"Dude, is he okay?"
"Grant just straight up fainted."
"Oh I do hope Grant is all right."
Four out of the six Titans are gather around Robin who has Ravager in his arms. "So this is what you mean to catch your body." Robin mutters to himself. He places Ravager gently on the ground and looks over at Raven. "Cyborg, how is she?" He asked.
He goes over to her side and uses his arm to scan her body from head to toe. His arm beeps and he looks over at the results. "Raven suffers from a couple of burns all over her body. Luckily, there's not as serious as they should be." Cyborg reveals.
"So we're out by two members!? Slade's gonna kill us for sure!" Beastboy panics.
"Speaking of Slade, he won't be a problem for awhile." Robin reminded them. They all look over to see Slade is also unconscious. Now they wait.
Meanwhile, at Slade's mind or conscious being, a light is hovering in front of Grant. "Let's get this over with." He rolls his eyes. The light shines brightly as Grant gets teleported to another memory. A wave of sadness courses through his body as tears are escaping his eyes. Grant gently touches his cheeks and gasp. "What the? I don't feel sad, but at the same time, I do. Is this… Is this his sadness?" He questions.
Grant sees himself at his old living room back home. He gasped when he saw his younger self in front of him. In front of his younger self, Slade is standing in front of them.
"Dad, I want to be involved in your 'business'. Please take me on as an apprentice." Younger Grant begs.
"I remember that day," Grant shook his head while smiling a bit, "It's the day where I confronted him on his mercenary ways. Boy, was I stupid back then."
"Grant, you're sixteen. I'm afraid you're a little young to take under my wing." Slade rejected. "And besides, you're mother will be wondering why I'm taking you to California, but leaving Joey behind?"
"Come on! It will just be for the summer. You don't even have to take me with you on your missions. You can simply teach me everything you know and it'll grow from then. And as for Mom wondering, you can tell her you're taking me there for a college tour. It wouldn't be that far fetch since I'll be graduating from school next year." Younger Grant replied.
Slade didn't seemed impressed by his son's planning. "The answer is no, Grant. Now drop it."
The young teen curled up his fist as his blonde bangs cast a shadow over his eyes. From a certain angle, Grant looks a little intimidated. Then his chin went up showing an evil smirk. "Fine, then I'll just tell Mom everything. Have fun explaining her about your little 'side business'."
Slade only raised an eyebrow and then chuckles. "I find your attempt to blackmail me adorable, son. But what makes you think she'll believe you? You have no proof, no physical evidence. It will be your word against mine."
"Oh? You don't think I don't?", Grant smugly replied. He takes a flashdrive from his pocket and held it up. "This drive contains all your transcript, offshore accounts, email screenshot, list of targets, and many more of you being the mercenary known as Deathstroke. Now who's the one in charge?" Younger Grant blackmails, while throwing the drive up in the air.
Slade has a blank look, before quickly snatches the drive midair. Grant looks flabbergasted that the only piece of evidence is on the enemy's hand. "Clever, boy. But next time, try not to casually play with your evidence in front of the enemy." He lectures as he crushes the drive with his one hand.
Now it was the son's turn to chuckle. "Now you're the adorable one, Dad. Do you honestly think I wouldn't have copies? I have them save up and store them away in a place you'll never find them."
"... Fine. You can come with me for training. Only training. You satisfied with this?" Slade comprised.
"Yes!" Younger Grant cheers, while pumping up his fist.
"That was a proud moment for me." Grant chuckles.
'I was very proud of him that day.' A voice spoke.
"What the!? Who's there?!" He shouted.
'My own son bested me that day and I couldn't be more proud.'
Grant recognize the voice to belong to his father. This is Slade narrating from the past! 'Of course I knew he was bluffing, since I place trackers in my kid's cell phones and Grant hasn't been anywhere that isn't home. Still, I was very happy that my own son wants to follow in my footsteps.'
