Names

It was the end of the week. Damian Wayne sat on the roof of the tower. He had his katana and two sticks of incense. He unlaced his boots and removed them and his socks, he unclasped his yellow and black cloak and neatly folded it beside his boots. Sitting his sword down, he removed his mask and sat it down beneath his sword. Lighting the incense. He began his meditation as the sun began to set. Reflecting on the events that had happened during the week. The missions, past time activities and interactions amongst him and his teammates.

He steadied his breathing and closed his red, sitting down he began to concentrate, they had three actual missions? A couple humanitarian aid activities and then Wally did some community service with Beast boy. Robin was present for three of the missions, two of the aid. Then he went back to Gotham with Batman to solve the Ivy issue that had arose. The door to the roof opened and his eyes followed suit. "Who?" He asked as he turned and stood, it was a pale girl with purple hair. Raven.

"I'm sorry, was I interrupting something?" She asked him.

"I was meditating." He told her.

"Mind If I join?" She asked, he didn't respond right away. Confusion was present on his face.

"If it won't throw off your process." He told her. "I don't mind." She nodded as she approached him. Sitting down beside him on the left side so she didn't disturb the incense. "Welcome back by the way." She didn't know exactly what to say, he'd been gone for two days in Gotham. After their fight with the Riddler and his gang. He didn't really know how to respond to that.

"I never really left." He shrugged.

"Two days." She said.

"You have Jaime and Beast Boy. Red Robin and Superboy. A few others, they are formidable in their own ways." She rolled her eyes. This was unlike him, normally he talked about how he was the best.

"Are you okay?" She asked, an unbelieving expression on her face. He shrugged, unsure of what to say. Facing the dipping sun, he closed his eyes and began to meditate, she got the idea that he wasn't talking anymore and followed suit, slightly disappointed.

He focused again. The missions. The first one was an attempted heist on a STAR labs subsidiary by Reverse Flash. Wally and the Titans (mainly Wally) brought him down. Then it was a string of attacks on businesses by some new player in town trying to establish a name. Starfire quickly dealt with him. Then lastly, the riddler got some muscle and decided he would try to make the heist of the century. Red Robin caught his trail and then Damian, Raven and Jaime quickly dispatched them. Then he had to go to Gotham...He shuddered a bit, but didn't lose his concentration. His father, The Dark Knight himself. Ivy had started a crime spree due to the removal of an ancient tree in the city. She went berserk. When Damian went in, he was caught up in her vines and she hit him with her mind control, making him get what he'd always desired. Turning him against his father. He had no control over it, feeling helpless. He shook his head slightly. He could hear all the voices in his head. His father, his mother, his grandfather. They all called to him. "Robin." His father would call, "Damian, come now." His mother would beckon. Then finally, his grandfather. "Ibn Al Xu'ffasch, you are going to inherit a great legacy. You must be the best there is." He exhaled uncomfortably, it still sent shivers down his back. His name being uttered by that man. Not Robin or Damian. His true name. Ibn al-Xu'ffasch-"Son of the bat". The same man that gave him that name, had almost killed Raven. An image of her on the ground, bloodied did him in; he opened his eyes with a sharp inhale as it made every hair stand up.

"Are you okay?" Raven asked. Had she been watching the entire time? Witnessing his moment of weakness?

Unacceptable.

"I'm fine." He told her blankly as he closed his eyes once more.

"I'm an empath." She told him in a reminding tone. He rolled his eyes though they were closed. "Something is bothering you." She told him.

"I am fine." He persisted. She didn't react. No emotion, no anger or annoyance.

"You don't want to admit it." She told him blankly. "It's okay to open up to people Damian."

"Then why don't you talk to anyone Rachel?" He asked viciously sarcastic. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"You don't have to be that way. You get uncomfortable so you try to push everyone out. You feel like you have to be in control and always have a plan and be the first one into the breach. So when you meditate and you deal with all your inner battles, emotions and demons, it leaves you vulnerable." He stared at her with hate initially, and then it changed to pity. He didn't hate her. He didn't pity her either. He felt a very strong feeling of affection that was almost dangerous. No it was dangerous, no doubt about it. He wanted her safe, after the whole trigon fight and her getting cut by Ra's Al-Ghul, he never wanted that to happen to her again. She never should have had to go through it, it should've been him in the hospital bed. He'd died once already, what's a trip to the hospital? "...Well?" he hadn't heard a word she'd said, just been thinking about a broken Raven that he could've prevented. "Were you even listening to me?" He rolled his eyes.

"Of course I was." He answered, lying to her.

