Chapter 59: The End Is Nigh: Part 3
Authors Note: Hello once again everyone and welcome to the final installment to Red Crosshairs story arc. This is going to be a long action packed chapter so I hope you all enjoy.
Disclaimer: I do not own Batman.
(Earlier that day)
In a warehouse earlier that day Red Saber was backed against the wall as Cyrus hung him by his neck. Saber tried to break free but was having a difficult time thanks to Cyrus's Adonis power.
"I am no one's bait, especially for your little bitch master!" Saber shouted. "I work for the Shadow Man that's it!"
Cyrus only responded by taking Saber's bare hand and holding it in front of a stream of light through a nearby window. It only took a second before Saber's hand started letting off smoke and burning his flesh. Saber let out a scream as Cyrus let him go and the vampire crawled over to the shadows as his hand started to heal.
"You don't have to like our plan Mr. Shang." Cyrus said as he walked over to Saber. "And what you and Shadow Man do with Red Crosshairs is your business. But as long as you are in our presence you will do as we say." Cyrus then held a small black orb the size of a baseball towards Saber. "Take it, this will save your life when Shadow finds you and he will find you."
Saber took the orb and stood up at Cyrus with murder in his eyes.
"What do you want me to do?" He asked with bitterness in his voice.
"I need you to go to Wayne Tower and hack into Warney's attack drones and wipe out any remaining criminals in the city." Cyrus said handing him a flash drive. "Take this it will do most of the work. It also has the list of every lunatic and criminal from the databases in both Arkham and Blackgate. This way it won't target you or Slade. But do not engage the mechs they will open fire on you if you attack."
"Noted, but why Wayne Enterprises, why not just hack into the Crows at Warney-Tech?" Saber asked.
"Wayne had Fox hack into his Network, Warney thought he would be okay since he had Flynn working for him, but Fox is better." Cyrus explained. "In case Shadow ever went to rouge Wayne wanted to cut off any advantage he would use against him. Even Batman can't fight off a fleet of attack drones armed with missiles and machineguns."
"Still doesn't answer my question." Saber stated.
"Look this truce of ours is beneficial to both of us." Cyrus stated. "You get Red Crosshairs and we harvest the souls of the criminals. After tonight we go our separate ways and continue on with our own plan. But if you're so curious it's because we want to destroy any positive feelings Shadow and Batman might have for each other."
"Fair enough, but just one more thing." Saber said in an amused voice before turning grim. "When my boss orders it I will tear you to pieces got that!"
"Not if I see you first and not if Shadow kills you first." Cyrus said unimpressed as he left the warehouse.
(!)
Back in city hall everyone from the Shadow Warriors to the Outlaws were fighting off both Slade's robots and the Crows.
Hood and Shadow stood back to back firing their duel guns at anything that wasn't a friendly. Everyone else was doing their part as well trying to contain the situation. Thanatos left the Raven and flew around using his own jets for better maneuvering around the buildings rather than flying around in an attack jet.
He along with Gauntlet and Phoenix who used their fire abilities to fly around and Starfire took care of a majority of the crows that were gunning down any of the remaining criminals. While flying Gauntlet saw a dim white stream being pulled out towards a certain direction.
Gauntlet breaks off from the group and goes over to one of the bodies only for the stream disappear. Confused, Gauntlet looks around only to see Artemis wall climbing and firing her arrows destroying three oncoming crows. The explosion caused her to lose her footing and fall, but Gauntlet quickly ran over and caught her in his arms. She looked up at him and smiled.
"Thanks Sam." She muttered placing a small kiss on his cheek. This made Sam blush.
"Ah well it was nothing." Gauntlet said smugly before hearing someone chuckling.
"Oh yeah it was nothing." Leonae said. "Seriously, we're in the middle of a warzone and your still trying to crack open her chastity belt?"
Artemis quickly pulled out an arrow ready to kill him when Gauntlet stopped her.
"What do you want Leonae?" Gauntlet snapped. The former soldier held up his hands in defense.
"Easy boyo, I just came over to see what that white rubbish was." Leonae said looking down at the body that had the white mist pouring out of it earlier. "I remember seeing this before."
