#(typical of Ra's al Ghul and the League of Assassins)

[stars-burn]

DP x DC Prompt 2

I adore the Danny is actually Danyal al Ghul fics as much as anyone, but we’re actually missing out on something fascinating: Danny is Respawn au.

Putting the rest below the cut because Respawn’s story is rather gore-y, and I don’t want to surprise anyone in the prompt tags. but tl;dr: Respawn is a “cloned” irish twin of Damian’s, the child of Slade Wilson and Talia al Ghul.

A genetically engineered child of Talia al Ghul and Deathstroke (I don’t know why DC calls this a clone. I disagree, there are two parents. He’s just a test tube baby.), engineered by Ra’s and used as a guinea pig and an organ donor for Damian whenever Damian needed something. Respawn has no proper name but chewed his arm off to escape Ra’s al Ghul. In the comics, he’d heard the name Deathstroke and so sought him out, adopting a similar costume to try and get his father’s attention. What if he had no idea who his father was? And just wanted to escape as far away as he could, and thus ended up getting taken in by the Fentons (Jazz in particular ofc) while they were on some ghost hunting research trip. Respawn getting a name and he’s also got friends now, who don’t mind how weird he is, and Dash Baxter thinks he’s so tough but he means absolutely nothing to him so Respawn just ignores it. Basically Respawn as Danny is a feral as Damian in his own ways. With a bonus of: if we go with lazarus pools + ectoplasm, getting therapy by attacking pit demons to protect others (and himself because hello~ PTSD). It’s also a reason why he isn’t particularly bothered by Maddie and Jack talking about vivisecting Phantom. He’s been there and done that with his ‘grandfather’ and got the t-shirt. He’d like to think his adoptive parents are better, but it won’t break him if they aren’t. The only thing that does irritate him is hearing about Damian Wayne’s exploits and the whole stupid family. Bonus points if his existence warns Tim that he should be on the lookout for surprise kids as well, given Ra’s al Ghul took his spleen. Triple bonus points if hearing about that is the only reason Danny-as-Respawn bothers to visit Gotham. Because no way should someone else go through what he did.

[mokulule]

The Number You Have Called Cannot Be Reached 7

Part 1|Part 2|Part 3|Part 4|Part 5|Part 6

Ship: Dead on Main (Danny/Jason) Warnings: angst/depression and canon typical violence

I had wanted to do some tag appreciation for the previous part before uploading this but well stuff happened and I need to leave for work soon, so priorities and all that, and I bet ya'll rather want the update than my chatter XD But know that I really appreciate the comments and tags you guys leave me <3

Damian sat in a corner of the library, knees drawn up to his chest. The crumbled up piece of paper burned in his left hand. It shouldn’t. He’d had a hunch and he’d followed it. He’d been right! This was pertinent information. He should have informed Father immediately and yet… He breathed slowly out his nose. He turned his hand around palm up so he could glare at the offending ball of paper resting there.

He was right, but then why was he so uncertain? Why was he hesitating? He was Damian Wayne! Son of the Batman! He should not dawdle, that is not how he was trained!

No matter how much his so called siblings would tease him for his height, there were advantages. Like how when Todd had pulled the dazed Ghost to his feet, the short man had never really looked up which meant that Damian who was shorter had seen the way his eyes glowed green, unlike his father. Because a short while later, when he pushed away from Todd his eyes had been blue. Father would assume the ghost’s eyes were blue, because he hadn’t seen the green. Father would have no idea to look into what Damian had, because he’d missed a vital clue. A clue Damian had been withholding. Damian let his head fall down onto the arm holding the paper and sighed. He was withholding far worse than a clue now:

There were traces of Lazarus Water in the blood sample. Damian felt the childish urge to scream, but he would not give in, he hadn’t fallen that far. It always came back to this, always; like a curse on Damian’s family, one thing after another and it always ended up back there - by the sickly green glow of the pits.

Father wasn’t always exactly rational when it came to the Lazarus Pits or the League of Assassins or Todd.

And maybe Damian had gotten a little bit used to Father looking at him like his son. Maybe he just wasn’t all that excited for Father to look at him like Ra’s Al Ghul’s grandson again…

Alfred, the cat, slinked around the door left open a crack, instantly drawing Damian’s eyes. The tuxedo cat padded silently over to him and stopped. He looked expectantly at Damian with the same unimpressed gaze of his namesake. Damian cracked a fragile smile, and uncurled into a crosslegged position.Satisfied Alfred jumped into his lap. He started batting at the paper ball and Damian quickly stuffed it into a pocket and acquiesced to the demand for pets. It was barely a moment before Damian’s effort was rewarded and the purring started. Slowly, Damian relaxed back against the wall and his shoulders gradually came down from their tensed position. Animals were so much easier to understand than people.

The Ghost had purred…

The sound had been just at the edge of his hearing, but it definitely had sounded like purring. Father hadn’t heard it. Damian had asked him if he’d heard the cat, but he’d dismissed him as if he thought Damian had heard a real cat. There was no way he would have done that if he’d actually heard. The sound… it had been something else; there had been this inherent happiness to it.

Damian would admit he’d been startled. He’d never heard a human purr before. Not even Catwoman, his father’s illicit paramour, actually purred, not really. She did something with her voice at times, probably the closest a human could come to a purr, but not like the almost continuous sound of a real cat. Humans just weren’t built for it.

Which pondered the question, what exactly was the Ghost? He had reacted very oddly to Todd (Damian would admit in the privacy of his mind that he’d been alarmed to see the man nuzzle into Todd’s chest as if he was actually an overgrown cat in disguise). There was Lazarus in his blood, so maybe the reaction to Todd wasn’t so strange. He hadn’t reacted in any way special to Damian, but that wasn’t so odd either. Damian knew Todd was different. There was a reason Grandfather feared him. The Pits hadn’t revived him, they may have brought his mind back online and brought some lasting effects, but Todd had crawled out of his grave months before that; Todd was something else.

Maybe Todd and the Ghost were something similar?

Todd had definitely heard the purring. He had been completely unlike himself, there had been a complete lack of the usual hostility from him afterwards. Todd must have also seen the eyes, he had to have made the Lazarus connection. He hadn’t reported anything about it either. But again this was Todd, he wouldn’t share information with Father unless he thought someone’s life depended on it.

Whatever DNA had been in the blood sample was useless for analysis, it had been too damaged, so that didn’t bring them any closer to figuring out what he was.

Then there were the powers, Todd didn’t have those. Invisibility and intangibility… No, the Ghost couldn’t actually be a ghost, could he?

Alfred nudged the hand that had stopped the petting and Damian dutifully started back up again.

Richard often acted like he didn’t have two brain cells to rub together, something that fooled even Damian in the beginning, but he was surprisingly astute if he let you see if. Damian had presumed the Ghost codename had been merely a ploy to annoy Drake and Gordon, but Richard was not beneath hiding a theory as a joke. If he was correct, he would have all the power, if it wasn’t it was after all just a joke - it was a good strategy.

As if summoned, Richard stuck his head into the library and glanced around. He seemed just about leave when he caught sight of Damian’s nook.“There you are Dames-“ he strolled inside, “I wanted to say bye before heading home, so I’m glad I found you.” He crouched down next to him and smiled widely eyes crinkling with it. It was so effortless for him.

Damian frowned.

“Hey, you okay?”

Damian glanced up briefly. It wasn’t something he wanted to talk about, but maybe Richard could answer something else.

“Do you think the Ghost could actually be a ghost?”

And there was that sharpness behind the kindness, that moment of calculation of what might have brought this on, whether Damian knew something, before it was hidden behind a smile again.

“Dami-“ he started and lovingly ruffled Damian’s hair. Damian quickly batted his hands away, before he got the misconception that he liked it; because he didn’t! Blue eyes crinkled further and then he continued, “we’ve seen stranger, haven’t we?”

And that brought Damian to a stop, hands still raised protectively over his head. Alfred looked between the two of them and gave an affronted mrauwp.

“So sorry Alfred, old boy, didn’t mean to disturb you.”

While Richard appeased Alfred, Damian slowly lowered his arms. Richard was right of course, but there was something else too, the assurance in the flippancy. Whatever the Ghost was, it didn’t really matter, they would deal with it, like they did everything; everything had some sort of weakness. And the Ghost hadn’t actually been hostile.

The core of the issue was the Lazarus Water. Lazarus Water didn’t enter people’s blood on their own and Grandfather kept a sharp watch on all the pools. There was a very big risk the Ghost was affiliated with the League. Coerced? Created? Murdered?

Damian narrowed his eyes, it was useless to ponder without more information, but the League at least was something Damian could look into discreetly. If there was increased activity in Gotham he would find it. He didn’t have to tell anyone yet.

“You work out what was bothering you?”“Tt.” He quickly looked away from Richard’s knowing eyes. Unfortunately that left him open for another hair ruffle. Richard laughed and jumped away and back to a standing position in one smooth motion, before Damian could retaliate somehow. Damian glared and only got a soft smile and wave in return.

“See you in some days, baby bat.”

Damian pressed his lips together and waved dismissively. “Go, before I decide revenge is worth removing Alfred.”

Richard’s laughter followed him out the door and down the hall. Damian finally allowed the small smile to form. Whatever happened, whatever Father may think of him keeping secrets, he could at least count on his big brother to stay the same. Oo o oO

Tim had been reviewing the new proposals from R&D when Bruce had stopped by.

The spectral calibrator team had obviously been disappointed to learn they would be reassigned and that the larger project to tune into electromagnetic signals from other dimensions had been put on indefinite hold without the calibrator, but they were a professional bunch and they had quickly come up with some fresh ideas.

Tim really didn’t want to consider what use the thief would have had with the calibrator, but it was kinda his job. It was meant to help hone into the (for lack of better term) frequency of a given dimension and remove the noise from the various other planes of reality - he just really hoped they weren’t dealing with a science portal to Hell scenario. Magical portals were at least usually temporary in nature but most importantly they were the JLD’s problem, not Tim’s.

Maybe the thief just really wanted to listen to some alternate universe rock?

Yeah, fat chance.

Tim had not found signs of the stolen items being resold, which pointed towards the thief having specific buyers or he was building something himself. At least the spectral calibrator was safe in the Cave.

A small beep notified Tim that the decryption program had a match on the passcode for the phone Bruce had dropped off, and he rolled over to have a look. The phone was not a brand Tim recognized, it was from the pre-smartphone era and didn’t even have a camera. It had been easier for Tim to just take it apart and hook it to power to get it up and running - it was then he noticed that someone had modded the receiver and transmitter, it also didn’t have a sim card.

Despite the lack of sim-card, when Tim looked at the now open phone it claimed to have a full signal from the most prominent telecompany in the larger bay area. Tim raised an eyebrow - curious. The text messages were empty, and a root around in the settings found that read messages were automatically deleted after 24 hours - the thief were really keen on keeping his secrets.

In the “phone book” which was a rather quaint old school term for the contact list, Tim finally found something that alluded to a normal life. Something that could maybe give them some information: Dad, Jazz, Mom, Sam, Tuck, Val - pretty sparse contact list. All the numbers had the same area code, which put them somewhere in the Midwest, if Tim was remembering correctly.

Tim considered for a moment then pressed the up button until he reached “Mom” again and pressed enter. Butt calls had been a real problem with this phone type if people forgot to lock them, it wouldn’t be so strange if Tim didn’t say anything. With any luck they’d get confirmation on the name Danny.

There was a single dial tone then a feminine voice announced:

“The number you have called cannot be reached.”

