Nightwing; A Series of Doubts – Give and Take –
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Chapter 21: Departures
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Noted; this Slade from the Deathstroke "Arkham" universe is infatuated with Richard and HIS Nightwing, so to him, he's planting more seeds out of the memory of his platonic relationship with Grayson in HIS universe's future- present. So? Dick is going to think he can pull out the thermometer but what if this has all happened before? Find out! Also, slow pacing to be warned. It is an arc so…yeah! Find out soon.
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"How Dare you…."
Slade sat at his desk in the next room. Veins in his neck, bulging a bit. His heart rioting in his skull at some point.
~ Nightwing would never deny me, neither will you once I send you off on your final destination…~
Just as Dick had been sent to bed without supper, a memory of this Slade tending to Richard when he was out with the flu had that man's breathing hitch.
To him, history was bound to revert; this Slade simply was plagued by the past that never existed yet to this time.
"I won't wait." He got up and went to the kitchen to undo his poor fortune.
Pots and pans clattering.
A gas burner turning on to high.
The whistle of a kettle.
That clacking of dishes against granite countertops.
And lastly, the sipping to taste as a few hours later…?
It, was done.
/
Dick felt his forehead and frowned; his lip was bitten to death since yesterday.
"Shit."
He was feverish, and to God – how ?
Did Sla –
A knock came to his door as he coughed, grabbing the comforter to shove it back over his head. Whining in secret, it really couldn't get any worse than now, right?
"Richard?"
/
Zee floated on through the new universe while John used a mystical relic like a compass.
~ Anything, John? ~ She called out over the space.
~ Nothin, Lov…~ He sighed as she swept herself over to pat his shoulders in comfort.
~ We can't give up on Bruce, or the Robins and…~ Zee squeezed John's shoulder a bit extra.
~They need to know the truth. That multiple worlds being breached at once could be the reason for this Deathstroke coming to ours –
~ And we didn't go over this, because? ~
Zee rolled her eyes at his light accusation. ~ When you don't know magic, then the whole world makes you feel smaller. If Batman knew that another world held a decent threat, he'd wage a war. Or…break the balance of space time for his own son to come back home. ~
~I don't much understand what a parent can be, Zee. ~ John confessed as the time piece had started to glow in his palm again.
~However, the future is never set in stone…we have a way back. Hang onto me! ~
/
Zee and John spilled out, piled to the rug as Babs was there, waiting to know everything.
"I did alert Tim, just like…. are you two, ok?"
They were holding on alright, yet both noticed and let go. John stood and let his arm out to Zee like a gentleman soon after.
"Nothing, Barbie." He smiled back, crooked as a cocky grin could seem. "We came upon a doorway, and that was a universe with one of those mercs in business…" He coughed and cleared his throat, while Babs crossed her arms, thinking it oddly peculiar that it took so long to locate one doorway across the void.
"What John is trying to say is…. That we didn't get to the right one…."
Zee hung her head and Constantine clicked his tongue. "I'll try again, and again if I have to. That blasted door has to be there. I refuse to –
" We'll go. We are still a team of heroes, don't forget it." Zee pointed her finger, keeping John from running to his Mystery House or whatever.
"Then, I think you'll like what we've found out on the time piece in the same exact time it took you two love birds to knock on heaven's door." Tim came out from the other room as he held up a single text.
"The key; the book that has the way to work this stupid clock? You even heard of the Library of Ages?" He snorted to the two magi. (Made up!)
"The kid…. has a point..." Zee shrugged and tried to act calm, yet John was groaning in the back of his mind over –
"There…was another book on this bloody machine?? And I just saw my last life for nothing?? Bugger off, Timothy! I'm capable of –
"Getting lost in a vaccum while twirling around unconditionally until the powers of the Multiverse decide to come and iron out your reputation, Constantine?"
Whoever was talking space time and the lot, they seemed to run it back far too easily to be called a special genius.
"Tim?"
Babs smirked and her ally as Tim cleared HIS throat to introduce an old face by a simple household name.
"Team? Meet our new player in the hands of fate – Raven of the Titans."
