TW: This chapter includes mention of torture and violence. Read at your own discretion.

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He died in her arms.

What worse could happen to her than seeing the man she loved bleed out to death while his last words were still reminding her that he will love her forever?

But Ryuu's death was just the beginning of the worst time of her life.

She broke completely when she learned that Kai had not been spared by the League either. They had stormed into the clan's base and burnt everyone inside alive.

No one from the Sasuke clan was left.

No one but Sayuri.

And her survival was even worse than dying along with her people because she was in the enemy's captivity and it didn't seem like she would ever be freed.

The one reason she had to survive and escape was to find her son and keep him safe but even that reason was snatched away from her mercilessly.

From that day onwards, Sayuri Drake was no longer the woman her people and family knew her as. All that was left of her was a mother who had lost her son and wanted revenge on his killers desperately.

Kai had not even been a year old yet the ruthless assassins had murdered him too, bringing back the bloodstained blankets as proof they could use to torture her with the sight further.

It had been a month since she had been kept in the League's captivity. But by then the assassins guarding her cell were quite terrified of her and avoided having any task that involved going near her.

At first, one or two of them had tried to take advantage of the fact that she was just a prisoner and kept in chains but she had made them regret their decision immediately. It also spread the notion that she was a dangerous creature who would rip them to shreds if they tried going any closer to her.

Pain and loss had transformed her from an ambitious leader to a vengeful warrior, desperately craving revenge.

The state she was living in was horrible and it was no less than a miracle that she was still alive. Her body was littered with scars that had been inflicted on her as a punishment for her causing the Al Ghuls constant inconvenience. By that time, they should have gotten rid of her but Ra's had other plans.

He had seen how skilled Sayuri was in fighting and had a technique quite unlike any he had seen before. He didn't want that ability to die within her and wanted her to somehow pass it on to his grandson Damian.

But of course, Sayuri would never agree to train him willingly and would try to strike back at them the first chance she got so he had to think of an alternative.

He discussed it with Talia too but she was not so keen on the idea. She was a mother herself and she had seen Sayuri spiral out of control the day her son's bloodied blankets had been shown to her.

Cruel as she may be, it had struck through her stony heart because she could imagine what her state would be if Damian was killed in Kai's place. She had tried to convince Ra's against going too extreme on eliminating the clan but the Demon Head had his own concerns.

He believed that if even a single one of them was left alive, that surviving soul would burn in vengeance and come back at the League in the future.

Talia had tried to talk him out of it but it was to no avail so she had to let things go the way he wanted.

But now that Ra's had come up with yet another idea to use Sayuri as her son's trainer, Talia put her foot down against it.

"She will kill him," she remarked, staring into her father's emerald eyes, "and I will not allow Damian to go into the jaws of death himself."

"She will not kill him, she can not," Ra's stayed firm on his decision, "have you seen the way she fights? If Damian is able to learn it from her, he will be invincible."

"Do you mean to say that Sayuri is invincible?" Talia raised an eyebrow skeptically.

"She could be but she had her weaknesses in the form of her people and Ryuu," he resumed, "our Damian has no such weakness. We have raised him to not succumb to any attachment toward other people. He should not have any of the weaknesses which we were able to exploit in Sayuri's case."

Sometimes it shocked Talia how detached Ra's was from everything normal and only cared about his rank and power. He would turn Damian into himself if he kept training him to be that way.

"My son respects me and cares for me. And he does the same for you," she reminded him, "we are not just other people to him."

He shook his head, "my child, if he has to become the Demon Head someday, he has to start putting himself first. And you remember I have told you to do the same."

She looked away, her eyes flickering in an unfathomable expression. If she was to start putting herself first without caring or respecting her father, then Ra's would have long been dead and she would currently be the Demon Head.

"I can not risk leaving him even a minute near that mad woman," she repeated firmly, "I had warned you not to kill her son but you didn't listen. Now I can't give her the opportunity to kill mine."

"Does that mean you think Damian will not be able to handle it? After all his training and all the efforts we have spent on making him the best weapon, do you think he will get himself killed?"

"He is still a boy, Father. And he is my son," her eyes blazed and for the first time, Ra's felt her resistance against him grow to an alarming extent, "I will not allow him to go anywhere near her."

"Then I will take his rank and give it to Mara. The choice is yours."

Those words silenced Talia and she knew that Ra's was playing a deadly game. Mara was her brother Dusan's daughter and if she was given Damian's rank, it would automatically put her sister Nyssa into enough power that she would be able to fight Talia for her title as the Demon Head's successor.

She could not let that happen.

Ra's observed her as he waited for her to change her decision. Right then he had put Talia in just as much of a compromising situation and if she was any wise, she would choose to agree with him.

"Fine... I will prepare Damian for his training," she gave in at last, "but if Sayuri tries to harm my son, I will kill her myself."

He nodded, a sinister smile playing upon his lips to see that he had succeeded in his goal. "My dear daughter, tell Damian that it's a challenge. His new trainer will not hesitate to kill him so he has to learn everything from her while making sure that he survives. This will be his final test and if he is able to pass it, he will be rewarded with the rank he has kept his eyes on."

That rank was the Head of the Demon Fist and she knew both Mara and Damian had been fighting over it for a long time. It could be a high motivation for Damian to agree to get trained by Sayuri.

"I will tell him," she replied, standing up to leave, "but I will also supervise the training sessions. And I have full authority to stop it if Sayuri goes too far."

Ra's knew he had to agree to at least some of her conditions or else she would retaliate so he nodded his head lightly, "so be it. Tell Damian to be ready from tomorrow. His final test will begin."

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