He really didn't know what to expect from the brief interaction between him and his sister. That was the plain, ungodly truth laid out before him for it was hard to expect something out of something that was unexpected. He would be lying if he hadn't thought about more than reconnecting over a strained dinner and a tearful story. If he were being true to what was actually on his mind than he would have seen that the relationship with her was something he should take for granite or push away by ignoring her presence.

He didn't exactly know why he did though, push her away or lie to her face by telling her that he was normal. Neither of them would ever be 'normal'. Nor would they ever be truly capable of showing their true colors without force. If there was one thing that both him and his sister had in common it was that they were stubborn beyond belief, taking an argument as far as it could go to win. So no neither of them were normal people, he risked his life on a daily basis and she had several years of training in several different forms of martial arts and weaponry and analyzing body language. She had fought in wars against creatures that he had turned his back on before she could even drive. At this point, claiming both of them as abnormal people would a major oversimplification.

The physiological reason behind his decisions were lost in the wind, along with missed opportunities and the commitment of forming a long lasting platonic relationships. This would have all been fine too, he didn't need distractions from his goal and he had enough responsibilities in his life to find it extremely enticing to share his emotions or have any sort of relationship with anyone other that a one time playboy act, but it was that feeling in his chest that he couldn't ignore. Not like pain, but it was so long since this sense of longing had occurred, back to when he had left the cursed camp in the first place. When he left, he was equally afraid and relieved to leave. She was the only reason he stayed for so long.

---FLASHBACK---

"Bruce." The dark haired boy turned his head away from his book to the girl who had spoken. The look on her face was almost fragile, like a milion thing were running through her head in a single second. Thoughts that she could decipher.

"Yes Annabeth?" He answered, eyes running over her face trying to analyze her expression.

"Why do you think people hate?" She asked slowly, picking out her emotions from every single word. He opened his mouth in response but no words came out, how do you answer that?

"I-I'm not very sure how you want me to answer that, I mean-" She cut me off.

"Just answer the question you King Query. I asked for your opinion, not for you to recite Plato." He felt a sigh escape his lips as he closed his book and scooted over on his bunk bed, patting the place next to him. She slid into the place next to him and listened intentaly.

"In your brain, there are structures that control hate. The Putamen and Insula, which are cognitive structures in the Sub Cortex, right behind the Cerebral Cortex. The Putamen is more in the ways of contempt of disgust, such as subjecting hate towards seafood because it doesn't please you. The Insula is in charge of distress, subjecting seafood to hate because you are allergic." Was his traditional thought response.

"But that's how you hate, in society, what causes people to hate others so intensely?" She waved her hands out in front of her, proclaiming her distress through exaggerated movements.

"Well-um well think of this way. In science, there is no cold. Particles moving at all is only called heat, as the particles move faster, the heat energy increases. Therefore there is no cold, only an absence of heat. Maybe in the world, there isn't necessarily hate, but an absence of contempt-ness. What drives our society to 'hate' differs among all people, but all are driven to 'hate' because the set of values or ideas that they have come to know. The line between love and hate is thin though, they are both controlled through the same cerebral structures."

She was quiet for a long time, not exactly refusing to look at him, but keeping her eyes trained on the headboard in front of her. Against better judgement, he delved into a deeper area of conversation.

"May I ask why this question has come up?"

"No reason," she blurtd out all too quickly, eyes flickering to the left and then forcing stained eye contact. He just raised his eyebrows as she uncharastically showed signs of nervousness. "Just a thought I guess, it's really not important."

He grabbed her hand and moved her chin up so that it was nearly impossible not to stare into his eyes. He analyzed them, how they darted back and forth with her breath held up in her throat. Grey eyes and body language that showed sign of confusion.

"Annabeth, you are very intelligent, but you must get Luke to teach you how to lie." He let go of her face and leaned back, but eye contact remained. "Now tell me why you asked."

"No reason, I just heard some things..."

"Annabeth, tell me."

She turned her gaze down, focusing on the grey covers instead of the demanding tone in her brother's voice. It was a moment of them bathed in the rooms silence before she finally spoke.

"The others, they talk. They think that I don't know what they're talking about, but I know what they're talking about. They say hideous things about the other campers, people they dislike." She found her footing and stood up by the bed in front of and he voice gained an edge to it. Like she was lying to herself.

"I mean, I don't care." Her face fell." Didn't care, well until your name came up and they all laughed, LAUGHED, at the prospect of you fighting a son of Ares and winning. They all said you were weak, controlling and they called you names Bruce."

He wanted to respond, but once again he found himself biting his tongue. He didn't want to ruin the girl's view of the camp as a perfect safe haven, maybe it was for her, but to him it was the humanoid reincarnation of tartarus. He had allowed himself to hope that he might be able to ignore the fact that most of the other children in the hell's camp didn't enjoy his slightly condescending attitude. It had been working for the majority of the time that spent in the Athena cabin, alone studying different literatures and sciences.

Maybe, inside the confines of the place that was no where near close to his home, he found comfort in knowing that the knowledge and experience he gained here may help him deal with other people's behavior in the future. That was the only comfort he would get here other than befriending a young child that had gotten inside his ribcage so quickly and the knowledge that he was becoming a better fighter.

"I know Queen Keen, sometimes they do that. Don't listen to hateful words, they're always bias, but it's best not to retaliate either. People will talk, it's up to you to acknowledge what they say and never take it to heart." He held up his pinky finger. "Promise me."

She stared at the appendage for a moment before her face broke out into a grin, which brightened up the moment considerably. She rapped her pinky finger around his and tugged on it.

"I promise."

