-Athena's POV-

Rolling my eyes, I groaned and crossed my arms. "What do you want?" I growled, looking away from the three customers. The two youngest of the three were laughing while the respectable oldest man was giving me empathetic eyes and trying to get the two to stop. Not to my surprise, they didn't.

"Psst, Victoria, we need to talk." Joey called me into the back of the store. I crossed my eyes and glared at the laughing nineteen year old behind me. "Do you know who those people are?" Yeah, Batman, Nightwing, and Robin. Oh, he means identities. Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne, and Tim Drake. The first being the most annoying of the three, I thought. "Victoria! Do you!?"

"Uh, yeah. So?" His eyes suddenly filled with anger and greed over his usual flirtatious nature. It made him look older. I stood a bit taller to show that he couldn't intimidate me.

"That's fuckin' Bruce Wayne! He owns like half of Gotham! He's literally made of money, and he gives it all away for no reason. We might be one of those places he gives an extra grand to for no reason. So, treat him and the princes of Gotham nicely or you won't get a paycheck!" He whispered in a yelling tone at me. I shoved his chest away from me and swaggered over to the ice cream bar with a fake and bored smile plastered on my face. Grayson had managed to hold his laughs in, but he grinned obnoxiously when he saw me again.

After what he said at the Watchtower, I had decided to ignore him. I didn't want to talk to him and he didn't want to talk to me, so I worked on not talking and not making any contact with him at all. Knowing Grayson, he probably hadn't even noticed.

"Hi, I'm Victoria Smith, what can I get you?" I said in a monotone and annoyed voice. Tim frowned at me and mouthed that he was sorry.

"I'll have one scoop of double chocolate brownie ice cream with chocolate chips and extra sprinkles along with a scoop of caramel gelato with extra whipped cream," Dick ordered, smiling smugly. He was trying to make this hard on me. I looked at Tim and smiled.

"And for you?" I asked sweetly with a genuine smile.

"I'll just have a vanilla scoop, please." Tim was shy and when he talked, it showed. Once you got to know him, he wasn't as shy, but he was usually pretty sad all the time. Sadder than everyone else. We were all orphans, but Tim had just recently lost his dad. He was so depressed, still.

"What about you, Bruce?"

"I'm alright, thanks Ms. Smith," Bruce formally answered. I made their orders quickly and handed them out. I had made Bruce a cup of straight up coffee with three extra pumps. Being Batman got tiring.

"For patrol," I whispered in his ear, setting his coffee down. He smiled a little thank you and wrote the store a check for two thousand dollars. I gasped, Joey gasped, everyone gasped. "Thank you, Bruce!" I tried to say in my most enthusiastic voice I could get out. Joey was about to pass out.

"Just what I do," Bruce told everyone in the store. The three boys finished their treats and left, waiting for me to follow. I shook my head and let them go. Quickly changing out of my work uniform, I headed home and immediately contacted Ra's Al Ghul.

"Nightingale, what is the meaning of this discussion?" Ra's voice boomed in the room, but he wasn't showing up in front of the camera. That was odd. Ra's always liked to getting as close to someone in person as he could and an audio meeting was not his acceptable forte.

"I would like to discuss my position at hand and give you a mission update. I was approached by a, well, psychotic and most likely in creditable source that explained to me that Batman was the Boss. I was confused, seeing as that you helped train him," I said. Ra's appeared on screen with a book in his hand. I pulled on my mask as an instinct.

"Yes, well, I would follow the lead regardless of what his past used to spell out. The Batman has become a reoccurring enemy for the League. His involvement in the gang does not surprise me--nor should it surprise you," Ra's hissed, raising an eyebrow at the fact my mask was hiding my face from him. "The best approach to this would be to get into his circle of trust and take him down personally."

"That's what I was going to do, Grandmaster. But isn't it surprising that Batman--a world known superhero--is behind such a blood thirsty gang? If you think this is a certainty and is probable, I will follow orders." Ra's face twisted into a sinister glare, one I had never seen. I tugged off my mask and bowed in respect.

"Good, now, if that's all you needed cleared up I will be on my way. You are too well trained to be asking for my help and I am far too busy. This will be our last conference until you complete the mission," Ra's said. I frowned and hesitated before nodding and saying goodbye. After our call ended, I stared at my mask. It was just sitting there, reminding me of everything I was trying to hide.

******

I sat at my desk, listening intently to the ex-FBI agent teaching us about how to perfectly execute a stealthy mission. I took detailed notes in hopes of studying them later while everyone else was out having social parties. The boys behind me chuckled and whispered, but I ignored them.

After class, I gathered my things and headed to my secluded dorm. The whole school was like a giant castle. Each dorm had two rooms. One could house two boys the other houses the other two. My dorm was at the very top of the castle. To get to it, you had to climb three hundred stairs and then climb the side of the tower on the outside to go through the main window. There was no door. Unlike the normal rooms, mine was big. It had a master bedroom, a kitchen, a library, a study, and a main room. My room was mostly one huge bookcase. Each part of it was covered in books. It was messy--pages of notes, drawings, and book pages were scattered everywhere. The only section of my place that was clean was my bedroom.

So, as I walked down the ancient halls of the School for Superior Boys, I let my guard down. I was the first and only girl to attend the school. That was the main reason my dorm was so far away from everyone else. The teachers weren't the ones who were hard on me. It was the students who made me tougher.

The boys behind me, the ones who were whispering during class, were following behind me. I gripped my books and walked faster. They went faster too. The teachers had all retreated to their cabins for the night. All the other students had too. Those three boys were following me to my dorm.