-

Woohooo yay, I think we're done with "the detectives detective-ing" for now which was the extend of my notes before writing the last two parts (parts 6 and 7 are going to be a single chapter once they go on Ao3). Hope you enjoyed, I got a serious case of Damian feels while rewriting chapter 1 for Ao3 (here's a link if you missed it), so that's the explanation for why Damian decided we needed his pov Next

Masterpost for subscription

[maniacwatchestheworld]

A brief note about the League of Assassins and the Court of Owls

@imjustheretofangirl003 (I'm answering questions and providing information for DPxDC fans.)

So... Uh... Quick question... Have people around these parts been mashing the League of Assassins and the Talons together...? Because like... The League of Assassins wouldn't use Talons...

Okay, so to my knowledge, the Talons have nothing to do with the League of Assassins. The League of Assassins, of course, is the organization that serves Ra's Al Ghul (when he was alive) and that Talia Al Ghul (his daughter and Damien's biological mother) is a very high ranking member of (until she took it over after her father died). Damian was raised in and by the League of Assassins. Obviously, the League of Assassins are all highly trained assassins lol. So... Yeah, Damian was not exactly raised in the best of situations. (Literally raised from birth to be a deadly weapon for the League.)

The Talons, on the other hand, work for the organization known as the Court of Owls. The Court of Owls is a secret cabal of exceedingly rich fucks (consisting of some of the richest families in Gotham) that have been running Gotham from behind the scenes since the city was first founded, or so they say. The Talons are all highly trained assassins, but unlike the League of Assassins, they are pretty much all undead. (Some of the members of the League of Assassins might be long-lived, but they are all decidedly alive. Additionally, Ra's is not the kind of person to like sharing his Lazarus Pits, so beyond his direct family, he's unlikely to let others in the LoA use them. Also, the Lazarus Pits extend your life or fix up and heal your body as you're dying/bring you back to life. Jason Todd may have been brought back to life in one, but he isn't exactly considered to be undead. Ra's and Talia are also not considered to be undead either. The Lazarus Pits generally bring you back to life, not turn you into an undead. You can see Task Force Z to see where that thin line can be drawn.) And some of the Talons might also be fucked up mutant owl-people...? So that's what's wrong with them lol. Some of them can be hundreds of years old and they do decidedly have to be made or at least recruited. (They kinda have to be, given that humans aren't typically undead by nature.)

So yeah. Damian, Talia, and Ra's Al Ghul are from the League of Assassins and Ra's is known to use Lazarus Pits to extend his life. Talons are from the Court of Owls and are undead assassins that work for the Court. They are generally unaffiliated with one another, but they are sometimes portrayed as being enemies.

Now to be entirely transparent, I have yet to read any stories featuring the Court of Owls (though I have been collecting issues of Batman: City of Madness, so I have one story involving them waiting in the wings!) so I may be mistaken, but from what I can tell, the Talons used to be normal people. Typically people who were highly skilled in the art of murder in life, who were then brought back to life (and became undead) through the use of a material known as Electrum. Exposure to electrum can apparently revive the dead. Apparently Electrum is another bullshit magical metal just like Nth metal, but instead of it being used to punch ghosts, it is used to bring back the dead lol. I don't know if the Talons are being manufactured at a large scale, but they may not need to be, given that the Court of Owls has existed for hundreds of years. So the Court may have just been slowly building up a healthy collection of Talons over the decades as they find good candidates and "recruit" them. And since they're undead, unless they're outright destroyed or deprived of Electrum (which they have a definite reliance on), they are pretty damn reusable!

Now it's pretty obvious why both the League of Assassins and the Court of Owls would feature in DPxDC fics, but just keep in mind that while they have some obvious similarities, they are mechanically and thematically very different from each other! In fact you could say that they're opposites! Where the League of Assassins is a group of assassins who have leadership that sparingly use the Lazarus Pits to extend their lives to a supernatural length where the rest of their ranks are largely regular humans, the Court of Owls are run by largely regular humans (though they are rich which is a superpower in of itself) who like to more liberally use Electrum to employ various trained undead assassins to do their bidding while typically not using that material for themselves.

[thesharktanksdriver]

I really enjoy the magical girl in DC series.

May I ask how a meeting with Ra's Al Ghul would go?

I’d imagine it would be decently awkward but there’s definitely a footing for Ra to decently like y/n most due to their friendship with Damien. Ra had probably been watching them for awhile even before Batman and the rest of the bat family being involved. At first it was mostly due to think he’d have a new hit to order out but he quickly comes to realize y/n is kinda doing her own thing and inadvertently somehow making allies with several of the villains within the city.

Along with this the fact she’s fighting a inviable but looming threat on her own makes him respect her quite a bit, not even mentioning her living conditions while doing so. Listen y/n may be slick to somewhat evade the Batfam for awhile but it doesn’t take Ra nor the league of shadows very long to find out their identity. It’s due to that he probably sends some minor help in at least keeping their shabby apartment a bit safer while the poor child gets 4 hours of sleep each night.

It’s due to Damien though that they meet. It’s definitely tense and awkward on y/n’s end but knowing they’re at least in the kinda-immortal assassins good books is enough for them. Y/n also helping Damien adjust more to normal life and being his impulse control from randomly try to slit someone’s throat also helps them even more in that regard. Cause listen Ra might enforce killing but Damien had a hard time holding back and he was kinda worried about his grandson going haywire and killing someone in broad daylight at some point.

At some point y/n is allowed with supervision within their lair to do her hunting and kill Shadowmites, Talia is typically the one who is the chaperone cause she has also taken quite a liking to y/n.

Rigel sometimes stares at the Lazarus pit.

[androxys]

Nanda Parbat in 30 Seconds

I know Nanda Parbat gets used as a League of Assassins base a lot in fan media, likely because that was how it was depicted in Arrow. But I wanted to take a second and try to impress upon you how cool Nanda Parbat is without having anything to do with Ra's al Ghul (because it usually doesn't)

What is Nanda Parbat?

Nanda Parbat is a fictional city sequestered up somewhere in the Himalayas. It's hard to tell exactly where, because the whole premise of Nanda Parbat is that it's a magic hidden city.

You can't just walk there; individuals must embark on a pilgrimage to actually get there. Nanda Parbat is as much an idea as it is a real location-- when you seek Nanda Parbat, you are looking for spiritual development and revelation.

It's suggested that only those with good intentions can find the city on their own. However, there are maps to the city, which can allow those with evil intent into Nanda Parbat. The map isn't your typical piece of paper, though. It's split into components such as a birthmark, or a poem.

Once you're in Nanda Parbat, time stands still. The city is eternally at peace. Disease does not progress, and people do not die. You are the only thing that changes, transformed by your time in the unchanging city.

Who's In Nanda Parbat?

The big name in Nanda Parbat is Rama Kushna, the goddess who inhabits the temple.

When people go to Nanda Parbat on their quest for enlightenment, sometimes they find it on their own, and sometimes they have some help from Rama Kushna. She does your typical goddess stuff, such as guiding the hand of virtuous fighters and offering wisdom.

Rama Kushna is also the one who made Boston Brand into Deadman, after he was murdered. The two have a whole history, but that's its own thing.

The rest of Nanda Parbat's population are the monks who reside around the temple. They meditate and reflect on the meaning of everything and guard the Fountain of Youth.

Wait, the Fountain of Youth?

Yes, the Fountain of Youth is a thing in DC Comics. It played a big part in the crossover event The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul. Long story short, Ra's al Ghul died and couldn't be revived in a Lazarus Pit, so his consciousness spent some time body jumping. The problem was, his spirit would burn out the host bodies, so he hoped to use the Fountain to stabilize himself. A rival faction of assassins that had come to power when Ra's was dead want to stop him from getting revived to full strength, so they assemble the aforementioned map to get to Nanda Parbat and destroy the Fountain before Ra's can get to it.

The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul is not a kind story to Nanda Parbat. It pretty much gets razed to the ground by the conflict between Ra's, the rival faction, and Batman.

The monks explicitly tell Ra's off for bringing violence and death to the city. The monks channel the power of Rama Kushna and cause an earthquake, forcing everyone to leave the city.

If you're interested in reading more about Nanda Parbat, I really recommend reading the series 52! There are several appearances here, with lots of characters passing through on their own journeys. The Deadman series also has a good bit of the Shifting City in it too, but I haven't read it yet, so I can only recommend it as such.

Now go forth and find enlightenment!

[brucewaynehater101]

Did Jack Al Ghul Drake's parents love him or the money that was sent to them?

Insert the clip from el dorado with the main characters pointing out that both would be good

They were Gothamites, they weren't going to look a gift horse in the mouth, they got a son and a regular payday? They considered themselves lottery winners. The minion that took Jack away did try to look for a couple that actively wanted a child and also wasn't too awful. The mom was a bit of a karen and the dad was very... traditional. The minion that was tasked with taking Jack away knew Jack was a complete failure but the boy still carried the blood of his master and that blood had worth in the minion's eyes when nothing else about Jack had worth to the league.

Ra's does not at all encourage siblings getting along or having more loyalty to someone in the family other than himself. Talia was responsible for at least one instance of Jack having to be dipped in the pit, possible more but only the one could be proven. After Jack was sent away, Talia did not think of him anymore. He was a failure and deserved no place in her thoughts.

If she discovered that Tim was her nephew? It would be a toss up as to whether it would make her want Tim dead more or less. On the one hand, this makes the young detective a candidate for her father's vessel rather than Damian and some small part of Talia does love Damian and would rather not see her father's soul overtake her son's body. On the other hand, Tim is still very much a threat in her eyes in relation to her son's rightful place and now he has the added edge of having the blood of the al ghul family which to Talia's mind makes him that much more of a threat since it could be argued that she's inherited her father's dismissive attitude towards women but considers herself an exception because she's "not like other women".

Of course this AU still leaves open any sort of interesting heritage on Janet's side of things, a heritage that Jack likely dismissed and that Tim might want to explore since it's a heritage that's NOT related to a crusty old creep and an assassin cult.

At least probably not related to an assassin cult.

Thank you for answering all the questions!

Thr explanations for Jack's parents as well as Talia certainly check out. I am curious if Talia's feelings about Tim affect how Damian views Tim. Also, after Bruce adopts Tim, would they consider themselves brothers, cousins, or coworkers?

It would be cool for Tim to connect to both sides of his family's heritage. I've seen some rad fics that discuss Janet havung various home countries (I've seen Phillippines, South Korea, and Russia) and carrying some of those traditions with her to Tim (such as making certain foods, celebrating certain holidays, etc). I've also seen some that indicate she was Christian while Jack was Jewish, and they thus celebrated both winter holidays. That, or Janet preferred a Jewish funeral with all of the procedures that typically go with it. I'm not sure what Janet's heritage is in this AU, but I bet Tim could compare how he's been deprived of both his mom and dad's culture growing up.

[thatthirdtriplet]

Relationships:

Tim Drake & Damian Wayne Tim Drake & Bruce Wayne Tim Drake & Dick Grayson Tim Drake & Sandra Woosan Tim Drake & Jason Todd Tim Drake & Ra's al Ghul Talia al Ghul & Damian Wayne Bruce Wayne & Damian Wayne

Characters:

Tim Drake Damian Wayne Bruce Wayne Dick Grayson Sandra Woosan Ra's al Ghul Jason Todd Talia al Ghul Alfred Pennyworth

Additional Tags:

Tim Drake-centric POV Tim Drake Damian Wayne-centric Tim Drake is Not Okay Tim Drake Needs a Hug the League of Assassins (DCU) Tim Drake and Damian Wayne are Siblings implied/Referenced Child Abuse Child Neglect Tim Drake is Robin Damian Wayne Needs a Hug like fr fr Damian Wayne is Not Okay Canon-Typical Violence Misunderstandings Kid Damian Wayne AngstHurt/Comfort Humor

Summary:

Maybe Tim should have stayed in Paris like he had promised Bruce.

