4. Eye in the Sky

Once Jason knew that Damian had a) been in the area and b) pissed someone off, tracking him down wasn't all that difficult. It was where he was tracking him to that was worrying. Letting out a string of curses that would make a even a 16th century pirate revolted, Jason plucked duel semi-automatic pistols from his belt and removed the safety.

There was a buzzing in Jason's ear. Reaching up, he flicked the com on. "I'm already on it," he grunted, before Oracle could say a thing.

A moment later he hit the ground running.

Too short to hold a knife to somebody's throat, Damian had an alternative. The knife was already pressed into the crook of the man's thigh, his hands tied behind his back with an extra length looped around his neck. One sharp press of the blade and it would slice the femoral artery; in the opposite, and it could elicit some slightly less deadly but just as damaging wounds to the man's prized gems.

He walked the man guard quietly into a room lit only by a naked bulb hanging over a makeshift poker table. Several lit cigarettes were the only other source of light. Damian pressed the knife a little deeper to get the man to let out a hiss of pain. It was enough to get the attention of the men at the table, who all looked up with matching expressions. Surprise, turning to confusion and finally bemusement.

"What the hell is this?"

"I demand to speak with your leader," Damian said.

The group of men looked between each other, and a few of them laughed despite their companion's predicament. Damian growled, and applied pressure to the knife until blood leaked through the fabric of the man's trousers.

"I was decent enough to not kill your comrade yet, but perhaps I-"

"Whoa, whoa. Calm down there half-pint," One of the men finally said, holding out his hand. He set down his cards and pulled himself to his feet. Damian scowled behind black balaclava mask he wore. "What's your business here?"

"I am here on the behalf of the house al Ghul. His presence has been requested by your associates and I am here to arrange the terms," Damian said, coolly. It wasn't a complete lie. Before leaving, he had heard inklings of the Crime Syndicate trying to get R'as on their side. He had dispatched them, of course, but a ploy was a ploy.

Looks of skepticism were heavy on their faces. Damian drilled the knife into the man's thigh until a thick stream of blood began to roll down his leg.

"Do it! Get him," his captive exclaimed, and instantly several men were on their feet. They conferred with each other, and one slid off into the back office.

It was in the silence that followed that Damian became aware that someone else had entered the room. He could feel the eyes upon him, staring. Looking only with his eyes, Damian a figure that stood like a sentinel in the corner.

"You have a Talon?" Damian scoffed. Talon cocked his head slightly to the side.

"The Talon," A gruff voice in the back corrected. Damian's attention flickered towards the man who spoke. He looked unimpressed, and judging by his cliché pin-striped suit Damian could only assume he was the Boss.

"You brought me out for this?" Boss asked, raising his hand and bringing a pistol with it. Before Damian had a chance to say anything, a shot rang out. The man in Damian's grasp crumpled with a hole in the center of his forehead. "He shouldn't have been captured by an eight year old," the man explained, leveling the pistol on Damian.

Suddenly, all hell broke loose.

Another shot rang out, but this time the Boss was the one dropping with a bullet to his shoulder. Suddenly three people were rushing at him; Damian jumped out of the way of the first and sent his knife after the second, but a pair of bronze arms encapsulated him and he was falling towards the ground.

The last thing that Damian saw before the world went dark was the face of an owl.

It was several hours later when Damian awoke.

Jason glanced up from where he was sitting at a cold metal desk, but made no move to stand in the rather cramped safe house.

"Todd?"

He sounded drowsy. Jason merely grunted in reply, having hoped for a few more hours of peace.

"Where are we? What am I doing here?"

"I don't know, you tell me," Jason said, finally turning to look towards the boy and hitting the screen to turn it off. He crossed his arms over his chest as Damian swung his legs off the cot (his cot).

"I was taking action where you have failed," the boy snapped.

"Oh yeah? Looks like you were pretty successful. Bigbird's sitting in the other room having a cup of tea and biscuits," Jason said, jerking his thumb to the side. Damian looked taken aback for a moment, before a scowl settled on his features as he stood up. For a moment Jason felt like he was looking at a young Bruce Wayne.

"If I had been here, all of this-"

"Yeah, well. You weren't. You were dead, kid," Jason said, and was satisfied by the clamped look that took Damian's face. "You should probably let that sink in for a little while, before you go on a killing spree."

"I likely would have gone on a killing spree, Lazarus Pit or not," Damian said, his nose tilting upward. Jason snorted as he stood up.

"I'll give you that," he said, before abruptly launching himself forward. He grabbed Damian by the shoulder and twisted him around, pinning him against the wall with one arm twisted awkwardly behind his back. "But Pre-Pit Replacement wouldn't have let me do that," Jason said. He got an annoyed growl in response. He loosened his grip and Damian wormed away; Jason jumping back himself to prevent any sort of backlash.

"Sure you're not a clone? That's right up in your family tree," Jason said. Damian's eyes narrowed.

