Nightwing; A Series of Doubts – Give and Take –

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Chapter 19: Fire and Frost

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Red Hood stood waiting as he'd made it back, back to let his Golden boy brother know how much he was missed, even while Tim and Babs were off taking to shutting down Slade's entire inter – dimensional scope and operation.

Tim's thought was that this Slade had to have a hide out, a safe house that could watch over all of what the naughty bat clan was up to.

If so, Babs was still in her bed with her work on her lap even as….as it was that she'd never be the high-flying batgirl again.

~ I'm going to find myself; this won't bring me down. Dick is counting on us to crack the code. ~

"You really can't get him off your mind, huh Barb?"

The man's arm pinged as a notice popped up.

He was here.

Red scooted down off of his roof to get in close, why he'd find was…

Not something he'd needed to bear.

/

He wasn't alone, and this didn't make the butterflies go away in Jason's tummy any sooner.

He saw a face turn to the side to look to its right….

The left there walked forth…

A giant mistake.

/

"My dear pupil alerted me of your presence in his city, Red Hood." Slade brought his hands to clasp behind his back. A bag of tricks wouldn't shock the former killer as Todd looked to see Dick's masked guilt staring off from his brother's betrayed face.

"You…. you told him?" He exclaimed at his once closest brother.

"Why, Dick? Is he making you do this? Be a "hero" that he wants to…. perform tricks like a pet ! –

" Shut your mouth." Slade snapped and Dick lowered his face and turned away completely.

"My dear student is still finishing up his final exams. You're just twisted the knife for your own pleasure." Slade pulled out his staff. "And I can't have you corrupting what's bound to be the pinnacle of hope for this city…!"

/

Babs kept her luck but then, she just gave in. She needed faith in another direction and fast.

Again, she did her research on the museum time piece that could have brought this Slade to their world, according to half of Dick's email before his fall into the hands of…

She had to concentrate, there was only this year as the last email told her too much.

~ In the time of the bell's toll, I will be taken by a beast to its castle and forever service it completely. There will be no future, and the past will have never existed. No hope. ~

Bell's toll was New Years, not a wedding. She dreaded if it were…

The beast had to be Slade, and a tower was a cage, a real problem.

A stake to be burned at, if he was ever captured alive…

She got to the nitty gritty and found a link that didn't look wrong…and then it hit.

"It's not science." As she blinked and put her laptop down, her cell rose up to get in touch with an old comrade from their younger years.

"Zee…. don't let up on me… please…"

It rang, before a nervous and cheerful noise greeted the techie's worn eardrums.

~ Hallo? ~

/

Bat man saw a red dot and rushed to contact Tim, yet Alfred had a hand in that pot well before as the link shut down.

"He's capable on his own to patrol tonight, sir."

"He's a minor and needs to be –

"You intend to hold that against anyone that works for you, dear god…." Alfred pulled away dramatically, his wit showing. "Master Timothy told me, Barbara and he both…do believe that your actions are redundant. They were working in tandem for weeks, how had you never understood this, sir?"

"I…" Bruce sat back into his seat by the bat computer and blankly stared at the screen ahead.

"You must allow them a chance to prove you wrong once in a while, Master Bruce. Recall that Barbara and Master Dick were once sweethearts. She still holds a deep respect for him, while I believe this will allow her to break whatever hold that Wilson chap has on our Master Richard."

"What's gotten into you, Alfred?"

"Whatever do you mean, sir?"

Bruce eyed over the man as he rose. "Did you…. talk to Tim any time earlier, before he left the cave."

Alfred was not this ecstatic. Just as Tim was never this secretive.

"You've become wholly obsessed in your work, sir." Chided the butler. "I took it upon myself to learn more about the Galileo case, as Barbara spoke to me no sooner to contact an old associate to the league."

As if Bruce had read the elder's mind, he became too defensive.

"He's a swindler, Alfred!" Bruce exclaimed, irritated. "Constantine would ask for your arm and a leg before helping any of us."

/

Slade would back the boy for this time, yet he just didn't need to pick up the slack while hitting the books was more important…

Todd was giving a tooth - wrenching upper cut as he put up his fists, yet Slade was once a boxer. He'd needed no formal training by an elite sort to give him reason to go on.

"Are!"

"You!"

"Done!"

Red went flying to the ground as Slade made Street – Fighter look, PG.

"Dick…. y…. you…. can…. get away –

"He can't." Slade brought out his swords, the glint of its twin enough to push Todd to quickly gather himself to his knees and curl his fists again.

