Guardian Angel
Summary: He was once a Flying Angel, a Flying Grayson, a husband and a father. Now he is running from the cabal that tried to turn him into a monster. Still, John Grayson clutches a memory. The memory of the only family he has left.
Author's Note: Yes, I'm working on "Ties That Bind", stop leaving reviews pestering me to update it, because it's coming soon. Enjoy this in the meantime.
Bloodline
He stands atop a building. He gazes down at the teeming masses. He is invisible to their unconcerned eyes. He is searching for a target, and that is his only concern.
John Grayson remembers his old life, but it's like a pleasant dream. It feels like a lifetime ago. But he had a good life, now he was in a living Hell, but not of his own choosing.
For years he killed, in secret, the enemies of the Court of Owls, they had offered him an ultimatum, kill for them or they would take Mary and Dick to the Labyrinth, and he would be forced to kill them.
He agreed, and they did not fill him with their mysterious Electrum that could heal his body; that was part of the deal, he did not want his family to discover what he was doing.
He is certain that they are here, they are everywhere, their network is vast and the resources limitless.
John Grayson huddled under the Titans Bridge; no one would ever know this homeless man was both the world's greatest acrobat, and a dead man. It was good to go unnoticed, especially since he had the attention of the Court of Owls.
He had tried to settle down in various cities, while searching for his son Dick, he'd heard that Dick had left Gotham City, but wasn't sure of his whereabouts.
It's dark out, and he must leave the safety of the alleyway. He has business with the nicer side of town.
John stares out and searches still. He found them, a wealthy couple heading home. They were the ones he'd been searching for. He tailed them home.
He climbed up the side of the building and slipped in through the open window. The couple had gone to bed.
John slipped into their room and stood over their beds.
"Joseph and Maria Powers," they were an immensely powerful couple from Gotham City; they had a summer home in Jump, being very rich.
"So you finally come crawling back to us for mercy. We won't grant it, we'll break you, just like we did before, Grayson," Joseph smirked.
"I didn't come to beg for mercy, I'm warning you, if you expand your Court of Owls to Jump City, I will burn everything you cherish to the ground!"
"That's a bold threat, let's see you try it!"
They reached for weapons, only to look up and see that the former Talon had disappeared.
John leapt out onto the roof. He sprinted across the buildings, somersaulting over the gaps and clearing them easily. He enjoys parkour, but he knows he must put distance between himself and the Powers family. He took the mask off, enjoying the breeze on his face in the night air.
He wonders who they'll send after him, his grandfather William Cobb? No doubt, his ancestor will get a kick out of that, and he'll enjoy it too. Or maybe Alton Carver, his predecessor? He doesn't know, but he'd have to be ready and he needed weapons, and he'd heard a rumor about someone who had a lot of weapons.
John was about to leave when he spotted someone walking below him. He recognizes the boy's face, his son Richard. He let a smile cross his face.
Nightwing walked through the streets, not on patrol, just out and about, enjoying himself. Slade wasn't causing trouble, which surprised him; he half expected it from his arch nemesis.
Nightwing looked up and saw a figure in the distance; his first instinct is to go after the man on the roof. He blinks and does a double-take.
"Dad?" he asks no one in particular. He's seeing things, he's been thinking about his birth father lately, he'd had a stressful day fighting crime; he just needed to relax and not think about work.
He looks at the spot and there's no one there. It's his father's ghost; he always believed that his father watched over him from Heaven. That's what it was, nothing more. Besides, there was no one there.
He launched himself up to the roof to look around, it's empty, just as he thought, not even a heat signature.
John sighs, he should have stayed, but his son believes he is dead, it should remain this way. He was nothing more than a monster, a murderer, a puppet. He'd been devastated when Mary had discovered what he'd been doing for the Court of Owls.
He was putting the Talon uniform away, hidden in the floor of the living room of the Flying Graysons trailer. He heard footsteps behind him. He turned and saw his wife staring at him.
"John, is that a Talon uniform?" Mary asked.
"Yes," he replied. She doesn't say a word. Why? He expects her to tell him that what he's doing is wrong, that he's an evil monster.
"You went and begged for Dick's life, didn't you? When they chose him for the Court of Owls, to be their next Talon."
He can't bring himself to speak. John simply nodded.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't want you to know. You would see me as…"
"As what, John?" Mary knelt down beside him and put her hand on his shoulder.
"A monster."
"Do you believe in their cause, that they can change this horrible city by killing people they think deserve it?"
"No."
"Do you enjoy killing those people?"
"No, I'm doing this because they've given me no other choice. They'll take you, and Dick, and they'll make me kill you…I can't live with that. I don't want to lose you both."
"You should have told me I—" Mary began.
"Would have begged them to not do this? No Mary, they have too much power, and we can't just run away to another circus, they'd find us eventually."
"No, I would have gone in your place. The guilt is eating you alive."
"Mary, you couldn't handle what they do."
"Maybe I wouldn't, but I would have done it so you wouldn't have to." Mary pulled him into an embrace.
"I love you John, so much, and you're not a monster. If you were, you'd be spewing the Court's philosophical crap, boasting about all the people you've killed, acting like some self-important savior of Gotham City. Sometimes, you have to do bad things, but we always have a choice, destinies don't exist, you won't be under their thumb forever. You're a good husband and father, that's the man I see in front of me."
She cradled him in her arms, whispering comforting words to him. Words he needed to hear, so he could live with himself.
"I hope so honey, I hope so."
John stared at the tattered family photo of he, Mary and Dick, their son was young, sitting on a swing, smiling. He missed Mary so much, if she were here, she'd help him keep it together.
He made his way across Jump City.
He entered an empty warehouse. He could hear the churning of spinning gears.
