I don't want to be here, I don't want to be in this city, and I don't want to go to this academy.

A shuffle of papers allowed the young girl to bring her attention to the large mahogany desk in the dimly lit office. The office was in a back corner of the school, likely the oldest part of the academy that had not seen a renovation in its existing years. The office smelled like old papers and a hint of lavender. The pleasing plant was on the desk beside the harsh banking lamp. The back walls were a mint green colour that was chipping around the wooden baseboards.

I hate it here. I want to leave.

"Auden, sweetheart, are you alright?" the secretary asked concerned.

The secretary looked to be in her mid-thirties with dyed red hair. The brunette roots were slowly starting to show. The secretary had tired brown eyes and deep circles under her eyes as if she weren't getting enough sleep. Her face was pale in the harsh light that did nothing to complement her complexion. She was wearing a simple cardigan sweater with black dress pants behind the large desk that seemed to make her form seem smaller than it truly was.

The secretary repeated herself, seemingly patient with Auden.

Auden felt her face flush with shame. Nodding to the secretary, she extended her hand towards her freshly printed schedule. Auden briefly reflected on the classes she was to take and quickly pocketed the schedule. Auden went to leave the office space but before she could scurry out the door, the redheaded secretary spoke softly, "Auden, we have a student from one of your classes to serve as a guide to the academy."

Auden shook her head vehemently, she didn't need anyone to help her. She didn't want anyone to help her.

"Auden, it's only for this week. You're new to the academy. I hear that the student guiding you may know of some quiet places to be alone if you want privacy or somewhere to study away from the noise."

Auden felt her lip quiver, pushing back the knot in her throat she nodded in acceptance.

"Alright Auden, he's right outside the door sweetheart."

Auden nodded, dejected and feeling morose.

Walking out the door and staring at the marble floor she looked at her black oxford shoes and her legs clad in opaque black tights. Her skirt was itchy and made of a material that she just wanted to pull away from her body. Her dark sweater with the embroidered academy sigil was heavy and dragged the material down.

Her black hair was pinned back intricately in a braid. She hated that too, she wanted to hide behind her long locks of hair. Instead it was pulled roughly from her scalp into a hairstyle that hurt to keep there.

Auden couldn't help herself, she pulled the pins from her hair and let her long black hair flow freely from her head. The plaits of hair were free from restriction and Auden felt her shoulders become less tense. That was until she heard a voice from the other side of the hall.

"Auden Maxwell," the boy stated abruptly but not unkind, looking the new student up and down.

Auden bit her lip anxiously and blinked at the new student she was meeting for the first time.

He didn't smile but he didn't glower at her either. He was taller than she was with jet black hair and striking green eyes that met her gaze.

Auden looked back down at the floor, unsure of what to make of her companion.

He turned his back to her and began to walk a few steps ahead, when he didn't hear her accompanying footsteps he looked back to her still form.

"The school isn't going to reveal itself to you, come on." The student spoke impatiently.

Auden shook her head and rubbed her wrist that was covered by the long sleeve of her sweater. Auden felt her bruises through the thick material and continued to shake her head.

"You don't speak…" the student realized narrowing his eyes, "I knew this wasn't going to be easy,"

Auden glared at him, he was extremely annoying. He seemed to think he knew everything.

"Listen, I'll show you the school in five minutes and I'll leave you alone the rest of the week. Can I just please give you this guide now?"

Auden hide her hands in the sweater's sleeves, she sighed and let her shoulders drop.

Nodding, she walked a visible two feet away from her student companion.

"My name is Damian Wayne."

Recognition of the despised name flew through Auden's mind. She was brought back to a moment where she was reminded of how the Wayne's ensured her guardian would never become successful. That lesson had been a painful one.

Her guardian hated the Wayne family.

Damian did not acknowledge her anxiety towards his identity, but was intensely curious about her visceral, yet subdued reaction.

Ignoring the reaction to his name, he continued walking alongside her.

Auden felt too warm and uncomfortable, her face becoming ashen.

She soon stood still once more and pursed her lips trying not to become overwhelmed.

The boy turned to her and blinked, seeming to analyze her reaction.

"The tour can wait, you look like you're going to become ill. The nurse's office is ahead, three doors on the right. Go in and show them your schedule, they'll know how to help you."

Auden nodded, before leaving she squeezed Damian's hand in a gesture of thanks. Her hair was flowing behind her as she walked brusquely to the nurse.