"What do you mean?" Gauntlet asked as he and Artemis walked over to him.
"You two, especially you two," Leonae said pointing at Gauntlet and Artemis who scowled back at him. "Remember when I worked with Hush and those other undesirables. Well Seth Gallagher was a soul eater and every time he ate a soul he would open his hand and suck the soul out. The soul came out looking like that mist we just saw." This started to turn a few wheels in their heads.
"Sam, the souls for Trigon." Artemis stated. Just hearing his name caused Vulcan to tense up. Sam looked down at his gauntlets to see them glow dimly.
"Look, we don't have to like each other or trust each other." Leonae stated. "But I really don't want hell on my doorstep. So I say we work together and find who's doing this and end him."
"Well you won't have to work too hard, because I'm right here."
Everyone's eyes widened at the familiar sound of a certain dead criminals voice. They all turned and couldn't believe what they saw. Seth Gallagher who was now wearing a dark shirt, boots, pants and gloves with a long dark blue leather coat.
"Gallagher." Leonae snarled.
"Hey King." Seth chuckled sarcastically. "Haven't seen you since that Hush party."
"Yeah, great job by the way." Leonae snaps. "Half of us died that day just so you could steal our souls."
"Oh, you caught on have you?" Seth asked. "Yeah, well I came here because I was sent to round up Phantom, Frost and you for Light's mission."
"Who's Light?" Leonae asked.
"And what mission?" Gauntlet asked as he drew his gladius.
"Join us and you'll be granted the power Scath." Seth offered as an orange S glowed on his head.
"And become a soulless freak like you, fuck off." Leonae snapped as his claw shot out from his knuckles. Seth just stood there laughing.
"Funny, Frost and Phantom said the same thing." Seth's eyes then grew dark. "And I took both of them screaming."
Just then his demonic shadow emerged from the ground and attacked the trio. Artemis and Leonae got out of the way but Gauntlet was paralyzed in fear and struck down.
Leonae quickly attacked Seth while Artemis tended to Gauntlet. Leonae brought his claw down but Seth pulled out his chained sickles and held both blades up, blocking their attack.
"Why do you refuse power Leonae?" Seth asked struggling against Leonae's strength.
"I have power, my own power." Leonae snarled. "You wouldn't know real power unless you were raping a woman. Unlike you I was a soldier and I knew what it was like to be a part of something. But at least I got to keep my soul."
"You murdered innocent children for a false caused hell you enjoyed every bit of it." Seth chuckled while starting to overpower Leonae. "You killed a helpless old man when you arrived at Gotham and you tried to kill Gauntlet and his girl twice. And you say you kept your soul, wrong. It's long gone like mine."
"And yet the only monster here is you." Leonae snarled.
Just then an arm blade popped out of Leonae's left arm and he broke free from Seth's hold and swiped it across his waist and leg. Seth let out a scream and Leonae fired a ball of dark matter at him knocking him back.
While this went on Artemis was still trying to shake Gauntlet, who was still catatonic, awake but it was no use. In his mind he was currently in a dispute with his counterpart Vulcan.
"Vulcan, we've beaten him before we can do it again." Sam snapped. "Why are you being such a coward?"
"You weren't there Sam." Vulcan shuddered. "Trigon and his minions have slain thousands no hundreds of thousands of my people. He will come again and there is nothing that can stop him."
"There's us!" Sam shouted. "And Shadow, Reaper, Whisper, Mystico and a lot of others willing to die to stop Trigon. They are armed with nothing but swords, knives, guns and their fist. They are willing to die to protect life all over and here you are cowering like a child. Hell half our team is children and they have more heart then you!"
"You shut your mouth!" Vulcan threatened.
"Why, can't stand the fact that I am using your power better than you?" Sam snapped back.
"Sam…"
"You and I were brought together for a reason maybe it was to stop Trigon." Sam said.
Just then as Leonae had Seth pinned under a dark matter field and was ready to tear him to pieces.
"Time to send you crying home to mama." Leonae said his hand glowed dark purple putting pressure on Seth. Seth groaned in pain as he felt his entire body being pressed down. His neck cringed as he lifted his head up.
