Bitter Betrayal
Alexnandru Van Gordon
I'm listening to "Beethoven Virus" The techno remake and it is awesome. It got me in such a good mood (after losing all my updating chapters on the dead laptop...) and so I was motivated to write again. I know it's been a while and my next step it to update Blast, but I have so much to do…Wow…so busy. Anyway—I've been having trouble remembering what I wrote down last time so bear with me for now if this one turns up short again. I'm trying my hardest after losing seventy pages worth of writing…argh…
Oh—and I didn't realize spell check was correcting Jaze's name and respelling it automatically as Jazz. So sorry about that—and I'm glad some people noticed that. Shows what a smart crowd you guys are, makes me proud.
CHAPTER TEN: Down with hope
Splitting up made him nervous but he really had no choice in the matter. Robin went to search on the north side of town while he went to the south east. Jaze took the south west and they hunted through the night for a legend gone wrong. Beast Boy was seriously worried that he'd pop out of the shadows and strangle him, but he never came…Boy was he good at hiding.
Lurking in an alleyway, he stuttered down quietly as a green dog. No one paid any attention to him—mind you, there weren't many people out anyway. With Batman sort of turning on the world and his Serial Killing's keeping the cops busy, someone was breaking into companies for all sorts of chemicals and mechanical pieces. So far all that was stolen added up to nothing, but if some genius was in town then there would be hell to pay…
The sound of footsteps behind him startled the heck out of Beast Boy. He spun around and morphed back into his humanoid self, coming face-to-face with…Slade?
"You!" BB exclaimed, backing up a step in shock. He had squat about the man since coming to Gotham and he was certain that the man wasn't interested in the Titans much anymore. After all, why else would he leave?
"Who else were you expecting?" Slade sighed, almost bored with the green changeling. "The Bat, perhaps? Looks as though he's something for the good people to fear now."
Beast Boy shook his head slowly, fury boiling within. Then something clicked in his head…and he surprised himself with how much of it made sense. "You're doing all this—you and Blood! You're controlling Batman!"
Slade paused then, surprised himself that the most annoying and idiotic member of the Titans figured that all out in one go. "Well, you were the last person I had expected to discover that. Although Robin has been through that theory, at least he took bait to my red-herrings. Then again, you just came here out of the blue. I'm surprised the other members of your team haven't figured it out yet."
Beast Boy gapped…He was right—he was actually right? Batman was being controlled by Slade and Blood—and that meant Cyborg and the others could come to Gotham and help take them down when Beast Boy…died. He was going to die! He should have kept his mouth shut!
"Then again, you're not quite as smart as one would have thought." Slade said continuing, reading the thoughts passing through the boy's mind. "Usually someone in danger would deny openly to such a thing if they wanted to live, but you must have a death wish…"
"Oh no…: He backed away further but Slade didn't follow. Instead…his one eye was looking past him.
Beast Boy spun around and saw Jaze. The man stood no more than a foot away from him, staring straight at Slade with his fierce red eyes. Beast Boy knew there was a feud between the two and that they wanted to kill one another, so maybe it was good that Beast Boy wasn't fighting alone. If Robin has trouble with the guy than BB stood no chance at all on his own.
"Jaze—you heard that, right?" He asked. The man ignored him, still staring at Slade…before slowly looking down at BB.
"I think I can leave you with this." Slade said, talking to Jaze. "And make it quick, Blood. We have new problems to deal with now…"
Blood? But then…Wasn't…Blood…What! Blood couldn't have taken over Jaze too. The man had mind powers! But he did go to see Batman…maybe sneaking into his mind wasn't such a good thing after all…
"Please, Jaze…You have to snap out of this…" Beast Boy began backing away from his old ally. This couldn't be happening…he had to warn Robin.
He meant to morph into a bird before Jaze could grab him, but that failed. Jaze's fingers closed around his throat the moment he moved, tightening to close off his windpipe. Getting strangled was one thing, but if he broke the windpipe then it didn't matter whether or not BB broke fear.
