Long Live the King – Deathstroke's Forced Descent into Villainy
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Chapter 20: In Love with Judas
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Lady Gaga title, used to love that album as a teen…sigh…. Next up? Terra gets diabolical! Also, there is a time lapse since it would be silly to keep this from looking like a modest flashback from Slade's point of view. It is his story, after all.
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Beastboy was smitten, only he didn't know how to ask if she was somewhat interested in him the same way. Slade knew this through his obedient mole and had used her to infiltrate the Titans as one of the gang. So far, it had worked, and so far?
He was ready to call pull out all of the stops.
Terra wasn't though. Slade saw her fall off the grid. He saw as she took pity on…
He gritted his metal gauntlets over the throne; a relic of the old, this one would be less than a luxury. He wanted the power to control the city. And with the girl's light betrayal of all he had granted to her…
She'd just broken the biggest rule.
Not bothering to take out the enemy, but playing with it like a coyote to a frightened desert rodent.
Honestly.
Slade got up and turned down the screens. He knew where she was headed. The Titans did not. She'd made sure that no one could ruin her last chance at freedom. Even when she was simply using the green hero to cull her worries, she wouldn't break from their pervious arrangement.
She wouldn't give up on Brion…. or else Slade would have to take drastic measures into his own hands.
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Slade's boots cut through the shadows soundlessly as he watched the false Titan; a true Judas construct about her shoulders, hide away from all of the boogeymen that she could with her pet puppy. Beastboy wasn't caring as he spun round and round until he was even greener in the face on that filthy tilt – a - whirl.
She dragged him deeper down a way; the first place she'd stopped was a bench to eat. Slade watched as she broke down the Titan's walls and took him by the hand. It was almost touching, but a deal was a deal. He needed to stay out of their plans soon enough. As Slade slunk forth, the Ferris wheel had him with the perfect advantage in mind. "This rebellion won't last, my dear." He reined in his annoyance and with his face out of the spotlight, he got into an open window and sat, waiting as a tiger in the reeds of its home to pounce and to punish without any backtalk from his apprentice. He'd tell her tonight that Brion could not be reached, that the Justice League had taken him from her. By making her think she had to be as powerful as they were to get her wish, she'd do anything Slade asked. He'd be her god once again. And he wanted her to also know…
That he didn't allow pets in his apartment. That Beastboy would have to perish along with his fellow team.
Tonight, or the next, if possible.
Slade was fixated on his prey, letting them lean into one another and awkward as it was, he knew this was very, very wrong.
And yet, it didn't matter. Deathstroke was a killer while "Slade" was a master manipulator. The two were equals in every right and…it wouldn't be long now before Terra followed along the path she'd chosen. The path Slade had carved out right in front of them.
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Beastboy was almost ready to sweat through his uniform, had Terra not stepped up to bat. Yet, not with a love confession. No, the girl…was trying to convince him otherwise…
"If you knew about all of the horrible things that I've done..."
~ Don't cut yourself short, child. ~ Slade had much apathy for this self loathing attitude. Ugh. She did nothing wrong but try to stay alive, and he would probably side with her feelings…the green teen was soft as gelatin. He'd do anything to get her to trust him, but that wouldn't' come to pass. Only a tearful set of goodbyes was predicted of their futures.
"Teen love, it never lasts…"
As Slade's eye took to staring down the troubled couple, he and Beastboy fought. He was able to knock the brat down a peg before returning his full attention to his apprentice. "Did you think that you and your little boyfriend could –
And so, the guilt tripping began, her eyes as frightened as the day in Markovia when he'd scared her off. Away and across the waters…
Slade was hit hard from the next attack as Beastboy took his face for a ride. He ended up no sooner atop the Ferris wheel car in a stand off, a brawl as the runt showed his dominating side to the mastermind. Completely feral. Terra then acted on her own, out of fear or pity. She brought the wheel into the dirt with Slade still scrambling to find a limb to grab hold of as she made him angry. Something had to be done about her rioting mind, her baseless running away…...
She was away but he could sniff her out. He knew what it was, what he had to find as she went down into a hall of mirrors with her panicking boyfriend. Her dead friend, should he try to help and shut Slade out from contacting the girl.
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Mirrors of glass surrounded them and then, she was separated. He had chance as Beastboy held onto every word the mad man wove. This space was perfect; he could manipulate the kids. Break their trust to bits as these tiny broken reflections shone back into their surprised faces.
"I helped her to control her impressive power…"
He had, and for what it was worth, he'd do it all again in a heartbeat. For now, Terra understood and was willing to follow. He'd already crafted her trap door; he'd already blocked off her insults and petulant disregard of him having laid his hand down a bit thick. She had forgiven him, her teacher. Her savior and, her master of all things.
Beastboy looked back from the illusion that had been the girl he had loved and had trusted with every fiber of her soul. Now, she was an enemy. A Judas Complex that made his mind race to see her disappear into the shadows like her master. A dual side he'd not seen since the day that Robin had been under that same spell, and he'd do nothing to turn back time. She had one chance to do so much good, but with Slade running around in her head, planting traps as he took hold of her happiness, Beastboy couldn't live with himself until he was entirely sure. Slade saw this in his enemy's eyes and narrowed them dangerously from behind. "You'll be sure to end this fling once and for all, Terra." Slade commanded for the next time to his little soldier. She bobbed her head, not expecting to win. Not with what she had just done to her only friend left.
