A/N: I'm so sorry, it feels like forever since I last updated, although I think it was a little over two weeks maybe three... Life's been crazy all thanks to school. Well, I hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything, including my soul, thanks a lot Satan for taking that too...
Chapter Sixteen: There's No Problem Death Can't Solve
Tapping his foot impatiently, Gar waited in one of the chairs in Raven's new room while waiting for his parents to arrive. Although he knew it was a good thing, the steady beep of the heart monitor hooked up to Raven made him feel nervous. Every time the clear liquid in the IV dripped Gar would unknowingly flinch. Overwhelming guilt flooded over him as he watched Raven sleep, he couldn't help but feel that this was all his fault. She had trusted him so blindly, and he failed her. Maybe if he had done a better job at protecting her then she wouldn't be in this hospital.
A loud grumble from his stomach dragged him out of his thoughts. Clutching his stomach, Gar suddenly remembered that he hadn't eaten anything all day. After glancing around the room for a moment, Gar decided that it would be ok if he just left for a minute. "I'll only be a minute, I promise," Gar told the drugged girl before leaving the room.
The window's latch opened silently behind the shut curtains, and the window was slid up gently. Taking out a knife, he slit through the thin screen with one fluid motion of his wrist. Leaping feet first through the window, Slade made an elegant landing inside the hospital room. Slade grinned under his mask as he approached the bed while twirling his knife between his fingers with expert skill.
"Now, when I heard about this I didn't believe it. Rumors spread so fast even in a small town like Jump City. It just sounded too good to be true, but here you are," Slade spoke to Raven as he rubbed the side of his head with his free hand and gazed around the room. "It would appear that I came at the perfect time as well for both of us." His eyes settled on the pale girl in the bed and the knife settled comfortably in the palm of his hand. "I understand what you've been through, that man gave me a lot of trouble too." Resting the blade on her unguarded throat, Slade pressed lightly. "You may be the daughter of a devil, but don't worry I'm sure there's still a spot for you in heaven. I promise, this won't hurt a bit."
Then, the door burst open right before Slade could drag the blade across her throat. "Sorry it took me so long, Rae, but I got my hand stuck in t-" Garfield stopped dead in his tracks at the sight in front of him. At first his mind went completely blank. Suddenly a rage that he had never felt swept over him. "Get away from her," he growled in an animalistic voice.
Startled, Slade jumped back from the bed a few steps and stood in a defensive stance. Once he realized who was at the door he noticeably relaxed. "What are you gonna do, kid?" he chuckled.
"Don't touch her," Gar growled.
"Do you even know who this girl is? She's the only daughter of the biggest crime boss in the whole western hemisphere. Do you realize dangerous she is? Are you sure you want to mess with someone like her, kid?"
"You don't know her at all. She's nothing like her father."
"Growing up around a man like him I would be surprised she wasn't a great deceiver. She truly is her father's daughter," Slade chuckled bitterly.
Some of Gar's courage began to wear off as he realized just how helpless he was. After all, Slade was now only feet from Raven with a drawn blade. Everything seemed absolutely hopeless all of the sudden.
Slade spoke again before Gar could think up a reply, although his tone had changed from harsh to solemn and sympathetic. "You have no idea how much abuse she's gone through throughout her life. If I know Tristan Roth at all, he's not going to just let her run away. Raven is, after all, Tristan's only heir, and the only person with enough information to ruin him... She'll never know peace, no matter how hard you try. Unless, I put her out of her misery right now... If you truly care for her then you'll let me kill her."
Truthfully, Slade had no idea why he was practically asking this boy's permission to kill her. Maybe it was just out of pity. Although he would still slay Raven even if the boy refused, he felt some sort of obligation to let Gar make the decision himself. After all, it was the least he could do considering he would also have to dispose of all witnesses. Slade may have lost his humanity long ago, but he could at least attempt to give Gar some closure before his unfortunate and untimely death.
The furious scowl on Gar's face softened to a mournful frown as he stared down at Raven's emotionless face. As much as he hated to admit it everything Slade had said was true. His gaze moved back up to Slade who seemed to be waiting patiently for his decision.
"You're right, Slade. Raven may never experience any peace in her life, and she may never escape from her father... But like you said, Raven is the only one with enough information to destroy that monster. I won't give up on her, ever."
"Wrong answer, kid," Slade sighed with disappointment. Gripping his knife tighter, Slade went to lunge, but was suddenly knocked forward onto the floor as a pair of steel-toed boots collided with his back.
Hopping off Slade's back, Richard stood a safe distance from the mercenary. "Thanks for leaving the window open," Richard said.
