Nightwing; Son of the Demon's Head – Wanted – Dead or Alive; Part Two –
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Chapter 6: Passing the Time; Escaping the Cove
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Smut aside, ye hath been warned.
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Dick stayed on his knees on the bed as Slade showered up, leaving Richard to keep to himself. With the cuffs removed since his mind had receded backwards, fixing all of those harmful imperfections Dick was afraid to flee from this fog as his moment of clarity wilted. Without Slade, he felt a gap widening deep inside his chest, not realizing the man to be the cause of it all.
Slade's shower had ended, letting Richard's ears perk up to feel through the room all that he'd be permitted to say or do. Had Slade not decided to use the toilet, the door being jammed quietly shut as Tim Drake sneaked inside to throw his hand over Dick's mouth before the older Robin could protest.
"Come to the lowest point at midnight." He whispered quietly. "You'll remember everything he took from us." Tim snuck off again, the door unjammed as Slade clicked it open with a pause. Tim had left no trace, save for a scent that was not unique in any what way.
"Are you alright?" Slade looked over at Dick on his bed, trailing off into the distance with a gaze so slack and dreading what had come into their den.
THE lion's den.
"It, was the wind…" Dick let his hair fall over his blue and forlorn eyes. "Just, nothing…"
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Bruce and Kori came back to the others with excellent news; there was a cavern and a waterfall covering it, so it could very well hide a clue to their entrance into the fortress. Starfire bounded on ahead as Raven had Jason finally walking on his own two feet. Gar and Cy took to making sure they weren't being followed and watched. Batman looked up as the sun's highest point had risen. Night was coming; they had to hurry inside, somehow. Kilowatt bounded over, rubbing his chin.
"Should I try to reach in and see if I can sense any electromagnet –
"No." Bruce denied the request to strike just yet. Slade was as great a tactician as Ra's had been a sociopathic mastermind. "We won't want to alert the ones in charge of security of our arrival. We have to have the element of surprise at all times."
"So, what if Slade hunts us first?" Raven's question made Cy and BB stutter, yet Batman's resolve was unshaken by the thought of a bullet hitting his head, straight and dead-on target.
"Let's keep moving, B." Jason sniffed, wiping his face as he staggered along and ahead with his mentor. "We are way too close to give up now. I wanna see Wilson BURN for what he did to my family…"
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Dami bolted from his bed and shouted as he awoke to more screams….so many, and yet…
Nothing filtered through those stone walls. He blinked, sitting up as his brain's ammo wasn't lost yet. First, he had to see her. She knew way too much about that thing in the lab. Slade's real motive for keeping Damian here and not subjecting him to that same torture. The book. The magic that he'd still felt crawling…
Crawling…
Damian ripped off his top and was to the mirror. A mark, far bigger from the size he'd wanted to know about.
The mirror in his room was thrashed, his tantrum was justified by how legally FUCKED the boy now was – he had a similar mandala of the curse's power right along his spine to his neck and shoulders.
One touch, that was all it took?
"Dick must be scratching…." He snarled at the face staring back. Scratch….
" AAgh !!"
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Slade had his fingers knuckle deep into his toy's pert and toned ass. Even as a lowly slut, Richard still kept his body pretty for his old master to play with.
A loud knock at the door had Slade start to scissor impatiently.
"Stay where you are." He instructed his panting pet on his mattress.
Slade slipped his fingers out slowly and wiped the slick away as he left to see who had come at a very bad time. He needed this and the sessions from before were tiresome. With Todd here on the island, Talia spilling everyone's secrets and Damian Wayne throwing some sass his captor's way, Slade wanted to drill this brat in his bed until the morning came!
~ Sorry to disturb you sire; there was an important video message received. We believe, directly from Wayne manor. ~
"WELL? Who is it? Patch them through and leave us. You are dismissed." Slade pulled away from the feed in his device by the wall. ~ As you wish, sire. ~
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Slade tapped his foot as the screen lit up beside the installed intercom. Only the boys were allowed to come to his door to fetch the man for an "emergency" or else Slade went to them to have them rise as expected of their roles.
He was a balding, familiar old timer with a side to his personality that Slade truly despised more than Wayne's or his boy's.
"Alfred Pennyworth." Slade snorted with arms to his chest and a brow up to the uptick of drama coursing through these halls again.
~As you may have discovered, Mr. Wilson; I am loyal to the Waynes in every way. I do not see the benefit in taking all of the boys and doing as you wish for the sheer sake of it all. ~ He expected no sympathy from Dick as the man leaned away and his gaze. His exposed hole was just a brick wall. A thing that Slade would take and take before he was satisfied that he'd hurt Richard enough for vacating his post as he had for this long a time.
