Nightwing; Son of the Demon's Head – Wanted; Dead or Alive – Part Two –
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Chapter 2: A Plan B
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Rose bounced her leg as she sat at her desk. The Wayne manor felt so quiet and empty without the others. Bruce was steadily readying to go after her…ex – father, and the Titans were the girl's few cheerful, left over companions. Cass and Steph were on Bruce's team so Rose did eventually, feel alone in her little world.
She helped to nurse Bitewing back to life as the puppy never left Rose's side the entire time she'd been here. Waiting for a sign that they'd found the base and were currently searching for the missing Robins.
Robins…. why did her…. that man, care? Why was he so attached to her family? Wait…
Was she just as possessed by her-
Rose wailed as the traumatic time she'd seen him sprawled there; bare naked and shivering as a newborn from the womb, how she and Bruce would take that to their graves one day.
And yet, she could die. Dick couldn't.
She could see what was about to happen when in high stress situations, but not…
Live forever, killing people.
"Are you "the" alright??"
Kori pulled the door back away as Rose gasped up with a face full of fresh, teary droplets.
"I…sorry…" Her lip wobbled as Bitewing whimpered and turned her pitty head to Starfire for some assistance.
"You do not have to, ever be "the" sorry." Kori shook her head, sympathetic in tone as she too missed her dear friend and former love.
"I should have been the –
"Shurshurgoon!" Kori put a finger to the girl's lips, meaning for her not to speak.
"You are not to talk of past failures here. You are among friends, and we care to help you as you have brought a great happiness to our family, Rose." She smiled, always looking so cheerful. When, beneath that layer of pink and sparkle dust, lay a rather forlorn beauty with so many passions left to name.
"I'm the reason, though. He sacrificed himself, for me….it wasn't right. Slade…" She bit her lower lip as it puffed up painfully. Fists gritted and on top of h er writing desk.
"I want to help you guys stop him, and save my family."
"You cannot!" Kori pulled away, shaking her head more frantically than earlier. "Slade is a master of the "mind manipulation." She said in all seriousness. "His goal is to have you to join him in his take over, so we cannot risk losing you to his evil schemes to subdue the Titans or the Batman." She spoke to the child.
"But he trained me, Bruce and my dad –
"Slade –
"No…" Rose shook her long head of silver and smiled with a downcast chuckle. "Dick, he's my real father. I don't want anyone else to take that away from me."
Kori felt something different about the girl and how she spoke the man's name so longingly. Soothingly, it coaxed her out of her shell. Starfire noticed the signs and decided to leave soon after to speak to her teammates.
/
"I suspected as much from their time with Slade."
"Huh?" Gar almost forgot to chew his food as Cy typed away before the billionaire's screens.
"Star, are you sure you're not just. …you know –
"I am not "the joking!" She exclaimed.
"The Batman must have seen this to be so, that Rose in fact truly…. cares for Dick as more than a simple " gnorfka."
"Dude! Dick is straight as…well, he'd never do anything to hurt her! Why are you –
"It's a psychological response and Deathstroke is aware. He might use that to make Rose stay close to him. By using Dick as his lure." Batman grumbled something as Cy punched in the coordinates of the actual base.
"It wasn't a desert or a mountain, but an island."
"Lazarus." Bruce snorted at the concluding evidence. "Slade said low, but what has more than one type of terrain but a body of land that massive?"
"Pretty clever playin' us like that. Reversin' his words to make it all sound so real." Cy left Bruce to the rest as he checked up on Raven; she'd decided to teach Steph and Cass to meditate to avoid the same tactics that Tim and Jay had fallen for.
/
"FOCUS…"
Deep breathing could be heard down in the den.
"Find you center…."
"AZARATH METRION…. ZINTHOS…"
The room was stilled in a white light as it bathed over the two women, both now with eyes shut as Raven got up to see Cy and even Alfred in the door. Both a pale white by what they'd witnessed. "It's a protection spell…" She croaked a little to explain. "So…they won't end up under Slade mind control."
