The psycho kid, or rather Damian Wayne, was now living in the manor with the rest of his family. His mother Talia had gone into hiding and Bruce was working on tracking Deathstroke's next move. All he could do in the meanwhile was stay close to Bruce so that he wouldn't endanger himself.

But Damian got bored quite soon. He wanted to be the one to help out his father in the case. He wanted to be Batman's Robin just like Richard had been. But according to Bruce, he wasn't ready yet.

He had yet to learn the importance and value of life and morals which he hadn't been taught by his mother at all. While staying with the League of Assassins, he had only learnt to kill. But Bruce now wanted him to understand that justice was the right option, not vengeance.

He was in the Batcave, observing the sword display over there, checking out one sword after the other. He had recently had a fight with Richard again as Bruce had left him to babysit when he had to leave on patrol last night.

But Richard wasn't the sort of opponent he preferred. He was used to fighting rough while Richard made it all seem like he was deliberately going easy on him just because he was a ten year old and that fact cut him to the core. He wasn't an ordinary ten year old so he didn't like being treated as one either.

And though he would never want to admit it, but Richard was much better than him in skill and endurance and that worked as fuel to the fire burning inside him.

He was angry that he couldn't help his father and even more pissed that his father preferred Richard over him. In his mind, he was the blood son therefore he had the right to the mantle of Batman. 

"Hey, Dami, look we've got visitors today!"

He groaned upon hearing Richard's cheerful voice greet him and turned around to see him and Tim step in the Batcave. Though they were accompanied by a girl that he had never expected to see ever again in his life.

His eyes flashed in recognition and the name escaped his mouth in a barely audible hush, "Yuri?"

A sarcastic smile spread on Sayuri's face, "and I thought I won't ever have to see you again, Demon spawn."

His cheeks flushed red upon the title as he clearly remembered that she used to address him as such back when she was in captivity as well. "Oh... So you're Drake's sister. Justifies why I don't like him at all."

"The feeling's mutual," Tim snapped in reply.

Damian took out two katanas nearest to him and threw one at Sayuri without any warning, "catch."

However she caught it agilely as she had rather quick reflexes due to all her years of ninjutsu training.

The two stepped inside the combative ground in the center of the Batcave, much to Richard's disapproval, "hey, you can't just fight on your first meeting. It doesn't fall in the right etiquette."

"This isn't our first," Sayuri replied which took both Richard and Tim by surprise. Turning to Damian, she added, "seems like you've missed losing to someone in all these years."

"Not quite. And Grayson is to be blamed for that," the boy retorted, throwing a glare at Richard.

The fight began and their swords flashed against one another ferociously. Jason who was in his training area of the Batcave came out as well hearing the metal clashes. "You go, Sayuri!" Jay cheered as he was quite excited to witness the swordfight.

"Sometimes it's a good thing to lose," Sayuri remarked to Damian as she landed a swift blow right at his feet which he barely managed to dodge, "it reminds you that you can't always win."

"Of course you would know that. Failures were kind of your thing back then." Damian aimed a blow at her but she dodged, flicking her sword on the hilt of his in order to disarm him.

"In case you've forgotten, you wouldn't even be alive right now if it hadn't been for me."

He lost his balance but steadied himself in time, "another failure."

The words seems to have sparked up her anger as she advanced with twice the ferocity, taking him completely by alarm as she disarmed him. The sword flew out of his hand and dropped with a clatter and he too stumbled.

Jay, Tim and Richard were cheering for Sayuri's victory but all their voices didn't reach her as she was fully focused on Damian, grey eyes blazing with an unfathomable sheen.

"There's a difference between failing to kill someone and actually having enough humanity not to kill a seven year old," she muttered though her jaw was clenched with the rage she was trying to suppress.

"Don't underestimate me," Damian replied, straightening as he picked up the sword.

"I never did." She held out her hand to him though he was quite surprised at the gesture. But he took it nevertheless.

Their three spectators had no idea what was going to happen between the two and they were just watching closely. All they could assess was that they both probably knew each other in the past and were not on good terms with each other.

"Though it intrigues me why you spared me back then. And I doubt it has anything to do with the word humanity," Damian spoke up, "you don't get to hear it from someone who can easily cut down seventy people in an hour."

Sayuri shook her head as she replied, "you wouldn't understand. Because similar to what you said just now, you can't explain that to someone who's been trained to be a killing machine ever since he was three."

"But why Yuri? Why not kill me when you had the chance? You knew it would have broken grandfather completely. You'd have wanted to do that, right? I bet you're even glad he's no more."

She shrugged, "yes I am glad he's no more. In fact, I celebrated last night with a glass of champagne."

"Of course..." Damian's facial expressions changed instantly as he retrieved his hand but he said nothing more.

She could see that it was a sensitive topic for him because surely Ras Al Ghul had been important to him as he was his grandfather after all. So she resumed in a softer tone, "look, you have every right to defend him and I have every right to hate him. The only reason I didn't kill you was because you were just seven. The same age as when I had seen my brother for the last time. You may not be like Tim at all but I couldn't kill you because you were just a kid like him. Just a boy raised among the wrong people."

"That's merely a perception," he remarked.

"No, it's not. But I'm glad you're with the right people at last. Hopefully you'll learn how to behave like a human now that you're in human company." A smile flickered on her face at the last remark.

Jason burst out laughing and even Tim and Richard joined in.

Damian's face flushed in embarrassment as he exclaimed, "hey!"

"See you later, Demon spawn. Oh and one last thing; don't you dare try to hurt my brother in any way, or else I'll make sure you pay for it. I might have spared you once but I won't do so again. And especially not if Tim is at stake."

"What? Do you really think I'll kill your brother? I have standards."

"How about you shut up for the time being? Trust me, you're much more bearable with your mouth taped up. And you know very well that I won't hesitate to do the honors."

Damian turned to face Richard and spoke, "Grayson, I would prefer if you just leave with your girlfriend already."

"My girlfriend?" Richard raised an eyebrow skeptically though his cheeks had turned slightly pink, "you're mistaken, kiddo."

"No no, you're right Damian," Jason quickly contradicted him holding in his laughter as he turned to face Dick, "see, even a ten year old with no emotional understanding can see how you two are obviously in love."

"Give me the tape and I'll shut Jay up instead," Sayuri offered. And much to everyone's surprise, Damian placed a tape on her hand as if urging her to do it.

Jason spoke up, "really Damian? And here I thought we were finally getting along."

Damian rolled his eyes wearily, "we weren't getting along, Todd, I was only hanging out with you because Grayson is annoyingly happy and Drake is totally intolerable."

***