Nightwing; A Series of Doubts – Give and Take –

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Chapter 11: Trust in Me – Fire Burning You Alive

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Bruce felt this was best, he knew a network of heroes and eve anti – heroes close to or in Blud right now…

But to tell her that –

He fixed his eyes on the image of a charred degree. Months of data, up in smoke. But he had to stay put.

The culprit would come down from his perch, he'd just need to be given some space to make that one mistake.

Just one…one more.

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Dick was up and checking the paper for what was going on in yes, his city. The city he'd decided to keep by despite a few emotional rollercoasters hitting the rails, somewhat crookedly.

Slade was still not telling him enough, but after that heartfelt pity hug…he felt, less bitter about talking up to that face about his problems. It wasn't Bruce's or his real father's eyes he saw for that matter…but he needed something just as close, as a loud knock came from the doorway.

"Knock, knock."

A debonair smile littered the surface of the hall, while the barer of such a cheery disposition came in carrying a big paper grocery bag, and –

Was that a bottle of wine?

"Surprised to see me without the mask again, kid?"

Dick looked up and nodded with a grumble before returning to his Times.

Slade frowned, not liking the atmosphere but dealing with it for now. He set down the bag onto a nearby table by the doorway, and walked over to where he posed behind Dick, eying the page he was skimming over from over his student's scrunched up younger shoulders.

"Why not the classifieds?" The man finally spoke again. "You can't expect the city government to have you cash in for every minor emergency they get called up for."

"No experience." Dick flipped through to a page on nuclear energy, and just pretended to read anything of some lesser interest to get the stalker out of his reading light.

"You do though, in many forms…which is why I signed you into a few job boards. Including a volunteer job at the youth center to help you adjust to the Real BludHaven"

"You what??" Dick snapped the paper and turned to see that fox grinning by his ear. "Without my permission? What if I have an emergency?"

"You have a partner; she won't be so upset if you go and get a part-time gig, just to know the citizens from both sides of the spectrum." Slade counted off of his fingers. "Also, you need to regain your confidence; your acrobatics aren't getting enough credit as it is, so you also might have a shot at teaching a class…once you have your license on it and for a certified CPR –

"You're blueprinting me, Slade."

"I'm giving you a gentle push." Slade clarified and pulled away from the boy's seat. "Your life of that of a hero is beyond boring, you need to know your target audience. Just like walking a tightrope –

"Don't bring that up." Dick seethed, eyes shooting up as he put down his article onto his chair. "I don't want to bring their memory into my choices as they are…this is…illegal, anyway. What I'm doing, what you –

He stopped and paced away from the man, slowly. "I have to do this on my own, you can't always be there."

"I'm not doing it for you, kid."

Slade saw how condescending that could have sounded as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Hem, anyway. What's for lunch?"

/

Babs was surely right before Tim in the hacking community as Andy leaned over her shoulder while Midnighter – whose real name right now escaped her, watched as Babs hacked into her systems from their desktop in moments.

"Kids today, I tell ya…" M shook his head, somewhat unable to keep up with how fast Barbie was moving across the keyboard. "I can only download the main info for this case, all in a file order of my own design – aha! Flash drive!"

"Got it, where is my extra…. ah, there." Andy handed Barbie his last few to see if they'd fit and in seconds more, they'd know the answer.

/

M was now trying to stop his head from falling back while splayed on the sofa –

"Got it!"

With a snort and some drool to mop up, M raised his eyes to what was happening righ beside him.

"Ah, this is…. prodigious work!" Andy praised her and watched Babs at work as if he'd been overtaken by some true ecstasy.

"Don't get a load out on that, Andy – bear. She's a millennial. What'd you expect?"

"Oh, poo to you, muffin! We have a little genius in our home. I feel honored to know the second-best techno wizard on the planet."

Babs stopped and turned her chair around to face Andy.

"Who was the first?" She asked with eyes raised up.

