Amara had finally left Damians side after giving a promise to come back again tomorrow. Barbara and her had yet to interrogate their father about his choice to keep their relations a secret.

"We're sisters?!" Barbara yelled as soon as she saw him while Amara face palmed "not the way I would've done it" She shook her head "how would you have done it?" She asked "I would've slowly weaved in to conversation wondering about my father then guilt trip him and make him eat his words until he confessed" She shrugged watching her father nervously look between them.

"That would've been fun to watch but this is much faster" they smiled at each other turning back to their father who was a stuttering mess.

"Well?" Both girls had their hands on their hips as they waited for their fathers response "um... surprise?" He weakly held up his hands in a small jazz hands.

"So how did you and my mom meet?" I asked taking a seat beside him. "She was out here for a year, we'd bumped into each other and got to talking at the time she was staying with her friend Natalia in an apartment down south. We eventually got together and a couple months later we were expecting you, Barbara was the reason we kept finding each other she somehow always found her even if she was only 5 at the time" he continued to tell us, it seemed like my mother left out the part about being an assassin and Natalia? Thalia?

"Then after you were born she had to leave and she took you with her, she said her family lived in the Himalayas and that they needed her. Over the years I'd get a letter or a picture from her of you telling me what you like to do and what you were like" he went into his office pulling out a stack of envelopes.

He handed me one and I looked inside it was when I was 8 I remember my mom taking Damian and I on a mission with her we got to go to the festival near by. The picture was of me and Damian smiling.

"I didn't know you and the Wayne boy knew each other?" He asked "our mothers were close" I picked up all the letters "is it alright if I look through these?" I asked hopeful.

"Of course, you can keep the pictures if you'd like" I smiled and did something completely uncharacteristic I hugged him but he didn't seem to mind and not long after he pulled Barbara in too.

The next day....
"C'mon Amara it'll be great you had such a great time at the carnival it'll be just like that at the peer" Barbara tried for the 5th time that day.

"For the last time I do not wish to spend my time running around with children and wasting money on clown games" we were walking to Wayne manor so Barbara could get the Wayne brothers to come too.

"You don't have a choice, you need to have some normal childhood experiences and that involves eating sugary food and going on dangerously fun rides" we made our way inside and Amara ran down to the cave.

She found Damian training with his katana. "Quick hide me" she looked behind her frantically of her oncoming sister.

Damian led her to a small tunnel which led to a room near the roof of the cave. "Damian! I have a surprise for you" he heard Dick cheery voice before he saw him walking in with Barbara beside him.

"Where's Amara?" She asked looking around. "Amara's here?" Damian faked excitement "she didn't come find you?" Barbara looked confused before her eye widened "she ran away again!" Dick looked panicky starting to run around and look behind things.

"Find her! She couldn't have gotten far" Barbara yelled as she called the others down into the cave I looked around the small room I was in, it contained a small mattress, a chest full of clothes and a cupboard full of snacks, enough to last a couple days up here, why would he have this?

I peered out of the assumingely blacked out window and watched them run around like headless chickens.

I heard footsteps coming towards me and I dived in to the chest of clothes, the door opened slowly and quietly, they found me!

"Mari?" Damian called out "don't do that to me" I got out of the chest and sat on top of it.

"How long do you plan on staying up here?" He mused "long enough til the idea of 'carnival' is out of her head, how do you deal with all the social interaction? I've only spent a couple hours with Richard and they were pure torture, even with Goliath" his eyes lit up with the mention of our dragon.

"Goliath?" I pulled out a phone, father? Dad? Jim had bought for me I wasn't completely sure how to use it but I was slowly adapting and figuring it out.

I smacked the phone a couple times thinking it would listen "you know for someone who is a adequately skilled hacker you aren't good with technology" he did taking the phone from me.

"Siri, show photos" he called into the phone, a bunch of picture suddenly came onto the screen "we did it!" I cheered quietly clicking the one of my bedroom.

"I beat Grayson in this game at the peer, he isn't as good as a marksman as he thinks he is" I showed him the green dragon I had won.

"Doesn't he remind you of Goliath?" I told him as he stared at the picture humming in response. "A little resemblance" he agreed "although Goliath has a longer tail, his scales are much more prominent and the green is much more vibrant" I rolled my eyes at him.

