Artemis met Kaldur in his office.

He was leaning against his desk, knuckles against his mouth, elbow against the other arm. The top half of his armour was absent, revealing his tattoos.

"you asked to see me, boss?" she said, and if she payed attention she could hear the fake voice the glamour charm created. Or maybe she was imagining it.

Kaldur nodded to the corner of the room's ceiling, where a camera sat, "video's out, so is microphones."

Artemis sighed as her muscles relaxed, she let the tension evaporate as she sat down in the empty chair.

"how did the mission go?"

Kaldur allowed the smallest of smiles, "very well."

"oh?"

Kaldur couldn't fight the smile anymore, it broke free. Artemis hadn't seen him so happy in... months. A year. A weight on her shoulders disappeared.

"Dick is on our side."

"Dick?"

"short for Richard," Kaldur waved his hand, "he'll work with us."

Artemis' eyebrows shot up, "what?"

Kaldur's smile didn't stop.

Artemis laughed, "oh my god, are you kidding?" she ran her hand through her hair, "how? Why? What?"

Kaldur seemed to struggle with wording. "we had a heart to heart." He eventually said.

"that's one hell of a conversation," she said, leaning back in her chair, "you're sure?"

"one hundred percent."

"okay," she said, "what's our plan?"

Dick was quite sure he'd have taken a knife to his throat by now if it weren't for the fact that he found the terror twins vaguely amusing, in an annoying, undereducated way. Like watching the old looney toons cartoons.

"Brother Tommy, I think we're plumb crazy to trust this speller, I mean it wasn't two years ago mister Aqualad here, was tryna lock us back up in Belle Reve."

Tuppence Terror was almost identical to her teenaged self. Perhaps a little taller and broader in the shoulders, maybe she was a bit more edgy and gothic in an... energy way, maybe it was the vibes.

"Well, sister Tuppence, folks say he had a change of heart after finding out who his pappy is."

Dick rolled his eyes, forcing himself not to meet Kaldur's eyes. He'd probably burst out laughing. Instead he stared at his screen, arms crossed, glancing at Artemis every now and then.

She hadn't said a word to him. had Kaldur told her?

Icicle Junior swept in behind Tuppence, placing a hand on her shoulder, "I heard he switched sides cause of some girl, which I totally get, you know, if it's the right girl."

Dick had to fight his gag. He caught Artemis' eye and pointedly looked at the two talking, then rolled his eyes. He thought he caught the slightest hint of a smirk.

"step back junior, you're givin' me the chills."

"but in a good way, right babe?"

Artemis caught his eye again and, after checking none of the others were watching, mimed herself gagging. Dick smiled and stuck his tongue out in a disgusted face.

"me? I'm more concerned about this Tigress." Artemis and Dick both glanced at Tommy Terror as he said the words, immediately sobering into their straight-backed positions, "How come the Terror Twins ain't never heard of her before?"

"you know we can hear you?" Dick said, keeping the appropriate amount of distaste in his voice, accompanying the snide side eying tone. The correct mixing of mood was a skill he'd perfected whilst accompanying Ra's and Thalia to their multiple meetings, most of which of a political nature.

"that we do, mistah," Tommy smirked with a raised eyebrow as he turned over the back of the chair, "these are open questions, ya see."

Dick and Artemis managed a moment where they shared eye contact, then Artemis spoke up.

"so, which one of you want to ask those questions of Black Manta?"

Dick couldn't fight the boasting smile and turned back to his screen, fighting the chuckle.

"Which one of you wants to suggest to the big bad, that his son and his son's hand-picked right hand can't be trusted?"

Artemis was very good at the haughty, confident, raised-eyebrow voice. Dick shot her a smile as she turned back to her own screen.

Distantly Dick could hear Junior leaning over Tuppence again, "don't look so defeated, I'm here for you babe."

Dick rolled his eyes. Junior just had no clue how to woo a woman, did he?

"ha, ha! Left them in the dust!"

"left who in the dust?" Batgirl asked, arms crossed as she frowned at Impulse and Blue Beetle, her eyes widened as they landed on the object in Impulse's hand, "and what is that?"

"souvenir!"

"souvenirs are beast boy's thing, ese."

"really I thought they were Kid Flash's?"

"can we get to it?" Batgirl asked, two seconds from glaring.

"Sorry, Aqualad attacked us with Icicle Junior, the Terror Twins, and two unknown ninja people I didn't recognise."

Uh oh, it was happening.

