A/N:

what did I tell you, here's the latest chapter, next one should be out soon, by any luck, this will be long finished by the end of next week! whoop whoop, two more chapters :D - if you spot any typos or mistakes pls tell me, don't flame (don't be a douche)

oh and I uploaded a young justice one shot, which is why this chapter wasn't earlier. have fun ya'll

"What you grumbling about Demon Bird?" Todd exhaled, as if Damian were the grand bane on his existence. Todd couldn't have been furthered exposed for attacks, head thrown back and muscular arms hung useless at his side.

Damian curled a lip at his conduct, "Your severe incompetence," he responded.

Drake kept typing upon his computer glove, side pressed against Cain as she and Brown chattered. "You'll be there a while," Drake muttered. Todd tossed a pebble and Drake's stomach which he didn't even attempt to dodge.

He continued to amble, back and forth and back and forth, until he halted and glowered at his so called 'siblings' and Brown. "Where is that man?" he crossed his arms. "We've got the precious chaos shard he'd wished and still he doesn't claim it. I suggest we use it to return home without his 'guidance'."

Todd finally straightened and scratched at a crack in the stone tile, "You know how to use it squirt?" Todd interrupted, "Without it blowing up?" It couldn't be that difficult. A chaos shard had brought him to life and bestowed him with gifts, compared to them; he was a well-versed experienced veteran.

Damian's arms tightened and he fought to loosen them at his sides. "I'm far more equipped to handle the shard than any of you," he responded.

Brown rocked forward, clasping her ankles and shrugged. "Maybe," Her sense would be short lived. Damian knew this, "But that isn't saying much. You were kind of d-e-a-d the entire time it was around."

"Why are you spelling that?" Damian grumbled. He didn't understand Brown and he'd be better off not attempting it.

Damian had known Brown would attempt to ruffle his hair. She was predictable and soft, "Because your innocence has got to be protected." Damian hoped his glare could burn off her smooched pout.

"And, don't you have a spelling test come Thursday?" Drake added.

Damian narrowed upon the loathsome Drake. He would only know this if he'd found the schedule his form room teacher had printed out for them. The printed out paper inside of his school bag, inside of his severely off limits room.

Todd barked out a laugh, and Damian's jaw tightened.

Cain's head tilted as Brown cooed, and Damian witnessed them all lose the miniature respect they had for him. That just wouldn't do. "You entered my room, Drake?" Damian spat, but ever so quietly, so as not to set off alarm bells.

Drake lifted his head from that stupid holographic screen with an even stupider expression. He took in Damian's flying stars clenched in his fist and Drake straightened his spine. Yes, that was much better.

Damian could work out some agitation while they pointlessly awaited this man. "Why would I want to go into your room?" Drake asked, barely mulling it over.

Damian's vision narrowed, "I don't hear a denial, Drake." Did Drake not even attempt to placate him? This was unacceptable.

"Would you believe me, if I did?" Drake muttered incredulously.

Damian snorted, "-tut," of course not. It was ludicrous to even voice that thought.

"Have you the shard?"

Damian hadn't sensed the intruder, though he was less at fault than the others who faced him to degreed angles. Todd grinned, much like a shark, pointed fangs and a stupidity in perception, "You kept us waiting." His 'siblings' and Brown, at least, rose into defensive stances.

Evidently, the man who'd kidnapped them from their realm and tacked them onto a truly painstakingly simple mission was not – for the most part- a human mortal. He was in fact an Imp. He would die at Damian's blade for his transgressions.

Fine, not die – would be severely maimed beyond all repair.

He was not though entirely familiar. He was certainly an imp, like that one that bothered that foolish alien in Metropolis. He didn't, though, have the markers of that certain one.

His skin was solid ebony and his hair a platinum silvery white, trailing over his pointed ears and bulbous nose. Damian caught a flash of gold for orbs before they disappeared in the fall of locks. "The chaos shard," he outstretched long fingers for the case.

Cain did not relinquish it. Damian huffed, as if, they would.

"First, we want a few guarantees," Drake uttered. It wasn't a request, by any standard. Todd snickered, leaning back against a counter in the industrial warehouse they'd awoken in.

Imp swiveled his fingers back into his robe and awaited their claim.

Drake eyed him, untrusting at the very least. "First, we want your word you'll return us to our time, and we want the guarantee that you know how do that safely." Damian might have worded a little better, in ways that would have ensured a reply.

Imp's head tilted this way and that, like Alfred the Cat spotting food in Damian's fingers. Until his head bowed regally, "You have my word," he pronounced gutturally.

Damian sensed this Imp was well versed in serving others, just as Damian had suspected. Drake nodded in thanks, "And secondly, we'd like to know whose biding we're actually doing." Todd's grip tightened over his guns.

Imp stilled, the faint brush of his hair halting at the words. Imp was not supposed to let them find out about that. Whoever took them from their realm entirely underestimated Damian's – and perhaps, his 'siblings' plus Brown's – value. This had been a job Damian could complete on his lonesome, easily.

"Keeping tight lipped about it won't help you here," Todd attempted to threaten. His gun knocking absently against his thigh, and he even had the mockingly consoling voice which did nothing to Imp.

Her hip jutted out Brown nodded, "That's true, obviously. But don't worry about it. We just want to get home and know that we aren't destroying one in the process." She squinted at Imp, "You feeling me?"

