Moments passed before their lips parted, swollen from the intimate contact. Pulling her head back, Raven regarded Damian with the intensity of both a thousand suns and a safety flame, hands still at his cheeks.

An unfamiliar look flittered across Raven's eyes, sparking confusion in Damian.

"What? What is it?", he murmured, brow knitting.

Raven's lips lifted, "Nothing, just...", she withdrew her hands, letting them fall to her lap, "this seems surreal."

Somehow finding a sensation of incompleteness overcoming him at the loss of her touch, Damian brought a hand up to the side of her face, brushing a free streak of hair away.

"It does, doesn't it?", he agreed. "Recalling our first time of meeting- roughly two and a half years ago, if I'm correct- we didn't exactly 'get along' as the phrase stands.", Damian scoffed, reminiscing.

Smirking, Raven teased, "That's for sure- how could anyone get along with that?"

"Tt. How rude of you.", Damian played along, feigning hurt.

"Aw, are your feelings okay? I'm only teasing.", she grinned, patting his hand in mock sympathy, before shivering violently.

Holy Mother of Azarath, it's cold!

Concern flaring, Damian offered, "We ought to go back inside, at this height and taking in to account the season, it's far too cold to stay up here for so long a time."

"Sure."

***

"So, as I was saying, you were an entitled brat with a superiority complex the size of-"

"Tt. I think we've revised this point for long enough.", Damian rolled his eyes as Raven snickered.

Sitting cross-legged besides him on the bed, Raven decided that she'd poked enough fun at him for the time being, "I suppose. Still, it's a wonder how things have changed- I mean, Dick and Kori and getting married and having a baby."

Damian idly trailed a hand down the wood leg of his bed thoughts drifting over the upcoming union, "They haven't decided on a date for the wedding- or had an engagement party yet- have they?"

Raven contemplated, "No... I don't believe so, though Kori did mention wanting to be married before the baby is born. That gives us about a five month time frame."

He hummed nonchalantly, "Right, the baby is almost four months now. We sensed it's presence at three months- when the embryo gains its own life force.", almost talking to himself.

"Damian?", Raven prodded, mildly worried.

Startled, Damian shot up, "Wha- yes- what happened?!"

Soothing him, she explained, "You were lost in thought. Are you okay?"

Eyes finding the hand that rested on his arm in reassurance, Damian pried it off, securing the hand in his. Sending Raven an affirmative nod, he centred himself on their point of contact: their hands.

"Raven,", he began, "If life had given you the opportunity, would you have a child or children?"

A bittersweet smile adorning her lips, Raven answered as truthfully as she could bear, sighing, "If life had given me the opportunity... then probably yes- but who knows what would have happened in the future.", as an afterthought, she asked, "How did you know?"

Damian's eyes lingered on her abdomen for a moment, "Magic as dark as that leaves a mark, as you know. I can feel it."

A ribbon of moonlight streamed in through a gap in the curtains, on the precipice of being overthrown by the yellowish glow of the room's lights. Sight falling to the pale light on the floor coming from the window, Damian's thoughts turned to the others in the Manor.

Changing the subject, Damian said, "Well, father certainly has had an abnormal experience with childbearing,", he smirked bitterly, "he didn't know about either of his blood children's births until unfitting circumstances became them. Both Belladonna and I. It's rather ironic, is it not?"

Sending the wounds beneath the cloak of Damian's mental walls, Raven reaffirmed a hold on his hand to hearten him, "It's true, your father hasn't been given the greatest of circumstances around his children, but anyone can see that he's trying. And so far, he's doing a good job by Bella. She's really settling in, with all the time your father is giving her."

Damian smiled at the memory of the five-year old and Bruce playing with Lego. Their relationship would no doubt grow closer with time- closer than Damian and his father, upsetting as that notion was.

"She is. Remarkably so.", Damian ran a free hand through his hair before choking the digital clock on the beside table, "Shit!", his eyes widened.

"What is it?", Raven demanded, alarmed.

"I'm on duty with father in five minutes- he told me to meet him by Gotham City Harbour!", on his feet, Damian ran to his wardrobe, pulling out the Robin suit from a hidden compartment.

An idea sparking in her head, Raven stood up and, in a flash of purple, was in her hero uniform, "Damian, I'll open a portal to the harbour-"

"But-"

"I'm going there anyway- to look in to one of our leads on the Night Children case- it's no issue. Look, how about I drop you off a short distance away, is that alright?"

Uniform in his hands, Damian nodded, entering the bathroom to get changed.

Less than a minute later, Robin stepped out.

"How in Azar's name did you change so fast?"

He winked, "A magical never reveals his secrets."

***

"Robin, take the back group.", Batman ordered, behind one of many crates.

Nodding, the Boy Wonder melded in to the shadows around him, luminescent green eyes the only part of him visible before they too faded to black.

"So, who's the guy we're here for then, eh?", one of the younger men of the pack asked, warning him a slap upside the head from an older man.

"You're new.", he snorted, whipping off the cap he was wearing and tucking it in to a pocket in his jumpsuit. "First lesson boy: shut up and don't ask questions ."

Typical expendables. Damian sneered, sheathing his sword and replacing it with a metal cylinder no larger than the palm of his hand. Crouched between two crates, Damian waited for three seconds...two seconds...one...

