Author's Note: I'm back! Thank you to Guest 1(His brothers wouldn't want to take away Damian's free will if they could avoid it though! And that part is definitely going to be interesting!), MaikoYuukamiMegumi (Why they haven't removed the programming before will be revealed in this chapter. And Jason is a very cool character and him beating the crap out of Deathstroke would definitely be awesome!), and soccernin19 (Everything is happening at once in this!) for reviewing the last chapter! I own nothing.
M'gann M'orzz was very pretty in spite of, or perhaps because of, her green skin. Her red hair was cut short to brush around her elfin face and a scattering of freckles danced across her cheeks. Her wide brown eyes brought to mind innocent puppies. She floated into the apartment in Hong Kong two hours after Drake had managed to contact her. From his position on the couch, Damian studied the woman warily. While still in the League he had been taught to fear anyone who could reach into his mind and had learned ways of shielding himself from psychic attacks. Talia, who he had still believed to be his mother at the time, had insisted he be ready to use everything he had learned and even now, knowing the cruel truth of his heritage, he did not wish to disappoint her.
"This won't hurt a bit," the Martian cheerfully reassured him, misinterpreting his distrustful gaze. No one else in the room seemed to want to correct her misconception. She settled cross legged, floating over the table in front of the couch. Damian's eyes met her gentle brown ones and he flinched when they suddenly flared green. Then both M'gann and the boy went very, very still.
For a long, breathless moment nothing happened. M'gann's glowing eyes were locked on the boy's without blinking and their slow, even breathing was the only visible sign that they both were still alive. Then the Martian twitched. For a moment the worried onlookers thought they had imagined the movement. It was only when she flinched again, cowering away from nothing, that they realized she had really moved. This continued for several long minutes. Tim, finding himself too nervous to watch, turned his attention to the Gotham status reports on his laptop. Cass refused to look away. A clock ticked softly in the background, counting away the passing minutes. Then Damian stopped breathing.
"Tim." Cass's quiet statement of the boy's name was not meant to startle. Instead it was calm and patient, as if what was transpiring happened every single day. Tim glanced at her and she nodded her head at their unbreathing younger brother. Tim's eyes widened in absolute panic. Expensive laptop toppling to the ground, he stumbled to his feet and raced for the kitchen.
"See if you can wake M'gann," he called to his sister. Cass crossed the room silently and reached out a hand, gently waving it in front of the Martian's face. Nothing. She shook the other girl lightly but got no response. Damian's face was beginning to change colors and Tim was running water into some sort of container in the kitchen. Cass considered her options. Time seemed to slow to almost a standstill as Tim dumped water over Damian's head and Cass slapped M'gann.
Damian startled to life, choking and gasping as he struggled for air, while M'gann's eyes became worried and brown. "What happened?" Cass calmly questioned. Damian and M'gann exchanged wide eyed looks in response. Damian felt as if he'd been pushed far beyond his limits by his teachers. His hear was racing and he was shaking all over. He was also soaking wet.
"The programming w-was easy e-e-enough to find," M'gann stuttered. She too was shaking. It looked as if she'd been caught out in a violent sno storm. "I t-tried to remove it b-but it's too deeply ingrained. Cadmus, t-they set some kind of k-kill code in his mind. I've never seen anything like it." Her eyes went very wide and she added, "I was trying to stop it but I couldn't figure out how."
"So the programming cannot be removed?" Damian questioned, fighting to keep his voice neutral.
"No," M'gann told him, brown eyes welling with tears. The boy felt hope flutter weakly in his chest once before it died. He stood silently, no longer caring that he was drenched, and left the room before his utter devastation could show. He could never go home.
The sun had risen hours ago but Gotham appeared abandoned. Cars were stopped in the middle of intersections and not a single person, police officer or civilian, could be seen. Somewhere a mad clown was stringing a set of explosives beneath the expensively built new apartment complex at the edge of the Narrows. The Batman, in contrast, was conspicuous by his absence. Rumors were slowly spreading, each one insisting that Gotham's shadowed savior was dead. The National Guard had been called. Nightwing, Batgirl, and Oracle were grabbing a few much needed hours of sleep.
Deep within the twisted confines of the Gotham underworld, Red Hood hunted for his prey. Jason Todd was not tired. His body might have been running on fumes but he was wide awake. His methodical search had brought him to the doorstep of two unfortunate arms dealers who often sold explosives to the Joker. Their names were Ralph and Stevie. They were brothers.
Stevie was already dead, lying in a puddle of blood on the cheap linoleum floor. Ralph was pinned to a table with a knife through his hand, blubbering. Stevie had died in agony. His bladder had emptied itself just before his untimely death. The entire apartment was beginning to smell like urine. Jason leaned casually against a wall, standing carefully outside of the mess on the floor. The whited out eyes of his helmet were fixed on Ralph. "Where?" he demanded for the fifth time.
"I dunno man, I dunno!" Ralph blubbered. "He didn't say. Jus' wanted enough o' the stuff to string together." The man flinched when Jason fluidly rose to his full height.
"What where his exact words?" Jason snarled.
"I dunno," Ralph said again, face messy with snot and tears. The knife Jason was holding flipped twice in the air before the hilt smacked into his palm, blade bright with blood. Ralph let out a little frightened wail. "Look man, 'e just said somethin' about gettin' enough to blown down an apartment building. 'Kept asking 'bout it and then laughing." Jason was gone before the whimpering arms dealer had completely finished his statement. Maybe Ralph would manage to survive the night. If not, the Narrows would be short two arms dealers instead of just one. What a pity.
Slade Wilson listened to the perfect silence of Gotham. From his perch on the top of an ancient warehouse he could see the vast emptiness of the city. Even the ever present rats that lurked around the docks had fled as if from a sinking ship. The clone was not in Gotham. There should have been no reason for the mercenary to remain here. Damian Wayne had flown to Hong Kong about a day ago so by all rights the mercenary should be following. Instead he remained in Gotham.
It was not idle curiosity that kept Deathstroke the Terminator in Gotham. Without its beloved protector the city would soon dissolve into nothing but rubble and chaos. That did not matter. The original Batman had been killed on a Justice League mission. That also did not matter. Slade knew for a fact that Jason Tood, the second or third Robin depending on your counting, had been running around the city as Batman before this disaster. Either he would retake the cowl or Richard Grayson, the original Robin no matter the count, would take it upon himself to become the Bat. Regardless, the clone's loyalty would send him running back to Gotham. It was only a matter of time.
Damian sat on the balcony of Tim and Cass's current home shivering as a cool breeze brushed against him. The sliding door behind him hissed open and then softly closed. "I'm sorry I couldn't help you," M'gann said, her voice gently. The boy lifted a single shoulder in a subtle shrug. The Martian floated silently behind him. She did not press for him to speak. He was glad. His face was stained with tears and his voice would probably crack if he tried to speak. "I think," she said finally, "that you would be strong enough to fight off the command if necessary." Her eyes gleamed with conviction. "I've been inside your mind and I can tell you that you are stronger than you think."
Damian's eyes widened and his breath caught in his throat. "Thank you," he said, his voice thick. Hope began to bloom timidly in his chest again. "I think-" He hesitated a moment, considering what he was going to say before continuing. "I think I would like to go home. To Gotham."
"Pack your bags and tell your siblings then," M'gann told him, voice warm. "I'll take you in the bioship. She's much faster than a plane."