The week passed in comfortable routine for the Titans. Dick had stayed a few days, mostly to spend time with Kori and whatever time Damian would allow for, before duty called him back to Gotham.

In his free time, Damian reviewed the flash drive Dick gave him. He gleaned very little even after pouring over hundreds of posts and articles, but the Church seemed to have a tight lid on their inner workings. Everything Dick had found on them seemed to only relate to recruitment, coded articles for secret meetings, or whispers of rumors from the uninformed on the internet which amounted to nothing.

It wasn't until Damian began sorting everything by date in an Excel sheet that he reached some sort of breakthrough.

The early days of forums in the 90s had been rife with material, mostly useless, but after the post about the new Brother Blood in early 2006, the online trail went completely cold. Nothing. No more recruitment posts, online sleuths' speculation, nothing. Only the post from the poster claiming he had escaped after Trigon's attack had first alerted Damian to the organization's existence in the first place. Otherwise, the trail was cold for nineteen years.

Nineteen years of silence since the new Brother Blood took of the Church was a number that made Damian's blood run cold, and a number that told him much. He knew Raven's mother was in a cult who were responsible for summoning Trigon, leading to Raven's conception. He knew Raven's birthday was April 23rd, 2008, the same year as his but eight months prior. That likely meant that she was conceived late August in 2007, more than a full year after the post praising the new Brother Blood. Could this Brother Blood be capable of orchestrating a very long con?

When he realized that someone could be out there with at least nineteen years of planning, he felt out of his depth. This was something more suited to his father but that wasn't a route Damian was willing to consider. He had only just started after all, and he couldn't just give up control to his father on something so personal to him right away.

First thing first, he needed to try to find this person claiming to have escaped from the Church years prior. If they were alive, or even dead, they may have something Damian would be able to work with. He would need the Batcave computer if he wanted to get anywhere quick, and he was overdue for a visit home. He knew Alfred had been dismayed when he had decided to skip out on Christmas and opted to stay at the Tower with Kori, Raven, and Beast Boy. It had been since Thanksgiving since he'd been home. The manor was just getting too crowded for his liking these days. Somehow, it was already late March, and he knew spring was already fast approaching in Gotham, and he was bound to start hearing it from one Bat-family member or another if he didn't show his face there soon.

Determined, Damian pulled his cellphone from his pocket and began typing a text to Alfred.

"Ready my room."

He pressed send and quickly pocketed his phone and opened a browser tab on the computer to find the earliest flight to Gotham and booked a redeye for that night. Wasting no time after getting his booking confirmation, he began powering down things in the computer room before heading out and towards his room. He needed to pack.

Zeta tube technology was new and the distance one could go was limited to the strength of its power source. The team had a fairly low budget, at least compared to the Justice League or Batman himself, and the Tower's Zeta tube would only get them to the one centered in Jump City, and vice versa. The Batcave's Zeta tube, on the other hand, had the power to reach not just Titan Tower, but the Watchtower in orbit above the Earth, so at least the way home would be easy. To get there first, Damian would have to travel the old-fashioned way. For a Wayne, that could easily mean a private jet, but he liked to be environmentally conscious, although he wouldn't consider himself an environmentalist. He did opt for booking a first-class ticket, since there was one available.

Damian's phone dinged in his pocket on his walk back up to his room. Once down the hall, he opted for the stairs to get some cardio in before being stuck on a plane for hours tonight. He started up the stairs slowly as he focused in on his phone.

"When will we be expecting you?" Alfred had texted back.

Damian reached the first landing and decided to stop so he could concentrate on typing a response.

"I'll be in early tomorrow morning. I'll send you the flight itinerary."

He started to pull up his email to get the details of his flight to send to Alfred when he heard another door open in the stairwell, several floors down. This piqued his curiosity, as he generally considered most of his team lazy.

"Yeah," he heard the person say, immediately recognizing the voice as Tara's, doubly piquing his curiosity.

"No, it's been a quiet week," she spoke again after a pause, clearly on a phone call. Tara was apparently an orphan, with no one in the world to look out for her, and incredible power that kept her on the run her whole life, or so she had told them. So, who would she be on the phone with?

"Right," she spoke again.

Damian kept listening intently as another silence elapsed while the person on the other line spoke to Tara.

"Just text me next time, idiot," she said with a sense of familiarity that instantly disarmed Damian. Perhaps it was unreasonable of him to believe that she didn't have any friends. Still, there was something about her he didn't trust, but whether that was part of his natural inclination towards new people or an actual fault in her character, he couldn't yet be sure.

