Ch 9

[Will Pov]

Will woke up on the floor, and Tim was standing over him, grabbing his shoulders looking very concerned. Will looked around confused, he reached up and lightly touched his forehead where the Demon touched him.

"Huh, it was just a dream. That's the last time I fall asleep reading." He chuckled awkwardly as Tim helped him to his feet.

"What the hell is going on Will, one second you seem fine then the next second you are spasming on the ground screaming in pain. What happened to you man?" Tim looked at him sadly

"Look brother, it's just a bad dream, it happens to lots of people. It's normal man. Don't worry about me, it's probably because I'm in a completely different environment. Also for some reason it doesn't happen when I'm on missions anyways so it's not a big deal." Will said with deep bags under his eyes. He knew in his heart it wasn't just a dream, it was something else, something evil. His hatred for his father increased exponentially when he thought of what the demon told him.

Tim seemed worried, "Look man it's not normal, I've seen you in the past week you can't keep this up man. Have you ever considered talking to someone?"

Will snorted and rolled his eyes, "Why would I do that? I'm not crazy dude, you have to have mental issues for something like that. I'm not so weak I'd need to talk about my problems. It was just a nightmare, nothing more. It's normal, It could have happened to anyone."

Tim was not convinced, "Alright, if you say so, but there's nothing normal about you man." He said then he turned to leave the room.

Leaving Will alone in the room with the unconscious Barbara. He looked at her, despite her injured state he thought she still looked beautiful. Her long red hair spread out on the white pillows.

Will suddenly felt coldness take root within in his heart, he didn't know why. He couldn't shake the feeling from before, he couldn't get rid of the fear, the helplessness. He felt his eyes narrow and killing intent surged within him. Suddenly he snapped out of it.

He thought back to the information the demon placed in his mind, as he turned to walk out of the room down into the batcave. He knew he wouldn't be able to sleep after what happened anyways, so he decided to go down and practice the True Demon Inheritance. When he arrived he noticed Bruce staring at the computer.

Will wondered if he ever slept. He walked into the training room, and found the free weights. He walked up, grabbed the heaviest weight he could find. He picked up a hundred pound barbell weight, and propped up his left leg. He hesitated for a moment, but focused on the coldness from earlier. Then he raised up the Barbell weight and smashed it down on his knee as hard as he could. He screamed as loud cracking sounds echoed out. He ruthlessly suppressed any whimpers. Bruce came running over and saw what he did, "What the hell are you doing?"

Will looked down at the leg that was bent back at an unnatural angle. Then gazed at Bruce with nearly dead eyes, "My bone grew back weird, I needed to rebreak it."

Bruce seemed unconvinced, "If you say so." However, Bruce again felt a twinge of fear in his heart. How can he be so ruthless to himself, Imagine what he could do to others if he got loose. I definitely need a contingency, he swore to begin preparing one as soon as he finished his current investigation. Will waited for Bruce to leave then tore his shirt and stuffed it in his mouth. He propped his right leg up on the bench, grabbed the weights and slammed it down on his other leg. He let out a muffled scream, as cracking sounds rang out.

There's got to be a more efficient way to do this, he thought to himself. No longer being able to walk, he just lay there and the black diamond the demon left on him popped into existence on his forehead. He began to breathe like the memories in his head said to. Suddenly as if awakened from a slumber, his body began greedily absorbing the spiritual energy from the heavens. He was like a man in a desert who had finally found water. As he absorbed the pure energy, he circulated it and converted it into pure Demonic energy. It felt cold, in contrast to the warm and comforting spiritual energy. The coldness flowed through his body until it reached the bones that were broken. He felt it snake inside the marrow in his legs, and suddenly, intense pain flooded his mind. He felt the energy drilling through a small portion of the bones in his legs. He sat there meditating for hours in severe pain as the Demonic Energy purified his legs. By the time he could no longer hold on, he noticed something strange. His legs had snapped back into place, and although he didn't even come close to purifying a single bone he felt stronger. There was more Demonic Energy within him than before.

He began to think about his father in a new light, he still hated the man but at least it made sense now why he did what he did. It was all to prepare me for this technique, for this way of life.

What the hell though, it makes no fucking sense. Why couldn't he have just sent me to fucking kindergarten with everyone else.

Little did Will know, a seed had taken root in his heart and mind, something pure evil.

Will's mind should have been running wild, but it was ice cold. When he stood up he heard popping sounds coming from his legs.

As he walked out of the batcave, he thought to himself that he really liked it in here, it was truly something special.

He felt energized after cultivating the technique. He wondered to himself if he could still be good and use the technique to get stronger, he wouldn't use the second one but he felt the first was fine because he was the only one that got hurt. He went back to the room Barbara was recovering in, and just sat back down in his chair and began reading the book again.

