Chapter Text
A lone figure stands arms crossed leaning up against a railing staring into the distance of what lies before him. He can see what is in front of him and is keenly aware of his surroundings, a hand resting on a knife hidden up his sleeve. His gaze is slightly unfocused, lost in his memories and his thoughts.
He feels a feeling, almost like shakiness, in his hands but they remain still. Restlessness begins to take hold of him the longer he waits and he goes to begin to pace but his training stops him from continuing. He tsks at himself underneath his breath, furrowing his brows before his gaze again focuses on what lies across the bridge before him.
Surrounding the city in the distance is a dome nearly invisible but it gleams with an orange hue and the surface of it ripples ever so slightly, signaling its unnaturalness to anyone outside of it. The thought of what lies beyond it and his thoughts draw him back into his mind.
Father, the word drifts into his mind without warning and he scowls, but a twinge of regret lines the corners of his mouth and is hidden in his green eyes. He goes to run a hand through his hair before he stills his hand and crosses his arms over his chest.
A voice drifts into his mind distracting him and with it, it brings a ghost of a smile to his lips, one that very few get to see outside of those closest to him. I’ll be there as soon as possible. With backup, of course, this isn’t something we should be running into with help. I know you would want it to be just the three of us but you can never be too cautious, Says a feminine voice. Though her words at the time had annoyed him at the thought of “needing backup” they now calm him.
A second voice rings out in his with its upbeat cheerfulness upon asking the phone. A voice no doubt smiled on the other side of the phone before Damian ruined it by saying words he would never say to anyone else except for these two. I need your help. Without hesitation, the voice dropped into a more serious and focused tone. What do you need?
What did he need he had thought to himself at the time but he instantly knew the answer. He had pushed past the lump in his throat before he had said, “I need you here with me. I’m going to Gotham.” A silence had greeted him for a mere millisecond before the male voice responded, “Then I will be there.”
“Bring backup, our sister said it would be best for us to have backup and I agree with her,” he said.
A cheeky chuckle could be heard on the other side of the phone before the voice verbalized the part he had left out of that sentence. “Even though I feel that it is not necessary,” the voice mimicked, dropping deep and sounding earnest. He had sighed at the time rolling his eyes and focusing his gaze on the ceiling at his brother’s annoying teasing.
“No I think it is best that we have backup, we don’t know what we’re walking into,” He announced.
“Wow, would ya look at that my little brother grew up without me even realizing it!” Laughed his brother.
He had glared hoping his brother could feel it from the great distance between them. After he had had his laugh, he muttered annoyedly, “I am not little.”
His brother merely hummed at him as if agreeing with him but he knew his brother was merely humoring him. “Anything else I should know?” He relayed the rest of the plan to him before they said their goodbyes, planning to meet up early tomorrow morning.
The thought of his siblings and hearing their voices always calmed him but a sudden dark thought ripped him from their warm embrace causing him to spiral back into the thoughts that had led him to leave in the first place.
Their mother's voice telling him of Grandfather’s plans for him and what would happen to him if he had stayed all those years ago. He had had to leave the one place he had ever known outside of missions. But those were inconsequential as he had never stayed in those places for long. Nanda Parbat had never been home. But three of the people behind its walls had been until it became two and then one with his brother’s faking of death which at ten when their mother had sent him away he had found out that he wasn’t really dead. The shock and betrayal had been so much that he had decided to seek shelter with his sister and her adopted parents rather than go to his brother. Betrayal from all sides seemed to come at him. His Grandfather with the plans of using his body as a new vessel in order to escape death. His mother having sent him away and not allowing him to assist with her rebellion and subsequent takeover of the League of Assassins. Lastly, from his brother having faked his death and disappeared from his life. He had mourned him and never knew that he was out there somewhere in the world alive and free of their Grandfather’s clutches and beyond his reach.
It made him feel small and alone. Not surprisingly it was no wonder that he was so withdrawn yet volatile at times when he arrived at his sister’s home in Paris. She had tried to draw him out of his shell by telling how his brother and her had met but that resulted in him yelling at her and her becoming annoyed with him. He had stormed off into the city alone having no sense where he was gone, his mind clouded with his own dark thoughts.
It was only when a group of drunken idiots had cornered him, one of them had shown genuine concern for him. They had asked where his family was and if he needed help. But blinded by a growing rage in his tiny body he had struck out at them. He knocked the first out instantly. This had taken his friends by surprise but he didn’t care for their pacifying words or their hands held up as if that world had stopped his rage.
It was only when they were unconscious with the bleeding knuckles gleaming in the light of an overhead lamppost and a sore tired body that he realized what he had done. He took to roofs as he heard a bystander calling law enforcement. He raced back to his sister’s home terror racing through praying that his Grandfather would not find him due to this.
His mind screamed at him with fear drowning everything out, even his rationality. He darted from roof to roof and at one point he misjudged the length between roofs and slammed into the top of the roof instantly knocking the wind right out of him. He moved to get up but pain exploded in his abdomen he cried out the noise echoing across the rooftops.