"I don't think so." He growled.
Just then his shadow popped up behind Leonae and extended his fingertips forming razor sharp claws. With one swipe across his back Leona was down on the ground. Artemis quickly pulled out two arrows and fired at the shadow. They both stuck in his arm and blew up taking his arm off.
It quickly grew back and he the shadows eyes glowed dark yellow. It flew over to Artemis and swiped its claw across her chest and knocked her down on the ground unconscious. Seth looked over at the fallen heroes and chuckled.
"You lost kiddies." Seth chuckled as his shadow hovered behind him. "Now it's time-"
He was cut off when he suddenly felt his throat go dry and the cool air was now warm. He looked behind him and jumped to see a bare chested black haired figure with a long red robe that blazed like fire at the end.
"Who the fuck are you?" Seth snapped.
The bearded figure said nothing as he looked up at Seth with his glowing orange eyes. The shadow quickly appeared behind him and brought his claw down on him, but Sam grabbed his wrist with little difficulty and gripped tight. The shadow started to panic when Sam emitted his energy inside him. The shadow started glowing orange and screamed in pain before turning into a puff of smoke.
Seth stunned at what he saw readied his weapons but with a wave of his hand melted them into smelt. Seth was petrified as Sam took his chain whip and poured some of his energy into it. The black steel glowed like fire embers as it snaked around Seth's body burning his flesh.
"Who the hell are you?" Seth shouted as his flesh started to turn to stone. "You aren't that kid from before!"
"No, I am Vulcan, The God Of Volcanoes, The Blacksmith of the East and the warriors godly hammer of Olympus." He said. "And I will send a message to your master. Earth will not fall Gotham will not fall and The Shadow Warriors will not fall. Go to your master go to Trigon and tell him he's failed."
As Seth's flesh turned to stone he let out not a scream but a laugh. Vulcan looked at him confused as the two made eye contact.
"No, this is just the beginning." He laughed as his face turned to stone. Vulcan scowled as he waved his hand and crushed Seth and turned him to rubble. In a flash Vulcan turned back into Sam who was panting in exhaustion.
"W-We definitely need to work on that." Sam chuckled.
"In time, and thanks Sam Jackson." Vulcan said with sincerity. Sam chuckled outside.
"I'm still a little winded, but was that a thank you?" Sam asked sarcastically.
"Be silent." Vulcan muttered.
Sam laughed but stopped when he heard Artemis groan. He looked behind himself and saw Leonae kneeling over Artemis. He quickly ran over and knocked him away when he saw that her wound had fully healed.
"Kris, are you okay?" He asked.
"Yes, I am fine." She said. "He healed me." She pointed over at Leonae who had just gotten up.
"I gave her a different version of the Hade's serum. This one heals wounds." He snarled.
"Oh, thanks." He muttered as he looked down at his girlfriend. "Are you okay?" She answered him with a smile.
"Better now that you're back to your normal self." She said caressing his cheek. Sam blushed causing Leonae to gag.
"I'm going back to the fight this lovey dovey bs is too much for me." He said jumping down into the streets. Sam just shook his head as he radioed his team.
"Thanatos, what's the situation?" He asked.
"I joined in the fight at city hall." The mech explained. "Oracle just contacted Batman and said the signal for controlling all the robots and drones are coming from the top or Wayne Tower. Batman, Shadow and Hood went there to deal with the situation."
"Let's hope they're up for it." Gauntlet said as he put his goggles on.
(!)
Batman followed by Batgirl and Robin accompanied by Red Hood, Shadow, Arsenal and Reaper made their way up to the top of Wayne Tower and confronted the man responsible for the drones attack.
"Red Saber." Shadow snarled as he and everyone else drew their weapons.
"Shadow," He greeted as he stared out into the city. "Glorious isn't it, all this carnage and destruction. Though I am a bit surprised to see you and Jason working with Batman again, why the change of heart?"
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend." Hood said pointing his guns at Saber.
"If that's true you're going to need the help of the Joker if you want to stop us." Saber chuckled.
"I tried that once." Reaper said. "Didn't work out so well."