[Barbara Pov]

Time flew by, and the early morning light fell through the window. Barbara's eyes fluttered open, "ughh" she groaned. She looked around and noticed Will sitting down with his feet propped up on the dresser, enraptured in whatever he was reading. She thought he looked peaceful, and strangely beautiful with how he was sitting there. It was a stark contrast to what he'd shown her recently, and she was glad he was here. She tried to sit up, but her body hurt too bad. Suddenly he looked over and flashed her the brightest smile, it was almost overwhelming. "Welcome Back," he said calmly looking into her eyes.

"Oh uh, do you think you could help me sit up? I'm having a hard time here." Barbara said

Will got up and gently placed his hand on her back and began to prop her up.

"Barbara I'm so sorry, if I had gotten there sooner this wouldn't have happened." He said sadly

She remembered the figure in the gray hoodie, and then put two and two together. He had come out and saved her. She felt bad, he was the only one who came to save her and so she felt a lot less angry towards him. Maybe she had a gut reaction and judged him wrongly, she thought to herself and sighed.

"The children, how are the children?" Barb asked

Will hesitated for a moment and placed his hand on her hers.

"I didn't see any living children Barb, I only managed to get there once you were thrown into the street. If there were any still alive in the building when that happened, they are alive. I stopped Croc, he's not going to be doing much other than going to Blackrock in the near future."

Barbara let out a breath in relief as she remembered the three children she tried to save. "Thank God."

[Will Pov]

Will didn't know why, but when she said that it made him uncomfortable. As if he had committed a mortal sin recently, however nothing happened. It just made him uncomfortable, he brushed it off. Then he remembered something.

"Wait here, I'll be right back" he said

"Where else would I go" she snapped back

Will let out a melodious laugh as he ran out of the room.

Will came back with a glass of water, and a small plastic cup that seemed empty. She rolled her eyes at his antics.

"Now that you are awake, you need to take your medicine," he said as he sat down on the side of the bed and handed her the cup of pills. She reached out and took the paper cup from him in her right hand, it was shaky. She seemed like she was having trouble, so Will reached out and guided her hand to her mouth. She popped the pills in, and her face morphed into a disgusted expression.

"Wadduh" she choked out

Will held the glass up to her lips, and gently poured it inside. She managed to swallow the pills, and tried to tell Will to pull the cup away.

Will shook his head no, "finish it" he said

She tried, and then suddenly water flew out of her mouth. She was laughing.

"What's so funny, you need to drink the water otherwise you won't heal. A nurse told me that once." He said looking confused

She tried to hide her smile, but ended up laughing even harder.

Will just rolled his eyes and watched her. She really was something he thought to himself. He was glad she was in good spirits.

"Anyways Barb, my arm is getting real tired of holding this water. I need you to take care of this for me." He said

She snorted, and nodded her head.

He leaned over her, and as he watched her finish the glass, he took in her scent. Strawberries again, it was an intoxicating smell.

Suddenly a thought rang out in his mind, "A Demonic Practitioner does what he wants."

Will frowned and thought to himself "Fuck No."

The next thing he noticed was the glass was empty, so he placed it on the dresser next to his book.

He smiled and they just sat there, flirted and laughed for hours. It was nice Will thought, he wondered what her father was going to say when he found out she got hurt. Eh worst case they could prolly just say I ran in and grabbed her or something since he would probably remember me from the gala. I'll let Bruce handle that nonsense.

Beep Beep Beep, his phone went off which meant it was time to get ready for school. Barbara looked over, "ugh I got to go get ready for school Barb I had a great time with you tonight. Let's do it again sometime, yeah?" He said looking into her bright green eyes. Then he did something unexpected he leaned in and wrapped his arms around her slender frame, and pressed his lips onto her forehead. She blushed, but was too injured to really reciprocate the gesture.

He looked down at her and said, "I will never let something like this happen again, I swear." Then he let go leaving Barbara alone beet red, with a lot to think about. She was starting to really like him, she thought to herself. He's really quite handsome, she thought as she watched him walk out the door.

Will went through his normal routine that day, he felt strange. First off, the golden crusafix necklace his mother gave him began to make him feel physically uncomfortable and unwell. It felt like it was too tight, very tight and was going to choke him. It also felt hot to the touch as if it had been sitting in the sun all day. He wanted to take it off, but he didn't have anywhere to put it right now. Secondly, for the first time he felt like going to school was pointless, but he still managed to make it through the day. It was so boring, he wanted to be training or get into some action. He felt like what he was doing wasn't enough anymore and he wondered if he'd ever be able to make it in this life. He sighed, he really was only good at fighting. He was a little depressed when he sat down at lunch today next to Tim and Stephanie. They were still upset with him, so they mostly just talked amongst themselves while Will sat there deep in thought.