A light flared opposite him where Batman hid. The signal.

After pressing the button at the capsule's end until he heard it click, Robin rolled it across the floor toward the men at the back. Assured that Batman had done the same, Damian sprang forwards.

Vision obscured by the smoke issuing out of the capsules, the hired hands were rendered blind (becoming all too easy targets for Batman and Robin). Sixteen hits later, the smoke dissipated, revealing two vigilantes standing in the middle of sixteen unconscious bodies.

Crack.
Crack.
Crack. Crack.

"Robin. Cut that out.", Batman ordered.

Damian stopped clicking his knuckles, squatting to gain a closer look at one of the men's faces, reaching out to turn it from side to side: out of sheer boredom as opposed to genuine interest. Sufficiently entertained, he dropped the man's face, standing up.

"Tt. Perhaps you wouldn't mind explaining why we accepted this bait?"

"Curiosity.", was all Batman said, stepping over one of the unconscious people.

Unsatisfied by the answer, yet not wishing to enter a dispute -which was not at all a regular reaction of his- Robin followed, a hand at his katana. Sliding the blade out of its sheath by an inch, Damian ran his finger down the side of the sword, mildly comforted by the pain- an odd habit.

Feet clacking against the floor of the cargo ship, Batman and Robin wove their way out of the numerous crates, anticipating the inevitable encounter with whomever set up this 'meeting'. Whomever they were, they knew how to get Batman's attention. Was that a good thing or not, who knew?

Now faced with the view of midnight waves lapping against the sides of the other boats in the docks, cradling each in a watery embrace, Damian exhaled. Taking in a breath of air, he amused himself by noting the differences between the atmosphere surrounding Wayne Manor and the atmosphere surrounding the docks: an alteration in the weight, freshness and-

The tell tale shifting of feet leaving the floor alerted the two vigilantes to the baiter's presence before he or she could introduce themselves. More to Batman and Robin's perplexity, a vortex of purple magic opened besides them. Out of it stormed none other than Raven Roth, who appeared as though she'd love nothing more than to rip out the newcomer's throat.

"You have our attention.", Batman growled, not in the least disgruntled by Raven's appearance.

Lamps giving light behind the stranger- whom the empathy affirmed as male- his identity remained secret...until he stepped in to the light.

As though Zeus himself felt the implications of this person revealing himself, a single flash of raw energy struck the Earth, summoning Poseidon's wrath. Lightning meeting the Earth yet again, waves began swaying the ship heavier beneath their feet.

Demonic eyes reflecting the lightning bolts in their emerald irises, Damian's lips parted.

"Emrys?"

***

Damian's P.O.V:

How could this be? After so many years...he was said to be dead after...

"Damian!- I mean...my lord.", he scrambled together a bow, but the somber mood was already cracked by his unsurely behaviour.

"Drop the formalities Emrys,", I ordered, eyes taking in every inch of his face, confirming my suspicions that it was indeed him.

From my left, father demanded, "Robin, you know him."

Both salt and rainwater speckling my cheeks from the drizzle and ocean spray, I nodded, "Yes. Yes I do."

Before he could speak, I added, "But anything else must wait.", turning to Emrys- Gods...Emrys... it's odd to even think his name- I put a lid on all the emotions willing to bubble over, asking, "You are willing to go with us, yes?"

He dipped his head, only for Raven to protest.

"Go with us? Who exactly are you?", she moved forwards, expression ruthlessly scathing, rubies glinting where amethysts usually lay in her eyes.

Halting what would become a deadly dispute, I held Raven's forearm, staring in to her eyes, watching as they reverted to orbs of purple.

"Trust me on this.", I insisted, releasing her arm.

"Can we trust him?", father folded his arms, waterproof Batsuit protecting him from the water.

"I never said I trusted-"

Raven cut me off halfway through that thought, "I'll be the judge of that.", she strode forwards to Emrys, holding out her palm. "Your hand, if you please."

There was no room for argument in her tone.

Their hands clasped, Raven shut her eyes, shoulders rising and falling as she breathed in the salty air. Exhaling, her eyes flew open, no longer amethyst, nor carmine, but a jarring shade darker than the sky above us. Pure, undiluted black.

Emrys winced, but that was the only sign of discomfort that he showed at Raven's delving through his mind.

Thirty-two seconds later, she dropped his hand, demeanour switching in an instant. Her stance loosened and expression softened by miles, turning from threatening to merely empathetic (which was rather fitting all things considered).

To father, she said, "I've seen in to his heart and mind. We can trust him."

***later***

He appeared...unchanged. Only half a decade older than our last time of meeting.

Surveying Emrys in full clarity under the white glow of the Batcave's lights, he seemed exhausted. Beneath dark brown eyes rested evidence of sleepless nights and the way he clearly fought the urge to slump hinted likewise.

Other than his hair- dark as his eyes- being grown out in cornrows as opposed to shaved close to his head, there were no significant alterations in his appearance. Emrys was still Emrys, only twenty seven rather than twenty two.

It was all to much to comprehend.

Emrys was pronounced dead when the League of Assassins fell.

A.N:

Hello my darlings!
I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and no...I'm not saying anything else about this newcomer until next chapter ;)
So enjoy the cliffhanger!

Thank you

-Bats:3