Nightwing ; A Series of Doubts – Give and Take –

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Chapter 6: Dropping In; From More than Five Stories Tall

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This chapter is a bit mean, so let me know if Slade is gym coach material here.

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The alarm clock wasn't going off.

The metal clad bruiser who'd taken his chances with the back terrace door rolled his eyes.

~ That's because Grayson didn't bother to set one yet. ~

Finding his feet back on the wooden floorboards of the bat's half – gift to his ward, Slade sniffed the air.

Good, no pot smell and no extra surprises or animals roaming the hallway.

He did a scope of the kitchen, finding it near bare.

Just like with Red X and his dust incident in the tower.

Kid needed his help, right now.

Slade's masked eye swung back as he listened. A groan, from a room down the short hall.

Kid wasn't cracking an eye open, he had work to do.

Drifting over to the door that was suppose to house his sleeping overachiever, he was acting ridiculous with that drool hanging from his mouth. Dick had been battered enough. He hadn't changed his clothes. His hair was sloppier than his masked face, the glue peeling back as Slade grunted and clicked his tongue in disapproval at the view. The kid rolled onto his side, Slade remaining unseen as the boy kept his eyes sealed shut. Gloved fingers gripping at the pillow and sheets that were half way making him look…so exposed.

It was pathetic, so Slade just kept to the wall, easing over until…

He tapped the boy on his face, his cheek not feeling the small unnoticeable pat, before Slade did it again.

His went by nose wrinkling, in an ugly way as one hand came out to bat at that fly.

Only to be caught by a hand, the net waking him as Dick Grayson gasped and didn't know how to take being….

"Stop! Who's –

"You really are going to have to look for a new career very soon, boy blunder." The man above him tutted. "It's almost six am, and you've just missed your cue." The man hissed at the kid with a squint as he seemed to be getting his barrings together. Well, tough. He was far from ready to grow into the role Slade would have the brat accept.

Still, his chest fluttered as if he were still a true victim, unmarred by a deal the young hero had made to strike it large in this city.

"S- sorry…" Dick for once knew to lower himself. If ever to his enemy as Slade tossed his head to the side.

"Too late for that. Get up. Don't bother redressing yourself." Slade left his student's bedside and pointed to the one door.

"Living room, now."

"What are you –

"Did I not just give the order, boy?" Slade snapped at the hero, who felt his shoulders scrunch at the reprimand.

"My rules; up until your lesson, is through, then you'll learn to March. Also, don't try me again. My patience only extends so far with you dressed like you've had a one-night stand…"

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Reluctant to stand, Dick still listened as he near hobbled to the frame of his own bedroom door, Slade pushing at the small of his back until they were in the center of Dick's living room. Slade moved away and towards the sofa, motioning for Dick get comfortable.

Dick's raised brows lowered, his instinct to run if Slade reverted to any of his diabolical ways. Yet, he shuffled himself to slump down into his sofa and pushed for a crossed legged seated position, while Slade waited and breathed a short sigh out of his nose.

"The first error that I want you to address; your etiquette and current, living arrangements."

"What?" Dick cocked that brow, not leaving the other out in the cold.

" Don't."

Dare he even try to debate what Slade was picking him out of the pack for, Richard just gripped his legs and let the man finish with his lecture. "Fine, go on."

"Your apartment looks terrible." Slade lamented. "I'd never let a soul see it in real life. This would be your base of operations." He rubbed his chin and stared at the corner of the room. "An unused space with a pile of packed work out equipment. No closet to store these in? No desktop, or is that partner of yours carrying your weight around –

"She is my intelligence network." Dick said rather proud of what she was to him. Boasting in fact. "I only take over from my units and hand held, or the net book –

"Did Daddy ever teach you how to treat others less like your servants, and more like proper equals?"

"She isn –

" She and your ally the speedster donated food to you, Grayson. Which brings me to the matter of, your diet."

