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Dick did not like this.
He didn’t like the idea of bringing Damian with them to the very place that he had grown up. The very place that had made him grow up way too fast and not have a normal childhood. Nor did Dick like that Jason had come along as well, stating they might need backup. Both Damian and Jason had been through so much and all Dick wanted to do was shield them from more pain.
But there was also something else. The two of them were hiding something. Damian was uncharacteristically fidgety twisting his hands together, his eyes darting to anything that moved.
Jason was much the same in his own way. He was meticulously taking apart his guns and cleaning them. He slowly worked with them leaving not a crook or cranny untouched. Dick had found that this wasn’t as much of an intimidation method but more as an anxious tick that Jason had developed. When he wasn’t doing that he was quietly talking to Damian in hushed tones they’re heads close together.
Tim on the other hand kept watching the two suspiciously glancing back and forth as the two would talk. He would glance at Damian's lips in an attempt to lip read but from his expression Tim was failing at it. From the syllables that Dick could make out they did not seem to be speaking English.
From what it appeared the two were keeping secrets and if it was a new prank that the two had joined forces to implement, Dick was worried just what it might be. But if it wasn’t a prank it was all the more concerning as the two did not see eye to eye on a lot.
Before Dick could ask what the two were conspiring about, Batman spoke from the cockpit, “we’re just about to land, be ready to go.”
Red Hood pulled his helmet on and shoved his guns into his holsters. Robin felt around his suit for all of his concealed weapons, fingering the handle of his katana. Red Robin checked his utility belt for a last minute check. Dick placed his hands on his hips watching them.
With a rumble they touched down the bat plane, shaking slightly as it did.
After landing Batman emerged from the cockpit with a flourish of his cape. Without a word he strode the exit hitting the button on his utility belt to lower the gangplank. With a hiss it lowered and his tall figure disappeared into the night.
Nightwing took off after him and the others soon followed. As they crept toward the fortress, Batman held up a hand signal and the lot of them split up into two. Batman by himself. Robin and Nightwing together. The next pair being Red Robin and Red Hood.
Within minutes and a few guards knocked out the two were in. As they were winding down the corridors they heard a giggle. They both froze. Glancing at Robin and taking the surprised look on his face he whispered his brows furrowing as he looked at his youngest brother, “What is it?”
Without a word Robin darted into the inky blackness of the caves around them.
“Wait!” Nightwing yelled desperately, taking off after him. A minute of running after his brother he turned a corner and collided with a body much smaller than his own.
“Gah!” They both yelled out in surprise and the two tumbled to the floor.
“Nightwing?” A voice asked, drawing his vision up at his moniker.
“Red? What’s going on? What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be on the other side of the compound,” Nightwing hissed underneath his breath quietly staring at his brother incredulously.
“Hood took off and left me high dry, so I followed him,” Red Robin announced annoyance threaded through his voice and tone.
“Did you get what you needed though?” Nightwing questioned pulling the younger man to his feet. Red Robin nodded dusting himself off.
“Any idea where he could have ran off to?” Red asked.
“No I don’t. I was chasing after Robin. We heard someone laugh and suddenly he took off.”
“Shit,” Red cursed, tapping his comms he spoke, “Red Robin to Batman. Both Hood and Robin have taken off into the compound and Nightwing and I don’t know their current locations.”
After a few minutes of no response the two started heading deeper in the building.
“Come to the throne room,” came a quick but quiet response over the comms. The two glanced at each other in uncertainty. The two took hastened down the path Nightwing followed Red’s lead as he seemed to know where they were going.
“How do you know where we’re going?” he asked, pulling up beside his brother. His brother grimaced and looked away.
“You don’t want to know,” Red declared and before Nightwing could ask what he meant Red began to slow down at an archway with two large doors.
Counting silently on one hand, Nightwing signaled Red Robin. Together the two of them threw open the door before sinking into fighting stances. The room was empty except for Batman, Robin, Red Hood and a mysterious figure lounging across the throne. But that person was not Ra's Al Ghul, it was a woman.
A woman dressed in a tight bodysuit reminiscent of Talia’s but it was a deep blood red with black accents. She stared at the newcomers twirling a dagger in one hand. She had loose black hair that flowed around her shoulders, deep blue eyes that bore into them.
