I watched Damian's eyes clench shut as realization struck him.

"Fuck," he cursed, jaw tightening and teeth grinding. "Not again."

Again?

I stared at him wide-eyed. "What's that supposed to mean!?"

The woman spoke again, her smooth voice felt like velvet to my ears.

"Where are you, Damian?" She sounded almost playful when she said it. "I've missed you."

What the actual fuck. I must be dreaming.

Damian looked more pissed off than scared. I was completely lost. Why wasn't he scared? A crazy lady had just kidnapped everyone in the library, had smashed through the window holding a sword, and had called out his name saying that she missed him?

"Sasha, get out of here," Damian ordered me.

I paused.

Did... did she say son?

But now Damian was standing up, a bitter look in his eyes like he was fed up with everything. Like this was a regular occurrence for him, and he had grown tired of it.

"Damian," I panicked as he began to walk past me. "Damian, what the fuck are you doing?"

The boy stopped at the edge of the bookshelf, eyes glued to something in front of him. His body was tense, his brows creased into a frown.

"Talia," he spoke distastefully.

The woman gave a pretty, airy laugh. "What, no "mother" for me?"

I assumed that she placed a hand to her chest. "I'm hurt, my child."

This was so utterly confusing. Who was this woman, and why was she calling Damian her child? One would think I'd be used to crazy situations like this due to my previous life as an agent and assassin. But it had been months since I'd left Midnight — I had grown accustomed to living an ordinary life now.

Damian only rolled his eyes. "What do you want this time, mother?"

I stared in shock. I needed to see what was happening.

My body took control, pulling me toward the opening beside the book shelf, not caring if this lady was armed and ready to shoot at me. It was too late for me to hide now, anyway, because now I was standing right next to Damian and in the view of one of the most attractive human beings I had ever seen.

She was gorgeous, probably in her late twenties or early thirties, with tan skin and long, dark hair. Her whole look screamed "exotic", like someone of Mediterranean background. She held those same green eyes as Damian did, with a shot of hazel throughout.

She wore a more traditional assassin suit, one with decorative green embellishments around her black, sleeved crop top and long skirt. She held two swords, one in either hand, and an array of gold gauntlets rested on her wrists.

(thought i'd include a photo for u cause i can't describe shit also why is she so pretty i'm low key jealous)

The woman's smile grew wider at the sight of me. I almost felt paralyzed by her beauty, like she had cast a spell on me. Her teeth were perfectly white, much like Damian's. In fact I wasn't surprised that he'd called her mother — they shared the same astonishing level of attractiveness.

"Ah," she said. "I was wondering where your friend was."

She knows about me? How?

Damian was glaring daggers at me. "You need to go," he warned through grit teeth.

But I wasn't about to leave him with this dangerous lady and her two giant machetes. Plus the small army of ninjas behind her weren't exactly giving off friendly vibes. There were maybe ten of them, all situated in different areas of the library. Some where behind me, too, I could tell. They wore black robes that reminded me of midnight, and hoods that masked their faces.

The woman heard Damian's words. She took a few steps toward us, almost challenging us not to back away.

"I've heard much about you, Sasha," her eyes glazed over me, enchanting me.

Evidently, she noticed my clueless expression.

"The names Talia," she continued, waiting for my realization to set in. "You may have heard of me before. I'm related to a certain... Al Ghul."

The woman sent me a wink, and suddenly every thing clicked into place like one, gigantic puzzle.

Oh, god. Oh, god.. This couldn't be.

She was Talia A Ghul.

Talia Al Ghul, the daughter of the Demon himself, Ra's. She held the throne to the League of Assassins in Nanda Parbat, and she was their current leader. Midnight had done years of business with her, trading assassins, importing trainers and teachers, helping with undercover operations and so much more.

My own father, Deathstroke, was extremely familiar with Talia and her dad, Ra's. He had been a member of the LOA for years before transferring to Midnight. He and Ra's had sparred together, worked together, fought together, and had done business together. Talia had even hired him to assassinate Nightwing at one point, for reasons I had never known but had overheard once from other assassins.

But... I knew what this meant. It couldn't be true. It couldn't be real.

Damian was...

...an Al Ghul?

"No," I breathed, shocked and in denial. "This doesn't make any sense."

Talia glanced at the boy beside me. "She doesn't know, does she?"

"Why are you here, Talia?" Damian spat, ignoring her statement.

She only beamed once more. "Why, I just wanted to see you, my beloved son. Is that so hard to understand?"

Talia was becoming increasingly closer. Damian's eyes never left hers, his body stiffening with every step she took. I watched as she lifted her hand to him, her palm reaching for his cheek.

But Damian's lightning reflexes snatched her wrist from the air before she could touch him.

"Don't," he snarled. "Nothing is ever simple with you."

But there was something else chewing up my insides, something other than the surreal realization that Damian Wayne was really the son of Talia Al Ghul. Something else was causing a pit to grow in my stomach, a nauseating hole that sunk deeper and deeper the more I thought about it.

