The Mystic's Apprentice

Summary: Ra's al Ghul wants a weapon that can kill anyone, and so he turns to magic. Damian does not care for the mystic arts, but what Grandfather wants, he gets, even if the former Robin has to die several times to attain it. Damian never wishes to be a magician, but he will have to be one if he wishes to survive.

Disclaimer: I don't own Batman, Superman, or any of the characters in either franchises.

The white kitten mewled discontentedly.

Damian immediately patted her head, brushing her soft fur in an attempt to calm her (and himself). Aurora wriggled uncomfortably in his arms, but after a few minutes of petting, she settled back down somewhat. Her blue eyes still glanced around warily at the luxurious interior of the plane though, and every now and then the kitten would look at his grandfather and pawed his chest disapprovingly.

Damian couldn't blame her.

Across the plane, Ra's al Ghul smiled.

"Is that a Javanese cat?" He asked.

Damian was instantly on guard (why was he asking? Was he going to use Aurora? Ra's al Ghul never did anything without any ulterior motives), but forced himself to relax. His grandfather noticed, however, and his smile widened. Inwardly, Damian cursed. His time with the Bats had softened him.

(He could remember a time when he didn't flinch at his grandfather's sinister, multi-layered queries; so arrogant and cold that he didn't care for anyone. But years of kindness and free affection had changed that. Somewhere along the way, he gained a heart, and hearts were very easy to break if one knew how.)

(Ra's al Ghul did.)

He glanced down at Aurora. It was hard to differentiate between a Javanese and Siamese cat, given that the former is descended from the latter, but being the animal lover he was, Damian could easily tell. Both breeds of cats shared the same svelte, but muscular body, but they differ in point colours. The darker points of the face, ears, paws, and tail came in solid colours such as red and cream, for example, and a Javanese cat's eyes were always a deep, vivid blue.

(Like Father's, and Richard's, and Jon's, and…)

"Yes, I believe it is." Damian replied after a cursory glance.

"You believe, hmm?" The query caused Damian to frown. Did he slipped up somehow? "So it's a new pet?"

"She." He corrected automatically.

The Demon's Head raised an eyebrow, but remained amused. "Ah, she is your new pet?"

"Yes." The teenager answered warily.

"I see." Ra's leaned back leisurely, tilting his head questioningly. "A present from the Thief, I take it?"

"She's not a thief," stated Damian immediately.

Again, the Demon's Head arched an eyebrow. "No?"

I slipped again, Damian cursed quietly, even as he tried to fix the damage. "Selina has retired from that life."

"So you call her 'Selina' now…" Ra's mused idly, causing a brief flare of panic to shoot up inside the former Robin.

"It has been five years since the marriage." Damian tried vainly to reason away his apparent closeness with Catwoman. "It is…inefficient to maintain hostilities when one has to work together often."

"Of course." Ra's smiled genially. The former Robin knew that the Demon's Head didn't buy his excuses one bit.

Thankfully (or not), he seemed content to let it be. Damian watched warily as his grandfather's gaze shifted from the cat in his arms to the old watch on his wrist. His expression was a practised mask of pleasantries, but Damian was certain that Ra's was plotting something behind that inscrutable facade.

"That watch looks a little old, no?" He began.

Through gritted teeth, Damian replied. "It's a gift."

"Oh?" His grandfather faked surprise and curiosity well, but Damian had always knew what a snake he was and refused to fall for that. "It's a little old for a teenager, no? Shouldn't a smartwatch be more fitting?"

He pursed his lips, refusing to answer. So far, his words seemed to betray him, giving information to the Demon's Head piece by piece. This time, he would use silence. After all, silence couldn't betray him.

(What was that his mother taught him…?)

The silence lasted only for a moment before Ra's spoke, acting as if he didn't notice Damian's reticence.

"Now why would someone give a teenager an old watch?" He questioned rhetorically, the sharp mind that challenged his father time and time again gleaming behind his inscrutable mask. "Perhaps it is a memento? Is it a gift from your father?"

Instinctively, Damian tensed, quickly covering the watch with a hand. He realised his mistake too late.

Ra's al Ghul smile was triumphant.

(The lesson he forgot: Even your silence can betray you.)

"A memento from your father?" The Demon's Head mused idly. "Then I assume it was his father's before he gave it to you. A gift from father to son. A family heirloom."

Damian remained silent, staring straight at him.

"Oh, Damian." He chuckled, lounging back at the plush sofa. "You have truly gone soft in your time with your father, but that is your mother's mistake for leaving you with him."

Ra's smiled at him.

