"English"

"Italian"

One of the main reasons I used Robin as the main character is because, according to the young justice Wiki, Dick Grayson can speak English, Italian, and Japanese, among other languages. So he would understand what was being said despite whatever language Tsuna could pick.

A Strange Mafioso

"Um... Hello?"

The voice sounded soft, timid almost, as the man on the other side of the one-way mirror tapped thin fingers against the glass. The messy brown hair that stuck out in all directions and the pinstripe suit seemed to clash almost comically, and that was without considering the bits of debris still clinging to the brown locks and the folds of his dusted clothing. The man had done his best to dust himself off when he first caught sight of himself on the mirror, muttering under his breath about proper appearances and strict ex-tutors.

"Could I, maybe, please, get a glass of water?" he continued uncertainly.

For being a suspected criminal, he had been nothing short of compliant, if nervous-looking and reluctant to answer anything asked to him. Caramel eyes roamed the surface of the mirror, stopping for a few seconds on each and every one of them, although he shouldn't have been able to know where they were. He'd been doing that since they left him alone in the room, and not once had he failed on landing his eyes on whoever was in the observation room at the time.

Robin felt his shoulders tense up slightly when they landed on him, telling himself not to trust the apparent kindness in those warm eyes. Only when they left his own eyes did he relax again.

He had no clue what to make of this man.

"Give him water," Aqualad said after the eerie moment had passed, and the man had turned his back to the mirror. He was now running his hands through his messy hair, unwittingly dislodging the last pieces of debris while he sighed in deep frustration.

The man stuttered a quick thank-you to the stone-faced officer who handed him the paper cup full of water, and he barely took two sips of it before sitting back down on the table.

"Why does Batman want to see him?" Wally asked, sounding puzzled. "I mean, he beat up that Mafioso. Doesn't that mean he's on our side?"

Robin could feel the eyes of his teammates zero in on him, and his scowl deepened a bit. He knew more than they did about this man, and they knew it. He had just been trying to make heads and tails of his own thoughts before sharing them.

"He's Mafia," said Robin shortly, raising his arm to access his wrist computer.

"So it's a war between families?"

"Not exactly."

With a small click, the holographic screen spread out before him as wide as it could go. The photo of a blond man with a crooked nose and a nasty sort of smile had been enlarged to fit half the screen, his data rolling in smaller letters next to it. It would take a bit of imagination, but one could see that the man in the photo was the second men they had picked up at the scene, although in the photo he was missing several bruises and burns, and the swelling of a black eye that had begun showing as they carted him off in the Bioship.

"This is the guy we were supposed to catch; he sent the death threat to Nora Moretti, the Italian ambassador's daughter."

"Luca 'Diamond Fist' Rastelli," Artemis snorted. "Well, our man sure did a number of him. Not that he was very pretty to begin with."

"Rastelli belongs to what could be the most influential Mafia Family in the world, the Vongola. Angelo Moretti as a public figure has been known for speaking in favor of laws that would, among other things, heavily hinder the Vongola's weapon dealings. He's been getting more support lately, and there is already talk about approving those laws."

"Must have been the last straw for Rastelli," KF hummed.

"What he did is still unjustified. Sending such a small girl a death threat, when she hasn't done anything at all," M'gann muttered, arms hugging her stomach tightly. Robin wanted to remind her that they had already stopped the attempt; Miss Martian had been the one who got the info of where their leader was by reading their minds.

"We know all of this from the mission briefing. Why are we going over it again?" Superboy cut in, scowling at the man in the questioning room. He was just sitting there, resting his head on his arms and those atop the table, as though sleeping. "What does he have to do with it?"

"I thought his face looked familiar," Robin continued, his fingers gliding over the holographic keyboard once more. He found the file easily, because he'd looked at it over Batman's shoulder just two months ago.

A new photo appeared, replacing Luca Rastelli's. And if Robin hadn't seen the man change, he would have had doubts that the man in the photo was the same as the one in the questioning room beside them.