Damian tried not to stare after the confusing girl, but he wondered what the hell had just happened.

….

Damian had attempted to give Auden the tour earlier in the day but had failed. He had arrived home and was still puzzled. Speaking to Pennyworth, he was unsure of what it all meant.

"This girl wouldn't speak Pennyworth, she's mentally defunct in some way."

Alfred shook his head, "Master Damian, you must not speak in such a manner. You do not know what she has gone through. From what you have said, she appears to be mute."

Damian looked up from the table in the kitchen, "When I told her my name she stiffened like she had been warned about us."

Alfred's eyes narrowed, "Master Damian?"

"I told her 'my name is Damian Wayne' and she reacted as though someone had warned her to be wary. Does father have enemies in the academy? Perhaps someone he went to school with? Someone who is Auden Maxwell's mother or father?"

Alfred paused from mixing the contents of the large bowl in front of him, "Master Damian, your father's legacy and family name have always been criticized. I would simply say that perhaps she has someone in her life that has believed that the Wayne family has profited from their lack of success. It would not have been the first time."

Damian shook his head, "People are responsible for their own failures and successes. Blaming others for their own problems is infantile. Regardless, I know her last name is Maxwell. I am going to ask Father tonight."

Alfred spoke gently, "For the time being, try to be more understanding of the young Maxwell, she appears to be in the midst of adjusting to a new environment. That can be challenging to some, as it was even to you Master Damian."

Damian blinked, "But I spoke, Pennyworth."

"Yes, I do seem to recall some colourful language in your first statements in this household, Master Damian."

"I'll never live that down, will I?" Damian muttered as he walked with Titus outside.

….

Auden felt sick the entire day, during her visit to the nurse's office she was asked to take off her sweater. Knowing that the bruises would be visible, she shook her head and refused.

Eventually the nurse gave up and let her lay down on one of the cots in the back of the office.

She was not aware that the nurse had called Auden's guardian, explaining she was sick. If she had known that the nurse would call her emergency contact, she would have just accepted Damian's offer and endured the tour of the academy.

Auden was at home and sitting on the floor in front of a full-length mirror, looking at her fresh bruises alongside the ones that were turning a yellowish green.

Stupid school, stupid nurse, stupid boy.

Auden picked herself off of the floor and sat on her bed. It was late, and Auden knew that if she were allowed out of her room that it would be dinnertime.

Instead she was told that she would stay in her room until she could become a normal and functioning girl and handle a day at the most prestigious and expensive school in Gotham City.

….

On the other side of town, a family was about to sit at the dinner table.

Damian had walked Titus and played fetch outside, trying to shake the nagging feeling of uncertainty about the elusive student who seemed to hate his family. The walk had not provided much solace but Titus' running off was distraction enough. By the time he had brought Titus back inside dinner was close to being served.

Washing his hands and sitting at the far end of the table, he waited for his father to come down from putting his briefcase in the master bedroom.

Alfred was still in the kitchen and likely would not be joining dinner if he was preparing dessert.

Damian brushed his fingers against the wooden table impatiently, wanting to ask his father right away about this Maxwell business.

Eventually Damian heard the familiar footfalls of his father and looked towards the corridor in which he would be approaching.

"Father does the surname Maxwell mean anything to you?"

"Hello Damian," His father stated, amused at his young son's impatience.

"Maxwell," Damian replied, hoping for a straightforward answer.

His father sat at the head of the table and narrowed his eyes, "I haven't heard that name in years, Damian."

"Are you attempting to inject a feeling of suspense before explaining the significance of this name?" Damian questioned, not blinking or looking away at the unwavering stare of his father.

"Charles Maxwell was a boy I went to school with at Gotham Academy when I was about your age."

"I met another Maxwell today that seemed to be wary of me when I mentioned my last name. Is he an enemy?" Damian questioned, clasping his hands together.

"Charles Maxwell attempted to merge Maxwell Pharmaceuticals into a partnership with Wayne Enterprises, but our medical division was already advanced. Charles believed that Wayne Enterprises would be bereft without his company in the wings of our medical division."

"He was indeed jealous, wasn't he?"

Bruce shook his head, "He was apoplectic when he was shot down by our board."

Damian narrowed his eyes, "It seems his daughter hates our family as well."

Bruce looked momentarily confused, "Charles doesn't have a daughter, Damian."

