Chapter Text
Damian was at a restaurant, a five-star, high end, black tie only, type restaurant. When he received a letter- with a distantly familiar perfume that his heart aching, his mother’s preferred scent- with a time and location, he knew that this was not a request, but a warning. Of what he did not know, but it was serious enough that she left with traceable evidence. Evidence he had in his pocket right now. But he wasn’t focused on the letter, but the person in front of him. Talia.
Dear Richard,
“You have to return and be my Alexander, the ruler I have always wanted you to be,” Talia begins, reaching out her hands and placing them on the table, palm up, “In fact, Alexander was twenty when he became king of Macedon, as well.”
Damian makes a face at her hands and pointedly crosses his arms, hands tucking into the bends of his arms, then he speaks, “I do not have to do anything, Talia. The last time you forced my hand, I ended up with a sword in my chest, and I do not want to have a repeat performance.”
You should not search for me.
The frown on the older woman’s features did not make her unattractive, but her lips go from the frown to a small grin as she continues speaking, “I was not in a good place at the time, my son, for that I do regret. However, I do believe I have… motivation for you to come back under your grandfather,” Damian did not show outwardly but his heart was pounding at her words, “A certain circus boy and two aliens ring a bell? And you are searching for a recent nanotechnology theft, correct?” Talia watches as her words sink into Damian’s head, then reaching his heart, “Perhaps I know where the stolen technology went.”
Damian’s face is still impassive, but his fury was raging- demanding that Damian take his hidden dagger and stab the woman in front of him. This woman was not the woman who gave him life, she had died long ago, perhaps before he even left the League all those years ago. But Damian did recognize the person in front of him, this was the person who had no qualms in taking lives, did not care that she was going to kill her own child for revenge- that she was going to kill her son’s family if he did not follow her. “How do I know that you are not bluffing?” Damian asks.
“Are you going to risk them by calling a bluff?” Talia asks smugly. She pulls out a small remote with a few buttons and Damian feels his blood pressure rise, “Think about it, Damian.”
Then she stands, and begins to leave the restaurant, but when she reaches the door Damian pulls himself out of his chair, grabs her arm and pulls her out of the establishment and into the snowfall, “Fine. I will go with you.”
Talia smiles, “Very well, Damian. We will head to the airport.”
I am sorry, missing Mar’i’s birthday was not ever my intention. You should tell Kor’i and Mar’i my apologies.
Dick answers the apartment door with a smile on his face, but it quickly drops into a confused frown, “Umm, do I know you, ma’am?”
The person in question is a pale-skin blonde woman in her early twenties, wearing a wine and golden tank top, denim shorts, white slip-on shoes, and wearing a cross-body purse, “No.”
Dick’s eyes harden as he asks, “Then can I ask why you are at my door then?”
The woman takes a deep breath and blurts out, “I had a customer and he left this note at the restaurant with a huge tip and instructions to come to this apartment today and give it to a “Dick Grayson” while wearing red and gold.” She continues- after pointing at her shirt- with, “I don’t know why he gave it to me or what it says but he gave me enough money to finish paying for my college degree and I couldn’t not do what he asked.” Then she dug into her purse and pulls out the envelope and hands it to Dick.
Dick was taking in all the information quickly, takes the letter, and opens the door, “Come in.”
The woman eyes widen as she steps through the door with, “Uh-okay?” then stops as she spots all the decorations. The balloons and streamers are purple, the table has green cups, plates and utensils, and a colorful banner was hanging in the doorway reading “Happy 2nd Birthday!”
“Dick, who is at the door? Tim said that they won’t—” a tall female with tan skin, wild hair, wearing a purple shirt and blue athletic shorts, steps out of a room, but stops seeing the younger woman, “Hello, I don’t think we have met before, I am Kor’i.”
As Kor’i sticks her hand out, the blonde squeaks out, “Blyss,” and shakes Kor’i’s hand.
“Please take a seat,” Dick says entering the living room, guiding Blyss to the couch and giving the letter to Kor’i, “I’m sorry for acting weird, but do you remember anything from that night?”
