I don't own anything except original characters (non DC) and my ideas

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Prologue

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"DARKNESS. Black, mysterious, scary!"

Little me, six years old, giggled, wriggling under my blankets, "Darkness isn't scary! People fear what's inside, or they just live with it. Darkness is home!"

"Of course you would think that," I blinked when a hand booped my nose, "Well, darkness is what I found you in. Fitting isn't it? Considering what you can do."

I stared up at the biggest father figure in my life with wide eyes. At the mention of my powers, the room's walls seemed to wriggle. I paid it no attention, my interest trapped inside the story I was being told.

"It's because I control shadows. Is that why it's cool that you found me at night?"

Lex Luthor smiled, his eyes almost glowing in the dim light of my bedroom. The source of that dim light was a nightlight. It wasn't kept in there to chase away the darkness I should have feared. It was there to create the shadows I found so much comfort in.

"Yes, yes, it does. You were in a little wooden basket. When I walked in you were calm, sleeping without a care in the world. There was nothing but you, a blanket, and a note."

"What did the note say?" I pulled said blanket up to my face. It was my baby blanket, my name stitched in one corner.

"(Full Name). Take care of her. I will be back for her on November 19th in 15 years when she is 16," Lex quoted, pulling my blanket up around me, "So many people passed by, but not me. I picked you up and brought you here where it's safe."

"Safe from what?" I asked, voice a mere whisper.

Lex hesitated. At the time, I thought nothing of it. It was an act to add drama to the bedtime story. In the future, I knew better. I learned that he wanted to say he wasn't keeping me safe from others. He was keeping others safe from me.

"The world is a dark place, and not in a good way. Here, you can train and learn without the fear of anyone hurting you. That's the end of the story. Sleep well little one," Lex stood up, sending me one last smile before he shut the door to my bedroom.

Him taking me home was the end of the story, but he left out a giant chunk of the middle. I didn't learn until I was 13 what exactly he was leaving out, and why he held it back for so long.

When Lex found me in that narrow, dark alley I was surrounded by bodies. Passersby who were willing to help me before Lex stumbled upon me. No wounds, no blood, no signs of any foul play. They seemed relatively healthy. However, there was a single string connecting them all. Their shadows were absent from their natural places. Instead, they were roaming around my basket. Forms human, and wills mine.

People say babies are the most innocent creatures. They're a fresh slate, so new to the world they couldn't have the chance to do something bad. Yet, as a one-year-old I had killed.

When Lex approached me, I didn't do the same thing to him I did to the others. Instead, I woke up and smiled, reaching out for him. Lex never explained why that was, but I thought it was because I saw something in him different form the others. There was a deeper understanding, an alikeness within our souls that put me at ease.

When he took me back, he called upon all the villains he knew. They were the closest things he had to friends and family. They gathered and made a plan. They would keep me in my very own Rapunzel's tower, raised in a safe environment so I could learn to control my dangerous abilities.

I called it my Rapunzel's tower, but I was drastically different from the fairytale character. Her power could heal, mine could kill. She had windows to breathe fresh air and see the moon and stars. The moon was a background on my computer. UV lighting and vitamins kept me healthy to the point of not needing to ever be out in the sun. Vaccinations prepared me for any illnesses the villains could bring in with them from the outside world.

As a young child, I thought it was stupid to be kept so alone all the time. Lex would visit me as often as he could, and when I was very young Ivy stayed around a lot, but when I was old enough, they left me to my own devices more often than not.

Not only did I find it stupid to be isolated from the others villains, but from the rest of the world. It wasn't until I threw a tantrum about it that I understood why it was best to stay underground. I destroyed my home, shadows breaking everything within my view as I sobbed. It was within the broken shards of glass and decorations that my curiosity shattered as well. I understood.

Emotions were dangerous and controlling them was drilled into me as I grew older. If I were to ever leave and get too excited, or cry from being overwhelmed, it was a recipe for disaster. Even as I gained control, and was able to cry and cheer without causing destruction, there was still that doubt. Did I even need to leave before I had to? I had everything I would ever need, and there were no dangers there that were present in the outside world.

The villains could have raised me to be their deadliest weapon, trained to kill and use my powers for evil, but despite what many people thought, the villains weren't stupid, or ruthless. They understood the danger of corrupting someone so young, so uncontrollable.

The villains weren't villains to me either. They were family, my family. Not the couple who left me alone in the alley. Not the people who ignored my cries and carried on with their lives. Not even the people who I killed. But these people. Those who were broken and ridiculed. Who knew that the world was so much more than villains and heroes.

The Joker was full of jokes. Harley would tell me about dating- she had her fair share of problems with the Joker before she left him. Ivy was like my personal stylist, not only that but she was the one to take care of me when I was a baby. Lex was my tutor and full-time dad. It was them who studied my power with me, who grew with me.

Umbrakinesis. When I was old enough, I learned the word. The ability to control and manipulate shadows. That included people's. Though, tearing someone's shadow from their body could easily kill them, slowly, painfully if I wished it to.

When I was fourteen, I asked Lex for the second and last time if I could ever leave. I was ready for him to say no, and I was okay with it. It wasn't longing that drove me to ask him. Even if I held no overwhelming desire to leave my paradise, I couldn't deny the seed of curiosity that told me to see the world beyond a screen.

"You want to leave?" Lex chuckled after he asked, like it was a joke. To him it probably was, "I'll tell you what little one; Someday, I'll be too old to run the company. I don't have any other children, so you can take over. You can go above and explore the world while taking care of Lex Corp."

"How old will I be then?"

"Hm, let's say when you're eighteen. That way you'll still have some time to adjust before you're really an adult. Does that sound okay?"

I nodded passively. So I was going to leave, eventually. Maybe I could accomplish a thing or two when I was introduced to the world then.

I had never kissed anyone, never felt an attraction towards someone. I had missed out on a lifetime of opportunities because of my powers. But the thing is, I never hated myself for it, I feared it. While teens were going through high school and dating, I was practicing to control myself.

For a long time, I thought that a life of loneliness was what I was doomed to. The fact that Lex would let me out when I was eighteen was news to me. It complicated my emotions. I was excited and scared at the same time. I wasn't too keen on leaving what had been my home for my entire life.

After nearly a week of being stuck on our conversation- half of the time regretting asking and half of the time congratulating myself- I came to my final decision on the matter.

I would remain alone and work Lex's company from behind the scenes. I would have minimal contact with other humans, and the holograms I fought as practice would give me more conversation than anyone else.

Raised without parents, expecting no love, and being freed at eighteen. It was the world I knew and what I fully expected.

But the world was full of lies, and I was at the center of the web.