The Batpoint Paradox

She Who Spawned Demon Spawn

*Jason

It had weeks since the failed Luthor op but we still hadn't pegged our big bad, even after countless hours of research, investigation, and a bit of light stalking, both for the mission and for ourselves. According to Tim even the Demon brat has been skulking around the Kent family farm, he thinks we don't know and I'll admit it's been an impressive amount of self restraint on my part to not mock him, still glass houses and all that. At this point Dick's not much better than I am, though he's been making an effort to confine his stalking on the web, replacement's the only one fully focused on the mission, if I didn't know better I'd say he was actively avoiding something, or someone. Whatever Tim's deal was or wasn't even I could appreciate his dedication, we may not have figured out exactly who was behind this, but we'd managed to rule out most of the major players in the supervillan ranks. So unless this was the work of some unknown evil mastermind that somehow knows Batman's identity and has major beef with him, which despite his asshole tendencies is unlikely, then we can work through the process of elimination. Well at least that's the assumption Tim and I had been operating under these last few weeks, that was until demon spawn marched into my safehouse, (I refused to call it the budget batcave or any of the other stupid names my siblings had come up with) bypassed the hug Dick had immediately attempted to trap him in, and went straight for the kitchen. He didn't say a word as he pulled out one of my beers and downed it in under twenty seconds, I let out an impressed whistle while Tim raised an eyebrow and Dick just gaped at him.

He tossed the now empty bottle into the recycling and let out a resigned sigh. 

"My mother." He deadpanned, "It was my mother."

For a few moments there was only silence, that is until Timmy started firing off inquires, one after the other, seemingly without pausing to take a single breath.

 "How do you know? Are sure? How sure? What was her goal? Does she know you're on to her Does she know that we're aware of the previous timeline? What method of time travel did she use? Is Ras in on it? The whole League? Or is she working alone or with non League co-conspirators?" 

Damien, to his credit, didn't blink at the rapid assault of questions, instead, without even a single snide comment at Tim's eagerness, he began to explain.

"A few nights ago I was spying on a conversation between my mother and grandfather, a practice I've taken to since finding myself back under their control. It started much the same as all the others I'd observed, pointless posturing, updates on the states of various assets and future targets etc, that was until they began discussing the League. Nothing of importance, mostly just grandfather patting himself on the back for his continuous ease in manipulating them, while laughing at their naivety, all very expected behavior on his part, but while he was talking mother let her calculated expression slide for just a moment and I could clearly read smug self satisfaction." 

He paused for a moment, holding up a single finger to silence our objections, before continuing.

"Obviously I concluded that more information was required before I formed any solid conclusions, so I kept a close eye on her, tracking her movements and actions as closely as I could without raising suspicion. It didn't take long for my work to pay off as not a day later she attempted to slip off the grounds without notice, from there it was just a matter of tailing her from a safe distance to a seemingly random location a few miles from the compound. I wasn't able to get close enough to hear anything, however there was no mistaking the lightning shrouded appearance of a speedster, Thawne or Zoloman if I had to guess. That combined with my earlier observation and our previous research lead me to be reasonably sure that my mother, with the help of a speedster villain, is responsible for our current predicament. As far as her awareness of our knowledge I can't say for certain that she doesn't at least suspect, I have heard nothing of it, but it is more than possible that the League is aware of our recent costumed exploits, and if so my mother would not have a hard time putting two and two together from our names and costumes. That being said even if she does know that we have our memories of the correct timeline, I can assure you she does not know that we suspect her in the slightest."

We're all silent for a beat after Damien finishes talking, I can see the gears in Tim's head turning already as he processes the information, Dickhead's eyes are shining with barely concealed hope, already picturing his reunion with Wally I'm sure. Not that I could blame him, images of Roy and Lian back in my arms flashed behind my eyes, I pushed them back though, we couldn't afford to get caught up in our daydreams, we were still a long way from making things right, this was just the first step.

I walked up to the kid and gave him a thump across the back, ignoring the death glare the action earned me.

"Good work gremlin, though I really didn't need another reason to put your mom on my shit list, I will enjoy kicking her ass for this though."

Replacement rolled his eyes but it was a half-hearted gesture as his mind was clearly elsewhere, in seconds his focus was back on his laptop after he summoned the brat over to his desk, within moments the clacking of keys rang out through the small space.

Dick made his way over to the youngest bats, ruffling Damien's hair affectionately and reassuring him that his mother's actions were not his fault, he was loved, had family, blah, blah, etc, blah.

I shook my head at them and got myself a beer.

I'll be home soon Lian, just hold on for me Roy.