Batgirl took a deep breath as she listened to Impulse finish the explanation. It was time for Kaldur to storm the mountain. She had to keep her wits about her.

"this is how he tracked Blue, I made sure they couldn't do it again."

Batgirl prepared for the acting she'd have to do, "so you brought foreign, possibly alien tech into the cave? Rookie mistake," she glared, even though that was exactly what they had expected Impulse to do. She was, in hindsight, glad it had been Impulse Blue Beetle was with, as expected. She then sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, "alright, give it here."

The mountain was silent. Deathly silent. Batgirl had made sure to pull the right strings that had the inhabitants at lower numbers, most of which either in bed or otherwise preoccupied in their rooms.

All going according to plan, Kaldur would emerge from the water, quickly dismissing Sphere. Artemis and Renegade would sneak in via the vent system. The other three... she wasn't sure.

Renegade hacked the motion sensors and cameras, just to make sure everything looked legit for the terrors and junior.

"Batgirl, Beetle and the speedster are in the main room," Renegade said, pointing it out to the rest of the team, keeping his voice low. Artemis had already put a collar on Wolf and had more on hand for the rest, "Superboy is in here," he pointed out on the map, "Beast Boy is in his room, here."

Kaldur nodded, "Tuppence, Tigress, take Beast Boy. We'll deal with Superboy. Then meet to take the remaining three."

As they walked to the grotto Dick allowed himself and Kaldur to fall behind, turning his head to Kaldur.

"you didn't tell Tigress," he said, lowly.

"she knows you're working with us."

"but not who I am."

"no."

"why not?"

Kaldur grimaced, "long story."

Dick shared a look with him, hoping he conveyed the fact that he understood his apprehension.

"it's on the drive," Kaldur said, even quieter than before.

Dick nodded.

"where's Isabel?"

Dick smiled, "not sure, I wasn't gonna bring her on the ship, she can take care of herself."

"how will you find her? Does she have a tracker?"

Dick shook his head, "don't expect me to know how, but she can always find me."

Kaldur said, "so it's a cryptic 'just don't ask about it' situation."

"hey, she's bred for this," he shrugged, "I stopped questioning how weird the court can be a long time ago."

And then they were there, the grotto. Tommy and Icicle took the lead, but when Tommy held the collar up Superboy made a hit. As Tommy flew back Junior grabbed the collar and snapped it on. Superboy elbowed him back, no superstrength but still manoeuvrability, he stumbled away. Right towards Dick.

Renegade caught Superboy's punch.

"sorry," he smirked, forcing a laugh to tint his voice, "collar's taken out your strength."

Which was a shame, because he would enjoy a rematch with Conner. He hadn't fought him since they'd sparred all those years ago. They didn't get to finish, no winner was named.

As Renegade moved between Conner's attempts at hits he delivered a few of his own, eventually getting him down in a lock. Jamming Conner's face into the ground beneath him.

"sucks, I know," Renegade hissed, "I'd love to have a fair fight with you."

He knocked him out.

"Don't know about you Junior, but I'm holding some old resentments against this boy," Tommy said.

Dick rolled his eyes as he stood. of course that's all Tommy cared about.

"oh yeah, let's finish him," Junior said.

Dick was about to make something up, but Kaldur caught him to it.

"Belay that."

He was staring at the hologram of Aquagirl. Dick felt a pang watching him be so clearly pained.

"when the time is right you will have your revenge," Kaldur assured the two boys, "for now, I need Superboy alive."

Batgirl was not an actress, she really wasn't. it was a good thing they'd organised Artemis' death to only include the others after the especially difficult acting part. Now, however, she had to sell it, start to finish. Which included being surprised about all of it.

What she didn't have to fake her surprise for was when Renegade appeared.

She would have let him win, but even still she could tell he was an amazing fighter. Once she was down the collar snapped on. He leaned in.

"hey there Babs," he grinned.

She froze, staring at him.

"what?"

He was still smiling, smirking almost. She glared, scowled and hooked her ankles around his throat to slam him to the ground. She got to her feet quickly.

Renegade stood as well, smiling at her.

Barbara moved to fight again, intending to beat out of him how he knew that name. that nickname. She forgot for a moment she was supposed to be letting them win.

And then electricity was running through her and she remembered that she had to sell this. She collapsed to her knees.

She could hear, distantly as she breathed and regained her bearings, Blue Beetle and Kaldur conversing. The bomb was revealed. She knew how this was supposed to go, this was charted territory once more. Renegade had thrown her off her rhythm, but she had to get her head in the game. Hopefully Kaldur's information would fill in some gaps, if not she would have chances after this to follow up.

