I started this piece last Christmas with a clear plan: I wanted to explore Batman's decision to take in children and train them as vigilantes. It's a question that every fan of the character must ask sooner or later. Why does Batman do it, and how does it effect his status as the lonely male hero?
Flash forward nine months, and my plan seems to have unraveled. As time went on and I wrote more and more, this fic became about something else. Love, for instance. And the way an ugly past can return to wound present happiness. Most of all, the future and what role it plays in Batman's world. Versions of Batman's destiny have ranged from the sublime to the horrific, and I wanted to play with those ideas a little. This being non-canon fanfic, I'm allowed.
Make no mistake: this is a long story. At last count, it topped 100,000 words. Taking nearly a year to unfold and featuring an appearance by every member of the Bat family, this is a big fic. I hope you'll make it to the end and let me know what you think.
Now...on to the fun stuff. Ratings, disclaimers, and a layout menu that'll make your head spin!
Rating: R for explicit sex, mature themes, language, violence...this fic's got it all, folks!
Disclaimers: I've got a terrible imagination, so I write about characters that don't belong to me. All of the following are the property of DC Comics: the entire Bat family, Superman, the Martian Manhunter, Ted Grant, Renee Montoya, Slam Bradley, Holly Robinson, Det. George Flannery (although Janine is mine) and anyone else I'm forgetting. I'm responsible for the underdeveloped periphery characters who either a) get killed off or b) Mary-Sue their way into the regular casts' hearts.
Dedications: I'm going to go all girly for a sec and dedicate this to my boyfriend Aaron, faithful beta-reader, tough critic and unflagging source of support. I know it's pretentious to dedicate a piece of fanfic to someone important to you in RL, but hey, the guy deserves it. What's good in this story was made better from his input.
I also have to give props to my friend Sarah, who's never read a Batman comic and thought Gotham's Dark Knight could fly and had X-Ray vision. Nonetheless, she read this the whole way through: she's a trooper. And to my buds over at dc-fanart-fanfic, Smitty and Marcelo, who are the coolest cats out there! (Mainly because they're probably going to constitute 90% of all the people who read this monster the whole way through.)
A Note on Canon Sources: Like any piece of fanfiction worth its salt, Children of the Night draws on a lot of elements that have been simmering for years in the comics. I play with canon a bit, drawing mainly from Catwoman: Her Sister's Keeper by Mindy Newall, The Long Halloween/Dark Victory by Jeff Loeb, Selina's Big Score and events in the Batverse such as No Man's Land and Bruce Wayne: Murderer? and Batman: Fugitive. The work of Ed Brubaker and his wonderful take on Selina Kyle/Catwoman have (obviously) played a big role in this story. I think we should pray to Ed nightly for giving us Slam and making Holly cool.
Oh, yeah, and you may notice by the second part of the story what a mess I made of Helena Bertinelli/Huntress' origins. They never made sense to me anyway, and since I think Long Halloween/Dark Victory rules over Huntress: Cry for Blood, well, the canon police can just come and haul me away. If the regular comic editors aren't going to bother with a little thing like strict continuity, neither will I.
Feedback: The main reason I've written this thing. So tell me what you think, even if you hated it. Contact me!
 Epilogue
Til Human Voices Wake Us
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Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