Blyss, sensing the serious turn of events, sits on the couch, begins to think for a minute, lips pulling into a slight pout, “He was with another person. She was older than him. They both seemed tense, but it wasn’t a business meeting, it was personal.”
Dick looks at her questioningly and sits on the other side of the couch, “How do you figure that?”
“I’ve worked there for a few years now; I have served food during business meetings- tense meeting- but the air was charged with different type of energy. Plus, not many businesses have dinners that late, usually those times are reserved for dates, engagements, or- a couple of times- divorce meetings. Things like that.”
“Do you remember overhearing anything?” Kor’i asks, finished reading the letter.
Blyss shook her head, “Everytime I walked over they would stop talking, like they did not want anyone listening.”
Dick and Kor’i look at each other, then a loud knock on the door resounds through the apartment, startling the three adults. Blyss and Dick stand up and Dick offers her a smile, “Thank you for the information,” he says as the adults begin to walk back to the door.
Following Kor’i, Blyss smiles, “I hope you find your son. He really saved me with the money.”
Dick flounders for a second then finally gets out, “He-he isn’t my son, he is my brother.”
Blyss stops for a minute then turns to him, “Sorry, it just- when you got that letter- you looked like I did when Nightwing and Flamebird saved my son from the guy who— who kidnapped him.”
Dick though back to the last couple of kidnapping cases and then it hits him. Blyss Hayes, victim of Jaxon Zhao- resulting in the birth of Xavier Hayes. After being released for good behavior, Jaxon kidnapped the one-year old from the park and held the infant hostage till he got a plane to Colombia. Of course, Nightwing and Flamebird snuck into the building, Nightwing taking down Jaxon as Flamebird took Xavier to the ambulances. Then he just nods his head at the young mother, opening the door, “That’s alright.”
Blyss smiles at Dick and Kor’i then says, “Come to the restaurant when you find him, I’ll treat everyone to a free meal.” Afterwards, she ducks around Tim and Mar’i with a small, “Happy birthday!” and runs down the hallway.
Tim, looking where the blonde left and asks, “Who was that?”
It’s been made clear Todd’s infectious old behavior of disappearing has spread to even me.
“Yeah, no shi—” Jason says, reading Damian’s letter, before Dick and Kor’i throw a dark look at him, in response he grins sheepishly, “Sorry.”
Everyone was gathered in Gotham, Bruce, Cass, Barbara, Steph, Tim, Jason, Kor’i, and Dick in the Batcave and Alfred and Mar’i were in the Manor. Bruce and Tim running scans over the paper, ink, and handwriting- Cass, Steph, and Barbara watching security footage from the restaurant leading to the airport- Jason, Kor’i, and Dick were reading the note again.
“The problem is that it doesn’t sound like how normally writes!” Dick shouts at no one particular, running his hands through his hair for what seems like the hundredth time, “But it is his handwriting! And one sentence doesn’t make any sense!”
With your life getting so hectic, I took over the nanotechnology theft case. It has taken me overseas, perhaps an island off a coast.
Damian grits his teeth at the pain on his back, “Five for every year he has been away from us,” came from his Grandfather’s throne. Fifty strikes from a whip, fifty miles to run, fifty new cuts, fifty new burns, fifty miles to swim. Damian never thought having a favorite number was logical, but he hated the number fifty now. No matter how illogical it was, he hated it.
But he had to- to save his family. To save Richard, Kor’iander, and his Qalbi.
So, he grits through strikes, runs the miles, accepts the cuts, grows numb to the burns, and swims the miles. He perseveres through the pain, with the thought of his family on his mind and in his heart.
He has done it for six months, what’s another day?
But he refuses to kill, when they bring him an assassin, he knocks them out, drops his weapon and sits down. His Grandfather then decides that electrocution should be added for his response. When they bring him his meals, he does not eat the meat. He doesn’t eat for two days when that’s all they give him.
