Sorry this took so long, but I was swamped with schoolwork. Plus I only got, like, two reviews. I get inspiration from reviews; answering/reading them gives me more ideas, which were lacking with this chapter. But I got it done, so enjoy!

Oh, and from here on out, the set-up'll probably end up like this one; mostly Slade/Nightwing with some Titans at the end, at least until we get to the next big, big event.

Enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing :( How sad.

Slade stared at the young man sitting across from him in the jet. He had to admit, he was a bit curious about Red-X. He didn't really know anything about him, apart from the fact that he was close to Nightwing, apparently, and that he was smart enough to steal from Nightwing. He was beginning to think, though, that Nightwing had let him. After all, if they were so close, Nightwing could have easily stolen the suit back, but he hadn't, which told Slade that he trusted Red-X, even if he was a criminal. Which led him to believe that they had know each other before X had become a hero, possibly even before Nightwing became Nightwing.

On the other side of the jet, X was sizing Slade up. He knew that Slade was powerful and skilled- he had to be, to defeat Dick. He knew that Slade had caused Dick a heck of a lot of pain in the past, arguably more than anyone except possibly the Joker. Then again, Dick wasn't the one that the Joker had killed. And Bruce had hurt Dick pretty bad, what with all the arguments and everything… Dick had gone through a lot. Sometimes, Jason thought that one of the prerequisites for joining the Batclan was being completely screwed up.

But back to Slade.

Somehow, despite all of the pain that Slade had caused him, Dick had somehow managed to find a way to trust him. In Jason's expert opinion, Dick's trusting nature would cause him to get killed one day (Jason would immediately dump his body in the Lazarus Pit, of course, and hunt down the idiot who killed him, if Bruce didn't get to him first). And, ironically, Dick was starting to make Slade a better person instead of Slade turning him bad. Jason had a grudging respect for Slade. Anyone who could get to Dick was a worthy opponent.

"Are we going to spend this trip in silence?" Slade raised an eyebrow at the boy. "Or are you going to sulk the rest of the time?"

"I wasn't sulking." Jason defended. "I was evaluating and making conclusions based on limited information."

"And that is so much better." Slade rolled his eye. "What were you evaluating?"

"You." Jason eyed him. "I was just feeling sorry for you."

Slade stared at him. He felt sorry for him? As far as Slade could tell, he was winning. He had his apprentice, the heroes were busy chasing their own tails, and the one hero that had a decent chance of finding them was in Jump instead of his own city. He was feeling pretty satisfied. X obviously sensed his skepticism and smirked.

"You have no idea what you've brought down on your head by kidnapping him. I mean, you couldn't have picked a worse time to do this if you'd tried."

"You know, this isn't the first time someone's told me something like that." Slade mused. "I must admit, I'm curious as to why everyone thinks this, and quite who is going to be doing this."

Red-X smirked at him. "If Nightwing hasn't told you, I'm not gonna either. I'll give you a hint- it's got to do with his past, so until you figure that out, you're going to have to suck it up."

"You know, you don't seem very scared of me." Slade remarked, leaning back, keeping his eye on the other villain. "Most villains in Jump seem at least a little bit intimidated. It's a novel experience."

"I know you won't hurt me. See, one of Nightwing's weaknesses is how stupidly loyal and caring he is; you know that, you've used it against him. He'll do anything for his friends and family, to keep them from getting hurt. But the thing is, you don't want to hurt those who are really close to him. You've seen the dark in him, you know what he's capable of. The only times I've ever seen him really tap into that potential, stop holding himself back, is when someone's hurt his family. You should be very, very glad that what you did to the Titans didn't have any long lasting effects, or he might have actually murdered you."

"I doubt that."

"You haven't seen him angry." Red-X said, deadly serious. "He's terrifying, sometimes. He hardly ever gets truly pissed, but when he does it's usually because some villain beat one of his family up."

"Hmm." Slade carefully filed that information away. He had already known about Nightwing's dark side, but not the anger. "How long have you known him? How did you meet?"