Dick gulped. "I have to go shopping again. Honest, I keep around less since –

"You can cook, right? Right in the tower, you cooked a full ham by yourself." TT the beast within 2003 )

Dick gawked, not trying to his annoyance.

Stalker??

"How…. you hacked into o –

Slade ignored the boy as this stunned student soon scrambled to follow the older man into the kitchen.

Dick shook his head, trying stay from losing his temper. Not finding it wanting to come out at all.

"No, I have everything under control. Slade, you're making this more complicated for no reason…"

Dick bit his cheek as the man swung open the refrigerator in a frenzy, the force of a hurricane. He then went for the cabinet to pull those doors back and to find…

Dick's childhood inside of a multi – colored package of cardboard.

Gasping, he felt a part of himself die that day.

" Not. Food. Not for a hero, and not for a growing young man intending to become an officer of the law. It's going."

"Why?" Dick protested. "Should it be something bland and worthless? I can burn off that easy –

"Stop acting like you can't get sick, boy." Slade sniffed and pulled the already - opened crinkly, clear bag from its containment. The box was getting the compactor's treatment once it was separated, the bag chucked into the garbage, while the whole cardboard structure was torn up to be discarded along with Dick's recycling for his building...

"You… monster…. that was not…. how…are you trying to convert me?? Who –

Slade soon towered over the hero, his eye serious and strikingly perturbing as Dick ended up backing right into the kitchen island. Nowhere to run as Slade pinned his unworthy student to it.

"We made a deal, and you'll abide by every lesson I intent to teach you." He spoke roughly as Deathstroke but fluidly as Slade, breath as hot coals while Dick tried to keep his head to the side. Afraid that the closer they were…

The more, he might remember….

Dick started to panic. Flashbacks of the rape? He was in the same room…why…

Slade backed off as the boy went down to his knees. "Why…" His knees buckled, hands to his ears, trying to block out the sensations.

"Because." Slade turned to rummage through the refrigerator, tisking* and shaking his masked head at what he found. "No eggs. You'll be doing more organic once you've been paid properly."

"By who?" Dick looked up at the man with a red face, flushed full of grief for that box of cereal. And possibly for the rest of his life! His breathing still felt out of sorts. The man wasn't letting him heal from those bruises any faster…

"You could start, by asking me."

Slade looked from the fridge, to the child's torn blue eyes. And that was when Dick bolted into the living room to get as far as he could to his cell in the other room.

/

"He's not picking up." Bruce scratched his head, sitting in his study and grumbling out some withheld cusses at his luck. He'd called Barbara and she'd had the same luck. Something was wrong, he didn't look to be genuinely himself in that footage.

"Alfred, I'm going on a trip, as the Batman…I'll stop in B –

"I'd advise you to take your time in doing so, Master Bruce." The butler warned as he dusted the room until it held tightly to no motes, whatsoever.

"Master Dick has been at odds with his identity crisis for some time. Having you to bombard him with dozens of questions while demanding to be a part of his life – even while he's not yet swapped to that of someone other than Robin, may be too much to handle at best…"

"I don't care." Bruce stood up and confronted this elder father figure. "He's my son, just like Tim and Jason. I can't let him, Alf. Not so he can ignore his responsibilities for too much longer..."

"Then might I advise you contact Master Todd to do some snooping "in on" his older brother's daily activities, of course just until you are most certainly satisfied that Master Dick is not falling behind, sir? You want him to do well as he has in the past as a hero and a gifted student, yet a man can only take so much as he begins to crumble, whereas he'll build himself back up at the best of times…"

"What are saying to me? That Dick should just get away with murder?" Bruce gawked at the life lessons of this gentlemanly brit. "I don't want him to end up making the same mistakes he's made before, or like Jason did when stopping…"

"This is not only about him, is it? Master Bruce." Asked the butler as his ally nodded.

"Yes, I should be glad he wants to pave his own path…but I still worry that he's not able to do it all alone."

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There was no way. Slade couldn't have moved…

But, then where….

Dick scrambled for his sheets, his dresser, nothing popping up.

"Kids these days."

