other.
That he might have thought of it as me rubbing in his face I exterminted the League of Assassins didn't escape me.
"So, you're saying that Ra's al Ghul had been torturing you?" Zatanna asked Rachel as I prepared the meeting room after the excitement of meeting a (non assholish and female) fellow magic-user was drowned by the horror of what happened to her, and the fact her father was more or less a god of evil.
"And would have done far worse if Slayer and John hadn't put a stop to him."
"Damn. I mean, I knew he was bad, but torture? At least he didn't... well, you know."
"I've called all of you here to ask you something." Almost everyone wasa paying attention to me. Pausanias, however, was only half-heartedly listening, more interested in the walls than me. Not that I could blame him of course, at least from his point of view.
"Go on."
"I'll make it simple: alone, each of us is strong; in small groups like you from Tokyo, capable of dealing with most threats out there. But together we'd be able to stop any and all threats. VEGA."
The floor opened to reveal a table that rose, its board covered in silvery bracelets, each of them forged by me.
I grabbed one to show what they could do. "These bracelets will allow you to communicate with VEGA. Aside from portals, he can also serve as a beacon in case you require assistance, relay you information and hack into anything you need hacked. Nothing on this planet can withstand him, and in turn nothing and no one can hack into him." I didn't bother to look at you-know-who. "They cannot be reverse-engineered either, so nothing will happen if they're lost."
"And they can explode to boot." John continued for me. "Obviously we aren't going to give you proof of it here, but believe me when I say that these things put C4 to shame. Kaboom."
"I can also serve as a rudirentary detective if the situation requires it."
"I think you got yourself a new friend in VEGA, hey Bats?" Wally said with a smile while nudging Bruce, prompting him to grunt.
"I have to admit, having a portal network and a super computer guy would make our routine easier. I'm fast, but I'm no Flash. Pluse, these also look nice, don't they?" Ayame admitted. Again, Pausanias said nothing, but he did nod in agreement. I knew the problem he had with me, but I believed that this would help in easying him into accepting me (again).
"Like a bunch of superfriends, fighting crime and being corny?" Wally joked. "Or G.I Joe in your case."
That actually got me to chuckle. "Not exactly, but the idea is similar. Call it a league, a Justice League if you like."
Clark was the first to realize the connections with a certain hero group. "A... 'Justice League'? Like the old Justice Guild of America?"
"It ain't a guild if you don't get paid for it, but pretty much." John quipped. "You won't get paid either, but you either have good standing jobs or are stinking rich."
I nodded. "Indeed. They did good in their time, and I thought we could continue their job; call it a spiritual continuation of them, and on a multinational scale. And besides, something with a more violent name would give people the wrong idea, even though they already know us."
Arthur nodded. "Yeah, I don't think they'll react warmly to a group of metas calling themselves 'Avengers' or something like that, especially if some of them either use lethal or are not really against it."
And then Bruce asked the question. "And the inmates? What do you plan do to with them?"
"I plan on reforming them."
They were understandable puzzled by this. "'Reform'?" Wally parroted. "All four of them?
"Yes, all of them, even the ones you don't think can be helped. They all have the capacity to do good just like us, be it fighting or curing; all they need is a change of mind and a good push, a push I'll give to them. But I'll do it my way, not Arkham's."
"Yeah, no that talking and listening crap from Arkham, but something that will get results."
"Even Killer Croc? You know, the giant cannibalistic lizard man?" Ayame pointed out. "I mean, he's not the only one out there, but many yokai that do so do it out of instinct; he eats people out of spite, doesn't he?"
"He can still change for the better, with some help. Besides, I'm more than willing to brutally execute those who jump over the line. He can do the same thing; I also plan to release his life to the public so that they, while not forgiving, might be able to understand why was he like that." That said, Waylon's case was a special one compared to the other three, and not just because he was a known man-eater, something you'll see further ahead.
"Or you could also cure his condition." Bruce said, crossing his arms as he did so.
"Bulletproof skin, regenerative tissue, inhuman strength, and much more that would go away if I made him human again. He only wants to be cured to be accepted by other people; they'll have to accept him if they want him to be like us, and not the monster they think he is, like it or not." Again, it wasn't so simple, but at that moment I believed they didn't need to know that.
"Okay, I think that's a pretty good argument."
Clark shrugged with a small smile. "Well, if there's someone in this world able to make a good person out of Killer Croc, that has be you."
Bruce narrowed his eyes at both of us, obviously not liking the possible situations that were appearing on his mind. "And what, exactly, do you have planned for them?"
"Just wait and see, Bruce, just wait and see."
I know, pretty short chapter given what it transpires on it and the fact the story is now officially over a year long, plus the rather crappy resolution to Rachel's arc and the simple fact it's the origin chapter of the fucking Justice League but... yeah, I've no excuse. Now, it's time to 'reform' the four prisoners of the Fortress. Also I've started writing a Skyrim self insert (Shadows and Dust) that throws the storyline out of the window, and doesn't make the SI the Dovahkiin. You could have a look at it.