Hero or Assassin?

Chapter 4

The team had been going through all the files that they had found in the underground lab facility in Blüdheaven and the files Artemis gave them about the shadow that was hunting them, and both were horribly unpleasant.

"I believe I have uncovered more information as to why Richelle Wayne has not been found yet," Kaldur said and the rest of the team glanced at him and he began to read from his file.

"I'm now a month and a half into keeping Richelle Wayne locked up in the isolation room and it has come to my attention that the telepath we hired to help us discover every single thing the girl knows has been forced to use extreme measures on the child to learn anything at all. He's been tearing through her mind and forcefully taking information out of it, and I am not the only person here who wonders why the child is able to resist all other forms of telepathic invasion. I can't help but wonder what will be left of the girls mind when we are done, if there even will be anything left at all. Only time will tell at this point," he lowered the file and Megan looked horribly green, not her normal green mind you.

"Oh my god," breathed Batguy. "That guy is not right," Wally said as he set down his file on the assassin sent to kill them. "We've gone through half of the files from that lab and there still is nothing on what happened to Richelle when they abandoned the place or where she could be now," Batguy said angrily as he slammed his file down on the table in frustration.

"Woah, and this is gonna be weird coming from me, but you need to calm down and control your anger." Connor said and Brandon sighed, "I'm sorry guys. It's just, I've spent nearly five and a half years searching for clues on Richelle Wayne. Now I've finally found something, but I'm still getting nowhere."

Kaldur frowned, "why have you been searching for so long?" He asked and Brandon sighed, "it's one of the few cases that Batman hasn't been able to solve. I became his partner about a year after this happened but I met him while searching for her, I've always felt like I owed it to Richelle to help her get home. Cuz Richelle had helped my family after my mom passed away and I felt like I could repay that debt by finding her, and when Batman saw my determination to solve this case he assigned it to me to try and solve."

The others nodded in understanding, and they let Brandon stand up and walk out of the library and off into the cave.

-0-0-0-

Bruce still couldn't believe that the team had actually found something regarding his daughter, finally after so many years he was actually getting information about his precious little girl. It was almost impossible to believe, almost impossible for him to hope for the slim chance that she was actually still alive somewhere out there in the world.

The manor was horribly quiet without his daughter there to fill it with life and laughter, and even though Brandon now lived here since Jim was comatose in Gotham General cuz of the failed assassination attempt on his life a year ago, the manor still didn't feel like home. It wouldn't feel like home until his baby girl was found.

He sighed and then made his way through the halls until he came to a stop in front of one of the many rooms of the ancient home, a room he'd been in so many times.

Gently opening the door he entered the painfully large bedroom that belonged to his daughter.

Her desk was perfectly organized and all the papers perfectly stacked, her books were neatly lined up and categorized by topic on her enormous bookcase that spanned the length of one of her walls, her pictures hung on the walls and were displayed proudly around the room, and her king sized bed was neatly made with not a single one of her blue blankets out of place or her white pillows sunken. However his daughters stuffed elephant was missing, and he never moved that elephant off of the bed because his wife made that for their daughter when she was born.

"I knew I'd be able to find you here," he spun around and had a bat-a-rang at the ready for he recognized that voice. "What are you doing here Talia?" He growled and the woman smirked as she walked forward out of the shadows holding his daughters stuffed elephant in her hand, "aren't you happy to see me beloved?"

He growled at her and she sighed, "fine. I came here to do something I should've done a long time ago," she told him as she carefully walked through the room and gently set the toy back on the bed where it belonged.

"What would that be Talia?" Bruce asked her in a dangerous tone and she sighed and pulled out a stunning locket and Bruce froze, "to wright a wrong my father committed years ago against your bloodline."

"How do you have that?" He asked in shock and she sighed and carefully handed the locket to him, "my father got it off of the neck of your daughter before he dropped her body into the Lazarus pit five years ago."

His head snapped up and horror settled in his eyes, "she was dead?" He asked and Talia shook her head no, "mercifully no. However your child was not far from death when we found her, she was barely even there. I suggested it to my father in hopes of fixing the girl, however she came out severely damaged."

"What do you mean?" He growled and Talia sighed, "when Richelle emerged from the pit, she was completely rabid. She murdered five guards before we were able to subdue her, but even then she resisted. She resisted long after the pit insanity wore off on her, for while she might not have had any memories your daughter knew who she was at heart. It took my father nearly two years to break her, to break her spirit and manipulate her broken mind to the point where the child's only loyalty is to him."

Bruce froze, "so, you're telling me that my daughter has been living life as an assassin for the past five years and she has had no idea of the life she was stolen from?" He asked slowly and Talia sighed, "do not be so crass."

She then stood up and pulled out a thumb drive and set it down on the girls night stand, "your daughter might not remember who she is or how pure she was, but she is not some bloodthirsty assassin. She has heart," she told him as she walked over to the balcony French doors, however she paused when she placed her hands upon the door handles.

"Your daughter kills with honor and mercy, never raising a weapon against the ones father sends her to kill. She simply puts them to eternal sleep, there's never any blood and it's always painless." Talia then turned to look Bruce in the eyes, "while she might not know who she is up here," she pointed to her mind. "I know your daughter never forgot who she was in here," she told him as she placed her hand over her heart, "and while she might be an assassin Bruce, her soul still is one of the purest on the planet."

Then she slipped off into the night, leaving Bruce alone with her words.