"Vic?" I practically breathed, feeling my body freeze with shock.

It was her. It was actually her.

Victoria Akio tore the mask from her face, revealing her chin, nose and lips. Now that I was up close I could really see the resemblance she had to the little girl from my past.

To the little girl who'd been my only true friend. Even truer than Conner.

We stood frozen, the both of just staring at each other like we were weird aliens who'd just stepped out of a UFO.

"The way you fought..." Victoria began, eyes drifting back to the assassin beneath her boot. "I knew I recognized it. I knew I recognized you."

I couldn't believe this was happening. It had been about five years since I'd seen her, when I was nine. Her father and Slade had been business partners once upon a time, co-joining their facilities and agents to execute missions and complete contracts.

A slight feeling of hysteria washed over me and I let out an involuntary laugh. "This can't be happening... this is crazy. There's no way."

But Vic's lips curled into a familiar smirk. That mischievous smirk I remembered.

"Dude, this is happening," she smiled. "This is fucking happening."

Now we were both laughing, her cool and controlled chuckles mixing with my more excited ones.

"Holy shit, it's been five years!" I exclaimed.

She shook her head in disbelief. "Five years, huh?"

But then reality came and whacked me in the face, forcing me back to the situation at hand.

"Wait, what are you doing here?"

Victoria looked away at that, her smile vanishing instantly. "Oh, you know how it is. Father's getting me to do his dirty work again."

I frowned at her, pity resting on my features.

"But what's new?" Vic added, peering at the still struggling assassin on the floor.

I remember the feeling.

"You're still working for Kage?" I asked, tucking my knife back into my shoe.

She nodded. "They sent me to kill this kid, but now I just gotta bring him in."

"That's why you're at my school then?"

Victoria smiled. "Why else would I be spending my days in the midst of rich, spoiled brats?"

This time it was my turn to smile. "Well I happen to be one of those brats now. Who would've thought?"

A brief pause, and then Vic squinted at me. "So you're not with... you know, him anymore?"

I knew she was referring to my father. Vic always knew just how much I hated him. Just how traumatized I was of him. She'd met me when I was six, two years after I'd been stolen from my mother.

I still hadn't gotten over that.

"I got out. You probably heard about it, Batman shutting down Midnight and all. Now I'm living a somewhat enjoyable life," I told her.

Emphasis on the somewhat. My past always seemed to follow me.

Kind of like right now...

"Well that's a first," Vic joked, though it wasn't really a joke because we both resonated with it far too much.

I gestured to the assassin who was still trapped beneath Vic's shoe. "Do you have any idea who this is?"

Vic shook her head. "No clue. She's been following me. This is the second time she's tried to attack."

The assassin let out a loud growl, and Vic scowled at her. She grabbed her by the arm and shoved her against the wall, pressing the blade of her dagger into her throat.

"What do you fucking want from me?"

The assassin went quiet, obviously refusing to giver herself away. Her eyes locked on the blade that was a hair's width from her neck.

"I bet she's working for one of the big leagues. Look at her robes," I said, prodding at the assassins advanced outfit. "And the armor plates are high quality. Looks like Kevlar."

The assassin glared at me, but I just glared back. Who the fuck was this girl and what did she want from either of us? From Gotham Academy?

"Why'd you blow up the school?" Vic demanded, which only earned more silence as the assassin struggled against her grip.

I went to remove the mask and hood from her face in an attempt to uncover her identity, but the assassin darted out of the way. She kicked at Vic's shin, momentarily injuring her and took this opportunity to twist out of her grip and run.

She made it probably ten feet before I caught her by the waist, pulled her to the floor and rolled several times due to our speed until I was on top.

I grabbed the blade from my shoe once again and held it to her neck. My legs straddled her body and kept her trapped to the ground.

"Answer the question," I growled.

The assassin glanced at my blade. "You wouldn't."

Now I was mad. She thought I was weak? Thought I was too scared to draw some blood?

I pulled the knife away and stabbed it down into her right shoulder instead, away from any vital organs. She cried out in pain, her body thrashing under mine.

"Your throat's next," I said.

She just yelled back, "You're crazy!"

You thinks that's crazy? Man, you haven't seen nothing yet...

Victoria crouched down beside the assassin's head. With slow, simple words, like she was talking to a small child, she said, "Tell us, or she'll kill you."

The assassin was grunting with frustration. I ripped the knife from the wound, drawing it back to her neck. "We're giving you ten seconds. Vic, care to do the honors?"

Victoria smiled and began to count down from ten. The assassin's eyes were darting all over the place. She was desperately searching for a way out, a way to take us both down. But she knew she was outnumbered, and subsequently out-skilled

Vic got down to three before the assassin finally snarled, "I'm just doing what he's paying me for!"