Kaldur was making the excuses, ensuring that only Blue Beetle, Beast Boy and Impulse were captured. Batgirl struggled up.

"Aqualad," she scowled, glaring, "You'll regret this!"

Kaldur stalked over, ever so good at selling this. He punched her in the gut and she doubled over, making sure she had securely grabbed the USB in a way that no one could see it.

"I believe I have outgrown the name Aqualad," he scowled and turned away, "or anything resembling regret."

She only paid enough attention to Kaldur's warning about the switch's five mile radius to acknowledge about how long she probably had to get people out. As soon as they were out of the room she grabbed Conner's shoulder and shook him awake.

"what-"

"I'm getting your collar off," she explained as she pulled out a tool, "we have to get out of here before the bomb explodes."

"Bomb-"

"yes, bomb, catch up."

The collar clicked off and Conner grabbed her's and it crumbled in his hand.

"Grab Wolf," she ordered, "I'll get Sphere."

Conner nodded and stumbled out, becoming more sure of his steps and oriented as he walked.

She wasn't fast enough. They got caught in the debris field. Barbara cringed and squinted her eyes, hoping this didn't end with her at the bottom of the beach-bed.

Dick sat in his chair, but he'd turned it to face Kaldur. Artemis was standing to his side. The rest chatting in their little rumour mill of three.

Kaldur turned to Artemis.

"do it."

She raised an eyebrow, glancing around to make sure the terrors and junior weren't watching. She took off the mask, "are you sure?"

Dick figured out what they were talking about. He caught Kaldur's eye and hoped he'd managed to convey his objection to the idea of blowing up the mountain. What if Barbara and Superboy didn't get out on time?

Kaldur flitted his eyes away from Dick quickly. He looked at Artemis' hand, the real dead man's switch primed and ready. "do it."

Artemis looked away, put the mask back on. Dick waited a moment more to see if he could catch Kaldur's eye. He couldn't, and he turned back to his screen.

Artemis hit the button.

Mount Justice was no more.

Barbara nursed her cup of coffee, staring at it as if it would hold the answers.

The flash drive was...

Oh god, her brain was all over the place.

The tubes lit up, she didn't turn. She knew who it would be.

Kid Flash B03

"what. Happened."

Barbara closed her eyes, pursed her lips and set the mug down.

"it was necessary." She had been telling herself that for hours now. For weeks now. For months now.

"it better have been. Spill." She didn't turn, didn't think she could look at Wally without breaking down. She had to get through the important parts first. The explanations, the catch ups. Then she could cry. Then she could scream. Then she could tell him about the other things Kaldur told her on that drive.

She sighed and dove in to the explanation.

"Aqualad needed to find a way to help us rescue Lagoon Boy. He'd already injected a microscopic tag into L'Gaan's bloodstream and used the raid on the cave to pass essential intel. A flash drive," she held it up, still not looking at him. still staring into the distance, "with, among other things, tracking software that can locate the tag."

"like that's all he did," Wally got out through gritted teeth.

"Wally he had to make it look good," Barbara said, leaning back in the chair, eyes still down and closed, "he put inhibitor collars on us but he knew I'd get us out of them."

"he took three more hostages!" Wally said, incredulous, "members of your team!"

"and we'll rescue them when we rescue Lagoon boy," Batgirl said, sitting up straight and gritting her teeth.

Wally slammed his hands on the table, "Barbara he blew up the cave! You guys almost died!"

Barbara finally risked looking at him. "no," she sighed, standing up, "it's all on the flash drive. He knew I'd have to pursue to make it look legit and that's exactly what happened, he gave us time to get out, we just..." she looked away, sighing, "we got caught in the debris field from the explosion."

"do you even hear yourself?" Wally hissed, voice dangerously low, "what if even one of you had been left behind, huh? Why take that risk? Why go to such extremes?!"

Barbara pinched the bridge of her nose, "the drive explains that, too." She sat on the arm of the chair, crossing her arms, "he needed to cement his place within the light and with their partner."

"wasn't that why he 'murdered' Artemis," Wally said, making air quotes.

"I guess it didn't convince everyone."

"you GUESS?!"

"THE CAVE IS- was just a place!" Barbara yelled, for the first time in the whole conversation. For a moment Wally looked surprised and rightfully guilty before he delved back into his determination, "It was worth sacrificing if it helps us stop the invasion." She took a deep breath, scowled, "look, I'm sorry you lost all your souvenirs-"

"are you kidding?!" Wally grabbed her by the collar of her suit, "I don't care about that junk! I'm worried about Artemis!" he pushed her into the chair, "Terrified for her! You put her right in his hands!"

