Richard stared in horrified shock at the scene in front of him. The computer had brought up a random scene, a building with a guard standing nearby, and now he was supposed to…. to….

"What is the matter?" Aurora spoke up from behind him, her eyebrow quirked and a calm look on her face. "Is there a problem?"

Richard's face took on an uncharacteristic look of panic. "Yes something's wrong! I'm supposed to kill him!" he yelped, pointing at the man in front of them who remained oblivious to their presence.

Aurora quirked an eyebrow once more, a look of surprise crossing her face. "That is the problem? Why?" she asked, tilting her head in honest curiosity.

Richard turned to her, incredulous. "I'm supposed to take another human being's life! You find nothing wrong with that? !" he exclaimed.

Aurora shrugged, leaning all of her weight onto one foot to put one hip out to the side in a fashion model-type of pose, smiling dryly at him. "You seem to forget, idiota, that I am the daughter of an assassin. Killing people, though I have never done it before, does not bother me in the slightest," she said, waving one hand in an 'I-don't-care' gesture.

Richard couldn't keep a grimace off of his face, though he quickly removed it and put on an expressionless mask, Batman-style. "I made an oath a long time ago to never take a person's life. This doesn't change that," he said, his eyes narrowing in defiance.

Aurora's eyes seemed to take on a dark look. "I do not know if you have noticed this yet, amico mio ingenui, but this world we are in now is not even real, and this machine only shows us what has already happened. Even if you slit this man's throat, slice off his head, rip out his heart, whatever you feel is necessary, you will not kill anybody. This world isn't real, and what we are seeing are either illusions or memories of the past. We aren't killing anyone; this is just fake, all of it, no matter how real it might seem," she stated evenly, not even batting an eyelash or trying to make it easier for him. She just put it all out there.

Richard blinked, contemplating this. This world wasn't real…. For a second there, he'd forgotten that this was indeed true. This body felt so real; this whole place seemed real, and yet it wasn't. Vaguely at the back of his mind, Richard made a note to get his hands on some of this Animus tech once he was out of this mess; whoever had built this was a genius.

Still….. that changed nothing. Richard shook his head again. "I made an oath, and even if this place isn't real, I cannot take another person's life. That's just the way it is," he stated clearly, hoping that those Abstergo idiots were listening to him at the moment.

Aurora snorted, leaning back a little and laughing, her voice high-pitched and bordering hysterical for a few moments before she calmed down enough to look him in the eye, her face filled with a sly, if not sympathetic, smirk. "You deficiente! Do you not see what is in front of your very eyes! You are young and naïve! You and your foolish mentor!" she laughed a little harshly.

Richard rounded on her, anger etched on his face, but she cut him off before he even began:

"Have you and Batman ever considered what the world would be like if the Joker were dead already? If Two-Face and Scarecrow were six feet under instead of reeking havoc on the unsuspecting public? If Bane, Killer Croc, Mr. Freeze, Poison Ivy, Ra's al Ghul, Blockbuster, and all of the others, were rotting in a sewer instead of planning more and more elaborate crimes that could get people killed? Have you ever considered that? !" she snarled directly in his face, all hints of playfulness and friendliness gone from her eyes.

Richard could only stop and stare at her. She was completely different from the girl he'd seen not a minute before. She was cold, dark, calculating, smart- and, scariest of all, she was absolutely right.

The second he even began taking in what she said, her words began to make more and more sense the more he thought about it.

"From these outfits, I am guessing our ancestors are from the Middle Ages, perhaps during the Crusades, and from the wide array of weapons we are wearing, I am assuming we are some sort of 'assassins-for-hire'. So, even if you do not kill, it is in your blood to do so. What do you say to that? Will you deny your heritage, you traditore? ! Or will you rise up to your ancestor's legacy and become the thing you were born to be? Answer me that!" Aurora demanded. Then, as if instantaneously deciding that he needed to think her tirade over, she turned and stalked off to another part of the Animus, disappearing within the white mist and leaving Richard to stare after her dumbly in shock.

YJ~*~*~*~*~*~AC

A/N: WHAT? ! OVER ALREADY? ! Yes, yes it is. Sorry! Oh well. Tell me what you liked and didn't like about it, OK?
Did I like writing this chapter? No, not really. Was it important? Yes, because our little Robin needs to learn to kill if he expects to be an Assassin. Did you guys like this chapter? Because honestly I didn't, not really…

Aurora's Italian translations:
Idiota = idiot
Amico mio ingenui = my naïve friend
Deficiente = moron
Traditore = traitor

P.S. I will now only update this story on Sundays. Sorry!

~Persephone