Search and Destroy
Author's Note: Grey DeLisle's voices Mary Grayson in The Batman, and she also voices Azula in Avatar: The Last Airbender. Psychotic Mary sounds like Azula. Thirty Seconds to Mars "Search and Destroy" makes for great background music for this chapter.
"Mom..." Robin spoke the word without hesitation. He knew it in his heart that it was her. This was no disguised spy, not Clayface, Madam Rouge or some other shape-shifting villain.
It really was her, Mary Elizabeth Lloyd Grayson, his mother. The world fell away, and it was like the other Titans weren't even there. Time slowed for the two of them and he felt like his legs had become lead.
"You've gotten taller than me, son, I'm now the shortest person in this family," Mary smiled at him, a smile that contradicted the reality that she had a small child by her throat.
"This woman–?" Starfire asked.
"Is your mother?!" Raven exclaimed.
"That a bold claim lady, who sent you to concoct this setup?!" Cyborg shouted.
"Dude, spill!" Beast Boy glowered.
"She's not lying guys…she's Mary Grayson, my mother and I know that it's her."
"Mom, let the girl go. Talk to me. Tell me who did this to you."
"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."
"That rhyme is far from home."
"They're real Dick, and they're coming for you. All of you. But that's why I'm here; I'm here to stop them permanently."
"You don't have to kill her, just let her go and talk to me."
"No Dick, I don't have time to talk. I'm not one of your card carrying villains. No grand speeches, no gloating about killing you and your friends, no fiendish plots to take over your city or the world. I read enough of your comic books to know that doing those things make villains stupid and careless. I'm here to kill the people who turned me into a monster."
"That's your reasoning then, it's still wrong!" Robin brandished his staff.
"I expect no less of my son. I raised you to always do the right thing; it's nice to see that you turned out so well, even if I am going to beat you to a bloody pulp."
"Mom, all I want to do is save you."
"I can only save myself, and I don't want to!"
Mary's face twisted with a rage he'd never seen before. "I was planning to kill this girl by beating her to death, but you've made me change my mind. I'll be merciful…"
"Mom, stop this, just give her to me. I'll deal with the Court of Owls…"
"…and give her the same death I received at the hands of Tony Zucco."
"NO!" Robin screamed, "Titans GO!"
The Titans rushed Mary Grayson; they only had one goal, get the girl away from her.
Mary tossed the girl away, Starfire went for the girl only to have Mary step in the way and kick her aside. Starfire managed to accept the blow, she struck at the woman but she shut out that this was Robin's mother; she only needed to see her as a criminal who needed to be stopped.
Starfire fired off several Starbolts, Mary avoided them using her impressive acrobatics. Starfire managed to fire a strong blast and watched in horror as Mary took it, the hot lasers burning her skin off revealing black blood and tissue beneath it.
Starfire gasped as the woman began to regenerate, her face resumed its normal appearance.
"Critical burns for someone who can regenerate…impress me, sweetheart."
Raven's powers engulfed her, slamming her into a wall. Beast Boy grabbed her and smashed her into the floor. The Titans could hear her bones breaking. Cyborg kneecapped her and they watched as she stood up.
"Mom, please, don't fight us! Just listen to me; she's only a little girl! You've murdered her parents; they're still just normal people like you!"
Robin saw his mother turn her gaze towards him. Her eyes were burning, like the hottest part of a flame.
"It doesn't matter what they are; now they must die! They'll be slaughtered corpses, left to rot in their graves like filth! This is just the way it is! This is what has to be done! And no one has the power to change that! Not God, the Devil or you!"
"I don't know about God," Raven looked at Mary, "But now you'll deal with a devil!"
Raven unleashed a wall of energy. It knocked Mary backward. Robin launched a flash/bang grenade at his mother, blinding her. Raven was the closest to the girl; she reached out to snatch the child to safety when she felt a searing pain in her arms.
She glanced down to see her own blood dripping down her arms, Robin's mother had embedded half a dozen of them in both her arms even though she'd been blinded by Robin's flash/bang.
