Chapter 18 Cave

As Lindsey stood in front of the Red Hood with her hands up, she heard what sounded like two more motorcycles coming from the same way the Red Hood did. Lindsey looked away from him to see the motorcycles enter the cave.

"Hey, I asked you a question, bitch," the Red Hood snapped, taking the safety off the gun.

"I – I was looking in the library," she stuttered out, pointing to the elevator.

"Lindsey?" She looked over to who called her name. Getting off the bikes were Nightwing and Red Robin.

"Hood, put the gun down," Red Robin said. "She's not a threat."

"How do you know?" Red Hood said not taking his eyes off of Lindsey. "She could be a spy."

"She's not a spy," Nightwing said. "Now put the gun down or I'll put it down for you."

Then Lindsey heard a roaring engine and another motorcycle. She flickered her eyes between the three men and the tunnel.

"He came in last!" Red Robin laughed suddenly. He turned to the tunnel, still pointing the gun at Lindsey. She didn't expect such a jovial sound to come out of the burly man. "He's going to piss himself."

Not even a second after he said that sentence the Batmobile came rushing in and a red and green motorcycle behind it.

"I demand a rematch!" the one on the motorcycle shouted. Lindsey could see it was Robin. She hadn't seen Robin since the night at the gala, last fall. He looked even more handsome than Lindsey remembered. "I was distracted."

"And you're about to get even more distracted," Nightwing said. Lindsey watched as Batman jumped out of the Batmobile fluidly. She watched as his eyes landed on the Red Hood. Her eyes followed the line to where his gun was pointed.

"It's her," Batman's gruff voice grumbled. Lindsey could imagine that he was rolling his eyes by the tone in his voice.

"How can you all be so calm?" Red Hood shouted, his gaze returning to Lindsey. "There is an intruder in the Batcave!"

Robin ran around the Batmobile. Once he saw Lindsey his mouth dropped, and he became pale.

"Lindsey?" he choked out. "How? What's going on? Hood put your gun down!"

"Who is this chick?" Red Hood asked, his gun still raised, pointed at Lindsey.

"Hood. Now!" Batman yelled. Red Hood lowered his gun slowly. Lindsey could feel a glare coming from him, even if she couldn't see his eyes.

"Can I ask what the hell is going on?" Lindsey shouted. She was getting more and more confused as she stood in the cave.

"You're in the Batcave, Lindsey," Nightwing said, coming up from the platform to where Lindsey was standing. "I thought that much would be obvious by now."

"Okay, I got that," Lindsey snapped. "How do you guys know my name?"

"Are you going to tell her, Robin?" Red Robin asked.

"I was hoping I wouldn't have to tell her for a while longer," Robin muttered coming up from the platform, standing next to Nightwing. Batman was behind him, but when he got up there, he automatically went over to the huge computer. He sat in the chair before he began typing on the computer.

"Here's your perfect chance," Batman said. "She can't run away now, can she?"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Lindsey screamed turning to the Batman, terrified out of her mind.

Robin walked up to Lindsey and grabbed her wrist, making her face him. She fought against his grip, trying to pull her wrist away from his hand with to no avail.

"Look at me okay?" Robin said calmly. He let go of one wrist and reached up to his mask. He pulled it off like he was pulling off a band-aid.

"Damian?"

"Hello, Beloved," Damian said with a sideways smile.

"I think I'm going –"

She fell into Damian, falling unconscious. Damian brought her up into bridal style.

"That was beautiful," Red Hood said clapping sarcastically. "I'm guessing this is your girlfriend, demon?"

"We better figure out how much we're telling her by the time she wakes up," Batman said not even looking at the unconscious girl.

"This is why I lost the race back here, Pennyworth called and told me she ran away from her grandparents today and she needs to stay the night," Damian said, looking between his adoptive brothers. "Not like that, Drake!"

Red Robin was grinning. He shrugged and said, "Whatever helps you sleep at night."

"I suggest you let her ask you questions and just answer them," Nightwing said. "Then tell her whatever you think you should after she's done."

"How much longer until she wakes up, you think?" Red Hood asked poking Lindsey's leg, dangling over Damian's arm.