Damian considered this, "Auden Maxwell is related to him somehow. Charles Maxwell is financing her education at Gotham Academy. I checked the files at the school when the secretary was out on her lunch break."

"Damian," Bruce started to protest.

"Father, I was unsure if this Maxwell family was a threat to ours. I investigated. Auden Maxwell is under guardianship of Charles Maxwell."

"Is there a particular reason you were interested in Auden's familial connections? Many people dislike our family's legacy Damian."

"She's mute and suffers from some mental disorder. She wouldn't go on a simple tour with me today when I was instructed to help her adjust to the academy."

"She's a new student Damian, she will need some time to adjust."

Before Damian could speak to his father's statement, dinner was served.

Gotham was surprisingly quiet that night, usually that meant that something horrendous was on its way, but at that moment the city seemed to stand still.

Besides halting a major drug deal and seizing munitions, there was nothing to do but patrol various sectors of the city.

Robin had split up and had gone by himself to watch over the downtown core while his father inspected the industrial district. Damian noted that Maxwell Pharmaceuticals' head office was in the heart of the central hub downtown. Knowing he would likely receive a reprimand, he turned off his beacon, knowing he would have about ten minutes before his father would notice.

Grappling through the skyline, he admired the silence. No cars seemed to be roaring down the streets, nor was there any rambunctious laughter or screaming that could be heard. All that Damian heard was the wind whistling as he continued to grapple towards his destination.

Maxwell Pharmaceuticals was an architecturally unappealing office building. The drab grey exterior did not thing to complement the organization. It looked uninteresting and forgettable.

Landing on a building close by, Damian pulled a frequency jammer from his utility belt. Unlike most jammers, this would block out the power and work towards disabling the security alarms and cameras.

With a scoff of how easy it was to break in, Damian grappled to the roof of the building and kicked in the door that led inside. The stairwell was completely dark and reeking of a musty odor. Damian walked carefully down the stairs, sensing where he was going and taking his time to get there.

After several moments of taking the time to check each floor, he found the floor with the office records. Damian's flashlight was pointed at the stack of papers he had pulled from unlocked cabinets.

Ridiculous, they couldn't even think to place locks on the filing cabinets or computers.

Swiping a USB from his utility belt, Damian copied all of the records that were available in the office mainframe, knowing that it would take some time to sift through all the necessary papers.

Damian had one more destination to go before he could return to his patrol: Charles Maxwell's personal office.

Knowing that Charles was likely an entitled and pompous ass, he would have demanded an office in the highest floor with the best view. Damian looked out the windows of the floor he was on. The downtown core was best seen and observed on the eastern side of the building.

Damian knew the general location of Charles' office and he headed back up the dark stairwells to investigate what was lurking in his cabinets and computer.

Reaching the office in a few moments, he stood at the large oak desk and inspected the computer. Charles had no filing cabinets in his office, it was sparsely furnished and lacking any sort of character. No knickknacks or sentimental photos were on his desk, nor were there any framed pictures or posters on the walls.

Standing before the computer, Damian took very few moments to break through the weak encryption.

The desktop background was in greyscale and extremely monotone. Charles seemed to be a man of little interest or character besides his clear entitlement issues.

Very few files were on the computer, but one stood out among others. It was labelled 'HOUSE'.

Clicking on the file, Damian narrowed his eyes when he suddenly saw a livestream of a young girl's bedroom. Resisting the urge to clench his fists, he continued looking at the room. There was a small nightlight on in the corner of the room, softly illuminating the sparse room.

There was a small figure sitting cross-legged on the dark bedspread. The quality of the video was surprisingly sharp, and Damian noticed the familiar black hair and pale complexion.

It was Auden.

Suddenly all of her mannerisms began to make sense. Her muteness, her anxiety, her general behaviour.

Charles Maxwell was abusing his ward.

Damian looked away disgusted. Turning his beacon back on, he called to his father.

"Maxwell Pharmaceuticals, you need to abandon whatever patrol you're conducting."

Once the message was received, Damian turned back to Auden's still form. She was clutching her pillow like it was her lifeline. Looking closer, he saw her bruised and battered body, particularly her arms and legs.

There was no audio attached to the video, but looking back to the files, it seemed that Charles saved many of his streams and converted them to recordings to watch later.

Damian braced himself for the worst when he felt a presence in the room. Narrowing his eyes, he saw the familiar shadow of his father's form.

