A/N: Ha! One of you readers really wants Jessica to die. I meant for my readers to hate her but not be that drastic! It just hit me funny for some reason. So here is your chapter! But first, I have a small glossary for the few Italian words I might so happen to randomly use.

Glossary

Arrivederci – good-bye

Avanti – let's go; forward

Basta – enough; that will do

Benissimo – excellent; very good

Buongiorno – good morning; good afternoon (a greeting)

Grazie – thank you

Pazienza – patience

Salve – hi; hello

Scusi – excuse me

Si – yes

Va bene – all right; fine; okay

Chapter 8 Putting Trust in an Assassin

"Buongiorno, Robin!" James greeted Robin at the breakfast table happily. He sat down next to the teen with a wide grin on his face. Robin glanced over to him for a second, but then silently went back to eating his food with his face mysterious as he went into deep thought.

James had brought the whole group to the school peacefully after they met at the bridge. It was located on one of the many tiny islands surrounding the sinking city. The island had an abandoned church on it that was pretty big, but the school was hidden under it. Most of the training was in the old church or on the field outdoors.

The school was called Dragon Academy. It was something new and had only been running for five years. But the students were and had to be the best fighters to pass. They learned about handling new weapons and technology. They were taught how to fight in hand to hand combat as well. They had to be skilled in both the body and mind.

Of course, the school was for assassins. Slade wanted Robin to learn all their ways. After a few years of training, Robin was sure Slade would take him away for personal training. But Robin was coming up with a plan to change all that. But he would have to stay for a few days to figure out the system of how things worked in the school. Slade could have his way for the time being.

James studied Robin's serious face for a few seconds. The boy was staring straight ahead while eating his toast. He was avoiding the constant glare of Slade who was by the cafeteria door with his arms folded in front of him. Robin knew the man was watching him.

"So," James said slowly. As he said this, he pulled Robin's tray a little closer to himself. "How's the food, kid? Mind if I…" James was attempting to steal a piece of toast off of Robin's tray. He was quickly cut off when Robin snatched his breakfast back with a quick, "Yes."

"Let's play a game," James said. He glanced over to Robin to see if he had gotten any reaction out of the boy. Robin was glancing over to him with a quizzical look on his face. "It's called 'State the Obvious'."

"Sounds fun," Robin said sarcastically. "Let me go first. Slade is watching our every move."

"You're good at this," James said with a smile coming to his lips. "My turn. You're pissed."

"Benissimo," Robin muttered after taking another bite from his toast.

"I didn't know you knew Italian," James said a little surprised.

"Well, there are a lot of things you don't know about me," Robin snapped back. Right now he had no time for James' comic relief and weirdness. His mind was focused on escaping from the hands of Slade with no one getting hurt. James was with the school. Becoming friends with anyone here would just be stupid.

"Ouch!" James said with a wince. "You're cold today, kid."

"Don't you have some teacher thing or stuff to do?" Robin said with a heavy sigh.

"Nope," James said. He tried another time to grab that piece of toast, but Robin was ahead of him once again. The teen just pushed his tray to the opposite side James was sitting on. There was silence as James watched Robin continue with eating his breakfast. The boy was thinking hard. He had better warn the teen before he got himself in deep trouble by trying to escape.

"You know, kid," James said while putting his arm around Robin's shoulder. He then whispered softly into his ear while still staring ahead like nothing was wrong. "Don't try anything just yet," he whispered. "You have friends in high places. You just have to wait for the right time."

James then let go and saw Robin take in the small bit of information. It was at this time that James struck. His hand whipped out like lightning and grabbed his beloved piece of toast before Robin could put his head back together.

"Hey!" Robin yelled at him with anger in his voice. "That's mine. Give it back!"

James smiled wickedly at Robin for a second then licked the bread like a little kid would to claim it as his. Robin gave up quickly on the small fight at the sight and grumbled his defeat under his breath as he glared at the man who stole his breakfast. James kept on smiling as he ate it proudly.

"I hope you are done," came a chilling voice from behind the two. Robin jumped as a hand was placed on his shoulder. They looked behind to see Slade there towering over them with that one eye watching the two with mild amusement in it.

"I am," Robin answered quickly. "Thanks to someone," he added under his breath with a dirty glare at James. The man shrugged and stood up. Robin did the same and silently picked up his tray and walked away from the men, eager to get away from the man he most hated.

James tried to smile warmly to Slade, but it was kind of hard to. "He's a good kid," James said to Slade as the two men watched the teen throw his stuff away with a melancholy look on his face. "He just needs to be cheered up."

"I agree," Slade said after some silence. James' eyes widened at these words and was about to question the man's answer, but Slade was already there. "For the few months he is going to be here I'll need someone other than myself to keep a sharp eye on him. It should be easy because he is going to the past eraser tomorrow morning."

