Nightwing; Son of the Demon's Head – Wanted; Dead or Alive – Part Two –
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Chapter 16: Son of Deathstroke – Child of Vengeance Against the House of Al Ghul and Wayne
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This will be a battle and more! Read to find out!! Epilogue for new arc included.
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Dick flinched, yet so too did Rose as her mouth let go a breathy sigh and some tears.
"You came!" She smiled at her dear friend, her dear new crush that she'd not told Slade about though he could see how she was wowed by his armor and tactless cockiness.
"Damian." Slade growled out. "You've come at a rather bad time."
"I didn't come alone." Dami waved an arm as Bruce came there to stand by his right, Talia and the boy on his left.
/
Damian fought the guards every tooth and nail by which he was granted, all to save his brothers. His father –
He'd ended up underground, tunnels to go, until he heard a cry and followed it.
The face of any enemy he'd had so far, was never so young as a white haired, red eyed boy stood straddling over Bruce with a fist to his father's face.
"Damian! Do not engage!"
"Do what she says!" Bruce startled the tween who rebuked such stupid acts to follow, his father was –
"I'm getting us…a chance…." The boy hit the bat as he faked a knock out, feet approaching, the guards had keys.
A way up and out, and weapons.
Bruce was playing possum, making it look good too.
He was already battered as Dami hid beside the boy while his mother worked in mysterious ways to cut the guards off and steal their things.
"Deathstroke is hurting my team." Dami blurted once the guards were no longer a threat.
"Then." The light-haired boy put out a hand for Dami to shake, a smile on his face not familiar to many his eyes had borne witness before.
"Let us return the favor, brother."
/
To where they were now, and Dami was not the only one hungry for revenge.
Or to punish as Bruce expected not of the son of the bat, not even the grandson of Ra's.
"Deathstroke." Talia spoke up, the older man's eye plenty wide by the white-haired boy, the red eyes now dimming to a clear blue.
Like his own had once been.
"This, was our child, yet he has told me that you deserve to be locked away for your crimes. You will not overthrow the House of Al Ghul, it shall not be dismantled – Damian…my son…."
"No." Dami shrugged off the hand and snarled with a turned lip at Slade; how Grayson had shuffled off to remove the plug and Rose –
"Don't dare to defy the master!!" Tim came in as Gar roared out as a sabertooth tiger.
"You're being…. cough…. brainwashed!" Cy was up as his systems were reset.
Todd was however –
/
Jason and Raven had shuffled off to find a desperate doctor in the next hall packing his things like the deserter he was.
"I'll take the data and DNA of my subjects to go!" Huffed Crane. "This war isn't my cup of tea, and the man is obviously used to being buried under rubble."
"You gonna sell MY blood to the highest bidder, Her Doctor?" Jason snickered as Raven's dark tendrils tore round the lanky enemy's arms and torso like serpentine familiars.
"I was…but you two are getting in my way of that. Why not help your own team? I'm for team me until someone new comes along with a lot of promise –
Jason shook his head, nostrils flaring as he cracked his knuckles. This was for Tim, for Raven. For Dick and for the heroes running out of damned time.
"Oh, I'll promise; a metal poker for ya… right up your ass !!"
/
Dick recalled something that didn't feel right. He couldn't place it, until the flashback of the tome brought him back.
"Dami…." He gasped. "Dami! Stop!! He's got –
"You can't attempt a rebellion, boy." Slade's one eye had a glimmer of red, the book working without it needing to be so close.
Dick scrambled up and Rose ran after him, Slade raising a hand to keep both in line yet Kori took the shot as psychic energy flooded through her.
She was now a puppet of Slade's as Dick cried out.
"You can't do this!! Don't hurt them!!"
"Then, you should have better listened when I told you. They'd pay unless you chose. I guess, there is no way to fix YOUR mess, Grayson."
"Dad…"
Rose was talking to Dick like that? Slade snorted and watched as Dami fell to his knees with the tome's power. Similar to Terra's suit, he was forced to attack the bat first, his mother not stopping to let her partner perish.
"You…hurt them?"
The white-haired copy.
Ah, Slade could corrupt him in time for tea.
"They were supposed to obey, to follow the rules." Slade told the youth.
There was a blade it his hand.
One wrong word, one wrong move….
Slade would end up as the fabled mythical protagonists killed by their own children. He was no Cronos, not as this could be.