The pale skin on a heart-shaped face and the brown locks were easy to recognize, and Robin was sure the data on weight and height would be exactly the same. But the eyes, everything was different in them. They were an unusual golden orange, sharp and bright, and they gave the rest of the face a very regal look. It was the face of the man they had found in the location they'd gotten from the assassins, surrounded by at least a dozen unconscious thugs and Luca Rastelli himself.

"This is Tsunayoshi Sawada," he said, eyes narrowing behind his mask. "Two months ago, he took on the mantle of Tenth Boss of the Vongola Family in Italy."

A moment of silence passed while the team allowed the information to sink in.

"Come again?" Wally was the first to react, green eyes darting from the photo in Robin's screen to the downturned head past the one-way mirror. "You're saying Rastelli got beat up by his own Boss?"

"Forget about that. We have the head of the most influential Mafia Family sitting in the questioning room!"

"Exactly."

Robin allowed himself a small smirk at the way the team startled when they heard the rough, powerful voice behind them. The Dark Knight of Gotham had that effect on people, particularly when he just seemed to materialize out of thin air like that. Very impressive, given that the precinct was very well lit.

With Batman there, Aqualad took over and gave a brief explanation of how their mission had gone.

In the early hours of the morning, they had stopped an assassination attempt on Nora Moretti's life; Miss Martian had obtained the location of their employers after a quick mind-scan. Batman already knew this, because they had contacted him before getting orders to head out to the bad guys' base. What he didn't know was what they had found at the small manor that was Rastelli's headquarters.

"There were guards on the doors, obviously expecting us. We took them all out, and dealt with the backup inside the manor as well. The deepest corner of the manor was the most guarded, so we headed there to get the target." Aqualad paused, sharing a strange look with his teammates. "The room we believe belonged to Rastelli was in disarray. One of the walls was crumbled into the courtyard, where a fight had already taken place. We found Mr. Sawada surrounded by unconscious guards and Mr. Rastelli himself."

"He was a paranoid guy, Rastelli. He had cameras all over the place, though the ones in his room and most of the courtyard's were broken down or melted. A few were fine, though, and we were able to extract the footage before we left," said Robin, wasting no time in bringing up the footage he'd been able to salvage.

For a moment, there was nothing but a strange bright glare, and flickers of static. Then, the strong flame shining in the camera died out, contracting into a short man's shape. Flames flickered on his hands and head, though it was a bit hard to tell when the man had his back to the camera.

Shaken and beaten on the ground before him was Luca Rastelli, the diamond-rimmed knuckle dusters that earned him the 'Diamond Fist' alias discarded to the side, half-melted. He was saying something in a pleading tone, but the words were in Italian and heavily distorted by whatever damage the heat had done to the camera. It was a miracle the device had been left standing: it had been resting about a foot above the spot where Rastelli's wall had crumbled.

Sawada's shape in the monitor suddenly moved to the side, sharply avoiding the arrow Artemis had fired to his shoulder. In an impressive show of speed, he'd also jumped over Wally's blurry form, avoiding a tackle that could have broken a rib or at the very least heavily bruised it. Conner's loud battle cry made the image flicker again, and the mafioso once more dodged, jumping even higher than he had before and bringing his arms up just in time to block a kick from Robin.

The camera was blurry, but Robin could still remember the many blows he'd attempted to land on the man, who couldn't be much older than twenty. His fists and his feet always met the solid, warm block of the male's hands, who never once tried to hit them back. He remembered somersaulting away just in case he decided to, and he also remembered the look in the brunette's face when he finally got a good view of them.

"You're children."

Robin's eyes narrowed contemplatively on the recording. It couldn't be heard in the recording due to the static, but those had been the words that escaped the man's lips at that moment, in a strangely accented English.