"Wally we're talking about Kaldur here!" Barbara reminded.

"I know," Wally said, "Kaldur, my friend, who, within the space of a few months, lost the love of his life, and found out that Black Manta is his father. Isn't it possible he might actually be a traitor," he said, his hand sliding his glasses off to place them on the table, which he leaned against, eyes tired, "a triple agent?"

Barbara only glared.

"he's supposed to be playing them," he said, turning his head to stare at her, "are you absolutely sure he isn't playing you?"

Barbara pursed her lips.

"how dare you."

Wally blinked.

She turned her gaze on him, with all the fury she could possibly lay on him, "how dare you suggest, consider, that your friend, who has been killing himself to do everything he can to protect the people he loves," she stood, each word punctuated by the stress she was throwing into her words, "would ever, in his life, turn against you. He is throwing away any chance he has of returning to his true home, to his king, to his family, to even create some Hope of an upper hand over the Light."

Wally was staring at the table, taking Barbara's verbal beat down without complaint. All he did was stare at the table, jaw clenched as he closed his eyes. Barbara was quite sure she saw the smallest bit of water budding up at the corners.

"Kaldur has sacrificed so fucking much in the past year, how dare you walk in here and suggest," her voice was rising, she wasn't sure when that had started, "that he could ever turn against you."

Wally's head dropped, his shoulders tense as he took deep breaths to fight off the guilt ridden expression and the wetness of his eyes.

Batgirl took her own steadying breaths, trying to regain composure. There was more emotional turmoil to throw into this conversation.

"while you're here," she said, refusing to give up the moral high ground she'd created, "do you want to know what else was said on the drive? Or would you rather give up entirely?"

Wally stood, wiped away his eyes and looked at her, "what?"

Barbara wasn't sure how she should word this. She sat on the table, kicking her feet like she was a child. She remembered her first day in the suit, sitting on top of a building, wondering how Dick had managed to throw himself off so many without a care in the world.

Dick...

At the memory of him she almost broke. But she couldn't. she had to tell Wally. Now.

"Kaldur talked to Renegade," she started, "he's on our side."

Wally blinked, "what? How?"

"because," she sighed, "I don't know. But. I'm not sure if it's a reason why or a contributing factor. I don't know. I..."

"Babs."

"I'm rambling, look," she cleared her throat, took a deep breath, "Renegade is-" her voice stopped working, he throat constricted, the air disappeared, she took a breath and it wouldn't fill her lungs but she managed to squeak out, "he's Dick. Renegade is Richard Grayson."

Wally froze.

"Jason's alive, too," she said, and a tear slipped out and ran down her cheek, she let out a shuddered breath, "he's alive, at Nanda Parbat."

"you have got to be fucking kidding me."

Barbara shook her head.

"you. Have got. To be fucking kidding me, Dick ran off to the fucking league of assassins?!" Wally was throwing his hands about the air, "I'm gonna go find a way to actually make a difference, he said, Wally the League's a sham, he said, Wally, Batman's an ass who can't do his job right, he said, and then he goes and becomes a fucking assassin?!"

Barbara blinked, staring at Wally, "what?"

Wally pointed a finger, "I told him I loved him, you know? I told him, 'Dick, it's okay, we can figure this out' but no, he ran off because he's a huge fucking ass, who's super fucking full of himself, and now he comes back?! you have got to be fucking kidding me."

Barbara was just staring as Wally continued to rant, spilling out everything that had happened that night six years ago. He'd never told anyone about this. Never. And now he was laughing darkly and screaming and ranting and pacing and waving his hands around.

"oh, Dick," she mumbled, watching Wally continue to spaz out, "you've really fucked up now."

Kaldur was beginning to despise his office.

Really it wasn't much of an office perse. It was a room with a desk and computer specifically designed with the intent of being used for mentally gruelling work and holding huge stacks of paper.

It was a study. But it was fancy and used by a double agent lieutenant for a militaristic organisation. So office sounded a bit better than study. Or at least a little less like it commonly housed a college student readying for mental breakdown inducing exams.

He was only of a college student's age and his mental breakdowns had to do with the fate of the world.

Nevertheless, he spent most of his time in his office, as it was a room without surveillance where none of his father's men would be. It was a semi-safe area, considering it was on a fighter sub.