"Yes, I know all about you all." Saber said as he paced back and forth. "A bunch of lost children who dress up in costumes just to feel better, hell you really don't think you can stop me and my boss, do you?"
"We can take down anyone in our path," Batgirl said. "So stop acting like you now everything."
"Oh Junior I know everything." Saber snickered which caused Sarina to tense up, but was calmed by Robin. "The Shadow Man has had his eyes on you for years. Especially you Jayden Warney."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Shadow snapped aiming his magnum at him.
"My boss, he wanted Red Crosshairs to be around people like you." Saber started. "Lost children with no goal or cause just pissed off at the world and taking everyone with them. You were mindless enough to help Marcas and let him seek his revenge. Right now he's probably on his way to my boss right now and joining our cause."
"Red will never be like you or your Shadow man." Shadow snarled.
"Oh, just like you'd never become like Batman." Saber chuckled. "Hell, you're even wearing his gauntlets."
"Enough!" Arsenal shouted while aiming his arm cannon at Saber. "This has gone on long enough. It's time to end this."
"I agree." Saber mused. He then pulled out a small black orb which let off a dark purple glow.
"You're outnumbered and outmatched Red Saber." Batman stated. "It's over." This only caused Saber to let out a deep dark laugh.
"No, now it's fun."
Just then the orb disappeared and in a flash seven Red saber clones appeared. Six of them were wearing a darker version of the original but they all looked as tough as him.
The heroes readied themselves as the clones attacked them.
Batgirl quickly dodged out of the way of Saber's red sword and tried to land a punch on him, but he was too quick. She then swung her leg around trying to kick his head, but he ducked and swiped her legs out under her.
She fell on her back and her eyes widened as his blade came down towards her head. She quickly rolled out of the way as the blade struck the ground and again dodging the other one. She quickly rolled onto her feet and pulled out two batarangs.
"You really think you can beat me kiddo?" Saber asked.
"Course, I was trained by Batman after all." She gloated as she threw her batarang at him.
He swiped it with blade as she threw another one. He cut that one down as well, Batgirl finally threw six at him and he cut them all down but, left himself open for an attack. She leaped into the air and landed a kick to his forehead and knocked him out cold before he hit the ground. Batgirl stood over him triumphantly as she looked down at him.
"Told you so." She gloated.
Her victory was short lived when she felt a blunt force strike the back of her head. She fell down to the ground as another Saber clone stood behind her.
"And I told you that you couldn't beat me." Saber sneered.
"Sarina!" Robin shouted.
He drew his staff and quickly rushed to her aid. He brought his staff down furiously at Saber, who barely blocked every attack. Robin then spun his staff around and jammed the end of his staff into Saber's stomach. The wind was knocked out of him as was the sword in his left hand after Robin smacked it out of his grip and down to the street below.
"You'll pay for that!" Saber shouted as he pulled out an automatic glock. He opened fired on Robin who blocked with his shield built into his staff and waited for him to run out of bullets, when he did Robin swooped in and smashed the end of his staff down on his head. Another Saber fell as Robin went to check on Batgirl.
Arsenal was blocking with his cybernetic arm, while Saber came at him with great speed. He swung his normal hand towards Saber's face and knocked him back, but Saber quickly shook it off and swiped his sword across Arsenal's cheek leaving a large cut the side his face.
"You bastard!" Arsenal Shouted.
"You ready to get a matching hand?" Saber said referring to Arsenal's synthetic arm.
"Sure!" Arsenal snarled as he aimed his cannon at Saber and charged up a beam. Saber quickly blocked with his sword, but the beam was to strong and ripped through both blades and through his chest leaving a huge hole through his body.
Red Hood and Reaper fought back to back as two oncoming Sabers charged at them. Reaper swung his scythe at them, but one blocked his blade while the other kicked him in the chest. Reaper fell back while Red Hood fired his twin guns at them. They both blocked his bullets with great speed deflecting each bullet.
Hood eventually ran out of bullets and the two cut through both off his guns. Hood quickly stepped back and pulled out his two knives and attacked the two with great speed. They blocked each of his attacks and eventually got the better of him.
One of them managed to lock blades with him while the other moved in to attack him from behind. Hood thought he was done when Reaper jumped in and blocked with his scythe.