"I wasn't aware this was an interview." Translation: I'm not telling you anything. Slade wasn't surprised by this response. Red-X was notorious for keeping his secrets close, although this apparently did not apply to Nightwing. Furthermore, it was obvious that X didn't trust him, which made him wonder why X had come to him. He was worried about Nightwing, yes, but no doubt he would have been able to contact him later. So why had Red-X come to him almost immediately?

"Allow me to ask one more question." Jason sighed. "What?"

"Why did you contact me?" He held a hand up as the young villain began to respond. "I know, you care about him, but why come to me instead of just waiting for him to reappear, or helping the heroes find him?"

Jason blinked slowly at him. "Um." He said, stalling. "Why do you care?" Slade just looked at him. Jason sighed again and met his eyes… eye. "Fine. I came to warn you, too. I know all the details, but the heroes don't. They'll be treating you like any other villain that dares kidnap Nightwing- harshly. It's extremely likely that you'll end up in a body bag after this, but I know Goldie doesn't want that. You've become a sort of… psuedo-mentor to him, I guess. It's a bit unfair, too. You have no idea what's coming."

"So enlighten me." Slade drawled. X rolled his eyes. "Every hero under the sun will be looking for him. Titans, League, unaffiliated, those kept out of the public eye- everyone. And as soon as you're found, they'll all be coming for you." He hesitated. "One more thing. You hurt Nightwing in any way whatsoever, and I will personally lead the charge."

The young man was completely serious. He didn't care that he was threatening an extremely powerful villain, or that he was alone with said villain at the moment. He was determined to let Slade know the consequences of hurting Nightwing. It was then that Slade began to understand the true range of Nightwing's influence. Those who cared for him would kill themselves trying to help him.

Red-X's communicator rang. He made a face and answered it, obviously not wanting to talk.

"So, are you coming?" Nightwing's voice came out instead of the expected Leaguer's. Both Slade and X gaped at it.

"Do you have a communicator I didn't know about?" Slade asked suspiciously. Nightwing just laughed. "Actually, I have hacking equipment you were unaware of. I just hacked into X's systems and linked up on the comm you gave me when you went out. Took about five seconds."

"I worked for hours on those systems." X grumbled. "Damn you, Goldie."

"I'll help set up some better security if you want." He offered. X just snorted. "So, why'd you call?"

"I was bored." Jason could picture Nightwing sitting at some computer in some villain hideout, feet up on the keyboard, chatting. He snickered quietly. Slade gave him an odd look, but Nightwing took advantage of the opportunity to use some of his Bat-psychic ability.

"No, Jay, I am not sitting at a computer with my legs up. I'm in the rafters."

"The rafters?" Jason muttered. "Of course you are. Jeez, Goldie, are you capable of staying on the ground?"

"Nope. Born in the air, raised in the air, always going to be in the air. Heck, my mom 'was 30 feet about the ground while she was pregnant with me. It's in my blood Jaybird."

Jason grumbled something unintelligible and shut the communicator. Slade blinked at him. "You hung up on him."

"Not the first time."

Time passed. Finally, they arrived at their destination. Jason was blindfolded, of course, not that that helped. He knew he was in Metropolis. Slade removed the blindfold once they were inside and Jason was immediately attacked by a hug.

"Hey, Jay!" Nightwing grinned. "What's up?"

The Titans stared at their visitor.

"No offense or anything, but why do you think you can help?" Raven raised an eyebrow, obviously doubtful.

"Adeline Kane, married to Slade Wilson, a.k.a. Deathstroke the Terminator, a.k.a. Slade." Batman informed her. "Quite dangerous. She's the reason why Wilson only has one eye."

The Titans stared at her in shock. "Wait, you married him?" Cyborg yelped. "Who would marry him?!"

Adeline glared at him. "We met in the army. I didn't find out about his mercenary activities until he got one of my sons killed and the other's throat slit, rendering him mute, which was when I shot him. I haven't seen him since."

"But why is Friend Jericho here?" Starfire inquired. Jericho grinned at her. She's my mom. He signed. My name's actually Joey Wilson.

The Titans were stunned. Did they really know any of their friends? It seemed like everyone was keeping secrets these day.

How many more would they uncover before this was over?

And fin!

I want to get this posted so I'm not going to bother thinking of something to put down here.

REVIEW! PLEASE!