His hands had dropped to his sides, and the strange flames on his person died away. He'd had birdarangs, arrows, and sword-shaped water bearers pointed at him, but Robin had still suspected that if the man had really wanted to, he could have escaped easily. Yet, he hadn't, and the only explanation Robin could come up with to explain this made no sense, considering what organization he led.

All signs of the overwhelming confidence that he'd possessed left with the flames, and the man had only fidgeted nervously while they got the handcuffs on him.

"Y-y-you're with the po-police?" He'd stuttered while they began taking him away, looking like he wanted to scream in fright, but settling for small chocked whimpers. With the way he'd tensed when they got to the precinct, flinching under the stern glares the policemen fixed him with, one would think he was nothing but a first-time lowly criminal.

Robin made sure to voice these thoughts once the recording ended.

"He doesn't sound like a good Mafia Boss," Wally added after all was said.

"Don't trust appearances," Batman scolded, the narrowed slits of his mask focused on Sawada. The man had gotten up again, and was roaming the interrogation room nervously. "I'll handle the interrogation. You stay here."

Wally and Artemis began to protest, but a cold look from Batman was all they needed for the words to die in their lips.

"Vongola the Tenth is said to be a man with extraordinary strength, capable of burning a hundred men without so much as lifting a finger. You're lucky enough the rumors about his temper appear to be untrue."

Miss Martian flinched at the words. Everyone in the room knew how much she hated fire.

"Stay here."

Robin let out a small sigh as the man left the room, only to reappear on Sawada's a moment later.

"Seriously, man, that guy? A Mafia Boss?" Wally muttered loudly enough for all of them to hear. And yeah, the way Sawada jumped when he caught sight of the dark figure in the room with him wasn't exactly impressive.

"H-HII-" both his hands came up to cover the shriek, and his shoulders shook for a moment before he was able to get himself under control.

"Tsunayoshi Sawada." The man gave a jerky nod of confirmation, and Batman gestured to the single empty chair at the cold metallic table. "Sit."

The brunette did, his hands going for the half-empty cup of water. He straightened his shoulders, but there was still a small tremble to them. That man was a nervous wreck, and he only stopped shivering when Batman laid out a few files before him.

"What... what are these?" his voice was almost curious, fingers stretching towards the files cautiously. There was a small bat-symbol on the top right of the folder, so Robin knew they weren't the police's, but Batman's. The first file, the team could see, was topped with the same photo Robin had showed of Sawada. Caramel eyes danced over the information, tense scowl deepening with every word he read, lips pressed into a thin line. When he finally looked up, there was no sign of his previous trembling. "This information shouldn't be in the public record."

"It isn't. Your men have always been good at erasing their tracks, haven't they?"

Sawada's jaw clenched, and his fingers curled against the file.

"How did you get this?" he asked, a quiet question only answered by a gesture towards the remaining files. Sawada complied, opening both of them to look at the contents. The change was almost immediate.

His back straightened against the uncomfortable chair, and the look in his eyes resembled the one he'd worn when they first saw him. If he leaned forward to peer more closely at him, Robin could see a tint of gold in them. He regarded Batman with an equal mix of caution and respect.

"Miss and Mr. Moretti," he acknowledged the first file, which his eyes seemed unable to focus on for more than one moment. "And Luca Rastelli, ex Head of the American Vongola Branch."

"American? Just how far-reaching is the power of Vongola?" Kaldur murmured, standing so close to the glass his breath could be seen on it when he spoke.

"Worldwide," replied Robin.

In the interrogation room, his mentor continued the interrogation.

"Is that why you came all the way to America? To deal with the underling who couldn't complete the simple task of killing a little girl?" Batman's hand slammed down next to the photo of little Nora. Sawada flinched almost imperceptibly, and moved his eyes away from the photo.

"No."

"Then why did you come?" Batman pressed, and the dangerous softness in his voice was worse than being yelled at. Robin knew from experience. "Came to finish the job yourself, perhaps?"