"If you think you can just stroll in here and take something that's mine, you're mistaken!" Slade said with an edge in his voice. It was unusual for anyone to irritate him, but Slade sensed there was something different about this one, and familiar.
John struck the one-eyed mercenary. Slade managed to avoid the blow. He had to keep his eye on this one. No pun intended either.
Slade noted his attacker fought with throwing knives, held in a reverse grip. That was interesting.
John knew this wasn't going to be easy. He knew very little about Slade. Just that his son fought him often and that the Court of Owls was keeping an eye on him.
Slade tackled the would-be assassin, he didn't know his real name and it didn't matter, but he'd heard of them. They were called Talons, fabled assassins of a shadowy cabal.
Slade took out his energy stick and swung it at his attacker. John avoided the blow and stabbed Slade through his hand, just above the wrist.
John hit him in the face, following it up by bringing his knee up and slamming it into the villain's mask.
He kicked the man back as he unleashed a dozen throwing knives in Slade's direction, three landed, two in his shoulders, one in his chest.
"Not bad, Talon, not bad at all!"
John didn't say anything, if he was going after someone this dangerous, he might as well frame his former masters for the attack.
Slade ripped the knives out and followed up with a vicious series of kicks, John barely managed to block them. He ducked and avoided a swing of Slade's clenched fist and executed a kick just as he stabbed Slade's other arm.
"C'mon Slade, impress me!" John taunted.
Slade let out an enraged roar as he rushed forward, tackling the Talon, knocking him out of the window; he tried to strangle John as they plummeted to the street below.
John ripped Slade's sword out of his sheathe and stabbed him in the shoulder. Slade kicked him away as they both hit the ground.
"You're going to wish you hadn't done that!" Slade snarled.
"I only wish I'd done it sooner!" John retorted. "Broken bones for someone who can regenerate. I said—Impress me."
Slade was angry now, he rushed at his attacker with a fury that John took advantage of.
He slammed his fist into Slade's gut, head butting him in the face as the mercenary lurched forward. He executed a back flip, kicking Slade back into the wall.
He ran forward, punching and kicking Slade as the man struggled to get up, John pinned Slade to the wall with more of his throwing knives.
"It's too bad that I had to steal your weapons, but you're not the type of guy to just give people things."
"If you wanted a business transaction, I would have been accommodating, but to just up and take things, that isn't so noble. Two wrongs don't make a—"
"Don't ever lecture me! The last thing I need is a moral chastising from someone like you!"
"You remind me of someone I know. That's interesting," Slade laughed.
John took Slade's sword, his energy staff and his thermal blaster. He wondered how he'd gotten another, John didn't care as long as it could do the job.
He walked away as Slade stood to his feet.
"Who do you think you are to walk out on me?! We're not done!" Slade snarled.
"Someone who doesn't care who you are!" John retorted. Now he just had to bait the trap.
"Beware the Court of Owls, that watches all the time, ruling Gotham from a shadowed perch, behind granite and lime. They watch you at your hearth, they watch you in your bed, speak not a whispered word of them, or they'll send the Talon for your head."
Slade saw the man vanish and he slammed his fist into the ground in frustration. "The Court of Owls, huh? I'll kill all of them, after all, the Titans are bad enough, I don't need any more competition."
John heard him and smiled. He took the bait. Good. The Talons were dead anyway, Slade would just make sure they stayed dead.
Starfire was on her way home, bringing back groceries. She saw a pair of homeless men talking to an older man who arrived with enough food to feed all of them.
"Let's celebrate with a song, boys!" one of them shouted. "Hey John, sing us that one, the one about Superman."
"Okay, if you insist," John cleared his throat. One of the men began to play the guitar.
"She's watching the taxi driver, he pulls away. She's been locked up in her apartment a hundred days."
Starfire recognized the song by a popular music artist. She enjoyed songs about superheroes, even if they weren't about her.
"She says, "Yeah, he's still coming, just a little bit late. He got stuck at the Laundromat washing his cape."
Starfire could hear the strum of a guitar and the man clapped his hands.
"She's just watching the clouds roll by and they spell her name, like Lois Lane. And she smiles, oh the way she smiles."
The homeless men smiled, "C'mon man, belt it out for us!"
Starfire saw the peaceful and happy expression as the man begins to sing.
"She's talking to angels, counting the stars, making a wish on a passing car, she's dancing with strangers, falling apart, waiting for Superman to pick her up. In his arms yeah, in his arms yeah, waiting for Superman."
They continue to sing and Starfire claps her hands to the music.
Starfire smile at them and pulled out $15 in $5 bills, she handed it to them.
"Thank you sweetheart," John smiled.
"You are welcome!" she replied. She took to the sky, carrying her groceries.
"Who is she?" John inquired.
"She's Starfire, one of the Teen Titans, she's Nightwing's girlfriend," the man replied.
"How do you know?"
"It's all the tabloids talk about," the man replied.
"She certainly is pretty, he has good taste," John laughed. "Just like his father I'll bet."
She landed on the roof of Titans Tower. Nightwing was waiting for her.
"Rich'ard, how are you?" she asked.
"I'm fine, but I did see something strange today," he smiled at her, kissing her lips.
"What was it?" Starfire was curious.
"I thought I saw my father, but it was a ghost, that's all."
"Why did you think you saw him?" Starfire knew her boyfriend had once seen Slade when he was not there, she was worried it might be a chemical reagent.
"I've had him on my mind lately, that's all," Nightwing shrugged his shoulders. "It was probably just me. Care to come in? Gar wants to start a movie."
"Of course!" she replied, he led her inside. He put all thoughts of his father out of his head. He had more to worry about than his father's ghost.