"Yo Tim, you think I'll ever be able to be good like you guys? I get that I messed up, but I just wish I was good at something other than fighting you feel me and even at that I'm not the best. They say every dog has his day. I hope mine comes soon, I'm too restless these days man. I've been fighting for my life so long it feels kinda weird not doing that bro. I realize the first weeks been rough man, and I'm totally grounded but I swear I'll do better just watch. Also Alfred is Amazing man sheesh look at this lunch he packed ya boy." He said

Tim cocked an eyebrow back.

"Uh yeah Alfred is a good cook."

"Look Will I'm not going to say what you did was okay, because it wasn't, but I think it's too early to chalk up whatever is going on to one incident. Plus Bruce showed me the massive increase in your power, so I suppose it really could have been an accident. I'm just upset about Barbara man." He said

Will breathed out a sigh of relief.

"You know she woke up last night right, she seemed to be in good spirits when I explained to her what happened after she got out." Will said

"Wait, she's awake!" Both Tim and Stephanie said at the same time.

"Duh yeah, you guys didn't know?" Will said

"Dude no, we didn't, when did she wake up?" Tim asked

"Sometime early this morning, I went back in there after I trained again. You remember when I woke up on the floor, and she was up. So I got her meds n stuff for her." Will said

"Yeah I remember, wait what you trained after that?" Tim said

"Well yeah what the hell else was I supposed to do?" Will replied

"Nevermind that, how is she?" Tim said

"Well the first thing she asked me was if any of the children survived. So I'm guessing she's fine." He said

"Ohh that's probably why she ran after Croc, she was protecting those children. What happened to them anyways." Tim said

"Fuck if I know the only children I saw were the ones I made Croc vomit up." Will said

Tim and Stephanie facepalmed

"Please tell me you did not say that to her." Stephanie said

Will laughed and spoke in his best high society voice

"I don't know what kind of monster you think I am madam, but I am a gentleman. I whispered sweetly in the woman's ear and said, If there were any children still alive when she was thrown out of the building then they were alive."

She rolled her eyes and snorted

Tim laughed as well

"Somebody is hot for Barbara."

Will rolled his eyes then looked thoughtful for a moment.

"You know it, dude" and reached out to fist bump Tim.

Tim just slapped it away, "Ow what the hell man."

Tim just snorted in response.

"Jeez man you're worse than Damian when it comes to teasing." Will said

"Hahaha shut up, speaking of how the hell do you get through to him so well you are like the freaking Damian whisperer." Tim said

Will raised an eyebrow at that

"What do you mean all the kid wants is to be recognized. So I give it to him, maybe you should try it sometime. It's not hard either, the kid is verified."

Tim looked thoughtful for a moment

"You think you could talk him into not maiming our enemies?" Tim asked

"Uh prolly not dude, I'm having a hard time doing that myself man I'm not gonna be a hypocrite." Will said

Will stood up, "anyways I'm gonna go smoke before class starts see ya."

Will disappeared to his usual smoking spot, nobody ever came here it was peaceful. He sighed and pulled out a cigarette.

Damn, I need to quit, maybe I should switch to that vape shit or the gum. It's not like he could die from it like regular people could, he thought to himself.

He thought back to the technique from before, there's got to be a more efficient way of destroying my body. I've been so good at it recently why is it stumping him now of all times? He took a pull off the cigarette. Hmmm recently... the Gala! That's it, he'd find something really high to jump off of and see what happens. It would have to be pretty high for it to injure him enough though. Hmmm, I suppose I could start jumping off Wayne Tower in Old Gotham. It has a lot of points where I can incrementally increase the amount of damage, I can do to myself. Also, I could use large Apartment Complexes.

Jeez, this was going to hurt, however, tonight he resolved himself to go out and jump off Wayne Tower once Barb was asleep, he thought.

He took another drag, he hadn't been able to smoke in a while so he was feeling a pretty good buzz.

He looked down at his hands and began unwrapping the bandages. They were soaked with blood on the inside, but when he looked at the skin under them, there was no scarring, nothing. Almost as if nothing happened to them in the first place. Will wadded up the bandages and put them in his pocket to throw away when he got near a trash can.

He got a text from Penguin, "I need you to watch this shipment coming in, we got a big deal coming up with Bag Head and his boys. We need to make sure everything goes according to plan. No Bats, No Rats, No Black Mask."

"When's it coming in?" Will texted back

"Wednesday night. You in?" Penguin asked

"Yeah hold up, let me get back to you. I got a bad feeling about this P. We got a lot of eyes on us recently." Will said

"Don't Worry about that boy, text me when you decide you want to come to work." Penguin said

Will rolled his eyes at that. Then he immediately texted Bruce what was going on Wednesday night.