“Looks like everyone is all here,” spoke the woman.
“Who are you?” Batman growled, “And where is Ra’s?”
“Not here, obviously,” she responded, not seeming to care for their presence.
Batman instantly picked up on the fact that she didn’t answer his first question he asked again, “who are you?”
She scoffed before looking away in disbelief.
“Ra’s strongest assassin, his Hellhound.” She declared, looking at her nails.
Seconds passed and she did not say anymore. Obviously becoming annoyed with being ignored Batman opened his mouth to ask again but she turned to him. Her eyes were lifeless as she stared at Batman, a sharp grin growing as she stared at him. Her blue eyes were cold as she tilted her head up to look at him down her nose.
Tilting her head to side a mocking pout curling her bottom lip as she pondered the group of them. “You really have no idea who I am, do you.” It wasn’t a question.
The narrowing of Bruce’s eyes as scowled at her seemed enough of an answer for her. Scoffing she rolled her eyes she turned her eyes to the youngest of the group something in her eyes turned almost soft but that was impossible. Dick moved himself partly in front of Robin attempting to hide him from view even though he could handle himself. If her words were to be believed she was one of Ra’s strongest and most skillful warriors.
But Damian pushed around Dick and strode forward towards the dias and the young woman.
“Robin,” warned Batman, his voice a deep rumble but this did not hide the worry in his voice.
Robin’s steps were sure and confident with no hesitation to be seen. He did not draw his sword or threaten her. With his back to them they could not see his expression. But his shoulders were relaxed and his stance uncharacteristically open. Her blue eyes followed his every move like a viper.
When he was a few feet away from her he stopped.
“How have you been my dear baby brother?” She said like it was nothing but her words were world changing. Her voice was soft and face open as she stared at his small figure standing before her.
Dick gasped aloud hearing her words and the others beside him tensed. Bruce in particular froze completely where he stood, the white-out lenses going as wide as they could. Tim head darted between the woman and Bruce and the others reaction assessing. Tim’s mouth was slightly agape. Jason seemed the only one not surprised by this; he merely began to smile, his once confused face now filling with recognition, his helmet at his side.
Before Damian could respond to her question, Bruce whispered a pained and confused, “What?”
Her blue eyes darted to meet the eyes of his cowl as he stared at the lounging figure upon Ra’s throne. “I would have thought Mother or Damian would have told you by now,” she announced with an almost annoyed sigh as she leaned forward in her seat.
Dick watched as Bruce did something that he did nor expect. He pulled his cowl from his face. Sadness and anger flashed across his face before he settled on a subdued sadness.
“Damian,” B called, at this the boy’s once calm and relaxed stance tended at the sound of his father’s voice calling to him. “Why did you never tell me I had a daughter? That you had an older sister?”
Damian kept his back to them giving nothing away except the aprehensión the tightened the muscles in his back and that pulled his shoulders up to his ears. His hands drawing his hands into fists at his sides.
The girl scoffed her face contorting in a very Bruce like manner as she did, glaring at them in a very familiar way. “Why would you even care?” She demanded her tone cutting, her eyes flashing.
“I-“ Bruce began but not before she cut him off by holding a hand up before standing from the throne. She strode forward until she was standing side by side with Damian.
“You never knew you had a child until Mother revealed Damian to you. Why would it matter that she hid another one from you? You never cared after you left Nanda ParBat, not about Mother, so why would you care now.”
“Sister!” Hissed Damian turning his head to look up at her. His green eyes pleading as they met blue.
She shushed him, placing a calming hand on his shoulder. “Calm yourself Brother. You thought the same as I and have wondered the same thing I have all these years. He turned his back on Mother and never looked back. I merely wonder why he would pretend to care now.”
“Father has always cared,” Damian halfheartedly glared at his sister but Dick could tell his heart wasn’t in it, he too doubted B.
“I have never once pretended to care. I have always been genuine, when it comes to my children,” Bruce said drawing another disbelieving scoff from her pink lips.