“Damian!” called a young voice. Damian looked from his near fetal position to see his sister across the way standing on her balcony overlooking a small park, her gaze darting around looking for him. Looking around he realized that the roof that he had landed on was just separated from her own by a park. Pulling himself fully to the edge of the roof he slowly made his painful descent down the side of the building. By the time he made it to one of the corners of the park, he heard his sister yet again yell out his name. “Stay right there, I’ll be right down!” She shouted before disappearing from the balcony.
Damian collapsed to his knees, panting as the pain and exhaustion caught up to him. The violent chime of bells could be heard as his sister dashed out the front door of the bakery. “Dami!” she cried as she got closer to him. Gasping loudly into the night air when her small form got close enough to see the blood from the broken skin of his knuckles.
“Mari,” he responded with a pant, tipping dangerously forward. Within the seconds before he could hit the ground Mari or rather Marinette caught him within her arms, gasping at him fiercely. This caused him to cry out at the pressure against his ribs.
“Damian, where are you hurt?!” she demanded in a tone not unlike their mother whenever his brother or he had gotten hurt during training. As thought through her care their mother could somehow soothe their wounds. The thought of Marinette resembling their mother brought a smile to his face.
He drifted for a moment thinking about their parents and what qualities they might have of their parents. Mother always said that Marinette and their brother shared eye colors with that of their Father, Bruce Wayne, also known as the world-famous detective, Batman.
The thought of their Father immediately drew Damian back to the present. It had been during that very stay with his sister Marinette that he had found out that Gotham, their Father’s city, had been separated from the rest of the world by an alien dome. From what he found out from the news report and from what he later researched with Marinette, no one could enter through the dome. The Justice League and many other attempts to gain access ended in failure.
But not this time, Damian thought, thinking back to his siblings.
It had been a while since he had been able to see them both since he had been moving around the globe, keeping an eye on his back while training with numerous mentors who would take him on. Not since our 18th birthday, he thought absentmindedly. The memories of it brought a large smile to his face. It had been one of the rare occasions that the triplets had been able to spend time together for a long period of time. If you call a week a long period of time.
His brother had jokingly pushed his face towards the birthday cake and due to Marinette on his other side, he stumbled causing his face to smash into the corner of the cake. Damian still remembers the surprised look on his brother's face before he grabbed at the same corner of the cake and smothered it across his face. His brother had laughed before his face took on a mischievous look as he glanced at Marinette who was laughing at the two of them. Understanding swept through Damian as he and his brother reached for the cake and took a generous helping before the two of them smeared it across her face causing her to gasp in betrayal.
“You’re in for it now you two!” she declared grabbing the two boys by the fronts of their shirts to pull them towards her before she grabbed them in a massive hug rubbing her face against their shirts to clean away the mess. The two had cried out in betrayal barely holding back their laughs.
A flash of light had distracted them from their fun drawing them back to their surroundings. Surrounding the table in front of them where the cake lay was his brother’s adoptive family. Marinette’s adoptive parents had been unable to come due to obligations to their bakery.
“Really Danny?” scolded jokingly a red-haired tall young woman standing with her hands on her hips in a very motherly fashion.
His brother, Danny, merely grinned widely at his adoptive sister.
Without warning a voice pulled him from the memory abruptly. “Whatcha thinkin’ about?” his brother's voice whispered into his ear making him tense and grab for his dagger.
Glaring at him, annoyed Damian asked exasperatedly, “Did you have to do that?”
Danny smiled mischievously before it turned into a genuine smile. “Oh come on, give your big brother a hug!” he remarked, throwing his arms out beaconing Damian towards him with his hands. Silently groaning Damian walked into his brother’s embrace. “It’s so good to see you, little D,” he whispered to him, and Damian hugged him tighter before he drew back at that horrible nickname.
“Don’t call me that, I am not little,” Damian rebutted, narrowing his eyes at his brother, who merely smiled in that annoying way when he felt that Damian was doing something particularly cute.
Danny rolled his eyes at him before saying, “Oh come on Dami.” He then proceeded to state,” You were born last so that makes you the baby of the family, might as well just accept it.” As he heard this Damian’s shoulders steadily moved up to his ears with each word.
“Never,” he denied. “I was placed into the Lazarus pit first so that makes me superior.”
Danny sighs letting his head fall back as he looks at the sky above him. “I’m not having this argument with you again, “ his brother muttered to the heavens. A satisfying smile graced Damian’s face before his brother turned his face back to him. “That doesn’t mean you won ya little shit,” Danny announced pointing at him.
Damian rolled his eyes in response, shaking his head.
Danny suddenly turned his head to the side as though he heard something. When Daminan raised an inquiring eyebrow at him, he told him, “ Mari is almost here.”
Sure enough, after a few minutes, a taxi cab drove into view stopping across the street from the two men. After about a minute a woman emerged from the back of the taxi, the hood of her black jacket pulled up. She turned and said something to the driver before handing something over to him. She strode over to the two brothers. When she went to say something to the two of them, the taxi driver called out to her, drawing the trio's attention to him.
“You lot, really shouldn’t be in this area,” he advised in a gruff voice, his voice dipping rudely at ‘you lot’. Before Damian could say something back the man continued. “I almost didn't want to bring the lady here but she paid me triple. Damian glared at the swindler, his hands balling into fists. “Best of luck to you!” the man called before he rolled up his window and did a fast U-turn and sped off.
