A Tragedy

"This is stupid. Why do we have to go to the Pentagon? You said that we were going on vacation," A blue-eyed, black-haired 8-year-old boy whined from the back seat and pouted petulantly at his parents in the front seat. "If you don't quit, you're whining. I will get Alfred to come and pick you up at the Pentagon and take you back home. Understand?" The boy's father says sternly, not taking his eyes off the road. "Don't listen to your father, baby," The boy's Mother says from the front passenger seat. She gives her husband a quick glare seeing the crestfallen expression on her baby boy's face. "We're just going to quickly drop this off, then we'll be off to the Bahamas. Okay, Baby," The Mother says, smiling warmly at the boy. "Okay," The boy nods.

"Honestly, you need to stop babying the kid. He needs to realize he can't keep hiding behind your skirts," The father scoffs with a disapproving frown. "Like you just said, he's still just a kid," The Mother retorts, scowling at her husband. "Why can't he be like his older brother, huh? Build his first circuit board when he was four. When his brother was his age, he built a V8 engine," The father shakes his head. "I'm sick of you constantly comparing him to his brother. Just because he is nothing like his brother, that doesn't give you the right to constantly critique and criticize his every action," The Mother says glaring coldly at her husband.

"Oh, I am well aware he is nothing like his brother," The father says bitterly through gritted teeth, his hands tightening on the steering wheel. "Stop. We are not having this discussion in front of our son," The Mother sighs heavily. "Your son," The father says, giving his wife a quick venomous glare.

The boy has his ears covered, lying on his side with his eyes shut tightly. A pained, hurt, and sad expression on his face, because of yet again being the cause of another argument between his parents. He tries to block out the sound of their arguing by covering his ears tightly and curling himself into the fetal position.

While all this is happening, they don't notice the man on a bike driving up to the side of the car, shooting out the front tires and causing it to swerve off the road and crash.

"Mom...dad..." The boy chokes out a sob holding on to his bleeding head and weakly trying to get up from the floor. "Stay...down, son," The father groans in pain and reaches back to push the boy to the ground. He opens the car door and crawls out. "You stay down and be quiet baby, and don't come up until it's safe," The Mother whispers softly to the boy. She turns her head weakly to look out the driver's side and sees her husband getting grabbed by the hair and pulled to his knees by a man with long black hair dressed in a black outfit with a metal arm.

Her husband says something to the man and then watches in horror as he is beaten across the face. "Howard!!" She cries out as she watches her husband fall to the ground.

The boy kept his eyes and ears shut, curling himself into a fetal position on the floor and keeping quiet as his parents instructed him. After a while and everything had gone quiet the boy stood up slowly, warily. "Mom...Dad," The boy called out to his parents. His father was lying motionless with his head against the steering wheel, his face covered in blood. His Mother was leaning back against the seat, a bit of blood on the side of her face, her eyes unseeing.

"Mom..." The boy whispers, trembling, reaches out tentatively, and shakes her shoulder. "Mom!" The boy shakes her harder when she doesn't respond. "Mom! Wake up! Mom!" The boy shouts with tears streaming down his face as he continues shaking her. "Mom!? Please! Mom! Please!" The boy clutches onto her and cries on her shoulder.

Suddenly the boy is pulled out of the car and thrown to the ground. The boy shouts in pain as he hits the ground hard. The boy looks up at the sound of footsteps and sees the long-haired man with a metal arm with a red star on it walking towards him menacingly. "No! No! No! Please! Stay away!" The boy pleads as he crawls backward away from the man. The boy tries to get up and run away but is not fast enough. As the man grabs him with his metal arm by the throat and holds the boy off the ground staring blankly at him.

"no, please, no, no," The boy wheezes out, thrashing his tangling legs and clawing at the metal appendage uselessly. The man stares at the struggling boy for a moment and then promptly snaps his neck.