“Oh really?” She mocked. “Where was your ‘care’ when you didn’t even tell your first child that his younger brother had died brutally and you had had his funeral without him. Where was your ‘care’ when you second gave you an ultimatum and you slit his throat knowing it was him? Where was your ‘care’ when you knew that your third child was going home to an empty house alone without supervision or care or love? Where was your care when your first child had to step up to father your own flesh and blood? Hmm? Where was it then?!”
“You only care because you have a sense of Justice demands that you do, that you must uphold over anything else, even your own children! You may ‘care’ but you never let yourself feel, you lock it all away putting the mission first. It’s only convenient to care when it is on your own terms and not when your children need it.” Every single one of her words aim to hurt and go for the throat.
“I’m glad I was kept a secret, because I have never had to feel your conditional care!” Her face betrayed nothing but her anger, but a single tear ran down her cheek, her eyes spitting as much venom as her words did. But a deep sadness and hurt hid just behind them.
“Sister,” came the quiet and shockingly timid voice Damian turned towards her before he wrapped his arms around her, his head only coming up to her chin. He hid his face in her throat. Instantly she reciprocated the hug pulling him closer to her.
“What is going on here?” Questioned a near seething voice.
“Mother,” greeted the woman holding Damian in her arms.
“Mother,” acknowledged Damian, barely lifting his head from his sister’s throat.
Talia's eyes softened minutely as she gazed at the two, before she came over and put her arm around the shoulders of the girl.
“Talia,” growled Bruce, his voice slipping in his Batman one.
“Beloved,” she responded coolly, showing nothing on her face, not even her usual almost loving tone when she addressed him.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” He demanded his hands fists at his side, his body tensed as if for a fight. And in a way he was going to get one.
“Just as my daughter, Marinette, said you abandoned us for your call to justice, how could there ever be room in your life for me or our children?”
Marinette. So that’s her name.
“There is always room,” he stated lamely.
“So is that why you surround yourself with children who know suffering just as you do?” She asked but it was more of a statement. Her olive green eyes drifted to the other members of the group.
“Like mother, like daughter,” Tim commented underneath his breath. Talia’s eyes snapped to him having heard what he had said.
“I taught my daughter to see past the lies that others tell themselves and see them for what they truly are.”
“And what would that be?” Tim inquired, narrowing his eyes.
“Liars, who only look out for themselves,” Talia glared at Tim. “All I have ever wanted was my children to be able to protect themselves from such people, but it appears the one who helped sire them is one of them.”
“That’s not true!” Dick exclaimed.
“Oh, is it not?” Talia said tilting her head at him as though he was a child who did not understand the world.
“He cares about us in his own way even if he does not say it aloud, he does!” Dick declared taking a step forward. Talia responded by putting herself between her children and Dick.
“I must be mistaken then,” she uttered slowly, her tone suggesting that she did not believe that she was. “He may show that he cares but when has it ever been when the lot of you needed it? He is flawed just as every human is. It appears even after all this time you do not see that and still look up to him.”
“Talia,” Jason spoke, attempting to break the growing tension. “Of course he’s flawed, every interaction before and after I died shows that. Not that I’m sticking up for him in this situation,” Jason admitted scoffing at the thought of doing so. Continuing, Jason said, “Bruce had every right to know about these two,” at this he gestured to the two hugging siblings. “He never got to even have the chance to be a part of one of their lives.”
“That was my choice,” came the voice of Marinette. “There is only so much hope a person can have in someone before it shatters.”
At this Bruce’s brows furrowed even more, his lips pulsed in pain. “I don’t understand,” he whispered.
“Of course you don’t. When you abandoned Mother you lost the right to have a relationship with any of us. The only reason Damian was sent to stay with you was for his own safety, while I took out those who dare oppose my brother and Grandfather,” Marinette paused looking down at her brother, “now he can come home.”
“Hold on a sec-“ Dick began but cut off with a glare from her as well as her interrupting him.
“And you, Jason, can come home too,” she declared, turning her sights to Jason, pulling a hand from the back of her brother and holding it outstretched to him.
Jason hesitated a second before taking a step towards her but was stopped when Bruce grabbed his arm. “Stop,” he growled, “there has to be a logical explanation for this. My own children would never turn against me.” He looked up glaring at those assembled on the días. “You’re using mind control, aren’t you,” he proclaimed.