Maybe he shouldn’t have followed Shiva when he knew that she could snap his neck in a heartbeat.

Maybe he should’ve hightailed it out of Nanda Parbat by the time he realized he was in the demon’s den, and its claws were sinking in.

Once a small boy in an empty bedroom shoved a knife to his throat, looking equal parts righteous and frightened, though, there was no chance Tim was running away. Not when he had too much to prove - and everything to protect.

[kaithonks]

So I’ve had some Thoughts about Juni Ba’s The Boy Wonder

There are a few points I feel the need to point out before I dig into this, as I feel that I might end up sounding, for lack of a better term, fangirlie. I do genuinely love The Boy Wonder, and part of that comes from it being a comic about the Robins. So, that does give me a bit of a bias. Especially as lately, there hasn’t been a ton of good (in my opinion) Jason Todd comics, who is my personal favorite. And Juni Ba has a really good take on the character. But, outside of that, he genuinely has a good take on all the Robins and even on Talia. But again, because of my love for these all these character I’m gonna keep away from talking too much about the story and character development to focus on the art. Because Juni Ba’s writing is great, but what makes the story is how he uses his art to tell the story in a rather fun way. 

The Boy Wonder is made of 5 issues, each having a different focus. Dick, Jason, Tim, Talia, and then Ra’s Al Ghul. The story still centers around Damian, but through comparing these characters to Damian. There is also a different feel between each comic, and this is done through different paneling. Dick’s issue has a lot of dynamic angled panels. There is also a moment of comparison with the young Dick, showing him being Dick and Robin in the same panel. Starting a theme of paralleling. Two pages later, you also get a young Dick catching his mom and then a current Dick catching Barbara. The paralleling between past and present will come back in the Ra’s issue, but it's particular to the start of Damian’s growth. It’s also the start of the story’s style being set to show Damian’s feelings, like how after Damian cuts the man’s head off, there is a panel with Damian’s demon mask growing.

Jason’s issue is mostly made of 3 long panels per page, building out the scenery and honestly showing Jason as a part of the world.  He sticks out with the Red Hood, but he’s casually greeting others and still moves through like he belongs. The paralleling isn’t as strong in Jason’s issue, but the stylistic feeling is particularly strong. It’s used less to show difference here, but rather more similarities. Like with Jason and Damian both having horns. And while this is a little off my point, this issue has some of the best page turn moments, particularly at the end with the opened red door. Which, while it feels like a moment for Jason, it also feels like Damian’s. While Dick was a point for Damian to compare himself and grow, Jason was a point of empathy and connection.

Jason’s issue was defined with longer panels, Tim’s is smaller to show the little details. A lot of it used to show the waste of the wealthy, but it’s also used for the Wayne Enterprises gadgets. So, while not like the direct paralleling in Dick’s issues, it shows Tim’s use of wealth to help rather than the for greed and is another lesson for Damian.

Talia’s issue has the biggest shift with the style with the paneling being quite different. Starting with the tan and clean panels of her backstory, shifting to thick dark lines boarding each pane. Then the green boards of the cave before settling for the more typical for a few pages. While it’s easy to say this is a choice for building the climax of the story, it does more, and visually helps to set apart Damian’s two lives.  That of the one with his mother and the League of Assassin, versus the one of his life with his father and his brothers.

The first notable thing is that Ra’s issue doesn't’ really start with Merle and Joe’s story, rather it ends with it being a good closing for the story as a whole. But the key moment is Bruce facing of Ra’s and the panel taking up 2 pages. With them being connected but broken up by the page itself. It’s really a unification for Damian, and it’s the next page where we see what he’s learned from Ra’s to stop him, unifying Ra’s and Bruce’s ideals within Damian himself. Bringing back the paralleling between past and present, in Dick’s issues, but doing it more with the style of Talia’s issue.

The Boy Wonder was one of those wonderful moments where I remember that this story wouldn't work in another medium other than a comic. While the writing is good, what makes it great is Ba’s style and knowledge of paneling to tell the story. Particularly, a story of unification, and balancing the present and past for a better future.

[laufire]

I watched under the red hood recently so maybe 🔥 + Jason in it?

nice 😃

first of all, in order to discuse this, I need to establish the Really Big Changes between that movie and comics canon because... yeah, they're huge lol.

in the comics, Bruce and Jason's relationship had been fracturing in his last days as robin, because Bruce suspect Jason of pushing a rapist with diplomatic immunity from a balcony (the comic leaves this ambiguous. I prefer it this way). with terrible timing, Jason finds out that the mother that raised him wasn't his biological mother, so he sets out on a search for new family. after a whole international quest, he finds her... and she gives him up to the Joker in order to cover her *check's notes* embezzling crimes. the rest is history.

Jason is not brought back by the Lazarus Pit (and Ra's certainly wanted nothing to do with him lol). he awakes one day on his coffin because of comic-typical nonsense (alternate version of superman punched the world?? and it "set things right" because Jason was never "meant" to die). he digs his way out, gets hit by a car, gets taken to a hospital, stays in a comma, awakens but ~catatonic, escapes and wanders the streets stealing and sharing food with the homeless... then a league ally finds him, Talia al Ghul is informed, and takes Jason under her wing. when he's not healing fast enough for Ra's tastes and he wants to take Jason a way to the farm, Talia throws him into the Pit without Ra's permision.

in their final confrontation, Bruce is far less calm and doesn't throw the batarang to Jason's hand: he throws it to his neck, with potential lethal force, to fully stop him. then the Joker blows things up. it's kind of implied that Jason dies, but maybe the same magic (there's a purple light thingy?) took effect, so he eventually returns to annoy Dick in New York and briefly turn into a tentacled monster. that's not relevant here though.

oh, and Black Mask didn't need to free the Joker. he was already chilling in some amusement park, as he does. while Batman did... eh. who knows.

there are other, less important changes. because comics are weird and quirky and inherently hard to adapt in a way general audiences will take seriously. a very funny one is that the assassin Jason kills when he and Bruce are fighting side by side calls himself Captain Nazi.

okay so. I have MIXED FEELINGS about the film, precisely because of these changes (well, minus the Captain Nazi one, but that is REALLY funny of Jason, imo). I like it a lot... but I'm also bummed it removes Talia's importance... and that it backs the post-death narrative pushed by DC that Jason died because he was "reckless"/eagerly violent as Robin... the changes pertaining Bruce... and most of all, Jason's resurrection (again, I get it's comics-weird. But I really like the digging-out-of-one's-grave's motif!! and it could've easily been left ambiguous - the characters in the comics have no idea of why Jason came back, so. it could remain a mystery!).

and as I said, re: Bruce. sometimes I'm annoyed because the changes seem designed to make Bruce seem less... objectionable lol. other times I'm curious because the changes because they suggest a very different person in some key ways that spark my imagination in fic-related ways. depends on the day!

but overall it's a good film and a more than competent adaptation, that REALLY showcases my perfect son who never did anything wrong in his life xD, that portrays him as competent (very important to me), and that hits just the right spot when it comes to all my Jason and Bruce-Jason FEELS. and teeny tiny robin!Jason was adorable.

(I'm very happy the fandom outgrew its phase of fancasting Jensen Ackles as Jason though. what a travesty).

Send Me a 🔥+ a Topic, and I’ll Tell You My Honest Opinion About It

[prfctparis]

I’d Give You My Lungs So You Could Breathe (I’ve Got You, Brother) [CH3]

AO3 Link / One / Prev / Next / Masterlist

summary:

Danny Fenton was adopted at age ten, with little to no memories about his former family. At age fourteen, he died yet lived and those memories began to return. He didn’t do anything about those memories – didn’t plan to, at least not yet – but then he got captured by the GIW, saved by his friends and someone who might be his sister who he only somewhat remembered, and taken to Gotham to, apparently, his biological father for safety until further notice.

Team Phantom was there, too, and they did not sign up for this family drama.

a/n:

“ch3 will be up in a few days,” i said, like a lying liar who lies. i meant to!!! but then i sort of forgot and then got distracted by another fic i’m in the middle of writing mlmao oops. so i won’t promise or say when ch4 will be up, bc this was the last of my already written chapters from ao3 & my update schedule is of the 'when i can and want to' variety. hope u guys on tumblr enjoy this chapter!! :)

warnings for the entire fic:

canon-typical violence of the DC variety; angst; memory loss/repressed memories; do i need to say major character death(s) or is that just a given for this fandom; questionable parenting tho every parent is trying to do good & care for the kids; implied/referenced past child abuse bc of the child assassin backgrounds; pls tell me if i missed something

CHAPTER SPECIFIC WARNINGS: blood; stressed teenagers; athanasia has a borderline panic attack; vivisection is mentioned again but only once if i remember right; implied animal death but in the past & it’s like 1 paragraph

CHAPTER THREE —

The secret, new headquarters of the Ghost Investigation Ward was in upstate New York. The Wayne Manor was in Gotham City, New Jersey. The travel from Point A to Point B was about three hours and forty minutes long – a much longer drive than any of them wanted. But with Manson’s magic, the van stayed invisible to the human eye and Wesley was able to speed down the roads without cops chasing after them, cutting down the travel time immensely.

Still, it was a risk.

But stopping some place before they got to Gotham was also a risk. One Athanasia refused to take.

Maybe if Ra’s al Ghul hadn’t been there, would she allow them to stop at a roadside motel or something. But he was there. He had been in the room where they were operating on Danny. Mother had one of her servants save Danny from death eight years ago to get him out of the League, allowing Grandfather to believe he was dead, but now he knew.

And Athanasia wasn’t going to let that man get anywhere near close to her twin brother again. So, they weren’t going to stop until they made it to Wayne Manor.

The others weren’t happy about it. She didn’t care.

Of course, that didn’t mean she was happy about it, either.

Believe her, she wanted to stop sooner. She wanted to get to a place where they could properly take care of Danny’s injuries, and give him what he needed to heal, and take those damn power repressing cuffs off. All they could do was make sure the bandages on his chest stayed put and kept too much blood from bleeding out, and made sure that he didn’t die on the way to the manor, which was more difficult than Athanasia would like, seeing as though, as Phantom, he didn’t have a heartbeat.

Eventually, they got the cuffs off. It took a while, and it was mostly done by Foley and Gray, because Athanasia was busy bandaging her own wounds with the limited supplies in the van, and Manson was focused on keeping the van invisible while Wesley drove. They succeeded, though. Once both cuffs were off, a ring of light appeared around him and with a flash he had black hair again, and green blood turned red.

His healing factor didn’t kick in.

“What do you mean he isn’t healing?” Wesley asked, worried, when Foley informed them. “He should be.”

“I don’t know,” Foley said, tone unsure and worried.

“But he has a heartbeat now, right?” asked Athanasia. She kept her eyes on her thigh as she bandaged a wound on there. It wasn’t the best, and she didn’t have anything to clean the wound with, but it would have to do for now.

Gray replied, “Yeah. He’s got one.”

“Okay. Good.” It was the only thing she could get herself to say. The possibility of still being too late to save him, even with him now away from the GIW and LoA, put a restrictive weight on her chest. It lessened with Gray’s affirmation, but not much.

They made it to Gotham in just under two hours and fifteen minutes.

Athanasia only got a split second glimpse of the city’s poorly lit up welcome sign with how fast Wesley continued to drive. Truly a speed demon; he didn’t even slow down when they got into the city’s limits.

