A/N: Sorry for the cliffhanger, here's the next chapter!
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Enjoy!
Chapter: 4
Nina eyes flew open and she gasped for air, coughing and choking as the acidic taste of the Pits entered her lungs. She flailed trying to find a way up, a way to the surface. She hated the Pits, every time she or Katherine or both pissed off Ra's enough he'd kill them and toss them in the Pits. Ever since he found that they worked on the dead. Nina couldn't help it to hate Jason Todd a little for helping him discover that fact. A hand grabbed her from the back of her tunic and tossed her onto the hard edge of the pits. She lay, gasping for breath before she could roll onto her back to glare up at her grandfather,
"Get up," he sneered, Nina did, she knew he would get worse if she didn't listen. She faced her grandfather, defiance in her glare, "Obedience is vital. If it is not given, it'll be worse for you. You know that, and yet here we are,"
"We always end up here. Even Katherine. Obedience isn't in our nature," Nina growled at him, "Any evil that stands in our way, we defy. Katherine may not be in tune with her emotions let alone her 'humanity' when it comes to pleasing you, but she doesn't really believe in everything you stand for and hope for the future. She knows your plan will just destroy the world. There's the Justice League too,"
"We have means to detain them. You've learned nothing," Ra's said, stepping forward and snapping her neck.
Nina woke again in the Pits. Then again, this time with bruises ringed around her neck. Again and again, but she was used to it, Katherine was used to it. It was how they lived...how they grew up.
It was late when Nina walked out of the cavern, rubbing her sore neck she looked down next to the base of the door to find Katherine sitting there. Eyes closed, teeth clenched and knees drawn up to her chest. Sighing to herself she tapped her twin's shoulder, she jumped, looked up and swiftly got to her feet,
"I didn't say anything!" Katherine exclaimed, "I swear!"
"Well then how else would he know to send people after me!" Nina shouted back, taking out her frustration and tiredness on her sister,
"Okay! I hinted that you were doing something to jeopardize the plan but I didn't think he would reinstate the Pits," Katherine stated,
"Why do you care about the plan so much! What is so great about being the leader of the League!" Nina asked,
"Don't let grandfather or mother hear you talking like that or you'll end up back down there!"
"Why do you care! Do you not see that they aren't going to let you be the leader! They already have someone for that slot! They're using Jason Todd, not you! You're just back up in case me or Damian turn on them!" Silence rung in the hall,
"Y-y-you're lying! They wouldn't do that to me! I've given everything to them, everything to make me matter to them and they're just-just tossing me out!" Katherine said, sounding devastated,
"It's not that you don't matter, it's just that you lack any control necessary to run an empire," Nina stated, Katherine looked stunned, in shock,
"We'll see about this. I'll tell him he's wrong, I'll make him see that I'm worthy," Katherine decided. She turned and headed down the pathway,
"No! Katherine, don't he'll just..." Nina sighed, there would be no swaying her when she makes up her mind, not about something like this. Nina instead walked over to the doorway and sat in front of the wall next to it. That place was the place they were told to sit until the other's punishment was done. Sitting in that spot allowed them to hear ever sound that echoed around the cave. It was torture all the same. When they were younger, it used the fact that they had cared about each other against them and because of that, it made them want to behave. Now, it was used to show them that what happens to one of them, affects the other. It was forced into their heads that they had to sit there, it was almost like brainwashing.
Movement caught by the corner of her eye caused her to jerk her head up. Demitri stood over her looking down at her, a perplexed look on his face,
"Why are you sitting there?" he asked in his deep voice,
"I'm sitting here because I have to,"
"Why?" he asked,
"Demitri-" she started,
"Nick," the sixteen year-old said, he was only a year older than her, but in his eyes he looked older, Nina looked up at him confused,
"Nick what?"
"I don't go by my first name anymore, I go by my middle name, Nicolas…Nick," he stated,
"Oh...why?"
"my name reminds me too much of my father," was all he said,
"Oh...stupid question," she said softly. A little jealous that she never knew her father, not yet at least,
"It's alright," he said, sitting on the other side of the doorway, "What's your middle name?" He asked,
"Isabel," she replied, there was a comfortable silence for a few minutes,
"Seriously though, why are you sitting here?" he asked, as they both winced at a loud yelp her sister let out,
"I have to,"
"You're fifteen, you shouldn't have to listen to have-to's," Nick stated,
"What would you know about half-to's?" Nina asked,
"Well for one...I 'have to' stay here. I 'have to' become an assassin. I 'have to' do this because it's what my parents would've wanted. The reason they left in the first place was to keep me from this," Nick said bitterly, waving around at the palace,
"And yet you stay,"
"Have you ever tried to run away?" Nick asked, raising an eyebrow,
"No," Nina admitted, "I wouldn't make it past the gates,"
"Exactly. Staying is my way of surviving," he said,
"Then sitting here is how I survive," Nina said,
"No, that's their brainwashing shit talking. You have a mind of your own," Nick said,
"I know I do,"
"Then stand up and leave,"
"Leave and go where?"