"Can I tell her about you?" Damian asked.

"You mean about me being alive?" Red Hood asked, still poking her leg. "Sure. Don't know how she's going to take it, though. Didn't her parents die?"

"If she asks who you are, I'll tell her. If not, I'm not bringing it up. There's nothing I can do about her parents. Can you stop poking her leg?"

Batman looked to his only blood son. He really loved the girl in her arms. Lindsey was too precious to Damian to not accept all of this. If she broke up with Damian, it would devastate his son. He could only hope for the best when he tells her the truth about all of this.

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Lindsey cracked her eyes open only for white light to come rushing in. She closed them quickly and groaned. All she could think of is getting more sleep. That unfortunately did not happen.

"You're awake," she heard Damian say next to her.

She then remembered what happened before she passed out. Damian had just told her, or showed her, he was Robin. The Robin. Batman's sidekick. The Boy Wonder.

"I have so many questions," she said slowly. She opened her eyes once more, but slower. Damian was sitting next to her, still in his Robin uniform – except for the mask.

"I thought you would," Damian said. "You can ask anything, and I will answer one hundred percent honestly."

Lindsey looked around the room they were in. It looked like a hospital room. There was a cabinet on the wall with tons of medical supplies. Her eyes landed on her boyfriend next to her. He looked like he had just been in a fight. That was probably true. It was probably a big fight if Batman and Robin had to call in Nightwing, Red Robin, and Red Hood. He had a cut on his neck and a bruise on his temple. Had she never noticed any of the other times he's been hurt?

"Am I still in the cave?" Lindsey asked.

"Yes," Damian nodded. "I wanted to take you upstairs, but the others thought it would be better if you stayed down here so that you wouldn't be more confused."

"You would be correct," Lindsey said. "What were you all doing tonight? It's not often Batman needs more help than you."

"We got a tip from one of them members of the Justice League that someone was going to be coming through Gotham with some dangerous weapons that have devastated third-world countries. We were supposed to stop a huge shipment coming in. We did, but most of the thugs got away."

"Okay, next question," Lindsey said, sitting up on the bed. "Who else is underneath the masks?"

"Father is Batman. I thought that one may be obvious," Damian said. "Dick is Nightwing. Tim is Red Robin. And Red Hood is –"

Damian stopped, and Lindsey looked at him with a look that said, 'Go on.'

"Red Hood is Jason," Damian said quickly. He looked away from Lindsey.

"That's not possible, Jason died years ago," Lindsey said in disbelief.

"My grandfather brought him back to life," Damian muttered.

"Why would your grandfather bring him back to life?" Lindsey asked. "And how did he have that power?"

"I don't know, you never questioned him," Damian snapped. Lindsey flinched away from him. "I learned early on that you listen to Grandfather or pay the consequences. He brought him back for personal reasons, I think. And he used a special pool called the Lazarus Pit."

"How exactly is your grandfather? And you might as well tell me who your mother is too. Don't skip around the truth this time," Lindsey said.

"My mother's name was Talia al Ghul," Damian said. "My grandfather was Ra's al Ghul, Demon's Head, and leader of The League of Assassins. I was born to be the next head of the league, if Batman didn't take the job first. My grandfather has been alive for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. He didn't really keep track. He remained alive with help from a Lazarus Pit. It healed is body, whenever he was close to death."

"Your family was in a league of assassins?" Lindsey asked.

"We were the League of Assassins," Damian explained. "My grandfather was killed, and my mother was worried about me getting killed so she bright me here, to my Father's. A few months after I came here, Mother was killed."

"When did you start being Robin?" Lindsey asked.

"It was within the first week of me being in Gotham," Damian said. "The other Robins had to go through training before Batman even considered letting them go out on patrol. I was different since I was trained since birth to fight and kill."

"Is Bruce different than Batman?" Lindsey asked.

"Father is different around other people," Damian said. "How he's been acting around you is not who he is. Now that you know about him being Batman, he'll start acting like he normally does around me and the others."

"So Batman trained the other Robins?" Lindsey said. "Who were the other Robins?"

"Dick, Jason, Tim, they were all the Robins before I was."

"What kind of woman was you're mother really?"