"Okay…I know…Bye," she finished, before Damian could hear her open and close the door to the stairwell again.

He narrowed his eyes and logged away his suspicion for now as he hit send on his text to Alfred and continued his way up the stairs.

It was early in the afternoon when Raven decided to see what Damian was up to. She hadn't seen much of him in the past week, at least not outside of group activities which were most of their day, but still. They hadn't had one-on-one time since she woke up in the med bay. After feeling that close to him, the slight bit of distance felt like a chasm.

She knocked on his door, intending to pull him from whatever was keeping them apart. When he opened the door and she saw he was in the middle of packing a suitcase, she was taken aback.

"You're leaving?" She looked at him with confusion written over her features.

Damian oozed guilt.

"I'm overdue for a visit to home…" he started as he stepped aside to let Raven enter, unsure where he really considered home to be, "plus I need to access the Batcave computer for my case."

"Is that what's been taking up your time this week?" Raven asked as she approached the bed to browse the assortment of things Damian had laid out there to pack. Damian followed close behind, observing her.

"Were Logan and Kent not enough to entertain you?" he teased.

He knew he should tell her about his case, he knew he'd have to eventually, but he was afraid. He was afraid of adding to her burdens, afraid she'd scoff at him for being overbearing, afraid of her finding out just how close to his heart she was.

Raven stepped close to the bed as she zeroed in on his Robin uniform, neatly folded and waiting to be packed away. Without thinking, she reached her hand out towards it and ran a delicate finger over the material. Damian tightened his jaw as she did so.

"Gar and Connor are fine, but you know I prefer your company," Raven said, playing along as the Damian drew in even closer behind her.

Damian reached his arm around Raven to pick up the tunic of his uniform that Raven had her hand resting on. She felt his warm breath on her neck as he did so. Her hand stayed rested on the folded garment as he lifted it, and she kept her gaze there too. As he brought it closer to himself, Raven's head turned with it until they were facing each other. Only when she brought her eyes up did she fully comprehend their proximity. Heat flushed in her cheeks as she stared into his green eyes that were intensely trained on her.

"When are you leaving?" she said softly, not wanting to break whatever spell they were under.

"Tonight. I need to be at the airport by eight," he answered tightly.

"For how long?"

"Not long," he said as if he were making a promise to her.

She nodded carefully, unsure if their noses were too close for the movement and then glanced away at the fading afternoon light. He followed her glance towards the city and then down at his uniform he still held between them where Raven still rested her hand and seemed to consider something.

"Come with me."

She snapped her eyes back at him.

"What?"

"Come with me. There's more than enough space for you to stay, and there's nothing Pennyworth loves more than showing off the mansion to someone who has an appreciation for history."

"Wouldn't it be an imposition? I'm sure your father doesn't love bringing in outsiders on a moment's notice," she tried to rationalize.

Their current closeness and being invited to Damian's home had Raven feeling hopeful, but she didn't want to get those hopes up too high to save herself from the fallout.

"It's more up to Pennyworth than anyone else, and knowing him, he'd be thrilled at the prospect."

"I…" Raven trailed off and looked away then, running out of excuses but still unsure of where they were headed.

Damian raised his free hand to her cheek to gently guide her face back to look him in the eyes again.

"You don't have to do anything you don't want to, but I want you to come," he reassured her.

Raven thought her heart might burst. His words and his conviction behind them were assuaging her fears. She felt his hand on her cheek tense a moment as he awaited her response, the small action only seeming to bring their faces closer. Raven's breath hitched as it seemed inevitable that they would…

I WILL KILL HIM.

Raven fell to her knees.


Author's Note: I hope anyone reading this is enjoying so far! I'm still going strong writing this, with up to chapter 14 written so far. The plot starts to speed up and chapters get a little longer from here as I've pretty much solidified which direction I'm going with it. You may start to notice that I'm taking inspiration from multiple forms of DC media, not just the DCAMU. As a little spoiler, I can tell you that I'm a big fan of the Wayne Family Adventures on Webtoon, so that definitely has influenced how I write some characters.

Writing is becoming an enjoyable creative outlet for me so I've definitely been enjoying writing this, but I know I'm an amateur and have a lot I can improve on. I'm also doing my own editing. That being said, I would appreciate any feedback, positive or negative, with what I'm doing well and what I could do better on, if anyone is inclined to leave a review. I would love to hear what you think! Thanks for reading.