"You never gave me a name, or a real reason to know that you care….You cannot be him, I have a brother. You lied to everyone." The boy picked up the scimitar and did not hesitate with eyes teetering on
"And you were created to do what your "brother" never could." Slade directed his unclad eye to the boy of his likeness the most.
"Damian had shoes to fill and rejected that, yet Ra's wanted my kin to take his place in the family after that occurred. Damian was a culmination of Bruce Wayne's genetic material and Talia's, your mother's. While YOU or mine and Talia's; the way her father wanted it to be." Slade held out a hand. The boy shaken by this truth.
Ra's….the great master had….created him?? On purpose?
"You don't have to succeed Deathstroke!" Dam called out as Tim got a choke hold round the kid's throat.
"We are…..all….fam….."
Dami looked down as Tim pressed a point, leaving Dami helpless.
Something in Dick's mind recounted how he'd been dragged away from his home in Gotham; not even a month and he was furious at the emotion, the dwindling euphoria set his nostrils to flare as he barreled over at Slade, a center punch to the side of his face just what a fellow super serum user would hold to using – Slade, felt it and it was…
Quite painful as he blinked, his son on one side.
Rose on the other.
And, a third with his enslaved mistress.
Dick fumed, his body quaking and swaying to the steady thump of his racing heart. Eyes as cold as the Titans had witnessed, but never…
Rose or Dami.
"Glad to see you too, Renegade." Slade gave a side ways lazy chuckle as Starfire's eyes burst full of tears.
"He…cannot be the same!" She stuttered. "He is not a real entity, Raven discussed –
"It's just an alter ego." Cy told the princess. "He's really pissed about now, but.."
It was true. The old Renegade was Slade's, but now.
Dick motioned for a sword as Tim ran at him, only to be knocked back by Dami's fists.
"Have at him, Grayson!!"
"No!" Rose screamed at her father, his eyes going wide and then….then shutting.
"I won't ruin our family, your future. Rosie…" Dick smiled before setting into the heat of battle between the man who had told him he could never be anything at all.
He wasn't a toy!
As the two clashed, Slade backed into a wall, the hero didn't wrench his arm off, no.
He took the small book from Slade's person, flipping back over to Raven as she and Jason had Crane in cuffs.
"It's over, Slade." With two hands over the book, the heroes tore it in two.
Just as Slade's child in Grayson's new womb, just as Dami losing his home sand legacy to destruction for that long while, and just as the white haired boy slashed at Slade and pushed him into a wall – the man had always the ticket out.
A set eye of such ire at only Grayson, he clicked down on a hidden switch and the room then began to shake.
"You can have it." Slade hissed out mercilessly. "That child is doomed to exist as an outcast, even if your erase it, I'll still be watching over you. And my true son."
Getting worried that Slade would flee, the now saved BB flew over as the rubble crushed in front – blocking Slade from them as a hidden door awoke their senses of survival.
"He's getting away!" Starfire flew, yet Cy stopped her once again.
"This whole place is goin' down!"
"I'm on it." Dami grabbed a comm from his side and how, was the question as Rose ran to her young new brother with white hair and a deadly vision for revenge.
"Come on, you too."
He blinked up at her.
"You want…..me?"
As if another alternative face, Talia moved and both took the child to follow.
"You are family, no matter how messed up things get. We'll always be there…"
She hugged him as he couldn't truly process love from others other than Talia's kindness.
Dick threw the boo to Raven as she stashed it in her cloak. "We have to go." He told Bruce as the bat and Dami were helping Tim now freed, and Jason with BB to get up onto their feet while Crane sighed at his folly.
/
Outside, there was hope as the BatWing stood on four legs and Batwoman with Spoiler were there to smile on the couple.
"Took ya long enough! Cass and Oracle are back in Gotham. We stopped the owls, Bruce. How about –
"He got away." Bruce murmured and ushered the youngest to go first.
"What? And who is that? His clo-
"We'll talk back at the manor, right now Lazarus is about to go under. We need to get airborne." He commanded. "Kate."
"On it." She nodded, knowing this was Dami getting them out of a jam just in time, while holding Rose's hand as Kori and Cy helped Dick to stand tall.
"It will be ok…"She promised to her dear ally. His eyes were still severely bloodshot, his stomach aching as he winced.
