NOW, 

"PRIVATE LIFT BACK here. The other escalators don't reach the penthouse or the basement, though there are stairs on the floor beneath the penthouse that leads up. Fingerprint locks."

Damian led her further down the corridor. Odile pulled her suitcase along until they stopped in front of the escalator Damian was talking about. "Only works with you and my fingerprint. No one else's. You can access the footage of this entire place on your device. I'll show you how later."

They got into the lift. Damian motioned to the panel. "Only recognises our fingerprints. The base requires face identification as well. Button on the left is the penthouse, button on the right is to the base. I'll bring you up first, we can tour the basement later."

Odile nodded, soaking it all in. Her new home. For at least a couple years, she'd be living here. She liked it. Very modern, state of the art. Wayne Enterprises had put money into the construction and design and it showed.

Made sense. The future heir of Wayne Enterprises resided here.

She wondered how Bruce was going to explain her presence. If she was going to be involved with charity work, it might be easier to show some kind of association between the two of them.

Remiel was, publicly, the daughter of a late friend, though she'd stayed away from the public spotlight when she was in Gotham. Perhaps they could go with the truth. Odile was a cousin to Remiel. It was a bit flimsy, but it would still work.

Bruce Wayne was known, after all, for adopting children.

The lift doors opened. Damian lifted his hand. "After you."

Odile beamed in thanks. There were two doors, one at the end of each corridor. Damian jabbed his finger to the right. "Mine. I'll show you around in a second. Let's go to yours first."

"This is quite nice," Odile glanced around. There were a few paintings on the wall of the corridor, which she observed carefully. Relatively unknown artists, but talented nonetheless. "Did you choose these?"

"I did. Father gave some input." He lifted one brow. "He has a tolerable taste in paintings."

Odile let out a laugh. "Perhaps I'll hang one of mine up too."

"That would be lovely." He sounded extremely genuine. "I really like the one you have in your bedroom at Wayne Manor. The one of Gotham."

"The pastel one?"

"Yes. The one above your bed."

Odile blinked. "I didn't think that would be your style. I think you'd like more... realistic art."

"It is realistic," Damian replied. "It's how you see the world. It's like... a window into your head, I suppose."

Odile stared at him. He didn't seem to notice, motioning to the door. "Fingerprint, please?"

Still thinking about what he'd said, she absent-mindedly placed her finger on the lock. With the whirl of mechanism, the door unlocked. Damian pushed it open, revealing a large, spacious living room. She could see practically half of Gotham from the floor-to-ceiling windows. On her left was a large open kitchen, chairs against the counter.

She raised a brow. "This is... massive."

"It's a penthouse." His voice was flat.

"I was expecting smaller."

"That's what I heard. Live in a little luxury. Unless you want to move in with Grayson and Remiel in their tiny Bludhaven apartment."

Odile snorted. "It's not that small. Just average-sized, which is enough for the two of them, really." She laid down her suitcase on the ground, glancing around, taking in every inch.

"They can suffer, then." He spread his arms. "Mine has the same model as yours, of course, but it's a bit more lived in than this. Two bedrooms upstairs. We left the second one empty, so you can turn it into anything you want. A studio for painting, perhaps? One bathroom with a toilet downstairs. The upstairs one has a bathtub. Oh. And the main bedroom has a walk-in closet. Thought you might like that."

"That's wonderful," Odile gushed.

Was he the one who'd decorated this place? Furnished it? If yes... god, he knew her so well. Most of the furniture were in various shades of white and pink. There was a vase identical to the one in her Wayne Manor room on top of the counter of the kitchen. The few pots and pans on display were all Le Creuset. Odile wasn't that much of a cook, but she enjoyed making a meal for herself every once in a while.

Perhaps he observed her gobsmacked look. He tilted his head and said, "Hey, I know you. Didn't think anyone else could do as good a job decorating this bit, so I signed myself up for the job. First attempt at interior design, do you like it?"

"It's fucking amazing." She was being completely genuine. "Thank you, Damian. Truly. I couldn't have done a better job myself."

It's moments like this that gives her that little sliver of hope. A hope she knows she ought to suppress... But he just... knew her. He'd watched her grow up. No, they'd grown up together. And no matter what happened, that would not be taken away from them.

They were more than just friends. In a way, they were family.

And she wanted them to stay that way, if nothing else could ever happen.

She was granted a quick tour of the place, which was, quite frankly, very overkill for just one person. But at the same time, she'd lived in a peach blossom forest for two years of her life, half of that time by herself. She was used to large homes.

But at the same time, it made her a little uncomfortable. God knew how many people could use a home just a tenth of the size of this. She knew Bruce donated a lot of money yearly, and she was planning on it herself, but it was still a bit... odd.

She felt a little guilty.

But perhaps she could turn that guilt into motivation to do more for this city.

Damian led her out of the penthouse, and they started heading towards his side of the floor. "I heard you're planning on getting into charity?"

