Adjusting

By: Malaizjan P.J. Shultz & Reina Grayon

It had been a week since Damian Wayne had been freed from his grandfather, Ra's al Ghul. Living with Bruce again was easy, but Bruce was much older now. Damian found himself making sure his father was well at all time.

Gear and Syfon had run extensive testing on Damian over that time. The results were...breath-taking. Damian had been frozen from the moment his death had been faked until 5 years ago. He had been frozen for months at a time and dipped in the Lazarus Pits repeatedly. His aging had been slowed to a virtual crawl. He was 21 when he should have been in his late 30's. And he would age rather slowly for the next 30 years, which was the best estimate. Worse, he would need the Lazarus Pits every 20 years so the shock of a rapidly aging body didn't kill him.

Bruce was angry that this had been done to his own son, and against his will. Bruce had asked Clark and the JLU a favor: to secure a pit for Damian and Jason, who was going to need it in a few years.

Clark reluctantly agreed.

Damian got to go on small missions with Terry, Max and Areina, and while his skills were there, his timing was off. But training smoothed out some of those rough edges. And Batman, Batgirl and Red Bird were amazingly patient with him, training with him to help him be the Robin he had once been.

Damian then met the team and the next gen group: Wesley, Bruce, Jason, Iesha and Rini. He got the load down on the Master and Mordred. And Damian gave some valuable intel: Ebon was reforming the LOD with people no one knew about. He knew names, powers and home bases of a few. Dick and Jason were all over that, and sent the team on recon missions to check it out.

So far only 2 panned out as legit- one called the Hand who is a master strategist who has one power similar to the Black Hand: the death touch. It takes longer to kill with it but this old man can still do it, stealing life force energies to live a few more years.

And Boost-a guy who can copy the powers of anyone within a 5-mile radius and use them. A skilled gymnast and martial artist, he's mastered several "stolen" abilities and has no issue in using them.

Dick had made a list of Ebon's new LOD, and it looked to be one tough group.

Ebon. Manta. Dymond. The Hand. Yami. Boost.

And Damian was getting to know Serenity, who saw Damian as a lost person in a world that changed on whims.

Dick was proud of his wife, as she showed Damian that her magic could indeed helped him deal with the Master. He even met her older brother Zach and his young daughter Cassidee. While Cassidee was a soul of true light, Damian sense deception from Zach. He was polite, but his assassin's training had him on guard around the supposed Fire Wizard.

Damian watched a wizards lesson with Serenity teaching, and Molly, Cassidee, Mathen, Marik and Reiena the students.

It was only 10:30am, but the young wizards were hard at work. Damian was being a spectator.

Cassidee parted the ground and then she raised it to a small, two-foot tall hill. Marik then made flowers grow on it. Then he lowered the hill to the ground, healed the tear in the Earth and smiled up at his mother.

Serenity had tears in her eyes. "You're back, aren't you? You remember everything."

Marik had recognition in his young eyes. He nodded at his mother.

Mathen went over to his mother as she picked him up. "Mom?"

"I'm ok." Serenity then yelped as Marik grabbed at her chest...again.

"Marik!" Mathen cried.

Serenity put her son down.

Marik gave them both a goofy grin.

Mathen watched as young Reiena made a simple flame appear on one hand, a flame on each little finger. She giggled and the five small flames came together into a ball of fire.

Zach watched with much interest and Damian noted that.

The ball of fire became an arrow that resembled a bird and she had it dance on its wings.

Mathen created rings of fire for Reiena's fire bird to fly through, which she did, her bird dipping its wings before flying on its back through those rings.

"Sway," Marik whispered in awe.

Mathen then turned those rings into a sword of fire as the bird then returned to its ball form.

Zach was truly impressed.

Damian watched as Zach's left hand twitched as if it wanted to produce its own fire sword. His eyes held a moment of rage. But then, finding his moment, that rage was gone.

Only one that was trained like him or learned as Damian had, would have caught that and before Damian could call Zach out on it, Zach clapped heartily. "Bravo! Serenity, you've done wonders for my daughter and your own kids. You should be proud."

Serenity blushed. As a child, she had looked up to her oldest brother. And here, he gave her a compliment that made her feel special. That all of her trials had led to this moment. "I just wish..."

"Gaellan and Marik were here?" Zach quipped.

"No. Trey and Trinity."

"Ah." But his voice didn't hold sorrow for their youngest siblings. It held...indifference.

Damian needed to ask Dick what happened to Serenity's family. Because Zach's...demeanor was one big act. He was hiding something.

Damian watched as Zach got up. He narrowed his eyes as he said," I'm going to grab a spell book from my vault. When I get back, Mathen, you want me to show you how to teleport away as a flame?"

"SURE!" Mathen was excited.

Zach nodded to his sister and teleported away via flame.

"I can't wait!" Mathen said happily.

Damian got up as well. "Serenity, I'm going to work out with Dick at Conner's. I'll see you at dinner."

"Ok. See you then."