The memory fades out and the teen is back in the empty void. "Okay, that was new. I never heard a person narrate their memories before." Grant claps his hands with a smile, "Welp, I think I have seen enough of this shit. I should probably go back to my body now. Before he exited, the same wave of sadness courses through his body. "Ugh, not again. Why do I keep feeling that?"
A bright light suddenly zooms right inside of him and again, was teleported to another memory. The same living room, but this time, there are about seven people there. Grant's eyes widen at the sight of the extra people wearing masks and holding knives against his mother and brother's throats. "Oh my God… This is the day were it happened." Grant mutters to himself. In front of the Jackals, his father is simply staring at them. There's no hate or fear in his cold grey eyes. Slade looks like he's simply observing them.
"Alright, Deathstroke, tell us the name of the client who hired you and we'll let your family live!" The leader demands.
"Slade, what's going on?! Who are these people and what do they want!?" Addie panicked
"Don't worry, Addie. I got this under control." Slade smoothly replied. He turns to the leader who has the knife held against his son's throat.
"Daddy, please don't let them kill me." Joey sobs. The leader pressed his knife harder against the boy's skin. "Help me, Daddy." Joey whimpers.
"My patience running thin, Deathstroke! Who is the client that hired you!?" The leader roars.
"I live by my honor to never sell out my clients' secrets no matter what. Threaten me all you want, I'll never break by code of honor." Slade answers.
Both Addie's and Joey's eyes widened in shock. They couldn't believe what their husband and father had said. The Jackals on the other hand got pissed off. "You rather save a stranger than to save your own family!?" The leader exclaims in disbelief.
"Ditto to that." Grant commented.
"SLADE!" Addie screeches. Unbeknownst to everyone, Slade is slowly pulling a knife from his back pocket. The leader regains his composure and orders his men to kill the Wilson family. That's when Slade threw the knife at the Jackal that was holding his wife hostage. The knife went threw the Jackal's skull cleaning, thus saving Addie from harm.
"Go, Dad!" Grant cheers. He then gasp and covers his mouth. "I can't believe I cheered for that bastard."
The leader moved his arm ever so slightly and was suddenly met with a bullet between his eyes. The other two Jackals weren't quick to draw their weapons as Slade quickly gunned them both down. "See, Addie? There was nothing to fear." Slade stated.
"JOEY!" Addie screams. Slade turns around and his eyes widened in shock. Joey is standing still with his green eyes staring at them and his throat slashed across from ear to ear. The moment river of blood starts drawing through, Joey fell down on the floor. Addie let out an ear piercing cry at the sight of her son laying down at the pool of his own blood.
Grant tried hard not to throw up at the sight of his little brother dying. He knows Jericho's alive now, but he never imagined it looked this bad. From a certain point of view, Joey looked dead. Grant silently vow after this is all over, he'll spend every time with his brother.
"Joey!" Slade screams. He runs over to his son's side and tore open his mask. Now Grant can see his father's face looked absolutely devastated, something he never thought he'll see. Slade puts his ear on top of Joey's chest and then smiles. "He's still alive!" He exclaims in joy.
"He is?" Addie whispers. Her whole body is trembling as Slade gently picks up his son's body and heads for the door.
"He'll make it, Addie. I'll make sure of it." He promised before leaving.
Grant watches as Slade drove like a maniac, breaking every road law in the books taking Joey to the hospital. He also witness threatening every doctor and nurses if they don't save his son. Slade spent the whole time at the hospital sitting in distraught for hours waiting for news.
'Those were the longest 7 hours of my life. Every second waiting for the surgeon to come out of the room was agony. This was the worst torture I've ever endure in my life.'
"You think you feel bad, how do you think Joey was feeling!? His throat was fucking slashed!" Grant yells. He was livid. How dare did Slade made it about him! It was Joey who paid the price after all.
The surgeon finally comes out of the room. His scrubs was covered in blood, his brother's blood. Slade was told that although they saved Joey's life, he will never speak again. The mercenary curled his fists and his whole body sook in anger.
'I may have saved my son's life, but at a huge cost. Now Joey will never speak again. I'll no longer will hear his beautiful singing voice. I failed him. But I can fix this… No, I WILL fix this.'