"Stand up and I'll show you," he said, getting up,
"Why are you doing this?"
"Because you know that you don't want to be here. You want to be in the outside world, you want to see and get to know your father. That's a chance I don't have anymore, but you can have that chance," he said,
"I don't know what to do," Nina admitted, she knew he was right...and she was already beyond in trouble as it is,
"Trust me and take my hand," he said, extending her his hand, "Katherine will still be here when you come back," biting her lip and with only a bit of regret she took his hand and let him pull her to her feet.
. . .
Nick took her to the roof of the palace. It was chilly, but nice. All the stars were our and the full moon made the nighttime world look lighter. They sat side by side, just staring out at the world. They knew nothing about each other, and yet she felt like she'd known him for years,
"What is it like?" Nina asked, swinging her feet back and forth off the edge of the roof,
"What's what like?" Nick asked, looking at her,
"Having a family that actually love's you," she asked,
"I don't have a family anymore,"
"That's not what I meant. What do you remember?"
"I try not to remember," he said, frowning,
"Why? They're your parents. Trust me when I say it's better to remember," Nina said,
"It hurts too much to remember them. My uncle betrayed them and now I'm here, hell on earth,"
"I grew up here. It's not all bad. I remember some happy times here as well the bad," Nina said, "...You don't have to tell me about them. I was just curious," she added,
"Almost six years and it still hurts like it just happened," Nick said, sighing and swallowing a knot in his throat,
"That's just proof that they haven't broken you yet," Nina said,
"They've tried," Nick said, "Mighty hard," Nina nodded,
"It's after a few years that emotions are like a light switch, the moment they become too overwhelming or too empowering...you can almost turn it off. Every kill they make you commit is their way of forcing emotion you don't want onto you...they make you want to turn it off. They do that until you're numb...until you're void of emotion, but in reality, you aren't without emotion...you just repress emotions till the emotion is insignificant. It's the only way to make them think they've won," Nick didn't say anything, he just nodded,
"Like Katherine," Nina nodded,
"She just repressed them too much. Her emotion is pretty much gone,"
"And you?"
"Me? I still feel, but it sucks. I feel sad, lonely, angry, annoyed, confused...I'm missing half my life. I'll never get to know my father, I barely see my brother, my grandfather uses me as a pawn, my mother is a slave to his will and my sister hates me half the time,"
"I come up here sometimes just to think," Nick started, "I'd think about a lot of things, but one thing I can't seem to get off my mind is...my uncle," his expression darkened in the dim glow of the moon,
"What about him?"
"I'd think...how could he do this? To his brother, his sister-in-law, his nephew how could bringing me here be good, do any good?" Nick said, his face sad,
"That's part of the switch, blind faith without rational reason. It's why he did what he did, it's why Katherine still believes in Ra's plan for her even though there isn't one. It's all part of their control. They think it's better to be feared than loved,"
"Are most of the assassins here fueled by blind faith?"
"Only the zealots, the ones who don't care if they die. The assassins think for themselves but they still follow Ra's," Nina said,
"If I could find my uncle, I'd kill him. He'd be the only person I'd ever kill...then I'd be done, then I would disappear and start a new life,"
"You've never killed?" Nina asked incredulously,
"No, I haven't,"
"And they haven't forced you?"
"They've tried. Beaten me to the point of near death and then leaving me with the means to fix myself up only a few feet away. I had to do everything myself,"
"How could you not numb your emotions. Why not turn them 'off'?"
"Because then they would win. Every time they hurt me, it only makes me stronger and tougher, it only makes me strong enough to take them down...to leave, forge my own path," Nick said, "I'll learn their ways, then take what they've taught me and use it against them. Make their world a hell of their own making,"
"How do you plan on doing that?"
"Helping you bring back your feeling even more than you have yourself and then getting you the hell away from here. So you can find your father and brother, tell them Ra's plan and then start a life of your own,"
"What about Katherine?" Nina asked,
"She can make up her own mind, I'll try to help her, but it's up to her. She's too assassin-ified," he said,
"Assassin-ified?"
