A/N: So, this is the one shot series. Where to start? Well, let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to staaart… ok, I'll stop singing. Anyway, we're kicking the story off on a note of torture, young!Richard, and a ton of angst. Please read The Dark Squire, or this will make absolutely no sense. Thank you for sticking with me as this story series grows!

Dick hated his cell. It was cold, and sterile. The only thing in it was a metal gurney that had an extremely thin mattress on it, like the kind on examination tables in the doctor's office.

Dick's left wrist was chained to the wall, the heavy clamp impossible to get out of. Dick would know. He had been trying for years.

The heavy metal door opened, and the little boy quickly slid to the ground and knelt submissively. The cold voice of the Talon who had been training him for the last few years rang out. "Gray Son, my time for training you has passed. You have mastered the basics in record time, and now you will further your training with your Great-Grandfather, the Head Talon."

Dick expected to feel shock. That his Great-Grandfather was somehow alive. That said Great-Grandfather was an evil assassin. That Dick was related to one of these monsters. Instead, all the child felt was indifference. Numbness. Did it really matter if he was related to a Talon?

All that mattered was hanging onto one of the few memories that Dick had of his mother. Besides the memory of her and his father's death. It was during one of Dick's lessons. Dick had asked why people hurt each other. His mother had answered that she didn't know, but that Dick should never, ever kill another human being. Mary and John Grayson fell to their deaths that evening.

Dick snapped back to the present, where the Talon was pulling him out of the room by the chain still attached to his wrist.

He was presented to his Great-Grandfather, whom Dick immediately hated. This was the man who claimed to be his family, who had allowed the murder of his parents, aunt, uncle, and cousin. Normally, Dick's hate would have cooled to pity when Great-Grandfather told his tale of sadness and woe, but he couldn't bring his heart to soften. This monster said he had been driven to such extremes by having his family taken from him, but he had taken his own grandchildren's lives. Unforgivable.

The loss of one of his families did not mean that he could murder his living one.

He remained still and silent, cold as glass (cold, and bright, too bright) and his face still. When Great-Grandfather told him to demonstrate his skills, he did so, taking down punching bags effectively and chillingly strategically. A little boy should not know how to slice up grown men, but he did. Then again, Dick hadn't been a little boy for years.

Dick ended up with his knife positioned against the training dummy's jugular. He waited for the order.

It came.

"Make the final blow, Gray Son."

Cold. Calculating. He hated it.

The knife slipped back into its sheath, without having cut open a throat, however fake.

"Hmm. I see. Your refusal to kill, even in simulation, is something I can remedy. Come."

Great-Grandfather gave him no choice, and grabbed his wrist and pulled him back to his quarters.

Dick was wearing only a thin black long-sleeve shirt and loose, black long pants, and the whip he despised cut through it like paper. No matter. They'd give him new clothes. Dick focused on little things like that and the way his blood looked as it pooled on the ground rather than the pain. The wounds healed in seconds, which allowed the common Talon acting on Great-Grandfather's orders to slice through his back as much as needed.

Dick was almost glad he couldn't scream. His throat would be raw by now if he could've.

Finally, they left Dick in a pool of his own blood. Before they left, Dick heard Cobb murmur, "He's perfect." Dick shuddered. He didn't want to be perfect. He wanted to be Court's definition of perfect was for him to be a meek killing machine.

Dick never wanted to be that.

Despite trying to fail the Court, he couldn't help but succeed. He could never kill. His adamant resistance to killing was the only thing holding his sanity together, he could feel it.

He had to fail the Court. He had to make his parents proud. He would never be his Great-Grandfather's Gray Son.

If he did, he would surely lose what little he had left, his mind.

A/N: Not my best, but whatever. Which redhead do you want me to feature in the next oneshot, Wally, Barbara, Roy, or Kori? BTW, I'm done putting Roy down, if I do a story with him it'll be more positive.

TheChickenOfJustice: AHAHAHAHA you appreciate how fast I update, that's hilarious! Wait, you weren't kidding. Wow. I am terrible at updating in a decent amount of time. And yes, I understand your family dragging you away from the safety of your cave, I have one too, though it's more of a nest, since it's in the attic. I decided to start this before Blue Knight just for you!

CHEESEPUFF: Okay, let's see what I can answer here… Blue Knight's main villain(s) are the Light, though Slade is pretty much the villain who'll be gunning for Dick. Dibs forever! Down with Nightstar/Robstar! Yeah, Jason got a cameo, which'll be expanded on in this oneshot series. One eyed person is obviously Slade. Yeah, Titans won't be in the sequel but they WILL be showing up here. I'm not posting this in the crossovers though, cause I want views. BATGIRL! No, Batwoman will NOT be showing up. I don't know anything about Kate. She kinda annoys me. I work pretty much exclusively with the Batgirls, Robins, and Batman himself. I love the coincidence with Wing's name. Nightwing? A bird that flies at night? An owl? Ugh, I'm so bad. I hope I answered the HQ question in the epilogue. Aww, you're totally my friend too! And yes, Sladeness.

WhenUniversesCollide: Jeez. This'll take awhile to reply to. It's cool. Ok, so, thank you, yes, everyone's excited about Slade (gosh, I love him), ooh, I'll look out for your apprentice!story, the Eternal Torment thing… that was more about poetic justice and giving my readers closure than anything else. All my mind-children are created equal, and I love them equally (except Dick Grayson cause he's my baby), even though I borrow them from DC Comics, so I wasn't trying to make the Talons pay per se, even though what they did to Dick was horrific. I just got the idea, and was like; YES! IRONY! POETIC JUSTICE! IMMA DO IT! And I get the stuff about them being God's children (I'm a Christian, specifically Methodist), but the Talons were never gonna repent. As the author, I know that. Since they can't die and go to hell, I made them their own personal hell. I'm pretty sure all kids do the thing where they pretend to be blind/mute/deaf whatever, I did it, and even though the Roy bits are funny, I'm gonna stop ragging on the poor guy. I'm planning a bro-fluff oneshot with Dick and Jason, you can look forward to that, um… Titans... I feel like they were essential to Dick's development as a natural leader, so… and I can't resist messing with Beast Boy's origin story. And using Star to get Babs and Dick closer together. Ooookay, I'm gonna stop now because this is LONG. I should have pmed you back. Drat.