"Well not everyone can narrow down his every feature Mr Artist" I joked nudging him "that's hilarious coming from the singer" he pushed me back.

"Do you want me to beat you up? Because I will" I threatened but he could see the playfulness in my eyes.

"Go ahead and try" he urged and I lunged at him, throwing us on to the ground as we began punching back and forth.

He grabbed my arm and threw me over his shoulder as I kicked the back of his knee making him fall we rolled around on the floor until we heard noise our hands moving to the other mouth to stop each other making any noise we sat there quietly praying they didn't hear us until the door knob turned.

Thankfully the door was locked so we had a little bit of time to run and hide, I made my way into the chest, Damian quickly came up beside me "I'm going to put a lock on the chest beloved to not raise any suspicions" I nodded and he gave me a chaste kiss before slowly lowering the lid, hearing the click of the lock as darkness surrounded me.

The door clicked open and in walked the 3 bat brothers and Barbara. "How long has this been up here?" I recognized the voice to be Timothy's.

"Damian? What are you doing up here?" Richard asked as I tried to steady my heart.

"What I'm doing here is none of your concern, however what you are doing here is" that wasn't very smooth, in fact that raised a lot of suspicion upon him.

Third person pov
"We heard a noise and came to investigate, we didn't know this was up here" Dick tried to charm his way into the room but Damian stuck his hand out blocking him from entering.

"What are you hiding?" Jason questioned his skeptically beside Barbara.

"She's in here isn't she?" Barbara turned to Damian knowingly. "Who? Amara? I haven't seen her today, if you must know I came up here to figure out how to find her" he replied casually, too casually according to Tim.

"No she's up here, she's hiding, where tho, closet seems to small and predicable, we can clearly see the bed, there's no vents in here, my guess is she's in the chest with the lock on it" Tim spoke observing the area and letting his defective skills do the work.

"You're right, she's an assassin and they're trained to stay hidden in extreme conditions, but she's probably suffocating right now so we should probably let her out" Barbara pushed Damian aside and went for the lock.

She quickly with the help of dick picked the lock and opened the chest revealing nothing but art supplies, they rummaged inside while the others checked around the room. "She's not in here as I keep reminding you, will you stop putting your filthy hands on my stuff" he growled annoyed and partially relieved Amara had found the little exit he had made. You could never have too many exits. Something they grew up learning in the league, always know your exits and always have an escape plan.

She turned looking around where she was, it seemed like the roof of the cave there were a lot of pipes and pillars that kept the cave from collapsing on its self.

Drops of water would drop on her hair every couple of seconds with every step she took. She began walking across one of the beams, making her way across to sit right in the middle observing quietly, it wasn't long before the others made their way out followed by an angry Damian.

She heard a loud and lengthy gasp, followed by dick practically screaming bloody murder. "Get down from there! You could die!" Barbara yelled frantically clutching her hand to her chest.

"I could but I probably won't!" She yelled back opting to lay down on the beam.

"Does she have a death wish?" Tim tried to ask quietly but ultimately failed when his demon brother beside him punched him, "she's already died once I doubt she'd want to do it again" dick replied eyeing the odd girl.

"Just come down please!" Barbara pleaded "promise me we will not go to the carnival!" She yelled back a small accent poking through her words.

"All this over a carnival?" Jason muttered "yeah sure kid! You won't have to go!" He yelled back "promise?"

Barbara sighed "promise! Just come down" Amara nodded her head she doubt they could see but she made her way down the wall, "you know if you break a promise to an assassin the punishment is as bad as death"
She told them as she walked over to them.

Jason shoved Tim forward "replacement it was nice knowing ya!" He patted the back of the spluttering teen in front of him. "You've been a great asset to our team honest!" Barbara added with dick hugging him "I'm gonna miss you little T!" With a final push forward from Damian who smirked "good riddance!"

Tim the poor guy felt betrayed as he quivered in front of the small brunette in front of him. Amara started to feel something she hadn't felt in a long time, sympathy, actual sympathy for a human other than herself and Damian.

"The fuck?" Everyone seemed shocked by her use of colourful language, "you just sacrificed him like that! That is a cowards way of living! Timothy, no matter how annoying you might be, you do not deserve this!" She told the dazed teen in front of her, his expression turned into one of shock and confusion similar to the ones of everyone elses.