"Thought they had kicked your ass there for a second." Hood chuckled.
"Yeah, well I didn't want Jayden wasting money throwing you another funeral." Reaper grunted.
"Oh, so Death does have a sense of humor." Hood laughed. "Still, Jayden trained you well."
"Course he did, he's better than Batman." Reaper chuckled.
"So he says."
Just then the two broke off form their attackers and instead of attacking their opponent they attacked their opposites. Reaper swung his around and stabbed it through one Saber's stomach, while Hood stabbed his knives into the others chest.
Both clones fell dead while the two stood victorious. Red grinned under his helmet and turned to Reaper.
"Awesome job Jayden." Hood mentally kicked himself as Reaper grinned under his mask.
"Did you just call me Jayden?" He chuckled.
"Shut up."
Batman was having trouble with his clone, but it was nothing he hasn't faced before. In fact the fight was least of his worries. He blocked the clone's blades with his gauntlets and kicked him in the stomach pushing him back a bit. So many thoughts were going through his head right now.
"Where's Marcas." He wondered. "And why are they obsessed with him."
Batman remembered a few years back when Batwoman was tortured in Japan by a renegade that went by the name of Red Saber. He even did a little investigating on this Shadow Man but never had much to go on.
Batman quickly dodged the blade of his attacker and easily pulled out a small flash bang and set it off turning Red Saber to dust. He didn't have time to waste on the clones he needed to find Marcas and Slade fast.
The last Saber was the real one as he and Shadow fought it out with their blades. Saber brought one blade down on Shadow's head, but blocked with his blade and blocked the other with his gauntlet.
"See, these things have their use that's why I wear them." Shadow gloated. He pushed his arm away and knocked the blade away as he brought his fist to Saber's face knocking him back.
Saber quickly regained his composure and connected the ends of his blades turning it into a duel blade sword. He then started to slowly run towards Shadow swinging his blades around before approaching faster and faster.
He swiped the end of his sword up, just missing Shadow's chin leaving a small cut. He then spun around and aimed the tip of his sword to his chest but Shadow swiped his sword across Saber's blade knocking him back.
Shadow brought his sword down which was blocked by Saber's sword and then brought his knee up knocking the villain away. Saber rubbed his jaw and grinned at Shadow.
"I'm impressed, maybe my boss should have hired you earlier on, we could have been great partners." Saber mused.
"No we wouldn't." Shadow stated bluntly.
He then leaped towards Saber and brought his blade down and with all his strength split the handle down the middle breaking it in half. Saber quickly spun himself around like a helicopter and swiped his blade across Shadow's arm. The warriors let out a scream as Saber stood before him.
"Not much time left, we should hurry back to your place and watch Red tear Slade to pieces." Saber chuckled while Shadow gripped his arm. That's when it hit him.
"Red's fighting Slade at H.Q?" Shadow asked. "Why aren't you there?"
"Because, we want Red to make his choice without any pain in the ass heroes around." Saber chuckled. "You think he would kill Slade with Superman, Wonder Woman, Black Canary and Cyborg around? Hell no, we want him to kill Slade on his own. Then he'll be one step closer to joining us and his first mission, will be to kill all of you."
"That's never going to happen." Shadow said as his eyes glowed amber. "Marcas is a good person he will never be corrupted by you or this Shadow Man."
"That's where you're wrong." Saber countered. "You see evil is like gravity all you need is one big push."
"You got that right."
Shadow then swiped his sword and thanks to his Adonis strength he cut the two blades of Saber's in half. His eyes then glowed red as he charged up a burst of energy and fired it into the center of Saber's stomach. Saber let out a scream as he fell from the top of Wayne tower and down to the streets below.
Shadow turned to see his team standing behind him along with Hood and Batman.
"I just hacked into our drones and the Slade robots they will be shutting down in a few seconds." Reaper said.
"Good, I'll call in the Raven we need to get back home asap." Shadow said as his team moved out. "I hope we're not too late."
(!)
Back at the Shadow Warriors Head Quarters. Red and Slade were fighting it out as thunder roared throughout the sky and lightning crashed adown around them. The rain soaked them both as their weapons cut through the rain and connected creating sparks.
