I

Raven woke up and smiled at Dr. Nero, who was standing in the door. The headmaster smiled back. The visage quickly left the assassin's face, however, as she remembered what she was to do that day. Nero's smile broadened to a grin as he saw that his wife had recalled.

"You don't have to look so pleased about it, Max!" Raven scolded.

Nero laughed. "Of course I do, Natalya. I won't be the one teaching the little rascals how to grapple. But I'm sure you'll do fine. After all, they can't be that bad, can they?"

-An hour later, in the grappler cavern-

"Mummy, do we have to do this?" Lilia whined as Raven attached a pair of grapplers to her wrists.

She turned briskly to Maxim. "Of course you do, if you want your breakfast. It's over on the other side."

"But Mummy, what if we fall in the water? We'll get all wet."

"Well, don't fall in." Raven began to prepare her own grapplers. "Now watch. See, you fire like this, release like this, and this one will reel you in." The children watched as Raven showed them the corresponding buttons and switches. Directly after she finished speaking, the assassin shot a grappler at the ceiling and began making her way across the cavern. Her children watched, awestruck. When Raven returned, she dropped lightly to the ground in front of the pair. "Now it's your turn. Who's first?"

Each of her eight-year-olds scrambled to get behind the other. After watching for a moment, amused, Raven pointed at Maxim. She privately hoped as she did so that they would be able to finish the exercise, because the last time the children did anything physical, Lilia ended up with a broken arm, and Maxim's nose was spewing blood.

"Ready? Remember how to do it?" Raven was tentative as she asked the question, convinced that it would unleash a torrent of complaints. She was correct.

"Are you sure we have to do this? Why can't we go to Stealth and Evasion instead? What if we get hurt? If we finish, can we have breakfast?" The questions were fast and furious. Raven had anticipated this, and forestalled the pair before they could get any more out.

"To your first, yes. To the second, because you dyed Ms. Leon neon pink last time. To the third, your choice. To your fourth, yes. Now, Maxim, GO!" Raven pushed Maxim to the edge. Maxim promptly backed up. Raven shoved him forward again. Maxim retreated once more. Raven, exasperated, said, "If you don't go within three seconds, you will begin, grappler or no. One…"

Maxim gulped,

"Two…"

Looked down,

"You might want to go before I reach three…"

And jumped. Raven smiled slightly in relief. Apparently he did want his grappler. Finally, one down, one to g… Splash! Or not. Spoken too soon.

"Am I finished now?" A dripping Maxim poked his head above the water.

"Oh, why not?" Raven muttered, turning to Lilya. "Your turn."

As Raven came down the corridor with her wet, bedraggled children she attracted a lot of stares. It was strange enough seeing the assassin without Nero, but seeing her yelling at two protesting kids? No child at H.I.V.E. had ever seen the like before.

Lilya was digging in her heels as Raven pulled her to the mess hall. "But I don't want to go to breakfast like this!

"Well," Raven said through gritted teeth, "if you hadn't crashed into the first obstacle there was, you might not ha…

Maxim interjected. "Why can't we change first?"

"No." Raven continued towing the youngsters through H.I.V.E. whilst ignoring the confused looks many students were giving her.

Lilya was mystified. "Why not? We'll look nicer."

"Because you'll miss breakfast if you do." Raven was now thoroughly irked. As the trio reached the mess hall, Raven put the pair in line. "You know what to do."

"We don't…"

Raven ignored the interruption. "Now stay out of trouble until I come back from talking to your father."

Lilya started a sentence. "What if…"

"JUST STAY HERE!" Raven left the mess hall, glaring at any student who dared to look at her.

-A few minutes late, in Nero's office-

Raven walked into Nero's office, clearly startling the headmaster, who dropped a framed picture of Raven with a thud.

"Really? Looking at me even when I'm not with you? That is pathetic." Raven was just teasing Nero to hide her mixed up feelings. She was flattered that he did it, but also worried that she would have to sit him down and tell him that he better get his head out of the clouds before someone got killed on a mission because of it.

Nero smiled uneasily. "Well, umm, you know you're just so pretty…" His voice trailed off as he saw Raven looking at him with a mixture of love and embarrassment on her face. To cover up his error, Nero quickly asked, "How did the children do?"

"You know, Max, you are just so clueless sometimes. And for your information, they did dreadfully. They have absolutely NO idea of what it means to be our kids. No talent, no sense, nothing at all. Do you know what happened when they first attempted to grapple?"

Nero winced. If Raven asked if you wanted to know, it wasn't a good idea to say yes. But he couldn't help himself. "What?"

"Maxim didn't even fire his grappler…"

Nero cringed again.

"Lilya barely got anywhere before she hit the first obstacle there was to hit…"

Nero grimaced and made a face.

"And they both essentially did worse than Franz did at his first try."

Nero stifled something that sounded suspiciously like a laugh.

Raven looked at him cautiously, uncertain if he was laughing or coughing. She decided on the former. "This is no cause for amusement. If somebody captures them when, if we take them on an assignment, then whoever the captors are will be able to manipulate us. Can you imagine the consequences if the leader of G.L.O.V.E. and the world's most feared assassin were at some psychopath's mercy?" Suddenly all the fire went out of Raven. "They may be annoying brats, but they're still our children. I don't want them to get hurt."

Nero crossed over to Raven and enfolded her in his arms. "If anyone harms either of them, there will be hell to pay. I promise."

Raven rested her head on Nero's shoulder, feeling uncharacteristically weak and vulnerable. "I'll hold you to that promise."

"Don't worry. We'll train them. Now let me go teach Villainy Studies."

Raven contemplated Nero. Then, on a whim, she stood and kissed his cheek. "I know." The assassin left the room.

"Ah, well then. I'll see you later." Nero picked up the photo he had dropped earlier, looked at it, set it down carefully, and departed the office for the Villainy Studies classroom, leaving Raven and the children smiling behind him.