"A hostage exchange usually involves a negotiation," said Batman, more for Omi's benefit than the assassin's-- and wonder at him that he was separating the two. "You lose all your leverage if you kill this one."

To say nothing of what Batman would lose. The anger building in him was getting difficult to quantify and even more difficult to contain. The desire to cause harm, to put an end to this was warring very hard with his conviction that permanent ends solve nothing, truly-- they simply cut away the problem, rather than curing it. He'd never convince Omi that the assassins were wrong if he resorted to their methods, and the other assassins would never have the chance to reform if he killed them.

But with Dick in danger, the things he knew reasonably seemed to pale in comparison. Still, he couldn't be concerned with just Dick. He had to think about Omi, too.