And you guys thought I was gonna have ridiculously fast updates…. It's only been a few days, but still! Thanks for all the love and reviews on the last two chapters (I only put them together since they were posted on the same night) and I hope I don't let you down with this one!

So Here I Go

I wiped away the tears and stood up. It had started to rain, and I was getting cold and tired. There was no point in delaying the inevitable any longer.

"You can come out now," I said, not taking my eyes off of the grave.

"You're good to have been able to hear me," a voice said.

"I knew you were there all along. You could have come for me any time in the past few minutes. Why didn't you?" I looked up and saw the man standing on the other side of the grave.

He shrugged, "I didn't want to ruin the moment."

We stood in silence for a few minutes before he finally spoke.

"You know what we do to recruits, so why don't you run?"

"If I go with you… You'll leave them alone?"

"Your 'father'?" He asked. "Or the sidekicks?"

"They're not sidekicks," I corrected.

"Fine, you're 'team'."

"Those are my terms," I said. "You leave them alone, and I'll go with you. I won't fight you, won't try to escape, but you have to promise me that you won't go after them."

I could feel the terrifying smile behind his mask, "How do you know that I won't lie to you?"

"Because you have honor."

"You really believe that there is honor in this Court?"

"You leave them alone or you kill me," I stated. "I won't go any other way."

"Fine," he said. "We will not harm your 'team' or 'family'." He bowed, "You have my word."

"Good," I said, lowering my head, still ashamed of what I was about to do.

The Owl slowly came towards me, and I couldn't help but tremble when he touched my shoulder. It was like I could sense the pain that he had been put through, and it really sunk in that I was going to become a machine, following orders and being exactly like all the others. "Do not be afraid, child. You must embrace your destiny if you hope to survive the upcoming years."

"Years?" I asked, eyes widening. I knew it would be horrible, but years of inhumane torture as they welded me into a weapon? Before I could say anything else, he was dragging me along, leading me away from what remained of my parents.

I spared on final glance to the tomb, dread washing over me. This would be the last time I got to see them. In the split second I looked back, I saw it, and my entire body turned. A small, flashing light, emanating from the back of the grave, the flash getting faster and faster with every second.

"NO!" I cried, running to yank the bomb away, but the Owl had his arms around my much smaller body, pulling me away.

"It's the first step towards moving on," he told me sternly, dragging me farther and farther from my parents.

"You promised! You gave me your word!"

He shoved me to the ground, and his foot was holding me down before I could move. "Are you calling me a liar?"

"I ain't calling you a truther," I retorted, my brain focusing more on getting off of the ground than the bomb about to go off.

He kicked me in the ribs harder than I'm ever been hit in hand-to-hand combat.

"I told you that I wouldn't harm Wayne or the Sidekicks. You're parents are dead, I'm just ensuring that they stay that way. You should know very well by now that there are ways of bringing people back, and we cannot risk anything now."

He hoisted me off of the ground and began dragging me again, ignoring my screams of protest. I chanced a glance over his shoulder just in time to see bits and pieces of rock flying everywhere and the dirt beneath the grave flying into the air. I knew that the explosion would go deep into the ground, destroying the caskets, along with the bodies inside.

"Mama! Tată! Am de gând să te omor, nenorocitule!" I screamed, struggling to escape his grasp and run to the gaping hole in the earth where their bodies once were. My struggling immediately seized when I felt a prick on my neck, and everything began spinning and going black.

When I opened my eyes, my hands were bound, and I was being dragged down a carpeted hall. The walls were lined with candles, which provided dim light and casted long shadows over everything.

There was a gloved, bone-breakingly strong hand on each of my arms, squeezing near my shoulders as my feet dragged along the carpet, burning the flesh near my toes.

Two massive, wooden doors at the end of the hall slid open, revealing a large room with a massive medieval chandelier hanging above a think, wooden table, with matching upholstered chairs. The room seemed really historical and medieval for a secret band of assassins, though it added to the dark, evil environment.

Before I had time to process anything, I was being thrown to the ground in front of the table. Unable to catch my balance or break my fall with my hands bound, I face-planted into the wood floor, nearly slamming my head into the edge of the table.

"Richard."

My head flew up at the voice. It was familiar and yet… not. I searched for the source of the voice and found a silhouette sitting at the head of the table. He was clearly an Owl, wearing the loosely fitted mask, the pointed ears sticking up and adding shape.

"You must be the big boss," I grunted, hoisting myself to my feet.

"You can call it that," he said, his voice smooth and calm. "We've been waiting a long time for you to join us."

"So I've heard, but why me? What makes me so important to you?"

"We have… reasons," He stated, rising from his seat and walking towards me. He pulled out a chair halfway along the table and motioned for me to sit.

I stumbled to him—deciding it best not to argue with him—and sat in the chair, the rug burns on my feet burning from the movement.

Once I sat down, he pushed the chair back in and sat down next to me, then removed his hood. He looked ancient, and young, familiar, and yet completely unrecognizable. He placed a hand on my arm, and I could feel dread and hatred radiating off of him.

"You've grown much since I last saw you," he said quietly, almost to himself. "You look so much like your father."

"How did you know my father?" I snapped, pulling away from his grasp.

"You'll find out in time, child, but there are other, more important things we must discuss first."

"Like how one of your henchmen blew up my parent's grave?"

He looked at me for a few seconds, surprise evident in his eyes. "I did not order him to do that," he said sadly. "We never harm family."

"Maybe someone should have explained that to him."

"I'm sorry about your parents, Richard," he said, and I could hear the sincerity in his voice. "Their resting place should never have been treated that way. I'll be sure that my soldier is punished for his actions."