As they crossed one intersection, a car with goons hanging out of the windows holding guns sped through it behind them, with what looked to be Red Robin and Spoiler on motorcycles on their tail. Three cops sped through right after. Gun shots rang out as they disappeared behind a building.

“Watch out for vigilantes,” she said. “It’s around the time most start coming out.”

Wesley shook his head. “I can’t imagine having more than one vigilante.”

Gray pointedly cleared her throat.

“I can’t imagine having more than two vigilantes.”

She hummed. “Forget about me again and see what happens.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Athanasia laughed quietly to herself. It wasn’t quiet enough, because he still heard and gave her the stink eye. It was hardly intimidating

Foley hissing made her look into the back seats. He was shaking his left hand, expression a grimace of pain, as he hurriedly passed the vial of liquid Athanasia had taken from the IV to Gray. Gray took it just as fast, twisting the lid back on.

“Shit.”

“What’s wrong?” Athanasia asked.

“They were putting that in his system?” The grimace turned into panic when she nodded. “Oh, that’s not good. That is so not good. That has blood blossoms in it.”

“What?!” Gray exclaimed. “That can kill him!”

Athanasia shifted so she sat sideways in the front seat. “What are blood blossoms?” Her eyes flicked to Danny – his chest slowly rose up and down – and then back to Foley.

“They can kill ghosts,” Wesley said gravely.

Foley explained, “They’re a blood red flower, have purple stems – humans can eat them. But for ghosts, they cause extreme pain and make them go powerless. Exposed to enough of it, they die. To people like me and Sam, who aren’t ghosts but have been exposed to ectoplasm for years, it just burns us. Like we touched a hot stove, or something.” He motioned to the vial. “That just felt like bee sting for me, but to Danny? It probably feels like he’s being slowly burned from the inside out.”

“It sounds like they made an oil from blood blossoms and diluted it until it wasn’t so strong,” Gray said.

“Strong enough to render him powerless, but weak enough to not kill him after long exposure,” Athanasia said, and the two of them nodded.

“Sounds like it.”

“That may be why he isn’t healing fast like he should,” Wesley suggested.

Foley cursed again. “This is so not good. We need to get it out of his system, like, yesterday.”

“How do we do that?”

Silence stretched between them.

Athanasia’s brows furrowed, incredulous and frustrated. And scared. “You don’t know?” she demanded.

“It– It’s never been in his bloodstream before!” Foley defended. “He’s only been near the flowers, so we just…moved him away from them. Or them from him. This is… We’ve never dealt with this before!”

“But you should have at least had a contingency plan for this,” she bit back. “Oils from flowers and plants are common!”

“We never thought the GIW would be smart enough for that!”

“Well, you should have!”

“Hey!” Gray shouted over them, “Enough! This isn’t helping Danny. Let’s just get to your dad’s place, yeah?”

Athanasia turned back around without another word. The movement pulled at her injuries, maybe even reopened the wound on her side, but she ignored them as she got out her communicator.

No one spoke for a few seconds.

“The device you are using to block the signals…” she started.

“I already said no,” Foley muttered, tone clipped. “It’s blocking his ecto-signature, too. I’m not risking unblocking it just so you can make a call.”

“You didn’t risk stopping, Ana,” Wesley said before she could respond. “Let us not risk this.”

There was a tightness in her throat that had been building up for the last ten minutes. It kept her from speaking; if she wanted to or even had a response, she couldn’t say it. She worked her jaw, ignoring the stinging in her eyes.

One brother was behind her near death, with a large incision that needed to be stitched. Her other brother was out in the city fighting crime, who knows in what type of danger in the crime capital of America.

She just wanted to know that at least one of them was okay.

It was as they went through another intersection, barely making it through a green light, when she noticed an unmistakable large, black shadow swing from one side of the road to the next.

“Stop the van,” she choked out.

“But–”

“Stop the van!”

Wesley slammed on the breaks. The ones in the back went tumbling, and she heard Manson let out a curse, concentration on the van’s invisibility broken after over two hours.

Athanasia got out of the van as fast as possible. She raced to the other side of the road and climbed skillfully up the fire escape on the side of a building. As she got to the roof, she spotted the figure speaking to another – red and black – in the shadows.

“Batman!”

Both figures turned. She dimly registered that the person Batman had been speaking to was Red Hood.

“Yes? What is it?” Batman questioned as he stepped forward.

Red Hood followed. The way his helmet tilted a little told her he recognized her. “Hey, what are you doing here?”

Athanasia made it halfway across the roof before she faltered. Her father was…an imposing man. If she hadn’t grown up in the place she did, she would probably be fearful of him because of it. Instead it just caught her off guard. Seeing him in person, up close, was…

Well. Unexpected.

She blinked and forced herself to stay on track. To not get distracted. She stopped a few or so feet away, wary to get too close. “We need your help,” she started off with. “My…acquaintances and I – we have someone who needs medical attention that only the Batcave will be able to provide for, and I need you to take us there.”

“The Batcave,” he repeated.

“Yes. A regular hospital is out of the question.” Her eyes flickered around the roof. Something wasn’t right. “I would take him there myself but I do not know where it is.”

What wasn’t right?

“I have no idea who you are. You aren’t authorized to go to the Batcave.”

“You would make an exception for us.”

“You sound sure.”

“Because I am. Just help us help him!”

“Who is ‘him’?”

“B, I don’t think it’s time for an interrogation right now,” Red Hood said.

“My…” Athanasia stilled. She knew what wasn’t right. Her entire body tensed. “Where’s Robin?”

Her father’s posture changed. Right; Batman was protective of Robin.

But as his older sister, so was she.

“Out,” he said. “Listen, you’re injured, and I understand you need help but–”

“What do you mean ‘out’? As in patrolling? Out of town? Country? Earth itself?”

Red Hood took a step towards her. “Whoa, kid, relax. It’s okay–”

“Where Robin is isn’t your business–”

Red Hood muttered a curse.

“Not my business?” she seethed. “Knowing where he is, is most definitely my business. I am not asking for dental records – it’s a simple answer to a simple question.”

“I–”

“My twin brother is dying in the backseat of a van, and my little brother is not by our father’s side like I thought he would be, so please just tell me where he is so I know at least one of them will be okay! I–”

“Hey! Hey,” Red Hood interrupted. “Robin is okay! He’s okay, alright? I promise. He twisted his ankle pretty badly the other night and the old man benched him until it’s healed. That’s all. You can breathe, kid.”

“I am.” Barely. It felt like she had been running for hours. She was out of breath; her intake of air had increased in the past few minutes. Her throat was back to being tight, but so was her chest, this time.

“Yes, you are, but your breathing is too fast,” Red Hood said. “You need to slow down–”

“There is no time to slow down!” she shouted. Her feet moved backwards when Red Hood tried to come closer to her. “I had the GPS taking us to the manor, but it’s worse off than we thought, and I would take him to the Batcave if I knew where it was–”

“How many of you are there?”

Athanasia blinked rapidly. Out of surprise, not because she was about to cry. She snapped her eyes back up to her father. “What?”

“You said you had acquaintances with you. How many?” He was doing something on his gauntlet, a hologram-like screen faintly glowing above it. She tried to make out the words backwards but gave up pretty quickly.

“Six in total,” she said. “Myself included. They do not know your identity.”

He hummed. “Are all of you injured?”

“Except for one, my– our getaway driver. Danny is the worst off.”

“Hard to believe, you’re pretty banged up yourself, kid,” Red Hood muttered, with a small motion to her entire body.

“They vivisected him.” The words hadn’t meant to come out, but they did.

Batman and Red Hood stilled.

The latter sucked in a breath of air. “Jesus.”

“The Batmobile is on its way,” her father tensely informed her. He stalked forward, and she was expecting him to walk passed her so she was thoroughly surprised when he stopped in front of her. He raised a hand and her body tensed for another time that night. She didn’t know what she was else expecting, but it wasn’t a comforting hold on her shoulder; it wasn’t a comforting tone and assurance. “Your brother is okay. Your twin is going to be okay.”

Athanasia stared at the hand on her shoulder. It took a second or two to finally tear her gaze from it, and look at her father’s cowl covered face instead.

“I promise.”

+++

The sound of footsteps gradually becoming louder alerted him that someone was about to disrupt his peace.

“Hey, I’m going to bed.”

Peace officially disrupted.

Damian looked up from his sketchbook long enough to spot Duke Thomas poking his head into the living room, before focusing back on the drawing he was working on. “Okay.”

“And Bruce wanted me to remind you to finish your homework if you haven’t already.”

He sighed. “I have.”

“And Alf says no sweets if you have any snacks.”

“Okay,” he said, annoyance seeping through.

“And they both say not to stay up too late or walk too much on your ankle–”

“Leave me be and rest your empty skull on the warm side of your pillow before I stab this pencil through your jugular.”

Thomas snickered. It occurred to him, then, that the older teen had continued on to annoy him on purpose. It worked. That annoyed Damian even more.

“Alright, alright. I’m leaving,” Thomas said through another chuckle. “Goodnight, Damian!” he called as he walked off.

He huffed. “Goodnight.”

Duke Thomas was Father’s newest addition to his ever growing brood. The older boy wasn’t adopted (at least, not yet), only fostered. His parents were still alive – just victims of Joker Venom. They found a cure, although it wasn’t instantaneous, so Elaine and Doug Thomas were slowly healing and recovering with the help of professionals while their son stayed here.

Damian was sort of surprised he was still here. He had an uncle he could go to, and who he did visit often, but he had chose to stay. Not that Damian wanted him to go – he actually didn’t mind Thomas that much anymore. He liked to think they got along well, even if sometimes the atmosphere was awkward, or when they deliberately annoyed one another.

Recently when the two either merely existed in the same room doing nothing, or ventured into the city out of boredom, Drake tagged along. Or was the one to drive them around. It had been tense at first. It was less so, now. Damian truly didn’t know how to feel about it.

He stopped drawing and stared at the page. He erased a few lines that didn’t look right and grabbed his phone, unlocking it to study the reference picture he was using. Just as he was about to put it down, his phone vibrated with a text.

It was from Drake – in the groupchat he made that included himself, Damian, and Duke. Damian tried to leave it multiple times only for Drake to add him back every single time.

drake

hey

evrrhthing ok at the manor??

thomas

yeah

i’m about to go to bed, damian is sketching in the living room & alfred is in the basement

why

is something wrong?

drake

idk but b is heading back

w jason

neither have have said a word they wont answer

thomas

that’s sus

you guys have only been gone for what?? 45 min at least

drake

yea

barbara cant even get ahold of them

hey little d

bat brat

u sure ur ok

Damian rolled his eyes. Drake was almost as bad as Father and Richard when it came to hovering if he got hurt, the buffoon simply showed it differently. He only twisted his ankle; nothing major.

And if his back had been hurting him the past week, nobody had to know.

…Except for Pennyworth and Richard. They knew of the metal in his spine and the damaged nerves, and so he told them when the sharp aches and pains kept coming back.

Alfred insisted it was just a few nerves growing back.

Damian focused back to the groupchat. Drake had resorted to spamming it because he took too long to respond. Obnoxious plebeian.

He took a picture of his legs covered by the blanket he was using. One knee was propped up to angle his sketch book right, while the other was stretched out as his injured ankle rested on a small pillow. Alfred the cat was fast asleep, curled into a circle, on the arm of the couch, while Titus made himself small enough to lay on the couch beside his outstretched leg. He sent the picture with nothing else. Drake stopped his spamming and liked it while Thomas sent another text asking what Damian was drawing.

With that, he put his phone down – only for it to start vibrating repeatedly. A phone call.

He somewhat expected it to be Drake, but still wasn’t that surprised to see it was Father, instead.

