Chapter Eight:
They decided to go with the forward approach and walk in the front door. Which was considerably easier than Slade thought, as it wasn't locked. He would have to talk to Oliver about that. Even an extra few seconds of notice a locked door could provide, could mean the difference between life and death from an attack. Malcolm quickly appeared out of the shadows on his right wielding a blade. Roy dodged out of the way quickly and Slade ducked under as the blade sliced side wards through the air. He made short work of disarming Malcolm and four contact moves later he managed to land his first hit, which happened to be his knee connecting with Malcolm's groin. The man hesitated due to the shock and pain for a second, which was all Slade needed to deliver a punch straight to the face that knocked him out.
He turned to Roy and mirrored the smile that was on the boy's face.
"That felt good." He said with a grin.
"What are you doing here? You should be on Lian Yu in the prison cell. Roy, what's happening?" Thea asked. She was armed too, with another blade and had taken a defensive stance rather than the attack one Malcolm had used.
"Thea, it's okay. Slade is helping us stop Ra's Ah Ghul. Oliver knows, everyone is on board with it." Roy said trying to calm her.
"How could my brother work with someone who killed our mother?" Thea asked, not lowering her blade.
"How could you leave your brother to go with the man responsible for killing your father, even if Robert wasn't your biological father he still raised and loved you, the man who sentenced your brother to five years of hell, is responsible for the death of your other brother and at least 503 other people?" Slade countered. If he had learnt one thing dealing with Oliver in those early months it was that you had employ tough love to get through to members of the Queen family, because if you gave them an inch and they would stretch it a mile.
Roy smartly decided to shut up when Slade said that, regardless that he agreed, if Thea didn't agree this was going to go down hill fast and they wouldn't be able to talk reason into her.
"He is all I have left," Thea said quietly. Slade's eye and posture softened when he heard that.
"He's not Thea, you have Oliver and Walter, you have Roy and if you need someone else you have me, as I doubt you could talk more than the kid can." He finished with a small fond smile.
"Oliver talked your ear off? He barely speaks." Roy exclaimed without meaning to, even Thea looked curious.
Slade sat down on the couch, making himself comfortable. "I can tell you about it if you want?" he offered.
Roy immediately sat down on the coffee table facing Slade waiting for the man to start talking, he was always willing to hear about the Island, it helped him understand Oliver better. Thea hesitated but lowered the blade, though didn't let go of it and sat down on the other end of the coffee table. She really needed to get another couch.
"Okay, so…" Slade began with a small smile on his face as he remembered the few nicer moments from his time on the Island.