Slade had his claymore and Red was using his hammer and sickle as their weapons connected again. Red's eyes glowed bright red not even as crosshairs anymore ad the two locked weapons.
"I'll kill you!" Red shouted.
"You were always a killer Marcas, it's what you were born to do." Slade chastised as he struggled against the Russian. "I just helped you see that."
Slade then brought his foot up and landed an uppercut to Red's chin knocking him onto the ground. Slade quickly raised his blade and brought it down, but Red quickly rolled out of the way. Slade tried to pull his sword from the ground, but Red was to quick and with a powerful swing from his hammer he broke the sword in half. Shards flew everywhere as the tip of the sword was now a broken piece of scrap and Slade was left holding a shiv.
"Dammit, that was my favorite sword." Slade grunted as he drew his katana. "No matter I can buy more."
Slade then threw the handle at Red who again swiped his weapons across, shattering the remains of the sword to pieces. Slade quickly attacked with his new sword much faster due to its weight and managed to land a cut on Red's shoulder.
"Dammit!" Red shouted as he blocked another swing with his sickle. "It'll take more than that to stop me!"
"I know." Slade sneered as he pulled out a detonator with his left hand and pressed the button.
He quickly ran away as small charges blew up around Red. Slade couldn't see him through the explosions as he hid up in a tree but saw something fly towards him. His eye widened when he recognized it to be his hammer. Before he could react the hammer made contact with Slade's gut and knocked the wind out of him along with knocking him out of the tree.
Slade landed on his feet but was too weak to stand and fell to his knees. He slowly tried to regain his breath each time he breathed his stomach and lungs felt like they would collapse. He was broken from his small recovery when he read heavy foot steps behind him.
Slade quickly held his sword up in time to block Red's oncoming sickle. He was only using his right hand to block as his left was clenching his stomach putting him in a disadvantage. Red looked a bit scorched from the explosion, but was still able to fight.
"I won't go down that easy Slade!" Red growled. "You should know that by now."
"I'll admit that I underestimated you, but even you won't be enough to stop me." Slade grunted. He quickly pulled out a small throwing knife from his belt and stabbed Red in the stomach who let out a gasp and loosened his grip.
Slade took this opportunity and brought his sword down on Red and cut his shoulder causing him to drop his sickle. Blood flowed out of his wounds as he fell back from a kick to his chest from Slade.
"I do believe our fun has run its course." Slade sneered as he slowly walked towards Red, his sword shining with each flash of lightning. "Although I'll be sad to see you go I just want you to know you did put a smile on my face. A task not so easily accomplished."
Red saw him raise his sword above his head ready to kill him. Red took a deep breath, reminding himself that he couldn't fail or he would be letting all of his friends down. He had to win he needed to win.
Slade's sword cut through the rain drops as his blade appeared closer and closer to Red's skull. Just then Red gripped his hammer on the ground and spun around breaking Slade's sword for a second time that night. He then used all the momentum he had and gripped Slade by his shoulders lifted him up in the air and brought him down on the broken sword shard still stuck in the ground.
The jagged piece of metal ripped through his back and stomach now covered in Slade's blood. Red looked down at Slade's feeble attempt to remove the blade and let out a small laugh. He had won and Slade had lost.
No, scratch that he had won when Slade was no longer drawing breath. Something shiny caught his eye as he looked down and grinned to see his desert eagle. It was wet am muddy but it would still do its job.
"No more Slade." Red said as he picked up his gun. "All the lives I ruined." He ejected the clip and added a new one. "All the lives I taken." He loaded one in the chamber. "By letting you live."
"I never really kept count of the bodies just the money." Slade chuckled as Red ripped his mask off. He wanted Marcas to kill him only then would he win.
"I did every single time." Marcas said in a low voice.
"I know and that's why you are going to kill me right now." Slade grinned.
Marcas didn't say anything and just aimed his gun into Slade's good eye. He was about to fire when he felt a familiar presence behind him.