"If that were the case, you would be dead by now, Todd." Damian was rubbing the wrist that Jason had caught, looking deeply offended. Jason was a little surprised the kid hadn't launched himself into an attack yet.

"Touché. So, how long's it been then since your dip?"

Damian paused a moment, before shrugging his shoulder. "It is difficult for me to say. There was a long period of time where I had no frame of reference. How long has it been since I was impaled?"

"About a year. But your body only went missing awhile after," Jason said. "So at most you're six months old. Happy birthday."

"Hm. My original body's decomposition explains the lack of muscle memory and strength," Damian said, flexing his hand. Jason watched him curiously. The news didn't seem to bother the kid all that much, but with his family history it wasn't all that surprising.

"You knew you had a handicap and you still went down there tonight? Damian, you-"

It was the term that set the kid off, and Jason immediately flinched inwardly. Since when had he ever called demon-spawn that? Damian lept off his chair and immediately launched into a speech.

"I do not require your coddling, Todd. Don't make the mistake of thinking it was the same for me as it was for you. I died in battle. You were toyed with and then murdered. The state of mind upon death and entry into the pit matters greatly," he said, looking at Jason. "There's a good deal of literature on the matter. The Lazarus Pits have been around for centuries. Don't tell me you haven't read them?"

Jason merely looked at him.

"Of course not," Damian tittered. He waved his hand, pacing away.

"I'm sure the authors of those books were completely sane," Jason said, eliciting a death glare from the child. That look alone was enough to convince him that the kid definitely was not a clone. "So my mind was pretty fucked up after- yes, I admit it, don't look so goddamn surprised- but your body isn't the same. Yet," Jason said, looping around to the conversation they'd been having before Damian went on the offensive. "You know that. It's why you went looking for a gun."

"Yes. And when I could not obtain one, I chose to rely upon my name. I have more skills than I do muscles in my body," he said, lifting his chin definitely. He certainly was the child of Talia and Batman, Jason thought.

"Well, it was a dumb move. Don't- I'll lay you out flat again," Jason threatened, as Damian jerked towards him upon the slight.

"We're wasting time," Damian snarled. "You've been wasting time all along!"

"Not this again. How many times do I have to tell you, we have been working on it. Don't exactly have the dream team here to help out."

"You can say that once more," Damian sneered. "And I read all your documents. Oracle was unsuccessful at hacking the Watchtower, which seems to have been your main plan. She has since given up, which I must say did surprise me. I do not take her to be one who quits so easily."

"She didn't quit. We shifted focus," Jason said. He could feel a headache growing- was he really going to have to rationalize everything they had done?

"What?! You should-"

"-See, the thing about documents, is that we're kind of too busy doing everything else to keep them updated. Shut up for a moment," Jason snapped quickly, to cut off whatever tangent the boy was about to go off on.

Jason pulled a video up on the screen, displaying the warehouse room that Damian had broken into earlier in the evening. How are you going to tell him? Roy had asked, as they watched Dick's apartment burn. I don't know, Jason had said. Well, apparently he wasn't- Jason was going to show him.

"Where did you get that?" Damian asked, but Jason ignored him as he fast-forwarded until Damian was shown entering the room.

"You look about as threatening as a three year old at her ballet recital, by the way."

"-tt-"

Jason played it though without a word, and Damian focused mainly on his own performance. He watched with more curiosity as the Boss was shot, and saw that the shooter had been Jason from far back in the warehouse. Two goons and Talon lurched at him as the chaos rang out, and Damian watched himself fall unconscious under the hand of the Talon.

"Yes, he knocked me out," Damian grunted.

"Uh-huh," Jason said, as he leaned back in the chair. He crossed his arms over his chest, swaying the chair back and forth slightly. "Just watch."

Things hadn't ended when Damian went down. Every other thug in the room had a gun and were shooting back at Jason, and at him. Talon was getting up, and caught a bullet in his shoulder. It rebounded off his armor but he jumped up as if angered and turned on the gun wielding man. Within moments the man who had shot him- and the only one still standing- was taken down with a flying kick.

Something stirred in Damian's stomach, and he leaned over onto the desk. Pushing Jason's hand out of the way, Damian paused the footage just as Jason was running onto the screen. He reversed the footage back and back and back, tracing Talon's movements through the room until he first appeared. He hit play, and this time focused on the dark corner from which the man had entered.

Talon entered the room with a smooth movement through a partially open door. He surveyed the room in an observational manor, but faltered suddenly when Damian spoke. The footage was silent, but Damian guessed it was around when he was introducing himself as the spokesperson for the al Ghuls. Talon froze his movements then and remained in that stance until the first time Damian had noticed him in the corner. He was moving forward by the time that Boss lifted his weapon; Talon probably would have reached him before Boss had the chance to shoot, if he hadn't been taken down.

Damian watched the rest of the scene play out, letting it roll until the scene cleared this time. After knocking the gun from the thug Talon didn't stop. He threw the man to the ground with enough force that Damian could practically hear the thud of his head hitting the floor, despite there being no sound. He grabbed the Boss, who was withering in pain, and the two made for the back of the room.