"Please don't Mari! Don't do it! It's going to be Ducky all over again!" Damian knew the look in her eye he knew what she was going to do the moment she set her eyes on a scared Tim. It was just who she was, she had to, needed to defend those who stood alone or at least that was what she said in many of her long dialogues.

"Timothy Jackson Drake, son of Jack Drake and adoptive son of Bruce Wayne! You now have my full provided protection and a trusted ally no matter what til death do you die!" She proclaimed dramatically ignoring the odd looks the others were sending her.

"What just happened?" Dick asked looking between the younger three. "She's basically adopted Drake, this is going to be a problem, the duck thing all over again!" Damian muttered to himself looking disgusted at Tim while looking perplexed at the innocent smile Amara was sending him.

"What duck thing?" Jason asked leaning against Barbara who elbowed him in the stomach to push him away. "Basically.." he began but Amara cut him off.

"It is my story I shall be the one to tell" she told him, "when Dami and I were 7, back then we were tasked to kill smaller things so we could build up and kill humans and stuff. We were given a basket of ducks, and we had to choose one to kill,  there was this one duck it had been sectioned off by its family because it had looked different,and this itty baby duck looked so pure and helpless I felt connected to him, ducky, my little innoncent duckling" she trailed off remembering her temporary child.

"She grew attached to the duckling, vowed to protect him til death did he part" Damian continued knowing she'd end up in tears if she continued. "She kept him in her room and made a little nest for him, she raised him like it was her own. Then one day mother found out and as a punishment she threw him off a cliff, we spent hours trying to find him but we were unsuccessful" he glanced up to Amara who was looking down her hand continuously clenching at the thought.

"But why did you say death til I part? Will I end up dying? Is this some sort of ritual or something? This is some cult thing isn't it!" Tim protested sprouting out questions and worries "calm down, I've died once meaning I'm less likely to do so any time soon, and judging by what I've heard, Robins have a trend of dying and I'm assuming your next, but don't worry I'll try to prevent it" she winked at him as Damian glared.

"Amara you need to develop you're social skills and experience normal teenage things!" Barbara tried to explain once the girl had stopped defending Tim.

"I can be normal" she retorted clearing her throat before putting an annoyingly strong American accent on "omg! I love kitties and sparkles and unicorns!" She dropped the fake smile "or are they more depressed now a days?" She fluffed her hair slightly "you think a gun is scary! Ive tried to put myself out of my misery so many times what makes you think you can!" She dragged on channeling her deep deep to deep to speak thoughts.

Most of the group looked horrified at the young girls definition of normal, "no that's not normal that's Tim" dick pointed towards the dazed teen.

"The sparkles or the depression? Because I'm getting the sense he's both" she observed the taller boy his unkept hair covering half his eyes, holding the deep purple bags.

"You are nothing like the girl you were 2 days ago" Jason pointed out skeptical of the younger girls sudden change in behavior.

"That's because I'm trying out different personalities to see which one fits me best, it's my first that I get to be myself and I'd like to change from brainless assassin to morally ethical vigilante" she explained.

"So the story was fake?" Tim questioned "no that was totally true less dramatic of course and you are protected by me that wasn't a lie, I hate liars" she stared around the room observing.

"Does your fathers absence make you feel the need to be so abrasive, and indifferent towards each other and yourselves?" She inquired taking in the shocked looks at her blunt question even Damian had dropped his jaw slightly at how quickly she had made his brothers become mute staring at her with open mouths no words being able to fathom her question.

"And that's enough of that" Barbara tugged her sister towards the entrance of the cave "Damian why don't you show Amara the garden and I'll do some damage control" Barbara pushed the two younger teens out of the cave as she turned to the remaining 3 "aww dick you're already crying"

"Why are they crying?" She asked Damian who looked amused by the situation "they're emotional and have daddy issues" he replied "and you don't?" She asked the green eyed boy, practically the spitting image of his father besides the olive tone of his skin he shared with his mother. Amara couldn't understand what was wrong and why they had gotten so upset, she has learnt growing up that if you had a question, ask it, "knowledge is an admirable cause that should always be indulged" she remembered her mother mimicking Ras when she was younger.

"Mari sometimes its better if some questions are left unanswered" he watched the girl think over his response "well that's dumb"