“Welp he was a character, “ Danny sarcastically said aloud before the woman turned to them pulling down her hood to raise her dark eyebrows at her brother.
“I can’t believe you paid that swindler triple,” growled Damian lowly.
Marinette sighs before telling them, “The previous driver refused to drive me all the way so I had to switch to this driver part way through the drive but this driver would only take me if I paid him triple.”
“Damn, Mari all you had to do was call me and I would have flown you out here,” Danny told her but she was already shaking her head and waving a dismissive hand at him.
“I appreciate that, Danny but it's in the past no sense worrying about it anymore.” Her gaze focused on them more intensely. “Were you two arguing before I got here?” she asked, her bluebell eyes narrowing at the two of them. Within an instant, the two brother gazes focused anywhere from their big sister but they focused back on her as they both realized what they had done.
Danny chuckled, denying it rubbing his neck, while Damian attempted to pull up a serious face enough as he too denied it. Marinette simply rolled her eyes at the two of them. She muttered something under her breath about ‘little brothers.’ She pulled into a hug before pulling back looking them both in their eyes as if memorizing their features in her mind. Her gaze focused on the domed city in the distance over their shoulders, her features becoming sober.
“No sense in delaying it any longer,” declared Marinette as she put a hand on each of their cheeks. She nodded at them and they responded with their own corresponding nods, her hands still cradling their faces as they did. Pulling away from them she glanced around before looking back towards Danny.
“There’s no one around, we're alone here,” Danny told her.
Nodding to him she muttered something underneath her breath. With a flash of red light, her clothes changed into a red and black spotted outfit. Black knee-length thick-soled boots adorned her legs, a black sleek utility belt hung across her hips and hugged her upper thighs, and at her hip was her yo-yo. A black hood covered her hair while a red domino mask covered her eyes and another fabric-like mask covered her lower face. The black gloves of the suit came up to the middle of her upper arm, the palms of them red. What looked like-bug thin-looking translucent wings cascaded down her back behind her almost touching the ground. Two red appendages come down from where her wings attach like the beetle shells of a ladybug. A red bat is splayed across her armored chest, while the circular symbol of the Ladybug is shown on each shoulder.
“Huh,” Danny says appreciatively at her suit’s transformation. “The new suit looks great! But why the change?” He asks with a tilt of his head, his bangs hanging in his face as he does so.
“New city,” Marinette says simply before she continues, “ Also I don’t want any of this linked back to Paris.” She pauses before continuing, “Besides I don’t plan on leaving you guys anytime soon.”
“Awww,” Danny coos. “But that makes sense, I should probably change it up too.”
Danny tilts his head, pondering, his eyes closed before he opens them and his eyes glint Lazarus pit or rather ectoplasm green. A ring of bluish-white light appears around his abdomen region before splitting into two rings, one moving up towards his head and the other moving down towards his feet. A black and white with accents of neon green now adorned his figure. A white cape fell down his back while the inside appeared as a miniature galaxy of purples and blues complete with stars glittering as he moved. Lightning-like designs decorated his hips. He wore white and green combat boots with thick soles and fingerless gloves that were attached to his suit, along with knee pads. He wore a white hood and a white and green domino mask. A glowing laurel-like crown gleamed as it on his snow-white hair which glimmered a soft green. But the most different thing about him was his complexion. Where tan skin once was, now was a dark teal color that in spots here a lighter green, where his freckles were now were a shifting galaxy of stars. His eyes glowed in an Ectoplasm green, and the tops of his ears pointed. A few piercings that Danny had said he always wanted to adorn his face, a nose ring and snake bite piercing, while an ear cuff sat on his left ear.
The thing that made Damian silently gasp though was his scars. Specifically, his Lichtenberg scars that enveloped the skin on his face. They now glowed. The scars covered most of his body and years prior Danny had shared with them that he thought they were ugly and unsightly, constantly trying to cover them up. Danny had modified his ghost form so they would not show but when he would get particularly upset they would appear unwillingly. They were what Danny called a Death Mark, an echo showing how he had died. But now they showed proudly alongside a wide grin spread across his face as he looked at his siblings.
“Oh Danny,” whispered Marinette as she clasped him in a hug. Danny buried his face in her shoulder and whispered soft words to her. As she pulled she held his face in her hands and kissed him gently on the forehead. “I’m so proud of you,” she whispered.
“Jazz said I made outstanding progress, I still have bad days but I’ve accepted them as part of me,” Danny announced.
“Healing is not linear,” Damian recited, looking away from the two.
“Awww,” Danny cooed. “Jazz will be so proud to know you remember that!” Danny then floated over to him and pulled him into a hug and Damian buried his face in his (older) brother's shoulder. “Ok enough of this blubbering,” Danny joked as he pulled away, ruffling Damian’s hair before he moved out of reach.
Damian glared at him as he attempted to fix his hair.
“Yes, we should get a move on,” Marinette agreed.
The triplets quickly went over the plan of action after everything had been covered and texts had been sent over to the other two teams. The three arranged themselves so Danny could carry the two of them while he flew. The sensation that went through Damian’s body as they took off and Danny turned the three of them invisible was one he still was not used to, no matter how many times he had used the power on him or Marinette.
