Rating: T
Genre: Angst
Summary: "Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." Dick Grayson was raised by Slade Wilson AU.
Author's Notes: This story is ongoing and is being posted roughly concurrently at the YJ Anon Meme. It's the second in a series of AU fics about Dick Grayson being raised by supervillains instead of Batman.
Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.
- H. L. Mencken
Hoist High the Black Flag
~Prelude~
Despite the fact that the man is wearing a police uniform in a police station, Dick knows he's not a real police officer. He's wearing an eye patch, which means he's probably blind in one eye, which means he has no depth perception. You can't be a police officer without depth perception.
Which raises the question: what is a man who is not a police officer doing dressed as a police officer in a police station?
His mommy and daddy would probably want him to run out of the room. Or scream. But mommy and daddy are dead and that's why he's in the police station, in Lt. Gordon's office. So it really doesn't matter that this man is only pretending to be a policeman.
But just because he's sad doesn't mean he isn't curious. "What are you doing here?" he asks. If the man is going to kill him, or whatever, he might as well do it sooner rather than later. It's not like there are really that many horrible things the man can do to him.
The man looks amused. "What is a police officer doing in a police station?"
"You're not a police officer."
"Lucky and clever," the man says with a smile.
Dick's blood boils. "Lucky?" he asks with an angry giggle, "Lucky? My parents are dead! How is that lucky?"
"Haven't you heard? Bruce Wayne wants to take you in. He's the richest man in all of Gotham. He'll buy you the best of everything. He'll make sure you go to the best prep schools, make the best connections, go the best college. You've got it made kid. And beyond that, everyone knows, Wayne's an incurable bachelor. He'll never get married, he'll never have kids. Play your cards right, and he'll adopt you. Men like Wayne don't live very long. It'll be the sex or the booze or the drugs, but something'll kill him soon. And he has no family. Butler raised him after his folks died. No one to leave all that money to. When Wayne dies, you'll get all his money. Richard Grayson, richest man in Gotham."
Dick looks away, feeling sick. "I don't want any of that."
"Well, what do you want?"
"What do you think I want?" he spits out angrily.
"I don't know. Tell me."
"I want my parents to be alive."
"But that's impossible. So, what do you want? What do you want that you can get?"
Dick stops to think. "Justice. I want justice. I want the police to find the guy who cut the rope. I want them to find him and put him in the electric chair."
The man who isn't a policeman laughs, and it isn't a nice laugh. "You're in the wrong town for that kid. There's no such thing as justice in Gotham. The police is rotten to the core. Jim Gordon's the only good man on the entire force. And there are so many other fish to catch. You think the GCPD is going to go after some two-bit extortionist for a double homicide, when there's people like the Joker and Scarecrow committing mass atrocities? Wake up kid. The GCPD hasn't caught the guy that killed Martha and Thomas Wayne, and Brucie gives millions to the department each year. You think they're going to catch Tony Zucco?"
And then the man kneels down to Dick, who tries to look away, because, he doesn't know why, he doesn't want this man to see him cry, even though, the rational part of his mind knows that he's an eight year old who just saw his parents murdered and he's well within his rights to cry.
"Look at me Richard," the man says, and he cups Dick's face in his hand. "What you want, and what you need, is vengeance. With the right resources and the right training, you can go after Tony Zucco, and you can make him pay, not just for what he did to you, but for what he's done to so many others like you.
"The police wants to put you with Wayne. If you go with him you will have a comfortable existence. You will have money and power. But your parents, they won't have justice, and you won't have revenge.
"But, you don't have to go with Wayne. You can come with me. I know what loss is like. I deal in death and vengeance. And if you come with me, if you follow me, serve me, become my apprentice, I will teach you everything I know, and you will have revenge."
Dick doesn't know what to say.
"Just ask yourself. Wayne's never been able to avenge his parents. He's wasted his life on chasing skirts and downing vodka. Is that the life you want?"
Dick shakes his head.
"So I'll ask you again, what do you want?"
And his lip trembles. "Vengeance."
"Then you'll come with me?"
His mommy and daddy would probably want him to run out of the room. Or scream. But mommy and daddy are dead and that's why he nods his head.
To be continued...
Author's Notes:
Reviews are to Contract with a K as Cookies are to:
(a) Mitt Romney
(b) Oscar the Grouch
(c) Cookie Monster
(d) Bowties