Author's Note: Thank you to soccernin19 (Oh they'll be using it!) and IndiaMoore (He's not going to be pleased with it!) for reviewing the last chapter! I own nothing. Also, I'm going to be gone the 20th through the 27th so I'll update tomorrow but then they'll be about a week with no updates.
Damian was sitting on the edge of his bed swinging his legs back and forth while he waited for Drake to call him back when something poked him. The boy twitched and glared over his shoulder only to discover that there was no one in the room with him. Deciding that recent events probably had him imaging things, he turned back towards the phone. A moment later he was nudged again. Damian twitched, eyes widening when he realized the nudge had been mental. His eyes fell closed and he reached out with his own mind in a single sharp jab. In return he received something that felt like a wave of amusement wash over him before he could close off the bond.
The instant the invisible link snapped shut the boy's phone rang, startling him. He almost flew off the bed, fingers trembling as he snatched it up and pressed the receive call button. "Yes?" he got out, managing to make his voice steady.
"You said you wanted to talk," Drake returned, voice tone all business. Damian twitched a little, suddenly uncertain. Should he even be sharing this information? Should he really have even given Grayson the encryption the night before? He wasn't sure. "Damian?" The question was hesitant, as if Drake were no longer certain whether or not the younger boy was on the other end of the line.
"I am still here Drake," Damian replied. "I am just...thinking."
"You said you needed to talk to me," Drake replied. "And I do not have the ability to read minds."
"Naturally," the boy replied sourly, an automatic reaction to the older one's jab. He hesitated a moment longer and then added, "Father's message to me was...interesting to say the least."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I am putting things mildly," Damian returned. "I was given a rather unwanted revelation." He paused and pulled in a deep, nervous breath before jumping straight into the whole mess. "I am not, nor have I ever been, the child of Bruce Wayne and Talia al'Ghul." Drake's startled intake of breath on the other end of the line was surprisingly comforting.
"...Okay," Drake said at last. "So who's kid are you then?" Damian squirmed for a moment on his bed before forcefully stilling himself despite the fact that Drake could not see him.
"I suspect you could say Mary and Thomas Grayson," the boy admitted finally.
"H-how?" Tim stammered and if Damian wasn't so terrified by the whole situation he would have been smirking. "How is that possible? Thomas and Mary Grayson died years before you were even born."
"Yes," Damian agreed. "I suspect you could also call a man named Mark Desmond my parent though there is no genetic connection between the two of us." He paused for a moment, debating on whether or not to share the last piece of knowledge he had gained from one of his more recent returned memories. "There's more but I'm not sure whether I should tell you over a phone line."
In response Drake began muttering under his breath and for a moment Damian heard the clicking of computer keys. "Do Jay and Dick know about this?"
"Yes," Damian said, voice suddenly hollow. "But I might be a danger to them. If it became necessary to eliminate me they would hesitate. I trust that you would do whatever was necessary to keep your brothers safe."
"Jesus," Tim hissed over the phone. After a moment the tapping resumed. "Okay, listen. I'm buying you a plane ticket to Hong Kong at two o'clock this afternoon. You'll pick up your ticket at the flight desk at Gotham International and Cass will be waiting for you at the airport when you land. I trust your passport is in order." Damian nodded before he realized the other boy couldn't see him and then croaked out an agreement. Making sure her son's passport was up to date was one of the last things Talia had done before she'd dropped him off at Wayne Manor. "Good. Everything else is up to you." That said, Drake hung up the phone. Damian placed the phone down on his bed and stood, turning to shut his door only to freeze. Grayson and Todd stood in his doorway, both staring at the boy with narrowed eyes.
Barbara Gordon was settling in to enjoy a relaxing afternoon with her father, one of the few she managed to grab since the commissioner job kept him busy, when the news ruined it all. To be fair, what was being reported was going to ruin more than just her day. The Joker had just escaped from Belle Reve. Their phone began ringing off the hook almost immediately after they read the headline and her father scrambled to answer it. "Sorry sweetie," he said after a moment, leaning down to kiss her. "But they need me at the station."
"No problem," the red head said to the already empty room. The door snapped shut behind Jim Gordon and Barbara leaned over to grab the remote and shut off the television. In the sudden silence of the apartment, she carefully began rolling her way towards her room where her laptop rested. There was no way the red head was getting to the Clock Tower, not with Stephanie at work that day but she could do some research on her personal computer provided that she wiped her search history so her dad would never have a chance to figure out what she was up to.
Five minutes later Barbara was flipping through security cameras at Belle Reve. She found herself watching as Amanda Waller glared at Poison Ivy and a woman in a guard's uniform. "The two of you will not be leaving this prison," Waller said, her voice firm. Ivy snorted and flipped her red hair over her shoulder while the other woman snickered.
"Doesn't matter now, does it love?" she drawled. "My puddin's already free."
"And he'll be back in here soon enough," Waller replied as two guards stumbled their way into her office, looking woozy and off-balance but irritated. "Wilkes, Hale, would the pair of you mind escorting Miss Quinn and Miss Ivy to separate cells?" The two nodded and Barbara switched cameras with a growl. Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy had broken the Joker out of prison. Broken that lunatic out of prison while Jason Todd was running around as Batman. Could the situation possibly get any worse? Barbara decided she didn't want to know the answer to that question.
Jason wasn't sure whether he wanted to pull his own hair out of hang Damian by his ankles out the window. The little brat was running away. After handing over the key to unlock a terrifying secret he'd decided to turn tail and run like the child he really was. The change from the way he had been behaving, as a miniature assassin, was startling. "You're just running off?" The words escaped him and the kid flinched slightly.
"I-I can't-" The boy twitched and little and scowled at Dick. "Stop it Grayson."
"I'm just trying to figure out what's wrong," Dick replied earnestly. Jason glanced black and forth between the two of them, his irritation momentarily derailed.
"What's going on here?" he demanded sharply.
"We have a mental link," Dick replied. "It's not that big of a deal."
"Not that big of a deal?" Jason retorted. "I'd say that's a pretty big deal."
"It doesn't matter right now," Damian cut in. "Because I'm leaving."
"No," both Jason and Dick snapped. Damian folded his arms across his chest and glared.
"I am going. I already have a ticket." Jason snorted. As if that would settle the whole matter. The boy should really know better by now.
"No," Jason said again, voice sliding down into the Batman growl. "Not until you tell us why?" Damian shuffled uncomfortably at that before forcefully stilling himself. Next he glanced down at the floor as if it held the answers to the entire universe. His small hands twitched at his sides as if Damian was contemplating punching his older brother.
"I'm a weapon," Damian said at last. "And there's still programming living in my brain. If someone activates that programming then I could kill you both before you'd do what would be necessary to stop me."
"So you're running away?" Jason demanded.
"I'm going to Hong Kong," Damian replied coolly. Jason looked at Dick who's blue eyes were wide with sudden realization.
"You're trusting Tim to kill you if necessary."
"Yes," was the boy's simply reply. Jason felt something go cold and hard in his chest. "Now if the two of you don't mind, I have a flight to catch."