Talia sighed. “Your emotions cloud your judgment, beloved,” at this Jason ripped his arm from Bruce’s grasp making him stumble. Jason walked away towards the días. “Is it so hard to believe that your sons have made deep connections with people like us?” When he did not answer she continued, “my own flesh and blood, my son, cares for his mother? Or the boy I found wandering around Gotham in a catatonic state, revived him and trained him and set him on a warpath to those who had dared scorn him, genuinely caring for my daughter and I? Unthinkable” she said growling the last word as she did. “You are a detective, use your eyes to see what is in front of you!” She yelled her voice dropping deep with emotions, and it rang through the throne room loudly.
Jason came and wrapped his arms around the two much smaller figures pulling them both into his arms as he sat on the throne.
“I’m so very disappointed in you, Detective,” chided a new voice, before a figure appeared from the shadows revealing themselves into the light. It was Ra’s Al Ghul. He stood tall, his arms behind his back, his yellowed eyes bore into the last of their group as he looked down his nose at them.
“So you want us to believe that Jason and Damian would willingly choose you lot over us?” Tim stated glaring as Ra’s.
“Not you too, Detective,” Ra’s said to Tim. Rolling his yellow eyes at Tim or perhaps the lot of them, he said drawing himself shoulder to shoulder with his daughter, “I thought better of you than this.” Sighing as he peered down at them, he muttered, shaking his head, “What a waste.”
“You have no say in what they do with their lives or who they live with,” Marinette announced, pulling back enough from Jason and Damian to glare down at them. “You never had the right in the first place.”
Clenching his teeth Bruce turned back to Jason and Damian. “Damian, Jason,” His tone was almost pleading.
“As if old man! Marinette is right, you never deserved us,” Jason yelled from his seat. “All I ever wanted was for you to care about me, to give a damn!” Jason declared his voice wavering near the end of his sentence. “But you were rather stick to your stupid morals than protecting ‘your’ children from the monsters you created with your stupid crusade.”
“Jason,” Dick whispered defeatedly, feeling like stone had made its home in his stomach.
“Oh shut up Dick, you are just as bad! You act like everything is fine even though he is the one who put the world on your shoulders like you weren’t a child, who just deserved to be loved! You smile and laugh and joke like you’re not breaking inside from the pressure that you have to deal with the expectations that he puts on you. For years! You remain loyal to him when he has dished out more pain to you than anyone else. You continue to forgive and pretend like with every disappointment and promise he breaks is nothing as if you yourself don’t matter. You don’t deserve this…”
Dick stood there his mouth agape, clenching his teeth, his hands shaking at his sides. Dick felt exposed. Vulnerable.
How-how Jason seen him so clearly?
Is that how he appeared to him?
How long had his brother held this in? How long had he known?
Dick’s smiles and acting was a perfect performance but how he been so seen.
“Richard,” Damian said, drawing his attention up from the floor which he had not realized how he had been dissociating into his mind while staring at it. “He's right you don’t deserve it.”
His baby brother’s green eyes were so earnest. His brows creased, his lips pulsed as he stared down at him from where he sat.
“I-” Dick began lamely, not knowing what to say to that.
“Enough! Quit trying to manipulate your brother, Jason!” Bruce growled.
“Don’t you dare talk to him like that!” Dick growled, turning to Bruce, his eyes flashing, his back facing the dias, leaving himself open to those who stood there. But he could care less. “He’s not manipulating me! If anything you’re the one who has for years!” Dick yelled, jabbing a finger in Bruce’s direction.
Bruce’s expression flashed with surprise and betrayal before he scowled darkly, looking at Dick and glaring at the people behind him from beneath his thunderous brows.
“They’re right,” Tim announced quietly, which caused everyone to look to him.
“What?” Bruce hissed venomously. Tim flinched at his tone, taking an aborted step away from him.
“All those years of my parents neglect and their conditional care, I should have seen through your ‘care and love’ but…I didn’t. I didn’t,” Tim muttered before he let out a mirthless sad laugh. “Maybe I’m messed up in the head that I thought you would be different from them. I held onto that hope. Desperately. For years!”
Even with his domino mask on Dick could see how lost his little brother was from his slumped shoulders and his shaking hands.
