Oh those hellish green eyes...they wouldn't leave Raven.

Even as she absently stirred her soup, humming vaguely to Zatanna's questions about how school was, her mind lingered on the boy. Raven's spoon dropped in to the bowl and she rested her lazy chin on a propped-up hand.

Zatanna, as vibrant and mysterious as the narrow, winding house she'd fashioned for herself in Gotham, placed her hands on her aproned hips and raised a killer eyebrow. She set firmly down the spoon she'd been using to mix her batter (an attempt at cupcakes without magical help) and narrowed her eyes at the young demon.

"Oh no no no, what's all this for Raven?"

The girl sat up from the dining table, eyes wide.

"What's what for?" She said innocently.

Zatanna sighed, "Your aura is completely out of focus and so is your mind." Standing, she planted her hands on the table and leant forwards, opposite Raven. "Learning to harness your power comes from constantly keeping it in check. Clearly you aren't."

Raven frowned, "I'm not letting my magic loose-"

Zatanna nodded her head to the side of Raven and she girl turned. All of the walls of Zatanna's house were lined with cupboards and dressers and shelves brimming with the knickknacks of a life of magical practice and inter dimensional travel- talismans, ancient vases, assortments of quartz, and all sorts of weird and wonderful things. The jars and stones resting atop the dresser swirled about in a purple fog.

At once they tumbled and the cloud dispelled.

Zatanna trust out a hand and they stopped from crashing to the floor. She lifted them back in to place and stuck Raven with a mischievous smile.

"Come on, how's about we go out tonight?" She suggested.

"Out?" Raven stood, soup forgotten. "Out where?"

Zatanna was a master of subtle glances. She pulled one on her 'niece' answering ambiguously, "For some fun."

***

The Earth is home to all manner of strange and wonderful creatures. Some of the inhabitants of the planet pass from other realms to that inhabited by humans. Others are native to the tundras and forests and rolling deserts of the planet.

Goblins come from the mud of realms. Nasty, sticky, murderous little wretches. They slink through worlds, their sharp, wicked noses guiding them to the scent of flesh. Shrivelled, impish creatures, they snatch at small living creatures with their spindly claws in the dark. Always in the damp; terrified of heat.

A concerning number of them had been spotted in Gotham's dim downtown alleys. Not their usual lurk- no forests or swamps around for miles- but dank enough for their tastes. Zatanna had received a call from a concerned neighbour and promised to stamp them away before any small children started going missing.

And that's what she did with Raven, that night: set off to deal with the pesky goblins. They needn't necessarily kill them, only herald them away through a portal with fire at their heels.

But the hunt was most of the fun.

Raven's demon-heart roared with pleasure at being on the prowl; a predator's perverse gratification. Perhaps the sinful depths of her soul salivated with bloodlust, but at least they were no longer pudding at the thought of green eyes.

Drawing her cloak over her shoulders, Raven followed the trailing auras of goblins recently passed by (brownish-green residue left in the atmosphere like footprints on a path). Raven's heightened demonic sense of smell supported the direction in which her empathy led her. Zatanna followed, happy to see her niece so focused in her power. If there was one thing the magician could always count upon, it's was that to hunt was in Raven's blood: so adept was she in the art that it felt to her more a game than anything else.

Triumphant, Raven turned in to an alleyway and halted Zatanna behind a wall that jutted out oddly in to the path. Her boots on the cobbles were eager to lunge forwards but she held her compute best as she could. Conflict was calling and a certain Pride was ready to let loose.

"This is it." She whispered. "They're settled beyond here."

Zatanna nodded and poked her head quickly around the wall. A cluster of dustbins and spilled waste on the floor marked the place as the goblins' makeshift housing. One of the creatures themselves rummaged contentedly through the waste, muttering to itself in a raspy voice about finding a 'nice little ratty' to eat, and a long finger poked around the fish heads and bottles.

After a second moment surveying the scene, Zatanna had confirmed a sighting of four other goblins, within the alley.

Her fists curled and she said, "Okay let's go!"

***
It was as Zatanna and Raven were ambling home, having made a pit stop from some burritos, that the empath well and truly sealed her fate.

Robin had split from Batman, on patrol, and stalked diligently over rooftops and under the yellow moon. Zeppelins heaved overhead. Had the smog of the city not clouded the night, and the light not have polluted as it did, he might have seen the constellations. Often, Damian would miss the raw beauty of the night as he'd seen it on the topmost roof of the League's fortress in Nandra Parabat.

There was no need for such thoughts, but they came to him all the same when he was alone.

A little of the black-blueness bled through the fog and Damian found it stirred within him very recent memories. It wasn't a streak of river or dark, blanketing fabric that he saw above, but the image of silken hair, exactly the colour of the twilight.

At the thought of Raven he ran a hand down his face and stopped at the roof that he was on. Damian slumped down against a sturdy chimney and set his katana besides him. This was no good.

Alfred's voice eschewed, smooth, over his coms device. There had been several robberies in the neighbourhood over the last few weeks. He ought to be on the look-out.

Raven smiled in his mind's eye -something keen and penetrating- and the ghost of her voice that existed in his head spoke nonsense that clouded his thoughts. Gritting his teeth, Robin forced himself in to reality. He took in the dark air greedily and felt the grainy grooves in the chimney.

"Master Damian- security cameras detect a break-in two streets east."

"I'm on the other end of the city but Nightwing is nearby." His father's voice came, gravelly and low.

Hmph. As of late, 'the other end of the city' had meant frolicking about with a certain Catwoman. Damian shivered unpleasantly and hopped to, revived from his reverie. Grappling hook in hand, he set about following the directions given by Alfred and was soon before a sizeable establishment, fronted with a board of peeling, yellow, cursive letters determining it 'F&F's PAWNBROKERS'.

A ruckus of clangs and shouts reverberated across the street.

Damian swallowed a scathing comment about wasting his time for something so small; he knew the humbling, chastising response he would receive- he'd learnt that lesson the hard way in the past. The knee jerk reaction was contempt for people that the Heir to the Demon would have considered so insignificant; Batman's son struggled still.

Robin swooped to the ground, having surveyed the building through x-ray goggles. Five armed figures. Child's play. He could enter from the front door.

Then his peripheral vision flared purple and Robin spun. Hostility was met with recognition a second later. Damian might have been paralysed for shock -his palms slicked the inside of his glove with sweat; and she felt the same. That aura was unmistakeable.

Zatanna stood forgotten as Raven and Damian faced one another, donning their costumes.

"...Rachel...?" He swallowed a lump in his throat.

She tucked her hair behind her ears out of habit and meekly returned, "Um...hi?

A.N:

Okay this is fun! I think that we've got one more bonus chapter from this little segment. It's been so cool. I've liked being able to do something fresh as a break from the rest of the story. Stay tuned for Friday's proper chapter!

-Mwah!