Hi guys! I'm alive! I survived the holidays and the start of school, and getting a new job, and finding out that I am going to have another sibling, and preparing for a play I'm going to be in (auditions are in a few weeks), and being sick. Yep. Yep. Survived all that, and managed to finish two chapters in this. (not very much, but believe me, it's a miracle I got this much done. I also feel awful right now.)

Guest review:

Kim: This entire chapter is DEDICATED to Dick and Talia. :) so no worries. Yep! Roy was there, and he was really fun to write. Glad you enjoyed the chapter, and I hope you enjoy this one as well.

Thank you all for your wonderful reviews. I hope you all were able to see the one-shots that I posted near Christmas, and that you all had wonderful Holidays.

Disclaimer: *ducks flying batarang* excuse me, I'm kind of in the middle of arguing with Robin (don't ask me which one, I think they've all teamed up on me) but I don't own Young Justice, and I'd better get out of the Bat cave before the security measures fully kick in. Enjoy!

Chapter 8

Unknown place

Unknown date, unknown time

Talia Al Ghul glared through the one way mirror to where Richard Grayson was pacing. The boy was not cooperating as well as she'd hoped, and she hadn't held her hopes very high. He was stubbornly refusing. He was actually telling her to kill him instead of having him become an assassin. That didn't make any sense at all to Talia. How could dying be better than just killing others? It wasn't that big of a deal.

She'd known Batman had strong morals when it came to killing, but she hadn't known how strong they were.

"Richard, darling, don't you think it would be easier to just submit to my training?" Talia asked sweetly, turning on the speakers once more.

The boy just turned and glared directly at her, which annoyed Talia to no end. She'd purposely made every single wall a one way mirror so that she could easily examine him, but he would have no idea where she was. She'd moved several times already, but each time he seemed to know exactly where she was.

Sometimes Batman's training was too good. Or maybe the kid was just intuitive; either way, it was aggravating.

"Talia, I will not join the League of Shadows, and I'm not going to kill people to save my life," Dick growled sharply.

"Why ever not?" Talia asked coldly. "Isn't your life more valuable to you than theirs? I doubt your father values others more than he values you."

Dick snorted. "Batman and Robin don't have very many rules, but one of them has always been the mission before each other. If possible we try to keep both a priority, but there have been times he's had to choose civilians over making sure I'm alright."

Talia frowned. "You really have no sense of self preservation," she sniffed. "You don't have a Lazarus pit little bird, there's nothing to bring you back once you're gone."

"That's just it Talia, I don't care about coming back!" Dick shouted. "If I killed someone, I wouldn't be able to live with myself anyways."

Talia scowled. "Well child, I have killed many of my father's enemies, and I still sleep at night," she said coldly.

Robin laughed. "Good for you," he said coldly, "but some of us have a conscience, and wouldn't rest so easy."

Talia shook her head. "Black Spider," she said into her communicator. "I require your services."

"Of course, milady," the assassin said smoothly. "I trust that your new student is being difficult and you require some assistance in persuading him?"

"However did you know?" Talia asked dryly. "Never mind that, just get here. Hopefully by the time you've arrived I will have convinced him to accept your training."

Black Spider chuckled. "Enjoy yourself milady. Revenge is sweet."

Talia felt a glimmer of distaste as the assassin shut off his communicator. She detested some of her father's assassins. They were colder and more heartless than she cared to think about. Sure she was an assassin, but she preferred to do her job swiftly and silently before leaving as fast as she could, whereas some of the assassins in her father's circle relished the killing. They forgot sometimes that nearly every opponent was once an honorable one.

Of course, she was thankful that her father had allowed her to take Black Spider instead of Hook, but all the same, he was a pain to work with.

"You do realize that if you accept the training I'm offering, you will be allowed outside? With supervision of course," she added when she saw the boy perk up. "We'll send you on practice missions. At first you won't be required to kill anyone, but we'll be working up to that."

Richard's eyes were glowing. He probably thought he'd be able to find a way to escape. Of course, she would make sure that there was no way that would happen. She already had a collar prepped, and the suit she'd designed would help as well. He would be unable to stop himself from doing as she asked, unless he wished to feel quite a lot of pain.

Of course, he would also never go on a mission unaccompanied. Black Spider, or herself would always either be watching or with him. Talia didn't trust Cheshire for this task.

She might not be close to her sister, but it was possible that Artemis could cloud Cheshire's judgement in this matter. She might be tempted to help Richard escape.

"And we couldn't have that, could we," Talia whispered, smiling as Richard closed his eyes and grimaced.

"Alright Talia, you win. I'll train for you, but I won't kill," he said slowly. "I will never kill."

Talia smirked on the other side of the glass. "We'll see about that," she whispered.

Blüdhaven

May 11, 14:00 EDT

Black Spider watched with amusement as his student looked longingly at the skyline. It wasn't the first time he'd been distracted in the days they'd been training, but this time it was because they were outside. The mistress had deemed it acceptable to take the kid out as long as he was wearing his suit, collar, and mask. He hadn't tried to escape yet, but Black Spider knew it was only a matter of time. He was obviously well trained already, and he definitely wanted to return to wherever it was that he came from.

"Apprentice," Black Spider said casually. "Your distraction will be your downfall."

The boy frowned, facing him once again. "I told you not to call me that," he snapped. "I am not your apprentice, nor are you my mentor."

"Oh. I'm sorry, did I forget again?" Black Spider growled. "You're Robin, Batman's apprentice. Or at least you were, but now you have been given to me to train. The Al Ghul's will be pleased with your skill."