Then, the door behind Gar opened and Danny shoved past him to stand across from Richard on the opposite side of Slade.
"Richard? Danny?" Gar asked.
"Gar? What the hell are you doing here?" Richard questioned. Danny glanced over his shoulder to make sure it really was in fact Garfield.
"I'm here with Raven. Why are you here?"
"Slade," Richard answered. Gar nodded in understanding.
During this quick conversation Slade had managed to fully recover from the kick. The real fight begun as Danny threw a punch to the back of Slade's skull while Richard executed a prefect roundhouse kick to his ribs. Yet, Slade dodged both attacks by merely tilting his head to the right so that the punch just barely grazed his left ear and catching the kick in midair with ease. Still gripping Richard's ankle, Slade spun around with lightening speed and threw Richard right into the unsuspecting Danny. With an elaborate gesture Slade sheathed his knife after deciding he wouldn't need it for this fight.
The boys scrambled to their feet and prepared for their next attack which was a series of synchronized punches and kicks. Danny would distract Slade with a harmless jab as Richard hit him in the side of the head with a punch. Then, once he was off balance they Danny would deliver a kick to his chest. The attack was an excellent move that would provide a quick finish, but it didn't quite go as planned.
Thanks to Slade's heightened reflexes, he was able to knock away the jab and deliver his own right to Danny's nose. Before Richard could even finish his punch Slade's elbow slammed into his rib cage with enough force to send him flying across the room. Danny stumbled back as he clutched his broken nose while Richard untangled himself out of some wires from one of the innumerable machines in the room.
Once they recovered they launched a fury of random attacks towards Slade. He avoided almost every hit and the few that did connect made little to no damage. Richard and Danny were both visibly infuriate. Now, it was time for Richard to try something new. Purposely stopping a sidekick directed at Slade's face halfway through, Richard leapt to his other foot and faked a kick to his chest that Slade easily deflected with one hand. Suddenly, Richard spun around on the one foot still planted on the floor and lodged the heel of his boot right into the side of Slade's face. Finally, Slade was off balance for a split second which Richard took advantage of by punching him once in the face and then delivering two rapid punches to his stomach. Next, Danny made an amazing flying kick right to the back of Slade's skull which connected with extreme force.
Slade fell to the floor like a rock after that perfect combination, and Richard took this opportunity to steal the hunting knife he had sheathed only moments ago. It only took about three seconds for Slade to regain himself. "Who are you?"
"My name's Richard Grayson."
"Well 'Richard,' what do you got against me? I feel I at least deserve an explanation for why you just barged in here and interrupted my work," Slade said with a nod towards Raven.
"You don't remember? You murdered my parents," Richard hissed.
"Sorry, kid, but I don't remember everyone I've met during my career."
"I'm pretty sure they were the first acrobats you 'met.' Do you remember the Flying Graysons?"
"Oh, how could I forget them. They were great people. It was such an unfortunate accident, but I suppose it could have happened to anyone in their business."
"You know better than anyone that that was no accident, Slade. It's your fault they died!" Richard yelled.
"It was nothing personal Richard, I was just taking orders. I'm not the one you want," Slade smirked.
"I don't care Slade. You played a part in killing them and you're going to keep killing, unless I stop you."
"If you can stop me," Slade replied. This fight had already gotten stale, it was time to end it. With one swift kick to Richard's solar plexus, Slade knocked the wind out of the boy.
Danny had lost interest in Richard and Slade's conversation and was now busy gazing around the hospital room and clutching his bleeding nose when Richard slammed against the wall beside him. Directing his attention on the source of Richard's fall, Danny then realized that Slade was now charging at him. Dodging Slade's fist with a backwards handspring that amazed Garfield who was now watching the fight with interest. Though Danny had evaded his attack, he was no longer standing between Raven and Slade.
Immediately he forgot about the two boys he had been fighting and focused back on his true objective: Raven. Stalking towards the girl, he reached for the knife strapped to his thigh. When he found the sheath to be empty, but had no time to waste looking for it. Unfortunately, Slade had left his pistol silencer at his hideout, so he decided his hands would just have to do. Without hesitation he wrapped his massive hands around Raven's small throat and squeezed down on her trachea. Sure, there were hundreds of other ways he could have killed her, but this just seemed fitting.
Watching with horror, Gar was unsure of what to do. Raven began to cough and gasp for air. Danny tried to karate chop Slade, but it had absolutely no affect on the large man. Out of the corner of his eye Danny saw Gar run to the other side of the room. Nothing Danny did seemed to help pry Slade off of her. The heart monitor beside the bed beeped frantically.