Todd scowled as his tactic was thrown out. It was a pathetic tactic to begin with, and Brown's urge for sympathies wasn't any better. They were all imbeciles, except perhaps Cain.

Imp revealed his palm again, silently asking for the case. Drake raised a brow, "Not until you tell us who we're being forced to work for with this. As far as I see it, we're all acting against our own wishes. Don't you think we can help you?"

Imp stilled again, his palm flipping downwards dejectedly and his head tilted again. "I do as Master commands," Imp inclined, confusion evident.

"Who is Master?" Brown carelessly asked.

Imp brought his fist closer, as if scared of them. Drake bent onto a knee which was a preposterous move, "We're here to help whoever we can," he intoned. His ploy might have worked. In a world of rainbows and honey suckle.

"You'd betray Master," Imp didn't so much as ask. His wrist clacked in a swift movement.

At first Damian didn't understand. And then he noticed the slash through the tall warehouse walls and pillars, squiggles of cracking stone breaking upward through the wall and Drake stood as he finally understood his foolishness.

Damian caught Imp absently clicking his fingers, and suddenly the case holding the chaos shard appeared in the palm of his hand. Cain lunged for it, knocking Imp across the stone as the ceiling dusted them. Damian jumped into the fray to distract Imp as Cain vanished in the chaos of falling stone.

"Hood," Drake shouted. And Todd barreled into him to knock him off a large patch of ceilings path. Imp had disappeared in a blink of an eye, and the warehouse gave off roaring groans as its top half caved in.

Damian heard Todd grunt at added pressure over his spine, dust choking the little air left beneath Todd's straining arms. "Todd," he hissed.

Damian lit the flashlight upon his belt, illuminating the miniscule space left barricaded from caving in by Todd's stubborn form. He'd actually attempted to save him. It was unnecessary obviously but Todd had attempted to save him.

Grayson attempted to save him. Todd attempted to kill him. And he attempted to kill Todd.

It was odd, and unexpected, and not what he'd planned.

"Todd," he began, squirming out from beneath the shaking arms. Damian ignored the raspy negative. He might as well, "Hold still." And Damian pushed upward, throwing off the stones to expose dusty sunlight and relieving the burden off Todd's back.

Todd rocked onto his heels, panting as his large shoulders shook out their discomfort. He steadied a bright teal gaze on Damian, "Forgot for a second you were a demon." He shrugged, and then winced at the act. "Real glad I paid for that extra layer of Kevlar," he breathed a sigh of relief.

Todd plodded onto his behind, "That was foolish," Damian muttered. Todd had always been odd, hadn't he? Grayson would want him to thank him, for saving his life despite how unnecessary that action was. "Thank you," he bit out, "I presume."

"Don't hurt yourself," Todd snickered. He pressed fingers to his ribs to check for breaks. He might just be a more imbecilic than Drake.

Brown raced up to them, relief evident, and "I thought creep-o had zapped you." She gestured a thumb where Drake assisted Cain to stand, "We need to scram, like ASAP. Come on," Brown grabbed Todd's arm and slung it over her shoulder, practically willing them forward as Todd grunted.

Damian kept pace, "Where's the case?" he interrogated.

"Mr. Creep-O got it," Brown beamed.

It wasn't a divine plan of dues ex machine, and yet it happened to work. Imp's Master had to be an extremely foolish man for underestimating them so thoroughly. They'd simply switched the Chaos Shard's container for another, which they stashed several clicks East of their current position.

A grade C ape could see though the plan with enough intention.

Todd grunted, "Don't believe he actually fell for it." Damian didn't approve that they had the same sentiments.

Cain skimmed dark locks behind her air as they trailed through the dim underbrush of the abandoned town across Gotham's bridge. "Maybe this, his plan," Cain offered.

Drake took Todd off Brown's shoulder and frowned, "To what, take a useless case and leave us here?" It was a preposterous idea, though not what Cain insinuated and it took Drake long moments to understand that. "Oh," he blinked wide, "You think we're supposed to be left here?"

Cain acknowledged his words.

Damian floated forward, already digging the casing they'd stashed the chaos shard back up. "We've got to figure out how that shtick works," Brown grumbled, scuffing her boots.

Drake shrugged and Todd grunted at the movement, "Right now. I think we should find out what B thinks about this."

"How about no," Todd grumbled. Drake smirked at him and adjusted his hold on Todd's arm.

"You can't be serious, Drake," Damian scowled. He would not have Father look at him like an enemy, not any longer. Not without a perfectly logical and reasonable explanation on why that fact was to happen. He clung to the casing as Brown kicked dirt back into the hole it'd left.

Drake's smirk tipped crooked, which usually meant Damian would have to maim him to shut his mouth. "I didn't say we had to talk to him," he responded.

And yes, okay, that was much more efficient.

Todd whistled, "You want to play covert on ole' Bats?" he grinned, sharp canines and sharper laughter. He knocked into Drake, "I knew there was a reason you're my favorite." Not like anyone was fighting for the role.

Cain nodded, "I like it," she insisted.

And Brown giggled, waggling her brows and throwing an arm over Cain's shoulders. "I'm so in. Well pipsqueak," her blue orbs glittered over Damian. "You want to prove one off over your old man?"

Damian barely dignified that with an answer. It would be a grand opportunity to prove to Father that with the years he could take on his role. He nodded, "You'll require my help," he informed.

Todd just laughed.