"Yes." Odile gave a nod. "I know Bruce has charity organisations under his belt already, but he doesn't have the time to actually oversee any of them. I was thinking I could be the person to do that."

"Are you still planning on being Cygnet, then?"

Cygnet. That was the name she'd chosen for herself in the end. It had taken a few years—she'd just gone by Heng'e. That was the original name of the moon goddess Chang'e. The Eyu Sect claimed to be descendants of the goddess, so Odile thought it worked. A few years later, when she was more fluent in English, she'd settled on Cygnet for her English moniker.

"Of course," she replied. "But I need to have something to do during the day, you know?"

"Any concrete plans?" Damian placed his finger on the lock, and it clicked open just like hers. "Or are things still in the planning stages?"

"A new orphanage, for starters. I've already located a building that can be easily converted. I'm also hoping to start a new rehabilitation programme for young offenders. Gotham's high crime rate could be lowered if we started working on the root of the problem. Most kids are pushed into it because of poverty and environment, and then they don't know how to get back out."

"Ambitious."

They walked into Damian's penthouse. And sure enough, it was quite the opposite of Odile's more traditionally feminine, softer palette. Everything was in shades of black and grey. His lights, even when all turned on, were still relatively dim. Everything was neat. She knew that about Damian. Nothing was ever out of place where he lived. But there were still signs that someone regularly resides here—the books, in a tidy pile on the table before the sofa. The fruit on the counter.

He had a running machine in front of the windows. He motioned to the balcony. "Mine matches yours, of course. The balcony locks itself when closed. Facial recognition for that. But be careful, make sure you're not tracked when you use it. It is the more convenient way in when you're in a suit, though."

"This is a very tall building," Odile said, amused.

"I agree. Which is why I usually enter from the basement. But the motorcycle entrance into the basement is around a street away, to avoid anyone tracking us. They dug it out a couple years ago for the subway, but the plans got abandoned midway. I'll show you when we drive back."

"Quite cool. Oh yeah, I was meaning to ask, is Jon going to stop by this summer?"

Jon Kent. Son of Superman. Damian's best friend, and one of her close buddies as well. Though, much like Damian, she hadn't talked to him in three years. Not since that particular accident, which he'd been witness to.

Damian froze for a second, but then he resumed normality. "Sometime soon, yeah. I'll tell you when he's here. He tends to just... fly onto my balcony unceremoniously when he feels like visiting. Come on, I'll show you around."

A few years ago, their roles had been swapped. It had been Odile bringing Damian around back in the day. The Yuannan Mountain Sect. The first and only time they'd been there together.

Eight years later, he led her around his sanctuary.

Odile shook her head in quiet amusement. How time changed things. They were miles away from the children they were back then. They'd snuck in, together, to the heart of the Yuannan Mountains and been completely undetected. She'd been pleasantly surprised, she remembered, and how skilled he was at stealth.

He hadn't left the best impression on her regarding stealth. After all, she'd discovered him less than a few seconds after he'd entered the forest.

But that was another life ago.

Another them.

—

EIGHT YEARS AGO,

"HURRY UP," SHE whispered, crossing her arms as he grappled his way up to the roof of the house. "You're so slow."

"I'm sorry I can't fly," he hissed back. "Where are we, anyways?"

"The tallest building in the area is there." She pointed to a tower in the near distance. "We're going there. And then you can remember what this place looks like, and you can make a map and show Remiel."

"Why can't you just draw a map? You already know the place, don't you?"

"But Remiel might not trust something I've made without any confirmation from you." Yu Lan sounded exasperated because she was. "Come on. There's going to be a guard patrol here in... around two minutes, according to their usual speed. I want to be out of here by then."

"We can just hide from them," Damian said with a shrug. "The patrols are so inattentive."

"I think they still might notice two kids bickering on the rooftop," she hissed back. "Come on. Let's get to the top of the tower. It's empty at this time of day."

It was mostly alright, sneaking around with him. He was clearly skilled, hopping around like it was nothing. And he had no powers. It was impressive. He was able to catch up with relative ease, except when his attention was captured by something else he found interesting.

Or maybe he was taking his time memorising the landscape, which was technically his duty. But still. He could be a little quicker with it.

The tower was by no means impressively tall. Five floors with a sharp roof at the top, red and white in classic Chinese fashion. It had been here for around a century, and with a lack of repairs, its age was starting to show. People rarely come up here anymore. Only a couple of the older members who liked to stop by and laugh about the old times.

But they came in the afternoons, not the mornings. The tower would be empty now. And it would provide Damian with the good view he needed to figure this place out.

She hadn't asked what exactly their plan was. She didn't think she needed to know. Shan Ling had never liked Shan Heng, and she listened to what Shan Ling said. And Damian, Remiel and Dick were... nice. It hadn't struck her how lonely she'd been living in the peach blossom forest alone until now.

And she had some... faint clues of what had occurred in the past to allow Shan Heng to come to power. She wasn't an idiot. She'd pieced together who Remiel was fairly quickly.

Besides, they'd promised to bring her out of the mountain.