"Almost hypnotic, wouldn't you say so Mr. Stone?" Alfred deadpanned to the Titan.
"Y-eah, but Rave's a pro." He grinned and rubbed his neck. "She's got this. No sweat!"
Raven cracked a smile, just a tad as it didn't suit her to force. Her emotions were sacred. This mission was dire; the emotional stability of her friends was vital. And if she couldn't preserve what was left of theirs or her own for that matter, nothing would remain except drying tears and an impending doom in her very soul.
Failure was not an option as Batman has spoken. Yet, he'd been their greatest failure for not anticipating what Slade was capable of also committing his time towards.
/
They would gear up by the next morning. Bruce had the suit given some upgrades and had even given the Bat Sub a makeover.
Cy and Raven had fixed the T sub's cloaking tech as well, given Raven could amplify Gar's camouflage abilities with a flick of her wrist.
As if they couldn't pull this off. The anticipation itched as a hoard of tiny fire ants below the skin, burrowing there until it was time to ascend to the surface for air.
Dick, Jay, Tim, and Dami…they all needed to wait patiently for things to take off.
Even while taking was all that Slade had currently been doing.
/
A horror.
Richard was there, body lurching as TIM his brother - TIM....
Sucked, Dick off.
Slade watched the two half siblings with a great leer. His interests budding someplace lower. While it was late and his pet had earned a comfortable position of lips and tongue upon his weeping head, Tim had become quite good in only a short time as Slade's service brat and at the art of a decent "deep throating."
As if Ra's could appreciate those lips as much as Dick currently wasn't…
"You missed a spot."
Dick opened his eyes as even chained to the posts of Slade's massive bedframe, he could not escape as the swirling tongue dragged up and INTO his slit.
" ANH!"
Dick's body convulsed as Slade chuckled, eyes heaviest on the mouth that soon again engulfed the first Robin's messy cock, the third being such a tease already. Their share far past the pre – cum stage.
" Shame on you, pet. This boy only wanted to show you a good time…and here you are. Denying all of that, arousal."
Tim licks his lips and swallowed his brother's gift. It tasted just as he had imagined it would.
Bittersweet…
"He…. isn't…. your…"
"NO." Slade's one eye got big, lips curling back into a nasty grin. "HE IS FOR YOU."
Dick whined out again as the third Robin had his balls in hand and gripped tightly with one tug.
"STOP!"
Slade became annoyed. He dragged the hero's head to him with a unclad set of violent fingers. "You're making a scene, slut. Timmy? Get him prepped. I'll entertain myself with this hole in the meantime…"
"SLADE, NO! -
" Hrr… fgn- nm !!"
"Don't talk with your mouth full, kid. In fact." Tim slipped up to the base of Richard's stiff cock.
This was too easy.
Slade pressed his dick in deeper, ignoring the hero's abused gag reflex. Hairs brushed in a whistle of breath, Dick grew dizzied by the scent of his old lover…Dick had his head turned directly to the left, pleasuring one massive "dick" as his own was about ready to swell and split down the sides.
Ripe as the bananas growing on this damned isla-
" Hm- n…mg- gff!!"
"WHAT did I just SAY??" Slade rammed in, gripping the thick head of sweltering locks that was Grayson's lost vanity. His time spent being a rebel under Slade's watchful gaze.
"Is he wet enough, Tim?"
Tim's eyes looked up, eyes of a greener lust nodding with the crane of the man's neck and spine…. or was he still milking the male in chains?
"Get ready, Grayson…" Slade hissed from above. "You're about to remember…"
/
Talia was sure that her son could be broken. She'd be the one fix him as Slade's silly tricks kept her tamer than the cat her attendants fed. She was royalty, and thus would not burn at the stake for being a prisoner in her own home.
Even with her son now watching, his mother a former noble in his eyes.