"I want to talk to my brother."

Dick' eyes turned up to Slade and the man froze in place.

Oh, that blue bird could melt a monster's frozen heart, could it?

"You may; eight minutes and no more. Go." Slade sheathed his blades and Dick ran over to Jason, flew down to his face and gave the masked man's helmet a hard tap.

Jay held his ground and coughed. Growling up, until his heart had also frozen still.

"What's the big idea, Gold –

"Look, I gave you a chance to stop this." Dick pulled the teen's sleeve and whispered.

~ Babs…. ~

"You need to go; this was a mistake. Slade won't keep our deal, and Blud won't survive if Blockbuster's competition wants an explanation…I can't go. You have to." He let go of Red's jacket, the mask coming off as Red or Jay now, still didn't listen as well as he could have.

"You have six minutes remaining. Hurry it up." Slade said the last with a slower, emphasis.

"You can't get me out, but you can still save your city...this is –

"It's his city, Dick – brains." Jason snarled at Slade's smug face. "He's taking you for a ride, because he's not the REAL DEATHSTROKE !"

"Four more, minutes." Pretended to yawn the merc, his hand to a new weapon at his hip.

"What…. I don't know if Babs got it, but he's here now. He has my future a –

"TWO, LEFT." Slade's voice raised as his feet came closer, an arm reaching to steal Dick from his family.

"Let him talk!"

"You want to give that a micro second's worth of a thought, boy? No? Then Nightwing, leave him be."

"Not. Yet." Dick shook, his arm wrenched as the whole think could likely be pulled from its socket.

"Stay down, boy." Slade left the whining bird as he went to set something right with the young Hood.

"Stay out of this city." Slade cocked his gun, then turning it on Dick. "And no one gets hurt, Todd."

/

~ Richard; meet Jason Todd. Jason has been handpicked to become the next Robin. ~

~ You mean, my replacement…. ~

/

Dick awoke; his forehead beaded with sweat, a few textbooks on his desk…his, as in… his room.

Walking off and over to the doorway, Slade was in the living room looking over some files on potential clients.

"Your stealth is lacking, Rick."

Richard bit his lip and switched modes.

"You're not Slade, then who are you. Why did you try to make me into a hero? What is your real game? Imposter!"

Slade sighed, dropping his papers and with a hand to his scalp, his eye; the one with gold embedded into it, shown brightly back.

"I suppose you should know who I am, being a single version of this realm's "Deathstroke." The man held up a set of air quotes. "Your brother was the funny one. Who would have thought he'd be the first to have the knack next to that other whiz kid, Timothy."

"Bruce trained all of us to fish for the truth in a sea of lies."

"Poetic. A book on proverbs teach you that?"

"My mind isn't weak."

"Didn't want you to think it was, little –

"You can't call me that!" Dick put his foot down, yet he shouldn't have put it in his mouth in the first place.

Slade stood even silent, ever some magnificent terror, just as Richard would have expected of the real Slade.

Yet this one, instead, laughed.

As if this were a joke, as if it - all of it, were just a game.

This wasn't him, and Richard's two feet would not bolt along at his side.

He was stuck. Truly and utterly mortified as the lumbering giant awoke and stretched out a hand.

Beckoning the boy along.

"Right now, you should be thanking me for not killing them when I had the chance – because that is exactly what you're going to do if you decide to sass your master again, my little pet songbird …"

/

Tim crossed his fingers for Barbie to not hate him now. Todd was in trouble, so he'd skipped their session to drive out by rail, just to see how Reed was handling his findings.

To his dismay, someone else had connected to his cell.

Just as he'd reached the roof where Jay lay dazed and screwing his eyes shut.

Pounding the concrete, as rain droplets had begun to carry from across the city.

He was without his helmet, as if someone had broken through, breaking him down while Tim rushed to stop the self-loathing jerk…who really just needed some help all his own.

"GOD DAMMNIT!! DAMN! YOU! SLADE!!"

"Stop shouting, Jason!" Tim grappled the brute to stop, yet tears littered his face to the bridge of his brother's nose.

"We'll find him, Red! Now shut -

That was when the cell rang in Tim's pocket.

He pulled it out, seeing an unknown caller... His eyes narrowed as Todd rubbed his face, going dark a moment before Tim finally had, answered…

~ Good evening to you, bat brothers. Wasn't hard at all to drag your cell numbers directly from my…. prized pupil's sealed lips…~

Jason's green eyes flickered as he was the first to hiss back at this loathsome spook.

