Congratulations to all those who figured out who's behind it all! Now watch it unfold! To all those who took a look at that poll, I'm sorry! Apparently only FF members can answer it. So I'm taking it down. Thanks for looking!

Dick-16/17 Jason-13 Cass-11/12 Tim-9 Damian-3

Sacrifice

2 – Blackmail

Dick pulled up next to the warehouse dubiously. He had a devil of a time finding the place, as Alfred would put it. He had to ask a security guard at one of the neighboring houses where to start looking. The whole district was a cellphone dead zone for some reason (ruining his GPS), a very odd occurrence in Gotham, and one that didn't bode well for the young acrobat. The temptation to turn on the sonic signaling device in his watch was getting stronger with each passing moment. He'd been lured out for kidnappings before and he was in no mood for another one.

Everything about this screamed trap to him.

Yet he felt like he didn't have a choice but to walk into it.

As he turned off his motorcycle and removed his helmet, he looked around. No people as far as the eye could see. There was a car though. A nice one. Bruce had one like it and Alfred made them use it every once in a while. He took a step towards it when his phone went off again, jerking his thoughts away from it. Wasn't this a dead zone?

He took it out and found a text waiting for him, no bars. How did he get a text without any signal? Dick tried to remember if there was some kind of development in this field in regards to this (he overheard a lot of tech-talk between Wayne Enterprises and the Justice League, plus Tim loved talking about the latest and greatest developments) as he read it.

Not yet Richard. Come inside. You must be cold.

The teen glared at the message for a moment before looking for the camera(s) the creep must be using to spy on him. Took a minute but he spotted it, barely. It was well hidden in the exit sign above a nearby door. That had to be his invitation inside, where his freaky mystery stalker was waiting to grab him and force him into that car.

As he opened the door to go inside, he rethought that. Why would his supposed kidnapper lure him indoors first instead of just dragging him into the car? Did he want to gas him first inside the building? Curiosity buzzed inside him, awaking the detective being cultivated by Bruce and the League since he was a kid. He never could resist a mystery. Half the fun of Christmas at the manor was figuring out what everyone got for each other. They had to guess before opening their packages Christmas morning, family tradition.

He pushed these thoughts aside as he walked carefully into the warehouse. He'd been in a number of these buildings in the past, and never was it a good experience. Bad things happened in these places when no one was working or looking. This one was dark and cluttered with crates, almost like a maze. His eyes narrowed suspiciously. This could not be good.

"You have courage."

Dick jerked at the voice, then again as the door behind him slammed and bolted shut. He didn't have to test it to know there was no way out of this one. He saw the lock earlier. Electromagnetics. Deadbolt. Picking the lock or forcing it would be useless unless you had super strength.

"Good. You're going to need it." The silky voice above and around the teen made his skin crawl. It was almost exactly how he imagined Luthor's voice was when he was convincing congress to side with him on some special project, that hid his real goals to use it to destroy Superman. Cold, shrewd, smooth. He was patronizing him, whoever this was. He met Luthor, and that was not his voice.

"Who are you?!" Dick demanded, balling his hands into fists. He really didn't want to deal with this. He made promises, and he intended to keep them.

"Patience. We'll meet very shortly Richard." The guy was laughing at him behind that calm voice of his. Dick had heard that tone from other high class creeps who thought he was a stupid circus brat. "But first, you must find me. There's a room at the center of this maze. Make it there in the next fifteen minutes and you might be able to save her."

"Her?" His blood ran cold. Save her? The way this man talked, he couldn't tell if he'd hurt someone just to taunt him, but he couldn't risk it. He risked it once before, with Two-Face. That didn't end well.

"Tick tock."

He didn't waste a second more. At first he tried solving the maze (he was good with puzzles, learned that on the road with the circus) but after five minutes of twist, turns and annoying obstacles, he realized it would take too long, especially at this angle. So he did what he did best, thought out of the box. Quickly Dick climbed up one of the walls of crates and took another look around from the top. Most of the place was in shadow, but he saw a light near the far end of the place, and a wide open area. "Alright. Now to get there."

The teen sprinted across the crate walls towards the light. Several times he jumped gaps between them, closing in rapidly on his destination. Once or twice he had to grab a hanging lamp and perform flips to make the jump, but none of it was difficult for him. He kept his acrobatic skills up at the manor, even taught his siblings how to use a trapeze. Anything to get under Bruce's skin and prove rule 9 wasn't just for him.

Before the fifteen minutes were up, Dick landed near the end of the maze where some old lady was laying on her side on the ground. He darted straight towards her, eager to see if she was alright, but ran head long into a force field.