"I understand." She answered in a low voice, lower than he'd heard of her since long ago. She was in his grasp and this time, the merc was never, ever letting go. To death did they part….A promise she'd best be willing to keep.
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"She gets one chance. One. We have to break Slade's grip on her."
Slade watched through a hidden lens that Cyborg had missed, as the Teen Titans were still at it with their hopeless "Humility game." With Robin leading the search, Slade realized how alike they were. He'd not hidden enough. Had not gotten the boy's attention in the time they'd been searching for him, back when Robin had almost said Master in that defeated tone Slade recalled so vividly.
With Terra, he wouldn't make that same mistake again. She'd stay loyal or die beside her master as they fought to reclaim their territory from the fumbling heroes.
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Robin fought and even managed to bring up the past as Terra struggled like a worm beneath the hero's pestering words. He was then slammed into the caged glass as Terra turned the tables, yet her delivery needed some work in time. Robin would have been his perfect protégé, yet Terra was persisting as he'd hoped. She was going to ruin the Titans' leader.
"Face….
"Anymore…!"
The broken and garbled speech through her link was a bit muffled but Slade was touched by how she'd taken his lessons to heart this time. Robin was crushed, knocked down and thrown deep under the city.
How he looked her in the eye while screaming for help as the boy fell. Down, down…But that lead to the sewers, Slade mused and cupped his chin. They weren't dead. Only indisposed. She was proving her point. That she'd never have them to come rescue her from her tower. Slade; the big bad dragon, wouldn't let that happen. He'd only have the princess to shoot arrows in their backs if they attempted to try.
Beastboy had finally let her go, or so it seemed by how he growled and tore up the underground in a fit of rage. Slade kept a close eye, not telling the girl that they'd come after her in a different manner. Ruthless, cruel. Something the Bat in Gotham could appreciate.
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Terra scuttled into a wall and called out to him, begging for his time. Her needs not being met, but she was wrong. This was her life, to endure. To struggle as Slade's right hand or kicked puppy. Her choice. In war, there was no time to delay a thing. One wrong step and that was the end. You'd be forgotten.
Slade however, knew that Terra's power brought her up to League status, that he could use her in time to have the JLA banging at his door for amnesty. But no. Slade wanted to see the girl rise first before she could scramble away from her forever enemies.
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Slade was cruel at times. Grant had hated him for being so out of touch with a little sympathy. His father was a war man, a real idiot who took too many chances that left them destitute instead of riding easy. He'd promised himself to never look back and yet…
She was here, panting and watching behind her as some frightened animal with a hunter at her heels. Bad move. They would know.
She said "thank goodness she was alive?" Well, he could no tolerate weakness. No. Slade back handed the child, dragging her up to meet his eye as she found out the worst of her predicament.
She'd been granted a special suit earlier on that was not just to show off Slade's new prize. It was, a special piece of equipment, just as she had become for trusting him to care about her as a person. She was not finished being molded into the perfect weapon. Slade knew how they should be; act, perform.
She wasn't getting his pity. Not now, not ever again. Her frightened form only shook as electrical charges racketed her frame to rise and come to his side. She had no other choice, not anymore.
A promise she'd intend to keep. As he took her chin in hand while Terra struggled, tears leaked from her eyes. The pain worth the promise she had made. And now, Brion would fade from existence. She'd lost the opportunity to have what she wanted, but Slade…. had not.
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Terra, was nothing but a menace now to him. As her "impressive power" shook the ground, lava poured out from all directions as Slade was tossed into the pits. Not even Robin could reach out to stop it. No one could as his eyes sealed shut. His face exposed and under water with the rest of what remained of Slade Joseph Wilson.
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Dark and cold…no, hot. BURNING. Slade stood up and saw that his body was beyond reconstruction by a simple scientific breakthrough. Tissue was burned away; his eye was there. It had seen just how he'd come to arise from the wastes of his demise. A large, clawed, red hand held him up to see its face. Four red glowing eyes tore at him from top to bottom.
~Hello, mortal…~
The deep chuckle it withdrew was sinister, Slade knew a cliffhanger when he saw one. Someone had seen him fall, had taken all of whatever abilities they had to pluck him from his grave. He'd escaped death, but with a cross to bare and a price to be paid.
~Return what I have lost…. ~ The words hung in the mercenaries skull. Not as festive as Christmas lights or decorations, yet one thing was for certain. He still was going to bring his empire to fruition once more with the help of this, ogre. Somehow, it seemed natural that Deathstroke should take back the wheel. That Slade could take a back seat until the red demon drove a fork through his back.
One thing Slade had learned from previous encounters with all- powerful interdimensional warlords?
Never make a deal with an interdimensional demon without a little "protection." He was nobody's puppet. Slade had the resources to get what he wanted without being dragged down to his knees for wanting to live again. And the heroes?
They'd just have to sit back, watch, and listen for his return in the making to arise.
Trigon was coming, and the Prophecy…. would be realized…
END OF PART ONE