"It's a mistake we will rectify, right, Grandson?"

He received a whole apartment as his accommodation.

Damian frowned as he stepped into the large apartment, the ninja guiding him to his new quarters standing silently outside his doorway. Ignoring him for the moment, the former Robin surveyed the spacious rooms (a kitchen adjoined to the living room. Two ensuite bedrooms with queen-sized beds. A study. Windows overlooking the Andes mountains), before letting Aurora down to explore her new surroundings. As the kitten curiously peered around a cream sofa, Damian turned to face the ninja.

"Is everything to your satisfaction?" His grandfather's minion asked, voice tonelessly polite.

Damian pursed his lips, thinking. If he asked for anything, he would undoubtedly be in his grandfather's debt, no matter how innocuous the request may seem. On the other hand, Aurora needed care and facilities which he couldn't currently bring by himself, and he didn't know how long it would be before Ra's let him out on missions.

"Perhaps some cat toys, facilities, and food wouldn't go amiss." He said, hiding his reluctance with a gesture towards Aurora.

"I will see what I can do." In other words, Ra's would hear of his request and add it as another favour towards him. "Is that all?"

Damian nodded.

"Very well," the ninja bowed, "Lord Ra's expect your presence in an hour."

So soon? He didn't even give him time to settle down. What was that old man planning? Questions ran amok in his mind, but Damian gave none of it voice.

"Very well then." Damian nodded, then turned away in a clear dismissive move he learnt from watching his mother. The ninja needed no further words. He bowed once more and went away, closing the door behind him.

Damian knew that though he was out of sight, it did not mean he was out of mind.

And the former Robin knew that the Demon's Head didn't only post one guard to watch him.

But that was an issue for later. Kneeling down next to Aurora, he scratched her head. The kitten purred as he smiled wanly down at her. "Let's look for the bugs Ra's planted, huh, Aurora?"

The cat didn't understand him, but she meowed in what Damian could pretend was agreement. She trailed after him as he began combing the apartment for any hidden mikes or cameras, the kitten even joining in on the search after he showed her what he was looking for. Her enthusiasm made him smile, and he was glad that he decided to bring her along or else the loneliness would have crushed him by now.

(Funny, before he wouldn't even have noticed, but now, after spending so long in the warmth of family and friends, their absence was a huge, cold gap.)

Within half an hour, Damian had found and crushed 46 'bugs'.

Aurora stood proudly on top of the pile they found, head held high and meowing loudly. He gave her a faint smirk and a pat. "Good job, Aurora. I think that's everything."

Unless he hid more, he thought pessimistically, but shook that thought away for now. Aurora was purring, butting her head against his palm for more scratching. Seeing her, some of the weight in his heart lightened.

"Now let's prepare for my meeting with Ra's," said Damian as he scooped her up in his arms and headed to his bedroom.

Standing at the entrance to the grand hall, Damian resisted the urge to play with the hem of his green tunic.

Instead of playing with his tunic's hem like a child, Damian instead patted Aurora's head. The kitten's presence briefly drew the stares of the ninjas guarding the hall's entrance, but a quick glare from Damian solved that swiftly. He was certain that after this rumours would circulate around the League about his presence, and questions would rise at his insistence to bring Aurora everywhere, but he didn't care. There was no way he would leave Aurora alone in the apartment.

(She was one of the two links left Damian has to Gotham.)

Based on counting his own heartbeat, Damian guessed that it has been five minutes since he was told to wait in front of the entrance. He wanted to check with the old watch his father gave him, but he resisted the urge. The tunic's long sleeves hid the watch, but he didn't want to draw attention to such a precious memento. There was no way to hide Aurora—sitting on his shoulders as she was—but he could at least hide the watch.

(Too many times had 'accidents' happened to his pets and precious items in the League. It was a lesson to never treasure anything. Goliath was the only exception, but Damian suspected it was only because of his uniqueness.)

Then the double doors opened, and he was ushered in.

What seemed to be the entirety of the League was there, though Damian knew that it was only a fraction of the League's true numbers. A roll of green carpet parted the sea of black-clad ninjas, opening up a path to the raised dais at the far end of the hall. On the left and right walls, fire roared from torches, casting a sinister red glow throughout the room. Another pair of torches was set on the dais, and on the centre of it, there stood Ra's al Ghul.

Shoulders squared and head held high, Damian entered.