Lifted off the ground, feet dangling in the air, Beast Boy gagged. The first transformation that came to mind was a snake and so he did as such. Unluckily for him Jaze's kept a tight grip around when his neck should be; keep the fangs and snapping mouth far from his face.
"Don't fight." Jaze—or, rather, Blood—laughed. "Just look into my eyes and I promise you won't feel a thing…"
No…No…This couldn't be happening…
If small wasn't going to work, he'd have to shift to large.
And large he did. He slowly began to grow, morphing into a T-rex as Jaze backed away. He knew he couldn't kill Jaze because he would return to his normal, but then what the heck was he going to do? Run? …Maybe, but Slade would have known as much. He planned ahead for just about everything these days…and in the past too…now that he thought about it, Slade was always ready for everything.
But Jaze could take quite a few good hits. After all, his body was practically dead when he hid in his illusions…if it was an illusion. Oh—he was getting himself confused! Jaze could take a good hit—that was all he needed to know!
Spinning around, Beast Boy whipped his tail around and caught Jaze in the side. With a painful 'Oomph!' Jaze went flying into the side of the nearest building. Being in an alleyway, the impact caused the brick to shatter into an almost web-like pattern when Jaze collided with it. Then he fell to the ground moaning as he tried to push back up on his hands.
"Cheep shot, kid. My ribcage is going to collapse on me now and then you'll kill your friend."
Oh…dammit. He really didn't mean to hit him that hard, but he had to keep space in mind. Any hit Jaze's body took in this place was going to crush him.
People out in the street who could see Beast Boy fled in fear. Bet they hadn't seen a tyrannosaurus rex in Gotham before. No sir-ee.
With room now in the streets, Beast Boy took a step over Jaze's body and morphed into something a little smaller—a tiger. Then he knelt down low and waited to pounce on Jaze once he followed.
But he didn't. It was a creepy site because BB could see Jaze's red eyes and his faint silhouette in the dim street lights as he raised his arms out limply before him. Slade must have told Blood all about Jaze because bandage wrapping shot out from the sleeves of his jacket and caught BB around his two front legs. It began tightening—even when BB morphed into his normal self and tied to slip out. It slithered up his arms and down his torso, part of it up his neck toward his mouth. Once he was gagged, the bandage worked its way up higher toward the rest of his face and lower toward his legs as he tried to pull away. The heavy scent of ointment and disease was making him nauseous.
"Asphyxiation—do you know what that is?" Jaze—Blood—asked, a smile in his voice. "It's another term for suffocation, and that's exactly how you'll die…"
BB's eyes grew wide—no way! He wasn't actually going to kill him the slow way—was he!
The wrapping was already over his nose, cutting him off from air after he took one last deep breath. Then. Moving up toward his eyes, he fell over, an ache growing in his chest. He had never been close to suffocating before in his life—he didn't want to die this way!
Part of him prayed someone would come…but Batman was missing, Robin was on the other side of town, Jaze was under Blood's control and all the other Titans were far away in Jump City.
He had never felt more alone in his entire life…
-R-
He stood on the edge of the building, gazing across the road at Wayne Enterprise. Bruce wouldn't go there…maybe as his society self, but not as Batman, and Batman went nowhere without his gadgets at hand. Who knew where he would go now. Maybe he would go somewhere familiar just so Robin would find him—an easy kill to lure your prey, or perhaps he would choose somewhere so different that Robin couldn't find him.
No…Bruce was scary and dreadful, but he was no coward. The last thing he would do was hide somewhere he couldn't be found. He was just…waiting.
Maybe he should call up BB. Jaze had no communicator, but his two allies were both on the south side. Maybe they had met up and could tell him if anything was found yet.
There were footsteps…heavy footsteps…
But he turned slowly.
"Any luck?"
