Chapter Text
Damian has been gone for three days. Three. With no trace of him anywhere. Not on any security cameras or any trackers that were placed on him, nothing. Everybody is in the cave now after searching everywhere in the city.
“Report”, Bruce says after Jason and Tim finally get back.
“We’ve looked everywhere B. There’s no sign of him.” I say.
“Oracle”, he says looking over to Babs at the batcomputer.
“I’ve got nothing either. It's like he just vanished.” She says.
“Well he has to be somewhere.” B says looking around. To anyone else he looks cold and detached but not to us. I can hear the edge of panic in his voice and see it in the way he clenches his fists. The others can too.
Damian has been with us for almost 7 months and it's been interesting to say the least. For the most part he doesn’t act like you would expect a child assassin to. He still diligently trains everyday but there’s more to him than that. He’s quiet, a bit of a know it all, but is respectful and mostly keeps to himself. You would think that he is a normal kid but then he does something weird. Like one time I was outside and found him talking to a tree. When I asked him about it he tried to make me think I was crazy. Another time Tim said that he found him in the kitchen late one night burning food. He looked away for one second and Damian was gone and so was the fire. He’s also a vegetarian because and I quote he’s “disgusted by the meat industry”. The list goes on but no matter how weird he acts he has never disappeared like this before.
“I don’t get it”, says Tim. “Why would he just leave like that?”
“Maybe the demon brat just-” “Got something.” Babs interrupts Jason.
“What is it?” Asks Bruce.
“It looks like one of the trackers just came back online. I can’t get video but I do have audio.”
“Play it”, I say and Damian’s voice comes on the speakers.
“Fuck fuck fuck. Please don’t be dead.” We look at each other in surprise. Damian doesn’t swear nor does he really care if someone is dead or not. One time when he and Tim got in a quick but brutal fight he won and just walked away saying that if Tim was this easy to defeat then he should just let the rogues kill him.
“Don’t be dead. Annabeth will kill me if you’re dead.” Another surprise Damian using someone’s first name. A few moments later we hear a loud huff and a new voice.
“Holy Hades that was close. You okay bro?” The voice was male probably late teens or early 20’s.
“I am unharmed Jackson. What about you?” Damian asks.
“I’m good. Do you know what that one was?” The voice, Jackson asked. Out of the corner of my eye I see Babs typing something trying to get a location I assume.
“I did not get an adequate look at it.”
“Well whatever it was, it's dead now. Let’s go meet up with Annabeth.”
“Why did you take this quest again?” Damian asks.
“It's the last one I need for my college recommendation letters. Once we hand over the uhh-whatever it's called I’ll have all three.” Jackson says.
“Have you even decided what you're going to major in when you get to college?”
“Probably marine biology or oceanology.”
“You would be well suited for either of those.” Damian replies and the two boys fall into silence. We all keep looking at each other like the answer to our questions will be written on someone’s forehead.
“I know we haven’t seen each other in awhile but thanks again for coming”, Jackson says after a moment.
“Of course that is what family is for and we do talk every few days.” Damian says. Family as far as I know besides us and the girls, the only family that Damian has are assassins.
“I know that but it’s still nice to see you. How’s living with your dad?”
“Adequate. There’s not as much chaos as I am accustomed to, there are no limits on training, and I am mostly free to do as I please.”
“That’s good. How are your siblings?”
“They are well. Their combat skills could use some work, I have not had a challenge since we last sparred. Although once Grayson caught me talking to the nymphs. There is a 50% chance that he believed me when I tried to make it seem like he was losing his mind. How is your family?” Nymphs? What the fuck and Damian seems like he wants to actually talk to this guy.
“They’re great, Paul is still teaching, my sister is about to start crawling soon, and mom’s book is about to debut.”
“Thrilling.”
“Speaking of mom, she wants you to call her more. Something about needing proof of life. I try to tell her that you're fine and we would know if anything happened to you but you know how she is.”
“Indeed. I shall endeavor to contact her more.”
“Thanks Bro. By the way, what did you tell your family when you left?” Jackson asks.
“I did not tell them, I left a note.” What note?
“What do you mean you left a note?”
“I left a note saying that some of my other siblings needed help and that I would be back.” Where?
“Damian what the fuck? You can’t leave a note like that. They probably think that you’re with Talia or someone worse. Do they even know you have more siblings other than them?”
“They do not. I see now that that might be a problem. However they know I can take care of myself and I did leave a note and that is more than you have done on occasion.”
“Hey if I have to disappear I always make sure to call home and let mom know why. It doesn’t matter if she knows that I can take care of myself or not. Would you have pulled that with Annabeth?”
“I see your point now. When I get back I will apolo-””Do you have a location, yet Oracle?” Bruce interrupts. Damian and Jackson go quiet.
“Who was that?” Jackson asks.
“My father, but how? Damn it, I thought I got them all.”
“Dude what’s that?”
“A tracking device with a microphone. I thought I had disabled them all but this one came back online. One second an-” The line went dead and we were surrounded by silence once more.
“Sooo… He’s still alive.” Tim says after a few moments.
“He’s going to have a lot of explaining to do once he gets back from helping his “siblings'' it looks like.” Jason says. I look around and everyone's nodding in agreement. What I want to know is; Who is the rest of Damian’s family?