Within less than a minute they reached the edge of the dome. Danny set the three of them down seamlessly. When Danny told them that there was no one around to hear them converse, the triplets then discussed how they would go about this.
“Tucker said that when he hacked into the Justice League he found out who was on the teams that investigated the dome. The teams were composed of various magic users, aliens and demigods but none were able to do anything,” Danny reported. “Which is not surprising to anyone,” Danny added growling inhumanly underneath his breath. Marinette nodded grimly, agreeing with him. Danny spewed a few swears under his breath before he continued, “So a Ghost King of Infinite Realms and the Guardian slash Chosen Miraculous holder of the Kwami of Creation would surely get through an alien barrier dome.”
“So you’re guessing??” Damian exclaimed.
Marinette places a hand on his shoulder.
“It’s not a guess,” She said, “If anyone has a chance to get through this dome it would be us.”
“Don’t worry Dami. From what Tucker found out from the JL the dome doesn’t do much to keep others out and keep Gotham in,” Danny relayed, holding up pacified hands in an attempt to calm him. “We’ll be ok,” Danny whispered, coming closer and placing a hand on top of Damian’s head. Damian looked at both of them and was met with an understanding of what he was feeling.
He didn’t want to lose them. Especially on a mission that he asked for their assistance on. They were the other parts of his soul.
They both smiled sadly at him and he pulled them into a big hug. Damian didn’t normally initiate physical contact with anyone but he at least tried to with them. They were both so understanding and patient with him no matter what he did or said. Danny understood why more so than Marinette as he had grown up with him in the League for a time.
Before he could spiral back into the dark past that was Danny and his childhood, he pulled slightly back from them so he could see their faces. He gave them a small smile and nodded before pulling completely back from them.
“Let’s do this,” Danny announced, stepping up to the simmering orange surface of the dome.
Danny took a deep breath before he reached his hand out towards it. Before he made contact with it he turned his arm up to his elbow in tangible and went to touch the surface of the dome but it went right through easily without resistance. As Damian watched he saw the intangible spread across his brother’s body, his body rippling with power. He then stepped through the dome and turned back to them, a smile of disbelief spread across his face.
“It worked!” Danny hissed.
A wave of relief rushed through Damian at the sight of his brother being fine. Granted he trusted his fellow triplets completely and without hesitation but it didn’t mean that he liked seeing themselves put in harm's way.
“Mari, it’s your turn,” Danny said, beaconing her with a hand.
Marinette repeated the same steps Danny had, only without the intangibility. Yet unlike Danny, her hand doesn't go through. She hums under her breath. She pulls out her yo-yo, opening it and pulls something from it that Damian can’t see, before she pulls it over her eyes, they were sunglasses. Marinette whispered something before a small creature came zooming out of the glasses in a flash of sparkles. Marinette nodded to the horse-looking creature.
“Kaalki, Tikki, unify!” She exclaimed. With a flash, her costume changed once again with more black and dark maroons. With a wave of her hand, an oval-shaped glowing portal appeared in front of the dome. Marinette walked through and when it closed another opened on the other side of the dome. His sister walked back into that one and another portal opened on Damian’s side of the dome. “Easy peasy,” she said nonchalantly with a shrug.
“So your Miraculous on its own isn’t enough but with this second power, it is? How intriguing,” Damian commented.
His sister nodded. “The more Miraculous' you have, the more powerful you are but seeing as it is too much power for any one person, it can very easily make you go insane,” She explained. “Kaalki dismount.”
“Dismount??” Damian asked, cringing.
“Are you critiquing my detransformation phrase?” Kaalki remarked floating way too closely in Damian's face. For a moment he was tempted to swat at the thing but he took a glance at Marinette and minutely she shook her head.
“Leave him Kaalki,” she dissuaded. With a hurump, the creature dove back into her utility belt and Marinette took the sunglasses off and stored them back in her utility belt.
“Danny try coming back through,” she requested, waving her hand beckoningly. Danny did as he was told and just as easily as he had gone in. He came out just as easily. “How interesting,” Marinette commented to herself. Pulling her yo-yo from her side she opened it to the communicator but Damian wasn’t focused on what she was doing. Slowly he raised his hand to the dome but unlike his siblings, his hand was stopped at the surface of the dome.
“Alright so I’ve sent word to the others that they can proceed, now that we know that it’s safe,” Marinette announced putting away her communicator. “They will have to use your team’s abilities to get through,” Marinette said, directing her gaze to Danny as she spoke.
“Oh, I just remembered!” Danny exclaimed as he literally put his hand into his chest which he then pulled something from his chest.
“I will never get used to that,” Marinette whispered, grimacing, looking slightly pale. Danny chuckled mischievously.
Holding his fist out he opened it to show them what looked like ear comms colored white, and black, glowing green. “They’re powered with Ectoplasm so they won’t be hacked or scrambled,” He told them, Damian and Marinette each grabbed and put them in before Danny took the third and put it into his own ear. Danny stepped back through the dome with a ripple of intangibility. “Check check,” His voice said over the comms.
“Loud and clear,” Damian responded. Danny then stuck both hands out towards them. Both siblings each took one of their brother’s hands and walked through the dome.
Danny then took hold of the two and took off into the air, turning the three of them invisible as he did.