Raven was thrown off balance and hit the floor. She was struggling to her feet when Beast Boy charged in as a green elephant.
"Time for the hay burner* to take a hike!"
She grabbed beast Boy by his trunk and threw him away like he was a baseball. He flew back into a wall.
Robin watched in horror and as the little girl grabbed onto his mother, pulled out a knife and clawed her way up on his mother's shoulders, stabbing her in the neck.
"Traitors must die!"
Mary struck the girl hard and slammed her on the floor. "Told you she's not worth rescuing!"
Cyborg saw the woman avoid his shots and grip the girl by her throat.
"Don't worry little brat, I'll see you in Hell soon enough!" Mary snapped the girl's neck even as Dick reached out to stop her.
Robin heard the sickening snap of the child's neck as his mother, his mother looking at the limp body as if she were staring at garbage she needed to throw away. She tossed the corpse at his feet.
"How could you?!" he demanded. "After what happened to you and Dad, how could you do this?!"
"It's simple Dick, this wasn't a little girl, she was a monster, you have no idea what the Court of Owls is capable of, I do. This brat was one of their members."
"I don't believe you!"
Mary removed something from her belt and tossed it to Robin. Robin looked at it, it was a thumb drive.
"This is all the proof you'll need." Mary turned to walk away.
"Mom, you won't be leaving this room," Robin moved to block her exit. "I'm taking you down!"
"Your voice sounds so half-hearted, are you still in shock Dick? That I could do something so horrible? You've got that look on your face, blaming yourself for what I've done. I'm fully responsible for their deaths, not you."
"I won't let you leave, I have to stop you, I'm the only one who can!" Robin shouted. It felt like a nightmare, a horrible dream, he was saying these things doing these things, but he felt like he was outside of his body.
"I'm leaving, but I will give you one minute."
"We don't need a minute lady; we can take you down right now!" Beast Boy shouted.
"Stand down Beast Boy; she won't attack us until the minute's up. She wants to remember everything we used to have, before I…have to fight her."
"But we can help—" Beast Boy protested.
"This is a family matter; she wants to fight me and me alone. That's what you want, isn't it mom?"
"Yes, that's what I want," Mary sighed. "Do you know what today is?"
"Yes Mom, it's June 27th…your birthday, and you also…died today, at this very moment." Robin glanced at the clock. They looked at each other and Starfire noticed, they acted like none of the other Titans even there.
"Do you still like shrimp stuffed mushrooms?" Mary smiled a little.
The Titans were surprised, they'd seen him cook and eat them.
"Yeah."
"Dick, do you remember when we visited Gotham City, and the entire city blacked out while we were there, and you weren't with us?"
"Yes, that was one wild night."
"I was worried sick; I hoped nothing bad would happen to you. You made it home and I was so relieved."
The Titans stared at Mary in surprise, they'd never seen her smile, but Robin had, it was the same as it always had been, it brought life into the room and lifted everyone's spirits. If only it was genuine and not a slasher smile straight out of The Shining.
"I remember you used to try to finish your homework as soon as you could so you could go to the movies when we weren't doing a show."
"Yeah, I remember that."
Mary raised her eyebrow, "You also spat out my food when I wasn't looking so you could say you were done eating, and it was always the vegetables."
"I wanted to practice," Robin chuckled. If only this minute could last forever, and they could act like a normal mother and son reunited after a long time.
"I remember the stunt you pulled with Raymond on my birthday, doing parkour across Gotham City. Almost got a security guard run over by a train."
"I apologized and he didn't press charges," Dick recalled. He gave her a sad look. "That birthday sucked for you didn't it Mom?"
"In more ways than one, you made me wait all day at the police station, I grounded you indefinitely, and then that night…we both died."
Mary moved forward, the Titans assumed she was going for a surprise attack, instead, she embraced her son, hugging him to her.
"Mom…I'm sorry…"
"What happened to me wasn't your fault."
"I know that."
"There's no time to keep regretting what happened a long time ago, besides, our minute's up."
