Author's Note: Thanks to TerraThorn (It is indeed! And thank you! I work hard to get the updates ready so I'm glad you're enjoying them!) and soccernin19 for reviewing the last chapter. I own nothing.

"What do you mean he's here?" Damian's voice snapped through the empty space in the Cave, making the bats that lived in it flutter their wings restlessly. It was the first thing Tim heard the moment Dick shut off the motorcycle.

"Dick said he saw him not long after you'd left for Hong Kong and that he was looking for you. I thought he'd be chasing after you there and the last thing you needed was for one more aspect of your past to worry about," Jason replied, his voice full of forced calm. Tim climbed off the motorcycle and hurried towards the disruption, Dick right on his heels.

"You weren't going to tell me?" Damian all but screamed and Tim was close enough to see tears dripping down the boy's cheeks.

"I forgot," Jason snapped back and the boy flinched a little. "Look, Damian," the older boy continued, his voice suddenly soft. "Dick and I weren't trying to hurt you. We just didn't think-"

"Well that much is obvious," the boy scoffed derisively. "What am I to you? Just some cheap copy? Maybe another responsibility Bruce left you with since he's dead?" Jason flinched a little and when Tim glanced over at Dick he saw wide, hurt blue eyes. They were, Tim decided after a moment, so busy being hurt and defensive that they hadn't quite comprehended the damage the whole situation was doing to Damian.

"Dami," their oldest brother tried.

"Don't call me that," Damian snarled at him. "I don't want to talk to any of you." Then he turned and stormed up the stairs toward the manor. Tim watched for a moment as Dick and Jason exchanged helpless looks, then turned to follow Damian. He caught up to the boy just outside Damian's room and reached out to touch him, only to hesitate. What was he even doing? Tim had important news and Damian didn't even like him. It would probably better to let Dick and Jason sort out this whole mess in the morning. He was about to turn and leave when Damian's cracked and worn voice asked, "What do you want?" There was no emotion in his tone, which should have been calming considering that emotionless general seemed to be his natural state of being, but after realizing how much emotion was really there it was worrisome.

"Look," he said after a moment. "I can't even begin to comprehend what's going on right now, or even what that argument was about, but I'm not blind. Something's wrong. And maybe we haven't gotten along in the past but you're my brother."

"Am I?" Damian challenged, voice bitter. "I know they have not told you the truth yet but claiming we are siblings is stretching our relationship past the breaking point."

"Maybe," Tim agreed. "But that doesn't mean I can't decide to try."

Damian hesitated and for a moment the older boy thought he'd gotten through to the younger. Then Damian's shoulder's tightened. "You shouldn't," the boy told him, voice sharp. "I'm not a real person." Then he stepped into his bedroom and shut the door in Tim's face. For a moment the older boy could only stand there, stunned. Then he turned on his heel and headed back towards the Cave. Dick and Jason had some serious explaining to do.

"What happened?" Dick demanded the instant Tim was gone. His muscles were coiled tight with anger and worry, his mind buzzing with the knowledge that something had gone wrong while Jason, Damian, and Stephanie had been on patrol.

"He thought he saw Wilson," Jason replied, running a hand through his hair and letting out a tired sigh. "He didn't say so until he'd already changed and when I let it slip that Deathstroke really was in Gotham and he realized we hadn't told him, he was pretty ticked off." The new Batman hesitated a moment and then added, "And he has a right to be."

"We should have told him," Dick agreed ruefully. "But he was already upset enough about the programming and telling him then would have made it so much worse."

"Telling him what?" Tim's voice demanded. They both turned, startled, as their younger brother descended into the cave. "I want to know what exactly is going on."

"Tim," Jason said, irritation. "Now is not exactly the time-"

"No," Tim interrupted, voice surprisingly dark. "I think now is the time because my little brother is upstairs hurting and doesn't think he's a person and I don't know why." His voice was shaking by the end of the rant and his eyes were wide with fury and pain.

"Tim this is really not-"

"Okay," Dick interrupted, letting out a shaking breath. "Okay. I'll explain everything. Let's just..." He trailed off for a moment. "Let's just calm down, okay?"

"Okay," Tim agreed, sitting down on one of the stairs. "I'm listening."

The boy had seen him. That hadn't part of Slade's plan for the night but it hindered nothing. In fact, most likely it assisted him. The boy would be scared and upset. Any precautions he would have taken ordinarily would be thrown aside in vain attempts to track down Slade. With Jonathan Crane added to the mix, what remained of Bruce Wayne's self made crime fighting family would crumble under the weight, leaving Slade free to take what was rightfully his. After all, he'd spent far too many hours training that kid just to have him working on the wrong side.

"Everything went well then?" William Wintergreen appearing almost out of thin air, holding a steaming cup of tea.

"As well as can be expected this early on," Slade replied, carefully taking the cup. He was careful not to drop it. Will had been known to give him hell when he spilled a good cup of tea.

"Shall I assume that you are going out again tomorrow?" Wintergreen continued.

"Yes," Slade agreed amicably. "In fact, you should assume I will be going out every night until this business is finished."

"Very well," came the somewhat disapproving answer but Wintergreen vanished before Slade could ask his old friend what exactly was bothering him. He stared in the direction Wintergreen had vanished for a moment and then shook his head. He was in the middle of a plan right now. When he completed his goal then he would turn his attention to whatever was bothering his friend.

Barbara Gordon was just closing up shop for the night, Stephanie changing out of her Batgirl garb, when Tim appeared in the corner of her computer screen. His face was tired and worried, neither of which was an emotion the red head could ignore in someone who was practically her family. "What's wrong?" she asked immediately, pushing her glasses up on her nose.

"Damian is- I mean I don't-..." He hesitated, pulled in a deep breath, and tried again. "Dick just told me about Damian."

"It must have been quite a shock," Barbara said and Tim nodded. The red head hesitated a moment and then asked, "What happened?"

"Apparently Deathstroke is in Gotham looking for Damian," Tim told her and Barbara nodded. She had known that already. Tim must have read that in her expression because he added, "And nobody bothered to tell our baby brother." Barbara's mouth formed a shocked o.

"They didn't," she breathed grimly and Tim nodded.

"They did," he confirmed.

"Upstairs or downstairs?" she demanded and Tim winced a little.

"I'm not sure I should-"

"Upstairs or downstairs?"

"Upstairs," Tim said, gulping. Barbara nodded and closed the window. "Sorry Steph," she called to the blonde who had just emerged in street clothes. "But you're going to have to wait a few more minutes."