Damian noticed as they ascended that Gotham was much darker than outside of the dome, whether it was because of the smog that drifted through the air or for another reason. Near the edge of the dome, buildings appeared abandoned and run down, with doors wide open, broken windows and some even showing signs of fires. Cars haphazardly blocked the streets that would leave the dome.
If they could leave, Damian thought solemnly.
As they flew closer to the center of town they finally began to see signs of humanity. People walked around as if nothing had happened. As though the lot of them weren’t stuck in a domed hell for the last ten years.
If this city and its people could not survive that long then they aren’t worth it, a voice of Grandfather. No, it’s Ra’s now. Damian scowled.
What was surprising though was that greenery was everywhere cascading down from the tops of buildings to balconies to even lining the sidewalks in makeshift raised garden troughs. The gothic city with its pointed arches and spires reaching towards the domed sky was now dotted and covered with speckles of color.
When Damian had first researched the city it appeared deary and solemn. With smog and other even deadlier pollution filling the air making stargazing impossible (an activity he enjoyed spending with Danny). Stories of crooks hiding in every alley waiting to prey on anyone foolish enough to walk by without training or a weapon to protect themselves. Poverty rained upon the lesser communities like a disease infectious and deadly. The whole city gave him the feeling of gray. A color that was drained of life, devoid of feeling and sensation.
But now being in the city and no longer sitting behind a screen making his own judgment of it, it felt, different. It felt alive. Truly alive. A shiver down his spine and he tore his gaze away as his eyes darted around trying to find the eyes that he knew were on them.
That’s impossible.
Damian turned his sight back to Marinette who was staring silently intently.
Someone is watching us, he signed to her rapidly. Shock danced across her face at the news.
That’s not possible, She signed back quickly.
I know what I felt, Damian signed urgently.
I’m not saying you didn’t. It just means there is someone in this city stronger than Danny or has the ability to observe us without seeing them. Let’s ask Danny when we land, His sister signed to him. Damian nodded, his gut feeling uneasy and not just from flying so high in the air.
Soon enough they reached the edge of the city, near what Damian assumed was the richer side of the city as there were more open areas and grassy lawns with large estates towers over appearing to lord over the chaotic city that they left behind.
Descending they landed about ten feet away from the front door. Danny let go of Damian and Marinette allowing them to become visible again. Glancing at each other the two strode forwards towards the large ornate arched stoop to the front door. Reaching out Marinette rang the doorbell, the sound of it ringing through the gothic towering manor.
Damian felt a tremor go through him.
This is it, he thought, swallowing thickly.
Each second seemed to drag on forever. The door appeared to loom over him, making him feel just like it had when he had to be in Grandf-no- Ra’s presence. Insignificant. Small. Worthless. Useless. Imperfect. The Spare. There was no doubt in his mind he would have to prove himself to his father and to his “adoptive” family.
The thought of having to do so made him want to throw up on these pristine steps.
Granted Marinette’s adoptive parents and Danny’s adopted family gave him a glimmer of hope before he remembered that their biological father had abandoned them. All of them. His mother, perfectly under Ra’s thumb as the perfect obedient daughter. His older sister, Marinette, who had been “killed off” for merely being born female but secretly sent away to be raised from infancy without knowing her younger brothers that she had shared a womb with. Or his older brother who was the perfect Demon Heir until Ra’s found fault in him and “killed” too, only for Danny to escape faking his death and beginning a whole new life.
This man, ‘Bruce Wayne’ did not care for them. Whether it was because he didn’t know they existed or because he already had a family at home waiting for him that he actually cared about.
Damian did not care.
But he did. Secretly.
Deep down inside was a child looking for the father that he had heard whispered stories of.
The hero.
The hero that never came to save him or his siblings or mother.
Who had a thriving family, a world-famous company, and more money than he could ever spend, and for what? A happy life where he could forget about his past and move on.
Some of us don’t have the luxury of moving on.
Another ring of the doorbell broke Damian from whatever spell he was under with a jolt. Marinette gave him an odd look. She opened her mouth to say something when the door unexpectedly swung open.
Standing there was Danny in all his glory with a perplexed look on his face.
“What is it?” Damian asked.
“No one’s home. To be honest it looks like no one has been for a while,” Danny stated. “But I think I found something interesting.” Danny moved aside for them to enter.
The foyer was large with high ceilings and two large staircases curved up to a balcony hallway each end of it leading out of sight. The floor of the foyer was tiled in a dark marble design. Centered between the two staircases were a pair of double doors. Doors are placed on the outside side of the staircase. Off to the side was a large archway leading to what looked like a seating area, it appeared solemn with any touch of self to it, as if it was never used. Large paintings adorned the walls, pictures of beautiful landscapes, waterfalls, and vibrant sunsets. Intricate woodwork panels decorated the lower walls. The room felt old but in a way that told of his history.
Damian could almost imagine what it would have been like to have grown up here. Running through the halls laughing with his siblings as they gave chase. Damian sighed scowling at the marble floor as the wistful notion came to him.
“Follow me,” Danny announced, taking to the right staircase.
