Shadows

Truth

POV | Grayson 

My heart rate was elevated and I violently looked around.

"Where am I?" I said in confusion, it was somewhere very dark and a light illuminated the metal table I was laying on.

"Calm Down." a voice said behind me and I turned towards it.

"Batman?" I said and he stepped into the light and he had a small smile on his face, why?'

"You're in the Bat-Cave." he replied and checked my vitals on the IV meter. I looked fine.

"What happened?" I asked and he looked at him.

"You were given and over dosage." he replied and I closed my eyes. Again.

"Ok." was all I said and he walked in front of me and placed a hand on my shoulder and I stiffened.

"I need you to tell me what happened while you were there for 5 years." he said and I looked up at him.

"I don't want to talk about it." I said. My voice crackled when I said that sentence. My mind was like a building and over those years they made it slowly fall to the ground; it was a mental scar to make me malice. I wouldn't break to their grasp though.

"I need you to tell me, Richard." he said back and I went into deep thought. I placed my elbows on my thighs and leaned slightly and looked at my hands, they were shaking and the memories began.

They trained me to make me a modified weapon, the perfect person to use like a puppet.

"They would treat me like a puppet." is what I said as the memories of the violence flooded through my mind.

Then they would then send me to the infirmary and test me with different chemicals, not very liberating.

"Then test me like a lab animal experiment."

Then they would inject me with a serum to block out my true sense of mind... I hated it.

"They would block me out, and then I was forced to watch what my body would do."

I wasn't in control of my own body, it's like I was trapped in my mind and my body would use my primal instincts to beat and kill my victims.

"I would brutally kill people and I could only get my sense over once or twice when I absolutely didn't want to do that." I was looking at my fingers and tried to stop them from shaking, I kept my eyes adverts from Batman at all times.

I would then return and my uncle would scold me for my flaws I made on the mission then the 'Lesson Room' would come and I would be out of the field for 2 days tops.

"Then when I came back, they would lecture me on my flaws and mess ups on the mission. Then the Lesson Room comes in play."

Then they would push my broken and shattered body to my limit and repeat the process.

"They would then repeat that same process every week I was there for 5 years." I finished and I still kept my gaze to the floor and I heard a slight step on the floor. I ignored it.

"Richard. Look at me" Batman said and I didn't. Then he lifted my face up to his and I flinched, he saw this and looked concerned and I saw his family. Red Hood, Red Robin, Nightwing, Black Bat, Bat Girl and Bat Woman. Their eyes were wide and shocked; I'm guessing they don't know what it like to be me, well some may but not all.

"Then they would manipulate my mind." I spoke shortly after.

"What do you mean?" Batman asked and I looked him dead in the eye.

"Have you ever had someone take your brain and play? Pull you out and send something else in? Do you know what it's like to be unmade?" I said and he was confused at what I said.

"I... don't understand." he replied and his family moved closer to listen.

"When I first got their when I was 9, they would always put me through relentless training, it was brutal. They made me punch till my muscles felt like they were so strained. Like they would snap any minute. Then when they thought I was finally ready they would send me off to the infirmary and they would inject me with a mind numbing mutagen, they would wait a couple seconds then they would test me." I said and I flinched at the memories of what I had done to them. I looked back down at my hands and they had a knife covered in blood in one and then it quickly disappeared.

"Once they knew I would get the mission done, they would hand me the file and I would be out." I spoke shortly after and remember then looking through the images of all the people I've killed.

"Until I returned with a bloody knife in my belt. Then when I woke up the training would begin but shortly after they would send me to the leader's office and he would scold me about the flaws in the mission." The memories would become more and more violent as I continued to speak to them.

"Then they would repeat that process." my voice cracked at that last part though, thinking ' This 13 year old is an assassin, why is he ranting to us' they were probably thinking. I left out the truly unsettling and stomach twisting parts though, I didn't want them to think I was that broken, shattered.

"How old are you?" Black Bat asked, breaking the truly unsettling silence in the room.

"13." I replied and her shoulders dropped even more than they were.

"Why are you ranting to us if you're like an assassin.. Bound by code or something?" Tim brought up, kind of sternly and I flinched. He noticed this and Batman spoke up.

"Because they gave him an over dosage on the mutagen and he's here now. Then they even said that he was disposable." Batman replied and his family nodded at his words.

"Why did you flinch?" Tim asked me and I looked at him.

"They trained me forcefully, I agreed to acknowledge it." I replied and he had a slight twitch in his eye, Damian stepped up.

"Why?"

%J