“Father?” Damian answered the call. “Drake said you were heading back. With Todd.”

“Yes.” Father’s voice was rough, but in a distinct way that Damian knew it wasn’t his Batman voice. In the background he heard the rumble of the Batmobile. “We are. And we have some company with us.”

His brows lowered. “Is everything okay?”

Silence.

Damian sat up and tucked his foot under his other leg’s thigh. Titus shifted, getting off of the couch to lay on the floor instead. “Father?” Carefully, he closed his sketchbook and set it on the coffee table.

Thomas decided to walk back in, at that moment. “Hey, I…” He trailed off when he saw that Damian was on the phone. “Is that Bruce?”

“Father, is–”

“Do you have an older sister?”

Damian froze. He even stopped breathing for a second. Did he know? If he did, how? Was it Mother, was she in Gotham? Did she tell Father? Athanasia told him not to tell him or anyone else, and he hadn’t. Why was he asking this? Were they okay?

“Yes,” he said slowly. “Cassandra–”

“I’m not talking about by adoption, son,” Father interrupted. “Biologically, do you have a sister? Or even a brother?”

He involuntarily sucked in sharply. If Father heard it, he didn’t make any indication that he did.

“She would be around Tim’s age, seventeen or eighteen. Five foot eight, ten at most. She mentioned a twin brother.”

Damian kept his eyes on Titus. He ignored Thomas stepping further into the living room to stand near the couch. “I’m not supposed to tell you,” he said. “She said not to.”

“Who? Talia?”

“No.”

“Your sister.” Damian stayed quiet. “Why?”

“I don’t– do not…” How was he supposed to answer that? He had no idea why Athanasia told him not to tell Father, but Damian refused to break the promise he made her. Yes, he wanted to tell Father – all the time, so badly – but it was the last thing Athanasia asked of him. Even the idea of breaking that promise felt wrong. Even now, even though he somehow knew. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly, and hated how childlike he sounded.

“…It’s not your fault, chum. We will be at the Cave soon. If– when,” he corrected, “you come down, put on a mask. They have acquaintances who don’t know our secret identities.”

“Yes, sir. Are they okay?”

Father didn’t immediately respond. It sent warning bells through his mind. “We’re about to be at the cave.”

“Wait, Father–”

The call ended.

Damian let out a huff of frustration. He went to call him back, but stopped.

Athanasia was in Gotham. She went to Father for help. Did that mean she called him on the League communicator and he missed it? Did he? It sounded like she needed help, they both did, and he…

Damian vaulted off of the couch. Thomas shouted after him, but he ignored him and the pain in his ankle as ran through the halls and up the stairs to his room. He took the communicator out from its hiding spot under his mattress.

Nothing. No calls or messages. Not a single thing.

Why did she go to Father and not him?

Damian sent a message. It didn’t go through, just like the past hundreds of times. He tried a call, it did the same thing.

“Damian! Don’t run away like that, man, you’re gonna hurt your ankle more,” Thomas reprimanded as he finally caught up. “I’m sorta responsible for you right now, and I don’t feel like getting Alfred’s disappointed look because you’re running around.”

The words went through one ear and out the other.

He cursed in Arabic and tossed the device onto his bed. He snatched an emergency mask from a drawer of his bedside table, and left the room.

“Damian,” shouted Thomas. “Seriously, dude!”

“If you follow me to the Batcave, put on a mask,” Damian said. “We have guests.”

Whatever his foster brother’s response was, Damian didn’t hear it. He rushed down the stairs, simultaneously putting on his mask, and then ran to the study where the clock was. Standing on his toes, he moved the clock’s hands to the correct time and squeezed through before the secret door opened all the way.

As he got to the bottom of the stairs, he slowed. A cacophony of noise grew as he got further into the cave. He stopped on the last step and just stared.

Whatever he had been expecting, it was not a group of injured teenagers talking over each other to his father and the family’s grandfather of a butler. Todd stood a few feet away from the group, back to Damian. He seemed to be merely watching the scene unfold.

“We’ve taken care of him before, we know how to do stitches!” a girl with short black hair shouted. “This isn’t new to–”

“He’s not– you need to let us help,” a black kid argued. “We know what to do for him–”

“I have already seen it!” And there’s Athanasia. “It is not a pretty sight, I know, but I can help–”

“None of you are in shape to help Penny-One,” Batman tried to speak over them.

“I am!” Another girl. She held a red and black helmet in her arms that matched a vigilante-like suit she wore. “Please, just let us–”

“We’re his friends! Please–”

“We– Well, I don’t but they do – they know what to do,” a red headed boy said. “He’s different, you’ll need their–”

A sharp whistle cut through the air, so sudden even Damian flinched. As did Thomas, who appeared at his side the instant it happened.

Everyone quieted immediately, eyes falling to Jason Todd. The helmet was off, but a red domino still covered his eyes.

“Everyone shut up or else it will be too late for anyone to help anybody,” the young man snapped, “Let Penny-One do what he does on a regular basis. I promise, he knows what he is doing, and has seen his fair share of bad injuries between the eerily large brood he cares for. Even if he did need help, it would not be from any of you. Like Batman said, none of you are the right shape to help – either from exhaustion or injuries or both, each one of you looks like shit. So sit your asses down, let the professional do his job, and take a breather.”

No one said a word. No one moved.

“Thank you, Red Hood,” Pennyworth said. “Now, if you will excuse me, I have a patient to care for.” He ducked behind a curtain he and Father were guarding. Damian wasn’t able to get a glimpse of the person behind it.

In the back of his mind, he knew who it was. It didn’t dissuade his worry.

Father stared down the teenagers.

The girl with short black hair and gothic clothes glared harshly back at him. Angry, she spun around with a scoff and stomped over to a chair, a palm on her forehead the entire way.

“Sam,” the black boy called after her and followed. They quietly began talking to each other.

The girl in the red and black suit and the redhead boy glanced at each other. The former shrugged helplessly, and the latter frowned in response, looking away.

Damian finally looked – truly looked – at Athanasia. Todd was right: she looked like shit; they all did. But his big sister had the most blood on her, and a green substance on her hands and right side that had a too close resemblance to Lazarus Pit water. She had numerous injuries that were bandaged hastily, but not enough for all of the blood to be hers. It looked as if she tried to scratch some of it off on the few areas of exposed skin, only for it to not work. Her black hair was in a ponytail that had once been neat; now, curly strands were loose and framing her face, and the ponytail itself was unkempt.

The others didn’t look that much better. Except for the redhead. He just looked stressed and exhausted and worried.

Damian shifted a foot forward, then back to its original spot.

He didn’t know what to do. Say her name? Simply walk up? Run back upstairs? He didn’t want to make a scene, but he also wanted to go up to his sister.

He spotted Ace laying down near the bat-computer. Silently, decision abruptly made, he moved in that direction.

Thomas cleared his throat. “Um… B?”

Damian stopped, freezing behind Todd. He looked over to Thomas and glared. The older teen didn’t acknowledge him other than a split second glance.

“D– Signal? What are you doing down here?”

Todd shifted. Damian moved with him. He turned his head slowly and sent Damian a suspicious side eye.

“Oh, uh… Red Robin contacted us – said you were coming back here. I just want to make sure you don’t need any help,” said Thomas.

Todd reached behind him with the hand that wasn’t holding his helmet, and aimed for Damian. He pinched Todd’s wrist when it got close enough, making him hiss in pain.

“We might– Hood?”

Todd shook his hand. “Sorry. Bug bit me.”

Father continued speaking with Thomas, who walked further into the Cave.

“Brat,” Todd hissed under his breath.

Damian didn’t deign him a response. Once it was clear everyone else was distracted, he continued his way to the bat-computer in the shadows. When he got there, he crawled underneath the desk. Ace moved to lay his head in Damian’s lap.

His hiding spot didn’t stay hidden for long, though.

Someone silently walked over. Then, they crouched down and slotted their body next to his under the desk.

“Did Todd tell you where I am?” he asked. It came out more petulant than he intended.

“No. I saw you when you first came down.”

“Tt.” Damian muttered, “…You smell vile.”

Athanasia hummed. “And you are still short.”

There was a shakiness to her voice he didn’t like. It kept him from automatically responding with another insult.

He turned his head to look at her again.

Her eyes were staring at nothing in particular. Her breathing was a bit too fast for comfort, sort of choppy too. Tension lined her entire body.

“Stretch out your legs,” he said quietly.

She eyed him in question. He motioned for her to hurry up. Hesitant, she eventually did it. Then, he wasted no time in ordering Ace to lay on her legs.

Athanasia sucked in sharply. Her hands lifted to her chest. “Dames–”

“You won’t hurt him,” he interrupted. “He won’t hurt you.”

He was aware of why she was so hesitant – almost afraid, even. She tried to hide it from him, but League trainers had forced her to slaughter animals. Those same trainers did that to him a couple times, too, after she left. Apparently it was to make them stronger and better assassins. Less prone to weaknesses.

He wondered if Dányál had to go through that. If Mother knew.

Damian didn’t think she did, but…

Athanasia kept her hands to her chest.

“So, you found him?” Damian asked. He kept his voice low, and scooted closer to her.

She nodded. “Yes. He is… He will be okay,” she said, keeping her voice low like he did. “I apologize for taking so long.”

Damian didn’t know how to respond to that. It made a flicker of anger from in his chest. She was sorry for being gone for so long, but not for leaving?

“…He isn’t a clone?” was his next question.

“No.” Her arm lifted, and for once he let her pull him into her side in a hug. He wasn’t big on touch, and Athanasia wasn’t either, but she was definitely more tactile than he was in some ways. From what he remembered, she and Dányál had hugged a lot.

“Are you positive?” His mind flashed to Heretic. He held back a wince, twisting until his back was into her side and her arm wrapped around his chest. He had to bend his knees so he could fit all the way under the desk.

“Yes.”

“You made sure of it?”

Athanasia stayed quiet for a moment. He felt her eyes on the top of his head. “I did,” she said. “Penny-One is aiding our brother. Not a clone, or a shapeshifter, or anyone else. Dányál.” She paused. “I intended on going to the manor instead. Then, I saw our father, and demanded he take us here.”

“Why the manor?”

“I did not know where the cave was.”

Damian stared at his knees.

There was no way.

Did he hear that right? It was jarring. He grew up thinking his big sister knew everything.

How did she not know this?

“Athanasia,” he whispered.

“What?”

“The Batcave is below the manor,” he told her in Arabic.

For seven seconds (yes, he counted) Athanasia didn’t say anything. Then, “It is what?!” she hissed in a harsh whisper.

Damian felt a laugh coming up, and did his best to keep it quiet. His shoulders still shook. “You didn’t know?”

“No,” she muttered. “Thank you making me feel stupid.”

“My pleasure. I will be sure to do it again.”

She huffed a small, wet laugh. “Brat.” Her arm wrapped around the front of his chest more, and her hand gripped his shoulder. A second later, he felt her place a kiss on the crown of his head.

Damian couldn’t help but grip her arm back. One hand on her forearm, the other on her bicep. He pressed his knees closer to his body.

“I missed you,” he whispered through the lump in his throat.

She sniffled, and whispered back into his hair, “I missed you, too.”

A blanket of silence fell over them. Damian heard Father speaking to the others, his voice overlapping with Thomas’ and one of Athanasia’s acquaintances. Footsteps softly echoed as they all moved about near the medbay. They should probably go over there soon.

Damian didn’t want to. For the first time in four years it was just him and his big sister, hiding under a desk that was reminiscent of them hiding in an alcove back in the League just to spend time together. It hardly felt real. He didn’t want to admit it, but he was scared this was just some sort of dream.

“Can we stay here for a little bit longer?”

