Hi everyone!
So, my idea of updating quickly for you guys kinda went down the drain really fast... I just got so busy and never really got around to it. And school's just started too :(
Anyways, I'm sorry for being so slow, but I now have the second chapter for you. Replies to reviews are at the bottom.
DISCLAIMER: Nothing in this fic belongs to me excluding Morgan, and her parents and all other non recognizable characters, places and ideas.
Enjoy!
I wake up to find myself helpless and restrained. My wrists and ankles are tied up tightly with wire and I know that moving too much will make them cut into my skin. Once I wake up a little more, I'm hit with the pain in my upper back and wings. Obviously all the moving I did while I was unconscious had made it flare up again with heated intensity. I try to move myself into a more comfortable position when I finally notice it.
A chain.
There's a chain connecting my neck to a stone chair. Or as I know it, Slade's 'throne'.
And Slade is sitting on it.
"I see that you're awake now"
I close my eyes and try to wish my fate away. Unsurprisingly, it doesn't work.
A gloved hand reaches down to stroke over my wings.
"You will have to pay for your disobedience you know."
It's more like a statement rather than a question. I stay silent, unwilling to throw away the freedom I had grasped so firmly just before.
His hand closes firmly around my wing and I give in, not wanting what happened before to happen again.
"Yes master" I whisper brokenly.
"Well done my pet." He says smoothly, his hand now back to stoking my wings.
So that's what I am to him now, a pet.
"Do you know why you suddenly have wings my pretty?" He asks
I can't help but shudder in repulsion when his smooth voice calls me a pretty. Or anything for that matter. It's sick, and I know what he's thinking when he's saying it, everyone does.
He continues on even though I never answered.
"It's because you've finally come into your inheritance, you're not human you know."
No!
As if sensing my thoughts he leans down and hisses into my ear.
"Yes."
My eyes begin to sting and fill with tears. No, NO, NO!
"Those people you thought were your parents, they betrayed you. They knew you weren't human, that you weren't their child. Yet they let you go through the pain of thinking they were when they died, when you killed them."
Images of that night flood to the front of my mind and before I know it, I'm sucked into the nightmare I've tried so hard to forget.
"That's IT!" Slade yells, "I'm sick of you trying to disobey me, trying to push the line as far as you can go. The line is now broken and for that, you will SUFFER!"
My previous smirk abruptly leaves my face as my eyes widen. Slade advances on me and I stumble backwards. Suddenly my back touches the cool stone of the wall and I shiver and press into it as far as I can go. Slade reaches me and places both his hands on either side of my head, effectively trapping me.
"Tell me who Batman and Robin are!" he yells.
I take hold of the small piece of courage still within me and reply back as firmly as I can.
"Never!"
The single eye behind Slade's mask narrows. His hands suddenly move and before I know it, I'm smashed face first into the wall. He brings both of my hands above my head and holds them there with one large hand. Within seconds, they're restrained above me with chains. How he got them there is anyone's guess.
I hear him move away but my relief is short lived when I feel the first lash. He had somehow snuck back with a whip without me knowing and then let it fly through the air.
The pain has barely sunk in before I feel the next one.
Tears spring to my eyes but I hold them, crying won't save me. When I feel the next line of fire I can't help but let out a small whimper. But he doesn't stop.
The whipping goes on and on until I'm a sobbing wreck, blood streaming down my back. Finally, he stops.
"Who. Are. They!"
"N-no" I whimper.
Before I know it my arms are wrenched from their chains and Slade is hissing into my ear.
"We're going on an excursion little girl."
He throws me over his shoulder and heads towards the exit. A blast of cool air washes over me as we both exit and I suddenly feel a presence watching me. I look up and through my foggy gaze, I can just make out that it's Batman.
Before I could even begin to whisper a help me, I hear Slade's voice.
"Don't say a word."
Before I know it, I've been dumped on the ground I front of a house, my parents' house. My eyes widen in terror.
"No! Please! Not them!"
Slade's hand clamps onto my throat, restricting my breathing, unafraid of whatever Batman may or may not see.
"I told you not to speak!"
His hand releases my throat and I gasp for air.
"Morgan?"
"No… Stay inside!" I say weakly to my parents.
"Enter back into that house and she dies." comes Slade's cruel voice.
"Go! I'm better off dead anyway." I say.
A gloved hand runs down my openly bleeding back heavily and I cry out and fall to my knees in pain. I know that it's a punishment for talking but my parents don't. They think it's a warning that if they go back inside, I'll die.
I hear footsteps hurry towards Slade and I.
"N-no…" I groan weakly.
Slade drags me into a dark alley.
"Follow." He commands my parents.
He directs them to stand against the back wall and pulls me to my feet. Once I'm steadied he hands me a gleaming knife.
"You will either tell me who Batman and Robin are, or you will kill your parents."
"N-no!" I manage to gasp out. "I-I won't!"
"If you won't choose, I'll just blow up the city"
"I-I…" I look down at the knife in my hands and contemplate impaling myself with it. But I know that if I did so, the city and my parents will die.
I look up into my parents eyes.
What do I do? Do I kill my parents and lose the only people who have ever loved me? Or do I tell who Batman and Robin are and cause both them and the rest of my city, my parents included, to be put in so much danger that it's not even funny.
A tear slips down my cheek as I come to my decision.
"I'm so sorry." I whisper as I move towards my father.
"It's ok sweetie." he says as I stand in front of him.
I hold the knife poised in front of his heart.
"I-I can't" I whisper.
"You have to" he whispers back.
He then places is hands in the knife with mine, and helps me push it into his skin. As it sinks in, I see his eyes widen slightly and I sob loudly.