James tried to hold his emotions inside of him and played it cool. "Sure," he said with a simple shrug. "But do you really need to be this extreme? That machine can be pretty powerful if you mess with it too much. I would not want to chance it."

"Robin is strong," Slade said firmly. He had made up his mind over the matter and nothing James would say could change it. "He'll be fine."

James gave a long sigh while pondering something unknown to Slade. He ran a hand through his blonde hair and then gave a slight nod. "Fine," he said. "For some reason I'm always stuck being the babysitter."

"It's because you're good at it," Slade said. "He seems relaxed around you. I want to take the first part of my plan slow. He needs someone to confide in besides me. Jessica can't do it because she and Robin pretty much want to kill each other, plus I have something else planned for the girl. You're my only option. Just tell me everything he says."

"I can do that," James said with a nod. "Back stabbing people is my favorite thing to do in the world!"

Slade rolled his eye at the sarcastic humor, but he knew that James would do what he said. Robin walked up to them, his eyes narrowed in anger that he was trying hard to hold back. Suddenly a bell was rung and it was time to start school. Robin's heart sunk as he realized that he would have to be under Slade's control for another whole day. This was a living nightmare.


"Okay, kiddies!" James said with that wicked smile coming to his lips as he stared out over his class. "Time for some poker to see who the best marksman with a new gun is!"

The class stared at he man blankly. First of all, they weren't kids. The youngest one there was Robin who was off to the side of the group sitting on the grass. He was making an effort to stay away from all the others. Other than that, the youngest was around twenty two. Most of these young adults never caught onto their teacher's ways. In many ways they were not their ages.

"Do I have to explain EVERYTHING to you guys?" James said with a deep sigh of frustration. The class was outside on the island. A steep hill was in front of them, and it was hard to make out the small cards lined up on the top. James stood in front of them with a table that had some clipboards on it along with a black gun case with the school symbol on it.

James took out the black high-tech gun with some care. Robin bit his lower lip as he willed himself to not to just get up and run. He was outside and that meant he was close to the sea. Freedom was only a boat ride away. But he knew he could never make it, and that logic was the only thing keeping his butt glued to the grass.

"She's a beauty, ain't she?" James asked the group with a good mimic of the Crocodile Hunter. No one laughed or even smiled. James' smile dropped as saw that he was not getting anywhere with these students. Someone coughed and James sighed again. He made eye contact with Robin and saw the teen try to fake an encouraging smile.

"Wonder how to work this baby?" James asked the class. Some of the class shook his or her head yes. As they said nothing, James was aiming his deadly weapon at random objects around the outside shooting area. "It looks like a simple gun," James went on. "But if you have good eye sight and perfect aim then this thing can be extremely dangerous. Its light, but the bullets can rip through almost anything. Pretty powerful thing I have in my hands right now."

One guy in the front raised his hand. James nodded with a faint smile. "Um… when do we get to use it?" the guy asked. James' face went dark when he heard this question. He glared at the group of idiots while wondering what he was going to do with them or how to shove the information into their heads without getting himself into too much trouble. For a faint second he wished he could just shoot one of them, but the evil thought quickly vanished. He did not want to be that extreme, but that thought gave him an idea.

"You guys have no idea what this thing is yet," James said to the class. "You haven't even seen it fired. Some of you will not be able to use this gun because of your eyesight. I can't let you all use one at the same time."

"Then shoot it for us," the same guy said boldly. Exactly what James was going for.

"Fine!" James snapped back with false anger in his voice. He quickly took aim at the teen off at the side of the group. He paused for a few seconds just to be sure that he would not really hit Robin. He then pulled the trigger as he set up his next demonstration in his head.

Robin was knocked off guard. He had been half listening to James when suddenly the gun was aimed at his head. He quickly rolled to the side with a cry of alarm. Not even a second afterwards the grass he had been sitting on exploded and dirt flew into the air. Some of the more sensitive girls screamed while the others watched with wide eyes of either horror or delight. It depended on how the person was mentally.

"What was that for?" Robin yelled at James as he picked himself up. All eyes flew over to James and they were all asking the same question and waiting for an answer.

"Good reaction time, kid," James said. That wide grin spread across his face again as he said, "Come on over here. I'll let you be the first to test the gun out."

All eyes turned to Robin again, and it seemed like they were seeing him for the first time now. Questions ran through each head as they stared at the new teen. They all knew he was way too young to be there. Jealousy was sparked into a few of the young adults. The two Americans there thought that maybe they had seen him before, but they quickly threw the thought away.

