The Court of Owls – Family of the Cowl – Silent Night

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Chapter 6: Hometown Blues

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Dick looked out the window at a city that was just beyond those stony walls. His time to himself was a bother. Slade was prowling in the background while Jason just shot the man a hard glare, not caring if Bruce had his eye on Midnighter while both had gone to patrol the city that night. Midnighter had planned to be on his best behavior, or so he'd said after their meeting earlier that day.

Kori and Ava had been shipped back to California in a fit, yet Dick would not put her in danger or his special little princess from another world, and besides. Slade was company enough that Richard hadn't wanted. Being here…. It had been less than a week since Tim had plucked the last of his remaining feathers off of his back. Jay and he had to get the tweezers on both ends. Poor kid.

Alfred was not a fan of having a guest that carried a proverbial "machine gun" habit in the manor at all. At every time Slade grew to become to familiar with the hero, he intervened as if psychic from out of nowhere.

Bruce's doing, Dick suspected. Another thing that let Jason be at ease, though he wasn't a fan of Batman taking all of the credit. He was on patrol here at the manor; he even had stated with Slade watching, that he'd never leave Dick's side even if Slade offered him a truckload of dough and weapons. Why? Because he was an awesome and single-minded little brother.

Middle children were unpredictable. Slade silently read a copy of Tolstoy on the shelf as he laxly skimmed over the first chapter, as if he'd read it a dozen times already. He was just that willing to show how much of an ass he really was, even if he wanted you to keep guessing. He'd dressed down a bit today; button down and a pair of slacks as well as a fine pair of shoes your mama couldn't afford in Gotham. His hair was shoulder length and his beard and stache toned down; his eyes still on the rest of the occupants in the quaint study room. Slade wanted to feel right at home, even if it was only a temporary arrangement until Bats kicked him out.

"Every time I read this passage, it seems to make more and more of an obvious distinction regarding today's political divide." He shut the book with a sound snap* and put it back with its other volumes before continuing to want to pull poor Jason into another of his "idiot rants."

"I'd say these events in today's society aren't so out of the ordinary to call them, just a theory when holding our own governments today, humm…" He rubbed his chin, acting as if he was lost in thought. Jay knew it was a ruse. So did Dick, who said nothing. "How about you, Todd?" Slade's fun times had to go. Jason's eyes rose as he stood over by the next available bookcase, waiting a moment before smoothing back his dark hair. "We don't have to answer that, Willy." The sneer he shot made Slade blink. "What have I done, now? Am I not able to talk history or politics in this house? Did Wayne not spell that out –

"Playing the moron and the bum is your forte." Snipped Todd. "You'll make us think, "Oh, he's not such a bad guy, then….BAM!" Dick jumped from his seat, sending a glare to both men. Clearly unimpressed by their debate, he huffed and rose from where he was still clinging to his sanity. "Slade; don't annoy Jason. Jay? Play nice for Bruce, please."

"Ah, who died and made you the king, here??" Jay pointed a finger, expecting a bop on the skull. Instead, he got the finger. Lovely…

"He's your voice of reason, and he still outranks the shit out of you, Todd –

"Hell if I care, filthy piece of! –

"Master Jason!"

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Alfred stood by the entrance with a frown and a sealed letter tucked beneath his arm. Slade and Dick both saw this, yet Todd defended his right to talk down to the real intruder in the manor. Maybe he was pretending not to care, they wondered.

Jay pointed at Slade's willy ways. "He started it! –

" Nothing could be farthest from the truth." Alfred sighed and shook his balding skull.

Jay pursed his lips, trying to reel in his temper. "Any word from ole' Brucie, Alf?" Dick lifted his ear to the conversation as Jay even so, bothered to change the subject. Slade's one eye narrowed on the letter.

~ So, the common outlaw had seen the signs already. Clever. He'd just made me look like –

"As a matter of fact, yes. Though this letter I have is for not one of us, yet for Mister Wilson."

Slade walked up to the butler and took the note with a nod, gratefully. Then heading back to his designated wall of books on Political Sciences, he decided that "Jay" was too dim to understand in their totality. Only Grayson and Wayne competed as the better brood of conversationalists. Or their butler. His wit could master Wintergreen's any day in Slade's book.

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"Humph." Slade closed the slip and folded it back into its envelope carefully. Bruce took the slip and nodded the Wilson. "When did you receive this." Bats had come home right after he'd had to get out of the darkest, dankest holes in the city. Midnighter however, had promised to bring exceptional news.

"After you'd been off on your nightly runs, we had to expect that someone would leave a few threats at your doorstep." Slade crossed his arms as Bruce looked over the seal, the ink. Every possibility that he could. The Court had indeed sent this, but why to Slade? Why not to threaten him as it was meant to?

" I might be their next target." Bruce's eyes scanned over the note from beneath his dark cowl. Slade tried to be persuasive, even so, Bruce knew this game wasn't over. Wilson seemed almost…overwhelmed by the bat's ward being in danger. But…

"Richard, should stay as far away from this mess as possible –

" Dick is an adult who knows the risks." Bruce countered. Richard. He was getting too close too soon. Slade had to stand a few feet back. It was already suffocating poor Dick as it was. Kori had left while hugging him goodbye. For how long, though?

"Yes, but what about the dragon?"

Slade's eye glinted at the afterthought as THAT caught Bruce's full attention.

