Nightwing; A Series of Doubts – Give and Take –
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Chapter 27: Red - Winged Black Birds
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Jumping through hoops was no herculean task, yet getting back on Slade's good side once his shouldered abrasions no longer stung to dear mercy, that desire to leave with Catalina to spite the master had ultimately backfired.
Dick's return was welcomed while he masked his many bruises with grins to spare; Slade's attempts to mark him as some feral beast, not a word uttered as this little blue bird stuffed down his pain to suffer at his desk job until he was fit to return to stake outs like before.
To return as Nightwing, for he had no other choice.
How Slade had moved in by getting a second cot and toiletries while still calling Dick to his bed for a brief talk of his day.
He never penetrated as he'd promised, yet he was savoring the moment. While Dick's heart turned to stone in bed. He just let himself be petted, let the man finish before he was off to his cot, until he desired an actual bed – where Slade only stated then;
"If you want a better rest so badly, stay here with me for a bit. Swallow that pride. I'm not ashamed at all of what you've become…and neither should you."
It was a very borderline Stockholm, he knew in only a matter of months he'd eventually have Slade look him dead in the eye to speak those words, the ones he knew would come from his own lips if he caved far before a winter's first frost hit Blud.
The fabled answer of –
"I Do."
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Jason wasn't after Dick to tell him to stop.
He was a year or more apart; he wasn't the one known for making difficult decisions. As the riot – kid of the bunch, he was a lone wolf for good reason.
Red Hood's methods were…. a bit unorthodox when he did have his moment to shine.
A powerful collapse happened down at the docks as Blud had info. Slade was ready to set his sniper right on Jay's narrow-minded ass, but would it prove a point?
"You're gonna tell me."
A shot fired at a few leeches by the harbor, muscle and smuggling types as Jay held both guns up to give them something to dance along to.
"Why Deathstroke hasn't shown his ugly mug. Talk, any info will be held against your slum – bitten cheeks if I decide you fuckers are screwin –
"G- get ahold a Des!"
"No, idiot!" One of the hired, tied up men growled at his compatriot in crime. "Block's dead, bozo. It's all about that kid anti – hero on the news –
"What guy?" Jay demanded to hear them rat out one of their own, a gleam in his eye of fire from behind the red helmet. "Got a name? Places he likes to frequent? My pal an' I are getting bored, gentlemen..." He cocked his toys, knowing one man had just pissed himself by the catch.
"Either you give up the info, or I leave you with bullet holes in the river for the pigs to find."
If Deathstroke did have this pier monitored, then that little jab at the BHPD would get somebody's full attention.
One of the weapons smugglers nodded.
"He goes by the name, Midnighter. Some meta over dark crap, I dunno but he's as good as you and DS in a fight. And my guys thought it too – yer buddy Nightwing can't beat um."
Jay frowned and came up close to the informer's face.
"He won't have to." With the butt of his gun, he whacked the guy out, switching to call up Oracle on the comm, before letting wailing sirens interrupt him playtime with the goons. "If an Officer Grayson ends up interrogating you punks, give im' my regards, would ya?" Jay waved to the crappy team through the shadows and had a name, a way to stop time if that meant freezing it all in place.
"He took a gulp of air, his lungs full of plenty of smog.
"Barbie? You know that guy they told us about. Midnighter is a good guy, or why is he getting I cool with Deathstroke."
~ Ask him yourself. ~ Babs sat back and saw how little Jason had underestimated her skills since they'd been apart.
"He's in, because you had B have something to offer the dude…."
~ Bingo. ~ She nodded and killed the link, seeing Jay's shock was the little part of her – that part that wanted him to succeed in saving his family, without any unnecessary bloodshed.
(Recall in earlier chapters, Midnighter and Apollo saved Babs from being drowned in the bay and killed by the future bot. She stayed in connection and Batman is in on it too. In other words, Midnighter is going to try to get in touch with Nightwing to convince him to fight or flee his captor. Will… it work? And does Slade already know, or is he taunting them by testing Jason and his crew to mentally break them apart?)
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Dick's first reaction was during the time he came home, the floor was swept and dishes done.
The tv was also on, and…it was not exactly a program he didn't recognize.
Cartoon…sounds?
In the backdrop, he thought that was it, but no.
It was something else, and Slade was not here.
"Your lover – boy went out to get groceries. Nice digs by the way."
Dick cautiously entered the room, his instincts telling him to stay forever vigilant.
"Who are you." His hollow question made the polar opposite Midnighter, frown.
"I'm somebody to me." He answered in a vague display of emotions. First calm, then cocky as they got.
"That's your final answer?" The hero that was once red breasted soon had shown its stripes.
Midnighter saw it too.