"What do you want me to do Bruce?"

"Accept the job, we need to find out what they are planning. You are still off patrol; this needs to be done without arousing suspicion." Bruce sent

"On it, Bossman." Will sent back.

Then he texted the penguin

"We need to keep this low-key man, I'm on it call me when the shipment is going down. I'll be there."

The rest of the school day went by pretty uneventfully, then Will rode home with Tim and Stephanie.

As soon as Will got to the manor he went up to check on Barb. He hung out with her for a while and tried to keep her from getting too bored. He really was starting to like her, he just didn't know how she felt about him. He gave her the homework and notes she missed. She thanked him and he went to change into something he could train in. A pair of black running shorts and gray T-Shirt. Then he went to find an isolated area of the manor and sat down to finish his homework. As he flew through it, he was contemplating his secret training tonight. Well, he knew Bruce probably was keeping tabs on him so he didn't know how secret it could possibly be. He didn't think he had any trackers on him, he checked repeatedly. Eh whatever, it will work itself out he thought as he finally finished his homework.

Then it was time to train, as he was going down to the Batcave he felt something pull his shirt slightly. He looked back and saw Damian looking nervous.

"Uh what's up man? " Will said

Damian coughed and put on a serious face.

"As the heir to this household I demand you train with me." Damian said with a fire in his eyes

Will cocked an eyebrow back and snorted.

"Sure, Master Damian, I will allow you to thrash me for a couple of hours. This lowly one would never say no to pointers from a proud young master such as yourself."

Damian smiled, "Shut up, let's get going then."

Will put his hand on his shoulder, as the two entered the elevator. Damian couldn't have been more than 5ft tall he thought to himself.

"Yo Damian I don't know why I never asked this but how old are you?" He asked

"12" Damian said proudly

"Oh okay." He said

Then he had a wicked idea, he wondered if he could get Damian to destroy his body somehow, so he could cultivate the technique.

"Hey Dami, don't be afraid to hurt me. I'll prolly be fine." He said calmly as the elevator fell to the ground floor. When he entered the batcave Bruce was there waiting.

"Ah I see you've healed from last night." He said

"Of course, sir. I heal much faster now for some reason." He replied.

Then Bruce put him through the most hellish training regime he'd been through since he was with Deathstroke. He pushed him for hours, his body hurt and his bones creaked under the pressure of the weights. He felt his muscles tearing as he completed the exercise. Damian wasn't doing too hot either, he pushed them harder than everyone else. Of course, the intensity for him was far worse than Damian simply because he was enhanced. By the time it ended, he wasn't sure he'd be able to spar with Damian for at least a few hours.

Both of them collapsed on the ground in a pool of sweat.

"Yo Dami, does he always push you that hard?"

"No way, I think he's trying to punish us." Damian replied

"Ugh, shit. You still wanna fight?" Will asked

"I wanna say no, but I never back down from a challenge." Damian said

"Motherfucker are you serious, can't you just beat me up and let me be on my way." Will choked out from the floor

"Deadly." Damian replied

"Ugh alright, I'll just beat you up quickly and go try and take a nap on the couch. Just give me like 15 minutes." Will said

"I'm ready now." Damian said

Will knew he was lying through his teeth, he saw what Bruce put them through.

"Sure you are kid, but I'm not." Will replied

Damian laughed

"Was that a chuckle I got from the stone cold Damian Wayne? Are you sure you're really him?" Will said

Damian just rolled his eyes at that one.

They just lied there after that, recovering, then about 20 minutes later they got up ready to begin their spar.

"Do you want me to fight with my enhanced strength, or limit it?" He asked

"Obviously the enhancement." Damian said

"You sure?" He asked

Damian snorted, "obviously."

"Alright you asked for it then. Next time I hope you ask for the alternative. It will make us both more skilled." Will replied

Next, Will took off his shirt revealing his scarred body, and Damian's eyes narrowed.

"Why are you taking off your shirt?" He asked

"Well you have a sword, I don't wanna ruin my shirt." Will said

Ugh, Will thought I'm gonna have to give this kid face and really fight him, looks like I'm not going to have any of my bones broken today from him. Luckily Bruce did enough damage to begin tempering my muscles and tendons.

Damian got into a stance far away from him, and pulled out his sword. Will merely stood there with his hands up.

"Ready?" Will asked

Damian nodded, and as soon as he did Will used his movement technique and appeared directly behind him, Damian sensed something but was too slow to react as Will had already chopped into the back of his neck. Damian instantly hit the floor, unconscious but unharmed.

Will picked Damian up off the floor, threw him over his shoulder and walked to the elevator of the Batcave.