"Why, the Batman. Of course!" Giggled the rather smitten hero who loved men with an edgy dark side.

/

Barbie logged onto his channel, only to find Tim hogging it.

"Where's B?"

~ He's –

~Barbara? ~

That voice, she swallowed. Had to be.

~ I need some time in private to speak to Barbara, Tim. ~

~Got it…~ The boy droned and went back to his coding homework to relocate in the den, upstairs.

/

She fiddled with the mouse as Andy and M's faces were close to the screen behind Batgirl's red head of hair.

"She found out about you two."

~ Andy kind of just blabbed that you are…a better hacker. ~

~ She guessed without – ooh…. oh, I am so sorry! We were…. ~ Andy nervously chuckled and apologized repeatedly, while M took over their conversation with the caped crusader.

~ That her? ~ He pointed to Babs who felt out of the loop. She glared and Bruce, her eyes wanting to drag out the reason for her rescue at least.

~Why did you hire these two to come save me, B? What's going on?? ~

Bruce kept a straight face, his image implausible from their view through the glassy reflection.

~ This case, is much bigger. You were almost tossed to your death, and I had to also keep you hidden since you'll be leaving for Gotham in a couple of days. No more than three –

"What?" She exclaimed and gripped the keyboard with both hands, wishing she were strong enough to toss it into his next dimension to knock some sense into the nosy, batty skull.

~ You're now a prime target in a takeover of that city; and the person holding Dick captive emotionally at this point, is behind all of it. The mayor was paid off to play the victim. The ninja you both had Dick fighting was one of his accomplices and it isn't human. ~

Andy put a hand to his lips. "No!"

~ Apollo and Midnighter work for a special organization that John Constantine and I are familiar with. ~ Bruce told them, as M shook his head. Cat out of the bag for good, by the wise words of one miscellaneous bat.

~ I got into contact with them to have them report any sightings back to me directly of a struggle, and thankfully… Midnighter took to the call before we'd lost you for good. ~ Bruce took this all very personally. One of his family, two in fact were under fire by an unknown killer's attempts to sabotage their partnership – and to see one of them under their thumb as the city burned...

"What about my work? My partner? All of Blud is counting on us –

~ Blud is under someone else's jurisdiction. Didn't you notice the timing of each crime you and Dick had stopped in the last month? It's been orchestrated. Just about all of it, including the tip off with Sionas. That plant was bought out soon after by some shady group that works under a name that can't be traced to its source. ~

"This is way big, Batman!" Andy gasped and shook his partner's shoulders violently with too much building tension inside him. "It is…but don't keep shakin' me! Bats…Did you tell her yet?" Andy was swatted off of an irritated M as the little ball of sunshine pouted, the bat looking down on them and afraid more to speak the truth than to actually mean it.

~ Barbara; your work. I'm sorry. It couldn't be saved…at eleven pm last night, after Midnighter picked you up from a moving trash -

"How?... So, you did try to take off her clothes!" Andy snipped at M as the ebony knight groaned and ran a gloved hand down his face. " Augh! She was covered in diseases and stuff; I just rinsed her off under the hose and washed her clothes out, Same covert bull the .ORG always has me doing. That's all." He told his lover. "Nothing else HAPPENED."

Barbara ignored the first and second part, being grateful that they were not straight white men living with their mothers.

"Anyway, B? What…. what were you trying to say…My data –

~ It was destroyed, Barbara. ~ B saw her face and tried to remain as stony as he could to protect his old teammate. The commissioner's daughter was near tears, as if a pet she'd loved very much had passed away from a car hitting it straight on.

~All of it, was burned to the ground. ~ Bruce continued with a rage misplaced in his voice, fists clenched to contain it. ~ Even the entire apartment you'd been renting out in Bludhaven. Thankfully, there were no…human causalities recorded at the scene of the crime. The arsonist left before I'd gotten the image through to the cave. ~

"You…. always trusted us, right?..." She sniffled and tried to understand Dick now. Bruce was an Eagle Eye. Big Brother…. yet, was he doing the absolute best he could?

