It isn't hard to track down the other Damian. The Talon gives them precise instructions: what part of the city, which side of the street, how to navigate the basic traps he was able to set up to try to keep "his Dami" safe.

The hard part is once they get there. It's a run-down, abandoned apartment building, the air somehow both damp and dusty.

Jason is shuffling uneasily by Bruce's side.

Bruce pauses, intending to give him time; he knows this must bring back memories for Jason of his own time on the streets as a kid.

But Jason just keeps moving forward, so Bruce does the same. Dick brings up the rear. (Cass, Tim, and their Damian stayed behind with the Talon, the other Dick. They're tasked with trying to figure out how much the Talon remembers of being Dick Grayson. Bruce is cautiously optimistic based on the Talon's response to Dick's reveal of his own identity and past.)

The three of them move carefully into the dimly-lit room that the Talon had instructed them the other Damian would be waiting in.

There's no one there.

There are a few lopsided wooden pallets, a ragged backpack, and a pile of cans in one corner of the room, but there's clearly no one there.

"Oookay, now what?" Jason says once they've looked around for a moment.

Dick frowns. "He wouldn't have lied to us."

"I didn't say he lied to us," Jason says sharply. "I said 'now what?'"

Before the two of them can get into it, Bruce raises a gauntleted hand, one finger up. "There's no way for Robin to hide."

"Yeah, that's why I said 'now what,'" Jason says. Bruce is certain he's rolling his eyes behind his helmet. Bruce ignores this fact.

"Robin," Bruce emphasizes. "Our Robin. The Talon was younger than Nightwing. Smaller. So…"

"So this boy might be younger and smaller than ours," Dick says immediately, turning toward the wooden pallets. They're stacked in such a way that there just might be a small gap between them.

Dick takes a few steps closer to the pallets, then he sinks into a crouch. "Hey, kid? It's okay. You can come out."

Bruce waits for a moment. Nothing happens.

"Talon sent us," Dick adds. "He's worried about you. He wants you to come with us."

Still nothing.

Jason fidgets by Bruce's side. He mutters softly and sarcastically, "Makes me want to just rip away the pallets and, if he's even there, grab him."

He evidently doesn't mutter it softly enough.

One of the wooden pallets shakes and falls to one side, revealing a trembling…

"Oh," Dick says quietly. "He's so little."

And he is. The other Damian is little. Tiny, Bruce might even say.

"I'm not little," the other Damian says, clearly trying to seem fierce. His small body is curled up too tightly with fear to accomplish anything of the sort. "I'm already six."

"Six is pretty big," Dick says comfortably, while Bruce tries and somewhat fails not to shake apart with rage at the idea of this six-year-old in the League of Assassins.

"Yes," other Damian says to Dick. "And Talon says I'm going to get bigger. I'm allowed."

"You are allowed," Dick agrees.

"I would argue with anyone who said otherwise," Jason says.

The other Damian looks up with wide eyes. "Really? You'd argue with Ra's?"

"Oh, I would definitely argue with Ra's," Jason says readily. "Why, what'd he say?"

"He says I have to be his vessel," other Damian says, uncurling a little from the tight ball he'd forced himself into. "He was generous enough to let me get to six and not just five like he planned, but I have to let him take me over, and then there won't be a me to get bigger."

"Well, that's-" Jason begins, then clearly reconsiders what he was about to say, likely for good reason given the little ears present. "I mean, that's messed up. That's bad. We won't let him do that."

"You'll let me get bigger?" Other Damian asks, looking back and forth between Dick and Jason, eyes skittering right past Bruce.

"We promise," Dick says. "We're going to get you to Talon, and you're going to get to grow up."

Damian hesitantly crawls a few paces forward. "I get to grow up and be okay? And Talon. Talon gets to be okay too. You've got to be nice to him too."

"We will do everything we can to help you two," Dick says. He holds out a hand.

Other Damian takes it, and he and Dick both stand.

Bruce can't help but make a little grunt at the sight. Other Damian seems just as small when standing, and next to Dick, he almost looks even smaller than before.

Unfortunately, other Damian startles at the sound. "What-"

"That's Batman," Dick says quickly. "He's hard to see in the dark, isn't he?"

At the scared, tense look on other Damian's face, Bruce briefly and futilely curses himself for making his suit so camouflaged in dim lighting. It's meant for scaring criminals, not small children, especially not tiny versions of his own children.

"But he's a good guy," Dick says. "He's going to help you get to Talon."

"I get to go to Talon now," other Damian says, lifting his chin and staring almost defiantly in Bruce's direction.

"Yes," Bruce agrees. "Let's go."

The tension leaks out of other Damian in one long breath. "Good. Let's go."

When they return to the Cave, it's to the sight of Talon dressed in what look like some of Tim's pajamas and seated at the debriefing table, watching every move made by Damian (their Damian, and that's already confusing, they're going to need nicknames sooner than later). Their Damian, for his part, is valiantly attempting to ignore Talon's gaze as he scowls at Tim.

"I did say 'go fish,'" Tim says casually. "Draw a card."

"And I did say this is a foolish game for infants," their Damian grumbles, but he draws a card as Tim and Cass hold back laughter.

"Talon?" Other Damian says quietly as he, Bruce, Dick, and Jason draw near. It's quiet enough that, if Bruce wasn't observing the other Damian so closely, he might've missed it.

Talon clearly doesn't miss it. He swivels in his spot and opens his arms wide.

Other Damian sprints at him and leaps into his lap.

Talon tucks him in as close as possible. His body shakes, and out comes the distinct sound of tearful sniffling.

"It's okay," other Damian says earnestly. "It's okay. They said it's going to be okay."

"I know," Talon says. "I know, that's, that's why."

"It's going to be okay," Dick says too, but he's saying it to Bruce. "But how?"

"Yeah," Jason says. "What's the plan?"

And so Bruce begins to explain.