I felt my voice tremble as I spoke the words out loud.

"Where... where is my father?"

Talia's head snapped to the side, now facing me. A sickening smirk stretched across her lips as her eyes met mine.

"I thought you might ask that."

———————————

Damian's POV:

Sasha wasn't aware of the ninjas approaching behind her. She wasn't aware of the true purpose of my mother being here, talking to her like this. I knew the second Talia had mentioned Sasha's name that she wasn't here just for me. No, she was up to something.

She was up to something with Slade.

"Sasha, I swear to God I will punch you," I hissed. Why hadn't she run yet? She should've been fleeing while she still had a chance. She didn't know my mother like I did — she didn't know the danger she was in.

"Your dear old dad is quite popular where I'm from," Talia was saying, twirling one of her swords in her hand, the light reflecting off it and onto the walls.

I surveyed the room, counting the assassins, noting which ones held which weapons. If a fight was to break out -- and I knew one would -- then I would need to know what odds I was up against. What odds we were up against, considering Sasha was here and would have to break out her old assassin moves.

Possibly even her old killing moves.

Bruce will not be happy with me after today, I thought bitterly.

Talia was smiling malicously at Sasha, who looked to be frozen to the spot.

"He helped train me, you know. When I was younger. He was a good friend of my father's," she said.

I couldn't believe what my mother was saying about him. How could she speak so highly of the man who killed my grandfather? Who killed her own father?

"He betrayed us, mother!" I snarled, utterly disgusted. "Don't you remember?"

Talia only waved her hand dismissively. "We've had our ups and downs. But he's always been one of us, my son. He's always been part of the League."

Anger took over me and I charged forward. "He tried to kill you! He tried to kill me, and he succeeded in killing Grandfather!"

Suddenly, all of the surrounding assassins were aiming their weapons at me. I stopped still, eyes raking over each of them as the tips of their swords wavered mere inches from my body.

Talia only sighed, shaking her head disapprovingly, her hazel eyes locked on mine.

"Damian," she began softly, like a parent coaxing their child. "You know I love you with all of my heart. It's because of how much I love you that I'm doing what I'm doing now. When I left you with Bruce, I told you'd I'd come back for you once the League was rebuilt. Deathstroke agreed to help me as payment for his mistakes. It's been, what, four years? Four years of his support and devotion, my son. He worked off his debt, he proved himself to be a valuable ally. The League is back on it's feet, thanks to his aid."

Her eyes drifted back to Sasha, her hand moving to her chin and tilting it up as the blonde girl remained un-moving. Sasha looked completely shocked, almost to a point of being paralyzed or stuck in a trance. I felt myself grow concerned as to what my mother might do to her.

"You truly do have his face," Talia smiled once more. "He'll be glad to see you again."

I cursed under my breath. That could only mean one thing.

Slade was out of prison.

"Wait... wait, what did you say?" Sasha stuttered, finally snapping back to reality.

Talia made a gesture with her sword at the assassin nearest Sasha, clearly a signal for him to make a move.

"I said your father will be glad to see you," she answered, lips twisting into a smirk. "What, did you think he would stay locked away forever? I don't think so, my darling. Not with people like me on his side. He's waiting for you right now."

And it was at that moment that two assassins gripped Sasha's arms, forcing them behind her back and shoving her to the floor. I jerked toward her on instinct, a stupid move knowing that the other assassins were on me now, grabbing me violently as fought their control.

"No!" Sasha was shouting, struggling against their hold. "No, I don't want to see him! I don't want to see him!"

"Let her go, Talia," I snapped, growing highly irritated. "You can have me, just let her go."

Mother chuckled genuinely. "That's very sweet of you, Damian. But I didn't just come for you this time. No, Slade and I are a... team, of sorts. He wants his child, and I want mine. Both of which just so happen to be in the care of Bruce, might I add."

She shook her head at that statement. "Ah, Bruce. I knew what he was doing the second I heard the news. Of course he wanted her under his protection, he knew about Slade and I's connection. He thought I wouldn't notice, didn't he? But of course I noticed. I knew his plan from the start."

One of my captors attempted to bound my wrists, but before he could, I flung my elbow back and hit him square in the nose. Using this distraction to my advantage, I sent my foot violently to his shin, enjoying the crunch of bone as his leg bent backwards. Then I spun, knocking out the second assassin with a deadly fist to the face.

But as soon as both assassins were down, I felt the cold touch of mother's blade pressing into my skin. She had her sword to the back of my neck, resting there menacingly, threatening to slice my throat open at any given moment.

I froze. "I doubt you came all this way just to kill me like this, mother."

The tip of her blade pressed further. "I wouldn't test your luck, my son."

ooooh things are getting a little intense. in case u didn't know i'm basing a lot of these events off the son of batman, batman vs robin and batman: bad blood movies since the comics are all over the shop and it's hard to get a basic storyline from it. go watch the movies if ur unsure about damian's past with slade.

thank u for 17.4k reads <3