Then, he kicked Slade as hard as he could right over his spinal cord. The man jolted forward and whipped around while Danny was pulling his foot back. Grabbing under the boy's knee, he yanked him forward and took hold of the back of his shirt. Spinning around, Slade hesitated a moment as he considered throwing Danny out the open window. Hitting the wall with extreme force, Danny's unconscious body slid to the floor only inches beside the window.
Slade had taken his hands of Raven for a couple seconds in order to throw Danny, but her current heaving was interrupted when his hands returned around her throat. Although, Slade was again disrupted when a metal tray met with the back of his skull causing him to blackout on the floor for a moment.
Gar chucked the metal tray back into the corner he had found it with the discarded medical supplies that sat on it only moments ago. Running over Raven, Gar was relieved to see that she was still breathing and was now awake gently rubbing her throat although her eyes were still clamped shut. He didn't know what to do, there was an unconscious and bloodthirsty fugitive who was bound to wake up at any moment lying on the floor. Garfield couldn't leave Raven again, but he had to get help, it was quite an odd situation.
Suddenly a hand shot up and grabbed the railing on the opposite side of the bed. It was actually very astonishing how fast Slade had recovered from such a hit to the head. It was probably even more astounding that Danny stood up at the same moment. He was still slightly shaky, but Danny managed to get to his feet. Slade staggered over towards Danny as he reached for the gun in his shoulder holster. There was no way he could kill Raven until this nuisance was taken care of for good.
Before Slade had time to reach the boy his legs were swept out from under him by Richard whom he had completely forgot about. Having regained his composure, Danny leapt onto Slade's chest while he was in mid-fall. The two landed with a painful thump on the hard floor with Danny now crouching on top of Slade.
All Slade could feel was a small prick as Danny injected him in the neck with a foreign substance from a syringe he had found on the floor next to him when he awoke earlier. The syringe had undoubtedly been on the metal tray Gar had taken before.
Startled, Slade pushed Danny off of himself, jumped to his feet, and pulled the needle out of his neck. He wasn't sure what he had been injected with, but his vision was already beginning to blur as he looked around the room dizzily. He was glad it hadn't sent him into cardiac arrest, but he knew he couldn't fight in this state. Dashing to the window, Slade leapt onto the windowsill and looked back at Gar. "Things are finally beginning to fall apart for Tristan, and I can guarantee Raven is going to get caught right in the middle. Even a half demon doesn't deserve to suffer a hell like this," Slade said. Then, he leapt out of the window and disappeared into the growing dark of night.
Everyone in the room breathed a small sigh of relief once the madman was gone, besides Richard that is. After being helped to his feet by Danny, he ran to the window. "Dammit!" Richard cursed as he slammed his fist against the wall.
"Raven are you alright?" Gar asked gently. She looked over at him with wet eyes and shook her head. Now that she had released her throat Gar got a clear look at the large bruises Slade had left. He pulled her against his chest and wrapped his arms around her comfortingly. "I'm so sorry.
"You two better get out of here before my Dad gets here," Gar warned.
"No problem, we have to go track down Slade again anyway," Richard told him.
"Don't worry, Mark won't find out you were here. Thanks for the help."
"Sure thing, matey," Danny said with a wink. Richard jumped out of the window Slade had formerly used with Danny following close behind. There was no way Gar could explain all of this to this parents, but he wasn't too worried about that right now.
"Sir, someone spotted Slade moving out of a hospital in downtown Jump City. He hasn't left the city yet."
"Excellent. What about my daughter?"
"I'm sorry, sir, but we have yet to find any leads on Raven..."
"She fell out of a third story window for god's sake! It's not like she could have gotten far!" Tristan grabbed the man by the collar of his shirt and pulled him close. "Find her immediately, and make sure she is sent straight to me... alive."
The man nodded frantically and ran out of the room to give the orders.
A/N: I very much dislike this chapter. I think I'm going to try and finish this up in the next 2 chapters. Is it just me or did I already do that ending? Ok, so I embellished Richard's past a little, but I tried to keep it somewhat close to the real thing. Sorry for the short fight scene, but if I had made it any longer it would have been even less descriptive. Well, please review, unless of course you have something better to do than I understand I suppose... Have a good day!
Shay Bo Bay: It's alright. Thanks, I'm so proud to have such a loyal reviewer:D
beautifulpurpleflame: Thank you. Wow, I've already ran out of things to say. :D
K.C. Raven: I won't doubt for a second, but why would you want to make things worse for me? Come on! I'm continuing the story, isn't that enough for you?! What have I even done to deserve this?! Please just kill me already! Please...? I've already almost vomited up all the blood in my circulatory system! I suppose death is a privilege I have not yet earned. :D
Snea: You guessed it! I feel so bad for Raven, I have a tendency to really pick on her, don't I? Maybe in my next story I'll give her a break. Haha, thanks. Of course!