"Though Roku was left to die in the end, he's still capable of driving your ward back into oblivion, unless he resists enough to have that beast….give up on its host." Slade expressed that this was not as he wanted things to turn out, though he was a part of what was to come. A "prophecy" of sorts. It could turn in someone's better favor if they were too slow to catch the messenger.

" He'll stay away as long as Richard knows he's safe." Bruce didn't believe his enemy's own words. Slade could see that twinge of fear behind the Dark Knight's features.

Bruce broke this banter with some of his own. "Midnighter found something as well. We came out of the underground and even got a few names, we just took our time. Even the Court's spies weren't quick as we thought. They know, just waiting isn't all. One on the list, a partner you kept mentioning –

"They're still alive?" Slade jumped at the knowledge that maybe he wasn't going to lose his way in this mess with the owls and bats' feud. His eye grew a bit wider, his fate being tested as it was with his current predicament.

"According to the notice, the list was…. crossed out, off. The ink on it wasn't new." Bruce frowned, seeing Slade's emotions turn to a more dour disposition, if only for a moment. "I'm sorry, Wilson."

Slade's attitude adjusted. "That soldier, they were pretty quick in any given situation. Then, this one task blinded them enough to lose face…. Pretty damned sure of that, Batman?

"No." Bruce shook his head softly, unsure of how to really read the atmosphere. Dick had told him. He'd opened up about Slade even…But, why wasn't he seething as much as Jason? Why did so much, empathy seep from Slade's aura at this point (if you could call it that)

Slade had been unfair, cruel at times. He's STARTED the attack on the Titans in Jump and he'd one - upped Bruce until they'd finally fought in a crisis between the JLA…...Slade was a con - man who could get under your skin. A strategist who turned heads. He was being smooth now, indescribably compliant, but something else made Bruce take Jason's side. Something deeper than what lay beyond that foggy patch of grey.

He had connections; this person, his partner, was hunted down by the Court for a specific reason that Wilson would not disclose to the Bat and his crew. Dick wasn't safe if Slade had such fixations on him at least, that was a given. Bruce didn't want this to continue, however and yet…

"What else did Midnighter dig up on the Court's affairs?" Slade looked to the brooding bat for his answer. His eye was serious as all could be, hair a bit splayed over with stark white strands before that enigmatic patch. Bruce took the plunge. "They have a new project; something regarding the Court's elite members and a "legacy advantage."

"To take over this city." Slade interjected, thoughtfully. "But they are taking their time with enacting their plan, Wayne." Slade wondered amongst them if the Court was, careless. As if something prev –

"The dragon."

"What?"

Bruce lifted his head as Slade shook his, tugging the billionaire's chain. "Call me crazy or just plain superstitious, yet I believe your ward has an avid protector that is busy using its chess pieces to –

Bruce stopped him. "That is impossible, but if it were an impressive theory –

"Then the Court is being played to act their role out as well." Slade nodded. "He's setting time forward, and if he does that, your Nightwing won't be coming back." He stated rather grimly. "I imagine Dick is himself aware of being under the king's influence?"

Bruce held back a gasp, gaping at the man. " That was why he's not wanted to see anyone for a while. He was a mess on Thanksgiving –

"Then it's happening now, Wayne." Slade took a stance and held out his hand in good faith for Bruce to shake. "I promise, that your ward will come to no such harm while you've hired me to guard him in his fragile state. You have –

"I don't." Bruce turned away. Slade was not going to keep it; it was instinct alone to know just how the mastermind ticked. Bruce wanted to see the man as being very scarce, yet he needed the man's inside eye. The shield to his battle axe. Slade could be both or nothing at all but a threat. He was choosing to save instead of maim. A strange swap, and all by the sake of an old acquaintance being so important…

Bruce really didn't want Wilson to stay for the holidays. Not even if one of his kids begged him.

Yet….He shook the hand in silence, then returned to his analysis of the letter down in the Batcave.

Slade was familiar. After all, in ninety – one, Slade had even met up with the billionaire at one of his house gatherings to, strike up a conversation in his spare time. (In the older Deathstroke comics, no joke!)

Alfred was going to put dirt in his sheets as a result of this arrangement. Wayne knew Slade would expect no such hospitality from any other.

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Cass and Tim went to scout round the manor for the location again where she'd nearly been spliced by a Talon. Tim had protested, yet Cass just refused to listen to reason. She wasn't ok with DS being in this house. It was her home too, and she did all she could to keep her kin out of harm's way.

However, Death had invited in a very bad apple as he pulled on up the road on a near soundless bike.

The ignition didn't make the two prick up their ears, but Cass went to see if he wasn't on route to home. He was. She cussed under her breath. Tim was using binoculars in his pack to see just how long a drive this prick had to follow. She wanted him as gone as DS but Dick wasn't better off if he didn't have the right –

"Cass!" Tim whispered to the teen as she looked down at the man dismounting from his vehicle. "We have a lock?"

"He's not going away, good. I let Bruce know. I'm getting in closer… Al should b –

Then, it got very, very, foggy very quickly.

Smoke pellets didn't just rain, they fell in every direction.

"Tim!" Cass called back as the link went on her. "Shit!"

She flipped off and away to find her family, but fate had other plans.

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Alarms went wild as Dick and Jay pulled themselves up from the room to leave for the cave. It was safe, nothing could –

The static of some sign, some shock that brought Jason to his knees –

"Ja –

" Nnim!!" Dick's mouth was covered when he'd realized the tech in the intruder's suits made them nearly impossible to see.

And nearly impossible to know by face as the clan was slowly dragged off into the darkness….