The Devil's Daughter (Damirae)

Chapter 7

Damian's Journal:

"And why the hell do we need her help?"

I was infuriated. My father had suggested putting an inept child on the team. Between Grayson and Logan we already have too many of those.

"She's a skilled and powerful warrior, and she needs to learn teamwork. Just like you did not long ago."

"Skilled and powerful, maybe. But father, she acts younger than I did when I was five years old!"

"You still occasionally act like a child, Damian. And the reason you act the way you do is because you were forced to. She doesn't have a normal life either, and she could use people who care about her."

"Have you forgotten what you told me not even an hour ago? I know that Grayson said that we could use backup, especially against the Joker, but the solution should be to put someone on the team who won't get us killed."

My father turned to Nightwing. "Back me up here, Dick."

"I am not getting involved in this. I like my organs on the inside of my body." Grayson gave the smug grin that just made my blood boil. But I was otherwise engaged right now.

"Jason?" My father looked to him hopefully.

"Oh, no. This is way too entertaining to interrupt."

My father shot him the Batglare, (ugh, naming everything "bat" again) and then looked to Drake.

Drake then spoke, "I can see why Damian sees her as being immature, and I do see some flaws in her. I know that there are some reasons not to want heron the team."

Wait a damn minute, had Drake just agreed with me? It was impossible, it couldn't have happened.

Turned out it hadn't.

"However that is the very reason you two should be on the same team. You two would teach each other and learn to live with people you are not compatible with. Who knows, you may even change some of the problems in one another. You may become less aggressive, she may become less naive, which you call "childishness",and by extension, both of you would learn to be better by the time it's all over."

Damnit. Even I had to admit, he had a point. Still though...

"I'm just concerned that if we allow everyone to join too easily, my teammates will be harmed. And though I don't say this often, I don't want them hurt. I do care about them.

Everyone just stared blankly. Like they had just seen a ghost.

"What?"

They sat there blankly until my father spoke up. "Look, Damian, I understand your concern, but you need to be careful you don't damage your team even more by stopping every good thing that comes your way. You need to be careful not to push everyone and everything away before you have a chance to learn its value."

I sighed. "Understood, father." I really wanted to continue to argue. But that would do me no good. Besides, they made some good points. I was still, and am still, having trouble with it, though. Especially with who they chose.

Of all people, why did it have to be her.

Raven's Journal:

When they finally got home I could feel the shame, anger and defeat radiating from Damian. It was less of a problem with Dick, but Damian was royally pissed. Even I didn't want to mess with him. And that's saying something.

"We're getting a new member soon." He said the way that one might announce a funeral. "I need to go train."

He was going to train immediately upon coming back. Add this to the fact that he had shame and anger coming off of him. There were only four possibilities:

1. He had lost an important argument.
2. He had learned of a new threat and was worried about us.
3. He learned or figured out something that pissed him off
4. All of the above.

He clearly doesn't approve of this "new member". I was going to have to stop him from doing something ridiculous.

After a brief time spent thinking, I went to the training room. If I knew him he was...

Yup. There he was, doing push-ups. His legs were on a stool, to put his body on an incline. That was, he works himself out more. He told me that once.

He was cross. I wasn't sure why, but I knew one thing for a fact: he was extremely cross.

"How many push-ups can he do?" I heard a voice behind me.
It was Kori, dressed in civilian clothing.

"Depends on his mood."

"When he's angry?"

"I have never once seen him tire out when he's angry." I was speaking from experience. I've seen him run for 4 hours straight directly after we defeated Blood. In his own words "Absolutely the only reason I stopped was because the crime alert went off."

"I'm worried about him." She said, her eyes not leaving him once.

"Me too."

"Did you know that we're getting a new teammate?" She asked, trying to deter the conversation.

"He told me. In a way that tells me he doesn't like them. Who is this person."

She looked at me thoughtfully, clearly wondering if she should answer that question. I wonder why. She finally answered though.

"Her name is Donna Troy."