Raven looked in to her lap and saw that she'd been fumbling with her fingers. She lay her hands flat on her legs and sighed.

Right...Azar help me, here comes the backstory...

Batman was expectant; Robin folded him arms with an itchy impatience.

"I...I came to Earth a few years ago," she began, "running from...well...Hell-"

Batman frowned and glanced at Constantine.

"- my father's realm, at least... he's a demon lord, and a powerful one. Dead to me." She said, with a cold malice that made Damian start. "And he's been looking for me- that's what my brothers (half-brothers really) were here for, I think."

Robin tutted and Raven looked at him. She was offended but thought to pay him little mind; she was being questioned by Batman. Besides, Zatanna had talked to her about Gotham's infamous duo. She'd said that Batman was an old friend- fearsome but below the surface, understanding. But Zatanna hadn't yet met this Robin, only his predecessors, and they'd told her that he was a slowly reforming terror, crass, mildly terrifying but thawing... a little.

Raven saw what they'd meant.

"You mentioned your father, what about your mother?"

"Dead. A long time ago. On the planet that I was raised on...Azarath... before that demon found us and I was taken to his realm-"

"Until you escaped?" Robin offered.

She nodded, sitting a little more into the car seat.

Constantine turned back to look at the teens as Batman turned a corner.

The magician nodded his head to the empath and explaining, "Had a little stint with the Titans, she did. Helped 'me out on a few occasions before Zee and me found her. Must've been near-on eight-ish years back...nine maybe...gosh I feel old..." Constantine sighed.

The Batmobile had now driven away from the bustle of Gotham and rumbled down a path between evergreens. Batman had gone down this road a thousand times. His chest was overtaken by the comfort of nearing home. He knew all the bumps that jolted the Batmobile, up and down, and the trees that lined the road.

"You've lived with Zatanna and Constantine for these years?" He asked.

Raven nodded, "Mostly. They're... they're my family."

Batman wondered how Zatanna had never mentioned the girl...then he remembered her vague references to an 'apprentice' now and then. Raven was on the run, hiding; Zatanna had never had any reason to tell him, had she? Still, he knew he'd be paying her a visit soon to discuss it. She was an old friend and it wasn't a betrayal really, but Raven had called Zee 'family'...

Damian lingered still on what Constantine had said.

"The Titans- you were there when Nightwing was Robin?"

"He was a good leader...supportive...tactical..." she looked up at Robin, "Miss Kori is still there, isn't she?"

Robin hadn't expected a question to be turned back on him. He fumbled before finding his footing. "Yes, unless anything has changed in the last few weeks."

His relationship with the Titans was tentative. Damian had stayed with them a while, when he was younger. They'd grown and shaped one another, and he'd assumed a leadership role for a while. But the novelty of team-leader and proving himself worthy of taking Grayson's shadow wore off.

Robin resolved that he worked better alone, or at least, with as few people as possible. That was a trait that both shared, though neither of them knew it as of yet.

Raven hummed in thought as the Batmobile entered a cave. No more than thirty seconds left until they'd be parked, Robin registered, somewhere in the inactive part of his mind- the part that wasn't occupied by a flurry of vaguely purple thoughts.

The silence stiffened the air within the car. Batman was used to silence; he drove resolutely. His aura was barely perceptible. Robin's was much the same. She would have applauded the mental defences, had they not been so worrying. Heck, she didn't even know where they were going. Her gut and Zatanna's words guided her trust.

Almost as soon as the drive had started, it was finished. Raven and Constantine were left to marvel at the wonders of the Batcave- giant dinosaur and all.

An older man, grey at the temples and finely moustached, waited, arms  behind his back, where the Batmobile parked. Raven had heard whisper of this man... the butler...the man behind Batman since the beginning. She sensed kindness in him, great kindness, but also a danger, something keener than just his wit.

Batman opened the doors of the Batmobile with a click. Robin almost leapt out. Raven couldn't help the feeling that he wanted to be away from her and a pang wracked her chest. She climbed out unsurely and met Robin's eye over the car's roof. He looked away.

Constantine swaggered to, nodding to the older man and greeting him, "Y'alright? John Constantine at your service- Zatana's told me some bout you mate. Batman's Geeves?"

Alfred Pennyworth raised an eyebrow, "Ah...Scouse...a pleasure to make your acquaintance Mister Constantine and" he turned to Raven with very much the same impassive look, "miss..."

"Raven-" she was hasty to answer. "Roth. It's Raven Roth and... very nice to meet you sir."

The butler put her name to memory before saying, "You ought to have told me you were bringing guests sir, I could have prepared some mugs of hot chocolate." Batman apologised but was waved off by the man, who went off to prepare some. Alfred looked sympathetically between John and Raven, "I suspect you'll be needing it."

Their drinks were only just cooling by the time Batman has taken the three of them neck deep in compiling a case file.  This situation had been worrying. Batman hadn't said, but he'd over the comms, he'd heard what those demons had said to his son. It didn't bode well. And this demon lord father of Raven's could spell great trouble: it was best to gather as much knowledge as possible; to stay as close to the magical practitioners as possible.

Robin sat on the hard metal steps leading to the catwalk around the cave. Raven stood by the Batcomputer, near his father's chair, and spoke quietly to Batman. Damian's brow was furrowed as he watched and listened to the half-demon fill in the blanks to his father's questions. The first he'd seen of her, this Raven had been seething with demonic rage, red-skinned and enshrouded in magic. This woman stood with her arms folded and a cloak drawn about her. Most people were intimidated around his father; Damian couldn't tell with this one.

He tilted his head and clicked his knuckles, frowning.

With a small flicking of his eye, Robin confirmed what his other senses had indicated. A cheeky hand ruffled his hair and Damian smiled begrudgingly.

"Visitors? You should've told me first Batman- I was about to go out on patrol." Nightwing greeted, walking past Damian.

"Nightwing, this is-"

"Constantine, at your service mate." The Scouse dipped his head, taking a break from his long observation of one of Batman's vehicles.

"Ah, Zatanna's boyfriend." Dick said, leaning against the banister, besides Robin.

"Yeah...Zatanna's bloke...that's me..." Constantine grumbled, with a little pride all the same.

Nightwing smirked then looked to Batman.

"And..." his eyes widened, "well I'll be damned...long time no see Raven!"

Raven seemed in just the same state, and greeted her old friend with a tentative smile, "Hi Dick."

Robin looked between the two with interest. Dick used that tone with him, and with Tim, Cassandra even. And Raven looked at Nightwing with a look that had been caught once, in a photograph of himself and his brother. With avid interest, Damian tried to imagine how the two had met, in the Titans. Had Nightwing been the mentor to her that he had been for Damian? Had he offered that little girl the emotional support that he knew Dick had given Beastboy, Wondergirl and the like?

Within his chest, Robin's heart beat a funny rhythm. In part, it was an odd euphoria, that more than just tonight's incident tied him to Raven (queer as the thought was). But a selfish something also rued that Dick (engaged in a warm catch-up with the woman) was closer to her than he was.

Then she looked past Dick, with those fine bluish eyes as heartbreaking as when they'd been consumed by demonic black, and at Damian. She pursed her lips; it might have been a smile. And his heart was terribly aflutter again.

A.N:

Hiya darlings!

I hope you're all doing well. I've got nothing really to say to be honest. Just stay wonderful and happy. I love you all! Mwah xx

Thank you

-Bats :)