Morning tea...

Even after getting cleaned and dressed, Damien’s mind continued to mull over what he had learned last night and what he still needed to find out. When night came, he’d be able to scour the dockyard for whomever was storing silver contraband, until then, he’d have to put up with public appearances. He was loathe to do it then, but he picked up his uniform at the utility desk at Wayne enterprises and stuffed it into an over shoulder bag to carry with him to work. He should have been CEO of the company as his father was, why DID he hand it over to the peasantry of this city? With Gotham in shambles after the war he could have ruled like a king, he WAS King of Gotham. That was why Ras Al Ghul chose him as his successor to the League of Shadows and he turned that down too. The only thing he respected was the title of Batman, and he even gave that away too, to him.

Already he was finding hurdles to his reign, already the city saw him more a nuisance than its rightful saviour. His father’s women certainly didn’t respect him, his two ‘queens’ gave him an earful after showing up unannounced. As if they knew what it meant to be the Dark Knight.

“Master Damien?” Called out Alfred from the hallway. “It would seem we have new guests.”

Growling under his breath and pinching the bridge of his nose with two fingers, Damien steeled himself and stepped out to meet who else decided they wanted to see him.

“Is it father again? I already told him I intend to reclaim Wayne…” Stopping in his tracks and clenching his hands into fists, the man found the couch occupied by three new people, each of them being served tea by the butler. There he found Dick Grayson sitting with two other women at either side of him on the couch, smiling amicably to Alfred when he turned his attention up to Damien. The one to his left was the amber skinned Koriand’r, the Starfire. Her hair was so long it flowed over the back of the couch, red like fire, the ends of her hair almost seamed to glow as if her hair was fire itself. Her eyes were soft, green and gave off an ambient glow. Smiling up at the young man, her smile was almost as perfect as the rest of her.

“Hello Damien, we hope you do not mind us intruding, but we…”

“Mother…” Ignoring the woman, his attention was solely on the pale skinned vampire sitting opposite to Nightwing, her hands occupied with holding her cup of tea as she looked up to her son. She had conveniently changed out of the attire she was left in at the museum once they had settled into a room at another nearby hotel, now wearing black leather pants and matching vest to go with a black silk buttoned blouse underneath. Her face was a stoic mask, but her red eyes were a storm of emotions. Turning his attention to Alfred, Damien pointed towards the vampire woman. “Why is THAT sitting on my couch?”

“Damien!” Gasped Kori, bringing a hand to rest on Talia’s knee to comfort her. “This is your moth…”

“MY mother died 5 years ago, that THING sitting on my couch killed my grandfather and wiped out the League of Shadows in a single night! She even tried to kill Alfred and myself.”

Slowly placing her teacup on the coffee counter in front of her, Talia folded her hands over her lap, remaining silent as her son glared down at her. She understood his anger towards her, how couldn’t she? But before she had a moment to speak up, Dick chose to speak instead, resting a hand over hers.

“Damien… A lot has changed over the last five years, Raven…”

Snapping his attention to Dick, Damien glowered down at the man. “I’ve read your reports Nightwing, it doesn’t change the fact that you have a soulless creature who would just as quickly kill you in your sleep as she would share your bed, the only thing keeping her from doing it is that alien there has enough happy thoughts for three people.”

“Master Damien!” Placing the tea set on the counter, Alfred stamped his cane with a stiff frown of his own against the young man. “I will not have you treat our guests, our family like…”

“YOU let her in, didn’t you?” Scoffed Damien, resting his hands at his sides. “Of course, you would.”

“My son, the cat goddess has granted me permission to be in the city, we came to give you information, personally, regarding the activities of Intergang in Metropolis and New Gotham.” Pulling a folder of papers out of a leather satchel at her side, the pale woman placed it at the center of the coffee table. “This is all we’ve gathered so far on their operations in Metropolis so…”

“Leave! Now!”

“Damien!” Standing up from his seat, Dick scowled back at the young man, his hands clenched into fists. “She doesn’t deserve that.”

Scoffing at the man standing up to him, Damien darted his eyes back at his mother and back at Dick, his face still a mask of indifference when he leaned forward to glare back at the man. “Doesn’t deserve it?! I’m surprised you’re defending the talking dead-woman that killed Jason by gutting him out and turning his wounded body into a claymore mine.”

Slowly turning his attention back to Talia, she lowered her head, not wanting to make eye contact with either of them as they argued over her. She was expecting Dick to be heartbroken, that he’d hate her now, more than ever. But what he said next made her gasp.

“That’s not her anymore.”