Falling in line behind his brother he followed behind him at a short distance only briefly looking to see if his sister was following, which she of course was. As Damian followed his eyes drifted to the painting and picture frames on the walls. Slowly they began to change from picturesque paintings to photographs of cityscapes and portraits of people. Before long the eyes of one particular man in a large portrait made him stop in his steps.
The man was tall with dark black hair, a chiseled jawline, and piercing blue eyes. What had surprised him the most was the smile upon his face and the look in his eyes. A familiar smile was spread across his face making him appear younger even with the white hairs gathering at his temples. One he had seen on his siblings' faces. The man’s eyes also matched those of his siblings, even down to the fond look that he would see his siblings give each other and himself from time to time.
“At least we know we have a large family,” Danny comments, which draws Damian’s eyes to the rest of the portrait.
A large man almost the same size as their father stood to the right side of him. He had turquoise fondly glaring eyes staring out at them with a small smile on his face, and a white lock of hair hung in his face amidst the midnight sea of his dark hair.
Damian gasped inaudibly, the sound not making it past his tight throat. It was Jason.
Jason is alive.
An older man stood properly on the other side of Jason with a fond expression not unlike their father’s on his face. One glove hand resting on Jason’s broad shoulder. This man was dressed finely.
On their father’s other side was grinning almost appearing manic in his oblivious happiness was a man slightly taller than their father. Soft blue eyes gleamed in the low light of halfway. Like Jason and his father he too had dark hair, but he had less bulk than the other two.
Standing in front of the four were four women, three of whom were sitting on chairs while the fourth was sitting in a wheelchair. One had blonde hair and bright blue eyes grinning mischievously at the camera. The second woman had black hair in a bob with deep brown eyes, and a happy smile lining her face, Father's right hand sat resting on her shoulder. Something about her made him one edge. The third woman had deep short brown hair with calm gray eyes, even sitting she was taller than the other three, something about her facial structure was reminiscent of their father’s. The woman seated in the wheelchair had long red firelike hair, her intelligent green eyes staring out at the world as if she knew a secret or rather secrets.
The last two figures of the portrait were two young men. One had dark skin and a warm light presence about him, his brown eyes captured as almost glowing in the light of the picture. The other was rather pale and had a face that Damian distantly remembered with his ice blue eyes with its calculated gleam and practiced smile.
It was Timothy Drake.
Ra’s had been very vocal about the only other person whom he would “fondly” call detective. Damian’s path had never crossed the young man’s path but he had learned a lot about him. Ra’s even went so far as to say that other than his “dead” brother, Danny, Timothy Drake was who he had to surpass. Ra’s had shown him surveillance of him infiltrating some of their strongholds and had pointed him out to Damian and Danny when Timothy had first shown his hand with his cleverly thought-of plans. Ra’s always had a strange glint in his eyes when he talked about the young man.
“More like competition for attention,” Damian whispered in a voice that was most definitely not a whisper. Damian could see his sister and brother share a glance but didn’t look at them merely glaring at the painting in front of him.
A hand on his shoulder pulled his sight away from it focusing on Danny, who wore an earnest distantly sad look on his features. “Damian,” Danny began, smiling small. “Family is family, no matter if they are chosen or not.”
“But if any of them gives you grief we’ll deal with them,” Marinette said cheerfully, smiling thinly as if her words didn’t hold pain for whoever got on her bad side.
Damian let out a breathy chuckle. He stared back at their sincere and fond blue eyes he knew everything would be fine. Eyes that thought were nearly exact to their father’s.
A traitorous thought of envy slips through into his mind before he can stop it.
I wish I had their eyes.
Self-conscious he swallows looking at the floor, before offering them a half-baked smile. “Let’s continue,” he voiced before Danny or Marinette ask him anything.
Danny gave him one more accessing look before he turned back around and continued down the hall. “Ya’know I know that it was a thing that Batman was really paranoid but I didn’t think it was this bad,” Danny announced into the quiet air, changing the subject. Danny then muttered something about fruit loops underneath his voice.
“What do you mean?” Marinette asked, walking beside Damian.
“He had a cliche secret entrance to his fruitloop lair,” Danny grumbled.
“Can we not talk about the notion that our father is an idiotic obsessive moron like Vlad Masters?” Damian voiced his lip curling at the mere thought of it.
“Well the obsessive moron, maybe not, but what I’ve seen of Brucie Wayne and his exploits the idiotic is possible,” expressed Marinette.
Damian scoffed at the thought of articles Marinette had shown him.
“Oh yeah!” Danny laughed. “That has to be an act,” Danny stated. “Here we are!” He exclaimed, throwing a pair of double doors open to appear to be a study. Bookshelves lined the walls with a fireplace to the right and a large grandfather clock on the left. On the far side of the room was a large arched window overlooking what he assumed was the back of the estate. In front of the window the front facing towards them was a large ornate wooden desk. At the center of the room was a pair of couches facing inward with colorful decorative yet tacky pillows. One thing that stood out was the crude immature drawing framed beside the window. Behind the desk on the wall beside the window were smaller picture frames depicting more of the Wayne family in their everyday lives.
“You’ll never guess where the secret passage entrance is,” Danny joked sarcastically tilting his head towards Damian and Marinette.
“A specific book pulled from the book shelf?” Marinette guessed, eyeing the bookshelves.