"Oh look who final showed up." Marcas chuckled before turning serious. "Go away Clark this is way too personal for you to get involved." Marcas said with bitterness. Out of the shadow's the man of steel accompanied by Wonder Woman, Flash, Black Canary and Cyborg stood behind Marcas.
"Marcas please you don't want to do this." Superman pleaded.
"Yes I actually do." Red snapped back. "And if you think of stopping me I will end you if I must. I'll hate myself but this is too much for me to just let go."
"Marcas, please you aren't a murderer." Canary pleaded. "He is down and he is not getting back up anytime soon. Let us handle it from here."
"No!" Marcas snapped. "It has to end here. Otherwise I'll never be able to move on. I have been waiting for this moment for too long. I will not stop just because you think I have morals."
"You do have morals." Wonder Woman stepped in. "You are a warrior not a monster. You fight with honor not anger." This caused Marcas let out a grunt.
"Don't give me that Amazon shit Diana." Marccas snarled as the Amazon was taken back. "If this was one of your enemies you would have done him in by now."
"Dammit Marcas he wasn't working alone!" Cyborg shouted. "He and Red Saber were working for someone more sinister and he has information that could help us find him."
"And he can't tell us if he's dead." Flash shouted.
"I don't care!"
"I do." Batman said walking out from the darkness. "And don't think that I haven't been down this road before. I stopped Jayden from killing targets I needed and I will stop you if necessary."
"Yes, but the difference between then and now is I didn't have a team of warriors and super humans at my back, who by the way outnumber you three to one." Canary scowled at the young leader's ignorance and spoke out.
"Dammit Jayden, be reasonable even you have to admit this is barbaric!" She shouted.
"I know, but this isn't my call or any of yours for that matter!" Shadow shouted. "That's what you guys never understood, is that sometimes you need to let us make our own choices and stop interfering!"
"And letting him murder out leads in order to stop a greater evil that's interfering?" Wonder Woman countered.
"Diana, you can't bend certain things to your will!" Shadow said. "Do you honestly think Slade will tell you anything if he even knows anything at all?"
"Not to mention even if his employer won't kill him before he gets a chance to talk." Surge said.
"Not to mention there's nothing stopping him from holding a city hostage as he clearly showed us from that distraction." Thanatos stated.
"And we don't want to endanger any more people than we already have." Mystico said.
"We know the stakes and we'll fight till our last breath, but we've all had our chance for revenge and we've all buried our past. Now it is Marcas's turn." Ronin said.
"I took my revenge and I never felt freer in my life." Phoenix said. "And Marcas is my friend I want him to find love and happiness just like the rest of us."
While everyone was arguing Marcas was still in his trance. Nothing was stopping him from pulling the trigger and ending Slade. But then he remembered that maybe it wasn't Slade that was the problem this Shadow Man was also a bigger part in all this.
If he wanted to find the master he would need to spare the puppet. It was hard and it was enough to make him sick to his stomach, but Marcas slowly lay off the trigger. The hammer was back in place and his eyes were back to normal Marcas got up from Slade as he slowly walked toward his team.
"Take him." He said in a shaky voice. It was a good thing it was raining he didn't want anyone to see his tears. As he walked Breeze walked over and hugged him after Marcas pulled the small knife from his stomach. He then heard a fain chuckling over the sound of the rain.
"You are weak, even when you have nothing to lose you still couldn't kill me. You coward." Slade said as Superman held him by his throat after Batman treated his wounds.
"It's like I told you Slade…"
Marcas said in a dark tone as he turned towards Slade his eyes once again in the shape of red crosshairs. The last thing Slade Wilson ever saw was Red Crosshairs dark stare burning into his soul and the throwing knife that struck his good eye taking away his vision.
"We all have something to lose, even the little things we take for granted."
Slade let out a scream and some threats as Superman and Batman quickly tended to his wounds. Superman looked over at him with a scowl on his face. Marcas just casually shrugged his shoulders.
"At least I didn't kill him."
Marcas was surrounded by his team as they left the Justice League to their work. They all praised him for what he had done and didn't do. He knew he had to explain something's but even Shadow wasn't ready to talk about it. No one was.
So the team just went back to the mansion to get some well-deserved rest.
This had been a long and exhausting night for them all.