So it was the place he went to brood. Or to deliberate. Or to mentally lecture himself. Really what he was annoyed about was childish and foolish, so it was less of an inner lecture and more of an inner chastisement.

He still had not told Artemis who Dick was. It had been three days.

The team would be regrouping and re-amalgamating. Finding a new safe base of operations, configuring things, relocating and organising their living conditions. But Kaldur guessed that they would launch a rescue operation within two weeks, by the end of one week at the earliest.

If they showed up and Artemis still didn't know it'd be a mess. She needed to be able to trust him entirely. Not only that but he'd put the information on the flash drive, so Batgirl knew. If they could organise another meet he'd definitely be dragging Dick along and Artemis would find out whether he liked it or not.

Not to mention, there was no reason not to tell her. No reason at all. None.

So why couldn't he? He'd tried the first night, when he'd told her Renegade was on their side. He'd configured the sentence in his mind, strung the words together. But when he tried to put sound to concept the words had died on his tongue and he'd suddenly been incapable. His mouth would not do as it was told.

Maybe it was because he knew Artemis would react emotionally. Kaldur considered himself someone of a rare conscience who, when told his friend who'd been gone for six years was actually an assassin, did not react in anger or confusion but mere happiness that he finally knew where that friend was at all. Yes, Dick had technically betrayed their trust in a way. Yes, he had left knowing his friends could think him dead. Yes, he had failed to tell Kaldur who he was for the months they'd been working together. But-

Well, there really was no 'but' other than Kaldur didn't want to be mad at him. in a logical sense, he figured the surprise and elation just outweighed the anger. In an emotional sense, he expected that he'd become blinded by his feelings.

Which was a concept he didn't like thinking about so he preferred to take the logical one as fact and move on.

But he knew Artemis would not react the same way.

For her it would be a right hook to the face and a shouting match before she even thought of hugging him. Wally would probably be the same.

But he had no right to keep it from her. He couldn't use her reaction to fact as an excuse to keep it from her.

So he sat at his desk in his office and stared at the black wooden surface before him, chin resting on knitted hands in a way that was only a few slight movements away from that of prayer. He found it strange how so many positions and forms of body language were associated with prayer, with faith. Maybe it was because, in the end, when humanity was stumped by their choices in life, they threw fear to the wind and trusted in the process. They trusted in god, in money, in power, in privilege, in hope. They trusted.

They trusted and they acted, and if something went wrong they would keep making choices, keep trying till something went right or they died. Humanity, the eternal try-ers. The infinite hopefuls. Maybe that was why faith and religion had become so intrinsic over the millennia. It was just Humanity trying to create the world around them.

Trying to explain the world. In the beginning there was nothing and then god said let there be light.

Trying to explain love. Aphrodite was so pained by Adonis' death she bore down upon the enemy in her golden chariot, she pricked herself on a rose thorn and where her blood landed love bloomed.

Trying to explain pain. when the gods found out about their bond, they were eternally separated, so that life could flourish on earth, the reason did not matter to Geb and Nut, they would never be able to see each other again, that is why when you look at the stars you feel great sadness.

And trying to give meaning, reason.

Kaldur had stopped believing in religion a long time ago. Had stopped putting his faith in the unknown. Had stopped trusting.

Had stopped trying to trust.

So all he was left with was the fear of not knowing what would happen, and the inability to believe it would be okay in the end if it went wrong in the beginning. If Kaldur were a god he would never bring about light because he would be too afraid he'd burn at the sight of it.

His door opened, Dick walked in.

If Kaldur were a god, he may bring about the light just to see it reflect in his blue eyes.

Dick grabbed the chair from across the room, the one Artemis had sat in when Kaldur had told her Dick was working with them. Kaldur hadn't moved it from the corner of the small room since he'd first walked in. it was strange seeing it moved now. But Dick wasn't aware of that, he merely pulled it up to the desk and sat before Kaldur.

"good morning," Kaldur mumbled, letting his hands fall to rest against the desk, clasped together. His elbows were still holding him up. Once he'd finished speaking he let his eyes drift back to the surface of the desk.

"It's 1600 hours."

"I woke up two hours ago, it's morning."

Dick chuckled.

"what are you doing here?"

Dick shrugged, "Tigress said you were here, figured I would join you. I expected you to be drinking."

Kaldur breathed a laugh through his nose, then leaned back into his chair, "no surveillance, you can call her Artemis."

Dick nodded, "still not drinking, though."

Kaldur shook his head, "can't afford to."