Her arm tightened around him again. “Absolutely.”

+++

It took a good while for someone to come look for them, which surprised Damian, but he was relieved and thankful no one came sooner. He wasn’t about to complain about the silent one-on-one time squished underneath the desk, uncomfortable as it was.

It also gave them time to stop any tears they let loose.

He eventually moved out from under her arm, and sat beside her. It took a bit of time. Damian wanted to say it was because he was done with the physical touch, that he let go. The truth of the matter was that he had to force himself to, to mentally talk himself into doing it. It was irrational, but he was scared that the moment he let go she would leave him again.

That didn’t happen. She didn’t get up and leave, or disappear, or anything of the sort. She stayed right beside him.

As he scratched Ace behind the ears, Athanasia merely watched. She kept her hands away from the dog. When he moved to lay down across both of their laps, she stiffened until he stilled, arms crossed over her stomach.

That was how they were found.

The large boots and bottom of a black cape were unmistakable.

Father crouched down, the half of his face that wasn’t covered by the cowl betraying nothing. It made Damian want to squirm. Was he mad? That he kept Athanasia and Dányál a secret?

“You two weren’t easy to find,” he said. He sounded more like Bruce Wayne than Batman. It was comforting, in a way. “Your friends got worried when they didn’t see you around.”

“Acquaintances,” she corrected. “And I am fine, I have no idea why they would worry.”

Damian gave her an incredulous look. “You’re covered in blood.”

“A lot of it does not belong to me.”

“Mostly yours or not, your injuries still need to be taken care of,” Father said. “The Wes kid said you weren’t able to clean them properly.”

Athanasia’s face did something quick and complicated that Damian couldn’t decipher. Her mouth settled into an annoyed frown before he could really question it. “Of course he did,” she muttered.

“And you, chum, need to get off the ground and prop your ankle up,” Father said. The man, with gentle hands, inspected the aforementioned ankle. “With ice. The swelling is worse again. Did you run on it?”

He didn’t want to lie. He didn’t want to admit he ran, either.

“…Maybe.”

“Hn.” Father stood. The joints of his knees popping and a quiet groan didn’t go unnoticed. “Come on out. Let’s get you both some medical attention. Ace, get up, boy. Up.”

The German Shepherd did as told.

“I didn’t do anything to it,” Damian grumbled as he scooted out and pulled himself to his feet with the help of Father’s hand. Putting weight on his ankle definitely hurt worse than it had before, though…

“It won’t hurt to check.”

Athanasia came out from under the desk next. As she stood, also with the help of Father, he noticed she seemed to be in more pain than when he first entered the cave. That made sense; the adrenaline had to have worn off by now, allowing the pain finally register.

Once she was steady on her feet, she stepped a little away from Father. “Thank you,” she said. “For bringing us here.”

“Of course,” Father said. “If you need to stay here, you can. I will even open up the manor to you and your fr– acquaintances. Whatever aids you the best and keeps you safe from whatever you’re running from.”

She nodded once. Her eyes, glassy with tears, blinked rapidly, and she turned to head to the empty medical cots.

Damian watched her, exhausted and hurting, then looked to the curtain hiding away Pennyworth and Dányál.

He tore his eyes away and hurried to follow.

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

The Buzzard

by FlightL3ss_Bird1029 After a difficult year (for many reasons) Tim goes back to Gotham to help Jason Todd reconnect with his family. Whether Jason wanted that or not, well, Tim had time to wear him down. Between the tutelage of Deathstroke and Lady Shiva, he was well equipped to handle himself as Jason's equal and hit Gotham's vigilante scene as the Buzzard. His parents were dead and the lonely cavity in his chest kept growing every day, but it didn't matter. Tim's mission could and would succeed despite his personal feelings and failures. He was fine and he had a job to do. Words: 10385, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Series: Part 2 of The Buzzard Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Characters: Tim Drake (DCU), Jason Todd, Bruce Wayne, Stephanie Brown, Dick Grayson, Damian Wayne, Slade Wilson, Sandra Woosan, Cassandra Cain, Ra's al Ghul, Talia al Ghul Relationships: Tim Drake & Jason Todd, Tim Drake & Damian Wayne, Tim Drake & Dick Grayson & Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne & Damian Wayne, Tim Drake & Slade Wilson, Tim Drake & Sandra Woosan Additional Tags: Tim Drake is Not Robin, Angst, Tim Drake Needs a Hug, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, Protective Jason Todd, CEO Tim Drake, Bad Parents Jack and Janet Drake, Hacker Tim Drake, Jason Todd is Red Hood, Tim Drake Has a Plan, Tim Drake has a bad plan, HDMI king Tim Drake, Tim Drake is Jason Todd's partner, The League of Assassins (DCU), Ra's al Ghul Being a Jerk, Tim Drake & Damian Wayne Bonding, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence via https://ift.tt/2PYcnKD

[gothamstodd]

buried in the garden (2201 words) by gothamstodd Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Tim Drake & Jason Todd, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd Characters: Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Ra's al Ghul, Dick Grayson Additional Tags: Hurt No Comfort, Hopeful Ending, Creepy Ra's al Ghul, Kidnapping, Imprisonment, Canon-Typical Violence, Stabbing, Near Death Experiences, Blood and Injury, Dick Grayson Tries to Be a Good Older Sibling, Hurt Jason Todd, Jason Todd-centric, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, Tim Drake Needs a Hug, Bad Things Happen Bingo, forced to kneel/bow, Jason Todd Whump, Lazarus Pit (DCU), Complicated Relationships, minor hurt/comfort, MAJOR HURT, Minor comfort, Dehumanization Series: Part 4 of bad things happen bingo Summary: Jason and Tim have been kidnapped by the League of Assassins and are immediately separated to face unique brands of suffering. An escape attempt goes horribly wrong and Jason may not come out with his life, Dick is forced to make a tough decision when he arrives. bthb prompt "forced to kneel/bow"

"Jason sits up at the faintest sound of footsteps in the hallway outside his cell in the bowles of Nanda Parbat. He’s not sure if he’s by himself down here or if the other prisoners have been beaten so far into submission that they won’t speak to him, either way he’s as good as alone. He hasn’t had any sign of another human since he’d been thrown down here, a few days by rough estimate. The scuff of boots on stone could be a great sign, Tim finally come to get him or even a guard with some fucking water, or it could be a really horrible sign. He readies himself for a fight.

“Jason?” Tim’s stage whisper echoes on the walls, the beam of his flashlight wandering in the pitch darkness from around the corner.

“Tim.” Jason calls out, dropping his stance, “About fuckin’ time.”

The flashlight whips to his face and Jason immediately cringes away from it, “Jesus, Tim.” He snaps, head lighting up with a vicious spike of pain as it shines in his eyes.

“Sorry.” Tim mutters, not sounding particularly so, as he jogs up to Jason’s cell door. “Status?” He prompts as he sticks the flashlight into his mouth and pulls out a couple of metal wires Jason assumes are his makeshift lockpicks."

[unfortunately-obsessed]

Fandom: Batman - All Media Types

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Relationships: Talia al Ghul/Bruce Wayne

Characters: Talia Al Ghul, Bruce Wayne, Ra's Al Ghul

Additional Tags: Talia al Ghul-centric, Bruce wayne is not batman yet, League of Assassin Bruce Wayne, Bruce Wayne Training Years, Canon-Typical Violence, Blood and Violence, Not Beta Read, Not Really Character Death, not graphic, Lazarus Pit Side Effects, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Talia al Ghul Tries, League of Assassins - Freeform, league of shadows, Introspection, Drabble

Summary:

Ras throws Talia and Bruce against each other, The Pit his chosen ring.

Because that's the thing: Bruce wouldn't wouldn't kill Talia, and for Talia the idea of killing always sounded disgusting, repugnant.

The Pit fixes death but if Ra's really needed to decide, he would have stopped this bloodshed long ago.

[darker-dc-dimensions]

Tim Drake Al Ghul

Heir of the demon

Emojis used:  ⚔️🕯️

(I know this is a picture of Damian but its just a placeholder for now)

General Information

 First name: Timothy

Middle name(s): Jackson

Surname: Drake Al Ghul

Age: early 20s

Date of birth: July 19th

Race: Wasian, Chinese from mothers’ side

Gender: Cis Male

Sexuality: Bisexual, leans towards men.

Current residence: Nanda Parbat. The hidden league bases in the deserts. Eth Alth'eban.

Relationship status: Single

Social status: upper class, head of the league of assassins, meaning he’s very influential and rich.

Universe (AU universe of origin): Heir of the demon

 Traits of Voice

 Accent (if any): Has no accent in any language, meaning he speaks languages perfectly.

Language spoken: English, Arabic, League Dialect, it depends on who he’s interacting with.

Other languages known: Romani, Spanish, Russian, French, German, Japanese, Cantonese, Turkish, Arabic, Farsi, League of assassin’s dialect, Swahili, Mandarin, Filipino, Korean, Polish, Latin, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Hebrew, Thai, Vietnamese, Swedish, Kryptonian, Atlantean, Ancient Greek, Tameranean, Sign language. (Most taught to him by Bruce Wayne or Ra's al Ghul')

Volume of voice: Has a low and flat voice, very few emotions are ever expressed.

 Physical Appearance

 Height: 6´0

Eye colour: Bright Green (Lazarus pit)

Skin colour: a mild tan from living in the sun.

Distinguishing features: Heavily scarred body, the sides of his hair (think sideburn area) are white (think like Ra's), Almost glowing green eyes thanks to the Lazarus pit, minor tattoos around his body, mostly in Arabic or league dialect, though there are a few small tattoos that are pictures that seem connected to some people.

Build of body: Muscular but not overly wide, lithe, and more flexible to allow more extreme and quicker moves.

Hair colour: Black and white

Hair style: hair is cut quite short, depending on time and place his hair is either cut with a razor or knife, or has been styled by professionals.

Tattoos: minor tattoos around his body, mostly in Arabic or league dialect, though there are a few small tattoos that are pictures that seem connected to some people. Has some tattoos in memory of Kon, Bart and Cassie.

Piercings: has multiple piercings all over his body, some are cosmetic, and some are for celebrations.

Typical clothing: traditional clothing for whatever area he’s living in, or league dress. Clothes fitting of the head of the league of assassins, so its practical, protects him, but allows him to move and store weapons. Tends to wear a mask or face covering of some type.

Is seen by others as: a threatening unknown figure, as very few people know who he is, those people are Ra's and Talia. As seen as a symbol of fear, but is deeply respected by his people since he treats the league of assassins members with respect but still has an iron fist.

 Health

 Sleeping habits: Sleeps very little, since he doesn’t need it much since being put in the Lazarus pit.

Energy level: Has an average energy level, not too much and not too little, but has more than enough to defend himself.

Eating habits: Doesn’t need to eat quite a lot, thanks to the Lazarus pit, tends to eat very well-cooked meals, created by the league’s personal chefs.

Memory: Has a perfect memory, trained into him from very young. The Drakes wanted him to be perfect, so they worked him to the bone to perfect his memory, and working with the bats and later the league it only get better.

Any unhealthy habits: probably has a couple but doesn’t seem them as unhealthy. Works out for hours and days on end to better himself. One of his training methods is different kinds of torture.

 Relationships

 Parents:  Jack Drake (birth father), Janet Drake (birth mother), Bruce Wayne (Adoptive Father), Ra's Al Ghul (Adoptive father/grandfather)

Siblings: Dick Grayson (adopted), Jason Todd (adopted), Damian Wayne (Adopted), Cassandra Caine (Adopted), Duke Thomas (Adopted), Stephanie Brown (Adopted), Jean-Paul Valley (Adopted in spirit but not on paper), Talia Al Ghul (Adopted)

Any enemies (and why): Way too many to count.