"Aurg!" The boy was thrown backwards, towards the floor. Instinctively he slapped the ground to break his fall and turned it into a roll, getting right back onto his feet. He glared at the invisible barrier, trying to figure out what kind it was and how to get around it, but his thoughts were cut short when he heard clapping.

"Very well done Richard. You truly are exceeding my expectations."

Dick jerked his gaze to the source of that voice, his eyes widening a fraction as the man came forward from the shadows behind the field. He'd seen that uniform before, and another variation of that mask. It was in the League's 'Killers At Large' list. Only one man would dare wear orange, silver and black like that. Others who tried would be killed by the original.

Deathstroke the Terminator. Slade Wilson.

"I wasn't trying to impress you." The teen put up the best front he could. Inside he was beginning to panic. As good as Dick was, going head to head with one of the most dangerous men on the planet was not on his bucket list.

He could hear the man smiling behind that metal mask. "I look forward then to when you will."

"Who are you?!" Okay, Dick knew who this guy was thanks to Bruce's paranoia and random lists on his computer, but pampered rich kids, even from the circus, weren't supposed to know who the world's greatest tactician was. And if he was going to protect the League or his family, he'd have to pretend he didn't know. Good thing Alfred taught him how to act.

"I go by many names." Looked like the man bought it. "Slade these days, but you'll be calling me Master."

This made the teen blink. What? "Whoa, hold the phone there." He eased a little out of a fighting stance, confused to high heaven and back. "Master? What? You some evil timelord or something? Which regeneration is this? I know the Doctor has no fashion sense until nine but seriously… Master?"

"Hm. Humor. Are you attempting to distract me? It won't work."

"No seriously, Master? What are you smoking?" Dick gave him an incredulous looks. They said he was dangerous, not insane. "'Cause there's no way I'd call you 'Master' Sadie."

"Slade," the man repeated, "and you will."

"Really?" The teen folded his arms, a mocking smirk growing on his face. Okay, this guy was nuts. Dangerous, but nuts. "And just why is that? 'Cause you know some 'secret'?"

"Hm. No. You'll be telling me that secret yourself in time." There was a hint of mocking humor in the man's voice. He knew something

"So you dragged me down here for nothing?" He rolled his eyes, shaking his head as he took in the room again. He had to find a way to save the lady and get them out of there. But with one of the deadliest assassins there with them, it wasn't going to happen until the other guy dropped his guard. And what better way to do that than make the guy believe he was just another teenager?

"No. I brought you here to make you my apprentice."

Dick's hands dropped to his sides in genuine shock, gaping at the insane man. He was not expecting that. "What?"

"For some time now I've been searching for an apprentice, someone to follow in my footsteps. And Richard, I've chosen you. Congratulations."

A dark feeling started to swell in the teen's chest, but he wouldn't let it win. The guy's voice told him he thought he was in control, certain of his own importance and victory. Not happening. "No. No way would I ever work for you!"

Rage built inside him, nearly exploding. Only the knowledge of who this guy really was and the force field between them stopped him from trying to pummel the guy. His apprentice? The only person he ever considered being an apprentice, or a protégé, to was Batman; and that option died out when he tried to convince Bruce eight years ago to stay in the game. This guy, Slade, he was everything Bruce hated. Everything Dick hated. There was no way he'd ever join him.

"Really?" The tone in the man's voice chilled Dick to the core. The man pressed a button on a cellphone, making holographic viz screens appear all around them. The technology was still being experimented on outside Wayne Tech's R&D/League issued items. How did he get his hands on…

All color in his face dropped to his feet at a moment's notice. There were two categories for the images he was seeing. One was something from a biology textbook, the molecular level pictures of blood cells. Attached to roaming healthy red blood cells were some kind of probes.

If that wasn't enough to creep him out, the images of his family right then and there inside the manor were. It was the same clothes as he saw them wearing just an hour ago. Cass was still reading her book while listening to her iPod in her favorite spot. Tim and Jason had moved into the gym, having rigged up a basketball hoop and trying to make free throws without arousing suspicion. Bruce and Damian were reading 'The Little Engine That Could' in the study while Alfred was preparing dinner in the kitchen. Nearly everyone was matched up with the blood/probe images, all but the two adults.

"Nano-scopic probes." The man had to be smiling behind that mask. "For the past month I've targeted each and every one of your siblings, subtly injecting them with them. You've seen the signs. A round rash about the size of a penny appeared somewhere on each of their bodies. Right now they're harmless, undetectable even. But with a push of a button," he showed the teen a handheld detonator attached to his wrist guard, "my probes will destroy your 'family' from the inside, out."

