The Devil's Daughter (Damirae)

Chapter 1

Damian's Journal:
I spend nearly all of my time on the same things. I patrol. I train myself. I train my dog, Titus. I patrol again.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

I haven't spoken to anyone in three days. Though it isn't unusual for me to spend a lot of time alone. But everyone else is mourning and I can't join them. I don't care about Terra at all. I need to get better. I must become stronger than before. I must not lose again.

Today I was punching a punching bag in the training room when I saw Raven on the side. She was watching me, arms crossed, with a slight smile on her face. I was wondering why she was smiling. Did she like that I was training? Did she think the whole "oh, that's classic Damian" thing? Or did she want to learn form in punching? Then she turned her head away shyly, and bit her lower lip. Now I was extremely confused.  Why does she stare and then look away when I stare back? That's so hypocritical! I decided to go ask her myself.

"Hey Raven, why were you staring at me?"

She blushed, stammering "I, I, I wasn't I- I was just thinking about," she spoke clearly now, "about how you've been training a lot lately."

She stood up and said "Why do you spend so much time training?"

I looked her in the eyes and told her "I need to be stronger than I am. When you and the others decide to do the same, you know where to find me."

She looked hurt. "We all want to be stronger, Damian. Just like you."

"Really? Well we nearly lost a big fight. We nearly died. We should all be training to get to better than before we lost the fight. All I've seen as of late is people is the entire group sad about a dead girl."

"That dead girl was our friend."

"Yeah, right before she stabbed us in the back!"

"She was being manipulated!"

"Doesn't change the fact. She tried to kill us. She tried to kill you. And she and Slade nearly succeeded. If we had defeated them this would have ended better. If I had..." my voice trailed off.

"If you had what, Damian?"

I looked away. I didn't want to answer that.

"You blame yourself!"she sounded like she could believe it herself. "Damian, that's ridiculous. There was nothing you could have done."

I looked away. "I should have beaten Deathstroke! I should have won when he attacked me. I should have killed him. But I didn't. I wasn't strong enough. And it nearly got you all killed. I should've..."

She actually hugged me. She felt soft against me. There's that feeling again. What was that strange feeling? It was almost like pain, except that it was pleasant, like a warmth deep in my chest.

I felt something else. It was her leather leotard against my bare skin. I realized for the first time in this conversation that I was bare-chested. I don't wear a top when I work out. I began to blush.

"Are you okay?" She asked. I felt fine after a few seconds.

"I'm fine."

"Damian, I just want you to know, you are not at fault for what happened. Nobody knew what was going to happen. And it didn't happen because any of us were weak. We were just unprepared and unlucky."

Then she started to walk away. I let out a loud "tt" and continued training.