Chapter 55: Struggle

Authors Note: Okay folks here it is the final character arc. Now like my friend Illusive Man I too have been looking forward to this arc for a very long time. This arc will be legen-wait for it-dary, legendary. This arc was in the making for a long time and with the help of Illusive man I will make sure it is good for all of you. So here you go people.

Also, I just got injustice today and yes it is awesome yes I love the story and yes I will do a story based on it eventually. So in the meantime patience.

Speaking of which, I got my game informer and saw the new batman game and deathstroke looks f***king sick! Now that's a game I can't wait for.

Disclaimer: I do not own Batman.

Two nights earlier, Logan Crow once known for being the deadly Phantom, was no longer the threat he once was. His white suit was now torn and covered in muck. His short black hair was now long and dirty with a matching bear and his most noticeable feature was his right arm no longer being there.

His green eye shined from the fire in the barrel he was huddled near to keep warm. He had survived his encounter with croc by jamming a switch blade into the monsters eye. He then quickly swam to shore and disappeared into the city. He had no clue what to do with himself now. The situation with Reaper and the warriors had left him a shallow broken man.

He jumped when he felt an ominous presence lurk behind him and pulled out a shiv. It was just a piece of scrap he found lying around with some tape wrapped around the blunt end. He narrowed his eyes at the darkness before figuring out who the figure in the darkness was.

"Seth Gallagher." Phantom snarled.

"Phantom," Seth grinned walking out wearing a long blue trench coat. He gave the former assassin an up and down look before chuckling. "You look like shit, heard you had a run in with the crocodile man. Ah, but hey it's not like you were ditched in the middle of a fight and blown up by a little bastard child who could wield fire."

"You're talking about our job with Hush?" Phantom said, recalling how he left before the warriors could kill him. "I saw that we were losing and when Ace released her control on the others warriors I knew we were screwed. What did you want me to do take on them along with Batman?"

"How about growing a fucking spine." Seth snarled pulling out his chain scythe.

"What the hell do you want?" Phantom snarled.

"It's not what I want it's about what Light wants." Seth said in a calm voice. "He's the one pulling the strings around here and if you were smart you'd join."

"I'm my own boss!" Phantom snapped, throwing the shiv at Seth. Seth chuckled and swatted the scrap away.

"Not anymore."

Just then Phantoms shadow turned into the demon that he saw fighting Shadow and Gauntlet. The demonic shadow wrapped its hand around Phantoms throat and held him up over the ground. Seth walked over as a glowing red 'S' took up his forehead and opened a fiery portal.

"Welcome to the part Logan." Seth chuckled as he nodded to his shadow. The shadow nodded and let Phantom go dropping him in the pit. As it closed Phantoms screams echoed throughout the night.

Seth then pulled out his phone and dialed a number as his shadow went back in its rightful place below his feet.

"Adrian, it's Seth, I've sent Logan in." He said. "Yep, he'll be joining you very shortly. Okay, the rest is up to Slade now."

(Back in Mexico.)

Back in Las Manzanas Maria and some towns' folk had prepared dinner for the warriors. It wasn't much, but considering that they hadn't eaten in a while they were very grateful. The dinner was homemade burritos stuffed with beef, pepper, onion and olives. Much different from back the ones back home. Each person was enjoying their meal with great pleasure,

"Damn this is a good burrito Maria." Sam said as he stuck his fork into the soft shell. "It's jammed packed with peppers and meat. How come our burritos back home aren't like this?"

"Cause those burritos are frozen and cost ninety nine cents." Blaze chuckled sipping his water. "Here the burritos aren't rushed or microwaved."

"It's that crap that makes Mexico look cheap." Hilary chuckled chowing here down with much savagery.

"Easy, try tasting it first." Sarah giggled. "Didn't Maria feed you any kibbles and bits."

The whole table erupted in laughter while Hilary scowled and blushed in embarrassment. While they were laughing Max noticed they were short a few people.

"Hey, where Jayden and Marcas and Mark?" Max asked.

"Marcas has been acting a little different ever since the facility today." Thomas explained. "So they went to channel their anger and frustration."

"He means they went to the nearest bar to get wasted." Christine said.

"Idiots." Kris said taking a bite of her burrito.

"Bummer…so can I have their burritos before they get cold?" Zack asked.

"Go ahead I am." Jason said taking Jayden's burrito.

"Guys, please share." Maria pleaded while they chowed down like angry dogs.

At the bar the three were doing shots of tequila and nibbling on pretzels and wallowing in self-pity.

"You know I've been looking over these files and you know what I found out?" Jayden asked as the two just sat there with the least amount of interest in their faces. "The miners weren't mining for coal, iron or steel but something called a soul collector."

This time the two both snapped their heard over at him.

"The hell is a soul collector?" Mark asked.

"I don't know, but they found two of them buried deep in the mines." Shadow explained.

"And that's all that's there." An old shallow voice said.

The three turned to see an elderly old man, probably in his seventies standing behind them wearing a brown cloak around his farmer's clothes.