"What exactly have you taught me?" the boy asked, tilting his head as he asked the scathing question. "So far we've only gone over things I already know. I know how to stick to the shadows, I know how to stay hidden, and I know how to fight."

Black Spider frowned. It was true, there wasn't exactly a whole lot he could teach the kid, but all the same, there were some things that a hero could learn from an assassin.

"Well then, consider this lesson one," he said sharply, and shot some of his black webbing towards the kid. "Be ready for anything."

Blüdhaven

May 12, 1:00 EDT

Dick hated Black Spider. Ok, they'd only met a few times before this, and yes, he'd been on the winning side each time, but the guy's comments and knack for completing his mission a different time were grating.

He was also really good at getting out when captured.

So when Talia had told him that Black Spider was going to be his supervisor and trainer, he hadn't been happy about it. Of course, there probably wasn't a member of the League of Shadows that he would have been alright with training him, except perhaps Cheshire, but even then, he'd always felt there was something a little bit off about Artemis's sister. He got the feeling that she was neither for or against the League of Shadows, just as she was neither for nor against the Team.

She had saved Artemis's life a few times after all, which, in turn, had saved the rest of the Team countless times. Besides, Dick got the feeling she held back when fighting them, because of her sister.

Which, come to think of it, was probably why she wasn't the one in charge of his training.

Also the reason why he was currently falling off the roof. Why the universe seemed to like using his thing with falling he would never know, so he pushed it aside, and focused on getting to a place where he could be not falling. He finally managed to pull his grappling gun out, and fired, catching himself only fifteen feet above the ground. Why Black Spider had seen fit to literally throw him off the roof was beyond him, but then, the assassin seemed to enjoy doing things that not only didn't make sense, but could plausibly cause Dick severe harm.

Talia obviously didn't have a vested interest in keeping him alive. Or at least in keeping him uninjured and healthy. He was just glad that his injuries from before were mostly healed, even his bullet wound. If they hadn't been, this whole experience would have been a whole lot worse.

He landed lightly on his feet, and looked up towards the roof where he knew Black Spider was watching. Dick knew without even needing to really see the assassin that he was most likely disappointed that Dick'd been able to catch himself. He'd been trying for the last 72 hours to make Dick do something that would get himself injured or killed. Ever since Talia had given him over for training, already dressed in the suit, and masked so that his identity would not be revealed.

She'd almost shaved his hair off, leaving a buzz cut that made him feel uncomfortable. He'd also been given contacts to wear in case his mask was ever taken off.

When he'd first seen his now brown eyes, he'd immediately wished that Bruce was there. In fact, with brown eyes he even looked a little bit like Bruce, which didn't help his longing for his father. Dick couldn't help but wonder if that was one reason why Talia had given him that particular color. After all, from what he'd seen, she did, in some twisted way, love his father. A really twisted way, seeing as she'd kidnapped him and sent bloodied pieces of his clothing and hair to Bruce, but yeah, she loved him. It probably wasn't even fully her fault that she was so twisted.

Being raised an assassin probably did some terrible things to a person.

"Apprentice, return!" Black Spider said into his communicator, and Dick scowled. The last thing he wanted to do was go back up there and train some more. In fact, if anything, he wanted to get a good night's sleep. He was exhausted. The two hour respite he'd gotten from their last training session hadn't really helped much considering that the last training session had started 40 hours ago.

However, Dick also had no desire to receive an electric shock from the collar around his neck, so he fired his grappling hook into the air and joined Black Spider on the roof.

"The mistress has just informed me that she has found you an official teacher," Black Spider informed him as soon as Dick's feet touched the roof. "She also informed me that you probably need rest at some point, although I don't agree. During my training I was kept awake for almost a week."

Dick frowned. He felt pretty unsteady and exhausted as it was. His two hour power nap had been almost two days ago, and he knew from experience that much longer on his feet, and he would just collapse. He'd read somewhere the no one should purposefully go more than 72 hours without sleep, and he couldn't help but agree.

Black Spider shrugged. "Ah well, at least I won't be in charge of training you. I might even get some more missions." The assassin sounded pleased at the idea, but Dick shuddered. How could anybody be happy when their job was to kill people?

"Can we just go back then?" he asked quickly, hoping to avoid continuing the topic.

"Is Blüdhaven reminding you too much of Gotham?" Black Spider asked slyly, and Dick leveled a Bat Glare at him immediately. It had taken him about 3.2 seconds to realize they were in Blüdhaven. He and Batman had once chased down Twoface here. In a way it did remind him of Gotham, just as corrupt, just as crime ridden. The biggest difference was that Gotham had Batman, and Blüdhaven didn't.

He supposed that Talia was trying to make him feel at home, or at least, she was doing it in her own rather unusual way, but honestly, it just made him feel homesick.

Jason and Tim were probably worried out of their minds. Jason would be angry too, probably for multiple reasons. In fact, he'd probably be mad at Dick when he got back. After all, he'd gotten himself captured.

He'd been pretty stupid about it too. Going out for a ride that night, injured, in his civilian clothes, while he was angry and not thinking clearly? It wasn't his best move.

Dick sighed, and decided to focus on getting out of here. He had no doubt that Bruce was looking for him, especially since he knew Talia would never give him back, but somehow, Dick doubted he'd be looking in Blüdhaven.

aaaand that's where we stop! Gasp! Big reveal, they've been in Blüdhaven all along! :) :)

anyways, I hope you enjoyed that chapter. It was quite fun to write.

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