Nightwing; Son of the Demon's Head – Wanted; Dead or Alive – Part Two –
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Chapter 3: Family Affairs
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A few setbacks had occurred and the Titans were in over their heads when Bruce's words struck a delicate chord.
"The jets will be spotted in the air; we have to think sneak attack on a whole different level, Cyborg?"
Cy shrugged as Raven shook her head beside Gar, who was scratching his chin, perplexed and anticipating a genius showdown of the craniums.
"Yo, if Bats says it like it is –
"And, what? We go in with scuba gear?? That place is like a super secret reinforced military compound!" Gar groaned, huffing as if he'd run a marathon.
"What Changeling says may be the very most of "the" truth, yet with the Batman's experience as both a navigator in the Justice League space – station, we must try to think "outside of the box that is "out."
Raven frowned, seeing from over her shoulder a peeking face between the hall and Bruce's study room. The alien had made Bruce as confused as her team currently didn't seem…
Raven turned to the door and left, not wanting to debate Starfire's use of Earth phrases any more than Cy wanted to use the T – Jet this time.
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"Rose?"
The tween dashed off with what she'd snagged today; a few batarangs and smoke bombs, a scrambler and some breathing apparatus in case Crane was being hired by that murderer.
She'd left the idea aside that this would be safe, but…Damian was facing a monster without her –
" Rose!" Raven called out. The girl's hands balled into fists at her sides, seeing as she couldn't outrun an empath of Raven's magnitude.
Besides, she was the reason they were gone.
She was the reason they weren't safe…
"I'm not waiting –
"You have to. Mr. Wayne would –
"He's not going fast enough to save them!" She shouted at the cloaked woman. Raven did understand, the distress was all if not mirroring that same anxious and frustrated energy that Robin…Dick, had mirrored when going after Slade the first time.
"You can't leave, not without knowing the base inside – out."
"I'll find a way in; I don't want to lose them…Raven…"
"It's o…ok…" Rave took Rose to her as the girl had no one to speak to like this. Not before and not while Bruce's attention was on someone else.
Dick had to be ok, only he could calm Rose down like he had for a while longer than Raven ever should. She just tapped the girl's back, not her head. Rose was clingy like her guardian, and like Dick…she didn't want anyone pining after her affections as Slade had clearly shown was possible.
That their hero still had a long way to go to dig himself out of the pit he'd been tossed into.
And Slade, was there with the rope. Waiting to tug him back in the wrong direction.
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While the tug of war was silently debated on inside of the Wayne household, the Al – Ghul and Wilson fortress had caught up with some obvious foul – play. Something that hadn't escaped the merc ruler's one eye since he'd sat the boy down to bring him up to speed on their arrangement.
He meant of course, Damian.
And the boy had broken a rule; not to stray from the man, as long as he had to feet to walk on.
He was property, and he still believed himself a prince?
Slade knew it had to be a way into his war room. That Talia could be connected to this treachery on some level, seeing as they were both blood.
He had Ubu, who was truly only loyal to the Al – Ghul family, to see to locking up the brat until Slade came to fetch him.
The burly middle eastern adult walked tall as his arm carried over it the unconscious and tired out last and final boy wonder. He had hoped that Slade would be a bit less stern, but then he recalled the beating in Gotham the kid had given him for simpy getting in his way (bat animated film son of the batman.)
As if Slade would show the queen any common decency. He'd just…Ubu sighed and brought the boy to his chambers. The bed was made. Dressers fully stocked and windows bolted tight.
Frowning, the guard off this family was forever trustworthy. He knew that the son of the bat had a plan, and he'd not once bow his head to some common folk.
With a lights – out, Ubu left Dami to rest on his armored shoulders in complete darkness.
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As for the other…
Talia's face had never looked better.
A hit wasn't enough as Slade punched her, hit her. Made her hurt as he had for finding that abomination in the Al – Ghul child's basement.
"You fed him that crap, Al – Ghul??" Slade riled and let her have his fist.
Her gut.
Her chest.
Her sides.
Her cheek.
And…
"You…will never break myself or my son Damian…" She puffed and spat out a clod of blood from her mouth.
"We'll stitch that back up while we can." Slade wrung off his gloves and disposed of the blood into a basin that Timothy held nearby.
"You…. are NO king, Slade!…. Cough! You are just a useless vermin to me, and my father never wanted you to steal our secrets…. I shall –
"Stay here like a good mistress and think about what you did, to me? To your son AND your lover's life, to that rodent?" He gave her a sneer. "While you bother to call me a rat, I'm far superior if the Bat ran off scared in his own city, leaving his own son in my care…."
"You only laugh at them now, yet the man of rage you were has become far perverse than that of he – the man I once took into my chambers." She grunted, a cut lip meaning nothing as Slade gripped her long hair in hand roughly, tugging those lips forth to nearly meet his unclad ones.
Breath hot and cold, he never believed he'd have her like this.
Beaten.
Filthy.
But never, miserable.
She was the daughter of Ra's; successor of a greater whim than any man could imagine in his lifetime.
No. She would be impossible to break while alive, while Damian was still in her thoughts…
Or, his father. The rodent.
The Caped Crusader that had stolen his kid.
"Well, you've only seen a part of me then, sweet Talia… not the whole spectacle. As your son, should be very, very careful trying to unmask the real Deathstroke. From now on."
He let her head fall forwards, his own hands sullied with her scent of a dynasty in the making – now fallen, gasping for breath.
"What will you do to him…" She coughed and tried to ask; her eyes still swollen, as large as golf balls.
"He's my protégé, but things can change my dear…if he's not loyal to his new teacher."
Talia cut the merc off a moment.
"You'd gut even your lover; just as I, then that boy will make his own future. My beloved will not see him fail. As I truly believe…"
"Sorry to hear you say that." Slade shrugged and turned the doorframe's handle. "Maybe he'll be here; on a white horse over the horizon to slay the dragon, that took your entire legacy away so quickly."
"It was never ours to begin." Talia nodded, waiting for that man to leave her to her machinations. Her own rebellious act of the mind.
"As I could agree for your son's sake." Slade smiled, making Talia want to spit. "Stay well, my dear…I'll see to that first aid immediately. While you are still in my thoughts –
Talia found her opening and swung, leaving the man to clock her one extra as she took, her punishment.
Like an Al – Ghul.
"Do you ever think about us…Especially over that boy – whore you parade about, Wilson?"
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Boxed and bloody, Slade dragged Tim along to rouse an old foe. He had lost it, and she didn't stir. Just made him quake!
But he wouldn't take her. She wanted the "man of rage" to poke his head out, just to spite him. What a –
"Sire?"
They'd made it, to Todd's domain. Slade nodded to Timothy as he went first, knocking as the green-eyed wonder just seemed to sit in the corner, suppressing his sudden urge to grind his teeth to dust.
"The drug wore off?" In the corner was Todd; sitting and looking up with his lips curled with malice – only at Slade, only at the very man who'd harmed his brothers.
"Hiya, pops." Jason snickered under his chin at the merc who didn't see Todd as a threat.
Unless he tried to use force…
He wouldn't get far, as Slade nodded to Tim, whispering those words of a cursed sort into his reddened lobes.
~ Subdue and disarm the target, for your master. ~
Tim's eyes became catlike as Jason, bolted.
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