I glanced at Vic, who shared my same intrigued look.

She said, "And who is he?"

Now the assassin was back to being silent. She paused for too long, so I went to stab her other shoulder as a second warning.

"No! Don't! It's... it's Deathstroke, okay? It's Deathstroke."

Suddenly I froze, and it felt as if everything had stopped moving.

My surroundings went blank. My heartbeat paused. I just sat there, knife still extended in the air, my lips parted with shock.

"What?"

Victoria sensed my terror and grabbed my shoulder. "Sasha, don't freak out..."

But it was too late. The knife clattered to the ground and I said, "You're lying, aren't you? You're lying."

When the assassin shook her head, I gripped her by the front of her shirt and pulled her close.

"Where is he?! When did he hire you? Where did he hire you?"

The assassin looked just as shocked as I was. "I... I never saw him, it was through other contacts. Set up a guy to deliver my money personally."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "So you don't know where he is? If he's in Gotham or not?"

She shook her head again, and the tiniest bit of relief surged through me.

But not enough to ease my worries.

"Why the hell does Deathstroke want Mason?" Vic demanded, her face crinkled with confusion.

Mason?

I sent her a puzzled look, and she quietly added, "He's the kid."

The assassin was losing quite a bit of blood and looked desperate to leave. "I don't know. Why would I know? Just let me go already!"

Oh my God, he was back, wasn't he? Or at least he was going to be. There was no way Slade would be sending out assassins to kill specific people remotely. The assassin wouldn't have mentioned his name that way, Slade's men would've taken credit for all his activity.

"I have to go. I have to go," I muttered, releasing the assassin and stumbling to my feet. I didn't even care about anything else anymore, the school being on fire, the assassin being free, mason's life.

All I could think about was Slade.

Victoria tried to grab my arm before I could leave, but now the assassin was scrambling up and making a run for it.

"Sasha, wait," Vic called, cursing as she wrestled the assassin and tried to stop her.

But I was focused on one thing and one thing only; getting back to the Manor, locking myself in a room and hiding under the blankets.

That way I'd be safe. That way he wouldn't take me again.

"I'm sorry," I said, sparing a glance back at Vic.

She looked upset, like she wanted to follow me, but at the same time she wasn't about to let the assassin go.

The mission always comes first, after all.

I turned the corner as quickly as possible and sprinted down the street. A small part of me ached, telling me that I'd just lost my friend for the second time. I hadn't seen her since that night Slade took me back to my home. To Russia.

But I had to get away. My mind was a mess, and I could feel it crumbling. I felt like I might cry.

Why was he here? How was he here? He should be locked up tight with the league, never to return.

He should be dead.

And that was when I realized something. That was when I realized that if he ever came back, if he ever laid a finger on me again, I would kill him.

I would fucking kill him.

---------------------------------

Damian's P.O.V:

The second I heard about the explosion at Gotham Academy, I abandoned Bruce and fled to the scene.

Father had been handcuffing an unconscious Poison Ivy at that moment. She'd destroyed an entire warehouse packed with fossil fuels and other harmful products to the environment.

Her reasoning was somewhat valid, but her methods were not. She'd injured twenty civilians and had tried to murder six officers in the process.

"Robin, what the hell are you doing?" Batman demanded through the comms.

I took a sharp left on my motorcycle, the wheels skidding against the tarmac road.

"There's been an attack," I answered vaguely, too concentrated on the busy highway ahead of me to speak full sentences.

Father seemed to catch on quick enough. I heard him starting the batmobile engine, his computer clearly alerting him of the location of the explosion.

His voice turned urgent now. "Damian, if he's back--."

"I'll get her, father," I cut in, and my own concern had already manifested to the point where I'd had to pull up her trackers.

And not just the ones in her shoes, either.

Father's psycho bugs finally came in handy.

But my eyes narrowed at what I saw on the screen before me. Sasha wasn't near the school. In fact, she was moving rather quickly toward Gotham central park.

Slade. It has to be Slade, my mind concluded.

Father knew it, too. Why else would someone attack a high school and force her out into the open like this?

I needed to get to her first.

I reached the park almost instantly on my bike. I noticed a head of blonde hair in the corner of my eye. Then to my left, a flicker of black, and I noticed a dark figure close by. I knew exactly what was about to happen.

Sasha was maybe 100 feet up ahead. She was hurriedly making her way through the park, shoving past the many people strolling along the footpath. She looked panicked; scared, even.

I jumped to the ground and sprinted across the grass. I could sense the attacker moving through the small crowd, using the trees and bushes as coverage.

They thought they were clever. They thought they were sneaky, but they failed to escape my trained eyes.

Sasha made it to the end of the pathway and cut through a patch of open grass. She was fully exposed now, a detail that she more than likely knew, too, but was too worried to care.