"Hey, can you stop following me? The dorms are that way," I called over my shoulder, still walking. They laughed and sped up closer to me.

"Oh, we know. Relationships are not acceptable here, and you are the only girl here," one of the boys said, smirking. This school was different from my other training stations. Fighting was only permitted during training. It was against the rules to fight outside of the self-defense class.

"And you are very pretty," the tallest boy stood behind the strongest looking one. I backed away slowly, but the three followed. They had smiles on their faces that resembled blood thirsty hyenas.

"Come here!" They shouted and charged at me. I dropped my books and made a run for it, but they caught my arm. I was yanked into them as their hands slipped to my belt and neckline of my shirt. If I was back at Honor Island or the League of Assassins, these boys wouldn't be breathing. But the Boarding School was teaching patience, so I tried pushing them off. After my shirt was lifted up over my head, I snapped.

"Get the fuck off of me!" I screamed. I made a solid hammer with my fists and punched the tall boy in the stomach. He coughed and fell to the ground. I tugged my shirt down just as the short one came charging. He got a sharp kick to the face, causing him to land on top of the tall guy. The strong guy pounced and punched me in the nose. I grabbed his arm and snapped it like a twig. I jumped knees first on the other two and twisted their necks until a sweet snap was heard. The strong boy stumbled to his feet and ran down the hallway. I gathered my books and ran to my dorm. That was the tenth time the boys at that damn school had tried to rape me.

******

A knock at my door awoke me from my trance. I held my mask behind my back as I answered it. Tim was smiling, holding a bundle of flowers. Grayson must have told him where I lived. I held the door open and he causally swaggered inside. I slipped the flowers into a vase and put them on the small hotel coffee table.

"So...you live in a hotel," he remarked, looking around the one room area. The hotel wasn't in very good condition, but it was cheap and in better condition than any other hotels at that price.

"Yep. What are you here for?"

"Oh, well, I just wanted to say I'm sorry for the way Dick was acting. I was hoping you would live somewhere fancier so I wouldn't feel so guilty," Tim chuckled as he began to breath through his mouth, "but I guess you aren't really inheritance to the Wayne fortune like we are."

"Nope. I don't mind it, I'm rarely here anyway. I work at that damn ice cream shop for one reason, and that's to help me blend in and not be traced to Nightingale," I explained, sitting down at my computer. I quickly hid all the Black Sharks' files and pulled up a fake case. Tim ignored it and smiled.

"I just had an amazing idea," he sat down beside me, "what if you come and live with us!"

"No."

"Why not? Is this place really that good that you'd rather stay here?"

"God no."

"Then what? As a team, we don't get to see you that much. We being the Bat family, so it would make it easier for you to stay in Wayne Manor. If we need to work on a case with you, we wouldn't have to wait for you to come here. And I bet Bruce would allow you to work at Wayne Enterprises so you don't have to be humiliated again." Tim's eyes lit up as he talked about how great it would be for me to join him at his house. Live and see Grayson twenty four seven? No thanks, I thought. Tim's smile faded and he frowned. "It was worth a try."

"Sorry Timmy," I said. He shrugged and left. When I was sure he was gone, I slipped into my Nightingale costume and jumped out of my window.  While he was talking, my computer got a message from a familiar "allie" who wanted to meet up in some old comedy building.

"What do you want?" I asked, looking up at the clown. He smiled and laughed.

"Seems you aren't following the plan," Joker said, tossing a newspaper at me. The headline was 'New Superhero Nightingale seems to have a problem with Nightwing'. I rolled my eyes, mentally agreeing with the paper. I sure as hell did have a problem with him.

"If you had to work with him, you would too."

"Athena, if you want to take down the gang leader you have to take down his birdies! You want to take down the king, you have to take down his pawns," Joker clapped his hands together, "I chose you to do this because they don't know you. They don't know your past. They don't even know your real name! I would've told you to go straight for Batman, but you're a little young for him."

"This was all about me trying to be the trophy wife for the Bat Family! I will not give in to your sexist pl--,"

"Shhh! This is the only way! Love is such a weird thing. Once you fall in love, your darling dearest is like a little angel! That's why this plan of you using your feminine charms against the Bat brat is so perfect. He'll trust you enough to let you come and tell me what is happening!"

"I won't tell you anything."

"UGH, fine. Keep their little identities a secret. My point is, once Nightwing falls for Victoria, the whole family will trust you. But, he won't love you if you don't play nicely," Joker smiled and laughed, "I guess you could get the little one to love you, but I assumed he was too young for you."

"Don't make it a habit to contact me. If I want to talk to you, I'll find you," I turned on my heel and grappled away.

"Fair enough," Joker whispered just as I left.

I used the com in my ear to call Tim. After a few rings, he answered. "Hello? Victoria?"

"Yeah, hey, um, I thought about what you said and it makes sense. If the offer still stands it would be amazing if I could move in," I said, only half lying. I had never worked in a big company, but I knew that I would get a lot more money to buy a lot more gear.

"Good choice. Um, I'll confirm it with Bruce while you pack?"

"Sounds good," I hung up and did what I was told. One more step towards Batman's ever-lasting trust.

~~~~~~~~~~
Hehe...hoho...haha...so yeah, I'm really sorry for not updating for like two weeks. I use this excuse all the time, but yeah, it's school. I'm at school for eight hours or more than I get home and do homework for about two hours than I eat dinner and do my chores then I write a little bit for this story then I get ready for bed and go to sleep. I can only really update on the weekends and yesterday and the weekend before was all busy so I couldn't do anything. But, I'll try and double update. Yeah! I'll try! Anyway, Vote or comment or follow!~~~~~