Damian slept on the couch in his home, Bruce and Maria got the guest rooms while Selina had access to his room, it was early in the morning and he hadn't slept at all, too worried about his mom and whether or not the cure would work, if it didn't…he would teach Freeze what an ice cube does when exposed to the sun.

Of course there was still Victoria, he didn't hear from her at all during the night, so he didn't know what was going on at all with her, he wished she could have been there, to see his mother get her cure, to meet his parents was a feat he wasn't going to like, but he hoped she would be liked.

The door to his home opened and a figure silently slipped in, their feet stepped to Damian, setting something down on the coffee table and a kiss was planted on his lips, the young Wayne opened his eyes to Victoria sitting beside his legs, a warm smile on his face.

"Hey, where did you disappear to last night?" Damian asked still exhausted

"Long story, but your grandfather is such a sweetheart." She smiled and kissed him again

"Wait…Alfred? He's here?"

"He spoke to your dad, found the Batcave and Barbara told him everything, he found me in the right time." Tori replied gently

Damian could only smile as he moved her blonde locks away from her face and gently stroked her cheek "I love you."

She smiled and opened her mouth to speak, but another voice interrupted her "Hope I'm not interrupting anything."

He looked up to Selina standing in the doorway to the living room, her brown locks were tied back in a knot and she wore a black robe tightly concealing her figure, a smile on her tired face reassured Damian of everything he feared…his mom was alive.

Tori stood up in embarrassment as Damian raced off the couch and pulled his mom into a hug, to which she returned happily "God Dami, you act like I've been dead for a year or something."

Damian pulled away "Sorry." He looked as Bruce and Maria walked down the stairs, all eyes were on him and the blonde woman who was standing in his living room with a cup of coffee in her hands.

"Right…uh….uh…Mom, Dad, Maria….this is Victoria Queen," He smiled and wrapped an arm around her hips "My girlfriend."

Victoria's face blushed as Bruce smiled at the pair, but Selina had a look of almost concern on it, Maria laughed.

"Ha! Damian has a girlfriend! He's blushing look at him!" Maria laughed and pointed at him

"Shut up Maria!" Damian almost yelled as a brother would "Now I see why I left home." He mumbled to Victoria who smiled gently and pecked him on the cheek

Six months later…

"Alright Mister Wayne, as of this morning, your rental will be done and your new home will be available to move into."

Damian sat on the other side of a desk, sipping from his coffee doing everything in his power to stay awake, since he only slept maybe an hour the night before, he wasn't up to snuff, but everything his realtor Avery Green was saying felt like an old cartoon where adults used to sound like random sound effects.

"Can I see?"

"Sure." Avery smiled and flipped her computer for him to see

The home looked like the old Wayne Manor, it was an old fashioned manor on the outside, sitting near the Atlantic Ocean, on the inside the manor looked brand new with navy blue walls, large windows and must have had a few dozen rooms, it really did remind Damian of Wayne Manor, though with Alfred's permission, certain of his dad's old things would be coming in while almost everything from his room would be moved into the master bedroom.

"Absolutely perfect."

The pair shook hands, if this was the start to Damian's future in Gotham; he would need his own home.

"I think the caverns from the old house continue through here."

Damian led his father and Alfred through the caverns under the new Wayne Manor, he held the lantern up as he looked around, the cavern did like his fathers have an opening through a giant waterfall, but there seemed to be a much larger area of space to operate in. Alfred stood to his right while his father was able to move freely without a cane, it was a warm surprise to see his father move around like a sixty-three year old man should, especially with his physical peak being that of a forty year old male.

"Dad, you have to show me some of your blueprints." Damian chuckled to his father

"I'll dig them up kiddo, but are you sure you want this? Being Batman…it's completely different life then what you're used to." Bruce reminded as he placed his hands in his jeans pockets

"I'm used to it…but I think I'm going to give Batman some time off, I'm gonna need a new suit and with things going the way they are right now at Wayne Enterprises….it's going to be time for a change in management."

"What did you have in mind Damian?" Alfred asked

"Oh I don't want to give anything away." Damian activated the trigger to the elevator system they found and slowly moved upwards "But let's just say Dad will know what I mean."

A smile spread on Bruce's face as he remembered how badly Earl had been humiliated when Lucius got promoted to CEO of Wayne Enterprises. He just wondered what Damian had in mind.

The elevator stopped as the trio moved out of the elevator, the house was on foreclosure but since Damian bought it, they were able to look around.

As they exited, Damian stopped Alfred "Alfred, I wanted to talk to you about something."

"You're not going to convince me not to Damian."

"Yeah, but I mean…do you really want to work for me?"

"Master Damian, in my life I served two generations of your family, your grandfather pulled me in and I had a hand in raising both you and your father, I want to make sure you don't make a bloody mess of yourself as badly as your father did when he was Batman."

Damian smiled "Still haven't given up on me have you Alfred?"

"Never." Alfred hugged him "I'll start when we move in."

The night soon descended as Damian was sitting in his new office, his cell phone up to his ear.

"You're sure Barbara? Good, that's all I wanted, give this information to your brother and Bullock when you can. It's time to end this. Tell Morgan Fox I'll call him a few minutes."

