Gotham city was unusually quiet.

I sat on a rooftop, one far away from the compound. I would have to come back empty handed, Charlie Gray hadn't been captured and Father had no idea about Wintergreen.

Though, I wouldn't be able to avoid it forever.

He was going to find me regardless of what I did so why not enjoy the time I had to myself, where I wasn't killing or stealing, just taking in the world and feeling the breeze.

It would be so easy to just fall. Have that be the end of it all, but my mission wasn't finished, I still had one more kill.

"This isn't what he'd want" Dick appeared beside me, nothing more than an apparition in my mind.

"How do you know" I replied quietly.

"Because you knew him, you knew what he stood for. There's already so much blood that's been spilt in his name, in mine. Is it really worth all of this?"

I watched the cars below moving lazily though traffic. If the Bat was still patrolling, there was a chance he'd find me before Slade did.

Make good on his promise.

But I didn't deserve it.

"Apprentice why are you stalling in the city?" Slade's voice jarred me out of the conversation, I sighed, that hadn't lasted very long.

Rolling my eyes in a tiny show of rebellion, I touched my ear. "Just taking a moment to see the city. I'll report back soon" thinking better of it, I quickly tacked on a respectful "Sir."

"Don't make me come after you girl. You will not like the consequences."

"Acknowledged." I got up from my perch, looking around for Dick, but he was gone. Time to face the music I suppose.

Quickly I made my way back, desperately trying to ignore the old fear twisting in my gut. I wasn't the old Maddie, sure. I'd grown well past numb to the fear Slade liked to induce, but sometimes I couldn't help myself.

Especially when I knew his reactions so well.

Slade was sitting on his throne, typing at his computer when I entered. I waited patiently at attention. "Report" He demanded, never pausing in his task, whatever it was.

"The lead was a dead end, Sir." I bowed my head as if ashamed. "Charlie Gray has evaded me once again."

Though I was half expecting it, the backhanded slap still caught me off guard. I clenched my jaw as my head whipped to the side.

"I told you not to disappoint" He punctuated his statement with a kick to my stomach, sending me halfway across the room. "I want this person found!"

Then do it yourself. I added bitterly in my head.

"I apologize for my inadequacies." I kept my head down, hoping the show of submission might stop this. My ribs were already bruising, I'd prefer that to be the worst of my wounds. "I will find them" I promised, waiting for the next heavy handed blow.

"I think a few days in The Room will help clear your mind" he took a threatening step forward and I immediately cowered.

"No!" Please. I cleared my throat, ignoring the narrowing of Slade's eye. "I can only find Charlie Gray if I'm in my right mind"

He seemed to think it over, hands behind his back as he towered over me. "Fine. You are saved just this once, disappoint me again and there will be harsher consequences, now get out of my sight."

I quickly scurried back to my room, both surprise and relief mixing in my chest. I thought it was going to be worse, that he'd at least break something. Bruises I could deal with, broken bones were another story.

Dick wasn't here to help me through that anymore.

My bathroom mirror reflected a person I didn't recognize, fully geared in Slade's colors, I looked almost exactly like him. I ripped my mask off as if it burned me, chucking it as far away as I could before throwing the orange and black armor on the counter.

Now there was only a broken girl staring back at me, hardly even twenty four. Dick would've been that age too if he hadn't met his demise. Something was just off about my eyes, maybe it was the murder or the scheming, but I didn't know how much more my mind could take before it finally cracked, if it hadn't already.

I looked dead inside.

Was I insane for what I was doing? As satisfying as Wintergreen's death had been, why had I killed the others.

"It was to ensure Slade's empire toppled" Dick appeared again, this time leaning against the wall next to my mirror. "Don't give up now, you're so close"

I took my gaze off my shattered reflection, finding it in myself to make eye contact with Dick. "Weren't you just telling me I had too much blood on my hands?"

He shrugged. "I say whatever you want me to say, I'm in your head after all"

He looked so much like the real Dick it hurt, even down to the X scar on his cheek.

"Then why were you so cruel when we first met" I shot back, gripping the granite beneath my fingers.

"Why did you imagine me that way Princess?" Dick raised an eyebrow.

"You're so annoying" I rolled my eyes. "And don't call me that."

Only the real Dick had that privilege and he was gone.

"Ouch" he grinned playfully. "Who's the rude one now?"

And for a moment I forgot my troubles, forgot that I was plotting to trap my father, that my best friend was dead. Because the hallucination had managed to make me laugh.

I knew it wasn't real, that he was just something I had conjured up, likely to cope, but his smiles and jokes threw me off. For the first time in my life I was glad that The Room made me hallucinate and that this one had stayed.

"I'm going to avenge you" I promised as he dissipated into thin air, I turned back toward my reflection. Maybe this wasn't what Dick would want, but it's what I wanted. Slade Wilson deserved to burn in the pits of Hell for what he'd done, and I'd be the one to send him there.