Tim became remarkably close to Jason after that. So much so that he earned the nickname Little Shadow. They were, as Robin put it, "As thick as thieves." Jason became the person Tim went to when something was wrong. And Tim became the little brother Jason would protect with his life.

And when Jason became Robin after Dick had a fight with Batman Tim made him promise that he would always come home. No matter what happened.

It had been a terrible fight, though. Ruby had feared that the Bat family would fall apart, and in truth, it would have had she not expressed that fear to both Richard and Bruce. They kept things together for her sake and the whole thing blew over after Ruby convinced Bruce to take Jason as Robin and Dick to find a new superhero identity. For reasons unknown he chose Nightwing. And even Batman had to admit that his new costume looked good.

Not long after that an old acquaintance of Bruce's showed up on their doorstep... With his son. It was a big shock to them all; Bruce especially. But even though Damien was a stuck up jerk they just couldn't leave him on his own when his mother, Talia al-Ghul, abandoned him at the door of the manor after telling him that Bruce Wayne was Batman. In the middle of a rain storm of all things!

The Bat family, Ruby included, quickly realized that Damien was going to be a challenge to get along with, to say the least. And everyone handled that challenge differently. Bruce and Dick treated Damien like the ten year old child he appeared to be. But he had been raised by the League of Assassins, and mentally he was an adult. Albeit an adult that took a fiendish delight in teasing Tim. Jason was less than pleased by this behavior and made no effort to get along with Damien.

It ended up being Ruby who found the right way to handle the new arrival. When Damien mouthed off to her she turned and spoke to him the way she would an adult.

Damien smirked. "I am the heir to the League of Assassins and the only true son of Bruce Wayne. You are beneath me, peasant. You can't order me to do anything."

Ruby's face was hard, and showed no trace of emotion. "I am the Crown Princess Regalia. First circle princess of the ocean kingdom of Solaria, demigoddess daughter of Neptune, Gem of both the Atlantean and Solarian courts, and Heir to the Golden Throne. I think I outrank you, Damien. Now do as you are told."

Damien, looking stunned, obeyed and went to his room.

Dick gaped. "How did you do that?"

"I spoke his language. I outrank him and I used that rank to my advantage. You have to understand, Dick, that Damien is more an adult than a child. He was raised by assassins and he has been one himself for several years now. You want to coddle him the way you coddled Timothy. In your mind he's just another lost child. And while he is lost, he is no child. He needs love and kindness the way a child would, but he also needs to be treated like an equal."

"But he treats us like we're inferior."

"A defense mechanism. If you want Damien to listen to you then you're going to have to earn his respect. Prove to him that you have something worthwhile to say."

"Are all those titles you rattled off really yours?"

"Yes." She sighed. "I'm going to go speak with Damien. Think about what I told you."

Ruby walked off and left Dick still gaping at her turned back. "What on Earth does 'first circle' mean?"

Neptune's chuckle echoed through his mind. "Heir to the throne, boy. The most important person in the kingdom."

"She must hate that."

"You have no concept of how much my daughter deplores being coddled and fawned over. If she only hated one thing that would be it. Still, she doesn't seem to mind it from you." With that observation Neptune retreated from Nightwing's mind; leaving him alone with his thoughts.

Ruby knocked on Damien's door. "Damien, may I speak with you?"

"Enter," came the sulky reply.

She opened the door slowly and stepped inside, closing said door gently behind her. "Something is wrong. What is it?"

"I am perfectly fine, princess. I do not require your assistance. I don't need help."

"You're lonely." She frowned at his closed off expression. "I'm not leaving this room, neither of us are leaving this room, until you talk to me. And yes, you have to tell the truth."

"What do you want me to say? That I'm a weak pitiful child and my mother would be ashamed of me? There is your truth. Even father despises me. Me. His only true son."

This was going to be harder than she had thought. "You are not weak."

"I have shown emotion. I have shown weakness. How can I not be weak?"

"Damien," she scolded, "Emotion is not weakness, and denying emotion is not strength. Strength is facing that emotion head on, dealing with it when it overwhelms you, and making it out alive. Whether or not your mother is ashamed of you is irrelevant. What is relevant is whether or not you are ashamed of yourself. Are you?"

"Yes. I have spent my entire life being the strongest person around me except for my mother and grandfather. Then I came here and suddenly I find myself needing help. I suddenly need for there to be people there to show me what to do. And the people who have ended up helping me don't even like me. I have never been so ashamed in my life."

"I would say that it is normal to need help, but I have a feeling that would only make you feel worse." She curled up in a chair that she had dragged to the bedside and positioned so that it was facing him. "Because you aren't normal. So instead of attempting to reassure you I am going to tell you a story. I don't know if Dick has told you, but I'm not from around here. I don't just mean that I'm not from Gotham, I mean that I'm not from the surface world. I was born in the capital of Solaria. Its called Zenith and its located in the deepest part of the Atlantic ocean."

Somewhat against his will, Damien was captivated by her story.

"I was born to the queen's third daughter and raised to be a low ranking princess. Third circle at the most. My mother never cared for me. I was the second of three daughters and never really amounted to much besides trouble. She left me with a nursemaid and forgot about me the day I was born. Still, I wanted more than anything to make her proud. I never did. She died on my eleventh birthday. On my twelfth my father found me and the court priests along with the queen herself declared me heir to the throne. Instantly I was the center of attention. Everyone wanted to be around me. I got so many gifts that I didn't know what to do with them. I was invited to every party. And I despised it all. It was so fake. Those people only cared about my position, my standing in the court. Eventually I got so fed up that, with the queen's blessing and Neptune's approval, I left for the surface world. That was, I think, the happiest day of my life. I was finally free. No more lessons or parties or useless gifts. I could be independent; go back to being on my own. I was so confused when I got here, though. I didn't know how anything worked, or what the people were like. I didn't even speak the language. I was forced to depend on the kindness of strangers. It was humiliating. Finally I decided that I had to return to Solaria. I dove off of the cliff behind this very mansion. I should have been able to transform and swim back with no trouble, but I had been gone too long and the ocean did not want to accept me. The pain of the transformation crippled me and the sea spit me out on the shore. I'm not sure how long I would have been able to go on like that had Dick and his team not taken me in. Even then I still struggled to adapt. But it was easier because I had people who knew what they were doing to guide me. Though, for a long time I was too proud to accept that guidance. You know what finally convinced me?"

Damien was mystified. "No, what?"

"I got run over by a car." She flashed him a crooked smile and all of a sudden they were laughing. Sharing a joke like old friends.

"Getting hurt forced me to swallow my pride and admit that I didn't know what I was doing. I was so embarrassed. I was the heir to the throne of Solaria. I wasn't supposed to need help. But I did. And oh how I hated it. I gave Dick so much grief that he finally said that if I could either shut up and listen to him or leave."

"And?"

"I shut up. Where else did I have to go? I stayed and I've been a part of that team ever since. I guess my little story has two points. One, everybody needs a little help when they first enter a foreign environment. And two, family isn't just blood. Family is the people who love you and care about you and would give their own lives if it meant saving yours." Ruby sighed and shifted in her seat. "We really do care about you, you know. Despite what you think. You aren't making it easy on us, not by a long shot, but we really are trying. When push comes to shove it's your decision to make, whether or not you'll let us help you. I only hope you'll let us in before you get hurt. We want to be your family. Are you going to let us?" She stood and stretched. "Dinner should be ready in a few minutes. I hope you will deign to join us."

Ruby walked out of Damien's room, leaving him to contemplate the meaning of her words.