~ My Word…. Mr. Wilson! I believe that your days are shortened only by your greed; the heroes are on their way, or perhaps you should count less on those closest to you –
"I made a choice to have my revenge at best, and your unlucky "Bat" gave his help the codes to connect to my line?" Slade humored himself by how trust was built so steadily around those of separate backgrounds in Wayne's world. To him, the man was more than butler. The title was there, yet not written at all in stone.
~I am more than what I appear, as you will certainly discover what lengths that man might go to recover his family. ~
"And what I'll do once he arrives." Slade sincerely spoke the threat aloud, with his large knuckles cracking vividly for Alfred to take notice. "I could break the boy's neck and he won't feel a thing. Richard has the abilities I've bestowed to him, so that this could all happen as I want… What if I did even more, to Damian? The son the Batman never wanted."
Dick turned his head, Slade's eye grazing him not to move or rock the boat any more than the man was about to.
"I'm sure he only knows half of what I want; that Bruce is trying to kill something than cannot fall. Can only rise to the occasion, but…he'll be facing not only myself, butler." The man watched Pennyworth put on his bravest mask. ~ Mark us all, Slade Wilson; you won't have it. Whatever your goal truly may be, there is no wish greater than what this family wishes would become of your totalitarian regeime. None of it shall last as long as the Batman is alive and kicking. You'll just have to place what faith you have in those that despise what you are to them. ~
"I'm many things, and for now? I'll be unavailable to you. Goodbye, Mr. Pennyworth." Slade lilted his farewells in a mocking manner before shutting down the link. He let his shoulders roll, then sag as he ran a hand through his white mane. Dick knew that if Slade was down and out…
No, it was too risky but…
Alfred wanted Dick to stab his " master" in the back.
Dick crawled over and left the bed with a low creak, Slade only blinking to look as Dick ran hands over the man's back. Coaxing him to return to finish up with their, unholy union. To push the cares past, and to let go…if not for a moment sooner.
"You spared them…they are still here because of you…. I can't be so grateful…" The younger hero was scarred beyond repair, but in his mind, he had to be cunning and far more adaptive to the matter of his imprisonment. He'd get his chance. Play at what Damian could not.
The plucking of those heart's strings. He'd make sure Slade came unto him for as long as it would take.
As long as the man would have him to wish for release from his pain.
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Talia was somewhere below as Damian was able to finally fashion himself a genuine lock pick made from some useless materials he had swiped before supper that evening. He waltzed away and covered his tracks by scrambling the security's only clue of his departure from the young prince's chambers.
That title was now used as a way to make him feel, inferior to everyone. Even Tim had more lee way that the Ra's last line of defense. He went for a walk to where the two had spoken, low behind rock and a crying shame as he used the codes Wilson had fixed to her cell.
The shame of it all, indeed…as sadly, she wasn't there.
Her blood stained the wall as a struggle had gone on. No guards were present, which…
They had moved her. Possibly more, as Damian bolted to find out how. How she was no longer within or within THESE same spaces. Had she done this on her own? An escape?? Was he suppose to follow –
The face of another made the tween gasp as his eyes fell onto what looked to be the one whom he should have taken his anger out on.
"Where is she." The growling boy demanded to his forceful mentor. "Where did you take her, Slade??"
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The roar of the waterfall was as electric as the energy that kilowatt tried to conserve as they walked around, seeking a place to hold their heads up. Todd ran his hands over the rock. Not knowing if Ubu had run right for the beach or……if this had been a memory he'd not seen or spoken of while being unable to focus on their path.
"This isn't the only way in." Batman put aside Jason's worries; as if he could read every line on his son's face like a map, the treasure had to be past the trembling want for freedom and redemption. He was not the one meant to pay, but a man calling himself a king past that waterfall of well – wishing.
"I sense a body on the other side…It's faint…" Raven had a hand to her temple as Cyborg confirmed it with his arm's tech. "A heartbeat…but, it sounds a bit off."
"Artificial?" Kilowatt asked.
"Huh." Cy tapped the glass to see, but his reading was the same. The pattern, wasn't human.
"We can't be too careful, Batman." Cy warned the dark knight. "That range –
"It's a, meta's." Raven blinked, not seeing a face but knowing as that aura was not an unfamiliar shot in the dark.
"Robin…" Starfire gripped his arm and sighed.
"If it is, he could be brainwashed by Slade too!" Gar whispered to his crew. "What do we do if he –
"We subdue him and run." Todd shakily spoke. "Dick isn't on anyone's side. He's under a damn curse and if Dami is anything like us bat - brats…"
"Slade will also not hesitate…." Starfire put a hand to her mouth.
"Dick is protecting them all. Or, whoever's still loyal to Slade." Batman said grimly and kept walking up the ledge with the Titans not trying to make another peep.
"Keep moving." Batman directed the team before going on ahead once the alcove had widened. "Just –
~One more step, B. ~
Bruce stood still as a pole in the stone he'd crossed.
~ Just one more, and you won't find us again. ~
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