"Who are you?" Marcas asked.

"I am the one who trained Maria to become the sorceress she is today." He explained. "And let me tell you something. As evil man as Javier Diego was he is still a fly compared to the trouble you will be facing."

"What trouble?" Mark asked.

"Trigon," The three felt a chill go down their spines at the mention of the name. "An evil man plans on awakening him by using these soul collectors. You see Trigon is weak at the moment, but it is strength that can be returned."

"How?" Jayden asked.

"You see long ago people once believed that by drinking the blood of animals gives you their wisdom, knowledge and abilities." He started. "But there were also renegades who believed the same thing could be done for humans as well. So they ate their brains, hearts and blood in hopes of taking their strength. Trigon saw this and was amused at how evil a person could be, but also noticed their souls growing darker. With barley any effort Trigon gave them the power of a god and only allowed them to keep this power by feeding Trigon souls. He dubbed them soul eaters."

"Just like Seth back home." Jayden said.

"Trigon feasted on the souls the soul eaters could gather for him while they reined havoc on towns and small villages, but Trigon started to fear if something should happen to him he would need a backup plan for his coming. So he created orbs called the Soul Collectors for the purpose of collecting dark souls and harnessing their dark energy for his awakening."

"Wait, why dark souls, wouldn't any soul do?" Marcas asked. The sorcerer shook his head.

"Dark souls are of those who committed a sin in their life, the more sins they committed the darker their souls become. One soul collector can contain a thousand souls, but a thousand dark souls can be trouble even for us mortals."

"Why?" Jayden asked.

"Dark Powers, the energy of a dark soul can grant even the weakest mortal great power."

"So, if Trigon eats enough dark souls he can come back?" Mark asked.

"Not if we stop him." Jayden said in determination.

"I wish you luck warriors, if anyone can stop this madness it is you." The Sorcerer said. "And do not absorb the dark soul's power. It will tempt you but you must resist otherwise you will be a slave to Trigon."

"Thank you, we will."

The old man left and the three went back to drinking. Marcas still had a nervous look on his face so Jayden decided to ask.

"Marcas, who was that back there?" Jayden asked.

"Tasha," He muttered. "She was my friend from when I was a kid. Look I'm sorry, but I really don't want to talk about it."

Marcas took one last shot and slammed his glass on the table shattering it to pieces. Marcas showed no concern and walked out in a hurry. Jayden and Mark both knew this was going to be rough.

"We need to keep an eye on him, something changed him today." Mark said.

"I know, let's just keep on his good side and hope he doesn't become our enemy." Jayden said as the two took their last shots and left the bar for the night.

(!)

The team said their farewells and flew back to Gotham the next morning. Marcas let Thomas fly this time, his mind and heart were in a million places and couldn't focus on flying right now. He just kept thinking back to Tasha. It couldn't have been her he killed her, on accident of course. Marcas knew he wouldn't feel better until he was back in Gotham. Shadow told him he fired a tracer in his chopper and that Slade's trail ended here. He knew Slade was here and he would find him.

No matter what.

(!)

When they finally returned to Gotham they thought Slade might have laid siege, but actually it was really calm. There was hardly any filth or fires going on. The monitor was quiet not detecting a single trace of crime.

The warriors paid no mine to it and decided to take advantage of this night and just sleep at the mansion.

Once they landed inside everyone said their goodnights and went to bed. All except for Red and Shadow.

Marcas had just woken up from another nightmare from his past. Watching his friend Andrei die and killing Tasha. It ruined him deep down. He sat there in the darkness of his room wishing things could be different.

He wished he and Tasha were married right now, maybe even have a child of their own. He wouldn't mind having a son just like him and be the father he never had, but he also wishes he had a daughter. She would be sweet and kind, peace-loving and artistic. He would make sure she never saw a gun or sword in her life. Maybe she would be a musician or a ballerina dancer. Bring some culture in this dying world.

But what he really wanted was to wake up with Tasha every single day. But those were pipe dreams they were never going to work for him. He then heard a cough come from the corner of his room and panicked. He whipped out one of his eagles and aimed it at the corner to see Ally sitting in a lounge chair.

"Ally, Jesus what are you doing I almost shot you!" Marcas snapped. Ally responded by holding the shiny magazine in her hand and waving at him. He checked his gun and blushed in embarrassment. "How did you steal that without me seeing?"

"I was taught by Catwoman to steal money from unbreakable safes and priceless rubies from impenetrable vaults. Stealing a clip from a gun while your ass is seeing is a cakewalk." She joked.

"Right, so what did you want?" Marcas asked.

"Tea," She said raising her cup of steaming hot tea. "Then I walked down to hear you muttering in your sleep so I came in to see if you were alright."

"Oh, well I'm fine thanks." Marcas said with bitterness in his voice. He looked over to see a frown on her face.

"What's going on with you, you're acting out like it said you did in your report." Ally said. "You attacked a few league members and stormed out of the watchtower."