Head in her hands, a prayer to her lips, Babs had nothing more to say, while Bruce did have something remaining to add as he turned to his two allies with a set of blue, sorry, masked eyes. (In this he has blue but in Damian Wayne related arcs they are green I've noticed.)

~ I'd like you to take her there. Show her the rest of the damage…In case there is something left behind, to salvage. See you in a few days. Give your father my deepest regards. ~

With no more to say, Bruce closed the link. Such rage, as he pounded the keyboard to the Bat computer with a shout and fell first, head first into it with a fizzle out of his energy. Head in his large hands, just wanting those kids to be alright, he prayed like Barbie had that they'd be the first to heed the call.

Especially by the end of this week.

/

Slade had brought up the discussion of a Gotham City Gala one Friday from the current.

"Even if I attended it, Bruce would sniff us out."

"That's right. But you and I won't be present for this. You still have school and you are still job hunting as it stands. So?"

"So." Dick walked over to the sink, washed a lunch dish and put it in the drain to keep his hands busy, his back to Slade's grand schemes.

"Well, I thought about it…and the Bat will get to see you, but not during the Gala. Got any bright ideas?"

"Not like I can be in two places at once." The kid dropped his head.

"That, would be where you're wrong, Grayson." Slade's smile was becoming a regular addition to his visits on the daily.

"My robot comes with many features; including not excluding the less popular, camouflage setting and the… hum..."

"What?" Dick knew this game so he huffed, returning to his suds with a grunt.

"Well…it has one more, a way to copy any "body" programed into it. It can take on most forms, even yours."

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Dick felt the glass in his hand, a cut forming from the clatter as he'd just tapped it. Slade ran to the medicine cabinet and offered some antiseptic and a plain cloth bandaid. "Careful, wouldn't want you roughed up before -

"You aren't…going to use it, are you? Bruce can-

"Listen, kid." Slade put a hand to his shoulder, turning the boy wonder to face him with those shuddering sights.

"Bruce does have to see Dick Grayson, but you don't have to go anywhere." Yet again, his chiseled face made Dick feel awkward. "You don't have to really…ever leave –

"You're joking, I came to get away…but this is insane!"

"Basic spy stuff, I'm used to it." Slade let go as Dick paced by the sink, his finger still not wrapped up with care.

Slade let out a sound through his nose. "Either you go, or I send the robot."

Dick glared at the man. "It's not going to work. He'll just –

"Are you truly afraid of that bat, kid?"

"I'm not a kid –

"To, me? Everyone is." Slade sniffed and shifted his hair to the side leisurely. "I want your stress to be at its lowest, I even found you a new crisis. Just for you. If you do this, stay out of the way while the bot works, stay here for an entire day…I'll even get you a motor –

"No more gifts!" Dick snapped. "I have to earn that."

"And you will, hero…" Slade's sideways smirk tilted a bit with his white locks, lips slightly out. "You will, so just trust your mentor. I've got your back, Richard. I always do."

Slade was thinking it was too soon, until Dick sighed, hands up as he agreed to it. His eyes down as if needing handcuffs.

Not a bad idea, not now though.

"Alright…. just, until he gets it." Dick bobbed his head as Slade ruffled that hair before the boy batted away his mentor's larger palm. "But no killing. That robot is a murder machine. Do I have your word on that, Deathstroke?"

Slade chuckled softly and bowed his head with much to expect of their budding relationship.

"You had me at "he." The man smirked. "Anything to keep you at the top, Richard."

Dick nodded, leaving that side of the room to go wash up. It was time for classwork, thenn they'd have the evening to go over the plan.

Slade watched with the single eye of a hawk, tiger senses easily undressing the hero he was to become to suit a greater end…

"Anything, my boy wonder…" Slade whispered so that only he heard what was said. "Anything to make you shine for me."

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