Love in the dark

Moving in

Raven or now Rachel as she liked to refer to herself carried her bags to the front of Wayne manor. The giant mansion appeared vacant and even somewhat creepy. It was just her style. She imagined the person who lived here was very old and paranoid. She couldn't imagine why this person volunteered to take her in while she attended school. Her thoughts began running rampant as images of her father and fire engulfing the earth flooded her mind. She had to deal with these flashes from time to time as a consequence of keeping her father imprisoned in the gem on her forehead.

However the power boost she received seemed to far exceed the normal limits of her normal abilities. She regathered herself and knocked on the door. An elderly and somewhat fragile English man opened the door.

"Hello master Rachel, master Wayne told me you'd be coming." Raven got a sudden shock as she realized she had been adopted by Bruce Wayne, Damien's father. She remembered Alfred from when she entered Damien's mind to heal him from his injury he received battling blue beetle. "If you'd follow me master Bruce is excited to meet you." Rachel followed Alfred as he lead her into the giant mansion. She followed him through large intertwining corridors until they arrived at two large double doors." Master Bruce is inside waiting for you." Alfred turned on his heel and scurried off as Raven knocked on the door.

Raven watched in awe as an older more bruiting version of Damien opened the large double doors. So this is batman, she thought.

"Hello Ms.Roth my names Bruce Wayne. I've heard you've had a tough upbringing." He held out his large masculine hand offering his greetings. Rachel humbly accepted and followed him into a large office." I choose to adopt you because I understand what it's like to grow up without parents."

"I know. You parents were taken from you when you were eight. Alfred raised you but you held on to the anger and guilt into your adult years where you sought out to purge Gotham of crime so you looked for teachings from various cultures and arts which led you to the league of assassins where you learned from Ra's al ghoul but refused to kill in his name. You took on the persona of a bat to impose your childhood fear on criminals and pursued a life of crime fighting where you ended up with the justice league."

"But how?" Bruce said horrified.

"I'm telepathic."

"I have ph..."

"Physic blocks." Rachel said interrupting Bruce." I know, I didn't read your mind I read Damien's. He was injured and I had to heal him so it was involuntary. Just like most telepaths we do our best to avoid reading minds unless we absolutely have to." Bruce's expression became guarded.

"Ok, let's establish some ground rules."

"Of coarse." Raven agreed.

"First off, no mind reading. Second, no sneaking out, I'll know if you do. Third, you will attend school regularly and clean up after yourself. Four, do not go into the bat cave unless I give you direct orders to do so. Finally, you will never for any reason reveal our secret identities."

"I thought those were a given."

"Good, go get settled in your room its at the end of the hall on the left." Rachel bowed her head to Bruce and picked her bags up. She walked down the hall where she opened a door to reveal an all white room with a king sized bed. She laid her bags down and assessed the room. It seemed a little blank for her taste, almost like the room was a blank canvas ready to painted. There were several dressers and and a pair of night stands. Rachel noticed very light almost faint footsteps approaching.

"Your not as subtle as you think." She mocked the fourteen year old boy.

"I wasn't trying to be. You know all white doesn't seem like you style."

"It isn't but your father took me in so I'll tolerate it." Damien walked over to the wall where a screen suddenly appeared. He started fiddling with the buttons and the room changed color."what the f.."

"Everything's holographic, my father made it specifically for you. He felt you'd feel more at home if you could make it to your liking."

"That was awfully generous of him." Rachel said approaching Damien."May I?"

"Of coarse." Damien said moving away from the screen. Rachel colored the walls purple and the bead spread black with white tracing. The night stands and dressers was also colored black.

"So do you know why your father volunteered to take me in?"

"Do I look like I know? Lately he's been spouting generosity."

"No reason to be shitty Damien." Rachel snarled. Damien looked away not giving her the satisfaction of an apology." But seriously I was just fine with a foster home. I don't get why your father would want a demon half breed living with him. I figured him and the rest of the justice league hated me after the whole incident with my father."

"It's probably a precaution. He doesn't want you around civilians twenty four seven."

"But I'm attending school. I'll be around the public anyway."

"Yes, but I'll be there as well so he figures I'm some sort of security. Why did you want to go to school anyway?"

"I wanted to fit in with humanity. I know I have the team but they're far from normal people. I figured if I connected with the very things I'm fighting to protect them I'll feel more motivated to do my job."

"And you picked Gotham." Damien giggled

"You got a problem with that?"

"As my father will tell you Gotham doesn't exactly have the most upstanding samaritans."

"Well it's not the only reason I chose Gotham." Raven began blushing, while Damien got a confused look on his face.

"What do you mean by that."

"Don't worry about it." Raven said in a feminine voice. Not her usual dark monotone."So what's for dinner?"

"I don't know, we rarely eat dinner."

"Why?" Raven asked confused.

"Because dinner time is when we go on patrol."