Robin did not want to come up even if it was James who would be teaching him. But with the whole class staring at him and waiting for his answer, it was hard not to just sit back down and try to become invisible again. He finally gave James a weak smile and walked to the front of the class with some hesitation.

"You know how to play poker, right?" James said while handing Robin his gun.

"Um…" Robin stumbled for words. He had never been in this position before. He had never really shot a gun before except for that blaster Slade had made him steal a few years back. He had no idea what he was doing. He only knew how to use one was because of the many action movies he had watched over the years.

A few of the students snickered even though they were a little too old to behave like teens. Robin glanced behind him and saw one guy give him a smug smile as if to say Robin was a wimp. Robin's competitive spirit then took over. He sucked up his uncertainty and nodded to James. He gripped the gun tighter and took aim while putting the butt of the gun in his shoulder pocket.

Robin had good eyesight. His was a lot better than most. Only Cyborg had better eyesight than him on the team because of his mechanical eye. He squinted a little and could clearly make out the many cards on the very top of the cliff. It kind of reminded of him of one of the very many action movies he had watched with his team on rainy days. Right now he could not think of the title of the movie. (a/n: was it the movie SWAT where they did this thing? I'm not sure.)

For someone who had never shot a gun before, Robin was pretty good. He only missed a card once, but only James really noticed. After six shots Robin put down the gun and breathed a sigh of satisfaction. The class all strained to see which cards he had shot.

James took out a set of binoculars. He smiled as he looked up. "Straight Flush!" he announced to the class. He looked down to Robin and gave him a wink. "You must have good eyes, kid. Next!"

As the rest of the class quickly formed into a line for their turn, another teacher ran across the field. She stopped up in front of James and gave slight bow because the teachers had different ranks. The lower ranks had to bow in front of the higher ranking teachers to demonstrate respect.

"Mr. Hess, may I speak to you?" the lady asked with her voice urgent.

"What is it, Liz?" he asked her.

She gave him a faint smile before saying, "It is Slade. He wants to see Robin. He wants to start the machine early."

James was silent. From the back of the line, Robin could see his teacher's face turn slightly pale. Something was wrong. A knot formed in his stomach as his heart started to race. He wanted to run.

"Okay," James said slowly with a nod. He then pulled himself together and looked over to Robin and saw that the kid was ready to run. "Tell Slade that I'll be there in only a few minutes with the kid," he told Liz. She nodded and gave another small bow before running off the direction she had first taken.

"Class dismissed!" James yelled to the class. "We will pick up the lesson tomorrow."

"But it is going to rain," a student said. They all started to fan out without caring much that they were done early for the day. No one really had friends in this school. There was just one big pecking order. So no one was excited about hanging out with anyone or goofing off with each other.

"Then we will do it in the rain!" James snapped back. The class groaned but did not protest.

"What is going on?" Robin asked James with his voice shaking a little.

James sighed sadly and said, "Just follow me, kid. But don't worry. I'll be with you the whole time."

"No," Robin said quickly while backing up a little. "What is Slade going to do to me?"

"Look…Robin," James said slowly while searching for the right words. He put his hands on Robin's shoulders and looked into his eyes to show the teen he was very serious right now. "I can't tell you. I can't tell you a lot of things about this school or myself because everything would get complicated and lives would get in danger. I wish I could tell you, though, kid. I really hate to see you like this."

"I can't go!" Robin shouted while trying to get free from James' grip on his shoulders. He was starting to panic. He did not want Slade to do anything to him. "I can't go!" he said again but more quietly. He looked back at James and he suddenly had no idea what he was going to do.

"I can't stop you from making any decisions, Robin," James said to the teen. "But if you want or need advice, then listen to me right now. If you try to escape now I'm one hundred percent sure they will capture you and you will only be running from the enemy. I urge you to come with me now and face Slade and whatever he has planned for you. Please, just trust me now, kid. I know it will be hard for you to, but I promise you that I'll take care of you if anything serious happens. You have my word."

"The word of an assassin is not the greatest," Robin said after some silence.

"Beggars can't be choosers, kid," James said with a faint smile coming to his lips. "So what do you say? Are you going to run or stay?"

Robin's mind raced. His body told him to run, but his mind told him to stay. Something in him told him that James was alright and that he would keep his promise. But the decision was hard to make. Any other day Robin would have run in only a heart beat, but today was different and so was James.

"I…I'll go with you," Robin finally said with a slow nod.

A/N: I'll leave you readers with that. Sorry for shorter chapter. I have a thing I have to go to everyday. It's called SCHOOL! Boring as hell! Sorry for random outbursts. I have problems. But the next chapter will be of BB and Jake. It might take me awhile to get that chapter out because I'm not updating anything till I update my crossover fic. But I hope you liked the chapter and please don't forget to leave a review! Thanks!