Dick Grayson blinked confusedly, and the first thing he noticed was a ceiling that he had never seen before.
The second thing he noticed was that he felt quite sore. It was nowhere near the worst that he received but it was still quite annoying and sore.
The third thing, on the other hand, was that the room was quite dark, it was probably late at night or something.
"Sleeping Beauty is finally awake!" whispered a deep hoarse male voice very familiar to the acrobat.
He turned his head and sent a tired smile to Slade Wilson, who was sitting in a chair next to the medical bed on which Dick was lying. "How long was I out?"
"More than four hours. You had quite a bit of internal bleeding, kiddo."
Dick's smile increased in size. "Were you worried about me, old man?"
"Yes."
Dick blinked, not expecting that blunt answer from the mercenary.
"Pull a stunt like that and I'll kill you myself!" growled Slade.
"Please, give me five days, a week at most, and you'll find me throwing myself from more than 200 meters in the air."
"No, you won't!" growled Deathstroke, casting him a deadly but secretly amused glare.
Dick snorted in amusement and his smile became more genuine and concerned. "Are you all right, Slade? This has been a tough battle."
"You can say that again, kiddo. Anyway, I'm fine. You know, the healing factor helps a lot." remarked Slade with an arrogant smirk, genuinely relieved that his former student had woken up.
Dick returned the smile before it was replaced by a deep, panicked, worried frown. "Talia? Tell me she's all right!"
Slade's gaze remained indifferent but his one eye shone amusedly, betraying him. "Calm down, lover boy." he continued before Richard could scold him. "She's all right. A little bruised and hurt but she's fine."
Dick released a sigh of relief, his heart calming down after learning that the woman was fine. He would never have forgiven himself if anything had happened to her.
He would never admit it out loud, especially not in front of his former mentor, but Talia was inexorably making her way into Dick's heart.
She was in some ways very much like Damian and just as his little brother/son who had entered Dick's heart Talia was doing the same.
The more Dick continued to get to know her the more he discovered that Talia was not really a bad person after all and that under all her layers of ice as an assassin hid a big heart (more or less).
While Damian had Dick himself as his guide to bring him out of his hard shell of assassin and into a good person, worthy of Robin's mantle, Talia, on the other hand, had no one to bring her out of her unhealthy relationship with her father and the extremely negative influence of the League of Assassins.
Talia did not deserve to be born into the League of Shadows.
Talia did not deserve to have Ra's as her father.
Talia did not deserve all the violence, all the cruelty, all the nastiness that she has endured since childhood.
Talia did not deserve to be corrupted by the Pit of Lazarus.
She did not deserve any of it.
She was as much a victim as Damian was, if not more so.
The only culprit was that asshole Ra's Al Ghul and the next time they would meet Dick would not hold back even 1% against him.
Dick was going to get Talia out of the League of Assassins, whatever it took.
Even at the cost of his own life.
The acrobat was diverted from his thoughts by the mercenary's voice.
"Turn the other way, kiddo."
Dick did so and briefly held his breath when he saw Talia asleep in a chair in front of his bed.
"She didn't leave her seat even for a minute to watch over you, kiddo." Slade continued in a gentler voice.
Richard could not look away from Talia's sleeping figure. She did not have any angry frown on her face or a cold look, she looked... innocent.
Dick would never have thought of using the word innocent to describe Talia but now, looking at her so relaxed, the vigilante thought Talia was cute.
His thoughts were nipped in the bud when Dick's eyelids closed slowly and wearily without his permission causing him to return to darkness.
"Good night, Birdie."
The next time Dick woke up he noticed that the room was illuminated by sunlight and that the chair occupied by Slade was empty. Turning to the other side he smiled sweetly when he saw Talia still asleep in her seat.
At first Nightwing thought about letting her continue sleeping but finally he wanted to talk to her.
What about even he did not know.
"Talia." he called to him in a rough voice.
The first Robin cleared his throat and tried calling her a few more times.
Finally Talia stirred in her sleep and she slowly and confusedly opened her green eyes.
God, before now I never paid attention to how damn beautiful her eyes are.
The hero opened his eyes wide, shocked by his own thoughts but before he could dwell on them Talia straightened up when she saw him awake and Dick noticed how her whole face lit up.
"Richard!"
Dick's heart practically melted with a strange but very pleasant emotion. In that brief moment Talia did not look like a skilled assassin but instead she looked like a little girl who had opened Christmas presents.
She was nothing short of a breathtaking sight.
Soon after Talia noticed that she was showing too much enthusiasm and she diminished her smile, replaced by a frown as she crossed her arms. "I mean, you finally woke up Richard."
Dick restrained himself from bursting out laughing. She was reacting in the exact same way Damian had the first time Dick had been seriously injured as Batman.
"Were you worried about me?" he teased her with a smirk, unable to resist teasing her slightly.
Talia blushed slightly and she gave him a deadly look. "As if! I was only afraid that your death would make Wilson even harder to bear!"
An audible amused laugh escaped Dick's lips, and after a few seconds Talia allowed herself to smile slightly at the sound.
