Our Flag Still Flies; War of Rebellion-
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PART SIX: MELATONIN INHIBITOR
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Sleep was a natural process to those not impoverished by war and famine, yet days as of late, the General had made well of his promise to have Styr to its knees with a great still; a tax was raised to make the food in the country unavoidably expensive, the only surplus was to the next city. To Bluddbechian forces, as they stomped in and began with their takeover. First, the siege of the capital building where Roy was trying to remain in control, and then to the outbursts and demonstrations of patriarchal unease.
Jade ran with her womb covered to the only safe place that her legs could carry her. She was smuggled out of the city to head for neutral Metropoli. However, the inner forces that be had her information as she was brought before Alexi himself to comment on the unwed mother's daring escape and loss of a lover.
"Your last, late identity was as a mistress to the Metropoli late Sergent; Crock, was it not?"
"It was, and then I defected right before the war, was let go…once…" She hid her reason as he hummed by his. "The child is a sin, yet you wish to keep her."
"Liana. Liana Harper." She said with a swallow. "My daughter, if ever she'll come into this world unscathed."
"Any mother would call your act a foolish one." Alexi pitied the princess as she only sat in her dirty wears. Ah, he could use her. Keeping Roy away from Slade's army and to claim her, he'd have Styr. "A trade; i want Styr to protect it, yet you have all you know of the council before its fall. Before you left Harper to his beheading…we shall act." He opened up his arms as he spoke so very assuredly. "I shall halt the onslaught and be sure that Metropoli aides our sister city. You have nothing to fear…not you, or your lovely family."
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How in the world did sleep look to be a chore, he wondered. Ticking clocks, his hands bent and held to the bed. He'd one day have to crawl up to the General's eyes and wish for more.
The door creaked as Robin looked up, the General was coming back from another rally, his outfit was layered in dust as the boy did not speak. "They want a revolution, yet do they even think?"
The white haired army buff took to his arm chair, boots coming undone as he didn't raise his eyes to the teen on his sheets. "I'm weary, you'll stay tonight with me."
Robin gulped, head stilled as the man removed more clothing, up to his last pair…
Richard turned blood red and looked away.
"Do as you will, I will have you to warm my empty heart." The man only spooned, yet nothing indecent as he let his breath tickle the neckline of the noble's. He spoke, breath hot and humid while Robin scrunched his eyes tightly into knots.
"Sleep, you'll need your strength soon…I intend to go to Nanda Parbat by this week….It will be a month's trip…you may need to be prepared as well."
That soon??
Robin shut his eyes, the man having already turned into stone as he tried to avoid being crushed by the older man –
His arm had snaked out as he gripped round to twine over the teen's waist, Robin holding in a breath until the room had gone fairly dark. Daylight…. was it over? He was without tears, yet his shivering made the man grip on tighter, too much too soon. It was for him, not the other way. Robin did eventually lose himself to his own fatigue, the grip growing a tiny bit slack as he had no other choice.
He wanted the Dark Knight to see his son, his son! What was the General planning? He could have cared, had the nightmares only come at a better time…
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Damian Al – Ghul sauntered about in the night and felt it unwise to visit Tim at this hour. He was acting odd, and not as he had upon his arrival and retraining by Lord Ra's at all. Damian looked to the cellars and the stairs; the dungeon had a light flickering as he went to investigate. This old crypt was too ancient for words or history books to describe. It was said that Ra's had given the General the gift of immortality, yet no one report had confirmed this to be true. Damian waited and stayed silent by the walls, hugging in close as the flame flickered and began to move.
The ghosts of this castle, maybe? Was magic to be tested? He kept walking, hearing the moans of the prisoners kept here, almost dead. All but one.
The Dark Knight, Sir Wayne. He came upon the lock and saw the man's face. A fallen hope.
"You… are real. Mother claims you are not the same man." Damian frowned and tried to look past the bars. He was about to get closer, yet a hand at his shoulder had the boy cup a hand over his lips with a chill up his spine.