Short on breath for a moment, Dick just gaped at the screens. This couldn't be real. Nano-technology was still being experimented on. Ray Palmer was getting there, much faster now that Bruce was backing him, but hadn't heard if he reached this level yet. How could this guy even hope to have this kind of power? "You're bluffing! No one can do that! Everyone knows this is pure Star Trek! I bet those are just—"

"You need proof?" The man grinned. "Alright."

Slade knelt next to the lady on the floor and lifted her sleeve, exposing a rash about the size of a penny. Dick had seen rashes like that on his siblings recently, but they were easily explained away. They meant nothing. But then the assassin clicked a button on the side of the bigger detonator. The woman jolted suddenly, her skin turning a sickening shade of orange after a few seconds, spreading from the rash, and she cried out in pain as she jolted here and there.

Dick watched horrified for a moment, panic filling him, before screaming, "STOP IT! LEAVE HER ALONE!"

"Have I proven my power Richard?" The man seemed pleased. But all Dick could hear and see was the woman in agony. Flashes of the worst day of his life flew across his mind, making him experience again the first time he saw death. The worst way to learn about it. Horrified, he couldn't look away and just kept begging as tears started in his eyes.

"PLEASE! LEAVE HER ALONE! STOP IT! LET HER GO!"

"A truly horrific way to die," Slade concluded, tapping the button again. The orange tinged died away and the lady visibly relaxed, though she still shook. The agony on her face was more than the teenager could bear. Why did he have to hurt her like that? "That is the fate your precious siblings will have to face if you try to defy me.

"If you join me, if you swear to serve me, if you never speak to your 'family' again, I will allow them to live. But, if you disobey, even the smallest of requests, I will annihilate them Richard. And I'll make you watch."

The dark and smooth tone of the man's voice only drove Dick even further into himself as he gaped at the lady. The way she twitched, how much pain she was in, it was all engrained into his memory. Hearing the threat, he could almost see his siblings in such a state. He could hear something breaking inside him.

"So," the assassin proposed, as if he had a choice, "do we have a deal?"

He looked from the barely breathing woman to the screens surrounding them. His family. Four screens of probe infested blood. Slade infected four innocents. Damian, Cass, Tim, Jason… all of them would be hurt or killed because of him.

"Why?" Tears threatened to come out as he asked in a broken voice. The hollow feeling in his chest grew with each second. "Why me? Why not someone else? Someone who admires you?"

Slade smirked, seemingly pleased. He tapped the phone again. One screen changed to a video link. It was of him, on Halloween. The night he dressed up as a make-believe hero and took down those dozen men nearly on his own. Cass and Jason helped, but he was the showman, the lead act. And he was showing off.

"Your abilities and natural instincts are quite evident here. As soon as I saw this, I had to see you for myself. You've passed all my tests these past two months, proven your abilities time and time again. All those would-be kidnappers you took own, evading photographers, even breaking into your own home so no one caught you sneaking out at night." Other images appeared on the screen, reminding Dick of what had occurred the past couple months. He had a feeling someone was watching him that whole time. Now he knew who. He really did have a stalker. "Time and time again you've impressed me. And now it's time to choose. Serve me, or watch them die."

Dick watched his family on the monitors for a minute longer before making a sound. Jason and Tim were having so much fun with their game, they didn't care if someone was watching them. Cassandra was entirely absorbed in her book, ignorant of everything outside it. Alfred bustled about like normal, nothing the matter. Bruce and Damian just finished their book and the kid was clambering all over his dad. Bruce was laughing fondly, far more at ease now than when he first met him. Just beyond him was a painting of his parents and photographs of all those who died in the children's lives. He could make out the one of his parents.

What would they do? In this situation, what would his parents, their parents, all of their loved ones, do? What would…

Slowly Dick closed his eyes, grieved by the only conclusion. His head dropped and all fight left him. "What do you want me to do… Master."

A/N: X3 yes, it's Slade. and as a warning, I'm not good with villains. There's a reason most of my stories involve family fluff or cop-out thugs for bad guys. I royally suck with them. I always ask one of my friends, who's awesome with them, to tell me what so-and-so would do (usually Joker to tell the truth, and Slade lately). I've done Slade probably twice already, no, three times, and in one someone complained that I got him all wrong once. So if Slade's OOC, you've been warned.

So, now Dick's in trouble and so's his family. This is kinda what happens when Bruce puts his guard down. He's been so safe inside his own home for so long, that he wasn't near as paranoid as he used to be. Same with the kiddos. Clearly Slade's seen that and taken advantage. I guarantee it won't work twice. =]

Well, see ya tomorrow! ^^V