“Why? Because YOU say it so?”

“Yes.” Answered Dick. “Because I say so.”

Furious at the man, Damien pointed over to the entrance to his hotel suite. “Get out, all three of you.”

Exhaling out his nostrils, Dick looked over to the disappointed Pennyworth and back to both women sitting on the couch with him. Slowly nodding, Nightwing gathered his things. Talia and Kori did the same, moving away from the couch and coffee table to head to the door where Alfred Walked them out, still leaning on his cane to do so. Gathering their things, Koriand’r wrapped her arms gently around Alfred and kissed him on the forehead. “Thank you for the tea, Mr. Pennyworth.”

“You’re very welcome, Miss Koriand’r, I do apologize for Master Damien’s behaviour.”

Shaking hands briefly with the still upset Alfred, the two were surprised when Talia closed the distance in the hopes of hugging the elderly man but thought otherwise when she spotted her son staring daggers back at her. “Farewell Pennyworth. I’m… I’m sorry for all those years ago…”

Nodding in agreement, the butler helped guide the trio out the door. By the time the door closed, Alfred turned on his heel to look back at his charge and discovered the man had a wooden stake in his hand the entire time his back was turned. After a minute of waiting, Damien unceremoniously dropped the stake on the coffee table and sat at the lone chair to pull up the documents his mother had brought.

“Master Damien, I know you and your mother are estranged, I know what she has done in the past, but…”

“Alfred, when you’ve got the chance this morning, I want you to fetch a cross from the market, doesn’t matter where. I want it nailed above the lintel of the door before dusk.” Flipping over the pages of the report, Damien didn’t even look up from the report to see Alfred lower his head and slowly nod.

“Very well… Master Damien, will there be anything else?”

“No Alfred, after the report I’ll be heading to work to keep up appearances, tonight I’ll investigate the dock works, I had received word from some sources that our silver smuggler may be situated there.”

“Yes, Master Damien. I’ll prep you your clothes for today’s shift.”

*

Stepping out the front doors of the hotel together, the three remained silent even during the elevator trip down to the main floor. No one knew what to say during that entire experience until they reached the convertible, they had rented to make their visit to New Gotham. Pulling out his keys to unlock the door, Dick found a pale skinned hand rest over his.

“You have no idea what it was like… Vampirism. The freedom of it, the POWER, the pleasures. It was intoxicating, nothing felt wrong, or shameful. I felt like I could do anything I wanted, no one and no thing was important to me or my desires, not my father, not my son, not Bruce, the only thing that gave me pleasure was knowing I was satisfying HIM. Then… I came to realise it wasn’t a freedom. I was never free. Vampirism… Takes as much as it gives. Everything was cold to me, meaningless, and any ability to appreciate what I had in life was gone and out of my reach. My son was right, I was… I am a soulless thing, only a soulless creature could do what I did; without loyalty or regret.”

“Friend Talia…” Whispered Kori, coming up from behind the vampires to wrap her arms around her waist, by then the woman was crying.

“I killed Jason’s pack one by one, I did it with a smile, I was laughing the entire time. Joking about taking trophies.” She answered, sobbing. “But after I split him open, I didn’t want him to die quick, I wanted Bruce to suffer. I saw to it that when Bruce found him, he’d be scarred for life when I turned him into a booby trap to take as many of his pack as possible. I’m a monster! A talking corpse with a dead heart that can’t feel anything.”

Feeling Dick’s hand slip out from under her own, she was expecting anything, a slap across the face chief amongst them. Instead, she felt him cup her chin under his hands, making her look up with tear-streaked eyes to look deeply into his. For almost a minute, his soft blue eyes bore into her red, tear stained ones, doubt and worry creeping in before he pulled her in for a kiss. When he did, she practically collapsed into him, wrapping her arms around his back as she broke the kiss and buried her face in the nape of his neck. Kori joined them, wrapping her arms around Talia from behind until her crying turned to soft whimpers.

“Well… That settles it for me.”

Confused, Talia felt Dick separate from her and unlocked the car door, pulling down the roof of the convertible and sat down on the driver’s seat to turn on the ignition. Looking up over his shoulder back to the hesitant woman. Seeing her reaction, Dick explained himself.

“I’ve dealt with some pretty sick people in my days Talia, some a LOT worse than you think you are, and believe you me, soulless people don’t cry about what they’ve done or try to make up for it.”

Revving the car up, Dick smiled back at both women, neither needing any other incentive not to get in. Sitting in the back seat, Talia continued to hug the man from behind, a wistful smile on her black lips.