[Line Break]

Walter springs awake, gasping and breathing raggedly. He swings his feet off the side of the bed and bows his head, gripping his thighs tightly and trying to calm his breathing and push away the awful memories and nightmares. He tenses slightly at the feminine arms that wrap around his waist and the woman placing her head on his shoulder and nuzzling his neck affectionately. "You okay, Bruce?" The woman asks, planting soothing kisses on his neck and caressing his sides comfortingly. "Yeah...I'm fine, Talia," He sighs, leaning his head back and running a hand through the woman's red hair.

"Are you ready for your final test?" Talia asks, laying her head on his shoulder and looking at his face. "I... don't know," He says, moving away from her embrace and running a hand through his hair in apprehension. "Bruce. Look at me," she moves over to him and settles herself on his lap. "When you came here. You were lost, weak, angry, and consumed by fear," She says, holding on to his face and stroking his cheeks. "Thanks for the compliments," He says drily with a deadpan expression.

"You're welcome. You have changed over the years under my father's guidance. Do not let these emotions control you," She leans down and kisses him softly. "Take that anger, that rage, that grief, and that fear that consumes you, and turn it into something that cannot be broken, corrupted, swayed, and become it," She says with conviction. "And what is that?" He asks, placing his hands on her waist. "Only you know the answer, my beloved," She smirks and gives him a long passionate kiss before getting off his lap.

"Seriously, Natalia," He groans and lies back on the bed staring at the wooden ceiling. "You should start getting ready. Father isn't fond of waiting," She chuckles, putting on her black lace panties and matching bra. "You off to go spy on the spies, Agent Romanoff," He sits up and watches her dress. "Unfortunately, yes. Father wants me to make sure The League stays under S.H.I.E.L.D's radar," She says after getting fully dressed and putting on her leather jacket. "I didn't know Ra's was afraid of S.H.I.E.L.D.," He frowns, tilting his head.

"He's not," She walks over to him, placing one hand on his cheek and the other trailing it down his chest to under the sheet covering his lower half. "He sees the organization as nothing but a minor inconvenience and nuisance to The League's work," She smirks slyly and gives him a loving squeeze under the sheet. "I think I should start getting ready," He groans, grabbing onto her wrist when she strokes him a few times and a last squeeze. "Of course," She says coyly, pulling her hand free and giving him a long kiss. "You tease," He slaps her ass as she turns away and walks out of the room, laughing all the way.

[Line Break]

"Today, an outsider takes our test of honor to see if he is worthy of our training," Ra's al Ghul says to the group of people dressed in ninja-yoroi kneeling in front of him. "Out of pity, we let him eat with us, drink with us, train with us," He stops in front of Walter who is also dressed in a ninja-yoroi except for the hooded cowl, and looks down at him. "And now we shall see if he is truly one of us," Ra's walks over to an observation deck. "Begin," He announces.

Walter gets up from his kneeling position and gets into a fighting stance, ready to take on the group of assassins. "You die here!" Assassin #1 shouts, starting off the fight with a straight kick, which Walter dodges and slams Assassin #1 with his shoulder, sending him falling to the floor. Assassin #2 tries to sneak attack with a haymaker, which he counters by deflecting the punch and sweeping his legs. He jumps to Assassin #3 and hits him with a downward elbow to the head knocking him down. He pulls out a shuriken and throws it at Assassin #4 head knocking him down.

He blocks a punch from Assassin #5, elbowing her in the gut, and Roundhouse kicks her to the ground. He tosses a smoke pellet at Assassin #6 and #7, which tried to double-team him, disorienting them. He ducks under a punch from Assassin #2 and hits him with a right hook to the side of the head knocking him out. He turns his attention back to Assassin #6 and punches him in the gut, solar plexus, throat, and side of the head knocking him out. He turns and throws a barrage of shuriken at Assassins #8, 9, and 10, knocking them down.

He throws another smoke pellet at Assassin #7, disorienting him again. He runs up to him and elbows him on top of the head knocking him out. He throws a smoke pellet at Assassin #1 and hits him with a barrage of punches to the chest and shoulder. He dodges a kick from Assassin #4, grabs onto his leg, and slams him to the ground. He turns back to Assassin #1, who is still dazed from the previous assault, and knocks him out with a punch to the throat and an uppercut.