That was when I saw him; an assassin, definitely male, dressed head to toe in black and carrying a suppressor on his pistol.

The pistol that was aimed at Sasha's head.

My skilled athletic abilities kicked in at that moment and I shot along the open field. She saw me seconds before I reached her, gripping her waist and pulling her to the floor instantly as a gun shot rung out.

I felt the bullet rip through the air above us but miss Sasha's arm by a quarter of an inch.
Screams from the civilians surrounding us. They began to flee the area as we rolled across the ground

I landed on top of her, her blue eyes wide with shock as she stared back at me.

Once her breathing had calmed, she somehow managed to joke, "A little close, don't you think?"

I couldn't believe her.

Now the assassin was nearing us and I tore my katana from my belt.

"A thank you would be nice," I muttered.

He ran forward, pistol still extended, and he fired once again. I swiped my sword in time to deflect the bullet, watching the metal shell land somewhere in the grass.

"Stay down," I ordered to Sasha, moving in front of her.

I twirled my katana in my hand, flexing out my wrist and preparing to attack. The assassin was making his way toward me. He bore no visible weapons aside from the gun, meaning that he had intended on fulfilling his "mission" through his marksmanship alone.

My brain automatically analzed his movements; Slow, steady walking pattern. Arm extended with his fingers tightly wrapped around the trigger. The hesitancy in his steps proved to me that he wasn't here to fight, he was just here to kill.

To exterminate, like he would with an insect.

I'd been trained to adapt my combat techniques to suit the situations that folded out before me. In this instance, I sped up, charging forward at him in an agile manner.

He fired at me again but simply deflected the bullet once more and continued running at him full speed. Only a couple yards remained between us and I could sense his panic now. He had realized that I was not afraid of a couple bullets, probably a stark contrast to majority of his past opponents.

Scared of my sudden closeness now, he began shooting at random, unloading the last three bullets in his clip that I dodged with ease before leaping forward and swiping my sword right down his chest.

The assassins staggered back, stunned. His training kicked in a little too late and I spun with the momentum of my sword, driving it back into his right bicep.

He yelped with pain, but this only made me narrow my eyes even more and send my boot to his gut. The assassin fell to the ground in a crumpled heap, but I made sure to kick him in the head so he was out cold.

I stood there, panting, looking down at him for what felt like forever.

He tried to kill her, a small voice spoke.

And he nearly succeeded.

"It's him," Sasha whispered from behind me, which snapped me from my small trance.

I turned to her, noticing the solemn look on her face and the shininess of her eyes.

"He's coming back," she continued. "Slade's coming back."

I could feel the anger boiling under my skin at her words. I'd assumed this the second the explosion had occurred.

Of course he is. Of course he fucking is.

"I should've known," I growled.

But Sasha was running her hands through her hair now, shaking her head repeatedly.

"No, no, I should've known. I should've prepared for this. I should've realized he'd be out by now."

It was a mystery to me how Slade had somehow managed to escape Nanda Parbat. No one escaped from Talia and got away with it. No one but a fellow Al Ghul.

Like me.

I stared at Sasha. Now that my mind had fully cleared, my eyes seemed to properly hone in on her appearance. That was when I saw the blood, the cuts, and the bruises forming on her skin.

My blood went cold and I grasped her arm.

"Who did this?"

She glanced down at herself, shocked, as if she hadn't even noticed the injuries on her own body.

"I was... I was so busy running, I didn't realize..." she trailed off.

Now I was grabbing her wrists, her shoulders, poking and prodding at her body to scan for other wounds. Sasha kept telling me she was fine but I did not care. She'd been hurt.

She eventually pulled away from me. "Damian, stop, it's nothing. There was this other assassin trying to fight me but then this girl helped me--."

"There was another one?" I exclaimed.

She rested her head in her hands and turned away from me. "Oh, god, I can't keep doing this. I can't keep doing this, Damian."

For a moment I thought she might cry. Or run away. Or possibly even shout at me, blaming me for not protecting her.

You should've fucking been there. This wouldn't have happened if you'd just stuck by her side.

"I just want to go home," Sasha said, wrapping her arms around her chest and caving into herself. "Please, can we just go home."

I tried to shove away my anger for the sake of her pain. It was clear to me that Deathstroke's possible arrival was traumatic for her. It was freaking her out.

But my anger always got the best of me, and I couldn't help myself from saying, "If he so much as touches you, I'll fucking kill him."

Then a following feeling of determination washed over me, and I stabbed my katana into the grass.

"I did it before, I'll do it again."

everyone just a heads up i know the date/time period of this story is fucked up just ignore that because when i started this story it was over a year ago and i forgot that american seasons are in different months. i was 14 so sorry abt that but i know what i'm doing now lmfaooo x