"I'd never hurt a child!"

The young man had stood from his seat, his knuckles white here he held onto the table, eyes full of fierce determination. It might have been his imagination, but Robin thought the room had gotten a few degrees warmer.

You're children. When he'd said those words, Robin had seen the silent horror and disbelief in his eyes. Seen the moment when he'd decided not to fight them, out of fear of actually hurting someone he considered a child. So when the man said he'd never hurt a child, Robin believed him.

Sawada, finally looking the part of a Mafia Boss, slowly relaxed his hands, and picked up one of the photos on the files.

"Rastelli disobeyed a direct order." His voice had gone soft, too soft. "When I took the mantle of Decimo, I made a promise to put a stop to all of this."

"Put a stop to what?" urged Batman, eyes narrowing.

But Sawada's glare was fixed disapprovingly on the photo he was holding.

"The Sins of Vongola."

Luca Rastelli's photo combusted in orange-tinted flames.

"Fuck!" Wally let out, pulling back from where his nose had been pressed against the glass. Robin kept his eyes on the fingers holding the burning photo, but even as the flames died and the last bits of burnt paper fell onto the table, he could see the skin wasn't burnt. It wasn't even irritated.

A tense silence followed Wally's succinct statement. Then,

"But you didn't kill Rastelli." It was hard to tell what Batman felt under that cowl. But Robin, who knew him almost better than he knew himself, knew the man was reconsidering Tsunayoshi Sawada carefully. "He was taken to the hospital. First degree burns, broken bones, and several bruises. He'll live."

And for someone said to be able to burn a hundred men by lifting a finger, wasn't that strange? The wounds hadn't looked like drawn-out torture, either.

Sawada smiled. It was a sheepish, sad sort of smile.

"I've always hated fighting, sir, even if I've grown used to it. But killing, I reject getting used to. I trust Rastelli learned his lesson." He sat down as soon as he'd declared this, and his smile turned to Batman instead. The only other person Robin had seen smile at Batman while sitting across an interrogation table had been the Joker, but the soft expression in Sawada's eyes resembled him as much as a fluffy rabbit resembled a hungry hyena. "Your children took everything I had on me when we got here. There is an envelope with the Vongola seal among those things. I'm wondering if you could deliver it to Mr. Moretti for me."

"We saw the envelope," Aqualad said into his comlink. They had all the man's belongings in the room with them. A pair of cotton mittens, a small container with white pills, a wallet with only cash in it, and the mentioned envelope."It was clean of any poison or traps. The only thing inside was a note that read 'Please accept my deepest apologies', signed by Vongola Decimo."

When they first read it, they'd thought it was meant as some twisted message to be left in Nora's vicinity after the deed was finished. Now, Robin thought it was actually meant as a sincere apology.

"They wouldn't want to see me," Sawada said when Batman confronted him about the contents of the note. "I thought about offering money for the trouble caused, but I doubted they'd want that either."

"So you sent them an apology note." Batman's tone was flat to hie his disbelief. Sawada's sheepish smile returned. "What was the order Rastelli disobeyed?"

"To drop any and all hostile attempts against the Italian Ambassador and his family."

"Are you sure he's a Mafia Boss?" Conner asked doubtfully.

Robin wasn't sure how to answer that, much like everyone else. So they just kept quiet.

The Dark Knight considered Sawada for a long time, and Robin could almost hear the sigh that the man didn't want to release.

"Despite this act of good will on your part, you're still the head of a criminal group. We've already contacted the Italian authorities. You will remain in a cell until they come to retrieve you."

Sawada winced, and the Boss Aura, as Robin had decided to call it, left him completely.

"I understand. But it's really not up to me."

There was a loud noise somewhere beyond the walls of the precinct. The slits on the cowl narrowed again, and Batman shifted his stance under his cape. "What did you—"

"Sir!" A young, breathless policeman of dark hair had opened the door to the room the team was in, delivering a shaky salute while he struggled to communicate his message. "So-someone is attacking us! They're using explosives, and, and fire!"