Without saying a word, Damian clicked on some of the past recordings and witnessed one particularly disturbing video.

Auden was lying motionless on the floor while Charles was kicking her back seemingly trying to get a reaction from the girl. Wordlessly, she was crying but held her hands over her mouth and tried to shrivel up from the blows she was receiving.

Charles was screaming at her and pulled her from the floor by her ankles and dragged her to her long mirror. Charles violently grabbed her by her hair and forced her to look in the mirror at her bruised face and bloodied nose.

He continued shouting at her for some time before he let her go. Without hesitation Charles began taking off his belt.

Before the recording could go any further, Damian exited the file.

"That's enough," Damian muttered, revolted and disgusted by the recordings.

Damian clenched his fists, "Is Charles due for a visit?"

Batman said nothing as he nodded once to his son.

…..

Auden couldn't sleep, her mind kept on racing and she felt tired of not having others understand her. She felt restricted, she wanted to speak, but couldn't bring her mouth to move or her vocal chords to cooperate.

She wanted to sing, she wanted to recite, she wanted to simply say something.

Opening her mouth, she tried again to form a noise. Just one single sound.

Nothing.

She clutched her white pillow tighter. She felt her tears streak down her cheeks and her head ache from crying.

She was in pain, but the emotional turmoil from being silenced was the worst experience she had felt.

She breathed slowly through her nose and out her mouth, but even repeating breathing patterns did nothing to soothe her anxious heart.

Closing her eyes, she placed her feet over the edge of her bed and contemplated walking to her attached bathroom to wash her face.

Her room was fairly large and fortunately had a large bathroom attached as she was locked in throughout the night.

She closed her bathroom door, she would have locked it if there were a lock.

Unsmiling she looked at her reflection in the mirror, her eyes were bloodshot and her face pale and bruised. Ignoring her reflection, she turned to her tub and sat on one of the marble stairs that led to the bath.

It hurt to walk, it hurt to think, and it hurt to feel anything at all.

She was alone, and she would always be alone.

Her lip quivering, she decided to stay in the bathroom for a while. She would sometimes let the hot water cloud the room in vapour so that the mirror would fog, and she could make sure she couldn't see herself anymore.

This may have been one of these times but for the crash she heard in the hallway across from hers, she stood frozen in fear.

Her guardian wouldn't have broken his own possessions. Just hers.

She heard a painful bloodcurdling scream of agony from across the hall.

Sensing that she was in trouble, she bolted from the bathroom and shut off her nightlight in the corner of her room. She scrambled to contain her ragged breathing.

Fixing her bed to make it appear that the room was uninhabited, she threw herself into the closet and carefully pushed her fingers below the wooden doors to close them fully.

Pushing herself to the corner of her closet was an easy feat but staying quiet was another challenge. She was fearful that she would cause a thump by moving so she gently put her back to the wall and waited, shaking with fear.

The screams eventually subsided, and she felt herself hoping that whomever had broken in had only wanted to hurt her guardian. She knew he was a reprehensible man.

He had probably hurt someone that could hurt him back.

Auden sat still, waiting to hear anything in the hall. She couldn't hear anything but tried her best to focus on any noise.

Without warning her door slowly creaked open and the light from the hallway flooded the room in a hazy yellow light.

Hugging herself, she placed her hands over her mouth in case she made any noise in breathing or crying.

Footsteps could be heard in the room, but they were subdued, not like her guardian's stomps. Auden was hopeful that it was not her guardian outside of her door.

Auden witnessed the shadows of a person's form underneath the wooden closet doors.

Walk away, walk away, please walk away.

Auden shrank back but realized she had no further space to move.

Tightening herself into a ball she rested her head on her knees anxiously looking at the closet's double doors.

She heard a low voice speak, "Auden, it's safe for you to come out now."

The voice sounded familiar, but she couldn't place it.

It's never going to be safe.

Slowly the closet doors opened, and Auden shook with fear.

Before her stood one of Gotham's most revered vigilantes. From what she heard, they had done incredibly good things for the city. Her guardian hated them, but she read in the newspaper that they had saved the city multiple times and never demanded recognition or respect.

They were different.

Auden ceased moving and stared unsure of what to do.

A small gloved hand extended to hers gently and slowly.

Steadily she reached for the gloved hand.

For the first time in a long time she felt hope.