"Your leader is gone. Ra's won't be coming back, Talia –
"I am still the one who raised you, child." She warned the boy.
"But you won't be for long, mother." Smirked the brat with his hand to a scimitar at his hip. "I have a new teacher who is far superior to that of you or father"
"Is that what Wilson has you to believe, my son?"
The sword swung out as the tied down damsel only stuck up her nose to the child's tantrums.
"My new mentor has promised that none shall cross us. That you had consummated with the Batman to have my grandfather forced from fulfilling his dream – which is irrefutable proof that you wanted his empire to fall."
Aha, so Slade was using the boy's insecurities and twisted pride to keep him loyal to the old man…as if he was an exception to the rule.
"What makes you think you'll have the right to rule after him?"
"He's promised…" Damian huffed and lowered his blade, fists curled as if he wouldn't strike her without cause.
It was…
"Because, Wilson said he would make me immortal."
Talia's eyes narrowed, her thoughts dancing back to the reason for this serum's true reveal.
No. He was not…
That…
"He cannot promise you that, my son."
"Lies! I'll be more than a Lazarus fraud as Grandfather was…I'll be truly real to them. To my enemies. The Shadows won't deny my rights or lineage as you once wished… You, will not oppose us..."
"How your pettiest fears have worn you this thin…" Talia sighed; her eyes as sympathetic as a mother could be for her child. "Has he then told you, or was Slade not willing to trust his new heir?"
"What tongues do you speak of, harlot?" Sneered the boy.
"I speak, of a secret between your current master and I." Talia sat back in her cell, eyes on the child's curious squint.
"There is no such rumor –
"What if I told you that you were not the only one…?"
Damian looked at her, eyes as wide as his own had once been. "You have no intention to help us, so why do you –
"For your sake, I couldn't say, but….it could be that I know what you've become, Damian…As my son…"
He did not move as his lips curled into a cruel snarl.
"And I would hate to have to fight my own child…"
"Then, consider yourself, disowned. Mother." With a swish of his royal cloak of a shadow, he left her to think over any other way she could sway her son.
Even if she had to kill him before Slade made a terrible mistake. Worse than Bruce had in the beginning.
/
Damian was nudged in an ugly way over what that harlot had said. Another…of what?
"Damian?" Slade had come up before him, no Tim or Dick to coddle.
"Where are your slaves, master?"
Damian's first thought was that they'd been too beaten to make it to the main hall on their stiff legs.
Ah, if only he'd strayed from a darker desire to know.
"I won't disclose that, yet they were quite tired out from the trip."
"Yes, sir." Dami bobbed his head and reluctantly walked over to his new mentor.
"You'll have to be presentable, once our guests arrive, boy."
"Should I speak to the cook, sir?"
"I'll handle that part, my child." Slade said to the kid, a stray hand atop the crown of his pre – teenaged skull.
"Would you do your master the honor of seeing to Jason's condition for me?" Slade's lone eye below the patch served as his only order.
Go.
Do it, or face my sword.
Things like this made Dami jump to present himself as worthy, even if he'd done all of it of his own free will.
That was why he'd not gone back with Rose. He'd left to keep that fact that he hated her…wanted to get away and pack up to return here…but Slade had told him, he would not be strong enough to face the man. Even in his own home, Slade had gone over the schematics for so long that Damian's youth no longer existed within these walls.
His working memory had been for Gotham, not until he'd become the "protégé" of the new leader of the Shadows. All to make himself into a worthy opponent that could defeat single handedly…. the man who'd ordered him to keep his "brother" company.
Like a toddler and an older sibling, it was demeaning. However, he would not break character here.
If Slade found out that he was working to eventually take out the mad man, to save his own honor in such a way…
Talia then, knew. And he was glad for it. She would not betray him. She'd not go up against Bruce if he…
/
Damian came to the door of Todd's, playroom. The man was once enlisted by Ra's when he'd been brought back to life by the same pits that could not have saved the boy's grandfather.
