"So, what do you want, Grayson?" Damian started as they entered a room full of monitors, the doors sliding closed behind them.

"What I want? You mean what you want. I'm following up on what you asked me," Nightwing pulled a flash drive from his pocket and plugged it in to a computer as the files started downloading.

"Oh, right."

"Did you forget?" This surprised Nightwing. Damian was more meticulous than anyone he'd ever met. Except maybe Bruce.

"No, I just assumed you wouldn't get anything accomplished so quickly."

This did not surprise Nightwing. Very in character for his younger brother to underestimate him or anyone for that matter.

For Damian's part, he really did expect Dick to take longer following up, not because he believed his brother to be incompetent, but because he had made the request so nonchalantly with no timeline in mind as he knew Dick had his own matters to attend to. With Dick spending most of his time in Gotham lately, he had much more access to the Batcave computers than himself, not to mention other sources. Dick had a knack for computers, and there was no one better to dig up information from all over the web. Deep web, dark web, you name it. Dick would find it. How long it would take was another thing entirely.

"Well, I had some time, and I was curious, and I got a lot of hits on this one pretty fast."

Nightwing hit some keys and all at once a bunch of pages, black backgrounds full of thin white font, started popping up all over the screen the brothers were looking at.

"Oldest thing I could find goes back to the 90s," he clicked on a particular page. "Just a standard cult recruitment post. Lots of hits in the 90s in forums. Here's a slightly more recent one."

"Brother Blood?" Damian read aloud, questioning the latest information.

The post from some decrepit early online forum was a vague description of the Church of Blood that Damian had been trying to dig up information about.

It wasn't long after the team's battle with Trigon that Damian set up a continuous search online for keywords such as 'Trigon' and 'Raven' and anything related. He knew Trigon had followers on Earth, Raven had told them her mother had been in a satanic cult after all, and he knew that it wasn't a secret that Trigon had tried to take over the world. It was only a matter of time until someone somewhere was emboldened by proof of Trigon's existence and power. Only a matter of time until Raven was linked to Trigon. Damian was determined to be a step ahead.

Among the first few pings on the results of Damian's search, was some post after Trigon's attack about how the Church of Blood was 'right about everything' by some zealot who claimed to have escaped the Church. It was the first time Damian had heard of the Church of Blood and naturally, he needed more.

Batman had taught all his proteges how to be good detectives, knowing it was integral to their work as vigilantes. It wasn't just about showing up when a crime started but stopping it before it could happen. Damian was good, but couldn't deny that Dick was better, and his other brother Tim was even better than him. Being in Gotham where they had access to the Batcave computer also gave them an edge.

Truthfully, if he didn't think Tim would immediately snitch him out to Bruce, he would have considered asking him. Tim and Damian had a bit of a rocky relationship. They both thought of each other as pompous jerks, and both had something to prove. He found Dick more trustworthy where snitching was concerned, even if he was an insatiable gossip. If Damian sounded uninterested enough, that would usually keep Dick's curiosity at bay. He was hoping he could maintain a cool attitude as they glanced at the results together, but hearing of 'Brother Blood' for the first time had him transfixed. This seemed to be a real person tied to the inner workings of the cult, making the cult less amorphous than it had first seemed.

"From what I've gathered, this Brother Blood appears to be the leader of the Church of Blood," he clicked on another page where someone was raving about the genius of the new Brother Blood.

"Is Brother Blood supposed to be like the Pope? How can there be a new cult leader?"

"It's something like that. Here, look at this one. This person claims that the Church of Blood has been around since time began. Obviously, an exaggeration but there might be some truth to it. I found this article from a 1925 newspaper that someone had scanned and posted, because they noticed what looked to be an anagram cipher with all the randomly capitalized words. It pinged on my search because it had 'church' and 'blood' repeated a few times in the article. See how it says a time in this sentence and a day of the week in the next?"

Damian nodded, noting the nonsensical nature of the article.

"So, when you take the words that are capitalized, I got 'STREET' for one word, so the other word is just a street name, 'PEARL'. And over here, this number must be the address. All looking very random, but for those who know about the Church of Blood, they'd know they're looking for a meet up time."

"New Orleans, how stereotypical," Damian noted the newspaper's origin.

"There may still be an active chapter somewhere there, since we know the cult is still active," Nightwing offered.

"Hm," Damian hummed in indifference. He knew Dick was suggesting they take a trip. Meaning he was getting more interested than Damian planned on. Over the years, he had learned to ask for and accept help from others, but that didn't mean he wanted too much interference from his brothers. They tended to be overbearing.

Nightwing looked at Damian, trying to gauge his reaction, but he had to admit that the kid had a good poker face. He didn't know what drew Damian to this case, but it had to be something. Damian didn't often pick up cases on his own. He was mostly in it for the action. For him to start this and not give a reason why was at least intriguing to Dick.

"Well, I'll leave this for you to look at some more. There's a lot in there so I only skimmed it myself."

He pulled the flash drive from the port and handed it to Damian, then leaned back in his computer chair afterwards with his hands behind his head in a way that Damian knew meant he still wanted to talk.

"Thank you," Damian nodded curtly.

"I took the liberty of having Oracle set up a search so if anything new pops up on the Church or on Brother Blood, we'll know about it."

Great. Damian thought. Another Bat Family member liability.

"So, you and Gordon are on speaking terms again?" Damian said in attempt to distract Dick from whatever he was thinking about discussing with him.

Nightwing's hands fell from behind his head and landed on the arm rests instead.

"Well, it's still a little awkward. Breakups are hard. But Babs and I have known each other since we were kids. I'll always have love for her, I'm just not in love with her anymore," Nightwing confided. He and Barabra had broken up nearly three years ago now and he had been officially dating Kori for more than a year. It had been the cause of a fair bit of tension at Wayne manor for a while.

"But never mind me," Nightwing started again, making Damian groan, "I hear you and Raven are inseparable. Anything going on there?"

"We're friends, Grayson. I find her company the most preferrable to any other team member at my disposal."

"At your disposal?" Nightwing mimicked in a chuckle. "That sounds like the Damian fresh out of the League of Assassins, not the seventeen-year-old Damian I know now."

"Old habits die hard, Grayson," Damian said, growing increasingly irritated.

"Don't dance around it. It was a known fact that you were up guarding her room after the fight tonight, and then when I went up to try to find you, you weren't there. I can only assume you were in her room then."

"Assume all you want," Damian said sternly before turning on his heels to leave.

"Wait! Wait. I'm sorry for pushing, I just…it's kind of exciting; you know?"

Damian stopped and sighed. He knew his brother was well intended, but…

"Are you at least being safe?"

"Alright. We're done."

"Now, hold on!" Nightwing jumped out of his chair and went around the computer desk to catch Damian by the arm.

"Grayson, I swear I will…"

"Bodily harm, yada yada, I get it. But I'm serious! Has Bruce had the talk with you? Because believe me, you are much better off hearing it from me than him."

"I had the talk with him. Our family has a propensity for promiscuity that can be rather concerning."

"I…believe you."

"Then are we done?" Nightwing released his arm at that, and Damian turned from him towards the door once more.

"So have you, or haven't you?" Nightwing asked as the doors slid open.

"No," Damian stated, stopping in the doorframe, not bothering to turn back.

"But you do have feelings, don't you?" Nightwing asked softer this time.

Damian turned his head to glance back at his brother. He locked eyes for a moment and saw the genuine care Dick held in his eyes for him. After he was satisfied with what he saw, he averted his eyes again and answered in an even softer voice.

"Yes."