"We'll need to lie him down, he's not gonna have that kid any time soon –
"Can I keep it then? –
"NO!" Raven and her team growled at Crane who turned into a turtle by that reprimand.
/
Back in the ship, Dick was hunched up onto his side, Kori rubbing his back like a mother a few months in.
"Whatever that child is, Slade has it growing at a shorter rate than most kids usually do."
"Genius, was it not?" Crane chuckled.
"You won't get to do an abortion by the looks of it." He smirked, seeing Dick shudder.
"We could do a C Section." Raven suggested. "Have it raised by –
"Deathstroke's DNA." Dami sniffed at her.
"Tim, you and I…" She ignored the brat a moment.
"Have to talk, I get that." Tim swallowed to finish her sentence.
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"You never meant to do any of that."
"But….your body…" Tim dragged his hands over his face. "What if that "me" comes back like Renegade –
"That you was lust, a way to fight Slade's control." She put a hand on his knee and said. "You won't need it anymore."
"Red Robin…can I even live this down?? I r…"
"Say it." Raven crossed her arms. "Get it out of your system now or you'll only regret having not done so."
"I…r- r – raped you! I literally gave you a reason to hate me and….and Slade….oh god…." He moaned into his hands.
"I..I need help…"
"You'll get it, Tim." Bruce came over to his son's side and frowned. "I failed Dick once. I failed all of you, and he showed me that brands mean nothing. You can overcome this, and we will get everyone the treatment they need once we get to Gotham in one piece."
"B….how….how can you even look –
"I can't look at Slade, but Rose and her new brother with Talia are all victims. Ra's made a plan to have Slade succeed him, and for whatever reason….that boy is proof of their agreement."
Dami looked over his shoulder at the boy beside HIS mother. He was no older, yet she treated him like he was her world. Gingerly, Dami went over to confront her.
"So." He stood with a stare on the woman and her new….protege.
"Deathstroke's son."
"Behind my back, my father took from me something that was never his…" She coaxed her eldest to sit by her other arm as she carded through his hair, until he shrugged away the woman's touch for a valid answer to his question.
"Why did you let him survive if you knew?"
"He can't be destroyed and like you, he deserves a new chance to change."
"So, what?" Jason assumed, eavesdropping. "is he staying on your arm or with Bats? What's the verdict?"
"I think…" She turned to the girl Rose as she blinked from beside Spoiler.
"You and your new family should watch him, he won't be safe. Dye his hair, get him contacts because Slade is not done." She clutched the wide eyed youth to her. "He will return to claim, as a greed in that man of rage is truly insatiable to the bitter end."
/
"Dick can't raise anymore kids!" BB exclaimed. Defending his bro when he couldn't before. "Why not try your ex – uh, your other, ex…?"
"I've decided." Rose stood up and put a hand to her chest. "I want to train to become a Teen Titan with Dami."
Everyone was blown away.
"Rose…why say this now?" Dick turned to her. "You're still only children –
"When we get a little older, Dad."
" Ohhh…." Cy gawked beside Spoiler and BB.
"You….you finally think…but what about Br –
"You're the one who got me to safety, dude."
"Wow." Raven blinked. "Super bold, kid."
"Rose." Bruce brought a hand to the tween's shoulder. "You know that becoming a hero will make you another target of Deathstroke's."
"Then, I can learn to say no properly, this time." She beamed, Dami chuckling back.
"Typical brat." He snorted with a smirk. Talia was actually rather glad. Rose was all alone, so Dami must have had a positive influence of Deathstroke's near – last born.
"Way ta break the glass, mama!" BB chimed in.
"Oh, yes! I believe that you will make a terrific addition at the Titans's school we are planning to start –
"Kor!" Dick sat up. "A, school?? For kids like Dami and Rose?? Why didn't –
"You never asked." Laughed Cy as the Titans got their group hug before landing in good ole' Gotham for a recap.
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Dami and Rose were two of a kind. He taught her how to parry and flip like a true warrior, and she had him step back so that she could their tango most of the time.
Dick found Bruce and his ally's encouragement to have the kid and to adopt it to another league member –
"But…."
"You can't just kill it." Jason told his brother as he was about to go into the operating room for that C section. "It was immortal, cause B and Les did a check. You had a flipping god in your tummy, "miss –
"Jason!" Tim was getting better, as Babs took time out of her healing to get him back on the right path as well. Kori was at the end of the hall, everyone of his family and friends….ugh….they weren't even keeping it!