"I know Mom, and now…I'm going to stop you. Even if it kills me. And even if you win this round against me, the Titans will stop you."
Mary gave him a look, a broad smile crossing her face and said something that surprised all the Titans, "I love you so much, Dick. Make me proud."
Starfire watched as both mother and son simultaneously pulled out weapons, Mary had two throwing knives, Robin had birdarangs.
"Time to play, little Robin, let's play!"
Mary blocked his shuriken, batting them away with her knives. She saw him pull out a pair of escrima sticks.
They clashed, he blocked all her strikes with his escrima sticks, he knocked one of her knives away. She punched him in the face. He backed up and used two of his birdarangs to create a sword. She tucked the knife away and drew her own.
Swords slammed into each other as they hacked and slashed, looking for an opening. Robin stabbed her shoulder as she sliced his. Robin forced himself to move and stabbed her through the heart. He slammed his escrima stick into her eye and through her brain pan.
"Regenerate that, Mom." He picked up her inert body and began walking towards his friends.
"We need to get—"
Suddenly, Robin felt his mother push away from him, she shot off his body. He didn't even have time to turn when he felt a searing pain in his chest. He saw three throwing knives embedded inside his body.
"You almost had me Dick, but you barely missed my brain pan!" Mary lurched forward and came at him.
She suddenly grabbed him by his shirt and threw him onto the ground, knocking the wind out of him.
She started hitting him, and Starfire felt like it lasted forever, but it could have only been a minute. She was ready to rush over and pull his mother away from him. All of this, it was so wrong and messed up.
"Starfire….stay out of this….this is something I…have to do!" Robin grunted.
She kept hitting him in the face, she'd give him a black eye, she saw blood dribbling out of his nose and mouth. It felt like a nightmare and that she wasn't really there.
Mary rained down blows as if she could physically beat her sense of morality into him. His face was covered in blood. This…was something that was never supposed to happen…how could they bring her back so wrong, and twist her into something she was never supposed to be? She hated them for what they made her do: turn against the only person who would have understood her motives for all of this. But they had to turn her into the villain, and she'd make all of them pay for that.
She raised up her fist and prepared to strike.
"I'm sorry it has to end this way, Richard."
"No…no you're not."
Mary slammed her fist into his face; he was unconscious before he hit the floor.
"Titans, stop her!" Cyborg screamed. Robin was unconscious and his friends rushed at her, Mary somersaulted back, scrambling out a window. She climbed onto the rooftop and they began chasing her as she sprinted over the rooftops.
Starfire elected to stay behind and flew an unconscious Dick Grayson back to Titans Tower.
Mary Grayson ran, with the Titans in hot pursuit. Raven threw everything she could at her, she avoided it leaping and somersaulting over the various objects. Beast Boy slashed at her as different animals, but she avoided him too. They chased her all over Jump City, all the way up the Sky Needle.
"There's nowhere left to go, Mary!" Cyborg warned. "Don't make this harder on yourself!"
"Did Dick ever tell you what they used to call us?" Mary asked, completely ignoring his words.
"What?" Cyborg looked at her.
"They used to call us fearless." Mary backed up and leaped off the Sky Needle, disappearing from sight.
"Dude, she won't survive that," Beast Boy gaped. That drop was so far.
"She'll be back," Raven looked at them. "We should get back to the Tower, I need to heal Robin's injuries."
Starfire waited in the medical room after she hooked him up to the machines. She saw his eyes flutter open.
"Starfire…where's mom?"
"She ran away," Starfire replied.
"I should have tried…harder…" he whispered.
"You did your best."
"No, I held back, I couldn't bring myself to fight; because it was her…I won't…make that mistake again."
Starfire saw him begin to cry, "This is wrong…so wrong."
She drew him into her arms and didn't say a word. She just let him cry.
Mary Grayson stumbled into her hiding place, collapsing as she leaned against the wall. She buried her face in her hands and cried.
"This is wrong…so wrong."
Author's Note: There's an Azula reference in here, you find it, you're awesome!
* Any of the hay or grain eating animals of the circus, as opposed to the meat eaters.