Oh Tim, Dick thought, wishing he could have protected his brothers from their supposed father.
“It seems that you are nothing but poison to those you pretend to care about,” Marinette’s voice rang out clearly drawing their attention back to the whole reason they even came here.
Bruce had gotten word that an assassin from the League had been killing people across the world. They had come here to confront Ra’s about them but this was not turning out like any of them had envisioned.
But maybe this is what needed to happen.
“Your love is poison.” Marinette declared, standing from Jason's knee and the throne. Her hand caressing Jason and Damian’s hair before she strode forward past Talia and Ra’s. She stopped a few feet in front of Bruce.
“Let them go,” she said quietly, her figure standing to her full height but even then she was still shorter than the tall broad stature of Batman.
“What?!” Bruce questioned his lip curling incredulously. “They are not yours!”
“That implies that they were yours to begin with,” Marinette responded coolly, her blue eyes flashing lazarus green for a moment before returning to her icy blues.
“They’re not mine! They are their own people!” Bruce refuted, his voice raising. Tim yet again flinched.
“Then how about you act and treat them like they are, instead of caging them with your ‘care’!” Marinette breathed venomously, her chest rising deeply with her breath as she closed her eyes for a second before she focused back on the man in front of her, glaring at him from beneath her brows.
Tim, who was glancing between them, took a silent step towards the dias.
“Don’t you dare,” Bruce shouted, his voice dropping, turning his gaze away from Marinette to Tim.
Marinette struck out at him the second his eyes left her, kicking his square in the sternum, causing Bruce to stumble back. She didn’t give him any time to recover viciously, striking him again when she saw an opening.
At first, as Dick watched in surprise, Bruce attempted to block her but with each strike he had no choice but to fight back. Dick creeped closer to Tim putting himself between him and the pair. Dick placed a hand on his younger brother’s shoulder peering into the whited-out eyes of his mask.
With a pained groan ringing through the throneroom Dick focused back on the fight. Dick watched in horror as Bruce pulled a batarang from his belt holding it up but before he could throw it, two gunshots thunderously rang out.
One shooting the batarang from Bruce’s hand and the other causing blood to bloom above his right knee staining his dark suit dripping down his leg to the floor. Groaning Bruce fell to one knee cradling his hand to his chest.
Dick glanced back to see Jason, hand outstretched one of his guns pointed at their father.
“Don’t you dare hurt her,” Jason growled, making a move to stand, Damian who had been sitting on his other leg stood to allow Jason to stand. Damian creeped over to Talia who wrapped her arm around him but placed herself in front of him.
Jason strode forward, his gun still raised. Marinette backed off to the side as her blue eyes watched him approach. Bruce’s own eyes that were so similar to hers peered up at him as Jason approached. From where Dick was standing could not see Jason’s face but he could easily read the tension laced tightly in his hulking body as he loomed over Bruce.
“Leave,” Jason demanded icily.
“No,” Bruce panted. Something in his appeared to be breaking.
Taking another step closer so the nozzle of his gun was pointed directly at Bruce's heart, he repeated himself, “Leave. I won’t ask again, old man.”
Bruce’s eyes fluttered before the look in his eyes changed and he stood. Tensing Jason readjusted his stance as he did. Dick braced for his next action.
But Bruce surprised them all and turned and started towards the doorway of the throne room. But then he stopped at the threshold of it and looked back.
His expression was blank as he stared at each of them. When his gaze found Dick, he pushed Tim further behind him.
Jason pulled the trigger letting a bullet wiz past his form, the bullet finding its mark somewhere in the dark corridor behind him.
Something flashed in his blue eyes before he turned back and continued into the dark disappearing from view.
Only after a few minutes did Dick release the tension from his body. Jason also lowered his gun. Marinette, who was standing to the side, came and pulled Jason into another hug, his broad shoulders beginning to shake as he all but collapsed into her arms.
Over his shoulder her eyes met Dick’s who nodded at her.
“He left us,” Tim's voice whispered, pulling Dick’s gaze back to him. Dick pulled him into his arms, lowering his brother to the ground when Tim’s legs gave out on him.
“It’s gonna be okay,” Dick whispered into Tim’s dark hair. It was as much of reassurance to Tim but also to himself.
It had to be.