"I mean, you're gonna have the kid anyway. Why not rub it in DS's face like you did with Rose and Alan –
"I'm not….I want to make sure that is the case later…" Dick dragged in a few labored breaths.
"But not yet, I can't be the father kn-
"You're technically the mom."
"JASON!"
"FINE." The delinquent of their group rolled his eyes. "Just being realistic here. What if it's a genetically fast learner and comes out of you saying, "mama?" He asked, with some conviction there. Tim face planted himself at the idea.
"There is no way –
"Science is insane these days, braniac." Todd exclaimed to the dweeb hiding beneath his hoodie's comfort.
"You realize…if Dick has them or she or he…that the kid will be our nephew or niece. Right…?"
Todd blinked.
"Yeah, so?"
Bb groaned as Raven shook her head. "You are such an airhead I can't even…"
"What?" Jay held up his hands, defenseless. "What'd I say?"
/
They'd seen life as Kori, Rose and their two new additions stayed by. The lovely twins….two with hair of blonde and black for the girl…
"She looks just like…"
"Kori…" Dick failed to find the words. "How??"
"I…do not know….we were bonded, once….but this –
"Could just be the light playin' tricks." Cy scratched his head. "And, blonde?"
"My….other dad's real hair. Blue eyes too."
"No powers? Hs not like Star, is he?"
"I do not know; he will exhibit signs until a year."
"Newborns can enjoy the power of flight…" Raven shook her head.
"It, is different when one is not a pure Tameranean species." Kori corrected.
"How come B didn't show for this?" Spoiler asked the group as she'd realized their faces said enough.
"He's not coming to this one, Steph." Dick told her. "Bruce isn't a friend of keeping your enemies this close."
"Hypocrite, mother was just the same." Dami protested. "I shall call him –
"Don't." Tim a hand to Dami's shoulder. "Let him brood. Deathstroke is still at large." He told the fourteen year old.
"How do you know, Drake?"
Tim rolled his eyes. "Because, if you know B's hatred of Slade more than Dick does, you know he hasn't given up trying to bring him in. We need to cool it here. Let Richard rest, guys."
The first thing Tim had said, his healing a progress as Barbara nodded to her allies.
"No need to push, let mom and baby – two – of - a – kind - say goodbye….and, hello…"
/
Dick was away from the kids as they were brought into the incubating station where the now new humans and possible metas would open up to the world, and their eyes. Flights up inside the hospital, a soft breeze was let to rise as a window latch popped up slowly. A lone eye set on taking a peek at its quarry.
Stepping as silently as a water snake to the river currents, the shadow that stayed hovering over the children side by side….
Twins, and how tempting it would be to not raise one. Yet…
The other stunk of her affections, the shadow moved and sneered quietly to himself.
Ah, a likeness. At last…
He saw it. Blue eyes and blonde as he had been in his youth.
A child.
"Grayson, you shouldn't flatter yourself." The shadow moved to reveal a mask up, a face for the sleeping babe to see.
"You gave me my payment, so this should compensate for leaving me crushed…I think…" He rubbed his chin, hands soon moving to scoop up the quiet bundle of joy as he rocked it slowly.
"Why not, Riley? Dick always hated that name with a passion…but he can't hate you…don't worry my child.." He cooed to the blonde babe softly.
"We'll see your mommy again, just wait….I'm here now and I won't ever abandon you."
The baby gurgled and gripped his finger in its sleep. Slade noticed it too…
"Strong, like your papa, but I wonder if you can fly like mommy?"
The baby just nestled into the man's arms as he swaddled the dear, his creation as they left out the window ledge. There was only one thing left to do.
Leave the poor bitch guessing and digging for clues, perhaps?
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EPILOGUE
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There was no doubt that Dick wasn't finished grieving over the kidnapped child that night. Or the next morning, when Kori had burst in and yelled at the staff for not…
For, it could just be as well…
His child had been taken. One of them, they didn't even know if it was Slade's material.
Bruce went after Crane, talked to Talia and had Hood and Oracle on the search for near four and and a half months before they lead it down cold, a missing child and only one daughter out of the two. Dick and Kori finally ended up staying together in Blud, while she and he were on and off about the Titans school, now raising a half feral assassin Alan, and M'ari, their youngest super powered half alien due to the test coming back.