"Now pull it out. It's ok sweetie, I love you, I'm so proud of you…" his words trail off as the blade slips out of his chest and his heart pumps one last time.
Tears stream down my face as I watch my father slide to the floor. I stare at his lifeless body until I hear Slade's voice again.
"Tell me who Batman and Robin are and your mother can go free."
I squeeze my eyes shut and whisper my answer.
"I'm sorry mother, I'm so sorry. But I can't tell him who they are. I just can't. Too many people will die if I do."
"It's ok darling, it's ok." she whispers back "You're doing the right thing."
I move towards my mother and look into her beautiful blue eyes, the same blue eyes that match my own.
"I love you darling, I'm so proud of you, we both are. We love you so much. So very much." She whispers.
I raise the stained dagger and place the tip just over where her heart would be. But I can't bring myself to plunge it in, I just can't.
As if understanding, mother puts her arms around me and hugs me tight, causing the knife to slip through her skin and into her heart.
"We love you so much, Morgan" she breathes.
Those are her last words, and her last breath.
She slides to the ground and I follow her, her arms still around me. The tears stream down my face and the sobs make my whole body shudder.
A gloved hand grips my shoulder and pulls me up roughly. The knife comes out of mother's body, my hand still clutching it tightly.
"You know, it never mattered whether you killed them or not, I was going to force you tell me anyway. All you did was cause yourself more pain." Slade says cruelly.
He pulls out the device that will blow up the city and holds it in front of my face, his finger lightly rubbing the button.
"Now tell me who they are or the city blows up."
I know that either way, so many people are going to die. But in that moment, I'm so broken that all I can say is whatever will get him to leave me alone. I don't even bother considering lying, he'll know anyway.
"R-Robin is R-Richard Grayson"
"And Batman?"
"Batman is-is-"
"Hurry up!"
"B-Bruce Wayne" I whisper.
"Thank you." He purrs, a smirk on his face. And then he's gone.
I look down at the knife still in my hands, at the blood running down it. Their blood.
The dagger clatters to the ground, skittering away into the darkness.
With a broken sob, I collapse to my knees. The tears stream down my face and never seem to stop. All I can think about are my beautiful parents.
My beautiful, wonderful, amazing parents.
About how they're dead.
About how I murdered them.
I come out of the memory to find myself curled up into a tight little ball, sobbing my eyes out.
"They caused you all that pain, when they weren't even your parents" Slade smirks. I can tell he's been talking the whole time, encouraging my memories to go on.
"They are my parents." I manage to get out.
"No they're not." Slade says, his voice slightly annoyed.
"Even if they're not my biological parents, they're the closest thing I have to parents."
"Not anymore, now all you have is me."
"Some parent you turned out to be" comes a new voice. It's Robin's
"Ahh, Richard. How nice of you to join us."
"You don't get the honour of calling me Richard, only my family gets to call me that."
"I guess I'm family then." Slade smirks.
"Never" Robin spits.
Robin continues to talk (if you could call it talking) to Slade and I begin to zone out and back into my misery.
They weren't my parents.
Suddenly, I feel something touch my leg, something cool, something…
Sharp!
I work it towards my hands and then angle it towards my bonds.
Luckily it's sharp enough to get through the wire and within half a minute, my wrists are free. I then work on my ankles.
When I'm free I slowly edge myself further around the throne. This way Slade won't be able to see me so easily.
I see that on the handle of the knife (because that's what it was) has a smaller point. A point just small and long enough to pick a lock!
Slade's not stupid enough to leave something like that so close to me. That means someone else other than Robin is here trying to get me out.
Batman?
But in the end, all that matters is that I get away from here, so I pick up the knife, place it into the key hole and work the lock until it clicks free smoothly.
I pull it off gently and slowly and edge my way up, making sure not to be seen by Slade.
I want to go and fight him, maybe even stab him, but a motion in the corner of my eye distracts me.
I was right, It's Batman.
He's signalling me to come to him, so I do, but my body's so weak, that by the time I'm by his side, I can barely keep my eyes open, let alone walk. Unfazed, he picks me up gently (I've got no idea why) and leaves the building, signalling Robin that it's time to leave.
The exhaustion and stress of the night finally gets to me and I feel the darkness close over me.
Cool, refreshing darkness.
How I love it.
Booglez (guest): Thank you very much! I appreciate any compliments/feedback you can give me!
piggythelaw: Thank you! I try to make it mysterious so that people want more at the end of the chapter and it seems it's working! Thanks for this lovely review!
Blackwidow99: Thank you and of course, your request has been granted, I hope you enjoyed this next chapter!
anon (Guest): First off, I'm going to assume that both reviews were yours. You're obviously very passionate about superheroes and how people/things affect the world in general, whether it be fiction or reality. You made some really good points in both reviews and I'm glad I took the time to read both of them. I fully agree that some super villains do need to be permanently stopped, no matter how wrong that may seem. For example, people like the Joker who go around killing people just for the laugh have no reason to live, especially when they continue to break out of jail (or Arkham in this case) over and over again. Jason "Red Hood" Todd was right in his belief that Joker deserved to die. I also agree with the idea that these villains could potentially 'rule the world' and receive better benefits by being good and helping people rather than being a criminal and hurting people. In the end though, that wouldn't make a very good story and that's what DC and all the books in the world are about, a story that will motivate you, make you feel, make you wonder and in the end, maybe make you a better person. Once again, thank you for your reviews and your fresh look at superheroes and the world they live in.
Thanks for all your lovely reviews guys, I really appreciate them. I also really appreciate all those who follow me or even just my story. You guys always make my day!
As usual, please review and let me know what you think and I'll try to get the next chapter up soon.
See you all later!
JuliaPossum