A/N: I apologize for not updating in a while. I'm usually more preoccupied with my Lunaescence account and keeping up with the story on there. If you would like to read more chapters of my story, there are already six chapters up on there. My Lunaescence account information is in my biography. And in the meantime, I will try to work on keeping up on here more often.

I hope you all enjoy and please leave me reviews. They are very much appreciated. :3

Disclaimer: I own nothing from the DC universe. I own only Anastasia and her family along with this plot.

[1]: "You whore."

[2]: Dark Knight Rises reference! :DDD


Resurrection
The Deal

The one time Anastasia felt something aside from anger and pain was surprise that her mother and father hadn't touched a needle or bottle since the moment police knocked on their door, explaining that their youngest child had been murdered. Instead, the two of them separated from each other and Anastasia completely and wallowed in their anguish. The only time she heard them speak was when one of them would do something to set off the other and then they would be at each other's throats, accusing each other of getting in with the wrong people and causing their daughter's death. Anastasia made the mistake of being in the same room as them and received the brunt of her father's pain and rage.

Anastasia could say wholeheartedly that she had been crippled by the death of her sister. Her loss affected not only her home life, but her school life. Where she had before been able to handle the taunting and teasing of her peers, her fuse had gotten shorter and she exploded on a particularly nasty queen bee of school.

Shut the fuck up, vy shlyukha, she had snarled while approaching said peer and pinning her against a locker. My baby sister was just slaughtered and I had to cradle her lifeless body. I am not trash, but you are, you fucking bitch. Someone like you that treats everyone that doesn't have daddy's inheritance like garbage should have been the one in the middle of the street. Not my…not some five-year-old, innocent baby girl. Look in my direction one more time and I–[1]

Before she had gotten the chance to finish her threat, a counselor and security guard managed to pull her away from the near-tears girl. Since there was no real physical harm done–only severe, possibly traumatic, psychological damage–Anastasia received no real punishment. Detention might have been given, but considering how her home life was at the moment, she was pitied and merely forced to go to counseling for a week.

"Anastasia, what you're feeling is completely natural. The other students might not understand right now, but, in reality, you're just afraid. You're afraid of a future that doesn't have your sister in it–"

The teenager locked gazes with the counselor and spoke, successfully cutting off the speaking woman. "I'm not afraid. I'm angry." Then she stood up from her chair and stormed out of the office without another word and consideration to the punishment. [2]


Anastasia knew that she needed to do something about Gotham. She needed to make it a better place where no person would have to loose a baby sister or loose a child. And she needed to do this for Karina, as one last promise that she would keep no matter what. She had already broken more than enough promises to that little girl.

Where Anastasia would start, though, she had not a clue about.

When it came to starting a vigilante career, Anastasia had only one thing going for her and it was the fact that she could manipulate the four basic elements–water, fire, air, and earth. Oh, and she had motivation. And sure, she didn't need a fashionable costume to parade around in, but she needed some kind of combat training.

Perhaps, she thought somberly, becoming a vigilante wasn't the best idea. After all, her determination to walk this path had been something spurred on by overwhelming grief. If she gave up, she was sure no one–not even Karina–would hold it against her.

In the end, Anastasia was just some from-the-ghetto daughter of two Russian immigrant junkies who couldn't even protect herself from the wrath of her own father. How could she possibly become a superhero?

All her thinking made her restless and she decided to take a walk outside and she ended up in the Narrows. It was late, but she could protect herself with the knife she had shoved in her tattered, high-top Converse shoes. It didn't matter either if she pissed off the wrong person. Karina had been murdered and she could care less about her parents who had essentially forgotten about their eldest daughter other than when she was in the way of their fighting.

Someone might have said she was looking for trouble, but at this point, she just didn't care about anything or anyone. The hollowness and grief was more than she could bear and her tears flowed as she walked along the streets. Eventually, she stumbled into an abandoned warehouse and screamed as loudly as she could over and over again until her voice was hoarse and she collapsed to her knees, sobbing.

"This decaying city has forsaken you has it not, child?"

Anastasia turned her head around and looked at the figure stepping out of the shadows with a narrowed gaze. The only things she could point out about him was his dark hair that had streaks of white on both sides of his head. The expensive suit he was wearing alerted her that he was a criminal–just like the one that had taken Karina from her a mere week ago.

"If this is your area or whatever, I'll leave. I don't want any trouble, okay?" She started backing up toward the entrance, but the man took a step toward her with every one she took back.

"You save the Batman and his protégé and how are you repaid by this city? With the death of your innocent sister." He sneered. "The police sit and do nothing to solve her murder because she is merely another casualty in their loosing war against the scum of this city. And you are a mere speck of a thought in the mind of Batman."

A lump formed in her throat and she stared at the ground. "What do you want with me? Other than reminding me of everything I've been trying to run away from?" She glared up at him.

"Why are you running from your pain? You must embrace it, overcome it, and then destroy those who have caused you to suffer. And I can help you do that." He gave Anastasia a once over before he began to pace around her. "We have been watching you for some time, Miss Azarova. You shame yourself by trying to pass off as a mortal and rejecting your true self.

"I know what you want, Anastasia. You want to change this city, change this city that has stolen your mother and father and turned them into the very people that murdered your sister, change this city that gave you a simple apology and passing glance as you sit here and suffer." The man stopped in front of her and stared into her eyes. "You want to make Karina's murderer suffer. I can help you with that. I can train you and we will both change this city and then the world."

Anastasia stared at the man with a puzzled and hurt expression. "Who are you?"

"I am the Demon's Head, the leader of the League of Assassins," he explained. "I am Ra's Al Ghul and will be your mentor if you so accept this deal with The Demon."