Children: none

Friends: none

Best friend(s): none, Kon, Bart and Cassie were his best friends, but they are all gone.

Important friends/relatives (explain): Kon, Bart and Cassie were his best friends, but he lost them over the years to different reasons, though they all died to villains or in battles.

Love interest (if there is one): Was dating Kon before he died.

 Combat

 Peaceful or violent: He tends to stay peaceful for the most part, as he treats his people with respect. But he doesn’t accept any disrespect or anyone trying to cross him, so he will resort to violence if he has too.

Weapon (if applicable): Can use pretty much any weapon. Tends to rely on his Bo staff, a straight bladed Chinese sword (given to him by Ra's), a ninjato (given to him by Ra's), other gadgets or smaller blades.

Style of fighting: Has mastered pretty much any style of fighting so there isn’t one specific he relies on, so he will simply use what is best suited for whatever battle he’s in at the time.

 Others

 Occupation: Head of the demon, leader of the league of assassins.

Current home: Doesn’t live in one specific place. Nanda Parbat. The hidden league bases in the deserts. Eth Alth'eban.

Favourite types of food: has a secret love for potato chips or other snack foods. Different middle eastern meals, though he prefers meals he can eat with his hands. Likes goat meat the most in his meals.

Favourite types of drink: To no one’s surprise he likes caffeine, no matter what drink form its in. Quite enjoys tea as well, though he prefers the type you’d catch people like Ra's or Alfred drinking. Secretly loves fast food sodas, like McDonald’s sprite.

Hobbies/past times: Doesn’t have time for hobbies for the most part, as he spends most of his waking time bettering himself or bettering the league of assassins.

Guilty pleasures: Junk food, looking through his old pictures that he took of batman and robin as a kid. He can’t help but check up on his old family every now and then. Sleeps with Kon’s old shirts.

Pet peeves: When people try to suck up to him or act too familiar with him. When people touch him without reason, or just in general.

Pets: Has multiple pets, though they’re more like attack animals than pets. Think big predator animals like tigers, wolves, and panthers. Even has nonearthly pets or fantasy pets.

Favourite colours: League of Assassins green, gold, black and red.

[ao3feed-jaytim]

chili dogs and knives (a love language)

read it on the AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/52818868 by bavariansugarcookie By the time Jason realized he was down bad for Tim it was already too late. He really should’ve known better, but it was too late now. Now he kept beef jerky in the pockets of his leather jacket and took Tim out for chili dogs, or pizza, or the halal cart’s life-changing gyro after patrols. It was embarrassing. Jason was too old for a stupid crush on the one person who had the most reasons to hate his fucking guts. Words: 3696, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: M/M Characters: Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Dick Grayson, Damian Wayne, The Penguin, Ra's al Ghul Relationships: Tim Drake/Jason Todd Additional Tags: The League of Assassins (DCU), Canon-Typical Violence, Food as a Metaphor for Love, Homoerotic wound tending, Getting Together, Love Confessions read it on the AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/52818868

[ali-annals]

2: one single thread of gold tied me to you

Invisible String Masterlist PREVIOUS NEXT AO3

Time/Curious time/Gave me no compasses/Gave me no signs/Were there clues I didn't see?

Damian al Ghul had never heard about soulmates. No one in the League of Assassins had one. Why would he? So Talia and Ra’s never mentioned them to him.

He was six and a half and on a mission in Paris. Talia and Damian silently passed by a bakery in a quiet corner in the middle of the night.

He lurched towards the door, stumbling.

“Stay awake!” whispered Talia sharply.

“Yes, ummi.” He didn’t tell her he was not falling asleep but felt drawn to something.

He was nine and in Shanghai on another mission, this time by himself. 

He was passing an enticing-smelling restaurant when he lurched towards it again.

He would have investigated but he caught sight of his target when he jerked.

Damian silently thanked his luck and stalked after the target he was supposed to trail.

When he went to visit live with Father, none of his family had soulmates either, at least not that he had heard about.

He still didn’t know about them, and when he heard people mention them, he dismissed it as figurative speech.

{Alfred had a soulmate, a romantic bond with a girl who became his wife, Eleanor. She died from cancer three years after they were married. As she was Alfred’s soulmate the family didn’t know about her.}

Bad was the blood of the song in the cab on your first trip to LA/You ate at my favorite spot for dinner

August eighth, the day he turned nineteen, his annoying brothers took him to LA for ‘brother bonding’ which was code for ‘Road Trip’, which was an excuse to attend Jagged Stone and Fairy’s concert.

Dick had the cab driver take them to a diner that had really good reviews, insisting they had to try local LA cuisine while they were there. Donna had tried it and raved about it, apparently.

Dick and Jason started bickering about something inane while Tim dozed on his shoulder and Damian tuned out the horrible music playing over the radio.

The cab slowed to let a car exit the driveway, and Damian’s head bumped against the window. “Ow!”

He turned to Tim, who was now drooling on his shoulder, rubbing his forehead in annoyance.

“Really, Drake?”

The food was quite good, however, with an extensive vegetarian selection.

~~~~~

All along there was some/Invisible string/Tying you to me?/.../A string that pulled meOne single thread of gold tied me to you

In October, Damian and Tim were casing a dive bar suspected of being a drug-smuggling front.

Tim was working on his laptop, so Damian got up to get a drink.

He stumbled down the aisle, acting drunk already without his intention.

His mind whirled.

Had he been drugged somehow? He hadn’t drunk anything yet, and Tim had only ordered water when they entered.

He hadn’t felt a needle prick…could it be a gas? But no one else seemed to be affected… unless this was a mind-warping gas? But he hadn't felt any typical gassing side effects…

A soft body crashed into him. He looked down and saw dark hair and tear-filled blue eyes staring up at him blankly.

“I’m sorry for bumping into you,” she whispered in French.

A taller blonde girl came marching up. “Watch it, buster. She just lost-”

“Chloe.” The brunette laid a hand on the blonde’s arm. She glanced up at him again. “He’s my soulmate.”

He scoffed inwardly; he couldn’t believe she would use that absolute rubbish to try and get close to him for his name and money.

She looked so innocent, yet so broken before she revealed her true colours. He’d actually thought her intriguing before that.

He frowned and looked down to harshly disabuse her of her notions, then stared blankly at the gold thread glowing around him and the gold digger.

He blinked and cleared his throat.

No, this must be the drug. I’m just hallucinating. This is a trick like some adversaries have used against Father. Snap out of it, Damian Wayne al Ghul!

He slapped his cheek hard.

The two girls stared at him, the gold illuminating their incredulous expressions. He shook his head and slapped himself again.

The girls looked at each other, then asked him carefully, “How much have you had to drink?”

“Nothing; I’m just drugged-was it you? Soulmates aren’t real; I'm hallucinating. Where is Drake; he can get an antidote…DRAKE!”

Tim’s head snapped up and he came over when he saw what was happening. “You called?”

“This guy started rambling, says he’s drugged and we did it even though we met him a literal minute ago, and that you’ll have the antidote. Seems pretty lucid for a drugged guy.” Chloe eyed Tim carefully, who shrugged.

“It’s Gotham; we’re all used to being drugged. Thanks for finding my brother, Miss…”

“Bourgeois. As in Andre and Audrey Bourgeois, Paris. Bon soir.” She turned and dragged the other girl home.

Damian stared blankly after them until Tim dragged him out to go back to the Cave.

~~~~~~

Marinette slept for six hours, then woke up and demanded, “What happened?”

“Lieutenant Feuillet called, you found your soulmate and he said he was hallucinating you, but I gave his brother my name so he knows how to contact me.”

“Right. Lt. Feuillet. Plane tickets?”

“Mom’s in New York and said I could take the jet. We leave for the airport in an hour. I packed for you, so all you have to do is shower and eat the breakfast Tikki made.”

“Yes ma’am.”

The plane landed safely in Paris, and Jean picked the girls up and took them to the police station, where Lieutenant Feuillet met them.

“Mlle Dupain-Cheng, my condolences.”

“Can I see…them?”

“Oui, Mademoiselle. The coroner’s office is just down the block.”

Marinette flinched at the word ‘coroner’ and Chloe wrapped her arm around her.

Marinette stared at her parent’s faces on the cold white slab and cried in Chloe’s arms. 

“They...they’re really…really gone!”

“I’m sorry, Maribug.”

Marinette numbly walked to the charred ruins of the bakery, escorted by Chloe. Gina was there and came running to hug the girls.

They stayed with Rolland and Gina for the week until after the funeral.

~~~~~

Tim took Damian straight to the Batcave to analyze his blood. Each sample came up clear–no alcohol, no drugs, and everything looked good.

“Dames, you’re clear.”

“Question: why is his cheek red like he was slapped?” Jason strolled over, having just come in from patrol.

“I slapped myself twice to stop hallucinating.”

“Aw, shucks. No girl giving Demon Spawn what-for?”

“There were two girls, but they were quite nice,” Tim said.

Damian stared at him. “You saw them too?”

“Yeah, they talked to me. At least, the blonde did. The other one seemed a little out of it.”

Damian stumbled to his feet. “What did they say?”

“You said you were drugged and hallucinating, she said her parents were Andre and Audrey Bourgeois of Paris…that’s all. Are you sure you didn’t insult her and she slapped you?”

He glared at his guffawing brothers and headed up to his room to think and research.

By morning he discovered that there were three types of soulbonds, each demarcated with a colour to distinguish them. Some people had two or three, a few even had four. Sibling/familial bonds were silver, platonic were red, and romantic soulbonds were gold.

His soulbond type was the string, as best as he could figure out. However, everyone else’s record of the string was visible before they met their soulmate– some since birth, some when they were within a certain distance.

The invisible-string bond might have simply not been recorded– string bonds were less common than telepathic or physical bonds, and research was still quite incomplete on the phenomena.

Once he recovered from the realization that soulmates did exist and weren’t just a figure of speech, and that he had one , he searched up Bourgeois, Paris.

Andre Bourgeois, former mayor of Paris, and Audrey Bourgeois, Style Queen, showed up.

Then Chloe Bourgeois, MDC’s friend and Fairy’s manager. She introduced Fairy and MDC, who was now the singer’s main designer, blah blah blah...ah! He found the Parisian airport’s records and hacked in to discover that the Bourgeois jet had flown from New York to Paris that morning, carrying just the heiress and a companion, Dupain-Cheng, Marinette.

She must be her friend and his soulmate.

Now what? He’d said to her face that she was a hallucination.

How long was she staying in Paris? Did he drive her away after he unknowingly rejected her? What would he say when he saw her again?

Hopefully, she wouldn’t hold his ignorance against him…if he got to explain what happened to her.

Her friend seemed a bit protective of her.

From what he’d gathered in his soulmate research, the bonds were special and highly precious to those who had them.

Wait, why was he so worried about a girl? He was Damian Wayne for goodness’ sake.

Ah, because he didn’t believe someone would be able to deal with him being Robin, the first decade of his life, the press and scrutiny of the world for being involved with a Wayne if she made it that far…

That she would be complementary to him and his skills–what did that even mean, anyway? Soft and gentle, hopeful, with a heart of gold…he should stay away.

It was too good to be true. He’d drag her down. She’d be in danger as a Wayne Friend and al Ghul enemy, if she allied with him, never mind all of Gotham’s Rogue Gallery.

Yet he found himself planning what he’d say when he saw her again.

He was lost already and didn’t even know it.

~~~~~

Damian set an alert that would tell him if she flew anywhere, so he could find her easily if he left Paris.