Dick turned around with a swerve as he saw what had been taken from him.

"Oh, you have a text from…. Jaybird…-

"Give it to me! I'm serious, Slade. That's not in our agreement –

"Then let's make up some better ground rules." Slade stood in the door; Dick's personal cell in hand, and leisurely so as he leaned to the side to look more relaxed.

"Should I call you, Deathstroke?" Dick snipped at he man, his only way to fight back was through the power of formulating contract terms with this sociopathic murderer.

"Slade is who I am, even without the mask." The elder replied to this rather, bitter boy wonder. "You have something to add to our deal, then speak up now or I'll just go on messing with –

"No. I'll…no Titans, no civilians or officers and family members can be brought into this." Dick sighed and ran a hand through his mop of hair. "Their lives MUST remain outside of our arrangement….and under no circumstances can their identities be bought, distributed or sold to outside parties for the sake of status and profiting off of any of them. That includes, me and you."

Slade gave an unamused thumbs down with his glove. "That would be, you and I." He easily corrected the teen's grammar.

"Try again, I already have dirt to keep them from finding out the truth. Both your family and allies…. But…" Slade's mouth twitched into a smile. Dick's set into a fine, firm and left to fester across his face.

" Jay bird says he's coming to see you this afternoon. And he's bringing a friend with him. One of his new, Outlaws I'd imagine. Isn't that just terrible timing for the both of us?"

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Dick stood, exposed. He'd not even known when that had happened. Why was he like… a doll's arms you could pull until they tore and snapped? That's exactly how twisted he felt…

"I – I had no –

"You will tell him that you can meet at the Blud City Mall at noontime. Maybe then we can get you to wear something more suited to your age when changing between appearances, as your work beside your "partner" might eventually lead to forms of espionage in the future, anyway." He had seen Dick's future. Maybe he was wrong, maybe…

He was lying about Dick's fall from grace.

Slade smirked and tossed Dick back his device. Dick caught it, yet he had to stop from holding his breath. Slade wasn't good, he was grooming Dick to be the perfect nemesis to even the score…and to get his own form of personalized "lee way" if Dick ever made it to being a cop of some greater status. Blud would have a new crime lord calling the shots in less than a decade.

He had to do this.

Dick flipped up the screen with a flick and sent a text, sent it once more to Babs, and then pressed call.

Checkmate.

"Hiya, Jason? Yeah, we can do lunch at the mall, today. I have to pick up a few things…oh, she is…" He swallowed as Slade ushered the boy to finish with his call. Dick nodded reluctantly, voice trying not to break.

"Cool, then I'll… tell you all about it. Yeah, sounds great. Tell, Kori I can't wait to see her either. At noon then. Ciao, bro!"

He shot a glare at his new mentor who looked more pleased than he ought to be.

"In the meanwhile, you'll let me make you a small meal while you lay out or point me to any clothing that you have bothered to unpack" Slade ignored his students sass very nicely as Dick lost his reason to glare once his stomach had begun to rumble away.

"Fine." Dick grumbled and hid his red face, leaving his phone at his side before Slade took it from his hands again.

"Hey!"

"Last minute modifications, so you won't get lost and we, won't lose touch."

Dick looked the man over, and then threw back his head with a barking laugh. "You aren't seriously going t-

"I might as well, as long as I don't find a pair of pants a twelve-year-old might wear in your dresser drawer." Slade snickered, seeing the kid's befuddlement make his day.

"Then you don't have to bring along an escort for trying out the stylish and expensive pair of jeans. If that's alright with you now, pretty boy?"

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Slade will show Dick one of his faces, but does that mean he's being an Alfred to stop what Dick just did to oppose him by S.O.S– ing Babs? Find out! Oh, and the joke about Slade saying Pretty boy is a play on words of "pretty bird" or a parrot mimicking the words of its caretaker. Kori stayed with the Outlaws to lend a hand, so what happens now? Will Dick have trouble talking to Kori after the break up? Stay curious for chapter 7.