Steve-Racer: Haha, yes. Yes, there shall be at least some vindication in the rest of this story, and things may basically go like that. I'll do my best to end it yay-full, but I also do love depressing endings. We'll just have to see. (From now on the smiley is merely implied)
Blueyerdgirl: Haha, 7th isn't too bad, right? Aw, thanks! Please tell me if I ever do then. Who knew you could fit so many compliments in just a few sentences. It's great to hear that, it really makes me want to write more. :D
chittychittybangbang16: Thank you thank you thank you thank you. Of course of course of course. Haha:D
addicted2danny: What ever you want. I'll let you write the all your parts if you want. Of course:D
World of Nightmares: Uh... Thanks! Lavender does smell good, so that means a lot. Hahaha! Thank you, again:D
Django X: Aw, for me? Thank you. I love describing all of the gory scenes, personally it's easier for me than writing kiss scenes. Haha. Thanks, I won't let you down:D
Kaos Kraze: Yay! You get a prize! Hm... let's see. Oh, here you receive this giant chicken stuffed animal! I got a whole lot, but I'm steadily eating it, so it should be gone soon. Candy:D
BbRaeLogan: Haha, not at all. If you're insane then I should have been admitted a long time ago. Aw, thank you! Eh, I'm sure you're a lot better than you think. Thanks again and good luck on your writing:D
cheesepuff311: Thanks! You're too kind. Hopefully you won't have to wait too long, but I'll type as fast as I can:D
art-princess: Thank you! I hope this chapter didn't take too long. :D
talim9: Yeah! Thanks! I've never had my shoulder dislocate completely only partially and that hurt like hell, so I just guessed at that. I love writing gore, especially the little details of it, I think it's easier for me to write that than kiss scenes and stuff like that. That means so much. Of course:D
warprince2000: Thanks! I'll hurry. :D
Crazy Sugar Girl: Thanks! I believe Danny has schizophrenia, but I'm not completely sure. Yeah, Slade went after Raven. It's starting to get complicated, but everything will be explained if it hasn't already. I don't know I'll figure out a way for it to make Tristan mad, don't worry I will be able to piece everything together. I will! Haha, thanks:D
Rainbow-Jess: Yeah, sorry it's been taking me so long. I don't really have much of an excuse besides school, but I promise I'll do my best to get a speedy update for the next chapter. Woo:D
AureliusXsoul: If you think it's confusing to read you have no idea how confusing it gets for me to write. Haha. I keep forgetting what everyone is doing. I know what you mean, and thanks. Yeah, that was exactly what I was going for, and I'm glad you liked it. Maybe, although anything can happen at this point. :D
XX.xXx.AchillezWiplash.xXx.XX: Thanks! Haha, of course! There shall be some fluff, I think. :D
Beast of Brisingr: Yeah, you never know, right. Haha, I'm so predictable. I've only broken my wrist twice and partially dislocated my shoulder, which all hurt like hell so I just imagined all of that times ten. Haha. Thanks! I'll try to hurry it up. :D
Agent of the Divine One: I actually have no idea what A.F.V. could stand for right now, but it is possible I took it from there. Basically, yes, although I wasn't sure who to have rescue her at first. I'll try my best, captain:D
EveryxSinglexRose: Thanks! I'm really glad you think so! Wow, enthralled, really? Thank you so much. I won't let you down:D
darkkfaery: Thanks! Don't worry I won't stop for anything, well except if I die of course. Haha. :D
-blanklist-: Thanks! I'm glad you like it. I feel so proud! I'll type as fast as I can. Oh, and thanks for the heads up, I managed to catch the second showing just in time. I don't know about you, but I hate Ben 10, although I must admit I never gave it much of a chance. :D
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Linwe Ancalimon: Yeah, I hear that a lot. Haha, ok so I'm not very good at writing romance-y scenes, give me a break will you? Haha, "fresh"? I think I killed that love a long time ago. Of course I'll write more:D
Mrs. Peacock: Yay! Thank you. It's great that you still like it, I'm so proud. Haha. :D
Mothman X: Thank you. Yeah, it was extremely tempting to kill her and I know it was kind of unbelievable for her to survive the fall. I was really trying to go for that with Richard, so it's nice to hear that you think I did it. I agree Robin is a little weird in the head. :D
Red Panda Bear: Thanks! I'm really glad that you like it. :D