He didn’t tell his family about his soulmate–he’d wait and see if it worked out first. It had been almost a year since he'd met her, and she was still in Paris. Either she had been visiting (which was strange, because no one visited Gotham), or he had scared her off when he didn't acknowledge her and claimed she had drugged him.

Which...was not very welcoming, he realized. (See? Those therapy sessions were helping him.)

Just because they were supposedly perfect for each other (a fantastical concept, and one he still didn’t fully believe in), didn't mean they had to have a relationship, or that she wanted one after he so harshly rejected her.

But he wanted to make a better second impression if he ever ran into her again, so a new, elaborate suit went on the list. Also, if he continued gradually acting out of character while he waited to find his soulmate again, it would be less out of character to his family when he did meet her and acted strangely.

A new seamstress had moved to Gotham recently, opening a shop called Lucky Charms. She had high ratings and an exclusive clientele. He’d try her –his family hadn’t met her yet, so no alerts should be triggered that he was acting out of character, right?

He could ask her to sign an NDA.

Chains around my demons/Wool to brave the seasons

He dressed in his favourite jeans, a dark grey T-shirt, and his vegan leather, wool-lined jacket Tim had gotten from MDC for him last Hanukkah.

(It was his favourite, though he never said so.)

Even though it was late October and Gotham (read: dark, foggy, even at noon) he put sunglasses on to help disguise himself.

Apparently, it worked for Superman and Kent. (He privately thought that Metropolis knew Clark Kent was Superman but humoured the alien and kept their mouths shut; a whole city couldn’t possibly be that dense.)

Lucky Charms looked nondescript, a wise choice in Gotham, where standing out meant you were a Rogue or a target for said Rogues.

On second glance, it showed a cozy charm and welcoming atmosphere amid the red-and-black theme.

No one was in the store when he walked in, the bell walked in, the bell on the door chiming.

“Come to the back if you’re my 1:15 appointment! If you’re not, look around or get out,” called a voice from the back of the store.

He chuckled silently and walked to the back, which was twice as tall as the front. A young woman was bringing a mannequin down the stairs to the main level.

She ignored him and set the form in the corner, so he assumed she hadn’t heard him, but she turned to face him.

“My 1:15?” she asked.

He nodded, looking around at all the sewing paraphernalia.

“Name?”

“Damian Wa–” She was his soulmate! “You’re real,” he blurted.

She gave him an amused smile. “I should hope so, considering you’re my soulmate.”

When they reached 10 meters apart, the gold thread reappeared and pulled them together. 

“I’m Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

“Damian Wayne.”

“It’s nice to properly meet you, Mr. Wayne.”

“Likewise, Miss Dupain-Cheng. …I apologize for my behaviour when we first met. I did not know soulmates were real and not simply a figure of speech, never mind that I would have one, so I was…reevaluating everything and did not act appropriately.”

“Hmm. “ She looked him up and down. “I understand. When were you born?”

“August eighth, twenty years ago. You?”

“July ninth, twenty years ago. Were you in Paris fourteen years ago?”

“Yes. So it was the bond in Shanghai eleven years ago as well?”

“I believe so,” she replied softly. “Were you at Lucy's Diner in LA on the twentieth of August last year?”

He blinked. “Yes, my brothers kidnapped me for my birthday. That was you ? I thought it was my brother pushing me.”

“How many brothers do you have?”

Everyone knows the four Wayne boys. Is she really that naive or is she playing dumb? Wait, when did she come back? My alert never went off…something’s off about her. Of course, my soulmate is suspicious. I must have Father’s luck with women.

“Three– Richard, Jason, and Timothy. I have a sister, Cassandra, and a sort-of sister, Stephanie, as well.”

“Wow, that’s a big family. I’m an only child, and my parents…died on the day I ran into you -I’d just found out, so I wasn’t very coherent right then. I didn’t even remember what you looked like,” she chuckled.

“Oh…I’m sorry for your loss, Marinette.” She smiled a little at him. “Thanks. Um, do you mind if I take your measurements while we talk? The string disappeared so I don’t have to worry about accidentally tying us up while I work.”

“Not at all.”

“So what did you want me to make? The description was only for a suit fitting, so…that can be quite broad.”

“I was planning on a more adventurous suit than my typical tuxedo for events. I’m trying to loosen up lately, and I also wanted a new suit for when I found you again.”

She laughed at that. “Too late!”

~~~~~

Marinette had no other appointments and few customers that afternoon so most of the time was spent getting to know each other.

She had started designing him a suit from when she’d met him, so a few alterations and hemmings later, she handed him a rough draft of the finished product.

He tried it on, and it fit perfectly. “How? You eyed me up once.”

“You have the same measurements as Robin. I’ve seen him enough to get a close estimate. I’ve also been doing this for years, so I have a pretty accurate eye for sizing a person up.”

He turned to grab her wrist, but his hand closed around air and her image disappeared completely.

“You are a hallucination?”

A musical laugh sounded from above him. “No. You just discovered one of my secrets. Fair’s fair, after all.” She landed lightly in front of him and the ‘ghost’ Marinette appeared behind him. “My superhero alter ego is Ladybug. You just met Trixx.”

After she demonstrated the kwami and her powers, she told him, “Sass saw you were on the offensive, high alert when I mentioned you and Robin. Trixx created an illusion of me while the others flew me up. Thanks for confirming you’re Robin, by the way.”

“Well, we’re starting off with no secrets. What could go wrong?”

They shared a glance. “Everything,” they said in unison.

“Would you like to come to my house for dinner?” she asked after tidying her workspace.

“If you’re sure. We’ve been talking all afternoon, after all.”

“I don’t mind, but if you have things you need to do, or you need some space-”

“I’d like to continue getting to know you. Are you ready to go, then?”

“Yep, just locking the door!” she called from the front. She returned and handed him a piece of paper. “My number and address.”

“You don’t live above the store?”

“No, that’s my storeroom and the kwami playroom. I bought a house instead.”

“You walk home alone?” Even if she was a superhero, that was risky.

“No, Kaalki portals me. I do have a motorcycle, though.”

“Good, I brought my bike. Can you direct me?”

They climbed on.

“Sure, I’m used to being my Nonna’s backpack."

Fifteen minutes later they pulled up in front of a large two-story stone house.

She walked up to the porch and unlocked the door, disabling the security and warning the remaining kwami she had a guest.

“Welcome to my humble abode! I know it seems a bit big for one girl, but Chloe lives with me when she’s not in Paris or New York, and the kwami like lots of space, and I often have friends and family drop in without warning, and my parents…were maybe going to move here.”

“It looks quite welcoming and cozy,” he commented, looking at all the pictures of Marinette and random people, some of whom seemed very familiar, scattered around the house.

“I'm glad you think so! You’re vegetarian, so…tofu stir-fry?”

“That sounds good. Would you like me to help?”

He followed her to the kitchen.

“Could you set the table? The cutlery is in the drawer by the sink and the dishes are in the cupboard above the peninsula. Just snoop around till you find what you need.”

Damian set the table while Marinette sliced vegetables and cut tofu for the stir-fry.

The kwami drifted in and out of the kitchen, snacking and spying.

Marinette was obviously accustomed to it, but it was a little strange for Damian. He’s seen weirder things, so soon it barely registered.

“This is delicious, xin gan . Did your parents teach you to bake as well?”

She glanced up. “Yes…Wait, what did you call me?”

“Uh…” his face pinked as he realized what he said.

“I like it, if that’s going to be your nickname for me,” she declared. “Can I call you ma lune ?”

He blinked at her. He had no nicknames besides Demon Spawn and the like. "Y-yes. Why ma lune , though?”

“Your past is too dark to be the sun–and I also know an actual sunshine child– but you’re overcoming it, so moon it is.”

“How did you know that?”

“Partly the kwami rubbing off on me, but you also think yourself unworthy of happiness, so something major happened in your childhood. I’m not pressing, but I just want you to know I’ll never judge.”

“How did you know that I think myself unworthy of happiness?” He put his fork down.

“You said you’d never thought you’d have a soulmate. Most people like to imagine they have one, even if they don’t. You also looked so …conflicted, like you couldn’t believe you had one and didn’t deserve it, or some guilt over it?”

“I was raised in a place called Nanda Parbat until I was ten when I was sent here to live with my father. My grandfather and mother–”

Marinette jumped up, slamming her hand on the table, her eyes flashing. “Those ravagers! How dare they! A child! I ought to have kicked their butts harder!”

“What?”

“You were referring to Ra’s al Ghul and his daughter Talia, correct?”

“Yes, but how-”

“They wanted my Miraculous; I refused, of course, and told them in no uncertain terms to leave me alone or I would Cataclysm Nanda Parbat too. I destroyed 'Eth Alth'eban to prove my point. It was kind of funny, watching them run.”

“You beat them?”

“Yes, my mother was League; she left as a reward for saving Talia’s life. She moved to Paris and met my father. She trained me in the League’s ways but with non-lethal techniques. I’m assuming you did not have that mercy?”

“It was not that bad…but yes, I was sent on missions.”

“Can I hug you?” All the fire had dimmed, and Marinette looked…sad.

He almost thought it was pity, but he saw the look on her face, and having someone be mad for him and not at him because of his early years was…a very nice feeling. So he nodded and opened his arms a tiny bit, letting Marinette wrap her around him. 

She fit perfectly, and he rested his chin on her head.

“I’m sorry, Damian.”

“Me too.”

~~~

Marinette washed the dishes and Damian dried them, while the kwami put them away.

“I haven’t told my family about my soulbond,” he confessed.

“I can see why. That’s okay; tell them when you feel comfortable. If it’s for my sake, I assure you I’ve dealt with much crazier and scarier stuff.”

Damian smiled at her. “You survived the maternal side of my family. That paternal side will be much less deadly…they’ll probably give me the shovel talk, actually.”

“Well, my uncle will threaten to feed you to his crocodile-”

“What?”

“He won’t -–Fang won’t eat you, anyways— but he’ll threaten you with Fang.”

“Your uncle is Jagged Stone?”

“Oh right, I never told you….yeah. He adopted me as his niece. My biological uncle, my mom’s brother, is a chef –Wang Feng.”

"His recipes are quite delicious– Father hired him one year. I quite enjoyed…Marinette’s Soup…”

“He named it after me. All my friends are famous, at least in their fields. Not one person I’ve met has been normal–even you are a vigilante. It’s like I'm cursed to know celebrities.”

“It must be because of your genuine character and beautiful smile.”

She blushed bright red and dropped the bowl she was rinsing, which he caught thanks to his reflexes.

At the door, Damian put his jacket and shoes on. 

“How’d you get my jacket? Your name was new on my client list.”

“My brother got it from MDC last year.”

“What’s his name?” she furrowed her brow.

“Timothy Drake…”

“That’s why his name sounded familiar! I am MDC.”

That makes sense. Their styles are similar.

“My family will be jealous. They love you already, so they’ll never let me go unless I bring you to meet them. But I don’t want to let them know about you just yet.”

She smiled slyly. “Secret romance? I’m shocked– behind the big bad Bat’s back?”

He smiled back. “Absolutely. We’ve got a running bet on who can figure out who MDC is and another bet on who Fairy is. I don't suppose you would give away client confidentiality, would you…?”

She smirked and shook her head.

~~~~~

A/N: Xin gan is a Chinese nickname that means 'my heart and liver' or 'my other half' (according to the two websites that were not Google Translate that I visited.) I thought it was fitting for a soulmate story to have Damian call Marinette his other half. Also, people seem to forget that Damian is part Chinese on his maternal side (at least in some depictions), and I think more people should capitalise on the potential to have Daminette bond over their shared part-Chinese heritage