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Far as long as Damian could remember, he'd been confounded by how people can let their lives, and the things in them fall apart. It was simple enough to pick up after themselves, or remove the portions that no longer worked, be those objects or people.

And that applied to cities, he thought, as he walked through the warehouse's parking lot. Why did people let neighborhoods like this one fall into such disrepair? Better yet, why did his family allow it? Was the excuse that this was a place for gangs to gather and party, and as such they didn't care if it was destroyed in the process? That was short-sighted of them. If they let this continue, it would spread further and further; out of their control and deeper into the rest of the city.

He'd have the encourage his nephews to take harder stance in what was allowed in his city once all this was over. He wouldn't have the time to take a direct hand in it, but he was certain that with the right motivation his nephews would do what was right by him.

He looked around, fed power to the proper marks and extended his senses, searching for that cursed badger. Four times already he'd thought he'd lost him, only to catch sight of him, or a trace of his scent, or hear him clearing his throat as Damian approached his destination, forcing him to detour and delay his arrival.

Damian admired the man's determination, his efficiency, his deadliness, But as interesting as the chase was, he wished Denton's bodyguard would set his sight on someone else. If he delayed him again, Damian might just have to mark him for death in spite of how satisfying working with him had been.

The man had refused to kill, out of respect for Denton's instruction, but he had had no problem watching Damian sacrifice a few men to replenish his power. He was nowhere near what he needed for the coming fight, but he expected he'd get that here.

A man stepped out of the warehouse and planted himself in front of the door. A guinea pig, tall and muscular with a mean face.

He took one look at Damian, in his pressed suit, and sneered. "Fuck off, this is private property."

Damian smiled. "My name is Dami--"

The guinea pig reached for the tiger. "I don't fucking care if you're the president's bitch, you're--" He screamed as Damian caught the hand and twisted it.

The man turned, trying to keep the wrist from snapping, and Damian stopped when the guinea pig had his back to him, arm high. He'd made his point, hadn't he? He could give him his name and he'd understand the error of his way.

Damian shook his head in amusement. He was still thinking like a mortal. He'd be a god soon, he didn't owe this man any explanation. He fed power to a mark, increased his strength and slammed the guinea pig's head against the wall, hard. The man dropped to the ground, his face flattened.

Damian dusted himself off and entered the warehouse. It was even more of a mess than the outside. This was beyond unacceptable. Aaron's men were busy fighting throughout the city, they weren't here partying, so the place should be clean, at the very least cleaner, but it looked like someone had taken a garbage truck, emptied it and then purposefully spread its content around. It smelled like that too.

Aaron might be beyond saving if he allowed this in his own club.

The handful of men and women seated and drinking ignored him as he crossed the club to the stairs. At the top he encountered a locked door.

He looked at the electronic panel next to it, which waited for either a code, or a phone to be swiped by it. He had a mark to unlock doors, but it had been created centuries ago, when locks were entirely mechanical. The men who followed Sahataan today were all in positions of powers and forcing locks was not something they felt they needed to do. They had underlings for when that was called for, so this was a situation where his magic couldn't help directly.

Indirect still worked. He fed power in the same mark as with the guinea pig, placed his shoulder against the door and pushed. The door frame cracked, bent and finally snapped away as he forced the door open through brute strength.

He closed it behind him and counted on no one daring entering Aaron's office to guaranty him an uninterrupted visit with the man still there.

"You've looked better, Father," Damian greeted the man in the floor to ceiling cage constructed against the glass wall. It was no more than four feet on each side, which meant the emaciated tiger in it couldn't stretch on the floor.

He looked up, took a few seconds to focus on Damian, then frowned. "Damian?" Brian pulled himself up with shaking arms. "How? Daniel told me they killed you, burned your body."

"Did they tell you how they emasculated me too?" Damian replied angrily.

Brian nodded. "I'm sorry, No one should have desecrated your body that way. That was beyond acceptable."

"Of course it was," Damian said, crossing the surprisingly clean office. "After all, your method of emasculation was emotional. You always did prefer not leaving a mark for others to notice." He smiled. "At least before you pledged yourself to Sahataan. He isn't one for subtlety, is he?"

"You... you follow him too? I don't understand, you never marked yourself, you let Byron and Bobby handle the preparations. You just told them what and how to do the ceremony?"

"I wasn't as clever as I thought as I was. Just like you, I thought I could play two gods, get something from one without sacrificing what I already had from the other, but just by our willingness to partake in Sahataan's ritual, we split ourselves away from... Him. My understanding is that you never fully recuperated from imprisoning me. You kept getting weaker, not being able to replenish your power through sex, and not willing to sacrifice yet. You made Donald and Daniel's job easy for them."

"But you're here," Brian said, hope filling his voice. "We can take the city back for ourselves?" He indicated through the glass. "There are people here. We can sacrifice them together, the kids won't be a match for us. We can eliminate them, except for Anakin, we need to keep him. He's the fabled fountain of youth, Damian, with him we can live forever. We'd never have to worrying about one of our kids trying to usurp our control."