Slade would pay. He'd only do this once. Then, the merc would rue the day! Ra's would be avenged!
As much as Damian had a torn dispute over the things his grandfather had done…
Batman's teachings still egged him on, with a twist.
He let the secured lock click back as the little prince got ready to sedate this Robin for his treatment. A similar control drug as Tim, Todd had also just gotten a few hits in the face before Slade had returned the man to his, torture chamber.
Full of weapons, some were touch active to give that prick a prick back, should he think to keep his urges off the chains that held him…
"Jason? I'm here on behest of our master with your –
"Are you one of them??"
Todd shut the door as the room went dark. The syringe in the boy's hands clasped tightly, as Dami swerved round to locate that mad dog in this pitch blackness.
"Not funny. And I don't know, I'm only here on official business –
"You're not. You lied and now, I'm stuck being sucked dry by that Fucker! Get out!"
"No! I have to do this!" Dami groaned and headed through the darkness to the back of the room, until Todd switched on the lights.
Pissed by the look of his stance, leaning up against the exit.
"Don't do this again, Todd. I'm not staying to be –
"He lets me beat the crap out of you because you deserve it." Todd cracked his neck and knuckles as Dami set down the syringe back into its pouch. "You have to calm down." Dami put his hands out, wishing to avoid any extra bruises this time.
"Oh?? The good boy is a paper boy now, and I have to go play fetch with him? Whoop – bloody – ick!? Am I a simp like you an' tweedle dee??? Dick is in deep, LITERALLY. You have no idea what he did to keep you out of Wilson's –
"Master's saving us! And I won't go back to Bruce –
"Because you wanted to defend yourself?" Scoffed the other arsonist. "Dami. Hate to break it to you…. But…. You can't kill him, kid." Dami gritted his teeth.
Todd went on, "I know. I've been with a shotgun to his skull for years and still nothing!"
"I, could be the one to surpass –
"You're lying. To me, to Rose. To Bruce –
"Shut up !!" Damian filled the pocket as he got the gun ready and flew at Todd's laughing eyes. His damned sanity was killing the kid! why was it wearing off, now??
/
A few fifteen minutes later, Todd was drooling and hung over from the shot. Thanking his speed and previous training, Dami wiped a bit of blood from where Todd had hit his nose too hard.
Boxers… idiot. (Dog talk.)
/
A rumor. And Todd in this light, his real self KNEW that Rose had been safe because Dami had done that.
He'd made a bargain for Slade to back off, but had he known…
Demon's head indeed…. he was no demon, just as useless as anyone else in this haunt, with some glorified title to keep him from…
Down below, in the lower level as Damian worked his way to hug a wall, he saw a figure coming out of the floor. He watched the keys and SAW the sequence.
This was forbidden. And was it his grandfather's lab?? Was this the rumor's place of origin??
Was his mother, telling him the truth…?
Damian waited for the halls to go quiet as he made sure to disable a few cameras before heading down below.
Rumors could be just buried secrets…or his way to gain leverage over his brother's keeper.
He let the door slide shut as his eyes squinted, hands ghosting over he wall panels until his feet nearly missed their cue.
A stairwell, yet he could see just fine in the dark.
Carrying on, the wider this space got, the smaller he did feel.
A soft green glow of the pits' power drove him to hurry his steps, only to seek out the wrong room.
His eyes scanned the naked lab. His heart hammering by the cost this would be to keep to his grave, yet his hood went instinctively back up and Damian Al – Ghul soldiered on down a corridor of vessels. Some sort of alchemy and…
Living body parts, suspended forms in glass beakers the size of a large boar.
And a white-haired creature, looking back with its two, dead, silvery blue eyes.
Not yet ready to awaken as Dami put his fingers up to the glass, mesmerized.
Up until a hand on his shoulder made the boy scream, as his lungs soon stopped working.
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Respawn, everybody!