"What...I make up words!" he said shrugging, Nina laughed,
"Where would you go?" she asked, "Once you were free,"
"I would go where the League of Assassins can't go. I'll steal all the riches I could carry to afford transportation. I'd go to Spain, England, Russia, China, India, New Zealand, Prague...the works,"
"That'd be lonely," Nina mused,
"Not if I had a friend," Nick said, looking at Nina, who looked back at him out of the corner of her eye,
"A friend," Nina agreed, smiling as Nick blushed faintly in the moonlight. He smiled back, it's the first smile she'd seen him wear since coming to the palace six years ago, and it was a pretty damn good smile too.
. . .
Katherine didn't come until Nina had finished taking her shower. She was toweling off her hair wearing her pajamas when her sister stormed into the room, anger etched on her face,
"You left me!" She yelled, "You left me alone with him and his lies!"
"I told you the truth Katherine," Nina said,
"I know that! Ugh! I'm so angry I-I want to kill him!"
"Then do it, he'll just come back and kill you," Nina said shrugging,
"I'm more mad about the fact that you left me! We're supposed to sit and wait before leaving, they literally drilled it into our minds! What the hell possessed you to leave! How did you even get up and leave,"
"I had a friend lend me a hand," Nina said, smiling slyly,
"Tt, you don't have any friends here, not after you nearly killed Sid, the most respected trainer here," Katherine said,
"Well I don't care, I'm not going to be here. As soon as grandfather gets a means of travel into that alternate world he's obsessed with, I'm gone. I'm rallying our troops and leaving this world to rule another world," Nina said, "I'm leaving either way, you might as well get used to it,"
"But you don't want to do that Nina. Face it, you hate it here. You would do so much better if you were with father and our dear baby brother Damian, only they wouldn't trust you because of what you are meant to become," Katherine sneered,
"I'm not denying that Katherine. I'm stuck, I can't leave these grounds without someone knowing," Nina said, "So I'll do my part, but I'll do it my way,"
"You can't do that, grandfather's too much of a control freak to let you. You think you can get out of here before you're sent to another world?" Katherine asked incredulously,
"Not exactly, but doing that would cripple grandfather's plans,"
"I wouldn't talk like that," Katherine warned,
"I wonder how he plans to get Jason to agree with the plan,"
"Don't get me started on Jason Todd," Katherine hissed, suddenly being angry again. Nina knew Katherine still felt emotions, just the ones necessary to be an assassin, like the rest of them there, "That's it! The only way to stop the degeneration of my role is to kill him,"
"What?" Nina asked, blinking at her twin shocked,
"The only way to be leader of the League is to kill Jason Todd!" Katherine stated again, smiling at her plan,
"Why-how-okay, what the hell do you think that's going to accomplish?" Nina yelled, "Grandfather would just be angry with you or use the Pits!"
"No he won't. The Pits are probably running low, I mean he's getting all old looking again. He wants to assure that he can use them until we're old enough to complete the plan. I'll get what I want, I'll be leader of the League of Assassins," Katherine said, basking in the hopeful success of her not so great plan,
"And you'll have an angry Bat clan after you along with an archer and super-powered alien from his team. You'd be in danger,"
"I don't care, I'll have them killed,"
"That's the problem with you being in charge, all you do is kill people!" Nina exclaimed,
"Only the ones that get in my way," Katherine said, crossing her arms, "You won't do that would you?"
"Why should I? Why should you care what I do, you're only looking out for numero one...yourself, as always. Do what you want Katherine, but I'm getting out of here,"
"How are you going to do that?" Katherine asked, ignoring the stab at her self-centeredness,
"My friend will help," Nina said,
"And who's your friend?" Katherine asked rolling her eyes only to stop as an idea hit her, "Ah, you've been hanging out with orphan boy," she stated, smirking,
"So what?" Nina snapped, "He hates it here just as much as I do. Why don't you let me do what I want to while you go to Gotham and try to assassinate the All Caste trained assassin," Nina said, taking off the cover pillows from her queen sized bed,
"I can't,"
"Why not?"
"Because thanks to you, grandfather won't let me leave the palace. I'll be stuck here with nothing but zealots to kill," Katherine huffed,
"Great, it'll give you time to plan your massacres," Nina said,
"I'm not going to massacre peoples, just Jason Todd,"
"Good luck with that, you'll just loose control and kill everyone in your path to get what you want," Nina said, jumping into her bed,
"Tt, and how are you planning to just up and leave the League of Assassins?" Katherine asked,
"I'll plan something. I'll find someone who knows every nook and cranny of this palace, all the ways to the outside world,"
"There are only two people who know that," Katherine said knowingly, "Demitri the orphan boy's father, and Sid. Sucks since Sid hates you and the other guy is dead,"
"Yeah, but Demitri's father must've left his son all his secrets," Nina whispered as the door slammed shut.
A/N: Aw...Nina made a friend...took her years to make one, but she still made one all the same.
New Chapter tomorrow!
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