She was Kori's too, and Dick never doubted that blessing. Rose was going off into high school in a few more years and Dami and he had bonded…
Way too much.
Damian brought up a very interesting conversation on night at the manor when Rose had stopped by. She still was enrolled in Gotham, so Dick and Kori visited as soon as M'ari was off the ground, and Alan had stopped bringing back unknown objects as if he were a cat with a dead bird in its jaws.
"Are you ok with wanting to be a Titan, Rose?" Dami parried back the staff as she was getting better with her original mother's country's Cambodian martial arts style. She'd read up on it some more while realizing she'd still had a knack for putting Dami's back to the mat.
"I can do it, but I don't want to be a "Ravager" or a renegade." She told him with a kick to his torso, his twist a bit unexpected as she went to her knees, his hits unable to scratch her due to her premonition skill from her other real dad.
"What about….white snake, or tiger…or lotus!"
"Snake is better." Dami hit again with his staff as hers blocked the wooden rod, making her step back a bit to position herself. This, was fun. They got to get kinda close and he was here to help.
"White snake was a mythical figure that wanted to understand humans to help her kind, but her sibling was against it –
"Kinda like –
"Shut up!" She giggled and pushed him back a step playfully.
"I could grow my hair out. Get some silver –
"How would that help you in a fight?"
"I'd knock em..." She send a flurry of hits as he stumbled back, leaping to only hit the mat as she pounce by her abilities.
" Dead." Rose panted, their faces only inches apart as his hand brushed the side of her face, her hands planted there to keep him –
"Master Damian??"
Dami turned red and sat up on his knees, looking as proper as he could as Rose acted casual a foot apart.
"Ah, there you are. And Miss Rose is enjoying her visit, I take it?"
"Very much so, Mr. Pennyworth." She smiled up at the man as he chuckled and shook his head at the girl.
"No, no, my dear. You're practically family here. Alfred will do just fine. Did you finish your school work?" He eyed the teens.
" Both of you?"
The two rubbed their necks and blushed.
"All done….just sparring, like family does?..." Rose tried to keep her cool.
"Ah, very well. You'll be upstairs with your family for supper in a bit then, Miss. Grayson. We are having your favorites for desert if you'll stay the night."
Rose blinked. She was…she was…
She wiped her eyes and nodded proudly, no tears.
"Yeah….can't wait! Thanks Al!"
/
A few years later, Dick was out of the police office and headed home from the precinct where he worked tirelessly. It wasn't that long. He was with Kori until M'ari was four years old. He felt incredible, knowing it too as she grew to love the high bar as much as he had.
He had gotten Alan to behave and since he was like Slade, he was only fifteen, aging slower than any creature Dick had known…
Except, Rose and Dami which was…
Exciting to some, while to others.
It was a shock.
"Damian is your cousin!"
"We aren't related by blood, Mom…."
"Hey!" Dick stomped his foot as Rose shut the door, prepping for exams inside her room as he had no gall to barge in.
"Eighteen is still not old enough to do what you want! You want to be a real Titan? Don't try to grow up so quickly!" He stopped himself. Dami was getting an earful in Gotham, he was sure. Alan walked in with a mug of tea and a curious set of striking eyes at the bat's first.
"Dad? What's up with Rose?"
"She fell in love…"
" Daad !" Rose banged on the door as Dick backed up.
"I'll tell you another time, Alan." Dick shrugged and had that goofy grin on his face again. Alan knew it wasn't Rose, so he dug as assassins tended to.
/
A pre – recorded file was on the adult's drive as Alan's superior instincts and Deathstroke's brain in a way made it all possible.
There it was….a year, no. Right at M'ari's first birthday.
There was a banner, and….
Alan opened it and watched in horror by what had popped up.
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EPILOGUE SO YOU'LL HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE NEXT ARC! NIGHTWING FOREVER – SON OF MY ENEMY – NIGHT OF REDEMPTION. STILL IN WORKS! HOPE IT WAS A PASS! AND YES, RESPAWN WILL BE USED IN NEXT ARC AS WELL AS NIGHTSTAR OR NIGHTFIRE IF I DECIDE TO BUTCHER IT. SET IN FUTURE SETTING SO…..WAITING TO GET TO FIRST CHAPTER!!