The scene took Grant back to the living room in his house. Slade has just got home, still wearing his Deathstroke outfit. His mother looked up from the couch. Addie's face was a mess: her eyes are red, her hair dischevel, mascara dripping from her face, and her sanity seems to be lost.
"I got him to the hospital in time." Slade spoke. Addie said nothing and kept staring at her husband. "He'll live, Addie and I'll be there for him during his recovery. He needs you to be strong to help him." He said
"The hospital called me five minutes ago." Addie finally spoke. Her voice sounded hoarse like she's been crying and screaming for hours. She glares at Slade and rose up from the couch. "All those business trips you've been taking, it's all been a lie. You've been killing people for money. Everyday you've been putting us at risk." Addie stated. Then her voice rose. "YOU RATHER HAVE A DEAD SON THEN TO ADMIT YOU'RE A MERCENARY!? NONE OF THIS WOULD'VE HAPPENED IF YOU DIDN'T HAVE THIS 'JOB'!: She screams in rage.
Now it was her husband's turn to be angry. "Don't put all the blame on me, Addie! You should've been watching over him! You are a trained soldier, how did you let them captured you?! And by the way, I didn't see you at the hospital the whole day! Instead, here you are wallowing in self pity!" Slade argued. Addie gasp and slaps him across the face. For a moment, Slade looked like he wanted to hit her back, but he instead sighs and heads to the door. "I need to tell William and Grant what happened. We'll talk about this latter, Addie."
"You're not going near Grant and Joey again. I forbid you from seeing them." Addie hissed.
"They're my sons, Addie. You can't stop me from seeing them."
"Watch me."
The moment Slade turned away from her, Addie whips out a gun and pointed at the back of his head.
"Addie?"
BANG!
The scene flashes forward to another scene. Grant sees his father sporting the iconic eyepatch over his right eye. Next to him is 16 year old Grant wearing a dark stealth suit. Father and son duo are walking up to an abandoned warehouse. Grant gasp at the familiar memory. "Oh God, this is the day I…" He didn't finished his sentence
"So the target's there, Deathstroke?" Younger Grant asked.
"Not yet. We'll be luring him here and that's when we'll strike." Deathstroke replied. Younger Grant nodded and then looked ahead at the warehouse. His whole body shook with nervousness.
"I don't think I can do this."
"Don't be afraid, son. I won't leave your side."
"That isn't why I was nervous." Grant stated. "I was nervous because I didn't think my plan would work."
"Now, go ahead and set everything up." Deathstroke orders. Younger Grant nodded and ran ahead. His heart beating in dread. He went inside and pulled out the C4s. He also pulled up a corpse that resemble him.
"It's do or die." Both past and present Grant said.
Grant watched as his younger self ran out the back door and pushed the button. The entire warehouse exploded, knocking Deathstroke out his feet. His grey eye widened at the sight of the burning building.
"Grant!" Deathstroke screams. He immediately runs towards the warehouse. He looks around and spots a body. Slade took off his mask and cradles the body. "Grant, can you hear me?" The body made no sound and Slade brought the body close to him to listen for a heartbeat. "No… no… you can't be dead." He said in a small voice. His grey eye begins watered.
"Oh my God… Dad really cried for me?" Grant gasped.
Slade held the body close to him and rocked it. "Please, Grant, open your eyes! I can't lose you tot!" He begs.
"This is a lie. That bastard doesn't care for anyone but himself!" Grant shouts. He looks at Slade with hate in his eyes. "I'm not falling for those crocodile tears! You're not fooling anyone!"
He decided he had enough of this bullshit and left his father's conscious.
Grant flutters his eyes open to see the Titans, minus Raven all gather up around him. They smile when they saw their friend finally awake.
"Welcome back, Grant." Robin greeted.
Want to see how I envision Grant and Addie look like? Check out the link to my DeviantArt:
radomanime/art/Injured-baby-boy-821490980
radomanime/art/Beautiful-Mama-Kane-821491273