He was not trained only to save lives….but, to eliminate threats inside his home.
Barbie would not want B to put a pause on this little drop on over….
He was about ready to gather a thought; that maybe he could transfer them both to the roof or guide the demon – bird to negotiate. To get out any secrets or dirt he could to end this back and forth tug of war around one hero.
And one anti – hero from another place entirely, he remembered.
"Can we, talk?"
Dick's eyes were in constant thought themselves, he knew DS would rough him up later, but maybe he could try to act civil and then shoo the traitor.
He knew that the loyalty of an Authority member was top secret.
B would know, he always had files on every hero, every member.
"Sure thing, kid." Midnighter obliged to it, as Dick let out a heavy, relieved sigh.
"Come with me, then." He ushered the shadow to keep quiet, to not alert anyone as they climbed of the fire escape.
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Slade's cameras in the home were on standby as he slammed open the doorway.
Blinking dot…was pointed, up? He set down the chicken, asparagus and greens as well as pilaf style rice that he could have slaved over – had a naughty caged bird not taken his attention from the dish, to how tanned that brat's ass would be once he caught onto their game.
The heat sensors picked up a signature, the future tech was far superior to most as Slade slipped by the fire escape to see a few houses and two figures standing.
Talking in the moonlit fog of a late October.
Tanned it was, as Slade hopped along the rooftops gracefully, to gather the element of surprise and to wait.
Simply wait, for someone to spill their guts out before HE did it for them.
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"It's a bad idea –
"Time to jump."
Zee held her breath as both allies of magical influences near and far, took to entering the time where a scraggly S.O.S had come from the lips of their fabled target.
It was a place in a similar Gotham as the one they'd come from. And to their eyes they saw, they SAW.
"John…is it, a glitch?"
Zee pointed at the sign reading "Arkham" in bold above their heads.
"Only hope visitors are allowed at this time of night, Zee." Sighed the male magician, urging both through the creaking, rusted gate to a second inner gate.
A place of so much strife that Zee thanked her stars that she wasn't an empath.
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Slade was there, Midnighter was sure they'd be spotted and Grayson was still in work mode. He could sniff out dangerous fellas just fine.
Yet, did he want to?
"We don't have a whole lotta time." M scratched the back of his neck, nervously.
Dick just looked on over the city, the streets no paradise as he'd assumed it could be in his youth.
"Did Bruce send you…"
Well, he was beyond knowing…!
"I think it was the red headed chika." M told the cop as his eyes looked up at the anti – heroic rogue.
"How is she." Dick's words would have pissed of another, yet he had to know.
"She is worried about, what's been happening. Family, life. It all took a back seat. Goes by the name "Oracle," now. Tech sleuth, she trained Red Robin to do the same."
"What about what I want?" Dick suddenly spouted out, in a cry for help of his own. "What about what this job was SUPPOSED to mean?? She was…she only sided with them, so why should I trust you to change for anyone else?"
"Take it down a notch, kid –
"And give up? This is still my future; I'll still get my chance to…"
"Fly free."
Dick swerved round as the shadows moved.
"You'll never be alone while doing so, Richard. Now." Slade encouraged the future – bots to surround Midnighter.
"You'll forget about any saving, you belong here."
"I…" Dick's lips quaked.
"Barb told me!" M shouted as he razed a few bots, only to see them rise as true puppets to a mad genius.
"She said you can't give up!! It's your life?? Then, why live a lie?? Why give in if the enemy is nothing but a copy of the original!"
"That, coming from a spy by nature." Slade of this time snorted and reached to grab Dick's shirt and pull him from the fight. His blue eyes shaken and wide, whatever M could say –
Dick cried out as his body went limp.
Slade saw M fly at him, only to be thrashed by more bots and more. His screams woke the nameless faces of Blud's lower class majority, the shock of it enough to make babies weep in their beds. For aunts and uncles to open their windows to ask what was going on.
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For officers to lead on in front, as Slade left M to make himself scarce. His bruises enough, he teleported by his powerful tech to the only place he felt secure.
Only to see that bots were in hi kitchen. Apollo in thick cuffs as they threatened his sanctity.
"Checkmate, faker…" M growled and, by the end of the night he was finished destroying every bot down to its core program.
Apollo's alter identity stayed in his arms as M held his significant other close, rocking his lovely sun – lover in an embrace that would make the moon blush.
That was all M could do as the rest was left with a note on the computer that Apollo had been monitoring before the attack.
~ This is the price you pay, so take what is owed and leave this city for good. ~
M dropped his forehead into his lover's. Slade…This Slade, was no master of anyone's mind. Dick would figure that out, or he'd never be able to "fly free" as he wanted. As they all did, even for poor Barbie.
And, for Nightwing as well…
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