“Nope,” Danny said, popping the “p” in the word loudly.
Damian glanced around the room curiously before he eyed the Grandfather clock with a raised eyebrow and a glance at his mischievous looking brother. His brother caught his gaze in his own and grinned wider.
“Correct-ta-mun-do! Which is a word I have never used before and hopefully never will again!” Danny quoted in a British accent. Damian rolled his eyes. Probably another one of his “pop culture” references he assumed. At Marinette’s soft giggle Damian assumed he was right.
“Anyway,” Damian announced, interrupting their general tomfoolery.
“Our birth father is known as the world’s greatest detective and his secret Lair entrance is behind a clock. Really?” Marinette asked incredulously with awave of her hand at the clock.
Damian snorted before he stopped it from escaping, holding up a hand to cover his mouth.
“See!” Marinette exclaimed. “It is ridiculous!”
“I never doubt you,” Danny stated, holding up his hands in mock surrender.
“Secret Lair?” Damian voiced.
“His Fruitloop Lair,” Danny snickered, wiggling his eyebrows referencing their earlier conversation.
Damian groaned, throwing his head back to stare at the gothic high ceiling. This drew laughs from both of the other occupants of the study.
“It’s probably a specific time with the hands of the clock or you pull the pendulum and it opens,” Marinette pondered aloud.
“You just guessed that?” Danny asked incredulously.
Damian proudly smiled at his sister.
“At least one of us inherited the detective genes,” Danny declared while giving Damian a sideways glance raising his eyebrow at him.
Damian mock scowled at his brother. He was above sticking his tongue out at him like a child so he turned his gaze back to his sister who had gotten closer to the old clock.
She had opened the glass door of the grandfather clock and was moving the hands of the clock. She did several different times before she paused, thinking, her lips in pulsed and blue eyes narrowed. Her face grew dark after a second as if something had accursed to her before reaching up and moving the clock hands to final time.
10:47.
Distantly Damian felt a memory plague his mind but he couldn’t remember why that time was so important.
A faint click could be heard echoing through the room.
Marinette pulled and the clock swung out revealing a passage. Her face was clouded with a scowl as she glared at the opening.
“What is it?” Danny asked, appearing to sense the shift in their sister’s mood.
“Do you know the significance that time holds for our birth father,” she stated lowly, her gaze not focused on either of them.
Danny frowned looking at the carpet.
Damian again felt that nagging sensation but more urgently.
Danny shook his head looking towards their sister.
A minute passed before Marinette’s far away gaze focused on Danny. “That’s the time that our grandparents were murder in front of our father,” Marinette announced quietly in the large room. The air seemed to be sucked out of the room with her words alone
Damian’s eyes darted to his brother whose face turned thunderous before started swearing up a storm, pacing back and forth. Marinette, seeing this was knocked from her realization, reached out towards their brother.
While Damian stood there frozen watching this all play out.
The air leaving his lungs.
Their father used the time of his parents' deaths.
The very notion of it made him want to be sick across the carpet. Green eyes darted up to his siblings widely, but the intrusive thought gripped him fiercely as he saw just how distraught it made Danny beneath his anger.
Danny’s death.
It wasn’t something they talked much about.
Both Marinette and him had different reactions to the news of Danny’s accident and death. Marinette had cried hearing what he had gone through but understanding gleaming in her eyes. Damian was absolutely murderous; he had stormed off grabbing a knife he kept on him and immediately confronted Danny’s adoptive parents. He threatened them and berated them for their carelessness for harming his perfect older brother.
Danny had run in and stood between them holding his hands up in a pacifying manner. It was only then that Damian calmed down enough to actually hear the words that his brother was saying to him over the sound of his own heartbeat beating like thunder in his ears.
It’s not their fault, Danny had said at the time.
It’s mine, Damian had thought instantly.
A loud growl of his brother pulled Damian back to the present before he could spiral back down that line of thinking. He gaped at what he saw in front of him.
The form of his brother grew distorted, shifting into a growing galaxy as his form grew. Glowing eyes appearing across his form, their gazes darting about.
Staring at his form made the hairs on his whole body stand to attention. It made him want to move away but he was frozen where he stood. Moisture gathered in his eyes which he frantically blinked away, if only to keep the sight in front of him in his vision.
“Danny!” Marinette shouted desperately backing away from him. Her blue eyes made contact with Damian’s and something in her eyes changed. “Damian call his name now!”
“What?” Damian muttered dumbfounded under his breath.
“Damian, do it!” his sister exclaimed.
Turning his focus back to Danny’s growing form. By the second his ghostly humanoid form was disappearing, Damian clenched his fists at his sides.
“Danny!” Damian shouted. “Stop this, this instance, Akhi!”
All eyes of the creature darted to Damian’s form, Danny’s form no longer growing larger, it all stopped. The sensation of all those eyes intensified the feeling in his stomach making him sick.
It was very frequently that Damian felt small in the presence of his brother but now he felt miniscule. His brother had been perfect as the Heir of the Demon. He had been everything yet nothing as Ra’s eyes were not pleased with what he saw, when he peered at his oldest grandson. Yet seeing him now Damian knew that his brother was far superior to him. With his death and rebirth as something new, he was so much more than the son of an assassin and the son of the Bat.