"Then you know Rachel isn't my real name." She said with more attitude.

"Damian isn't mine." He retorted, crossing his arms.

"What is your real name then? 'Robin'? Are you so self-absorbed into your role like your father that you feel you can't separate yourself from-"

"Enough." He stopped her. She instantly felt regret on how far she pushed just now. "My birth name is Ibn al-Xu'ffasch. If anything, I can't escape it, let alone separate myself. It is what I am." He said, collecting his belongings and standing up, leaving the roof. She sat there a minute.

"Ibn al-Xu'ffasch." She repeated out loud as the sun finally disappeared and turned into the night. What did that mean? She asked herself as she phased through the tower back to her room.

Hours went by. Raven searching all the knowledge she had at hand, nothing to help her discover what that meant. It sounded Arabic, she didn't know how to speak it though. Damian, after getting his thoughts and emotions under control; finally went to sleep around 2AM. She opened up the laptop she had and googled the name. Several things popped up, but she knew it meant "Son of-" something. What of, she didn't know. Then it dawned on her, Batman. Son of The Bat...Raven found her self drifting off thinking about it. Around 4:30 she was awoken by a strong empathetic wave. Distress, but from who? It woke her from her sleep. She had an idea where it was coming from. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos." She whispered as she went intangible and floated upwards through a couple floors to Damian's room. He laid in his bed, stirring violently every now and then. He was mumbling in his sleep.

"I...am sorry..." he said out loud. She got closer to him. "Grandfather...don't take...her." He rolled over and then he gasped and woke up, locking eyes with her shook him even more, rolling out of bed. "Raven?" He asked, surprised. "What the hell are you doing in my room?" He snapped at her.

"An empathetic wave woke me up, I investigated, led me here. Are you okay?" She asked.

"I was until you woke me..." he trailed off towards the end, she crossed her arms. He could see the scar on her bicep from the sword still.

"Stop lying." She told him. "You've been pushing me and everyone else out as long as you've been here. Let me in. What was your dream about?"

"I...I died again." He told her. "Nothing special, it happens a lot." He somewhat lied to her. Mostly about the dying.

"You know you can talk to us right?" She asked him, he stayed silent. "You aren't Batman."

"I'm his son." He told her.

"I'm aware, it's in your name, isn't it?" He narrowed his eyes at her. "Ibn al-Xu'ffasch. Son of the bat. I looked it up." He sighed. "What's bothering you?"

"You." He answered. She looked at the ground. "Not like that." He told her, walking over. He was in black track pants and a silk long sleeve shirt. He grabbed her arm and pointed out the scar from the sword. "You got hurt by my grandfather." He told her. "I wasn't fast enough, I couldn't stop him. You are a result of me not being good enough." She was speechless. "It's my fault, now you have to deal with the consequences."

"It's just a scar." She told him.

"It could've been avoided, it should've. It won't happen again. I promise." He told her.

"What? Are you my guardian now? My personal protector?" She joked. He laughed at that.

"I can be." He responded with a completely straight face.

"I can handle myself." She told him

"I never said you couldn't." She shrugged.

"You know, you're not as bad as you say and not as everyone thinks." She told him, placing a hand on his cheek. He just looked into her eyes.

"I know what I am. You however, are different." He replied immediately, she blushed slightly. "Your blood doesn't decide what you're going to be." He sounded like her now. "You're better than your father."

"My father is a demon-"

"My grandfather is called 'The Demon'." She actually never thought about that one. "You're not a ticking time bomb, you're not some apocalyptic prophecy or harbinger of doom. You're Raven Roth. Teen Titan, my teammate." He told her. "I'm not gonna let that happen to you."

"And if it does?" She asked him, nervous and curious as to his response.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. We beat him once, we can do it again. When and where is up to him now." Damian spoke with a confidence that was borderline cockiness. Like he was eager.

"You believe in us that much?" She asked him.

"I believe in you." That line ended the conversation, she wasn't going to argue further.

"I...thank you." She smiled.

"I haven't done anything." He said with a shrug.

"More than you know." She kissed him on the cheek, and went back up to her room. Leaving him there with that, he scoffed as he went back to his bed.

Laying down and covering up. "Guardian...Protector..." He said to himself. Knight. Maybe he and his father had more in common than he believed initially.

"Preserving life is more difficult than taking it. That's what we do, we save people. Helping those in need. You kill a killer and the amount of killers in the world remain the same. We are better than that Damian. You are better than that." He drifted into sleep as he thought of his father's words to him in the cave. The feeling of Raven's lips still warm on his cheek.