Bold Italics=Flashback

Italics=Author's note/ Final Notes

Chapter 3: Zero Year 3

"There's one more thing I should probably tell you about Mar'i, Batman." Hal Jordan said after Nightwing left the room.

"What?"

"She seems to have inherited another one of Nightwing's traits. His nightmares." Hal said gravely.

"Nightmares?" The caped crusader asked.

"I don't know what they're about, she wouldn't tell me, but I do know one thing. What that girl saw on Tamaran must have been truly horrifying."

Dick Grayson awoke to the sound of screaming coming from the other bedroom. He quickly shot up from his bed and ran to the room of his sleeping daughter. This was the seventh night in a row. Nightmares, she had been having them since her first night with him, and Dick was at a completely lost. He tried asking her about them, but he should have known how much that would help. When he saw his parents fall he didn't want to talk about his nightmares either. It was only when Bruce revealed that he still had his nightmares about his parents that Dick finally opened up. Dick tried to do the same thing, but it didn't have the same effect. With him Bruce knew what his nightmares were about even before Dick told him, but Dick didn't know what Mar'i's nightmares were about it. It didn't help that she refused to tell him. She was stubborn, A trait Dick wished she didn't pick up from her mother because he wanted nothing more than to stop what ever was troubling his daughter, and get a good night's sleep.

"Mar'i, Wake up. It's only a nightmare. It isn't real!" Dick shook the young girl awake. "Mar'i!" Finally the young girl opened her eyes.

"I'm sorry, did I wake you again?" Mar'i asked rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"Yes, you did. Not that I mind, Mar'i, I'm just worried is all." They have been going through this same routine every night. "Will you tell me what your nightmare was about?" he always asked.

And every single time he got the same answer. "No." Dick sighed knowing he couldn't push her on the subject.

"Do you want to sleep in my bed for the rest of the night?" Dick asked.

And every time she answered, "Yes."

With another sigh the father picked his daughter and carried her off to his bedroom. Hopefully they should catch a few more hours of sleep, and in the morning Dick knew he was going to have to make a call.

Mar'i sat in the living room watch the television as she heard her father on the phone in the other room. The past week, she would say she has been enjoying Blüdhaven. She loved spending the days with her father till he had to patrol at night. She always waited up for him, but usually that was more fore herself than him. The Nightmares were getting worse. At first she could ignore them. When Hal inquired as to why she was tossing and turning at night she just wrote it off as a bad dream she couldn't even be bothered with remembering, but the longer they stayed together Hal began to notice that the nightmares got worse. She was grateful that he tried his best not to mention them, but it seems she would not be getting this luxury with her father.

"Come on, Mar'i." Her father said when he got off the phone. "We're taking a little trip."

"To where?" Mar'i inquired

"To Gotham, It's time you meet our family." If Mar'i wasn't going to open up to him, maybe she would open up to one of them.

After the the long 3 hour drive to gotham, the two Graysons found themselves pulling up to the Wayne Manor.

"Ah, Master Dick. Master Bruce did tell me you were to be arriving for lunch, and this is your plus one I see." A british man said after opening the door for them,

"Hey Alfred," Dick greeted, "This is Mary. Say hi, Mary."

"How do you do, sir." The young princess greeted properly.

"I am well, Miss Mary. Now I do believe she has more manners than you did, Master Dick." Alfred teased slightly, as he let the two into the manor.

"Oh come on, Alfred, I was good kid."

"Yes you were, Richard, but I do recall we having to teach you not to call women, "Hey Lady." Instead of inquiring their name."

"That was one time." Dick protested.

"And what of the time you spilled your beverage on some poor gentlemen and instead of apologizing you hid underneath the refreashments table and ended up tipping the whole thing over."

"..." Dick stayed quiet.

Round one: 1 Alfred- 0 Dick.

When Dick finally came up with a retort he was cut off by the sound of light giggling floating in the air.

"I'm sorry, Miss Mary. It seems I have behaved in ways that are not decorum."

"It's no problem." Mary said in between giggles "I find the humor refreshing." She laughed this time slightly louder, "You have a certain wit about you, don't you Alfred?"

"I would like to think so, Miss." Alfred bowed after excusing himself to continue his chores. Leaving only Mary's father to show her around.

"And this is the kitchen. Though really only Alfred uses it, because the rest of us can't cook." Dick said.