He transcended Damian’s very understanding.
Yet he was his goofy older brother who loved to sneak out from their chambers in the League to watch the stars on the rooftops. His stubborn brother who would practice combat moves for hours long after he should have collapsed. His protective brother who protected him from the other assassins who saw him as nothing more than the Spare to the Heir, the weakest link, the boy destiny to die. Standing here now looking up at the many eyes. This was his brother.
The one who cared for him. The one who held him when the pressure became too much. The one that loved him regardless of his flaws.
“Danny,” Damian whispered.
A low hum almost like a purr rumbled from the core of the creature before it began to sink back into the recognizable form of his brother, who now standing on the carpet of the study looked almost sheepish and ashamed.
“Sorry, Akhi. Sorry Ukht,” Danny mumbled.
“What was that though?” Marinetted dumbfoundedly muttered eyes wide as she stared.
Danny mumbled something softly, before turning his eyes up at them. At their confused expressions he muttered loudly, his tone holding an uncertainty, “It’s my eldritch horror form.”
“That is not how it appeared to be, it was beautiful in an unsettling way for sure, but still like nothing I have ever seen before,” Marinette stated honestly.
“Wow, gee thanks,” Danny grumbled with a disgruntled expression.
“Since when have you been able to do that? What causes it?” Marinette questioned, looking concerned.
“I discovered it not long after my title as the crown prince was announced. On accident,” Danny said adding on the last sentence as if it was an afterthought.
“And that old goat didn’t think to tell you that this might happen?!” Marinette exclaimed, putting a hand to her forehead in exasperated manner. Damian snorted aloud at the nickname hiding a smile behind a fist, coughing slightly as if that would cover it up.
“Goat?” Danny whispered in confusion. After a brief moment his eyes widened in realization and he laughed.
Marinette smiled at him before she glanced at Damian smiling at him too.
Once Danny had stopped laughing he said, “We should probably get back to investigating our Father’s secret lair.” The other two triplets nodded in agreement before the three turned their gaze back to the passageway. “Ladies first?” Danny asked with a wave of a hand.
Their sister rolled her eyes at this striding forward but not before saying with a smirk over her shoulder,” I guess it is beauty before age.”
Gasping offendly with a hand to his chest Danny stated, “no no no! It’s Age before beauty!”
Shaking his head at his older siblings he followed them in closing the door behind him with a click.
The passage, Damian noticed as he walked through led to an elevator with a standard door next to it both of which had keypads next to it.
“Holy crap! How paranoid is our dad??” Danny joked.
“What’s so wrong about being cautious?” Damian voiced.
Danny gave him an odd look before turning back forward.
Their sister who had kneeled down in that time, was taking apart the keypad. “Ow!” she yelped, pulling back.
Both brothers quickly turned their heads to their sister instinctively at her exclamation.
“Are you alright?” Damian asked, eyes wide.
“I’m fine but touched the wrong wire,” she assured. Within a minute the doors of the elevator open with a flourish. Another minute before Marinette placed everything back in the keypad panel before standing. Together the triplets stepped into the elevator after a few seconds the doors closed behind them.
Danny who was closest to the panel of buttons pressed the button labeled 1. Damian felt a swooping sensation in his stomach as he felt the elevator begin to descend. In no time at all doors opened to a balcony that overlooked a large underground cavern.
“Whoa,” Danny muttered in amazement, his deep voice echoing. “Definitely a fruit loop lair.”
Damian, seeing a staircase to his left, began to descend it, his eyes growing wide as the more things he noticed. A colony of bats shrieked above at being disturbed, some taking to flight in their discomfort. From what Damian could see there were other platform levels further down with a single glance over the edge. As he walked further in the cavern it was the large statue of a T-rex and the truck sized penny gleaming in the overhead lights that had Damian’s mouth falling open. What caught his attention even more than that was the high tech expensive looking car on a large platform with other vehicles mostly consisting of motorcycles. From that platform there was a roadway leading into a passageway in the far wall of the cavern.
Behind him he hears an appreciative hum pulling his attention away. Marinette was standing in front of a series of glass cases holding what appeared to be uniforms of the Bat Clan. It was one that drew his attention more than the other, one with a plaque that said ‘A good soldier.’
Marinette who had also just seen it scowled, as did Damian with her when he realized who it was for.
Jason.
Damian held back a growl from building in his throat, his fists balled tightly at his sides, his fingernails digging painfully into his hands but he barely noticed it.
The second he saw their so-called father, Damian planned on punching him in the face.
First because of the use of the death of his own parents as a code and now because of the blatant disregard of Jason’s death, the pain and trauma Jason had gone through because of it.
Damian didn’t know what his siblings thought but he was almost entirely sure they wouldn’t stop him.
Danny, who seemed oblivious to the turmoil that Damian was feeling had strode over to what looked like a large computer. He tapped the space bar on a large keyboard causing the computer screen to light up to a login page. “Pharaoh will want to take a look at this,” He stated, which took Damian a second before he realized who his brother was talking about.
A voice abruptly spoke out from what sounded like an overhead PA system, causing the triplets to drop into defensive stances. “Identify yourselves.” Came the female voice came in an authoritative tone.