Dick nodded. Silent. There was no sound. In the beginning there was darkness.

"you blew up the mountain."

Then god said let there be light.

Explosive. The words were quiet, near murmured, yet they were a crescendo against the endless nothing that was the office. Outside the walls the ocean stretched for miles, for eternity, into unpierced, blue-tainted blackness. The water moved like a rhythm this far down, Kaldur used to love it. the constant push and pull of undercurrents, like ribbons pulled and twisted, patterns coiling through. One could stop swimming and let the water move you, a dance with the waves with no effort but what it took to remain relaxed.

"an entire mountain," Dick said, and his voice pulled Kaldur from the dark, "gone." He snapped his fingers, "fragments. Ash on the wind. Gray air and rubble."

Kaldur nodded.

"why?"

"I had to make it look good," Kaldur said sadly.

Dick... seemed to understand the reasoning. Seemed to believe it just as much. But even still it was such an insurmountable action that he couldn't help but be incredulous.

"it didn't already?" he questioned.

"it was necessary," Kaldur tried, hoping more clear logic would help.

"Do I look like Batman?" Dick said with a raised brow, "I don't care if it was necessary, Barbara and Conner could have died." His voice was still quiet, still low. It was much like the waves and the currents in that Kaldur could close his eyes and get lost in it. it was also much like the currents in that it could turn dark and twisting and dangerous if he wasn't paying attention.

"I trusted her to get them out," Kaldur said, voice just as quiet and calm as Dick's, "I knew they'd be okay."

"and if they weren't?" Dick asked.

Kaldur pursed his lips, "don't make me answer that."

Dick took a deep breath, seemingly satisfied by something Kaldur had said. Maybe he just needed to know for sure that Kaldur was as emotional about it all as him. maybe he just needed the confirmation that he was allowed to be emotional.

"I still haven't told Artemis."

Dick nodded, "yeah, I can tell, she hasn't killed me yet."

Kaldur chuckled. Once he sobered he pinched the bridge of his nose, slumping in his chair, "I don't know how."

"do you want me to do it for you?" Dick offered.

Kaldur considered it. nodded. Then shook his head. "no, she needs to hear it from me."

"does she?" Dick rubbed at the back of his neck, "it was me who left, disappeared, didn't come back, etcetera, it's kinda on me."

Kaldur sighed, dropped his hand in his lap and leaned his head against the back of his chair, "no, I'm running this mission. I should have told her when I said you were on our side, then and there. I didn't. she has a right to know and it should come from the person who's..." he trailed and moved his hands in sarcastic air quotes, "'leading this operation'."

Dick smiled sadly, "and yet, I'm still the one who should have told you when we first met again. Hell, I should have told you six years ago. I should have at least said a goodbye."

"yes, but I should have realised you were in turmoil," Kaldur said, sitting up straight, "I was your leader, more than that, your friend. I should have helped."

"there was no way you could have, Kal. Do not start blaming yourself," Dick sighed. Then laughed, "what is this, a guilt off? An argument over who's fault everything is. You tell yours, I tell mine?" he shook his head and leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms, "god we're a mess. Our lives are messes."

Kaldur snorted, "we did sign up for it."

"I was nine, I didn't understand what I was getting into, I retract my application," Dick grumbled, then laughed, "oh my god, I was nine."

Kaldur laughed, "you truly were indoctrinated. You were the youngest of us all and yet had started before all of us."

Dick sighed, "yeah, well, aside from being adopted by batman the only other option was being forced into an assassin cult, so I think I've got the preferable life at the moment."

"you kinda ended up there anyway," Kaldur joked.

Dick feigned insult with a hand to the chest and a gasp, "how dare! The league of assassins may be full of assassins, but we are not a cult."

Kaldur smiled, "no creepy cloaks? fancy capes? Shame, you used to really rock a cape."

"aw, thank you for noticing," Dick smiled, "but we prefer hoods and secret knives and outfits made for manoeuvrability."

Kaldur scoffed a laugh, "you can't just attack heroes physically, but our fashion choices, too? Is there no line you will not cross?"

Dick cackled, "the best assassins point out everything wrong with your outfit before getting blood on it."

"is that a service that costs extra?"

"it's half the standard wages," Dick smiled.

"no wonder we pay you people so much."

"you people?" Dick gasped, "why I never!"

Kaldur laughed, Dick laughed. Their smiles were bright. In the beginning there was nothing. Then God said let there be light. 

A/N woo I have five days to finish this, ha ha, yikes