"Hey! I resent that!" Came a voice. Walking into the kitchen was none other than Stephanie Brown golden hair saying behind and a grin present on her lips, "I can make waffles." She defended.

"It's good to see you too, Steph." Dick greeted knowing that was the closest thing he was going to get to one.

"Oh, Is this her? Wow, Dick, she's pretty." Stephanie complimented. "Hello, I'm Stephanie." She said to the child.

"I'm Mary, it's a pleasure to meet you," Mar'i said genuinely

"How proper of her. Don't worry we'll get that out of you soon enough," Dick protested to that statement but Stephanie choose to ignore it and went onto a new subject. "You know you are really pretty, prettier than that security footage we saw of you that we hacked. Bruce wouldn't tell us anything. He was always like, "Why don't you go to Blüdhaven and seen her for yourselves", and blah, blah, blah. Gosh, that man can keep a secret. Well, he is Batman, but you get what I'm saying. If I had time to drive the three hours to Blüdhaven I would, but college classes and the whole shebang."

Before Mar'i could even thank Stephanie for the compliment, Dick was fuming. "Is that why you guys didn't sound surprised when I called you about Mary three days ago!" Stephanie being the master of these types of situations handled it with the grace and poise she always possessed.

"I DIDN'T DO IT! TAKING MARY! BYE!" She grabbed the poor young girl's hand and dragged her away from the kitchen stopping at the foot of the stairs.

At this point Mary was frazzled. Her first thought of the blonde was... Well, she sure was animated. Stephanie was a character alright, but what Mar'i did not know was that compared to some of the others Stephanie was tame.

"Alright looks like I'll be giving the rest of this tour. " Stephanie announced. "You did see all all of down stairs, right?" Mar'i nodded. "Great, because it's time to play a little game I like to call, 'let's avoid Dick for a while.' So, I'll show you around upstairs while your dad cools off down here. We'll start at the Master, then work our way down to my room. Sound cool?" She asked. Again Mar'i only nodded. Stephanie smiled at her. "You're going to have to talk to me eventually. I can't hold a conversation by myself, and trust me I've tried." At this Mar'i cracked a smile. "Success." Stephanie cheered. Stephanied showed Mar'i all of the rooms, well really only the ones that were inhabited by people, she showed Mar'i all of the Wayne family paintings on the wall. Finally they reached Stephanie's room.

"And this is my lovely room." She said leading Mar'i into. "Yes, I know isn't glorious?" Stephanie teased.

"Why is your room all the way back here?" Ma'ri asked. "There were plenty of empty room closer to everything."

"Trust me you'll see." Stephanie said. "When the boys get going it's best to be as far away as possible. Even Babs's room is down here with mine to keep away from their antics.

"Antics?" Mar'i echoed.

"It's mostly just Jason and Tim. They'll try to kill each other, but God forbid someone else try to. Sometimes Damian will try something but it's usually to cause mass pain to everyone, he really doesn't have a single target. Trust me, you'll see."

"But isn't this a far walk to do everyday? It doesn't seem very practical."

"Well, I really don't live here." Stephanie started. "I actually live on campus at my university, but some nights if my patrols end here or close to here I'll stay, but usually not often. It's like I'm part of the family, but not part of the family. If that makes sense." Mar'i shook her head, "Of course it doesn't. Well, I didn't start out like everyone here, I wasn't a gymnast, or an acrobat, or anything like that. I was just a kid with slightly better agility than most. So, when my father started doing bad things again, I had to do something and that something was put on a mask and cape, and become a Gotham vigilante. I trained with Batman, and Batgirl, and Oracle, and the other Birds of Prey, but eventually they said I wasn't cut out for the superhero gig, and they cut me loose. I still kept patrol, and training in order to prove them wrong. I guess I did because I'm Batgirl now, but at times I feel as though I really don't fit in with them. Understand better now, if it wasn't for the fact that I was batgirl and dating Tim I would never even be part of this family."

Mar'i shook her head in disagreement, "I don't think so." She said. "You have to remember that you are part of this family you have been for a while and I'm sure the others will say the same thing. I don't understand why you brought this up. You seem like you've gotten over this issues a long time ago, you didn't need to talk about it." Through Stephanie's whole story Mar'i payed attention, but something was off. Stephanie's body language, She really seemed to be that upset about this topic. While her voice quivered and hiccupped at some parts, it seemed to all be an act. She seemed too far relaxed to be upset by this.