Jason was crouching over Damian by now, his own gun pointing towards Talon. If words passed between the two conscious men it wasn't clear on the footage. Talon and the Boss were gone; Jason threw Damian over his shoulder and left in the opposite direction.

The footage rolled on the still scene until Jason reached forward to pause it. His attention had been on the Boy Wonder the entire time, and he could practically see the gears turning in his head now.

"...Grayson?" Damian whispered. He sounded confused, and a moment later he was shaking his head and pacing away. One hand was curling onto his stomach as if he was ill. "They move similar, but it must be his Imposter."

"That's what we thought too, at first."

"At first?" Damian demanded, turning back. He looked pale and conflicted. "Why would Grayson be in that uniform and not here?" Had Richard Grayson been out gallivanting as some new twisted version of himself all along, while he had struggled to escape the Tower- had risked his life- to come back to Gotham to save him? His brow was carving itself a deep furrow, and suddenly a pair of strong hands enclosed on his shoulders. Damian hadn't even noticed Jason getting up and coming to him. The older man was pushing him down into a chair now, and taking one beside him.

"Why didn't you tell me that he was safe?" Damian asked, trying to spring back to his feet. He was pushed back down, and Damian snapped his gaze to Jason's face. It was the first time he had really looked at him. He hadn't been too keen to speak with him over the webcam, and had been too preoccupied to pay him any attention before now. Their faces were now level, and it was difficult to look anywhere else.

Todd looked…. tired. He looked old.

"It's complicated," Jason said. "The whole thing is a mess."

"Of course it's a mess. Grayson is out there running around with a bunch of criminals, free to-"

"He's not free. He's being coerced," Jason said, tightly. Damian narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest again; Jason could see that his hands were shaking. The kid wanted answers. "As far as we can tell, he's working with Owlman. We can't be certain, of course, but as far as we can tell he's a Wayne. He knows too much about Gotham not to be. He's got a twisted Alfie, even." Jason reached up, rubbing his head.

"You're holding back, Todd," Damian said crisply. "Tell me."

"Barbara doesn't think you're stable. She doesn't want to let you know," Jason replied, candidly. Before Damian could eat him alive, Jason held up a hand. He understood. "I know. You'll figure it out yourself if you are forced to."

Damian gave a crisp nod.

"...They took Alfie, Damian."

Damian could feel the blood that remained in his cheeks quickly vacating. He hadn't even thought to inquire about the Butler- who was so much more than a butler- at all. He felt the same wave of sickness he had felt upon learning that Grayson was being held by them.

"Owlman wanted Dick to work by his side, for whatever the hell reason. Dick obviously managed to convince him that he'd do it, because they left the HQ together. He tried to escape…" Jason faltered for a moment, shifting in his seat. Damian's eyebrow twitched; unable to recall a time when Todd had looked so physically uncomfortable. "...It didn't work. So they nabbed Alfie as a bargaining chip."

"...How do you know all this?" Damian asked. Jason's eyes flickered towards the monitor that he had turned off. Of course; Oracle had footage of everything. If Pennyworth had been in Wayne manner when he had been taken, it would definitely be on tape. He reached for the keypad, but Jason lurched out and grabbed his wrist.

"No. No. Not those ones," he said, his green eyes flashing.

After pausing a moment, Damian relented. His stomach felt like it would soon sink through the floor.

"...Are they physically well?"

"They're alive, aren't they?" Jason replied cryptically. "That much is obvious. Dickiebird wouldn't still be working with them if Alfie wasn't okay, and you saw him moving," Jason said, waving at the screen.

Damian grunted, but was unsatisfied. He crossed his arms over his chest and was quiet for a long time. Things were indeed more complicated than he had thought them to be initially. Not only was Grayson's life at stake, but Alfred's, too. While the man was more than capable, his body was nowhere near as strong as Richard's. If they were mistreating him….

"So. What are we going to do?"

"Oh, so you feel like playing on a team then?" Jason asked.

"You should have informed me of all of this upon my arrival," Damian said, lifting his chin.

"You didn't exactly give me a chance. Also, you're welcome for saving your ass."

"Pff. Grayson would not have let harm befall me," Damian replied.

"You're right. And let's hope that didn't do him more harm than good," Jason snapped. "Oracle's not the only one with eyes in the sky. You'll bet Grid's seen anything we've seen." Damian looked stricken, and for a moment Jason felt bad. But only for a moment; Damian had been reckless. It was good that he was seeing that. "If you want to work together, you're gonna have to listen to me."

"And you will have to tell me the truth," Damian countered, leaning forward. Jason considered this for a moment.

"Deal."

"Good. So let's get started. We have family to save, Todd."

A/N: Um, yay brotherly bonding? Again, thanks for reading, reviews, and fav's. I enjoy reading your notes. Hope you liked the chapter, please pardon any typos.

Is anyone interested in seeing things from Dick/Alfred's POV, or should I continue mainly following Damian and Jason?

-Silico