From the week and a half, she had made the choice, Rosa realised that "wanting to help" wasn't all she had to do if she really wanted to be a Hero. There was a lot of training and - according to her new Mentor - she had a lot of catching up to do if she wanted to really fight in Gotham. But she persisted, which was something Jason liked about her. Shortly after she convinced her mother of becoming his pupil, Rosa was returned to the GCPD, and then her mother.
Every day after school, she would get picked up by Jason or Miss Cass and taken to the Batcave for training. The first time this happened, she almost got caught by her mother - so, they took her out of the equation. Mister Tim - who somehow ran Wayne Enterprises and helped Jason as Batman - approached her mother the next day and offered her a job at one of the cafeterias in the building. His excuse was that he was contacted by the GCPD about her situation and wanted to make sure she could look after her daughter away from the eyes of her abusive husband. Flustered but appreciative, she accepted the job and now worked the lunch and dinner shifts and had a small security detail take her to and from the building. In her opinion, Rosa thought that last part was unnecessary. Miss Cass explained that it meant they could get a good few hours of training done with her at the Batcave, or even at one of the safe-houses Jason still had. Then once they finished, she could go back to their new apartment and act as if she just got in. From there she could lie about after-school clubs, doing homework, being with friends - as long as it was convincing. Which was lucky, as Rosa was a pretty good liar anyway.
The training itself was hard. Jason and Miss Cass went easy on her for the first two days of training, before the real stuff started. It wasn't all hard - thanks to the bullying of her three older brothers, she had learned the basics in defending herself against basic attacks. But basics, according to Jason, were nothing.
"A fight in a playground is nothing like a fight in real life;" He had told her. "Because a real-life fight can be over seconds after it starts. Most of the time, in this city, the victor is the one holding a gun, but on the occasion, your opponent doesn't have a gun, you may still lose. My job is to teach you how to win, even if they are carrying a gun."
From that point onward, Jason and Cass had made Rosa work hard every day until she ached all over. Every day after she arrived from school, the same schedule: half an hour warming up with conditioning her body, then another half of sparring, divided into two again where both Cass and Jason showed her different styles and techniques. From there, Jason would teach an hour of weapon training - from the bo-staff to throwing stars to basic swordplay. But it was the last hour that frustrated her the most. The combination of all three along with the most important training of all: detective work.
The Bat-Cave had an area dedicated to creating real-life simulations of past missions and adventures Batman and or Robin had been on. Every day, Rosa would work the same simulation until she figured out what she needed to do, using the skills from the past hours of training to work it out. Sometimes it was a game of the Riddler's, with a huge puzzle she had to solve while trapped or surrounded. Other times it was Two-Face tying her down to a giant coin and flipping her, and she had to escape with sleight of hand and speed cutting the rope. Sometimes she passed, other times they'd have to go over the same stuff again the next day because she wasn't quick enough. Every time, she realised that it wasn't as fun as she thought it would be.
Tonight, was an example when she had, yet again, failed. After running a simulation against Mr Victor Freeze for a second night in a row, Rosa yelled in frustration, throwing down a Batarang she was about to throw at the simulated Cold Villain.
"Dammit! I was so close that time!" She wanted to actually hit the Sim-Bot that projected Freeze's suit and transparent helmet. It was frozen in motion, pointing his Ice-Blaster right at her. It was supposed to be testing her abilities in stealth and hiding, something with her rather small body, she thought she would ace easily. And yet, she still failed. She looked to Jason, who was at the controls. Cass stood by him, smiling and speaking for the two of them:
"Want to go again? You have time before you have to get back home." She said, looking at her watch. Rosa scowled.
"Why would I go again? I've already failed twice! What's the point of going again?" She said, sinking into a sulk.
"That's the mission," Jason said, bluntly. Rosa looked up, sniffing. "To fight against Crime and Corruption, and never sway from the path of Justice." He quoted. "My mentor put those words into the head of everyone he trained and fought alongside. Including my own."
"But I'm-"
"You're failing this sim because you're overthinking it." Jason kept going. "You're tired, yes, but if you were doing this in real life would that stop you? No. You keep at it. Until you win, or you die trying to win. That's the mission. Making this City a better place by fighting the ones who want to destroy it." A moment between the Teacher and student passed, before Rosa stood back up, wiped her nose and nodded.
"Okay. Let's do it again." She said, forcing a smile. Jason nodded back, resetting the Simulation.
"Want a hint?" He asked her as it loaded back into place. The young girl smiled back properly this time.
"No, I think I have it."
The next day, after school had finished, Rosa was picked up by Cass at the front gate as per usual. She always got a couple of strange glances from other students whenever Cass opened the door to her car, expecting someone that wasn't a young Asian woman. She always got someone asking the same questions the next day: Who was that picking you up? Was it your mom? Are you adopted? And so on. It bothered her that her peers kept asking her about it, but Cass said it didn't matter as long as she stuck to what she was told to say when asked those questions:
"She's my after-school tutor. My Mom's new company is paying for her until we can earn enough to pay for her on our own. She just helps me with Homework really." She didn't like lying, but it was part of keeping her new secret safe. If she ever found someone else that she cared about like her mother, she wanted to keep them as safe as possible.
Her relationship with Cass, though still new, was blooming. Because it took almost half an hour to get to the Batcave every day, they would talk about school, training and life in general, Cass occasionally telling stories of her time as BatGirl and later, Black Bat. Rosa related to her story of being raised by her mother to become the 'ultimate weapon', and how she broke free of that relationship and - for a time - brought her abusive parent to justice. That was Rosa's goal too. If she as Robin could take her Father and brothers in prison, the injustices they attempted on her and her mother could possibly be redeemed. Rosa hated seeing her mother reminisce over them, but she was told by Jason that it would take time for her heart to heal. Apparently, before Batman took him in, he had been through something similar - though he didn't like to talk about it.
"So what's going on with you and Jak?" Rosa asked Cass as they waited at a red light. She visibly swallowed and sighed at the question. That argument they'd had the night he joined had been a week ago, and yet whenever he was needed for patching up Jason, Cass always seemed to be in the room with them. She licked her lips, then finally replied.
"I don't really know. Jak drives me a little bit mad to be honest, like-"
"Drives you mad like angry? Or mad like you like him?" Rosa asked in a teasing tone. The light turned green and Cass started driving again, wincing as she used her injured arm to change gear. She laughed at the tease with a small blush coming over her face.
"It's a little more complicated than that. You and Jason heard that argument we had. Those things he did were… unforgivable."
"And yet Jason brought him in?"
"Jason has a complicated compass when it comes to morality. He brought him in because of his medical skills. He barely trusts him."
"He brought him in under my call, actually," Rosa corrected her. "My father and brothers abused him as well as me and my mother. Called him a dog that was forced to follow orders, no matter how many times he fought back." She could see Cass' face soften in thought as she explained this. "He wants a second chance to be good, right? Just like you did?"
"Yes," Cass nodded, refocusing on the road again while clearly conflicted. "I suppose you're right."