The empath came through to them as the heroes saw what she had become. White cloak, a greater power inside her than before as she smiled a small smirk too, and at the seriously worried magi in a trench.
"No invite? Well, I knew you'd need some extra hands for this job. Timothy was, surprisingly persuasive. Richard is our family." She told the heroes as her smile left her pale face. "I'd do anything to have him brought home safely…. If –
"You are dealing with a BREAK in the Multiverse – an actual DUPLICATION OF IT ON AN EVEN DARKER SCALE!"
The team went silent. However, John had to tell them what he'd refused to tell even his teammates.
"Richard's stalking Slade is one of many and my guess is the real universe he is from has a duplicate that didn't go totally raving mad."
"As in…"
"The one we saw…." Zee gulped. "He was being kept at Arkham, and he believed that an alien race had made him see this… illusion in order to stop him from speaking –
"Wait, wait!" Tim halted those words. " Aliens??"
"As in the little green men or the snake persons from the Illumi – bloody – nati. Hell, bloody yes." John nodded, seeing that he'd just had Tim wet himself the first time in a decade.
(ACTUAL COMIC DID THAT AS A BIT OF HUMOR AND IT WAS THE DEATHSTROKE ARKHAM. IF YOU DIDN'T READ, IT IS SO WORTH A LAUGH. PRIEST MADE SLADE THE SATYRICAL NIGHTMARE THAT WE ALL LOVE TO HATE.)
/
The space was dark as right now, the void pulled him in closer.
Still, too dark to see. So deep that you'd fall and never find you way.
The sky opened up.
Voices?
The figure moved to find them; the threads of life laid bare for him to cling to…
~ I'll get back…. I swear it –
/
Bruce Wayne woke up gasping, his eyes below the mask were hollow as he rose to see a message on the bat computer's screen.
"What, what is it, Master Bruce? Are you al –
"Alfred…" The man mumbled as in his head; he'd recalled a scene inside of a strange place. A figure searching for a way out of the dark.
"I saw…I saw something connected to Slade's coming to our…. un…"
"Master Bruce?! Master Bruce!"
Just as he wasn't the only one to fall victim to the curse of a sold soul, Dick had to be seeing the same.
/
Jason mulled like a mule, a real killjoy as Tim had left the room where…. where, the place had left them guessing if ANYTHING could even be re – written in time.
Jason just stayed brooding, worse than how very haggard Bruce had also looked on his way back to his manor in Gotham. He'd only come to see if there was something left, but…
When he'd heard of Jason nearly being beaten to a pulp by this new – age otherworld, Deathstroke, he feared that his sons would look to fight back and avenge him. Yet, only to end up in a hole…
He'd let Dick go, and now?
He was gone.
Truly, now nowhere until –
~ Bruce! ~
The voice was a bit hard to hear, yet he did and sat up.
~ Bruce! WE FOUND IT! ~
/
"It's not possible."
"Yes, it is, Mate."
John lit a cig in his hand and puffed it, while Tim and Babs were making sure the time piece was the genuine article.
"A….time machine of a sort, only it opens doorways to other universes within our time – outside of this reality. That bugger, Galileo…." The magi chuckled. "He mastered the craft of transport before any other. Maybe King Solomon had, but well." John scratched his new beard and sighed out a puff into the midnight air.
"Whoa, you met any of them, yet?" Tim gazed up as if he'd just met his new favorite hero. The magi waved it off. "I was in the time of Vlad the Impaler, and he did employ sorcerers to stop his enem –
"We can talk fantasy theories another day. What about Deathstroke's real time." Bruce brought the question up to his ally.
"Right, well. That is the, hem….and if I were to tell you? –
"I'd do anything I could to stop him myself. Even go past limits that shouldn't be –
"B! Don't sell your damned soul!"
"I have to do this, Timothy." Bruce snapped at his youngest. "I let Dick go off and pursue his own villains without his team, I'm the one who pushed him to go off the deep end."
"Even if you can't turn back time, mate…maybe…." John scratched his chin and tried to think. "Maybe, you can go forward, into it. Find a link and know then how to stop Wilson from wailing on the lad."
"That…" Babs stood and nodded, finding the idea to be bearable for once.
"That, might just work…"
/
You can't go through it.
