Kara couldn't help but roll her eyes as she watched the spectacle unfolding before her. The sight of an elderly man like Ra's al Ghul pressing down on Bruce Wayne was something she really could have done without.
With a snort, Ra's released Bruce, feeling that his former student had been sufficiently punished. He figured if Bruce had any sense, he'd stay down. Straightening his suit, Ra's turned his back, adjusting the lapels of his well-tailored attire. In Gotham City, he dressed the part of a gentleman—refined, polished, and disturbingly calm for a man about to bring a city to its knees.
"You think you can stop me?" Ra's sneered, even in the face of two people dressed as Batman. "Two masked mortals. You can neither stop me nor halt this train."
Kara finally lowered the hand she'd used to shield her eyes, though she had peeked through her fingers more than once. With a shrug, she responded, "Maybe Bruce can't, but that doesn't mean I can't. Time to show what I can do."
With those words, Kara unsheathed the long blade strapped to her back and moved swiftly. With a single, fluid motion, she decapitated the four men Ra's had stationed to defend him—men Bruce had only incapacitated moments before.
Ra's eyes narrowed. He hadn't expected Kara's ruthlessness. Bruce's decision to spare the lives of his enemies had given Ra's a sense of confidence, a belief that his men could still get up and join the fight at any moment. Now, they were gone, and it was just him, Bruce, and Kara.
Still lying on the ground, Bruce glanced over at Kara.
Kara met his gaze, her expression hard. "What's with the look? You really can't afford to hold back, Bruce. If you don't end Ra's, millions of people in Gotham will die. Are you really willing to risk the lives of forty million people?"
Bruce sighed. "I wasn't going to say anything."
Even he knew the stakes. This was no time for moral dilemmas.
"Good. And by the way, do you mind if I take care of your 'teacher' for you?" Kara asked, her eyes now fixed on Ra's al Ghul.
The phrase "clean up" typically referred to eliminating a threat to the organization or "family." In this case, Kara was offering to deal with Ra's for Bruce, to "clean up" his mentor. But from any other perspective, it might have seemed that Bruce was the one in need of elimination.
Bruce rolled his eyes and stayed on the ground, his body too sore to argue further.
Ra's looked at Bruce and scoffed. "What, you think she can defeat me?"
Kara's figure was unmistakably feminine, even under the Bat-suit, which had been modified specifically for her. Her slender frame and the subtle hints of her voice, despite the distortion from her voice modulator, made it clear she wasn't just another Batman impersonator.
Ra's felt insulted. A woman? One of Bruce's companions? How dare they think she could stand against him?
"I—" Ra's began.
But before he could finish, Kara moved. Faster than Ra's could react, the gleaming edge of her blade swept toward him from a distance. Ra's reflexively stepped back, his spine pressed against the cold wall of the train.
Even so, Ra's managed to dodge the deadly strike, barely.
What shocked Ra's was Kara's decisiveness. She didn't fight like Bruce—no posturing, no moral hesitation. She struck fast, and she struck to kill. She had no interest in playing by any rules.
"You—" Ra's began again, now genuinely angered by her underhanded attack.
Kara, however, was already closing the distance. She raised her right knee, aiming a vicious blow toward his chest. Ra's quickly sidestepped, narrowly avoiding her attack, but not without consequences.
The impact of Kara's knee hitting the metal wall behind him sent a reverberating boom through the train car. The force of her strike warped the steel, leaving a large dent.
Ra's glanced at the damage in disbelief. She was far stronger than he had anticipated. Bruce, shielding his eyes from the debris, winced as he remembered his own run-ins with Kara's strength back when they were training together.
Ra's had made a grave mistake. He'd underestimated Kara, simply because of her gender, assuming she would be no match for him. But Kara was faster, stronger, and far more ruthless than Bruce had ever been. Each of her moves was precise, direct, and deadly.
Kara's expression remained cold as she advanced, her eyes filled with a chilling resolve. The lower half of her face, visible beneath her mask, revealed the slightest hint of a smirk as she taunted Ra's.
"Why are you hiding like a rat? Or are you a rat?" Kara sneered, her voice sharp with contempt.
With a single hand, she clawed into the steel wall of the train for support, ripping through the metal with ease. Then, with terrifying speed, she pursued Ra's again, forcing him to retreat further toward the front of the train, where the control console was located.
Ra's had run out of places to hide. He stood with his back against the console, trapped, and facing Kara, whose expression carried the same deadly determination she had shown from the start. A small, knowing smile tugged at her lips, a sign of her confidence.
Ra's, the once-mighty leader of the League of Shadows, the man who had taught Bruce everything, now stood cornered by someone even stronger.
"Who are you?" Ra's asked, disbelief clear in his voice. He needed to know who had bested him.
Kara's eyes gleamed as she let out a low, dismissive laugh. "Why does everyone always want to know the identity of the person beating them? If I wanted you to know who I was, I wouldn't be wearing this mask, would I?"
She tilted her head, her eyes narrowing dangerously. "As for you... life is part of a cycle. And your part in that cycle is over."
Ra's couldn't afford to sit idly by. He adopted a defensive stance, preparing for Kara's final attack. He knew this was the end, but he wasn't going down without a fight.
At that moment, Bruce finally pulled himself off the ground, his attention focused on the microwave emitter that was still functioning on the train. "This... really isn't the time to be distracted," he muttered, glancing at Kara's battle only briefly before returning to his task.
Kara caught Bruce's glance and rolled her eyes internally. He was acting like an audience member, leaving her to do all the heavy lifting while he tinkered with the machine.
With one swift movement, Ra's tried to escape, jumping onto the control console and making a desperate leap toward the open door. It was his last chance.
But just as he was about to leap to safety, Kara appeared beside him, her hand gripping his ankle with a crushing force. "Going somewhere?" she taunted, her voice dripping with mockery.
Ra's looked back in horror. How had she closed the gap so quickly?
With a smirk, Kara lifted Ra's al Ghul by the ankle and swung him like a ragdoll, slamming him against the console.
Boom.
Ra's al Ghul, once the feared leader of the League of Shadows, was reduced to nothing more than a lifeless body, crumpled against the control panel, his defeat absolute.