Only slightly though.
A few minutes of silence passed.
"I'm glad you're okay, Richard." Talia confessed sincerely, not looking straight into his eyes.
Dick smiled sweetly.
Talia truly had a kind heart.
"I can say the same for you."
Talia turned sharply toward him, a half-angry half-confused expression. "Why do you keep saving my life by endangering your own?"
"Because I care about you." the answer came from the acrobat's lips without his permission but he did not regret his words for a second.
Talia frowned even more as her blush deepened. "You could have died." she pointed out with a slight growl.
Dick shrugged his shoulders. "I could have been dead ever since I walked down the streets of Gotham when I was only eight years old."
Talia sighed and looked at him, her eyes showing a rare vulnerability. "Don't die to save my life, Richard. So many people in our world rely on you, and they will never be the same without you."
"You have people who care about you, too."
"Who-"
"Damian."
There was a pause. "He would always choose you over me, and I can't blame him."
Dick frowned in confusion. "Talia?"
"You were right that time." the daughter of the Demon Head looked away briefly before returning her gaze to the former Robin. "Damian is your son."
Dick inhaled shakily but did not interrupt her.
"You gave him a childhood when I failed. You introduced him to love, happiness and other emotions. You made him happy more than I could have ever hoped for. I failed him."
"You didn't let him down." Dick immediately denied in a firm, determined voice. "Damian often talked about you." he began, surprising her. "He told me many things about you and he, although you were not the mother of the year, still loves you. You did your best and behaved well with him, Talia. And that's okay because no one is perfect, no matter how hard we try. "
"If I had really done him any good, I would not have made him stay in the League of Assassins." she murmured.
"What's done is done; you can't change the past. Damian has told me about how much you love him, though. You can be a better mother to him, you can have a life outside the League of Assassins."
Talia looked at him shocked but, before she could respond, the door to the room opened revealing Slade.
Damn you old man!
The mercenary stared directly at the daughter of the Demon's Head. "They want to finally explain everything to us but we have to bring the kiddo too."
Dick frowned in confusion. "Did you tell they?"
Slade motioned for the two to follow him, and Talia helped the first Robin dismount and walk.
They walked down a few corridors until they reached a huge, highly decorated and rather lively hall.
Dick opened his eyes wide in surprise when his eyes landed on another Talia Al Ghul.
The acrobat looked first at the woman who was helping him walk then at the other, his eyebrows almost reaching her hair.
The Talia of this world smiled sweetly at him, which shocked him greatly. "I'm glad you woke up, Richard. Slade spoke very highly of you."
Dick's head snapped up with a smirk toward the aforementioned mercenary who coughed awkwardly and looked away to the side.
"As you can well imagine, I am Talia Al Ghul, also known by the name Emerald in my hero identity and I am the current Angel Head."
The new information was registered in the mind of the hero who nodded.
It made sense that this Talia would be a hero.
Wait, Angel's Head?
Dick stared first at his Talia who winced at the nickname and then at Slade who had a mocking smirk on his face.
How ironic.
"So we're in Nanda Parbat?" asked Dick even though he was pretty sure of the answer.
Emerald smiled and looked at Slade. "You were right about him being a good detective."
The Bludhaven vigilante moved slightly uncomfortable. He usually strutted to compliments but was not used to receiving them from Talia, never mind that in this dimension she was a hero.
He liked this Talia, however. He liked to see her smiling brightly all the time.
She looked good with a smile on her lips.
Emerald stared at the acrobat, the smile still present. "You guessed right, Richard. This is the main base of the League of the Revolution, formed for the purpose of stopping the Injustice League and its domination of the entire world once and for all. From what Slade told me, the members of the Injustice League in your world are heroes."
"They're the best people I've ever met and they're like family to me." confirmed the former Robin as he nodded, still half leaning on Talia who surprisingly didn't mind. "In fact seeing them so evil and unscrupulous... it was a heartbreak for me."
"I can imagine." nodded Emerald kindly. "However, here they have full control over the whole world. America is the only state that has not yet fallen under their control." at the confused and surprised faces of her guests she sighed sadly.
"The Amazon controls all of Europe with the help of Martian Hunterman, GreenDark on the other hand controls Asia together with KillerFaster. Africa has mostly been destroyed because of them and billions of people have died. I strongly suspect that America is now their next target of conquest."
"Shit."
Dick ignored Slade's expletive and stared at the Angel's Head. "I don't understand one thing."
"What?"
"I assume you know the civilian identity of DarkBat." he continued after Emerald's nod. "DarkBat is the only member of the Injustice League who has suffered a tragedy: the loss of his parents. How did he become a ruthless assassin instead of becoming, what do I know, a vigilante who kills other assassins, rapists, etc.? Some kind of anti-hero?"
Slade and Talia also stared at Emerald, both curious about the answer to the Bludhaven hero's question.
Emerald looked at them surprised and slightly confused. "Don't you know?"
"Know what?" asked Talia.
"It was Bruce Wayne who killed his parents."