"Grandson. This is not a place for children to wander. Why are you at these bars, and without an escort?" Ra's stood in his sleep robes and of such a shimmer in his eyes that Damian fell to his knees to beg forgiveness. "Forgive me, Grandfather...There was a light, an intruder…I was careless –
"That is all, then return to your quarters." The elder had the boy rise, yet he too wished to know one thing before being sent atop. "I beg not to show my disrespect, yet apologies…Grandfather…. why were you here in the dungeons?"
The man in front of the child only smiled with a sly grin, his chuckle soft and light. "The Knight and I were talking negotiations. I do not fear the night, nor my own palace. Up you are, to your rooms." He chided the still confused young man. "By morning's light, we shall train all of the questions you have, out of your unpolished mind. That is a promise..."
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His grandfather had never seemed to hide and stalk, yet Damian believed that the curse of the Al – Ghul was active now due to the coming of the Wayne male, that he would have more reasons as to why Ra's was acting outside of his usual, composed character. "Grandfather has never been so….secretive towards us, why is that prisoner so important."
"I….saw you by the stairs…"
Damian swerved as the shadowed face of a sleepless Timothy of the former Wayne household came before his supposed ally. "You want to know why he is here. I can show you, follow. Be silent if you can, please…" The fourteen year old trailed off, Damian walking on the tips of his toes to not be detected in the dark of the boys' quarters. "The answer does not lie in the dungeon, yet…in Lady Talia." He walked to a room meant only for the elite of the family. To it, he kept his back and faced the young Al- Ghul. "If you can, have her tell you the reason for why the Dark Knight thrives and has not been hung yet. He is an important figure, and I too recall him being…kind….to us…"
"Us?" There was definitely the curse here at work as Damian dragged a hand to grip at the nervous elder's collar. "You should be quiet about such things! Mother has suffered under the curse that my Grandfather allowed; It gave him an empire and his family was granted magical abilities as well…He, reigns immortal and you cannot defy what he did, he saved you!"
"You do not know the rest, and my memories speak in waves among this rocky shore…" the elder weakly shook his head, smiling with a chuckle and swaying with sleep and delirium. "Rest, you were to retire. Would you like to stay with me for tonight? I can keep you well, Lady Talia and Lord Ra's will not harm me, and you will be tasked only to return before they call for you."
"I, suppose you do look unwell." He squinted at the teenager. "It is my job as the next son of the Demon's Head to see to my…regents and allies in such a manner. Very well." Damian bobbed his head. "I shall rest with you and we shall forget this ever happened, for now."
"Very well, indeed." Tim smiled, hand soon atop Damian's as he was pulled into the other assassin's covers as brothers might in their youth to some families. "You took care of me when my heart was in pieces." Tim rested his head atop a mound of clouds as Damian crawled over to simply see to his face and body. Nothing more. Tim however, was not done.
"Wayne…they said I was from his home, a son…call it all but strange yet…do you feel the same? Does his soul resonate with you as well? Little Bat?"
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Ra's prisoner scowled behind the bars of his cage. "My son…you took him, the one thing in this world…you tortured us all!"
"I did not treat him as anything less that my own, even if not by blood….unlike the son of MY line."
"Damian is not aware, you should be prepared for THAT day, Ra's." Sir Bruce snarled at the man outside of his bars, the goatee of a true creature of clever wit and his devil's grin had before once ensnared Sir Wayne to temptation. Talia was lovely, back when she was still well…not corrupted by her father's crafts as an evil alchemist of legend. She too had wished only for Damian to know the face of his father. The one man to have surpassed even her father's greatest expectations. Yet, the owls knew; they knew that Bruce was indeed against the House of Al – Ghul, and that he wished it destroyed with every member burned at the stake.