Anything to get her out of this mountain.

Yu Lan was desperate. She couldn't do anything stuck in here. And she was growing older too. While she was still too young to truly do anything about investigating her sect's destruction, she needed to live out there. She knew that. She needed to know enough about the outside world to be able to investigate when the time came.

These three were her ticket out.

So she'd help them. She'd help them to the best of her abilities and make sure they succeeded. They could use someone like her. Someone invisible, but who knew so much about the Yuannan Mountain Sect and its members.

She'd spent the last two years in the shadows where no one looked, trying to put together some type of plan. A path that she could follow for the next few years, to try and keep her promise to the Eyu Sect, and she'd arrived at the conclusion that first, she needed to be able to get out of the mountain. That was the first step of every single plan. Nothing else could happen without that occurring first.

Not being idiots, they didn't take the stairs. Instead, they chose a side of the tower where people were less likely to see them. Yu Lan travelled up with amplified jumps from one floor to the next. Damian alternated between his grappling hook and lifting himself up lower-hanging roofs. But it didn't take them long to get to the top.

She grinned, staring down at the view. "Pretty awesome, right?"

"Yeah." Damian sounded as calm as usual, but she could tell he was impressed by the view. "That your peach blossom forest?"

"Obviously. Entire sea of pink. What else could it be?"

He shrugged. "Who knows? That's the ancestral hall?" He pointed at a structure to the north.

"That's it." Yu Lan nodded. Something important would be happening there. Likely on Sunday morning, because that was when the entire sect gathered together. It would be the easiest time to act.

She'd be there, too. She always stood in the back and watched. She could be... their secret weapon. Their safety net, just in case things went wrong.

They didn't have to know that. Her own little mission.

And they'd said that Shan Ling was coming back. She hadn't seen Shan Ling in a few months. She was excited about that.

"Huh." He looked thoughtful. She followed her gaze—he was mapping out the path to the ancestral hall. The way to get there on foot, without travelling across rooftops. Yu Lan cocked her head. They wanted to move something, then? Needed a path up to the ancestral hall?

Moving something... or someone, perhaps, which made a lot more sense. And the only person worth kidnapping in this entire sect was Shan Heng.

A kidnapping plot... She could help with that.

"Once we're done here, I'll show you a few caves. The children tend to play in them during the day, but no one goes there at night."

He glanced at her. "You've figured it out?"

Yu Lan beamed. That confirmed her thoughts. "Duh. I'm smart. Don't look so surprised."

He grimaced. "Fine."

"Do you need my help?"

"No. At least, not outside of just showing us where everything is." Damian shook his head. He had pretty eyes, Yu Lan decided. She'd never seen green eyes like his before. Everyone here had brown eyes. Dick had blue eyes too, but they weren't as interesting to look at as Damian's.

She tore her gaze away. "Fine. I'll play tour guide and show you around the place. You won't let me have any excitement. So boring."

"You don't need to get involved in this. If this goes wrong, you don't want to be associated with us."

"I thought I'd be leaving with you guys whether or not this goes well or poorly." Yu Lan blinked. "Is that not the deal?"

"Yes. But. Just in case. It's easier to burn less bridges. Trust me."

He was only two years older than her, but he liked to act like he was so wise. Maybe he was, in a way. He certainly knew more than her. Remiel, Dick and Damian spoke another language when they were together. English. She'd heard of that before. Some of the people in the sect spoke it, but no one had ever taught her. And they weren't Chinese either. Well, Remiel was. Damian said he was part Chinese, and Yu Lan supposed if she looked carefully she could see that.

Dick was American. A country that imagined more in her imagination than anything else. She'd heard of it. Shan Ling had been there before. Told her it was a large country. Shan Ling had given her a map of the entire world, and Yu Lan had studied it with care. Shan Ling had pointed at countries she ought to know—this is where we are, China. That's America, that's England, that's Russia...

She wanted to travel to all those places one day.

But of course, she had to get out of here first.

That seemed to be all her life boiled down to these days.

ok so... jon's going to play a side role in this fic (and a pretty major role in one of the flashbacks), but i've decided to not age him up as the comics do (in the comics he gets bumped up to 17 bc time shenanigans when he's eleven), but instead am keeping him at his normal age if there was no weird time thing. so he's going to be three years younger than damian, and thus one year younger than odile. i'm also still going to have him be superboy bc i don't want to confuse people even tho in the comics he's turned into superman around the time he's seventeen.

you'll notice that i've sort of picked bits of the comics i wanted to keep and ignored bits i don't want.  

on another note, not every chapter will be in the "begin with modern day and then flashback midway" structure, but quite a lot of the first two flashbacks will be. the third flashback has a heavier direct consequences on the modern day plotline, and is a more self-contained story that can sort of survive by itself, so you'll find that flashbacks might exist more in their own chapters for that. butttt that's going to take a while!

i'm trying my best for daily updates, but i have quite a bit of travelling to do within the next few weeks, so there's probably days when i'll have to skip. but i'll see what i'm able to do!