Or under.
The fates allow.
All who hath fallen.
The FATES decide.
Who lives.
And who dies.
The universe hath spoken!!
/
Dick was sure his temperature had gone way up. He was sticky with perspiration and so, very…
He coughed as the door squeaked open.
Very…
"I've made you something to bring down your fever. You should have told me…"
Very…
What was it? Was it just…. wanting to be close, as he sat up and began to bawl. And cry he did, until someone was by him.
Someone he had wanted locked up tight in the best cell money could buy on the planet, far away from this life that he led.
Whispering words of total comfort and petting his head gently, yet it was nothing like his family's sense of compassion. Not at all their love or empathy as he was afraid to be alone. Sick, weeping at his age…
He was in a cell that he'd never chosen to enter.
The lion would eat him…. bite him and drag him into its cavernous rock.
The man just shushed and planted soft kisses as he was rocked like a child.
It made Dick feel ill, sick to his stomach as he didn't hold back.
Upchucking a small acid taste, he knew it was too much as this Slade picked him up, brought him off of his bed. Changed his clothing as Dick could do nothing.
As Slade, this Slade whispered in his poorly clogged ears, "It was always you, always for you, Dick. Even if you don't love me as much as he had, you can't change your fate. You will be here with me…and one day, you'll see how much…" He let the poor boy onto another mattress, not his as Slade left and closed the door behind him. The darkness coaxing the crying teen to rest his locks against a pillow faintly smelling of musk and dry cabin fires.
He drifted off, not realizing what Slade had in fact done. It was the food from before, a small sip and he wouldn't be this way by tomorrow. He had to go, yet Dick in this time was too busy plotting against the man to see it.
"He'll stay…" Slade ground his fists and began to put away the soup, a singing ire now dismantled by Dick's impeccable breakdown and its timing.
"More for breakfast, then." He smirked, finding it hard to hate the one he'd cherished almost as much as her. She, the one to take his good eye in any universe.
/
He was Orpheus, traveling to the city if the dead as the day had come.
Red Hood had it out for the laughing menace once more. Babs would never walk, and B was stricken as he was over Richard's fate.
A locked door clicked back as Todd didn't bother for waiting on regulated morning, visiting hours.
One A.M, and IT was still up.
Waiting for him, as if it could read his next bad fortune.
"Bout time "Lil' Jay came to make amends! How's it going with Ole Batsy being back in your life?"
"He hated you then, as much as I still want to make you pay –
"But you can't touch me remember." Joker chuckled. "Batman forbid you from getting one foot in that door, kiddo. Come to tell Uncle Joker about your da –
" SHUT IT, CLOWN." He pulled out a pistol and held it out, stalking further into the deadly abyss that was the Clown Prince of Crime's domain.
Joker blinked, frowning at the turn out. "My new pal said you'd be ton your way, but we all know you'd pull it. Because, my boy… You were NEVER the Bat's latest creation."
"I took that old face and made it mine." Jay cocked the instrument in his hands. "I want answers, clown. You did it, didn't you? Got info from that fake Slade."
"FAKE?" Gawked the melodramatic crime lord. "He looked plenty real ta me. What's eating you? Care to share – oh, I know!"
Jumping to his feet in that suit….
Below his jumper was the real purple panic.
"I had a spare in case you decided to visit. Quite rude to be THIS underdressed for my –
" Shut it, freak!!" Jay still got in closer, the wolf in its madly provoked state.
Flashback after flashback, as he jammed each back down.
This was for B.
For Dickie…
"Who taught you to sass the host? Why, I never! But…I know a good little brat who you could analyze. Perfect example of a valedictorianat everything. Even tying his damn laces. Would bend over quick for a guy like m-
"Don't fucking joke about him, not him or ANY of them, jester!"
" Jester??" Gasped the big bad, feeling the word like poison to his lips, spitting out the rotten flavor quite quickly.
"Whoever gave you the impression that I'd ever lie to my favorite birdie? No, no." He shook his rather green - haired skull.
"But…I can only tell you this, kid…he ain't the first DEATH to take a few lives with em off to Hades. And if you think you can just up and be a hero again, sonny Jay? Well…what if I told you another little secret?"