---FLASHBACK OVER---

"Mr. Wayne!" The voice of his secretary snapped him out of his thoughts. He hadn't thought about the woman in 15 years and now all of the memories he had tucked away in his subconscious were surfacing, endearing him to take action. To not let it fall away.

"Yes?" he raised his eyes from the computer on his desk, staring at his secretary in the doorway. The light from the screen reflected off the features of his face, bathing them in a white glow.

"You have an appointment with the CEO of Acropolis Architectural Firm in 20 minutes, sir." with that she scurried out of the doorway and down the hall while Bruce was frozen in place. He did not recall ever being informed of a meeting with her, if anything he would never forget it. His training as a vigilante included committing to memory a sizeable amount of information, memorizing potential weaknesses and several thousands of contingency plans. No, he would have forgotten, he was never informed.

He shut down his laptop, that had gone dark quite a while ago, a little too forcefully for his not to be visibly peeved. He leaned back in his chair and it groaned under his weight, bringing his hands in a relaxed position behind his head. The everlasting scowl was still in place on his lips though, that would stay till he had to interact with another life form.

It was only a few minuets later that his sister entered his office, visibly disheveled for reasons beyond his knowledge. Her head was still held to the ceiling and her chest was puffed out as if she was a performer, what could either be a sign of latent confidence or acting. She sat down quietly in the chair on the other side of his desk and folded her hands in her lap waiting for him to begin any form of conversation.

After a few seconds the quiet got to her and she spoke up.

"So." She brushed a stray blonde curl out of her face and straightened her spine. "How have you been?"

"Well, and you?" Was his toneless response.

"Fine."

Silence.

More silence.

It has been approximately 15 seconds since someone has spoke.

A sigh escaped his lips and he thought of something to say, something to ask.

"Why are you here." That may have been too hostile based off her suppressed reaction.

"Do you remember capture the flag at camp? We would play every week in the woods." If it was possible to catch him off guard, that would have caught him off guard. He just made a vague movement in his head in affirmation. "The team that had the Athena kids would usually win, we drew up plans for at least 20 different battle strategies every week."

"One of the events from that camp that I would actually find no problem in remembering." he muttered under his breath.

"There was this one time, I think I was 8, we were playing against the Ares and Hephaestus cabins. They somehow were smart enough to have a Hermes kid take a copy of our plans and then set up traps for us along the wood. Long story short, we ended up hanging upside down with our feet bound in rope and hanging from a tree."

"You were intensely scared, I remember." He coughed out.

"I couldn't get down." She looked lost in thought, wiping her eye absentmindedly. "You made me promise, gods you always made me promise. You said that it was ok to know fear, to be afraid of something that you couldn't control, but you made me promise to not be afraid of things that I could control, completing in my own abilities. You made me promise that I wouldn't let the fear control me, my actions. Not to be afraid of life and push your way through because it was under your control."

"You cut yourself down."

"I cut myself down Bruce."

"You broke your arm, but yeah, you cut yourself down." His lips twitched for only a fraction of a movement. Her face became sullen though, her eyes losing light and whatever fraction of a smile her lips held dropped.

"I broke our promise, on multiple occasions..." She bit her lip and turned her head towards the floor.

They were silent again, but it was filled with all the wrong things. The silence was filled to the brim with affliction and dysphoria, it was too terse for his approval. Moving somewhat out of character, he laid his hand over her's that was splayed out on his desk. She brought her head up again and took a deep breath in to collect herself. He had a feeling, call it intuition, she had to do that a lot these days.

"But you also made me promise to admit it when I need help." She swallowed thickly.

She moved her hand out of his and into her pocket, pulling out a slim black device. He eyed it with furrowed eyebrows as it clattered to the desk and tensed out of habit, he had no reason to be suspicious of her actions at this point. It was a straight black slab of metal about three inches long, about as big as a phone but slimmer.

She pressed her index finger into the center and the place where her finger was left a glowing blue imprint as she retracted her hand. Like clockwork, the slab unfolded and connected different joints until it was a centimeter thick black sheet that radiated blue light around the perimeter. He met her eyes and she just everted them.

"I was told to not trust anyone, to not speak with anyone, to not even say the name." He had heard many things come from her voice, a broken sob, a witty response, even a scream from a midnight nightmare, but this, this was fear.

"What name?" His voice came of ruffer that he meant it to be.

"Access Project Infinity. Password encryption: Spider." She waved her hand smoothly over the sheet and it immediately raised into a hologram. It glowed with different famous buildings from all around the world. He swipe a hand upwards and the images scrolled up showing hundreds of more.

"The name is The Court Of Owls, I was hacked by them and they gained access to this file, they left a message in the remnants of their programing." For once he was at a loss, he had never heard of them.

"I'll help, I know you would help me." He responded wholeheartedly. She nodded back despondently.

She moved her hand and pressed her index finger into the middle of the device and it immediately began folding back into the previous form. She pushed it towards him and stood abruptly from the chair, ready to hightail it out of the room. Before she left he called after her.

"I guess this is a little harder than reciting Plato, isn't it, Queen keen?" He viewed as she she tilted her head to the side, her back still to him.

"Be careful, King Query." She shut the door behind her and he was left sitting alone in his office, staring intently at the words scrawled onto the piece of paper she has slyly slipped onto the table.

'Meet me at the corner of of Cherry street and 7th, then we can discuss your cosplaying activities in a more secure location.'

He usually didn't cuss, but this time he thought he deserved it as he let out a single word.

"Fuck"

Hello! Sorry for the short chapter, Oh wait not really.....

Well whatever PLOT TWIST!