"She was a manipulative bitch. She drugged Father the night I was conceived. Before she died, she tried hypnotizing all of the world's leaders after hypnotizing my father to be her personal soldier. She told me when I was younger my father would never want to meet me unless I was worthy. I had to prove my worth to her, my grandfather, and my father."

"If your family was the League of Assassins, that means that you killed people," Lindsey said. "Have you killed people before?"

Damian stared at Lindsey. The look he gave her was blank. Lindsey knew him well enough to know the answer to the question.

"How many people have you killed?" Lindsey choked out. She felt herself begin to tear up.

"I never counted," Damian said, he never took his eyes from her. "As a true assassin, you don't count. That's something my mother and grandfather taught me."

Lindsey nodded looking down at her hands in her lap. She felt tears in her eyes. She tried blinking them back.

"Okay," Lindsey's voice cracked. She gulped back whatever was in her throat. "When was the last time you killed someone?"

"Linds-"

"Answer the damn question!" Lindsey screamed at him.

Out in the cave, the men out there heard her scream. Dick began to walk over before Bruce stood in front of him and stopped him.

"She's not going to hurt him," Bruce said.

"I'm more worried about her," Dick said. "If she decides to end this relationship, Damian may not take it well."

"I know," Bruce said. "I think Lindsey loves him enough that she won't hurt him too much."

Back inside the medical bay Damian had his head in his hands and was pulling at his hair.

"The last person I killed was two years ago," he whispered. "I didn't mean to, it just happened. I was beating him for trying to hurt someone I cared about. I didn't notice him stop breathing."

"I have one more question for you," Lindsey croaked out. "Can this Lazarus Pit bring my parents back."

"Lindsey, you can't-"

"So it can't," Lindsey said. "It can bring back Jason motherfucking Todd, but not my parents."

"The Pit is destroyed. It's been gone for years. Even if we tried, they've been dead too long. Jason was dead a matter of days, not months. There's no way to know if it would even work."

Lindsey nodded slowly. "Okay. Is there anything else I need to know about?"

"No. Nothing I can think of."

"How long were you planning on lying to me?"

"I wasn't lying," Damian said.

"You weren't telling me the truth," Lindsey snapped. "It's practically the same thing. So tell me, how long were you planning on keep this up?"

"As long as I could," Damian said. "I wanted to keep you innocent from all this as long as possible. You don't deserve to be in this world of crime, and superheroes, and lying."

Lindsey finally let the tears fall from her eyes. "How could you lie to me for so long?"

"Trust me, I wanted to tell you, but I couldn't find the right time. There was never a right time."

"You should have told me."

"I know, but I love you the way you are. I didn't want you to change. Jane changed after she learned about Tim. I didn't want that for you. I love you the way you are."

"Clearly not enough," Lindsey muttered, moving off the table.

"Lindsey, where are you going?" Damian asked as she stood up.

Lindsey ignored him as she entered into the cave once again. She heard Damian calling after her. She didn't turn around to see him following her. She saw the leftover men standing in the cave staring at her.

"Can one of you take me somewhere?" Lindsey asked, looking at the floor.

"Where are you going to go?" Damian asked. He grabbed Lindsey's hand and pulling it to his chest. "You came here for me because of your fight with your grandparents. Where can you go now?"

"I'm sure Ryeanne would let me stay over," Lindsey said still not looking at Damian. "If one of you could just take me."

"You can stay here, there's plenty of spare rooms," Damian cried.

Lindsey turned around sharply, pulling her hand from Damian's. "I don't want to stay here with you. I don't want to look at you, I don't want to talk to you, I don't want to be with you. I can't be with someone who keeps the truth from me and someone who doesn't want me change. I'm my own person, if I want to change, that's my decision. You can't make that for me. I'm done with you, Damian."

"Don't say that," Damian said. Tears had fallen from his eyes and were running down his cheeks. "Please, don't say that."

Lindsey turned to the men watching the encounter from a distance. "Can one of you please drive me?"

Jason stepped forward. "I'll take you. As long as you wear a helmet."

Lindsey nodded. Jason took her to his bike, handing her a helmet. She got on behind him and didn't give the sobbing Damian a second glance as she left.