He dies once, his heart just giving out from exhaustion. Grandfather throws him the Lazarus Pit.
Damian can hear the waters whispers when he is pulled out. Telling him to crush the larynx of the person in front of him. He sees the green and remembers the color green. Green eyes, surrounded by black lashes, chubby cheeks, and a button nose.
His Qalbi.
He cannot forget about his Qalbi.
That night he takes comfort in the darkness, the black surrounding him reminds him of his Qalbi’s hair, she has her father’s hair. His Qalbi reminds him of his Baba. Of Richard. Richard, the person that always comes for Damian- no matter what.
Soon he remembers everyone else. The wild roses of the courtyard remind him of Kor’iander’s bright hair when she walks into the kitchen for the breakfast Damian cooked holding his Qalbi on her hip, the graceful swans swimming in the pond remind him of Cassandra dancing in the ballroom, the sun of Stephanie’s smile when she looks at Timothy, the library of Jason’s voice when the older man read to his Qalbi before Damian put her down for a nap, the smell of chocolate coming from the kitchens of Alfred’s cookies after a hard night of patrol, the sound of a keyboard clacking down a hall of Barbara’s superior computer skills, the pearl necklace resting on a jewelry stand reminds him of Father’s face when he gave Father one after searching for days.
When he remembers everyone, he can- Colin, Duke, Jon, Maya- he begins to draw them in the sand of his cell. A few people a day, whoever he misses the most that day.
Most of the time, it is his Baba, Kor’iander, and his Qalbi.
The placement reminds me of the infinity charm you bought me when I was, perhaps, a ten-year-old boy.
“I never bought him a damn charm!” Dick screeches, punching the console of the computer. Kor’i puts a hand on his arm, trying to calm him down- she knows words won’t help- and Dick whips around to her face, “Kor’i, its been six months since he has left! I've been going crazy since he never showed up for patrol, I have looked everywhere I could think of. And he is writing about charms?”
Kor’i wraps her arms around his shoulders and pulls him into a hug, “I don’t know, Richard. Perhaps Damian meant something else?”
Dick’s, Tim’s, and Bruce’s shot up at Kor’i’s words, then towards the note.
“He gave us a number, ten, so maybe every ten letters spell something out?” Tim asks, “No, unless the first word is ‘Ddn’ or something bizarre. Every ten words maybe…? ‘Dear sorry tell clear’. No! For f—”
Dick steps grabs the note and reads out loud, “You, Mar’i’s, Kor’i, infectious, with, nanotechnology, island, infinity, ten.”
“How did you know?” Bruce asks.
“Damian finds the address and salutations unnecessary. So, I took that out,” Dick explains without looking at Bruce. “So those are our words.”
Everyone took a minute, to collect their thoughts, before Bruce speaking, “Assuming ‘You’ meaning is Dick, it seems that Damian wrote a warning that you, Kor’i, and Mar’i have been infected with nanotech. And then Damian gave us a location of Infinity Island and ten would be the number we used to get the message.”
Kor’i and Dick froze at Bruce’s words, then Dick was running up the stairs and Kor’i was flying alongside him, “Mar’i!”
Bruce turns to Barbara, “Get in contact to Captain Atom and Cyborg, I want them here ten minutes ago,” then to Tim, “When I bring them back here, I’m going to get blood samples of all three of them, as soon as it’s drawn, I want you running scans on them.”
Then Bruce was following Dick and Kor’i up the stairs to the living room, where Mar’i was playing with some blocks. He watches with Alfred, Kor’i and Dick holding their daughter tightly between them, deciding to wait a minute before interrupting them, then “We need blood samples; so, we can neutralize the tech.”
Dick glances up at Bruce with tears in his eyes, “O-Okay. Let’s go, my girls.” Dick stands up and Kor’i picks up Mar’i to bring to the Cave.
As he passes Bruce, Bruce places a hand on his shoulder and says, “We are going to fix this, Dick, I promise.”
“I know, Bruce. I know.”
Love,
Damian Grayson-Wayne
“Baba!”