Summary: Takes place early 2015
Disclaimer: I don't own DC
A lot had happened in the past few weeks, both good and bad. On the good side, Dick and Bruce had spent the holidays with Zatanna and Diana for the most part in Wayne Manor, so they were all closer than ever. Zatanna, Barbara, and Kory had started hanging out way more, and the girls had formed a sort of mini-cult at this point; literally every girl on the team would spend a solid hour or two every day hanging out with one another. Dick, Babs, and Zee were just a few months away from graduation, Zee had performed at 2 more shows, both of which went overwhelmingly well, and Wally and Arty had both somehow gotten accepted into the very prestigious Keystone University. They had decided to take a gap year, meaning they applied for college a year later than their peers, mainly due to their hectic lifestyle. Dick didn't really feel the need to go to college, which Bruce understood. He was already smarter than his whole class combined, not to mention that he really just wanted to be a detective or a police officer so that he could help people, and he already more than qualified for that job due to his training with Bruce. All he would need to make it official would be a sit-down with Gordon to show his skills and, bam, he would be enrolled in the police academy. Zatanna also didn't plan to go to college since her job was just her show business, and college wasn't needed for that. In other, less exciting news, Kaldur had broken up with Raquel. He said it wasn't fair for her to be with him if his heart wasn't in the relationship, and it wasn't at the time. He was really trying, but he just couldn't get past Tula, and he knew that was not fair at all to Raquel, who deserved someone better. Raquel spent a good chunk of the New Year's crying in her room with the girls comforting her, and Kaldur was racked with guilt. Tula was also guilty, since she felt it was partially her fault as to their breakup, but Raquel didn't blame her. She didn't even blame Kaldur, although she did spend a few nights cursing his name out of pure grief. She was just depressed.
Because of this, Raquel had chosen not to be part of the mission Bruce had sent the team on. Garth and Tula also couldn't make it since they were in Atlantis helping Aquaman, Connor and Megan wouldn't be back from their trip to Smallville for another few days, Donna was busy assisting Diana in New York, and Barbara had a cold, so she couldn't join either. This left Kaldur, Dick, Zatanna, Kory, Artemis, and Wally as the strike team.
"I've detected an SOS from a remote settlement. They don't often make contact with the outside world, so this distress signal is cause for alarm. I need you to report the situation and alert the League. We will take it from there, just in case it's something serious." Kaldur nodded before taking the team to the site via Bioship. They landed in the forest and immediately began to make their way to the settlement.
Before they could get far, they were ambushed by a familiar-looking face, though something was...off about him. The orange on his suit had been replaced with gunmetal grey, and both his eyes were showing as opposed to just one. Not to mention he looked a lot younger, about the same height as Kaldur. That's not Slade. Dick had ran into the Terminator several times more over the past three years, and he was familiar enough with the assassin to know that this wasn't him. The others didn't seem to come to the same conclusion that Dick had, and Artemis stepped forward questioningly.
"Is that-" The Deathstroke knockoff began to attack the group, and Kaldur jumped behind a tree to radio to the others covertly while Starfire and KF kept the assassin.
"Robin, Artemis! Head to the SOS signal! We will keep Deathstroke busy!" Dick and Arty nodded before running off. Kaldur popped back out of the tree to assist Zatanna in fighting the foe, who was far faster and more agile than Slade had been the last time they faced him. The foe jumped over Kal, planting an incendiary grenade on the Atlantean before tossing a tear gas grenade at Zatanna. She was prepared, though, and cast a filtering spell before it could hit. Not this time! Zee began to prepare a spell to incapacitate him, but he leapt at her at superhuman speed, delivering a powerful punch to her throat to knock her out. The grenade he had planted on Kaldur had gone off, weakening him with fire, and all that was left was Starfire and Kid Flash.
Dick and Arty had headed to the SOS signal, but when they got there, it was an abandoned cabin. "Maybe they left and forgot to turn off the signal?"
"Maybe..." Dick used his detective vision to scan the area, and his eyes widened as he noticed explosives. "MOVE!" Dick and Arty barely made it out before the bombs devastated the building, and he immediately radioed to the group. "Guys, the signal was a ruse. Looks like the assassin just wanted to get us here! Guys?"
"Why aren't they responding?"
"We need to get back, now!" The two ran to the sight of the conflict to find Kory locked in battle against a very jumpy opponent who wasn't standing still for a second. Dick flipped in to take him on while Arty tended to the others. Dick was doing quite well against the foe until he caught him off guard with a stray kick, sending him flying. Kory blasted the foe with more starbolts while Arty helped him up to his feet. Kaldur, who had recovered, was helping up Zatanna while Wally was struggling to stand. The team circled the assassin as they all prepared to fight. Before anyone could do anything, a concussion grenade fell to the floor in front of the team, sending them all flying as a new figure landed on his feet in front of the assassin, removing his orange and blue helmet. Wait, what?!
