❝ I became a vigilante when I was twelve years old. I’ll admit, it was for rather selfish reasons but I became one nonetheless. Under the tutelage of Oliver Queen I rose to be his new protege, it wasn’t supposed to happen but it did. Back in the old days, I even tried out a bow and arrow- but it wasn’t my thing. I preferred the nitty gritty personal fighting that Kali and Escrima sticks provide. As I grew better under the wing of the Green Arrow, I caught my cousins attention- and nothing stays hidden from the Bat for long. I came back to Gotham to work with him, to train with him- I thought it was one of the better decisions of my life. Swift was born in Star, not in Gotham and I refused to take the Bat symbol because of that.
I wanted to be my own hero.
I thought that training under Bruce would get me there, and in a way it did. Working with The Batman brought me notoriety and fame, from there I partnered with the Teen Titans, and came back to my home in Star when I felt like it- it was like living a dream in a way. I had everything I could have wanted and everything I could have hoped for.
tragedy has never stayed away for to long.
As Swift grew, so did the attention on her- and my cousins Villains, and even those of Oliver Queen himself tried their hands at me. The saw me as a weak point, just like every other protege, I just happened to be a hit two bird with one stone sort of situation. But they didn’t succeed. I prevailed against them, time and time again. Until the day Slade Wilson came for me and me alone.
He beat me, drugged me, and took who I was and turned her inside out. It's called
although it didn’t feel like it. What he did was he brought all my anger, all my hate, all my rage to the surface and he used it. He honed it, he crafted it and in the time I spent by his side- he forged it into a weapon that no one was quite ready to face.
Then he turned me against my family.
When I awoke from what he'd done, I did not recognize myself. I was better and I knew it. My skills, reflexes, even simply my perception in a fight was better- Slade had known what he was doing when he made me. As much as I hated it, he’d done a damn good job.
I hated myself more in those weeks then I have in my entire life, and that is saying something. In that weakness, I was approached by another possibility, another shadowy figure who promised to help me find my center again. I took Ra’s Al Ghul's hand and I let him elevate me as he saw fit. For months I tried under his tutelage, I learned to rekindle the spark I had had as swift, and turn it into something that I could use. I was no longer a weapon at anyone else hand but myself. Of course, Ras was never altruistic, it's not in his nature and I knew going in he wanted something from me, I never could have guessed what that would be.
He wanted me to be his successor,
Bruce had said no, Damian had said no, he did not trust Talia and he now looked to me. He told me in those months he had been watching me, he’d been watching me since he learned of what Wilson had done, he’d been intrigued and the idea had come to him after watching how I had turned against my own family for the sake of emotions. Emotions I would likely never use again for that very reason.
I declined his offer, I didn’t want to- in truth- there is a part of me that wanted to be come the head of the League. I would have been the most powerful woman in the world I would have been the closest thing to a god a mortal born girl could achieve. With my hands I could shape the world, for the better- if I wanted.
. I didn’t know why but I know why now.
I don’t want to be someone else
I have never wanted to simply be a player in someone else game. I have, since the moment I called myself Swift and declined the symbol of a Bat or an Arrow, been my own person and my own warrior.
I will no longer be someone else weapon.
And it is time that I finally put that into realization.❞