He could feel their attention crushing him like a tidal wave the moment he stepped in, but Damian stood tall and proud as he walked towards the dais. His steps were neither slow or rushed, but measured and assured, just the way he learnt from childhood. Out of the corner of his eyes, he caught a flash of red streak on black hair. Mara al Ghul, his cousin. She watched him from the side with the League's other elites, gaze piercing, but he didn't acknowledge her. Calmly—as if his pulse wasn't racing—Damian came to the dais and knelt before the Demon's Head.

Aurora, perhaps sensing the seriousness of the situation, leapt off his shoulders and stood to the side.

(Bless Selina and her choice in cats.)

Damian bowed his head in apparent submission, and waited.

"Today," Ra's al Ghul raised his arms in a grand gesture, his smile wide, "one of our own has returned home!"

As if on cue, the assembled ninjas stomped their feet in unison.

"Long has my grandson strayed from the path of the righteous, led astray by his father, our enemy the Batman!" The Demon's Head continued, lowering his arms, but his voice was no less strong. "But now he has seen the truth, and came back to us of his own volition."

Lies, Damian thought viciously, glaring at his grandfather's feet, All lies.

Yet it was a necessary lie, he knew. This speech, this ceremony…it wasn't for him, nor the top elites that knew what Ra's was truly like. It was for the underlings; the mindless minions and mooks that made up the bulk of the League's army. They needed to know that the League of Assassins was right, that their cause was just and worth believing…and if they didn't do so, they should know that no one—not even the Demon's own family—could escape Ra's grasps.

(Or rather, Ra's needed that to be true.)

The Demon's Head placed a hand on Damian's shoulder.

"Damian al Ghul," for the first time in years, Damian heard himself being addressed with his mother's surname, "do you swear to uphold the beliefs of the League of Assassins, to fight in my name, and die protecting this world?"

No.

"Yes."

He couldn't see it, but Damian imagined Ra's smiling. "Then we shall test your conviction."

Alarm bells rang in Damian's head. He stared at the floor as Ra's moved, mind whirling. Is he going to as me to kill? He thought, feeling sick to his stomach, Can I kill? Even if it's for Jon's sake…can I break Father's creed?

"Remove your tunic."

Damian blinked, taking a second to process that unexpected request. Glancing up, he saw Ra's holding a branding iron to a torch, the fire heating up the League's symbol. Relief flooded him as he saw it. Oh, he wants to brand me, not force me to kill.

(Twisted as it was, Damian prefer anything over killing.)

Obediently, Damian quickly took off his tunic. Warm air hit bare skin, and Damian drew a deep breath. Exhaling slowly, he bowed his head and prepared for the pain.

Agony

His back arched instinctively, a scream barely held back in his throat. Damian would not—could not—show any weakness here, not in front of the League. But oh, the pain. Bright and searing, each second extended for an infinity. His hands formed fists, clenched so tightly that blood flowed down his fingers. Distantly, Damian could hear Aurora mewled in distress—her voice loud in the uncaring silence of the hall—but he couldn't notice her, the burning pain overtaking his senses.

Then it was done.

Damian gasped as he struggled to keep himself kneeling. Head bowed as he breathed deeply, the former Robin blinked back tears as a drop of blood landed on the green carpet. Oh, he realised distantly, my lip is bleeding.

Aurora rushed over to him, her tiny head butting against his fists while she mewled loudly. That was when he noticed his hands were bleeding too. He must have bit his lips and clenched his fists too tightly while holding back his screams.

Aurora continued mewling, licking his wounded hands in an attempt to help. Damian wished to soothe her distress, but he was afraid of staining her white fur with blood. More than that however, through the lingering haze of pain, he realised it wasn't over yet.

In front of him, Ra's al Ghul ordered.

"Rise."

And through the pain and humiliation, Damian did, the permanent symbol of his submission on his back clear for all to see.

(His feet shook with effort. If it wasn't for the lingering pain, his face would have been red with rage. As it was, Damian could hardly muster the will to stay conscious.)

Ra's al Ghul smiled.

"Welcome home, Damian."

FUN FACT

"...he caught a flash of red streak on black hair. Mara al Ghul, his cousin..." - Mara al Ghul first appears in the first arc of Teen Titans Rebirth. So I'm not making her up.

Originally, I wanted to leave Aurora out of this fic, but as I was writing The Disappearance of Damian Wayne, I realised that I need her to give Damian something to hold on to while he's coming to terms with his situation. If she wasn't there, then this chapter would be all angst and darkness, and well, as interesting as it may be, I'm a firm believer that tragedy without comedy or heartwarming moments is boring, and will eventually lead to apathy. It's the contrast between light and dark, despair and hope, desperation and contentment that makes a story truly interesting, and the stronger the 'light' is, the more you can delve into the 'darkness'.