"Dick was right, you are good." Stephanie jumped up off the bed becoming her animated self again, "Oh well, that failed." Mar'i gave stephanie a confused look. "Don't worry you'll figure it out eventually. One down four to go."

"Wait, I don't understand what will I-" sadly Mar'i never got to finish her question as the door slammed open and in ran a teenage boy about Stephanie's age run in. He had a mischievous grin and was slightly laughing as he ran in.

"Quick, Steph, hide me."

"No." Was her flat out answer.

"Come on. Jason is coming he'll be here any moment, and is that Mar'i?"

"Oh! " Stephanie realized, "Sorry, this is Tim. I forgot to introduce him."

"It's fine." Tim and Mar'i said at the same time.

"Mar'i, right?" Tim asked, "Wait sorry, Mary. It's Mary, I forgot we're practicing for when we're out in public. Sorry, sorry. " Tim turned to Stephanie "So about hiding me."

"I already said no." There was a quick whistle in the air, and Mar'i turned away for a second. It was not even a second, but when Mar'i turned back Stephanie was standing there with with Tim's hand in front of her face, and clenched in his fingers was a very sharp looking knife.

Tim glared at the blonde, "I know you saw it it time, why didn't you dodge it?"

"I knew you would catch it." She gave him a cheeky grin, that made him smile then sigh.

"What the heck, Jason?" Tim called out, "You could have hit Stephanie, you butthole!"

Jason walked into to the room, "I told you, you are going to die today." Mar'i let out a little squeak

Everyone turned to her, "Look what you did now, Jason" Stephanie scolded, "You scared the poor child!"

"It's okay. He was just joking." Tim assured. "It was a joke. We play with each other like that all the time."

Mar'i looked unsure. "Playing usually doesn't involve lethal weapons."

"It does in this house." Jason said under his breath

"What was that?"

"Nothing." Jason said a little too fast "Anyway, Drake, lets settle this like real men. A good old duke out till one of us passes out."

"Heck no. You know Alfred forbade us from doing those ever again, that and Fight Club Fridays. So no, I'm not going to fight you. "

"Well, this has gone on long enough, we need to get even, and this is the best way how. So lets go gym now, Drake."

"I'll be ref!" Stephanie shouted

"Not helping!" Tim looked around and sighed, "I really don't want to have to do this, but." Tim ran scooped up Mar'i in his arms and ran out of the room screaming, "I'm with child, you can't hurt me! LALALA! " Tim ran away to the furthest place from that point in the house before he stopped running. That place was the batcave.

"Well, I'm guessing Steph didn't get to this place on the tour. Anyway, this is the batcave, top secret so you can't tell anyone."

"Okay." She promised. "Why is he chasing you anyway." She asked.

"Well, " Tim explained, "About three weeks ago, Jason pulled a prank on me, and I got even. We'll lets just say that cycled continued until today."

"Why what happened?"

"I kinda hacked into all of his social media accounts and put up a video of him doing a very provocative dance for girls, or at least attempting it, all over the internet. Honestly, I don't see why he's mad, he started it. Now I'm finishing it."

"You shouldn't play suck horrible pranks on each other. You are brothers, are you not?"

Tim thought about this for a minute, "Yeah, but if you can't joke around with your family, who can you joke around with? " Tim said honestly, "Didn't you have anyone on-"

"DRAKE!"

"Uh oh. " Tim said as he heard Jason scream his name from the top of the staircase. "Don't worry I won't drag you along this time. See ya around, Mary. If you want to get out of the cave just take the stairs back up." And with that last piece of advice Tim vanished from her sight.

Mar'i looked around, the batcave was silent save for the typing she heard, She guessed that meant that the batman was here, and working. Best not to disturb him she thought. She could greet him later. Then, to her over sensitive ears she heard a soft mewing.

Mar'i turned but found nothing. Strange, she could have sworn she heard a cat. The meow returned this time louder. She turned, but still not a sign of the cat. Was she going crazy? Hearing a cat that wasn't there. Finally the cat meowed again, and this time Mar'i could hear where it was coming from. This time Mar'i looked up, and there it was, a black and white kitten staring at her with large eyes beckoning her to follow it, and she did. With little to no effort Mar'i floated from her place on the ground to the rafter above. Reaching for the cat, it dodged her embrace, and meowed again, before walking away from her. This cat definitely wanted her to follow it. Mar'i followed the cat down the narrow walkway high above the ground she just left. Finally the cat stopped at a smaller little cave inside of the cave.