"Where. Is. He."

~ Your older brother is safe and sound…. but sadly, he did figure out my identity because you spilled the beans so very early. ~

Tim flashed a look at Jason who tried to hide his own guilt from view.

"I'm glad you were exposed by us, ya freakin' ghoul."

~ Oh. Todd.…very, disappointing. Looks like we'll just have to back – track on my student's usual training... He still wants you to leave HIS city by the way. Just isn't safe for one so…undecided to stay here. Yet. ~

"What? So, you want us to just trust you with Dick's life from now on? Have a fucking part in this sell out deal you've got? Where he'd the damn prize at your table? You sneaky effing RAT!? You are manipulating our brother into believing everything like you have more power than all of us. It's not true. Tell Dick that, none of it is."

~ Why not speak to him yourself. ~ Slade smirked and moved the cell with a purr, to the sweltering ear of a boy with a ball gag in his mouth. On his knees, with Slade using his back as…as…a foot stool as his latest punishment for talking back.

The link didn't show the scene, it was only the noise of someone shuffling and begging through heavily woven fabric, before being prodded to do as they were told.

Todd's blood boiled as he snatched the cell up. Tim was sadly, out of reach since Jason was nearly Bruce's full height.

"You gotta have a damn working brain for what I'm gonna PERSONALLY do to you…you hear me, ass – face? Huh, Death – noted? You tell your ass - wipe little goons in Blud that we won't stop until you are set for death row in a damned bowl of the Joker's patented Acidic laffy fucking taffy!! The fuck! You cock sucking, mother –

~ Down boy! You'll hurt his poor ears if you give in too early. Torture was my specialty in many universes, you recall. I like to…get creative with my clients... ~ Slade chuckled and Tim even had to give Slade credit for taming Jason into submission. Only B had so much as kept the PTSD of his memories from resurfacing and sending Jay back into a deeply depressive state.

After Dick was freed, he'd also need to talk to Leslie and train to prevent himself from falling prey to…whatever he'd wanted to avoid in the first place.

Being a hero.

Slade had offered Dick something fabricated and fragile. Unfixable if it broke, and…

His, bell…Tim wondered about the message, so he pushed Todd away to grip the line for himself.

"Then, you found out about what we know about your being here, in the wrong universe; that you have a plan to make this city –

~ Did I not just say it was too early to reveal anything? ~ Slade was sounding more ticked off than the original. ~ You really have to listen to your betters, boys. Rick here –

"Ri – chard, ya turd - wad." Spat Jason.

~ Richard , will be turning nineteen in a few months once this summer is over. March twenty - first. The first of spring, right, little bird? ~

Dick nodded his head, feeling the damned butt plug stuck up his ass, bobbing right along with its rough movements.

Its vibrations, to stand corrected.

Erect, as the hero's tortured cock and balls were, aching right now to come all over the room.

~ I did promise him something very special; but what I didn't tell him, is by that time, there will be a final exam. If he passes it with flying colors, you'll even get see this little blue bird…. though, he won't ever want to come back home to Gotham... ~

"Is that a threat? We won't let your plans go on to abuse our family, that is not happening." Tim bravely proclaimed. "You'll see us on the night of the "ball" dropping, Slade. Before that time passes…" He told the merc.

"We'll be ready."

~ I do hope so, child…~ As Slade trailed off, a sharp gasp and a cracking* sound had Jason yell out.

" Goldie! Don't you touch him, cock master! I swear to fucking

~ Your insults are amusing at best, but you're not on Joker's level, none ever shall you be, Mr. Hood. ~

Smirked the tyrant as he gently removed the balanced butt plug, sticking in a digit to see his toy squirm a while beneath him before it mentally imploded all on its own. White cum staining the boy's face as he didn't even get a chance to cough it up.

Jay muttered with a sniff at his brother's enemy. His nose crinkling as if he knew what was going on, only hours away.

"I'd rather sock the clown in the face for what he did to Batgirl…Creep..."

Tim took over when Jason had barked too loudly.

This info…. Slade wasn't the only culprit. It -

"We know it was you, Slade We know you had the knowledge of another future and pressed for the Joker to make that present a reality."

Jason was serious as Tim gawked. Then, he understood.

Jason was a watchdog, loyal to his family no matter what. He'd always listened, yet kept it privately to himself while not wanting to take them out and get them hurt. No like how he'd been by Talia and he Joker. Or Bruce at one time…

As the second eldest, he did have a responsibility to the others' safety and protection. Same as Barbie, same as Alfred and Bruce as the Batman.