"What!" Artemis had gone for her bow, and Aqualad already had his water bearers in either hand. "Batman! What should we do?"

Robin sent the interrogation room a brief look. Sawada was glancing at the door nervously as another loud noise came, now close enough to identify it as a small explosion. He seemed a bit oblivious to the glare Batman was giving him, but Robin could see the small bead of sweat running down the side of his face as he tried to ignore it.

"Take Sawada to the containment cells," he barked, turning around so fast his cape twisted around his ankles. "I'll deal with the attackers."

So they rushed past the still breathless officer, meeting Batman and an already handcuffed Sawada in the hallway.

"Don't try anything funny," Artemis warned, pointing one of her sharp arrows at his face. Sawada gulped and shook his cuffed hands in front of his face.

"I-I won't, I promise!"

"Be careful," was all Batman said before darting down the hallway, where the yells of policemen trying to organize could be heard loudly.

"Let's get going, then." Conner added a threatening cracking of his knuckles that had Sawada almost tripping with his own feet to follow Megan and Wally, at the lead of their small group. Robin and Kaldur stood at either side of their prisoner, while Conner and Artemis covered their back.

They got as far as halfway to the holding cells when they were intercepted.

"Kufufu. Gotten yourself in trouble again, haven't you, Vongola?"

The Italian words were all the warning they got before the walls around them crumbled, and hot pillars of lava shot up from the cracked floor beneath them.

"The hell!" They had to scramble to get away from the burning heat, and though both Kaldur and Robin had tried to get hold of Sawada, the man had been separated from them by a curtain of lava that had him shrieking loudly.

By the time the lava fell, Sawada was gone. Lifting his head from where he was crouching and hoping against hope he hadn't been burnt to a crisp, Robin looked around for him. He shouldn't have worried: the man was standing a ways down the corridor that led to one of the side exits, without a single burn on him. That section was untouched by the heavy cracks and gaps on the wall, and there was no lava either. Sawada was rubbing his wrists, now free of the handcuffs, but his worried eyes were on them.

"Don't hurt them, Mukuro," he said, the demand audible past the concern.

"Always so soft-hearted," the man next to him sighed in obvious disapproval. It was, he noticed, the same officer that had come to tell them they were being attacked. There was a malicious smirk on his lips, and one of his eyes had turned red. On his right hand was a long trident, and on the left one, Sawada's mittens and pills. These he tossed to the Vongola Boss, his smirk widening as his eyes focused on someone past Robin's shoulder. "We'd better get out of here now. That one's already caught on."

Sawada followed his gaze and nodded, and both began sprinting down the corridor, Sawada yelling an apology over his shoulder.

Only then did Robin look over his shoulder. He caught sight of Megan, brows furrowed and eyes shimmering green. Then, a strange wave, the familiar touch of her powers over their minds, and the corridor was back to normal.

"Woah!" Robin said, standing from his crouched position to look around.

"Illusions," Miss Martian said, her eyes returning to normal. She sounded awed, but her brow was furrowed in worry. "None of it was real! I didn't even notice at first."

"None of us did," Conner pointed out, and they were already running down the corridor to catch up with the two escapees.

"Kid Flash, go ahead and try to block their way!" Aqualad ordered.

"On it!" And the yellow blur disappeared ahead of them, rounding the corner several feet down the corridor, and—"OW!"

They heard a loud thud, and ran faster to catch up with him. They found Wally trapped in what appeared to be the precinct's pipes, which had twisted like snakes to wrap around him. He'd probably run into them as soon as he'd rounded the corner.

"H-how did they-!"

Miss Martian's mental touch reached their minds again, and Wally fell to the ground as soon as he realized he was being held up by nothing.

"You said they were illusions!" Wally said, rubbing his arms where the pipes had squeezed him.

