Valeria- Damien Wayne

A New Life

"Now, I will agree to your conditions if you agree to mine, all I ask is that you keep my siblings and me safe from the league and that you let me check up on them from time to time."

"fine." he said

I was honestly shocked by how easy that was he then came over to me unlock my cuffs and we walked to his car. He pulled out his phone and made a call to a man named Barry. Explained to him who I am and what would be needed to take me in. His expression and posture gave nothing away, as always, and that alone made my anxiety Skyrocket. The call ended with a thank you and the car's engine revved as we practically flew across town. When we stopped I noticed a man was standing directly in the middle of the road.

The Bat stepped out and began to speak to the figure his posture remained stiff and unchanging until they both finally turned to me, the man waved at me and the bat waved me towards them. I got out of the car and silently walked up to them.

"Hey there kid. Heard you need a place to crash."  the man said.

"Yes, I guess I do." uncertainty filled my voice and just as expected his eyes seemed to soften.

" I have an extra room, but it comes with rules."

My face remained passive but I almost groaned so many rules and conditions. Soo many unexpected turns. I knew that as strong as the bat was, eventually the league would come for me I knew that I could not stay with this man. Not forever at least.

"I understand." I replied.

He went on to tell me his rules: follow the bat's rules about the league, stay of trouble, do chores, keep a good GPA and eventually get a job. I was shocked by the last three rules and asked why. 

His response?
" You need to be a functioning member of society, and to do that you need to exist as a child in the eyes of the government, we need to erase this version of you and create a new one.  This new version needs to be as close to a regular kid as possible."

" can I pick my name?"

"sure I don't see why not"

" Valeria. I don't care about my last name."
I said it without a second thought. This was the only thing going to plan, I had always planned on that being my new name.  It was the name of a girl I met, a very mundane girl who seemed to have everything and knew it. I remember being envious of her normalcy one that I would soon have,  but for how long?

I wouldn't be able to stay for long but I had nowhere else to go and no money to bring me there. I had to make a plan just not now, for now I would lay low wait until the bat forgot about me and then make my move.

"Okay." His voice reminded me of where we were.

And that night I followed the man who I Learned was named Barry Allen back to his home where I met his wife Iris.

Iris was kind, she put me at ease and began to ask me trivial questions, things like my favorite color and food, I was quiet. I didn't know answers to such small questions. And when I told her that, it was like her heart dropped.

" You don't know?" her voice was soft and broke when she said know.

" No. I only know the year of my birth and all the different ways to make men much larger than me, crumble." I replied my voice cold, I didn't want her pity. My tone must have gotten that point across to her because she blamed with a shock that painted her face and replied,

"We'll just have to change that then won't we"

She told me that my birthday, if I were ever asked, would be the day that I came to live with the Allens, January 16th and the year would be the same.

That week became the most important week of my life. I met my new family that week, I met Wally West who became my best friend and eventually brother. I met Iris's father Joe, who welcomed me with open arms, clearly, he didn't know my history. As much as I would grow to love them I knew that I would eventually have to leave them.

Iris later took me shopping and then to the mall where we bought my wardrobe, she decided on a few things when she noticed the All Black theme I seemed to be sticking to, but she never got anything I wasn't comfortable with.

Then she took me somewhere to find things for my new room. We stood in front of the bedspreads there were so many, it was overwhelming I didn't know what to do. So I stuck with what I knew white sheets and a white bedspread. That became the new theme for my room, I guess, solid black and white and it was, I'll admit, plain and boring. Then she handed me a phone that said Wayne tech on the back and one question arised: where did they get the money for this?

Decided to let it slide though because while I wondered about that Iris had gotten a call, a good one by the excitement that soon dance in her eyes. She then turned to me and said that I had been accepted to Gotham Academy, it was strange to have been accepted somewhere I had not applied to.

By the end of the week, I had an established but bland room, a place to go to be normal and go to school and a new name:  Valeria Allen and I had met my new best friend: Wally. He was always going a thousand miles a minute and had a massive crush on this girl Artemis. He would never stop laughing and joking no matter How I ignored him. At first, I thought it was his personal mission to annoy me but now I realize he made it his job to help me transition happily and I couldn't be more thankful. Or more fearful, I knew what having a relationship with me might cost him and that cost would eventually come back to bite me in the ass.