"Oh, so you treat your own men like animals too, then," I said, rolling my eyes.

"Richard, I am not the enemy here," he said, and moved his hand down to my leg, causing me to stiffen. I hated people touching me anywhere, and complete strangers just made it worse. "Relax, child, I will not hurt you."

"Why am I finding it hard to believe you?"

"Because your surrogate father has put lies in your head," he soothed, his voice still surprisingly calm.

"Bruce wouldn't lie to me."

"But he has. He took you in and trained you, yes, but he refuses to let you reach your full potential. He knows how talented you can be, but he wants to keep you from reaching that. His that any way for him to treat you? His sidekick… his partner."

"You mean…"

"When I approached Bruce all those years ago, I wanted to take you in and train you, help you become who you were meant to, but Bruce refused. I couldn't very well kidnap you, so all I could do was wait."

"Wait for him to let me go…"

He nodded slowly, "I never wanted to hurt you, Richard, and I am sorry for what he made you go through these past couple of years, but you're with family now. You don't need to fear us, for you are one of us. You were born to be with us."

"No…"

"Richard, this is your destiny! You were born for great things that Bruce has been keeping you from!"

"I wasn't born for this, or to be with Bruce," I told him matter-of-factly. "I was born to fly with my parents, with Haly's Circus."

"Where do you think we found our soldiers? Why they're all so… physically fit?"

"You don't mean… You can't!"

"All of my men were collected from Haly's Circus when they came of age. It was a little deal we had; we would protect the circus, they would give us one or two new members every year. It seemed rather fair, honestly."

"But then where were the Owls when…"

"When Tony Zucco put acid on the ropes?" He finished.

"If you were protecting Haly's, then why did you let them die?"

"Because, Richard, your parents turned back on the deal. You were supposed to be ours, but they changed their minds, so we had to get them out of the picture."

"So Zucco…"

"Simply got wrapped up in all of this," he said with a shrug. "We needed someone to take the fall for your parent's death, so we contacted Zucco and told him about a circus coming to town. We knew he couldn't resist a chance to blackmail some poor soul into giving him money, and he didn't disappoint!"

"You killed them... But you said you never kill family!"

"It was a necessary sacrifice," he shrugged again.

"I was nine years old, and you murdered my parents in front of me!"

"We had hoped that you would get over it."

"How? By chaining me up and torturing me? Bruce barely got me through the nightmares—"

"Bruce was never supposed to be there!" He snapped, backhanding me and sending the chair backwards. "Mr. Wayne was never supposed to take you in, he… he interfered with our plans."

"Then why not kill him, too?" I spat.

"Because I couldn't see you go through that loss again. Richard, I am not your enemy. I had Tony Zucco murder your parents, and I would do it again, because I believe that it was the right choice. Bruce may have interfered, but he helped to get you far enough along in your training, but now it's time for you to come home."

"I was home," I said, pushing myself off the ground with my wrists. "I finally had a home, and you—"

"That was no home, child. You wanted to be out of that house, and you know it."

"I did get out. I wasn't living with Bruce anymore, but he was still my father."

"You made your decision, boy, now deal with the consequences. I don't want to hear any more complaints from you. Rest tonight and your training will begin tomorrow," He said, standing from his chair and exiting the room from a second door towards the back of the room.

The Owls came and hoisted me up, then lead me out of the room and back through the candle-lit hall, then into a large front room. It had stone floors and stairs, and was obviously some kind of castle. I tried to look outside, but there were thick, red curtains covering every window, except for a large window on the ceiling, which had a wooden owl on it.

It was nighttime, though I couldn't tell how late it was, though I knew it was at least midnight with the way the sky looked from the large ceiling window. The Owls continued to lead me across the room and into a stairwell going down. A dungeon.

They lead me down the stone hall lined with bars for a short way, and I was greeted by other children, lying in the cells on the bare floor, crying, begging for mercy, for the pain to stop. They opened a cell towards the end of the hall and shoved me in, causing me to stumble, though I caught myself and tried to run back out to them.

Before I reached the door, one of them was in front of me, sending his fist into my face. I lost my balance and dropped to the floor, feeling blood coming from my lip.

"Whatever you do, I'll never be like you!" I yelled, sending my body into the bars as they slammed the door shut and locked it. "Pretty soon, you'll have the entire Justice League barging in here!"

"You keep saying that, hero," one of them mocked, throwing a bottle of water into the cell.

"Don't use it all at once," the other said, motioning at the small bottle of liquid. "That's all you're getting until tomorrow."

After they left, I pushed myself to the nearest wall and leaned against it, dropping my head against the cold stone. I was shivering and hungry, but there was nothing I could do about that. All I had was my school uniform, and judging by the state of the other prisoner's apparel, that wouldn't last long. I drank some of the water, being sure to ration it, as I had no idea what time "tomorrow" would be, or how long they would wait. I shifted to a corner and curled in on myself, closing my eyes and trying to sleep, ignoring the wails and moans from the other children in the dark, cold dungeon.

A/N: I know, I know, I made some changes to Dick's story, and I always hate when people do that unless it's necessary, and this is kind of necessary, so please bear with me.

Also, for Dick's language, I used Romanian, cause trying to find a Romani translator is really hard, and my internet is really sucking right now, but if I find a way to make it Romani, I will.

And because people like to know what was said, he said "Mother! Father! I'm going to kill you, you son of a bitch!"

I normally don't swear in my stories, but it seemed like a time that Dick would really let it out, so… yeah. Feel free to review, and follow/favourite if you haven't already, cause you guys and your feedback is mostly what keeps the story going