Endless Legacy Ch. 63 (DC Comics) (Patreon)

A/N: Lucien settles things with Gotham and wakes up to brand new world... maybe.

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After a long moment of silence, Lucien watches as Gotham slowly pushes herself up off of the floor and swivels around on her knees. He shouldn’t be surprised when she wraps her arms around his waist, grabs hold of his ass, and positively inhales his messy cock to begin cleaning it… but he is caught off guard a little bit.

Even now, she has so much energy. It’s a stark reminder that the entity in front of him is not a normal human woman. This is the personification of Gotham City itself. Maybe she’s not as ancient and ‘Endless’ as Death, but she’s still centuries old. And now… she’s sworn herself to servitude, naming Lucien as her Master presumably as long as he made steady progress towards reaching a point of power where he could end her entirely.

That… would take time, thankfully. Decades if not centuries. Which was good, because while part of Lucien did feel like doing away with Gotham City and all its darkness might be better in the long run for the rest of the world, there were still the people within the city itself that he cared about. But seeing as Lucien was staring down the barrel of an eternity of immortality at Death’s side, he supposed one day in the distant future that would no longer be the case and he could make good on his promise at that time.

Meanwhile… well, he didn’t want to come away from this exchange completely emptyhanded. At the same time though, intuition told him that he couldn’t push too far. Gotham was still Gotham. That could never change. Maybe he could ask for something though… something neither too small nor too large?

Reaching down, Lucien winds a hand through Gotham’s raven locks, letting out an explosive breath as he considers the situation for a long moment. His first instinct is to go off of what Barbara had said about the danger behind allowing stronger superheroes to come into Gotham. Maybe he could ask Gotham to relax those restrictions, and in doing so prompt Batman to relax his own personal restrictions.

How much better off might the people of Gotham City be if Superman could fly overhead every once in a while and do a sweep of the place? That was the thought Lucien kept coming back to.

Except… ultimately, he discards that idea. Because even without saying it out loud, Lucien sees the pitfall in it. He could ask Gotham to lessen her restrictions on outsiders, but he doubted he could make her keep it to just do-gooders. Meaning that outsiders on both sides of the coin would start showing up more and more in Gotham.

How much worse off might the people of Gotham City be if some of Superman’s heavy hitting villains started coming over as well every once in a while? Sure, Metropolis might seem like it was doing just fine, but Lucien knew better than most how much money went into rebuilding that shining jewel back to its specifications pretty much every other week. Hell, his very first death had been caused by the sort of knockdown, city destroying battle that was depressingly commonplace in Metropolis, despite it being considered so much sunnier and safer of a place to live than Gotham was.

Gotham, ultimately, kept things relatively small scale the majority of the time. Even when shit hit the fan and the entire city got roped into someone like the Joker’s latest schemes, the property damage was negligible compared to what Metropolis had to deal with on the regular.

That brought Lucien to his second idea. The Joker. The man seemed almost unkillable. Sure, Batman refused to actually execute the Joker, and that was a whole thing that Lucien only semi-understood. But just because Batman and his proteges refrained from killing people didn’t mean some people didn’t need killing. And Gotham City of all places was not a place that refrained from passing down the death penalty.

Unfortunately, the Joker’s ‘insanity’ seemed to send him to Arkham instead of the gallows over and over again. And Lucien knew for a fact that not everyone in Gotham on the side of good was as ‘anti-kill’ as Batman was. Yet none of them ever finished off the Joker once and for all.

Knowing what he knew now, Lucien is tempted to demand that Lady Gotham rescind her protection of the Joker entirely. See how long the crazed clown lasted without supernatural protection. But… ultimately, that felt too short-sighted. It wasn’t a small ask, Lucien was smart enough to know that Gotham would not like it, even if she would probably still go along with it. But just because it was a big demand didn’t mean it wasn’t also narrow in scope.

He needed something more general. He needed a command that would pull Gotham’s attention off of not just the Joker, but all of the crazies within her borders. He needed…

Tightening his grip on her hair, Lucien pulls Gotham back off of his cock rather roughly. By this point, she’s finished cleaning his messy dick and was just sucking him to suck him, even beginning to deep throat herself in the process. The degenerate.

“I want something from you, Gotham.”

Blinking up at him owlishly, Gotham doesn’t bother responding. She just kneels there and waits for him to speak… like the good little bitch she is.

“You told me before that you love all of your children equally. In your eyes, people like the Batman and the Joker have the same exact value to you. Is that it?”

Humming, Gotham finally nods.

“… Yes. That’s correct.”

“Not anymore.”

Reaching down with his free hand, Lucien grips Gotham by her jaw, his fingers digging into her cheeks as he forces her head back. She loves every last bit of it of course, the masochistic cunt.

“From now on, you’ll focus more of your ‘love’ on people like Batman and Bruce Wayne, alright? I’m not asking for you to completely change how you operate or anything like that. But we both know that you can give the sons and daughters of Gotham who actually care about the city more of your affection without truly changing yourself too much. So that’s what I want from you. Do you think you can do that for me?”

Relaxing his hold on her jaw so she can speak, Lucien watches as Gotham licks her lips for a moment before replying.

“… Will you truly erase me, when you finally have the capability?”

So much self-loathing. So much self-hatred. But to be honest, Lucien couldn’t exactly blame her. The feelings he had for Gotham leaned more towards contempt at this point, but he still held some hatred in his heart for her after that threat to get Harley and the Joker back together. That’s why, it’s not hard for him to solemnly nod and answer completely in the affirmative.

“Yes.”

Shivering in excitement, Gotham smiles.

“Then I will obey, Master~”

With that, it’s over. This whole situation is taking place in some sort of metaphysical space that’s barely attached to reality, so it’s not like Lucien pulls away and fixes his clothing so he and Death can leave through the front door or anything like that. Instead, its more of a flowing transition. He finds himself alone with Death for a brief tender moment where he gets more of a sense that she approves than he gets actual words.