Tim crossed his arms, far from used to the banter and remarks of a mad man, however….

In all actuality, he wanted to be on Jay's side, yet working smarter not harder was his number one goal.

Bruce had trained him not to fall into a trap this early, while Dick had too big a heart to not get into all sorts of nets.

A fish being saved from drowning…

And Jason was too hot headed, he could ruin this all for them in a blink if his temper didn't get back down to "coal steady…"

~ The clown didn't even know much about anything. I was truly shocked by how your world refuses to advance. Now, in my era…we were practically cell – mates, Mister "J" and I. ~

Dick's eyes grew as Slade poked in another finger to keep him groaning to "stop it." Somehow, that made it even more entertaining to see the brat finally begging out his name. Limbs shuddering as his strength soon faded in protesting for his mentor's pity.

He'd fucking come again.

Slade didn't have to penetrate. It felt too degrading already, as his face burned red, his ass to match with those reddened marks thrown across his perfect set of tanned cheeks.

Changing Deathstroke – Arkham comic synopsis a bit to suit story.)

~ I was in Arkham for a while to figure out a case the CIA had given me, just your latest attempt at espionage…but once again, really just… too bad. They got their way and I joined the circus that day…found out what was really missing… ~ Slade licked his lips, setting a bare palm over his toy's perfect rump as it wiggled to get away. Dick let out a low growl as the man spanked him yet again.

"Hush, boy."

~ I looked into this world purely by accident, and that's all you need to know. ~ He pulled out one lone digit, seeing the kid's juices glisten as he jammed it back in. Now adding to it, three fingers this time, twisting and not caring for Dick's pathetic tears. "Suck it up, little bird…you'll get there…the next round, maybe…"

Tim's stomach churned, while Jason's eyes were starting to go devil - red.

~ Anyway, I was actually not calling you up to monologue right away, yet to give you the briefest of warnings…. ~

The man's tone had the rain crackle about as lightening hit a nearby telephone pole, spooking the two only yards from the strike.

Slade's hand gripped at the boy's throat to tug him up to the cell's speaker. The kid's gag was forcefully removed as Richard panted out, ragged and tired and drooling, no less…so very sore all over…

Tim felt his stomach drop loudly as that lightening, while Todd's fight in his veins was surely as red - hot.

~ Stay away from this city, for your brother's sake. For what he wants, I'm willing to give him EVERYTHING that you and your daddy Bats never could. Are we clear on that plan? ~

Great timing as ever, Jason bared his fangs one last attempt, making Tim want to shed a tear for them all.

~ Hello, did I stutter? You'll stay away, or your lousy, little bird brat will end up lucking out on his dream job. Catch my drift? ~

From the other line, they both heard something akin to a cry, and then it dawned on both boys.

Dick had just had climaxed while on the call, as if to say….

" Fuck! –

~……………………….~ (dial tone.)

" You…"

~ The number you have dialed is no longer in service…. please –

/

Babs waited by the door in her wheelchair.

She had, a wheel chair now. She had a reason to keep going, but on wheels as her heart pounded, just before the doorbell rang to her new apartment.

"Thank god…" She let out a sigh and opened it, knowing not what evils would be unleashed at tonight's –

"I brought whom you've requested!" A cheery dark haired taller woman out of uniform for the night, stood with a smile on her face, even on the darkest of days. She practically sang those words as they made Babs feel a bit aawkwrd that she hadn't gotten them any wine or snacks. Her place was just being set up. It was a gift, from Bruce… (Putting in the gross Killing joke crap after the not before. He helped her heal after all.)

Right beside her, was a very sight for sore eyes as this bloke, had his hand up to wave in a modest gesture.

"Evening, lov. Are we ready to look right into your crystal ball, I take it?"

The chiseled, blonde; a complexion of a rugged vagabond and both private eye took Barbara's eyes a moment to blink away such devious thoughts. She'd nearly fallen for a man twice her age before. Never again.

"I, am." She nodded.

"John, Zatanna?" Barbie led them into the den and they didn't ask any extra questions. John Constantine; demon slaying and summoning legionnaire and his pupil Zatanna Zatara – a witch with great power, had a book with them and a sack with all of the spells in the damned true underworld.

Maybe multiple ones, she wondered.

Babs cleared her throat, eyes on her goal.

"I want to find…." She began when their eyes were planted onto her.

She took a deep breath.

"The REAL Slade Joseph Wilson."