Robin turned away from him. Everything was falling apart in his world. Enemies were something along the lines of temporary allies, friends were miles away, and those he trusted the most betrayed him beyond forgiveness…
"None."
Slade didn't come any closer. Instead, he watched Robin as the boy turned his back to him. "And what will you do once you find him?"
This had taken much consideration. "Kill him. He's too dangerous to keep around."
"I thought you had morals."
"And those were shoved out the window by everyone but myself. If they were still around I wouldn't be teaming up with you, now would I?"
"Ah…but at least the thrill is still there I hope."
He shook his head slowly. "Always was."
"Then what took you so long realize it?"
"Give it a break." He snapped. "I'm busy."
There came a growl from Slade. "We made a deal and I will make to see you follow it through. Hold your tongue—you'll need to learn that for the future."
"Not until I'm finished with my business." He turned his head slightly, looking at Slade through the corner of his eye. "Or did you forget that part of the deal?"
He hated making deals…This one was made right after he almost drowned. There was no doubt that Slade knew Batman was going to break and came to Gotham to pick up the pieces the man left of Robin—it was planned out—but Robin no longer cared. His mind took a spin on life and he was forced to re-evaluate his choices in life. He was just a mere mortal leading a superhuman team, always struggling to keep on top. And what was the point of saving people from crime if crime only continued to grow? This was his last gift to the people…to those poor kids who were being slaughtered by his old mentor…
"I am a man of my word when it comes to promises." Slade sighed, annoyed. "You should know that well enough by now."
"Yeah, but you lie a lot. A croton detonator? Wow…that speaks loud enough for itself."
"So I've lied to get what I want. Now that we have a deal, what use are lies to me anymore?"
"The Titans are still out there."
"And I will come around to dealing with them after I'm finished with more important parts of the world. Your old team is nothing compared to the Justice League—and wouldn't that be something…showing that old father of yours that you can beat the team he's a part of."
He frowned. "Save your thoughts for later. I'm busy."
"I'm well aware of that. You said that first thing when I got here."
"Then what is it?"
He could tell Slade was smiling.
Here's another point—you not only know something's wrong when you quote a villain, but when you can tell what their emotions are when you're not even looking at their face.
"I know where he is."
Robin tilted his head to one side, staring straight down at the street below. Fate was pointing him in the other direction now. Might as well comply instead of constantly fighting it. He had to face it—he wanted to kill someone, Tony Zucco—the murderer of his parents, ever since he was nine.
"Care to tell me where?"
Slade began to walk away. "I'll show you."
-B-
He tried to shake away the feeling in his head. That man could hit hard…not to mention this 'bandage' wrapping was pretty tight. How the heck was he supposed to get out of it?
At least his hands were pinned by his sides.
Trying to move his right hand, he tried slipping it toward his belt. He knew how to get out of this mess…he just needed to reach a little further.
In his mind he sorted out what he was going to do. Normally he would have tracked down who did this too him and beat the living daylights out of him, but there was the green boy and Robin to worry about. They were his primary concern and he had to find them before anything happened to mess up their lives.
And when he did find them he'd have to apologize…that was going to be the hardest part of all…
-A-
Actually, I've never seen him apologize before. I guess I need to watch more of the show and read more of the comics before I make assumptions, but it's easy to tell he's not too good at apologizing verbally.
Oh—and what of poor BB? Some of you already know I have a record for killing good and bad guys alike, so what am I going to do with him? I know you're probably thinking that Star and Raven will swoop down to save him, but I have other plans for those two. You've got to remember, Slade mentioned 'new problems' to deal with. I'd love to shake you around a little more and point out my clues for what Slade has hidden up his sleeve, but I know you're a smart bunch. I know you'll all have it figured out before I have time to update…and speaking of which…
Shara Shima has to update her latest TT story before I update anything else. That's the deal I laid out to her so go and read her story—bug her into submitting chapter five already if you want to see what I have planned.
Until Again,
Alexnandru Van Gordon
