Prologue

Have you ever wondered how desperate a man can get when he really wants something? How mad it can drive them when it is denied to them – repeatedly over the centuries. Again and again until their very spirit breaks. Until flesh slips off their bone like rotten meat. Until the things they once loved bring nothing but pain. Never to stop. Never to rest. Never to end.

One endless nightmare.

In the frozen Alps of Switzerland, one man questioned himself. Desperate enough to do something – which would remain in the realm of ambiguity till the day he took his very last breath. Did he make the right decision? Did he doom this world? Will his own arrogance lead to this world's undoing?

The man shook his head – now was not the time to second-guess himself. Cold air hit him in the face making him shiver. Time for that had long since passed.

He looked over the bubbling green water, and a hint of madness entered his otherwise lucid mind. All his fear and anxiety evaporated like dust in the wind.

Now was not the time for fear. His path was clear as day. Everything he had ever dreamed of hinged on this very moment. What he'll do today will shape history.

He took a deep breath. Now was not the time for fear.

"Master, this feels wrong." One of his ever-faithful ninja spoke.

"Who am I to you?"

"M-master" the ninja replied.

"Is that a question or an assertion?" the master raised one of his eyebrows and the young ninja quailed under his gaze. "Everything you know has been taught by me – from the way you fight to the way you breathe, and now – after everything, you dare question me? So, I ask you again, who am I to you?"

The young ninja gulped and immediately kneeled in a position of utter subservience with his knees touching the dirt. His hands holding the ninjato unsheathed towards the form of his towering master. Like the knights of the old.

He refused to look his master in the eye – lest he see his shame.

"You are my master – the Immortal, the Great Ra's al Ghul." This time there was no hesitation. No questions. Only reverence.

Ra's old eyes roamed and he saw all of his ninjas kneeling before him. He turned around, showing his back to them. There was no need for acknowledgment or piety. His soldiers knew better. To ask for acceptance for the righteous cause was to doubt the cause.

"Then we shall proceed." Ra's said. Gently placing a small package wrapped in blood red blanket in the middle of the Seal of Solomon – the trans-dimensional hexagram. Christened in his own blood. The staple for any great ritual.

"Bring me the Magdelene Grimoire!" Ra's screamed, and in an instant, one of the ninjas brought the fabled artifact. His hands danced over the book, feeling every indent. Caressing, until he could etch everything in his memory.

For a moment Ra's al Ghul felt fear, he thought of the sheer boldness and insolence of his action. To control the very power which would even make the gods of old pause… to bind that power. For a moment he hesitated. But only for a moment.

Now was not the time for fear.

With a swift moment, Ra's removed the blanket to reveal a baby with fresh pink flesh. The baby's eyes were closed. He didn't move. He didn't cry – he didn't do much of anything. He didn't even breathe.

"If only you had lived. If only you had breathed… my grandson" Ra's slurred, running his hands over the baby's belly. "Nevertheless, you will still do your duty to me, even death shall not stop you. I shall breathe life into your very being. No, I will make you better than you ever were. Better than you will ever be! You are fortuitous as the planets align themselves in a perfect line. They do it for the very first time since 561 BC."

Ra's looked at the starry sky and madness took over Ra's once again, "Let us begin!" He cried.

"I give a coin made of stone, I sing a melody stolen from dirt. I give you the knife which committed the first murder, and a stick which split the very oceans."

Ninjas looked around as the lights flickered. The ground cracked under the weight of an invisible oppressive power. Voices bounced the walls. Begging them to stop. Telling their master to stop. They told them that they were making a grave mistake – they didn't know who they were calling.

None of the ninjas moved because the time for that has long since passed.

"I give you my blood from my vein," Ra's continued making a long incision on his wrist as blood flowed freely. "I give you the blood of my blood and a feather pulled from an angel's wing." He made the same incision on the baby's hand.

The words tolled inside Ra's head. The Grimoire lifted itself into the air – every letter in it glowing a dirty purple. He couldn't stop now. Not even if he wanted to…Ra's realized.

"I call you by names, by names of the Old Lord," Ra's intoned. "Beelzebub, Mephistopheles, Djinn, Dybbuk. Come! Come, as I open the gates! Come, as I open the way!"

A blinding light lit up the cavern like Sun. Vicious. Angry. Uncaring. Merciless. Like the wrath of God. But Ra's didn't turn away. He couldn't. He was so close now…

He heard the cry of his ninjas as they turned into embers under the light. However, he stood his ground even as his sight burned away.

"From the dark, they call you… into the dark, they call you. Come!"

The light intensified for one last time, as the Ra's al Ghul's face hit the dirt. Unconscious, from exhaustion.

And then the baby cried.