Chapter: 12
"I'm saddened that it has come to this child, I had hoped that you'd choose differently from your foolish father. I now see that we have granted you with too much free will." The sharpened point of an ancient sword was pressed threateningly against his throat. However Damian's attention wasn't on the man in front of him, his eyes were locked on the struggling form of his youngest brother who was thrashing with what little energy he had left against the restraints of the ancient chair he was strapped to.
If he had chosen differently earlier, would Grayson be free right now?
Earlier:
"It's time for the next Demon Head to inherit my legacy, and I will have a successor. One way…or another."
"Your words hold no meaning to me. Grayson and I together will depart from this cursed place and you will not stop me grandfather. I refuse to continue to be your puppet." Damian spat, feet already turning to leave.
"You may no longer see yourself as my puppet, but your strings are not cut." Damian's retreat slowed to a halt, his head was lowered and his tightly clenched fists were trembling. "I may no longer be your so called puppet master, but your strings were merely passed to another. Do you honestly believe the detective is not manipulating you?"
"He's not like you, he lets us make our own choices even if they're wrong!" he defended.
"Indeed they may be subtler, but a puppet master is skilled at the art. He allows you to believe you have choices but don't let it fool you, in the end the puppet master always gets what he desires. At least I don't bother with trying to hide it, take this for example." Ra's waved his arm to the side, drawing his grandson's attention to a curtained arch. With a flourish of red the curtains fell away revealing the bound acrobat.
"Grayson!" his brother shouted in alarm. Growling he turned to the man responsible. "Release him, he is of no use to you."
"On the contrary, he has quite the potential. I have already stated it previously; I will have a successor." The demon head moved behind Dick's chair, resting his hands on the backrest almost possessively. "While he may not have the ideal bloodline, he will still do nicely. He's still young enough to be molded."
This made Damian seethe, how dare he even suggest such a thing. "If you dare lay a hand on him-!"
"I'd watch your tongue child, I have been lenient as of far but my patience is not unlimited. It's time for you to learn your place." Damian once again returned his attention to Dick, his younger brother looked rather annoyed than scared but still. His face seemed paler than before. It seems that Grandfather hadn't taken the necessary precautions to ensure his "successor's" wellbeing.
With a roar of outrage Damian rushed at the man, not minding that he was defenseless. This ultimately lead to his downfall. Ra's Al Ghul wasn't called the Demon Head for nothing after all. In no time Damian found himself with his back against the cold stone floor with the man he had long ago looked up to standing above him, sword mere centimeters away from taking his life.
oOo
"I see a lot has happened since I was last here." Gibbs commented as he returned from his self-approved tour around the Batcave.
"…yeah, especially the last five years." Batman quietly said, his form hunched over the Batcomputer.
"…I saw the display case. Why didn't you tell me Bruce?" Gibbs asked after a long moment of silence.
Batman pushed the cowl off his head, the worried father known as Bruce Wayne taking his place. "I've had a lot on my plate Leroy. These last few years have been especially rough."
Gibbs watched the man he's known for so long sag into the black chair in front of the computer, suddenly looking even older than himself. "You know…you've come a long way from the rookie I taught to shoot." Gibbs moved closer when he saw the billionaire twitch. "I nearly died with laughter when you told me you wanted to learn how to shoot something from miles away, but not with a gun. I thought you'd lost it. But given what you've been through, I can't say I blame you."
It all started back when Batman was still just an idea. Billionaire Bruce Wayne was undergoing various rigorous training from around the world. Learning from the best of the best and of course when it came to marksmanship Leroy was the trustworthy sensible choice.
"Yet you still agreed to train me."
"…yes. I did. Because I saw myself in you and I knew that if you were left alone you'd do something that'd change you forever. You're not a killer Bruce. In all the years we've known each other that much is obvious." Gibbs merely stated frankly. Bruce stared at him with an unreadable expression before shaking his head with a smile and pulling back on his cowl. "You never mentioned to me that you took on another kid. Nor did you think to inform me of your other children's visits. I almost shot them simply because I didn't know who they were, not like you've ever bothered to introduce us."
"Dick just joined us less than a year ago, his wounds are still fresh and painfully similar to the rest of the family's." Batman pulled up a few new windows, ignoring the later part of the agent's comment. "He's told me. Still, don't you think he's a bit young to be out in the field?"
"Dick is still in training, he's only been out on patrol a few times to wet his feet. Speaking of which," a series of beeps went off, signifying the completion. "it seems our ride is done being filled up. We need to get moving, I assume you've stocked up?"
"You know that I have." Batman started walking away when Gibbs continued. "We will be continuing our discussion Bruce, you won't get out of it that easily."
The haunting images of a still tattered form that hung heavily in his arms resurfaced. (1)
"I don't expect anything less from you Leroy."
oOo
Jason found himself having to consciously move his hands away from his holstered gun once again.
"-but never, and I mean never, try replacing milk with hot sauce. Spicy cocoa puffs are not something that'll stay down. Oh! Speaking about staying down, there was this one time in New Orleans-." The Flash continued to yammer on, not the least bit deterred from the one sidedness of the conversation. He had been talking Jason's ear off for the last few hours and the Red Hood was about to do something drastic just for a few minutes of quiet.