"Do you want me to go in here?" Mar'i asked the cat. It meowed again indicating it's approval, and she crawled into the hole. The tiny cave would be only able to fit a child anyone older than twelve might have had trouble fitting into it, but Mar'i who was eight had no issue whatsoever, and at the end of the cave Mar'i found a young boy,a dn a dog sitting waiting on her.

"Good, Alfred showed you the way here. I'm Damian, little Grayson, the youngest of my father's children( if you could call the rest that.) Out of the goodness of my heart I've decided to help you today." The boy sounded arrogant, prideful. They had a very mean name for people like that on Tamaran.

"Help me? Why would you help me? You don't know me at all." Mar'i said.

"Honestly, Mini Grayson, I sympathize with you. That's not something I can easily admit." Damian said. "Not to long ago I was in a similar situation you were in, though not exactly the same, eerily similar. While I got out of my former home mentally unscaved you however did not."

Mar'i forze. "I don't know what you're talking about." she said icily.

"Don't bothering lying, because you can't even convince yourself right now. I thought you would be smart, Tiny Grayson. That you would notice when everyone's backs are turned that we all have that same haunted look in our eyes that you see when you look at yourself in the mirror." Damian chastised "You've must have realized that something must have happened to each and everyone of us that we decided the only way to fix this problem was to go out on the streets in the middle of the night and fight crime." Damian studied Mar'i for a moment. "You have bags under your eyes. Let me guess, nightmares. Grayson said you haven't been eating much, lack of appetite. Irritability, though you've tried to be polite to everyone, when they mention something close to whatever's causing you to be this way you get defensive, not to mention the fact when you first met your father, he asked you about something, and you reacted in an odd way. Can you remember what that was?"

"So how is you uncle on Tamaran? Ryand'r isn't it? I never got to meet him."

Mar'i froze. She just stopped as she stared off into nothing. Nightwing was about to as what was wrong when Green Lantern and Batman walked into the room breaking her out of the trance as quickly as she fell into it.

"Dick asked about your uncle on Tamran. I watched the security footage, you froze at the question. Why did you do that? Something happened to your uncle, and you saw it while you were still on Tamaran."

Tears began to form in Mary's eyes. "Stop." She ordered, "You don't know what your talking about."

"I think I do otherwise you wouldn't be on the verge of tears. You need to understand that whatever happens to you affects Grayson, and his head can't be on you while he's out in the field, that could get him killed. So I need you to get over whatever is bothering you to keep him alive!"

"IT ISN'T THAT SIMPLE!" Mar'i yelled. Finally the tears spilled over and she curled her knees into her chest and began to sob into them. "It isn't that simple. I want to just forget it ever happened, but I can't! And if I can't hide it, what am I going to do? What do you want me to do confess my crimes, and that will free me. It won't because the more I think about it the more it eats me from the inside out. I killed Ryand'r! Is that what you wanted to hear! That I got my uncle killed! Well, congratulations you win, and I lose. It was all my fault. He told be to get into the ship and when the Gordanians snuck up on us, they killed Ryand'r, but not before he could launch my ship. I watched him bled to death on the cold, hard ground alone because I ran from a fight like a coward. I am a disgrace to my Tamaranian heritage! I thought i could go back to Tamaran when it was safe, but now how can I face my mother and X'hal when i have to tell them how Ryand'r died, how I let him die."

"You're wrong, and stupider than I thought if you truly believe that your uncle dying was your fault." Damian said none too kindly, "Firstly, you are a child going against full grown Gordanian soldiers, you would have been killed and Ryand'r still would have died. You were in a ship that had to be locked for take off when he was killed, by the time you opened the ship your uncle would have been killed and then the Gordanians would have killed you. In all the situations I could throw at you all of them end up with either him dying or the both of you dying. Everyone will accept how your uncle died, no one is going to get mad at you. I'm not mad, your father won't be mad, and your mother won't be mad. Yes, your uncle died, but it was inevitable. The sooner you understand that the better. Besides, dying for something you believe in, or someone you love is a good honorable death. You can live knowing your uncle gave you this second chance at life, and honor him with that."