"My family has fled from persecution before, how they have survived men like yourself and your family form branding them as soothsayers and warlocks. We are impervious to whatever tricks you play, and the boy is the same. HE is an AL – GHUL!" Growled the man before the bars at the one behind that iron gateway. Sins, he had known, yet all under the conqueror had suffered when trying to escape. So too, had Wayne's home been burned, his children stolen or lost and sold. His very conscious thought of reason was left to wander…whatever Pennyworth had done; might it have been in his best health…
"You had children lost in the fire, yet the man servant escaped with two, the two that are still alive currently…shall reunite. The future Ruler of Bluddbechia wishes to address the former Son of Wayne. He sees it as, doable to our cause and that you might see reason to relinquish all of your power to the General -
"He's but a pawn to you!" Shouted the now red gummed knight. As he hung with his arms pulled apart, legs dangling over the edge of a carelessly crafted precipice, Wayne knew that he had more to do. He had to find a way to reunite with his children. Return to his city and….and…
" Robin, is what he was called by that General. The brute knew everything my Talon army could dig for. The boy…he's of age…about seventeen, was he?"
Bruce's ears picked up a scent, a fear as any parent could know. He gripped his jaw tightly and grimaced at the idea of Richard being used as a spy, or far worse…
"You…. must set him free –
"You don't understand, Sir Wayne…" Pouted the king of immortals and thieves on the other side of those gated walls. He leaned into the bars and grinned with white teeth staring back from the shadows.
"HE will be how we'll acquire not only Gotemhiln (Typo.) But also, Jumperei, the city of fabled heroes of a forgotten lore." (Titans.)
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To a scroll as she overheard this from her spies, Lady Talia clutched her breast by the curse's effects and curled her tail. Oh, this could not last…. her beloved was only after one thing as she scrolled away and left her pen and ink to bleed out to one more.
~ The Dark Knight knows that he is still favored, even as my father berates him I too see a single line across his features. He will take what is rightfully your rite. Come to Nanda Parbat and bring the boy, my own will desire to know his new…. father. ~ She marked the letter, wiped away the filth from her fingers and headed to bed as her cursed body again tore at her heart. For her beloved said not that he cared, so another had taken his place. One that could usurp the throne and allow Ra's to see reason.
"Father….you…are a fool! Kill him, already!" She moaned and clutched her pleasure spot hard, her cry waking not a soul as they all believed her quite ill. She smiled at the decision. "Son, Damian…you will soon have a better man to call your Lord…and I, shall not allow this mention until it is time…" She bit at her lip, the blood running soft and sweet as her fangs took in what they could, tongue darting out as her pleasure only strengthened. "Love…. love him as…as I want…. mother…is never wrong…."
~ NEVER. YOUR TASK…. KILL THE UNDEAD IMMORTAL…. ~
"KILL…" She said, as in a trance the demon inside her body was speaking such ills instead. A demon of lust had infected her as a result of her father's craft. The curse…the curse would devour her son unless someone broke the line of Al- Ghul for good.
If only, she just fell into the sheets and wept into her pillows mournfully. If only, her true beloved had said yes, instead of becoming her enemy…. now, her father's plaything.
Like that boy, Timothy…
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So, Ra's in obsessed with Bruce and Tim like in the comics (bit darker reason) and Slade was working with Talia to overthrow Ra's to take control of the Talon and Minerva sect's Court. (Court of owls since Minerva is Athena, goddess of wisdom and war.)
Dick is more of a man servant to Slade and that includes being his body pillow…. ugh, ah – and Alexi or Lex does not like Roy but thinks it wise to win him over to spite Slade as a tactic to gain Styr for himself. As far as the Titans? Well, next chapter! Don't think the succubus or revenge demoness in Talia is so bad but yeah. She's actually partly a victim here. Ra's alchemist work had him to sacrifice his daughter's freedoms by way of a curse that was already cast unto them that he'd tried to remove. Instead, he was granted eternal life, she was given over as a vessel to a demon of lust and envy, and the boy? Well, he may have escaped it. Will find out!