"Enough." The Terminator glanced over the heroes, all reeling from the force of the grenade, and he helped his son up to his feet. "Grant, it's time to leave. Now." Who the hell is...wait...Grant...Slade...tumor in his spine...what the hell is he even doing here?! Last time I saw him, he was just starting to walk again after that biochip was implanted in his spine! Didn't expect him to be flipping around fighting metahumans less than 3 years after learning how to walk again! The assassin removed his helmet to indeed confirm Dick's suspicions, and he and Slade started to argue. Family squabbles? The team used the opportunity to stand up and prepare themselves. Grant finally lunged at Slade, who dodged the attack. He growled before throwing a concussion grenade at Slade, sending Deathstroke flying. He doesn't seem to presently wanna kill me, better keep it that way. Plus, maybe I could get some answers. Dick was about to go check on Deathstroke when Grant donned his helmet and started to attack the team once more. They all engaged him at once, but even with their collective skills and powers, Grant was just too fast for them. He fought them all seamlessly, punching Kory so hard that he sent her flying through a wall. He clearly was not showing the same restraint with his powers that Slade usually did, and on top of that he seemed even stronger than Deathstroke. Dick had trouble keeping up with him, mostly due to his incredible strength. He might not have the same finesse that I do, but one punch and it's over for me!
Slade stumbled back up to his feet to see the team fighting with Grant. "Dammit, no..." He used the scanner in his helmet to monitor Grant's heartbeat, and his eye widened as he saw the readings on his display. He leapt in, knocking Zatanna and KF away from Grant before they could hit him with a surprise attack, and he threw a dagger to embed Dick's cape in a nearby tree. Grant used the opportunity to send Kaldur flying with a punch, and he tossed a grenade to blast Artemis back before she could fire an arrow at him. Slade turned back to Grant, taking off his helmet. "Kid, stand down, NOW! Your heart's gonna-" Grant punched Slade square in the jaw, sending him flying back a few paces before he caught himself. He started to twitch a bit, placing a hand over his heart to stabilize himself, but he ignored the pain before advancing on Dick with his sword drawn. Kory saw Dick in danger and blasted a starbolt directly into Grant's back. He yelled out in pain before dropping to his knees, struggling to get his heart under control. Kory's eyes widened as she saw him in pain.
"N-no! I-I did not mean to...that blast couldn't have killed anything!" Slade ran over to Grant, who had practically collapsed, and he checked his heartbeat. No...no...God fucking dammit, stay awake Grant! No...Deathstroke closed his eye before picking up his son's dead body. He wasn't going to cry here, not in front of these...children. Dick finally got free of the dagger pinning his cape to the tree, and the others stood up and watched as the infamous Deathstroke the Terminator solemnly walked away, stopping only for a brief moment to turn his head to address the others.
"Mark my words, you will all suffer for this. I will make sure of it." The seriousness in his voice alone was enough to give Dick chills, and nobody bothered to chase after him as he slowly walked back to his ship, carrying his dead son in his arms. No...w-we didn't...what the hell happened?
The team got back to the cave and gave their situation report to Batman, who dismissed them all and pulled Dick to the side. "This was a disaster."
"Yeah, heavy on the dis. Slade blames us for this, but Kory said her blast was low-power. How did it kill Grant?"
"I have a theory. Remember the biochip that we installed in his back?"
"Yeah?"
"Slade said it needed the stabilizing agent in order to balance out its more experimental properties. I highly doubt that agent would have been sufficient to keep his body operating at peak capacity while he was in combat. If I had to guess, he overworked himself in that fight with the team." Dick looked down with slight guilt. It may not have been his fault, but Slade had tried to warn him. He just hadn't understood his warnings since he was so caught up in the thick of it. Why didn't I listen?! Now a kid's dead because of me! Man, Slade...I'm...I'm sorry...
Adeline Wilson had a private funeral for her son. Slade wasn't invited to it, but he watched from a neighboring building. He hadn't been much of a father to Grant, or to Jericho, Grant's younger brother. But he was still their dad, by blood if nothing else, and he was still in mourning. He had kept an eye on Grant ever since Dick and Bruce put that chip in his spine, he wasn't gonna lose his son to anything. He had watched the kid's arrogance and anger brew up for the past 3 years. He had watched the kid read news reports on Deathstroke the Terminator, the fabled assassin who would eliminate anyone for the right price. Slade never approved of Grant following in his footsteps, but whenever he tried to intervene, Grant would shove him off. Serious daddy issues. The kid was just too stubborn, he wanted that glory and fame more than anything. But Slade blamed the team for this catastrophe. They should have known better, especially Grayson. The damn kid helped him save Grant, for crying out loud! Grant...I wasn't enough to help you...but I'll be damned if I don't avenge you. Grayson...you've crossed a line. By the time I'm done with you, you'll be begging me to kill you. Just you wait.
This little mini-story was pretty shit, I just kinda wanted to get it out there to advance along the Deathstroke aspect of Dick's life. I promise the next ones won't be nearly as uninspired or poorly put-together as this one. I'm really not at all proud of this one, so I'm sorry you had to read this trash. I realize I've neglected a lot of Dick's relationships recently, so what would you all like to see in that regard? Just leave me an interaction you would like to see and I'll try to write it. It would help if you included some type of idea of what you would wanna see in the interaction so I don't have to fully wing it. I think I'm gonna hold off on writing my next chapter since I wanna give you all a chance to suggest whatever you wanna see first. If nobody suggests anything by Friday then I'll just write the next chapter I had in mind. Feel free to leave comments or suggestions for chapters you wanna see. Next chapter up soon.