Mar'i paused, and thought over Damian's words. Dying for something you believe in, or for sone you love is a good honorable death. Yes, she had heard her mother say something similar to her once during training. Those words helped her more than Damian would her know. "Why are you comforting me? You hardly know me." Mar'i said tears almost dry now.

"I told you already this wasn't for you. I did this for your father, so he can stop worrying. Bringing you here, all of it was a ploy to get you to open up, and tell one of us what happened on Tamaran. Brown tried and failed. Todd didn't even give Drake a chance to try, but I thought any of those would have worked on you. " Damian admitted. "You're a princess, your mother must have taught you how to manipulate, and see when you're being manipulated. Most likely for the political part of your job that comes when you get older. Only if someone was direct and harsh with it would you have told someone what you just told me."

"and how do you know all of this about me?" Mar'i asked.

"Simple, because my mother trained me to do the same thing. To manipulate, but never be manipulated. I backed you into a corner and like a scared cat you did what you had to, to escape." Damian paused for a second. "You will want to tell your father this. The sooner he knows the better for the both of you. I know showing weakness is a big no in a palace, but here you have people who want to help you. So let them."

Mar'i blinked. Did she misjudge this boy earlier, either way he had he helped her and she would be lying if she said that she didn't feel slightly better. "Thank you."

"Whatever, now get out of my cave. It's lunch time, and everyone is probably wondering where you are." Damian beckoned his dog to follow him out of the cave while Mar'i took a second to register what she had just been told. She shook her head and followed the boy out. She watched as he easily flipped down to the ground below with ease and grace.

"Are you coming, Small Grayson. " He called up to her. She smiled and nodded before gently floating down. She wasn't even half way down when suddenly she started to fall. She tried to fly over and over again, but the power of flight never came to her and she continued to fall down to the ground below. Out fear of course she screamed. The sensation of falling was not one she was used to, or one she quite liked. She closed her eyes as the vision of the ground became closer. She was going to die. Die because she could not even do the simplest of Tamaranian techniques, flight. Maybe this was X'hal's punishment for Ryand'r's death. She would have thought this if she had hit the ground, but she didn't.

When Mar'i opened her eyes she was in the arms of Damian. He had saved her twice today.

"What the hell happened?" He growled "I thought you could fly!"

"I can!" She defended "Or I could."

Bruce who had spent all this time over at the computer was already over there, looking over Mar'i seeing if she was injured. "It's a good thing she didn't hit the ground. Nice catch, Damian." He took the girl from his son's arms and walked her over to the medical bay, "Damian, go upstairs tell Dick what happened, and bring him here."

"Yes, Father."

Bruce set Mar'i down, and began asking her questions, "What happened?"

"I don't know. My Powers..."

"Bruce!" Dick called as he ran down the steps into the Batcave, Damian two steps behind him.

"Over here!" He called back, "Now, do you know why your powers failed?"

Mar'i shook her head, "This has never happened before. I've always been able to fly." Mar'i assured.

"What happened?" Dick asked when he ran over to Mar'i. "Damian told me your powers failed."

"I don't know. I was flying, then I was falling."

"Was it your emotions. Your flight is controlled by your emotions."

"No, it wasn't that."

"Try flying again, Mar'i, not too high, but just enough we can see." Bruce said calmly.

"I'll try." Mar'i stood by and tried to propel herself into flight, but the feeling was feeling of turning ultraviolet radiation to flight energy was completely lost.

"I can't do it." Mar'i said. "I can't fly. What's happening to me?"

Final Notes:

Final word count: 4646( I swear I tried to make it shorter!)

I am soo sorry about the wait, and the length. I usually post each day, but yesterday I was soo tired. Also the length I had a place I wanted to stop this chapter but to get there I had to write 4646 words! I'll try to post a chapter by tomorrow morning if I'm not dead tired or just being lazy.

Anyway the reason for my daily updates are that I want to get a lot of this story out before mid-July because that's when I have band camp and won't be able to write as much because of school.

Thanks to all my reviewers! I love you all, You guys are what keeps my muse up and running. And thanks to all the people who Follow and favorite my story you also give me great hope.

Please Review/Follow/Favorite, and keep my hungry muse feed!

Love,

Miyu K. July 15, 2014