He dodges a punch from Assassin #5, grabs his wrist, judo flips him, and knees his elbow breaking it. He punches Assassin #4 in the throat and knocks her out with a flying knee to the head. He ducks under a punch from Assassin #8, grabs him in a headlock, and knees him to the temple knocking him out. He ducks under a punch from Assassin #9 and headbutts her causing her to stumble back in a daze, grabs her by the ankles sending her to the ground, and promptly breaks her ankle. He tosses a smoke pellet at Assassin #10 and knocks him out with a spinning heel kick.

He turns to the observation deck and kneels with his head bowed. "The foreigner is full of surprises. But fighting alone does not make him worthy," Ra's walks off the observation deck and signals to Walter to follow him.

[Line Break]

"To train with us you must be able to use the environment and strike without being seen," Ra's stands on the observation deck of another training facility with Walter kneeling before him. "If you see him, shoot him, and if you shoot him, shoot to kill," Ra's instructs his Assassins as they get in position to start the next test.

Walter bows and then jumps off the observation deck to the training ground. He sneaks up behind an Assassin and grabs him in a chokehold knocking him out. He moves through the building dropping down on another Assassin and knocking him out. He opens the grate underneath him and ducks down. He moves through the air ducts, emerges behind another unsuspecting Assassin, and swiftly knocks him out. He sneaks around the corner, climbs the ladder, and takes down another Assassin. He throws a smoke bomb at the last two Assassins and rushes them on quiet feet. He ducks behind them and grabs one by the back of the head slamming him into the wall unconscious. He disarms the last one, punching him in the throat and heel-kicking him out cold.

Walter turns to the observation deck and kneels again. "Interesting. You spare their lives even though they will not spare yours," Ra's nods and walks off with Walter following behind him.

[Line Break]

Walter is standing surrounded by a group of Assassins each wielding either a sword or a dagger. He turns his attention to Ra's who is on the observation deck. "There is no room for your self-righteous Western morality here. It will only get in your way," Ra's stares at Walter coldly. "Kill him,"

"Die American," Assassin #1 shouts, slashing at Walter who leans back, ducking and dodging. He finds an opening, grabs the Assassin's hand, twists it backward, and punches him in the face, then hits him with a knee, knocking him out. He flips over Assassin #2 and dodges a slash from Assassin #3. He hits the sai blade out of his hand and grabs his head, slamming it into his knee and knocking him out. He throws a barrage of shurikens at Assassin #4,5,6 disorienting them.

He spinning kicks Assassin #2 who dodges and retaliates with a horizontal slash of her sword, he leans out of the way and knees her in the face, grabs her arm, and slams her to the ground unconscious. He deflects a slash from Assassin #4, grabs his wrist and breaks his elbow, kicks him on the back of the knee, and knees him unconscious. He throws a smoke pellet at Assassin #5, dazing him, and flips over Assassin #6 attack.

He side-kicks and Roundhouse kicks Assassin #6 knocking him out. He grabs a still-dazed Assassin #5 and disarms him, and knocks him out.

Walter turns to the observation deck and kneels again. "Hmmm... You have learned much since you first arrived. But, I wonder, if you learned to overcome your fear, your anger, your hate? Or do these emotions still cloud your judgment? Only time will tell," Ra's stays silent for a moment observing Walter, and jumps down from the observation deck, landing gracefully in front of him. "I am impressed, and I am rarely impressed. You have earned our respect and proven yourself worthy," Ra's motions for him to stand up. "Now, get to the kitchen and prepare tea. There is much to discuss," Ra's pats his shoulder and walks off.

"Oh, one more thing," Ra's stops abruptly and throws a shuriken so fast Walter is unable to react and is nicked by the neck. "You betray my daughter's trust. Or harm her in any way. Your blood will fill the streets of Gotham," Ra's says calmly and walks off again.

"Fu--"