Just as his finger started to play with the trigger again the comlink in his ear crackled to life. "Red Hood are you in position?"
"Ready and waiting for ya Bats, seriously could you take any longer? I can't believe you left me with motor mouth for so long." He responded, ignoring Flash's offended hey!
"How is the situation inside?" Batman continued, ignoring his complaints.
"Figures you wouldn't care." He muttered. "Anyways you need to either let me start killing people or get here faster cause stuff is going down and the situation doesn't look good for the baby bird and demon spawn."
There was a tense silence and Jason half expected the man had hung up when it crackled once again, "Get into position, I want you to have a clear view on Ra's at all times. Tell Flash to meet me at the coordinates I'm sending now. Batman out." With that the line was dropped and Jason sighed. Of course leave him to the boring work of waiting.
Jumping up to a nearby roof to find a better position Jason called over his shoulder, "The coordinates should come any second now. You better be headed off before Bats gets here." A sharp grin grew on his face. "It's about time things started to get interesting."
oOo
"I can't believe Gibbs made us wait behind while he gets to go off and get this guy." Tony complained from where he pouted at his desk, eyes locked at the empty table that belong to Gibbs.
"There's no helping it Tony, besides we'd be useless in that team up. Just be happy knowing that if anyone can get the Wayne boys back in one piece, it's those two." McGee tried to console. Usually that was Ziva's job, but she was on her way downstairs to check on their left over drugged Wayne boy charge.
"You don't know that, what if-." It was at that moment a commotion started up. The two male agents were quick to their feet and their guns at the ready. "Federal Agents, freeze!" Tony yelled, not caring that the fact was a given seeing as to how they were in NCIS Headquarters. He was about to repeat his demand when he ran straight into a person, his nose exploding in pain.
"Sorry about that, didn't see you there." A friendly yet stern voice sounded. Holding his nose, he looked up with watering eyes that instantly locked onto the man's chest. "We didn't mean to stir up such a crowd, but it's come to my attention that you have recently been in contact with Batman. Is he still here?"
Tony was frozen on the spot, not even noticing the other people behind the man questioning him. His eyes were too busy studying every detail of the "S" shield emblem that decorated the man's chest. All he was able to breath was one word.
"Superman."
A/N: Dun dun DUN! How is it so far? You likey? I tried answering some questions in this chapter but feel free to let me know if you still have any. SO! I have finally come to the decision(ish) to go through medschool to become a hospitalist (doctor in hospital). However to do so I'd be going to college out of country, leaving everything familiar behind. Then again, I do have to sprout my wings eventually right? But what if I don't get in or don't succeed? That'll be 10 years down the drain. But I don't want to look back when I'm 30 (cause I'll turn 30 whether I like it or not no matter what) and have any regrets. I do admit I still have a lot of research to be done as well as premed degree to think of, but I think that I can do it…possibly…maybe…but it'd be fun. Hard and exhausting and probably have times where I'm ready to give up, but fun and I'll come out of it stronger. Really the only reserves I have about this is the whole moving countries thing. It'd be a great and life changing experience but it'd be an experience that I'll remember forever. Ugh, I'm bad at installing confidence into myself. Anywho, enough about me as always. HEY I KNOW! Tell me what you hope to become in the future and/or what you are in the present as a profession~!
(1) This is in reference to SPOILERISH ALERT Jason's "death" scene.
Faithandfamily1st- muwahahahah everything is up with that devious madman.
Sapphire Roz- hope it was worth the wait!
Kaiiri102- thank you =)
FleetingWriter- I'm so happy you like it so much =) Tim's up cause he- like all bats- have a certain level of immunity to various drugs and sedatives. That'd be so funny if Gibbs built boats in the Batcave XD. But I have to study hard! We're learning the skeletal system and our test it Tuesday, do you know how many bones and parts and processes and regions there are in just the skull alone!? Thank you for your lovely review though! It was super sweet and motivating and I'm excited to see this story finally start to finish.
Heartbreakerninja- It would be hilarious, might include that next chapter…remind me XD
Guest-I hope it's safe to assume the guest reviews are from the same person, but if not then they're numbered according to chapter: (11) more to come soon(ish) don't worry! (4) yeap (9) yeap, crazy right? XD
Pipe Dream- WHOOOO OVERLOOOOOAAAD! Thanks for your enthusiasm =)
REVERSEDROBIN62- Don't worry about it, you're not getting to be a pain, I enjoy your reviews immensely! Thank you so much, I'm super happy you like how I write and that you're super excited for the coming chapters, it helps motivate me to get them out faster. Unfortunately update speed is pretty slow because of the hard workload I have with a&p right now, but I still hope you continue to enjoy this all the same! Thank you all once again! I super appreciate the fact that you take the time to leave reviews and I hope that by me responding to them that you understand that it really does mean a lot to me.
I do not own Young Justice or Batman, I hope you all have a wonderful day and/or night!