~•Six months later•~

"Ma'am? Can you help me find my parents? I-I... I don't know where they went..." Blue eyes large and teary, the young boy looked up at the security guard, looking for all the world like a sweet and innocent lost child. "I tried t-to find them, b-but they were g-g-gone." His lower lip trembled as a single tear slipped down his cheek.

The security guard was already starting to look panicked.

Tears always work.

"Shh... don't cry. It's okay. Why don't you just come inside and I'll see what we can do, alright?" The guard placed a reassuring hand on the boy's shoulder, gently guiding him past the main door and into a security room. "Why don't you have a seat, okay sweetheart? I'm going to check with the other guards to see if any parents have notified them."

As soon as she turned around, the boy struck.

All it took was a sweep of his foot to bring her to the floor and then a hard hit over the head and she was out like a light.

So easy.

With a bit of maneuvering, Dick moved her body out of sight from the entrance before locking the door. Running his hand across his face to get rid of the tear trail, he smiled.

"Someone's definitely not going to be feeling the aster when they wake up... too bad," Dick hummed, situating himself at the main computer as his fingers began flying over the keyboard, making short work of their firewalls. It was almost tooeasy.

These people were amateurs.

Dick unplugged his hard drive as soon as the download was complete. Now came his favorite part: the escape.

On his way out of the room, Dick hit the guard over the head again just for good measure.

Everything seemed relatively quiet which was incredibly suspicious considering the fact that the lab he was stealing from was in the heart of Gotham City.

Letting out a slow breath, Dick slipped his mask over his eyes. The cameras would still be disabled, but he was not about to risk identification by whatever backup his hacking had summoned.

Not that they would know who he was anyway.

But Slade would be rather upset if his protégé was somehow identified, and Dick was not about to deal with an upset Deathstroke. The last time that had happened he had been left nursing bruises for weeks.

Dick stepped cautiously toward the nearest emergency exit, eyes scanning his surroundings, watching for any sign of movement.

Just a few more steps.

His fingertips brushed the door handle just as he felt the air shift behind him. In one fluid motion, Dick jerked his hand back and whirled around, dropping into a crouch as the very distinct of a batarang slammed into the door right where he had been standing.

"So not cool," he complained, reaching up to deactivate the communicator in his ear. "I didn't know this building had a bat infestation."

Eyes narrowing, Dick scanned the dark hallway, his mask picking up on an infrared signature in one corner. He could imagine Slade cursing on the other end of the line, could practically hear his mentor ordering him to find the nearest exit and get as far away as possible.

But Dick had other ideas. This was the man who had killed his parents; who had murdered them in cold blood. His parents had done nothing wrong. His parents had been innocents. But now they were gone, and Batman was the one to blame.

"Come on, Batman... I promise I don't bite." His tone was light, teasing despite the war waging inside, eyes scanning the dark hallway for oncoming threats. The incoming batarangs were easily avoided. After all, Dick had formerly been an acrobat. He prided himself on retaining that skill.

A dark form stepped out of the shadows. "Stand down, boy. You do not belong here. I have no wish to fight a child."

"Well that's not nice. I've been dreaming of this fight for years."

Slade was going to be so mad.

Dick knew he was not ready for this fight. He knew that he was in over his head. But he wanted to... well, he wanted to attack.

No.

He knew better.

"Maybe some other time though," he informed the Dark Knight, hand slipping into the pocket of his hoodie, fingers closing around a smoke grenade.

As Batman lunged at him, Dick tossed the grenade to the ground and vanished amongst the smoke with a cackle.

Considering how formidable the Dark Knight really was, slipping away through the air vents was incredibly easy.

~•~

"That was incredibly foolish, boy." Slade chided; displeasure clear in his eyes. "I told you to leave when the mission was complete. When I tell you to leave, you will leave. There will be no trading banter with the so-called heroes. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it... I just wanted to see if he really was all that you said he would be." Dick crossed his arms over his chest, bottom lip protruding in a pout. "Besides... it wasn't even a long conversation. It was literally like two sentences."

Slade sighed, running his hand down his face. "You were irresponsible and childish. I expected better. But this was your first mission, and you weren't caught, so it wasn't a total failure. However, you clearly need more training before taking on more tasks."

"What? No! I can listen. I can still do missions," he protested, straightening his posture as if to show his master that he really could be responsible. "I succeeded with this one, didn't I? I got the information."

"You failed to notice the computer sending a discrete distress signal to Batman, which led to that encounter. With more training, this could have been avoided. And with more training, it will be. This is final."

"But..." Dick sighed, shoulders slumping. "Fine... I'll train more. I apologize for arguing, master."

Slade nodded, eyes scanning over his young apprentice. While he would never admit it, the boy had indeed done quite well. He had anticipated Batman being summoned, and really just wanted to use his appearance to test the boy's ability to listen and obey. Even with the slight delay, the boy had followed orders. For only having been training with him for six months, this was excellent progress.

"You may go to your room. Food will be ready shortly."

With a short bow, Dick exited Slade's office and made his way through the winding corridors to the room that Slade had given him upon his adoption. While the man was far from a father, he had provided everything that Dick could need from an overabundance of clothes to the latest technology.

All in all, things were much better here than at the boy's home.

For the first time since his parents' death, Dick actually felt like he had a home.