"That's a lie, I quit the Justice League because they wouldn't let me go after Deathsttroke." Marcas snapped. "I begged them ever since I joined to help me find him, but every time I went to them every time I asked it was always, 'Sorry Red Slade covered his tracks,' or 'Red we just need a little more time' and my favorite 'Red, you need to let go killing Slade won't bring your friends back'. What the fuck do they know!"

"What happened?" Ally asked. Marcas let out a heavy sigh and explained what had happened.

"I tried to bury the past but it never worked." He sighed. "Eventually they went too far. My revenge got the better of me and I started to have nightmares and sleep walk and while I was sleepwalking I killed a few petty criminals. Now, in the past I would wing them but for some reason I just shot them point blank and killed them. After that the Justice League caged me for my 'safety' but I knew the real reason they just didn't want me to kill Deathstroke. So I fought back and demanded answers. You know the story I said I wanted revenge they said I was just angry. But I know deep down I want to kill the man who ruined my life."

"I take it fighting the Justice League on your own wasn't a smart idea." Ally stated.

"Nope, so I surrendered." He deadpanned. "The original members voted me off the team 'temporarily' and sent me to Doctor Fate. He helped me with my nightmares and put my mind together, but when he asked if I was ready to join then League I said screw it and went solo."

"Wow, it's still hard to believe that you were a member of the Justice League." Ally giggled.

"Jayden was in the young justice program, so it shouldn't be a surprise that I was a member of the major leagues." They both chuckled at that.

"So how long were you solo for?" She asked.

"Not long, see after the nightmares went away Fate showed me a few visions of a small group of assassins." He smirked at her. "The assassins were a young man in black and wielding a sword, a boy in an orange shirt swinging tonfas and a girl in blue wielding a staff." He smirked in amusement as her eyes widened in shock.

"You didn't just arrive in America that night and you weren't just off the truck of a government lab. You were a former Justice League member afraid of being ridiculed by Shadow."

"Fate told me that Shadow hated Batman and the League with a passion." He chuckled. "So he told me to play dumb so, 'I act like stereotypical Russian.'" He mocked earning a giggle from the girl. "The car and guns were left by my Otchim in his will. So I packed up and met up with you guys who were under fire by Deadshot."

"What about the dossier, you rigged it didn't you?" Ally asked.

"Like I said Jayden hated the League, and I knew you had the blacklist when we found Blaze that first night so I encrypted it to just hide the major stuff. When Jayden got his memory back I came clean with him about it. He didn't tell anyone else because he said it was my business."

"Fair enough, but listen do you really think killing Slade will help you?" Ally asked out of concern. "I'm only saying this because you're acting strange lately."

"You didn't need to kill your father that night we helped Blaze avenge his parents," Marcas said in a dark tone. "Also, we allowed a fifteen year old boy murder a man. Does that seem fair to deny a failed soldier like me his chance for revenge over a child with no military background?"

Ally was silent and said nothing as she sipped the rest of her tea. She got up from her chair and kissed Marcas on the cheek and left his room. She didn't have answer for him and she didn't have a reason to stop him. She just hoped he would do what was right.

Meanwhile in the living quarters Jayden was talking on the phone with an old friend.

"You're sure it was him?" The voice asked in a shocked tone.

"Eight feet tall, black armor with beetle like appearances and a love of genocide and calling people meat." Jayden said sarcastically. "Yes Richard I'm pretty sure that was Black Beetle down in Mexico."

"But Blue Beetle destroyed his scarab he was arrested with the rest of the Reach by the Green lantern corp. why would he be working with Deathstroke?" Nightwing asked.

"I don't know, and I don't think he's working with Slade I think he's working with our new friend Cyrus." Jayden stated.

"How can you be sure?"

"A hunch."

"Well thank you for telling me, really." Nigthwing said with gratitude.

"Well you know it's like I told you I always do whatever it takes for the team and how did you reward me, oh yes you fired me." Jayden grunted as he heard a sigh on the other end of the phone.

"Jayden, you did many good things for the team, but you didn't know how to be there for the team. You broke the rules, disobeyed orders and endangered the rest of the team."

"Whatever happened to do what your heart tells you?" Jayden asked.

"You were only doing it just because you were angry when Tim became Robin. You blamed us all for Jason's death and you killed people just to prove you were better than everyone for your own selfish goal!" Nightwing snapped. Jayden was actually hurt at that.

"I killed those evil bastards because I didn't want to lose any more of my friends." Jayden said in a shaky voice. He could see Nightwings face drop on the other end. "Take care of yourself, Dick."

Jayden clicked the phone off and slumped down on the couch waiting for morning to come. He didn't care what people said about him. He knew he was doing good things he didn't need a medal a handshake from the mayor or a pat on the back to tell him otherwise. That's why his team was strong they could do what no one else could. He would help Marcas find Slade and end him and his evil once and for all.

That was a promise he made to Marcas. The kind Superman refused to keep.

The kind Batman refused to even make.

"Soon, Red soon."