Project Shikon

Chapter 8

Jason looked at Shi one more time before quietly shutting the door. After the incident downstairs, Alfred had taken her to bandage her up, again. He had brought her back to the kitchen for a light breakfast. Shi had stuck to Jason like glue and had been even more reserved than she had the night before. Jason had frowned slightly at that, it had looked like she had been opening up and relaxing a bit this morning. She had left the room by herself, which he would have never expected. The small happy smile he had seen while she had been sparing with Damian was gone now as well. She had kept her face carefully blank the rest of the morning which had been frustrating. After their breakfast, consisting of oatmeal and orange juice (well tea for Shi), he had taken her back up to his room. As soon as her head hit the pillow, she had passed out from exhaustion. He could tell she had been exhausted from just the way she had been eating. The spoon's path from the bowl to her mouth had been a long, slow process.

Now, they were finally going to talk to Tim. He slammed open the door, glaring at the replacement, "What the hell was that Tim?"

Tim's face was full of regret, "I'm sorry! In my defense, I am working on two accumulative hours of sleep in the past seventy-eight hours. Bruce messaged me to come here, that something important had come up. He didn't tell me what, or that we had a guest. Especially someone that would be down in the cave." Tim tried to explain.

"Observational skills Replacement! Were you or were you not trained by the Bat? It took me one glance at them this morning that they were just sparing, even having fun with it. The demon brat was even holding back for god's sake." Jason grit out.

Damian scoffed, "As if I would go all out on an injured child."

Dick ruffled the hair of Damian and gave him a grin," Of course you wouldn't."

Damian shoved his hand off, "Get off of me Grayson."

"Damian, how did you and Shi end up in the cave, to begin with?" Bruce asked, speaking up for the first time.

Damian shrugged slightly, "I heard her leaving Todd's room and followed her. You had said not to leave her alone last night. She went outside to simply touch the grass. I had been getting ready for my morning exercises and I didn't want to wait any longer so I told her to follow me. I asked her if she knew how to fight and she said yes. So, I took her down to the cave to see how much she knew. She is actually a decent fighter for her age." A silence fell over them for a few moments until Damian continued, "She had never even seen grass before, the sun either I believe. Her gaze kept drifting to the sky while I was talking with her."

"Damn them," Jason growled out. Not only had she most likely been experimented on, but they had kept her inside her entire life as well. They had also obviously been teaching her how to fight as, even with her being injured, she kept up with the demon brat well enough. His eyes darkened in rage, it was becoming more obvious that Shi had been being raised and trained to become a weapon. He thought back to the sparing he had walked in on this morning. She had even been able to draw blood. His eyes unconsciously went to Damian's cheek where he had seen her cut him. Jason's eyes suddenly went wide.

"Damian, what happened to the cut on your face?"

Damian's hand went to the cheek that used to hold a cut, that was now unblemished, "She can heal others. We were taking a small break and I made a comment about how covering up the cut would be inconvenient. Suddenly her had was glowing a soft pink or purple, close to the same color of the barrier she put up. She held her hand over my cheek, it was slightly warm and it tingled a bit. When the glow died my cut was healed. Like the barrier she put up, healing also takes its toll on her. I could see the pain in her eyes. She is unable to heal herself for some unknown reason." Damian explained.

"I see two possible scenarios from what you've explained," Tim said suddenly. He had his thinking face on, "Either her powers are not natural to her, and using them upsets her body. Or, she was born with her powers but whatever they did to her causes a disrupt to her natural balance." He was silent for a moment before continuing, "It's almost like her body is rejecting the use of her powers. Like two opposites fighting against each other. I think it would be best if she didn't use her abilities, at all. It could be dangerous for her in the long run."

Tim glanced over at Jason, who still looked mad at him. He wasn't sure why Jason had become so attached to the kid so quickly. It seemed that Damian was also partial to the kid, he seemed pretty worried about her. Which was odd, to begin with, the demon didn't care about anyone other than himself or Dick. He knew that when he was about to say next wasn't going to go over well with Jason. Bruce had been eating breakfast. They needed his hacking skills to help track where Shi came from. But, to do that... "I'm going to need to talk to her. See if she can at least give me a point to start."

"Hell no! She is goddamned scared of you after your stunt this morning." Jason growled out.

"Master Jason, do watch your language." Alfred reprimanded strictly.

"Look, Jason, it will take me weeks if not more to try and track her. do you really want to give whoever is going to be coming after her that much free time to catch up? I feel terrible about what happened this morning alright? I really do, and I plan to apologize the first chance I get. I need to be able to start somewhere, even if it's when she first encountered you." Tim explained. It wasn't like he could track her from his apartment. All of them chose safehouses that had no cameras around, well that or they would disable them themselves.

Dick put a hand on Jason's shoulder, hoping to calm him, "I understand Jay, you're trying to do what you think is best for Shi. Why don't you just ask her and let her decide? See if she's willing. We can keep it short. Let Tim ask a few questions and then they can go their separate ways." He let out a sigh as he felt just how tense his brother was, "Listen Jay. We have no idea who she really is, or where she came from. On the flip side of that, we also have no idea who is after her, or what they have at their disposal to find her for all we know they could be actively searching for her right now, or even closing in. we're going to have to make some progress." Dick gave a silent sigh of relief when he felt his brother loosen up slightly.

"Fine." He gritted out, "But if Shi says no, the answer is just that. No."

"That is fine Jason," Brue reassured him.

Jason let out a huff, "Whatever." He shrugged off Dick's hand from his shoulder and left the room Everything in the damn manor pissed him off. He made a quick pit stop in the library on the way to his room to grab something to read as he waited for Shi to wake up. It had been a while since he could just sit down and read.

He made his way back to his room and settled carefully onto his bed as to not wake up Shi. Shi was curled up near the middle of the bed, cutely hugging a pillow. He watched slightly amused as her ears twitched every so often. He figured it wouldn't take much to actually wake her up and made a mental note to be quiet in the mornings and nights. He took his eyes off the calmly sleeping child and opened up the book. He was quickly dragged into the narrative of the story.

He was partly into chapter three of his book when he felt something brush up against his side. he looked over and saw that Shi had rolled over in her sleep. She was now snuggled into his side, her tail draped over his leg. He smirked slightly and petted her on the head. She sighed lightly in her sleep and snuggled closer to his side.

He let out a quiet sigh as he saw how peaceful she looked while asleep. He would ask her about talking to Tim when she woke up, no need to rush anything. He would just let her wake up on her own. God knows she probably needs the rest. On one hand, he was kinda hoping that she would say no. The kid had enough mental trauma as it was. On the other hand, he did want to find the fuckers who had hurt Shi as soon as possible. With a shake of his head, he shook the thoughts away and turned his attention back to his book.