And then… he wakes up. In Barbara Gordon’s bed. The early morning sun is just starting to shine through the blinds, apparently one of the handful of days in the year where Gotham isn’t overcast or rainy. Staring at those rays of sunlight, it’s hard for him to reconcile everything that just happened. It’s even harder to think that it all happened so fast in the span of just one night’s rest.

Beside him, Barbara stirs, no doubt awoken by his own waking up. Her bright green eyes open and look to him, and a smile graces her lips.

“Mm… morning.”

For a brief moment, Lucien considered telling Barbara what just happened. But that would involve him likely telling her about his connection with Death as well and he… really doesn’t want to go down that rabbit hole truth be told. Besides, would she even believe him if he started spouting nonsense about meeting the sentient entity behind Gotham City and fucking it so hard and so brutally that it at least partially submitted to his authority?

… No, she’d probably try to see him committed to Arkham if he told her all of that. Best not. So in the end, he just smiles back and chuckles.

“Good morning. Shall I go and make us some breakfast?”

Barbara blinks before her smile becomes a full blown grin.

“Well… that sounds lovely. I think I’ll take a shower in the meantime. Meet you in the kitchen?”

Lucien just nods and they go their separate ways. He’s not bad when it comes to cooking… all that time spent living alone in his first life, he had to have his hobbies and what not. Besides, breakfast is relatively easy to make even for an amateur cook. It doesn’t take him long at all to whip some stuff up with the ingredients he finds in the refrigerator, and by the time a freshly showered Barbara Gordon is stepping out of the hall while toweling her lush red hair, he’s already setting food down on the table.

They eat together in relatively companionable silence, neither of them seeming to have much to say. Nor do either of them feel the need to initiate any early morning hanky panky either, it seemed, because before Lucien knows it, Barbara is walking him to the door and they’re saying their goodbyes.

“Don’t be a stranger, Lucien. I’ll try not to do the same. I know we may have met under… strange circumstances, but I meant everything I said last night. You’re a good man, and I’ll never forget what you’ve done for me.”

Lucien huffs at that, even as he stands in the doorway.

“… Just be careful who you decide to put your faith in, Barbara Gordon. Good? Bad? In the end… I’m just a man.”

Though even as he leaves it at that and begins heading down the hall, Lucien finds himself questioning his own words. Was he just a man? He didn’t fully believe in black and white, but Gotham… Gotham made it clear that there was a lot of nuance to the different levels of grey in the world. If despising the Joker, for instance, made him closer to good than evil, then Lucien supposed by that point of view he was technically a ‘good man’. At the same time though, he really wasn’t trying to save the world or anything like that…

Making it back home, Lucien steps through the door only to immediately get attacked before he can even close it behind him.

Specifically, an increasingly large Snow Leopard launches itself at him and if it wasn’t for Lucien’s own physical enhancements, Spot’s leap definitely would have sent him all the way to his back. As it is, he catches Spot with a grunt, holding him aloft in his arms as he lets out a little laugh while Spot sniffs and licks at his face.

“Jeez… miss me or something? Or did you just miss getting fed by hand?”

“Mm, no, I fed him. From the look of things, it is indeed you that he missed.”

Lucien looks past Spot to see Blackfire standing in the doorway of the bedroom looking… well, she’s still in her disguise as “Kamara Blackwater” but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t look any less delicious wearing just a skimpy tank top and pair of pajama shorts and nothing else. Lucien feasts his eyes upon Blackfire’s slightly mussy, just woke up look and decides there’s a lot to like about it. A LOT to like about it.

“Thanks for holding down the fort for me when I didn’t come home last night. I wasn’t expecting to stay overnight but one thing led to another and…”

“And you fucked her, didn’t you?”

Pausing, Lucien checks to make sure Blackfire isn’t too jealous. Fortunately, his right-hand ‘henchwoman’ is fairly chill about that sort of thing. The former Princess seems more amused and exasperated with him than angry or jealous.

“… Yes. We had sex. More than once.”

Snorting in amusement, Blackfire just shakes her head and walks over to the kitchen. Spot immediately squirms in Lucien’s grasp until he lets the growing Snow Leopard get down and rush over. It would seem Blackfire was telling the truth about feeding him, because Spot was clearly getting used to expecting food from the alien woman. Very used to it.

Blackfire grunts but gets some food out for Spot all the same, while also preparing herself a bowl of cereal as well. Lucien walks over and leans against the back of a chair as he watches this for a moment, enjoying the strangely domestic scene. You know, if one ignored that the housecat was a snow leopard cub who wasn’t quite a cub anymore and the young woman who just woke up was a disgraced alien princess hiding out on Earth from the numerous galactic enemies she’d made.

Finally, Blackfire breaks the silence with a grunt.

“So… what happens now? Are we staying in Gotham? Packing up and leaving again?”

Lucien purses his lips together at that. His instinct is to say Blackfire is being silly… they’ve been in Gotham for a fraction of the time they’d intended to be after all. But at the same time… everything has been very, very hectic lately. So he’s not surprised that she’s wondering if they’re packing their bags and moving on.

“Staying, for now. I’ve got an… understanding with the local heroes at this point.”

Blackfire smirks at that.

“Is that what they’re calling it these days? An ‘understanding’?”

Rolling his eyes, Lucien shakes his head.

“Batman himself said he doesn’t mind if we stick around. I’d say we’re in the clear.”

Of course, no sooner has Lucien said that… then the phone begins to ring. Both he and Blackfire look at it for a long moment before Lucien lets out an explosive sigh and reaches over to pick it up and find out who’s calling this early in the day.