Jason swallowed.
"A real mouthful on the tip of the tongue, just a butt – load, shocker that even this DS copycat has got all wrong?"
"Go for it. Then, I get to kill you."
"You still off on that revenge kick fantasy? What will your momma say?"
"GET IT OVER WITH." The gun was truly fully loaded.
So, it seemed as the grinning Jokester had a few tall tales to list, once he got outta here.
He was after all, dressed for the occasion.
"YOUR BROTHER'S ALTERNATE DEATHSTROKE AND HE WERE ORIGINALLY SECRET LOVERS IN THEIR UNIVERSE. This DS is swooning over the idea of taking your bird brat to heaven in THIS universe, that if he fucks up in getting the kid to give em that big fat smooch and an I do, he'd do it over until he gets it just right! The REAL UNIVERSE he came from was chocked full of nut balls and he was stuck up in ARKAM! Seeing green men and going more and more loco until he got the idea to change his chances! He's gonna plow the acrobat's ass real sweet, and there's nothing YOU can do because it already has happened !! Hahaha!! Bat girl was gonna lose her ability to walk even if Daddy Bats never had to go through with losing a son, let alone a daughter –
"FUCK…. FUCK!" Jay raised then the gun, his mouth curling up into….
Joker saw it before he had.
"Go ahead and break all the other rules your bat daddy has taught ya. I'm the target, so shoot!" He commanded. "What the heck are you wa-
Jason threw back his head and, laughed.
"You think I need to be in here, clown?? Is it that obvious?"
Joker was, confused.
" WHAT? You have it in you to do a bit of cleaning?? What's stop…."
Joker went to sit back down, a grin on his red lips as his head shook. The grin staying in place.
Cockily, Red snorted with that same grin being returned.
"Oh…baby birdie. I'll getcha to the dark side YET! YOU… LITTLE, SHITTER !" His fists clenched in his seat as if Joker would resort to having signs physical aggression in a flick of the light switch.
He just shook his head.
Yet, he didn't retaliate.
Jay laughed and let the trigger go off, his new grin due to the gun in his hands.
Being a fake, as a flag spelling BANG popped out of the kid's lone barrel.
"I got my revenge just right." Jay smirked and broke off the flag, waving it while still smiling.
"A hearty confession. My best present you never gave to me. Have fun rotting in jail, rat ball."
And yet, Joker never wiped that grin back as Jay took into a mad dash, far from the prince's cell.
As the halls echoed, even if that victory had felt evident that it was actually, about to mean a greater loss for the Bat's family.
" HE'S GETTING HIS PRESENTS, BUT NOT ON HIS BIRTHDAY, JAY JAY…YOURE STILL A CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK! HAHAHAAAAA !!! GO AND MAKE YOUR PAPA J, PROUD...AND SAY HELLO TO YOUR FUN TIMER, BATSIE FOR MEEE!! I LEFT HIM A LITTLE SOMETHING' SOMETHING IN THE MAIL…GO, PLAY FETCH, YA DUMB, WATCHDOG. SEE IF YOU CAN'T SAVE EVERYONE THAT YOU LOVE…"
Jason was well from his cell as Joker got up and combed out his hair with a sharp wide tooth from his coat pocket. "By the time you walk out that door, I may just stop on by to say, farewell…"
The click of a new lock by one Skelton key for his services as Joker pulled out a tooth to get to it.
"Real piece of work, sonny Jay." He muttered.
"Let's play again real soon…"
The guards never saw as Joker vanished from his cell.
The night ending as yet again, nothing could keep this nightmare that had plagued this dirty city, at bay. No longer than a month, as the Joker; the genuine original, stepped into the shadows and nearly vanished from the public's eye for a good long time.
Yet, never too long….
/
Jason ran to the steps of Wayne manor.
Smoke was rising, as he fell to his knees and screamed.
He was too late, as the memory of that laugh had him fall unconscious on a hilltop overlooking his one true home.
He had failed in protecting those dear to him. Just as the fates had foretold.
He couldn't save everybody.
/
No death! Don't worry, but lots of cuts and bruises. More to come. Read on and find out!