"They are!" Megan said quickly, nodding her head. "But they're powerful. It's not enough to know they are illusions, you need to actually be able to see past them!"

"So we need to stick together," Robin surmised, helping Wally up. Megan was the only one who could get them to see past whatever strange mind trick this Mukuro character was pulling, so fighting him without her there was a bad idea.

They reached the side entrance, and the first thing Robin noticed was the light rain that covered the area, despite the fact the night sky was clear. Mukuro and Sawada halfway through the parking lot, on their way to an aviation helicopter. Even with the ruckus that could still be heard in the front of the precinct, how did they get this thing here without getting noticed?

"Tsuna!" a tall, lean man dressed in a black suit stood at the door of the helicopter, waving at the pair approaching the aircraft. "Haha, escaping from the American police is so much fun, isn't it?"

"Fun isn't what I would call it, Yamamoto!" replied a scandalized-sounding Sawada. He seemed to be running even faster than before. No, that wasn't it.

In an uncharacteristic feat, Robin tripped over his own feet fell to his knees, feeling his body shaking all over. "Wha-what's going on!" he cried, looking around. Wally had slowed down as well, falling back heavily on his butt. Artemis, Kaldur, Megan, and Conner, all of them had fallen too, and Robin suspected they felt the same strange grogginess in their body as he did.

A soft thrill from above made him look up, just in time to see a small bird covered in blue flames flying overhead. It went to land on the hand of the man called Yamamoto, who caught Robin's eye and sent him an apologetic smile. "Maa, maa. Sorry about that, but we can't have you following us."

The rain, Robin realized. It had stopped as soon as the bird went back to its owner.

A high-pitched cry had Robin's head snap towards Megan. Above her unconscious form stood the fake police officer, and from the way he was holding his weapon, he had just hit her head with the butt of the trident.

"Mukuro!" Sawada cried.

"Would you rather have her give away our location, Vongola? I only knocked her out."

"You Bastard!"

Superboy had partially managed to overcome whatever was making them feel so weak and throw a punch at the imposter officer, but his fist was caught by a lean man of tan skin and white hair. He was also dressed in a black suit, with a white band over his nose and bandaged fists. There was a huge grin on his face as he caught Conner's other fist, leaving them locked for a moment. Conner's punches must have been weakened by the rain, but it was still impressive that a human could stop them. Assuming he was even human.

"Sawada! This boy is EXTREMELY strong!" he shouted in what sounded like joy. Then, he added in English: "You should join my unofficial boxing club to the Extreme!"

"What!"

"B-brother, just get over here!" Sawada called. He was already in the aviation helicopter, along with his two dark-haired friends.

"Right away, Sawada!"

He proceeded to knock Conner back with a strong punch to his gut, and before Conner could try to get up again, the boxer was already jumping into the aircraft, which was beginning to rise off the floor. "Octopus Head says he'll meet up with us in the appointed place! And that if he found a single bruise on you he'd extremely beat us up!"

It was the last thing he heard before the doors of the aircraft doors closed. Nine feet off the air, it completely disappeared, but Robin had no doubt that it was still before them, and they just couldn't see it.

He had managed to pull himself up, and gradually, his teammates did the same. Conner had moved to check up on Miss Martian. Aside from a bump in the back of her head, she seemed to be fine.

"Well, we messed up," Wally said, rubbing his head as they watched the sky. The smell of gunpowder was strong in the air, and smoke was coming from the front of the police station. But the explosions had stopped, and there was no doubt Batman would come soon to know what had happened.

"That we did," Robin sighed.

The Tenth Boss of the Vongola was a very strange man, he'd decided. But he was, at least, the kind of strange that wouldn't hurt civilians. There were definitely worse Mafiosi than him out there.

So he didn't feel particularly bad he'd gotten away.

Sorry for typos or grammatical mistakes. Feel free to point them out and I'll fix them as soon as possible!

Reviews are always appreciated.