He sighed and leaned back, Alfred had already taken the night off, a date with Leslie had caused that one, Damian didn't need to be a genius to know when even the old people had to go out and play, he was glad his surrogate grandfather was playing a big role in supporting him with his life in Gotham.

As he looked out the window, the pool they had installed for him was shining from the moonlight, though he could hear something from the open window, it sounded like giggling.

He stood and ran down the stairs and out of his house to the back gardens, as he walked, the giggling continued, he didn't know what was going on…until he saw Victoria standing near the pool in a black two piece bathing suit.

"What are you doing here?" He smirked

Tori smiled at him "Wanting to go swimming….but the water keeps tickling me."

"It is sixty degrees out here and you're concerned about swimming?" Damian smirked

She walked over and wrapped her arms around his neck "Come on lover boy." She kissed him "Be Batman for one night…be daring."

"Hmmm…a compelling argument…but…"

She didn't want to hear it anymore; she immediately shed his shirt, exposing her Achilles' heel, his abs, she gently kissed him again and pulled away, teasing him as she dived into the water, Damian smiled as she came back up, moving her blonde locks away from her face; she smiled at him as he jumped in.

He gently swam over to her and cupped her face, making contact with her lips; she wrapped her arms around his neck, letting her hands stick to his head as they continued to kiss, he felt happy, stronger than ever now that she was here, in his arms, knowing as much as she did about him, knowing where's he's been, what he's done…who he is, his secret identity, he was her dark knight and she loved it.

As they parted, they simply looked into each other's eyes "Damian…I need to tell you something."

"What? Don't tell me you practically made me chase you in here and now you want to go inside?" He chuckled

"No," she laughed "no, um…I'm going back home for a while, be with my family. After Black Mask died…and everything he did…, my parents have wanted me to come home."

Damian frowned as he looked at her, here she was, this angel, the love of his life, the only woman who understood him and now she was leaving.

"When will you be back?"

"As soon as I can, they just want to make sure I'm okay, besides, they want me to train my brother in archery, and they intend to have him become the next Green Arrow."

"And what about you? What would you be?"

"I don't know, that's part of the reason why I want to go back."

"Well…you could be my Batgirl."

She smiled "No offense Damian, but I want to be my own person, not your sidekick, I want to stand out there with you, not stand there behind you while you do all the work."

Damian frowned again but was met by Tori's lips "Now I don't want to see that, don't think of this as goodbye, and just as…let's pick this up where we left off."

He nodded "That one I can buy, any chance for something I can have something to remember you by?"

She smiled and pushed him against the edge of the pool "Oh I think I can."

Damian smiled and kissed her on the lips then moved to her neck, while his head told him she was right…his heart told him that he would never see her again and that terrified him to the bone.

Four months prior

Roman Sionis sat in the interrogation room in Arkham Asylum, he felt content within the walls of the Asylum, he knew his organization would be taken care of with his associates, he would be released within the next few weeks, all it would take is just one phone call to his various associates outside of his organization and he would be out and back where he belonged, within the criminal underworld and slowly spreading from Gotham to beyond.

The door to his cell and a man walked inside, he wore a white lab coat, a set of full moon glasses around his grey eyes which gave a glazed look to them, his short cropped brown hair was showing signs of gray and there was a certain unbalance in his posture.

"Good afternoon Mister Sionis." The man smiled almost crookedly

"Who are you? Where the hell is Sinner?" Black Mask asked bitterly

The man straightened himself up "You may call me Arkham, Jeremiah Arkham. I run this institution."

"Oh! So you're the freakin' nut that everyone talks about. Look, why don't you just do yourself a favor Doc, and just beat it, I'm getting out."

Jeremiah laughed gently then it intensified to the point it would be considered insane, behind his mask, Roman scowled at him with a bitter hatred that could freeze Hell twice.

"What's so funny?"

He continued to laugh then calmed himself almost in an instant, the hazy look turned into a look of sociopathic torture "Oh I was just laughing at how you pathetic you sound, you sound like them…those who live here, those who claim they are sane, but in reality, you are insane! You crazy criminals think you can operate in normal society and you can't! You will be my example."

"What the hell are you…"

With lighting fast precision, Jeremiah moved and struck Roman in the throat, then grabbed his mask and ripped it off, slamming the gang leader against the wall and began to constrict his throat with his bare hands, what Roman didn't know was the cameras were off, and no one was around for miles, making this easy.

With a loud crack, the bones of Roman's neck snapped in two, as he slumped to the ground, Jeremiah smiled wickedly as he picked up the skull and held it in his hands, the door opened behind him.

The woman who opened it was tall about six feet with long brown hair that went down to her stomach with seven red ribbons in them, a warm smile spread when she saw Jeremiah.

"Well?"

"It is done, make it look like a suicide." Jeremiah looked at her "Can you do this for me Alyce?"

Alyce Sinner smiled as Jeremiah slipped an arm around her waist and kissed her, she smiled back at him, they were secret lovers, and this was just another secret that they would keep.

Alright everyone! We're almost done with this story, I have twenty-four almost done so it should be up a little bit after this one, twenty-five or the epilogue as I'm going to call it will be up at the same time or tomorrow.