Somewhere in Salt Lake City, 12:00

The dining room was an extremely eccentric indeed. For one thing it was very narrow to the point that one can stand in the middle of the room, stretch out their arms and can touch the walls without much effort.

The walls were decorated with wallpapers that constantly changed as if it couldn't make up its mind on what to be. One moment it was the wallpaper from the smallest bathroom in an 17th century European manor, the next it displayed a highly detailed map of the universe, and the next it reverted into the wallpaper design that is in the room of the least favourite child in a rich family and the next it displayed what appeared to transcripts of history and science text books that document historical event ranging from the big bang to the fall of the superheroes.

The air in the room changed constantly, one moment it was so cold that Ashly felt her blood turn to ice and her lungs get stabbed by icicles, the next moment it became so hot that wearing clothes felt like pure torture and she was sweating so heavily that Ashly was surprised that it didn't flood the room.

The table itself is extremely long, but narrow. It looked to be something from a 'Lord of the rings' novel. It is wooden, carved out with the figures of many animals from aardvarks to alligators, bison to beasts, cougars to cheetahs, doves to dragons, elephants to eagles, ferrets to foxes, giraffes to geese, horses to hydras, impalas to iguanas, jackals to jaguars, kangaroos to kappas, lemurs to llamas, mongoose to minxes, nighthawks to naguals, otters to orangutans, pandas to phoenixes, qails to quaggas, ravens to robins, seals to snakes, thunderbirds to tigers, uakaris to unaus, vultures to vampire bats, wales to wolves, xolmies to xecotcovaches, yetis to yaks, zebras to zorillas.

Ashly didn't really like the decorations but she decided to keep it to spare herself the trouble. She sat on her throne like chair looking down the long table at the mountain of food displayed in front of her. There was apple pie and avocado toast, brown rice and bacon, cabbage soup and curry, duck and donuts, egg tarts and elderberries, French fries and fish, goose and gingerbread, hamburgers and hotdogs, ice cream and Idaho potatoes, jelly and jalapeno curry, kimchi and kudzus, lental soup and lobster, mangos and macaroons, nuggets and noodles, oranges and octopus, pasta and pizza, quiche and quesadilla, rice and radish, salad and sausages, tacos and tofu, umeboshi and udon, vegetables and veal, watermelon and watercress, Xavier soup and xigua, yogurt and yams, zucchinis and zima.

Ra's Al Ghul sat on the other side of the table drinking from a small bowl of soup. Nothing much of him had changed if you were to compare him to what he was like 40 years ago, except for the fact that he looked more arrogant as if the death of all his enemies had just happened yesterday instead of almost half a century.

Ashly looked down the table scowling at him. He had barley spoken to her save for the usual greetings. Ashly looked up at Ra's Al Ghul as if expecting him to break the silence. Instead Ra's Al Ghul seemed more interested in looking at his cabbage soup than anything else and this annoyed Ashly, but she knew better than to speak out against him. She had heard what had happened to Calendar Man and Hush when they had displeased him and Clock King had barely made it out alive.

"The soup is nice it has an almost perfect use of herbs and spices." Ra's Al Ghul said deliberately slurping on the soup for effect "however it is a little bit too salty, and it doesn't have enough vegetables in it." He raised a bathtub sized coffee mug and took a long sip "…there is nothing better than an afternoon coffee do you think? I send my compliments to your barista."

"Yes. I agree." Ashly said looking down at her bathtub sized coffee mug.

"…I agree to your terms about the use of my Lazarus pit and all that…" Ra's Al Ghul began, examining Ashly as if expecting to see some kind of flaw on her. "…and I have heard about the latest developments, namely the siting near the Giants Hand."

"How…how did you know?" Ashly squeaked

"I have my sources." Ra's Al Ghul said smacking his lips, tasting the air like a fine wine "But I must say I am indeed fascinated by your 'new order' in the Realm of the Robin."

"What do you mean?" Ashly said about to swallow a chili dog whole.

"Well." Ra's Al Ghul said looking up and down Ashly "You can't use a lot of telepaths to enforce your new world order without someone hearing about it."

Ashly paused staring at her overflowing plate as if it was some kind of art piece that intrested her. She didn't know what to think. Sure she should have known that Ra's Al Ghul of all people would know about her secret but she was so certain that the only people who knew about this was herself, a few hand selected people and the telepaths themselves that it almost took her aback to hear someone casually mention her secret in front of her as if it was as trivial as the next weeks weather.

"Yes…" Ashly said blindly choosing her words "That's correct. I…well. How did you…I…I mean…what do you think of it? I mean…uh…yeah."

Ra's Al Ghul cocked his head "Whatever happens in other regions is no concern of mine, we already learnt that lesson from Brother Blood. But I will say this, I do admit that this is an impressive feat using telepaths to stop crime before it happens is a good feat. I considered it however I find there to be too many flaws in it. They can easily turn against you if you displease them."

Ashly waved a hand as if doing some strange dance move "I have already considered that." She said "I am reasonable and fair to my employees and I give them things like paid leave, paid vacation time and a reasonable salary."

"I see." Ra's Al Ghul said nodding his head as if his bones had turned into springs "And from what I heard the executions had resulted in a mass drop of crime rates all over the Realm of the Robin."

"Correct." Ashly said raising her cup "You can't make an omelette without breaking a couple of eggs"

Ra's Al Ghul smiled and did the same "Yes. Your right. And the Red Hood Gang?"

"Oh. They are mercenaries." Ashly said as if talking about something minor she did on a particular day "They work for people who has the fattest wallet, so they are of no particular use to me even if they were all dead or alive, however they are involved in Operation Macedonia…well it would make no difference to me if they take all the Meta's from my territory, but I need my Meta's to uphold my power."

Ra's Al Ghul nodded "I know. I just wanted to know your honest opinion." He stood up "Now we go out to address the people. I have read your transcript of your speech, and while it is a bit, well overdramatic at some places and a bit too blunt and direct in others, I am not going to stop you."

"As for tonight?" Ashly said

"Either way the fight goes." Ra's Al Ghul said "When I leave there will be two Grayson's in use of the Lazarus pit. But either way, Dick Grayson will never be the same after he fought you."