The courtyard is a scene of chaos.
When Damian kicks his way past a few shadows, huddling together to watch the situation, he sees a battle of individuals. Something tells him that it is his father who fights even though the man wears a dark cloak and conceals his face with a what can only be described as a cowl.
"It's been a while since he's put on his cloak," his mother remarks beside him.
Damian does not bother to interpret that statement. He hopes the sentence is as simple as it sounds because he doesn't have a lot of time to spare any precious thought.
Damian watches as Lady Shiva's fallen form, several feet away from his father, slowly gets up. She wipes at a trail of blood that stems from her nose. The situation explains itself. His father had been fighting Lady Shiva and somehow had thrown her several feet away from him. Damian would look for more details if he didn't spot Cheshire approaching him with one of the cockiest grins he had ever seen.
"I knew you'd get out, little prince," she doesn't seem to care for the scene behind her.
Damian snorts and then stands in a position that suggests that he would attack her should she provoke him.
To his surprise, she holds her hands up.
"I'm not here to fight," she claims, "not when the odds look to be in your favor."
"How so?" Damian's mother answers for him. She does not seem as uptight as Damian.
Cheshire opens her mouth but then Damian's father is sent flying into the wall. The sound of the impact catches all of their attention as Lady Shiva stands stoically in the middle of the courtyard. Damian observes and finds himself mildly surprised when his mother heads to his father's aid. She keeps an eye on Lady Shiva as she checks over his sunken form. She then reaches out a hand which he clasps without any hesitation.
"My love," she sings sweetly.
"Talia."
"Perhaps I can lend assistance?"
He grunts.
His mother somehow takes that as a 'yes' because she stands facing Lady Shiva with the intent to fight once more. Damian was unsure how his mother planned to take Lady Shiva down. The woman was an extreme master at martial arts with none to rival her except for his grandfather. Damian also learned, by simply watching her recent spar with his mother (in which she got beaten to a pulp and tossed into a cell alongside him), that Lady Shiva had an observant eye. Somehow, in some way, she had a better read on her opponents than he's ever seen. She seemed to be able to predict their moves before they happen. Was it experience? Damian was unsure.
Lady Shiva starts in a full-out run toward her opponents.
Damian cannot explain what happened. All he knows is that he cannot turn his eyes away from their deadly dance. Lady Shiva effectively blocks each and every single jab and kick sent her way. She quickly turns the tide by sending Damian's mother a swift kick in the stomach that sends her spiraling back. She then turns her attention to Bruce with a diagonal chop to his neck that he stops with the side of his arm. The rest seems to be a blur. Damian would almost call it an even match should he not have seen his father get hit a few times.
Damian watches as she gains the upper-hand. She pulls his father's arm backward in mere seconds and kicks his back hard enough that he falls on the floor.
Cheshire stands still next to Damian and watches the fight with him.
How could this possibly be in their odds?
Damian glances at his companion and realizes that she isn't going to make any effort to join in the fight. Damian then looks at his father who struggles to recover from his position and his mother who massages her skull after waking up from her small nap after hitting her head against the courtyard's concrete wall.
Damian wonders if he'll regret this later.
Damian runs forward while willing all the shadows near him to his aid. None of his grandfather's servants obey his command, but the shadow of objects immediately shimmer in obedience. They swirl around his person and crawl up his body as they have done previously. That is when a sharp sword forms within his hand - resembling the appearance of the sword he had summoned the day he had woken with the newly formed pact - and he charges at Lady Shiva with thoughts of death.
He cannot go easy on her. Doing so meant that he would be risking his life.
He swings at her and she lets go of his father's arm. Her foot no longer keeps him down on the back either as she has to use her whole body to prepare for Damian's sword.
Damian is told not to speak to the unworthy but Lady Shiva is worthy.
And so he opens his mouth.
"Stop standing in our way!"
He swings in empty space as she steps to the side to avoid his swing. He compensates immediately by slicing sideways but she jumps back in an excellently performed dodge.
Damian knows, quickly, that she is not taking him seriously. She does not treat him as his father. It seems, instead, that she is simply observing him. Perhaps she thinks him too below her to properly fight back.
"Damian?" His father calls out as he finally regains his bearing.
"You waste potential," Lady Shiva's voice is as smooth as silk. Damian didn't remember the last time he had heard it. Had he ever heard her speak? He's not sure.
Lady Shiva runs forward at lightning speed and grabs hold of Damian's collar before he can even blink. She lifts him in the air and stares in him dead in the eye.
"You remind me of her," she says slowly, carefully, "wasted potential."
Her?
"My daughter," she whispers, "where is my baby?"
Damian knew vengeful spirits didn't particularly make sense all the time but he had thought Lady Shiva had been the most intelligent out of all of them. It was strange that she would revert back to such nature during their one-sided battle.
He glances at the ground where his sword had fallen on the ground, vibrating as if upset to be away from his hold, and then he kicks her hard against the chest.
She drops him.
Damian lands on his feet in a crouch. He grabs his sword and slices at her knees.
She jumps over his sword.
His father calls out his name, loud, and Damian doesn't understand until he recognizes that Lady Shiva is no longer going easy against him. She readies a fatal blow against the top of Damian's head with the heel of her boot by raising her leg. She brings it down and Damian holds his sword up as if it was enough to keep his head safe. He was certain that his strength paled in comparison to hers. She would probably ignore the sword all together and successfully land a hit on his head that might just prove fatal.
But then he feels something warm.
It's not him.
The wind rushes past him and his face presses against someone's chest.
For a moment he thinks it is his father. There is no other man here.
Wrong.
A hand cups the back of his head gently as if he is made of china glass. His chest burns with relief that is more overpowering than his own feelings. It doesn't take him long to conclude that the man who cages his protectively within muscled arms is Grayson.
"I have you," Grayson breathes.
Damian ignores the way he clutches at Grayson's shirt for his dear life. He ignores the slight trembles throughout his own body because of the fact that he could have had serious harm done to him. A harm that would cause a child, his size, to possibly face a life-threatening situation.
"Dick," his father calls out.
"I'm here. Brought some calvary too."
"Jason?" His father jumps to conclusions.
"And Tim," Dick adds in.
His father says nothing after that. He simply gets up and raises his fists against the seemingly mournful Lady Shiva. Damian's mother also returns next to his father's side and readies herself for round two.
Shadows creep at his mother's back as if finally heeding her commands. Damian also sees, from the corner of his eye that is free from the pressure of Grayson's chest, that his father glows slightly.
The glow starts out small until it grows to conceal his father's entire form. The light covers his entire body with rays that were bright enough to cause several onlooking shadows to cower in submission.
Grayson finally releases Damian, but not without fussing over him. He looks, pokes, and prods for injuries on his smaller body. Damian swats at his hand in irritation and ignores the feelings of rejection he receives on Grayson's side of the bond.
How could there be such a being that was so emotional? Damian can not wrap his head around it.
But Damian was not unfeeling as much as he'd like to be. He feels a tiny amount of gratitude but he covers it all up with stubborn pride.
A hand lands on his head.
"We'll get you out of here," Grayson promises.
Damian believes him.