"We?" Damian smiled. "Don't you mean you? You were never the sharing kind."

"Damian," Brian sounded offended, and Damian admired his father for being able to muster the manipulative tone in his condition. "You were always my favorite son, you know that, don't you? I helped you, groomed you. Made sure you had everything you needed to fed that incessant curiosity of yours."

"You mean used me. Used my intellect, my skills. You may have warped history, or maybe you are only saying that because you think I need to hear it. You think I crave your approval, your love, but I don't. I never did. I let you think I cared for you because you had the money, the resources so I could do my research."

"You can't mean that. Damian, I'm your--"

"We used each other, Dad," Damian put disgust he didn't feel in the word. "I'm okay with that, you should learn to be okay with it too." He checked his phone. "For the few minutes you have left."

Brian backed to the other side of the small cage, as if he thought that put him out of reach. "What do you mean? What are you going to do?"

"I am going to do what I've been tasked with doing by our god. You think this is about this city, but that's because you always did think too small. San Francisco was never my goal. You think I'd just sit in this city with the power of an entire Society family coursing through my body? Two, three, all of them? I'd have left you the city, and I'd have taken the world."

"Damian, that's impossible. It wasn't just that one of the Rasia survived, Daniel created new families and sacrificed one of them in the ritual and it still didn't work."

"Of course it didn't. I told you. Just by taking part in the ritual, we cut ourselves from the god who powers them. There was never any way that power could find purchase within us. That's why I'm not bothering with the Society this time." Damian smiled. "Not in that way, at least. They'll play their part in time."

Damian grabbed a bar, fed power to the mark and pulled, snapping it out of its mooring.

"No. I'm going after the power I can take in."

Brian pushed himself back against the bars. "Damian, you can't, I'm your father!"

"Exactly. What greater sacrifice can I make to Sahataan than my own father?

"You'd have to care for it to mean anything," Brian snapped.

"True, but he knows that and he doesn't care. Our plan requires that I have more power."

"Then you're wasting your time with me!" Brian's voice was taking on a desperate tone. "I hardly have anything left!"

Damian reached in, grabbed the man by the neck and pulled him out. "I know," he growled, pulled his father close and taking out his blade. "I'll be honest with you, for once, father. This isn't about the plan. It isn't bout your power. I even deluded myself into thinking it was, but you're right, there's nothing there. No, this is about nothing more than revenge."

"You can't."

"You imprisoned me!" Damian yelled. "You locked me up for decades! I went insane in that cell. Do you have any idea what it's like for someone like me to lose his mind? I want nothing from you than your death!"

Damian slammed the knife in his father's heart hard enough he felt the ribs break. He savored the surprised expression in those brown eyes as the life faded from them.

"That was wasteful," Sahataan said.

"I don't care," Damian replied, not bothering to his how he felt. "There was nothing there worth gathering."

"There was little there," the god corrected, "but for what is coming, you could use everything that is there. Now it is all mine."

"I don't care," Damian repeated, dropping his father and fixing his gaze on Sahataan. "I'm still mortal, so I still have those pesky emotions, and Brian betrayed me in a way no son should ever be betrayed. He didn't deserve to be part of this. You can keep his power, his soul, I don't what it polluting me."

"Then, now that you have done this, you can go on to more important things."

"I will." Damian headed to the door and pulled it open, only to freeze there. The badger was leaning against the railing, yawing. The yawn was an affectation, but how long had he been there? What had he heard?

The badger looked around Damian. "Finally got that out of your system? Does that mean we can get back to work?"

"How did you find me?" Damian demanded.

The badger smiled. "I know your history, Damian. Denton wasn't happy telling me, but once you resurfaced I needed to know everything, which included how your father treated you when what you promised him didn't work. It didn't take a genius to work out you'd want to have a talk with the old man. Took a few called to find out where he was, but I figured letting you give me the slip would feel more satisfying than having to tell me you wanted to do this alone."

Damian bristled. That man had not let him give him the slip. He was nowhere near good enough. He was justifying what had happened to make himself feel better. Damian relaxed. Let him. He was mortal after all. He could be excused his foibles.

"I see. Then you should be careful of how you feel about what you did. Very few men have tricked me and lived to enjoy that sensation."

The badger looked around Damian again and grinned. "I can see that."

Damian tried to relax his fists. The urge to punch that man was strong. The fall would probably kill him, if the punch didn't. The badger's smile broadened. "How about you redirect that anger toward a more productive target? Unless you want to work it out by fucking me? I've already had two of the Orrs, it would be nice to do the whole lot before this was done."

Was this a taunt? Did he know that Damian couldn't perform currently? He searched the badger's face. No, all he saw there was eagerness.

"I'd rather kill you, I think."

The badger shrugged. "You're welcome to try, but Denton called while I drove here, the lion's done with the magic writing, so if that works, we should be heading to where your brothers are hiding soon. I believe you want to kill them more than you want to try to kill me, right?"

Damian forced himself to relax. "You are right, but once this is over, I will make you pay for your behavior."

The badger looked at Damian's crotch. "Promise?"