Brothers To The Bitter End

4

Jason glanced around at his room. It was large enough to fit three beds in it and still have some room around it. He was to share this room with Dick and Dick's charge Damian while he was in training. It had surprised him that Ra's was so willing to allow one of Batman's protégés on his team with out so much as batting an eye. But like Dick had said, Ra's had expected Jason to choose that course rather than lose his memories.

The door opened suddenly behind Jason, and a 7 year old boy walked into the room.

"So you're one of them." It was a statement, not a question.

"One of whom?" Jason asked, perplexed by the uncanny resemblance this boy had to Bruce.

"The Robins." The boy, Damian, waved a hand dismissively. "Gray told me about you. You're his favorite. He talks a lot about you and his former teammate Wally. There's another Robin now?"

"Yeah, kid by the name of Tim Drake." Jason viewed this kid with apprehension. Even though he was young, he had the look of a person who had seen and done too much.

"Any good?"

"He might be. He's only been actively doing rounds for a couple of months now and that's not really enough time for me to see how much of a screw up he is."

"Tt." Damian scrutinized Jason closely. "I still don't understand why Gray puts so much stock in you. You look like an ordinary enough slab of meat."

"I am not!"

"Temper temper. That won't get you anywhere around here. Although you probably won't get too far before you're lying dead in the dirt somewhere."

"Why you little . . ." Jason stepped forward and raised a hand, but before he could even blink, Damian had grabbed his hand and twisted it behind his back, wrapping his free arm around Jason's neck.

"Don't toy with me, boy." Damian snarled. "I've had more training than you'll ever receive."

Jason was gasping for air and about to try something, anything, to get free from this kid, when a lucky intervention happened.

"Dami, no!" Dick Grayson, making a dramatic entrance as usual, entered the room and with all the flair of his showman upbringing flourished a spray bottle and proceeded to squirt Damian. "How many times do we have to talk about this? You're not supposed to strangulate people without permission!"

Damian hissed and released his prisoner, willing to do anything to prevent his hair from being messed up with the water from the spray bottle. "Why do you have to carry that thing everywhere? It's getting on my nerves!"

"Because you keep doing stuff like this!"

"I am the heir to the League of Assassins! You do not instruct me. I instruct you on how best to do me bidding!"

"You do realize that I am literally the oldest person in the room as of right now, right? I have five years on Jay and, what, thirteen on you? Doesn't matter that your grandfather is running this whole operation. Ya know why? 'Cause I've got seniority rights."

"I've been with the League longer than you have!"

"I've been on this earth longer than you have!"

"You're so immature!"

"Says the seven year old yelling at the twenty year old."

Damian screwed up his face and turned beet red before opening his mouth and letting out the best impression of a pteranodon that Jason had ever heard. Then in a fit of anger, Damian flopped on his bed, covered his face with his pillow, and screamed some more.

"Is it always like this around here?" Jason asked curiously.

"Uh-huh."
*****
Jason laid back on his bed staring at the ceiling. Dick had ushered Damian back out of the room after the confrontation to get the young boy back to his lessons. His brother had promised to come back quickly to show Jason around. That had been an hour ago.

The doorknob turned, and Dick finally poked his head into the room. "Oh good, you're still here."

"Where else would I be?"

"Who knows! Sorry it took me so long, but Dami is about as cooperative as a cat hooked on steroids."

Jason snorted. "That's funny."

"And unfortunately accurate. Come on, I'll show you around." Dick made a terrific tour guide since his clearance was almost as high as Ra's al Ghul.

"So what kind of missions do you go on?" Jason asked finally while they were in the armory. "You never said."

"Because I'd rather not think about it." Dick sighed heavily. "But you'll find out soon enough." He sat down on a nearby stool and stared his younger brother directly in the eyes. "I'm an assassin now, Jay. A good one, one of Ra's top. They threw me into special training when I first arrived here to be a bodyguard for Damian. Damian, of course, is better than I am because he's ruthless, but he's reckless and needs someone to look out for him. So they chose me. But I needed training and the only thing they train here are spies and assassins."

"And they chose to make you an assassin?"

"Out of necessity. To protect the heir to the League of Assassins, they need an assassin who can kill anyone who tries to harm him. But then they started sending me on solo missions . . ." Dick shook his head. "That's why I never told you. Being an assassin goes against everything Bruce ever taught me, us. And now I am one."

Jason shrugged. "Out of necessity." Dick glared at him but Jason just grinned. "Don't sweat it, Dick. We'll figure things out."

Dick rolled his eyes. "You would think that breaking Bruce's rules was cool."

Jason opened his mouth to answer, but the door to the armory slammed open and a hard looking man walked in. He was prematurely gray and his eyes hardened when he saw Jason.

"So this is the new recruit." The man looked him up and down. "Apparently Ra's is allowing the rabble into the League now."

Jason frowned but wisely kept his mouth shut. Dick was the one to respond. "He's more useful than he looks, Slade."

Slade snorted. "That's what they said about you, Richard. But they were wrong."

Dick's face took on a hard look that Jason had never seen before. "Just because you aided in my training does not mean you have the right to insult me anymore. In the eyes of the League, we are equal."

Slade laughed bitterly. "And since when has the League done anything right? Mark my words, Richard. There will be a new order coming in which you will not have a part." With that, Slade turned and stalked away, apparently forgetting what he had come to the armory to find.

"Who was that?" Jason asked curiously.

"Slade Wilson. My old mentor. Horrible man. He was extremely cruel to me, but it made me learn faster. Luckily for you, Ra's is getting ready to expel Slade, so you won't have to deal with him when you're in training."

"Good! I can do without that."

"Believe me. Everyone can do without that."