Damian soon found himself at Conner's home, in the basement.

Conner had installed a training room in his home to hone in his Kryptonian skills and to learn new skills from Dick and Jason.

Dick and Conner were sparring heavily as Jason was taking a break.

"Hey guys," Damian said to them. What still amazed him was that Bruce's protégés welcomed him as a brother. It wasn't easy to get used to.

"So...what brought the mighty Damian off his throne?" Jason teased.

"Jay..." Damian shook his head. "Actually...I wanted to ask you guys about Serenity. About her family."

Dick stopped the sparing match right away. "Why?" he asked.

"Zach's rubbing me the wrong way," Damian admitted.

Dick groaned. "Not you too."

Damian was confused.

"I think something's up with Zach too," Jason added.

Damian nodded. Jason had learned other skills being away from Bruce over the decades. And Jason made a great sparring partner.

"So...what did you want to know?" Dick asked.

"What happened to her family? Why are her and Zach the only ones left?" Damian asked.

"Ok. Serenity is the granddaughter of Merlin," Dick said.

"Camelot's Merlin?" Damian clarified.

"Same one. Anyway, he had a mortal enemy, Morgan La Fay. She took out the majority of their family over time."

"So...who are Trey and Trinity?" Damian asked.

"Their younger brother and sister; died in a house fire with their parents as toddlers. They were budding wizards," Jason added.

"See, when Serenity mentioned them, she had tears in her eyes. Him? He was indifferent. Like he had something to do with it," Damian told them.

"Serenity and Trinity were the only girls in their family, so Serenity was six when they all died. They then moved in with Merlin."

"Them...Gaellan and Marik?" Damian asked.

"Yeah. Merlin was at Camelot so she was raised by the knights and King Arthur."

Damian nodded slowly. "She was the baby among her remaining siblings... so what happened?"

"Morgan took down Camelot from within, took out Merlin and started hunting down those siblings. Zach and Serenity got separated by Morgan and Mordred. Thinking the other was gone, they hid from her and eventually found each other…with families."

"And Cassidee wasn't trained as a wizard because...?"

"According to Zach, Morgan killed Cassidee's mom days after she was born. He taught her defense spells but nothing else," Dick finished.

"I see."

"Damian...what are you thinking?" Dick asked cautiously.

"That Zach at the very least knows who this Master is."

"I think he IS the Master," Jason said, adding his suspicions.

"But I have no solid proof," Damian added. "If I had been in that situation, I'd train my daughter in everything I could to protect herself. I think there was another reason for not doing his job."

"Such as?" Conner asked.

"Because she would be stronger than him. He seemed too interested in Reiena's routine and he seemed angry that Cassidee was learning so fast. He hid that well, but I still caught it."

"Me too. Last week," Jason added. "That's why I've bern hanging with Meygan and Rini so much. If Zach is the Master or he knows who it is, I want him NO WHERE near my nieces."

"Agreed," Damian told them. "I heard how the Master hurt them. Twice. So I'm with Jason."

Dick sighed.

The boys didn't know it, but they had been eavesdropped on.

"C'mon Dick. Don't tell me you hadn't noticed?" Jason told them.

Dick paused. Then he said, "Rini?"

"Sorry, Uncle Dick." Came a small voice.

Both of Bruce's other protégés stared at Dick blankly.

It was then that two little boys came around the corner.

"Oh boy..." came Conner's voice.

"Why's Uncle Damian worried about Uncle Zach?" The dark haired twin asked.

"Bruce..." came Dick's voice.

"I'm with Uncle Damian and Uncle Jason...something's off." The blonde said.

"Great. Now you got my nephews suspicious," Dick accused the other two.

"It's the way Marik acts around him...I heard mommy say that Marik was claire...claire...I can't say the word."

"Clairvoyant?" Damian supplied.

"YEA."

"Rini doesn't let him touch her," Jason added. "And I've seen it happen a few times. The kids are smart."

"So we do what? All we got are suspicions," Conner asked.

"There's something else, uncles...his fire magic is dark." Little Jason said.

"You can tell that? I thought Wesley was the only one?" Conner said.

"My fire magic can register it." Jason said, not knowing that his fire power was Meta.

"Um...didn't your mom tell you yet, Jason?" The older Jason said.

"Tell me what?" Jason said.

Dick stopped his brother from telling with a silent glare.

"Um...nothing."

Little Jason didn't push, but Bruce did step up beside his brother. "Jay's right, I can feel the darkness too."

"Boys...right now...don't say anything. It could be that Zach is fighting this Master often and that kind of dark power can rub off on him and he'd not notice," Dick explained.

The boys nodded but to be honest...neither was buying that.

"Why don't you boys go play with Marik and Reiena? They should be done training," Conner suggested.

The boys nodded, then left the adults behind.

"Ok. Listen you two, if you really believe this, investigate QUIETLY. Don't talk to Ser about this. And when you're wrong, you two were going to apologize to him."

"Fine," both Jason and Damian said.

But they'd been given the green light to test Zach.