Teen Titans – Severing Old Ties– Sibling Rivalries –

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Chapter 10: Sore Egos

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Slade piloted the rest of the way with Eli going for autopilot – havoc over their attacker drone robots.

Complete with jetpacks and heavy artillery.

"Have any luck unmasking the real location?" Eli collected himself once the bots were dead in the water, literally.

Slade pressed a few buttons and up popped a screen on one, a radar Doppler on the other.

"We have to go on to the beach to find a breach in the island's defense."

"Count on it." Eli nodded and fazed once more to see about facing mines or more bots…. yet the beach ahead was surprisingly clean.

He telepathically spoke to Slade as the man grunted in approval.

~ Nothing. We're clear to land – so long as no bells go off. ~

"Good." Slade pulled a throttle lever as the craft picked up speed. "I'm headed there; stand away and be sure to stop the impact just before."

~ What are –

Eli's eyes became plates of gasping fish as his arms went up.

" Bloody ' ell !!"

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A shocking tremor hit the heroes as they turned back to see a puff off smoke right on the other end of the beach where they'd left their craft.

"Dude!!" Bb turned into a ferret and took off with Joey and Robin afraid to leave the spot.

"What was that???"

Jenny and Argent ran. "It's Eli!" Argent called back over her shoulder. "I'm going to check –

"We shall assist."

"No." Dick stopped them all. "Argent and Jenny need to make sure Elijah is ok. Star? We came to free the rest of the Titans." He reminded the frowning red headed alien princess.

"Is this really about them, man?" Cy was starting to wonder if Robin had become obsessed again in stopping –

"The bloke is with someone!" Jenny panted, coming back to the group.

"Says he's here for his kid!"

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"Slade…" Dick snarled at the fact the man had bothered to show up. And in a wrecked vehicle.

"We are not flying him home." Raven deadpanned, earning an honestly pissed eye from the older mastermind. "I can always send for help."

"We don't want your stinking help, if ya' didn't get the memo." Bb grumbled to the sociopathic deadweight father of the year. Joey looked on still, sympathetically. ~ Why did you come, pops? Rose is hurt because of what you did. ~

"And I want to fix that, by getting Grant to understand that he's not allowed to work against my orders. He took Rose and has been injecting her with the same dose I gave to keep him quiet. Grant is insane. I can't let Rose end up like he did."

"Which is why you need to let us get them to STAR labs." Cy interjected.

"I've been." Slade huffed and refused to look the heroes in the eye. "The only cure is to have them both rehabilitated and under constant surveillance." Slade shot a look at Eli, who was this close to using his powers to freeze the man's limbs off.

"You hurt your children, to make yourself happier?? How flippin –

"Selfish, we know." Sighed Raven at the young agent. "Slade. You know that your children took our teammates and are planning something. Why are you just trying to help yourself when they didn't want this; you drove them to madness. The drug could have –

"I tried to save what the hive did to my son!" Slade spat vehemently at the over – analyzing witch. "I have the tools to undo what Blood did, and I don't want ANY of you to interfere. Rose is not a tool. I made that perfectly clear when she chose to go with me. She tricked you, when she was always working with me. But Grant couldn't stand how much attention I'd given her as my newest protégé."

Bb and Robin's faces crinkled at the word.

"He wants her as dumb and dead as I left him – and for good reason. He wasn't incurable…" Slade brought his head into his hands. "Damn it. Boy Wonder? I'll help you, but only if I can have my say in their cure."

"No."

Slade looked up, stunned and frustrated by the brat's bravado. "I'm asking, to help them. WHY would you say no to me?"

"Because I have to protect a fellow Titan." Dick said without respite. "I don't want you coming near your kids. They're too much for you to handle."

Slade would have thrown a punch, yet the tactician pulled back before he had the chance. Robin didn't move, nor did he try to do so by defending his face. When that was so confusing to the man, he realized it.

Dick was afraid, but not for himself.

For his team, and what Slade was, was utterly powerless for the second time in their lives.

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"You can help us fight and free the heroes and the two Ravagers." Dick cleared the air as Slade's fists clenched together. "But I can't place you in full control. You're too unpredictable, which could cost us even more lives."

"Heh, interesting assessment." Slade shook his head. "You forget; Ravagers one and two both have my ability of "precognition." Smirked the older man, Eli squinting at him from across the sun swept sands.

"They need to be tricked in order for any of your plans to work."

Starfire tapped Raven on the shoulder, but was batted away.

"You think after you brainwashed one of our own, stole away an underage teenager and drugged him up for months, and even left your son Jericho in mortal danger, I'd ever let you lead us??? This is my team, we had to undo YOUR mess after Blood was defeated – which, by the way? You were the one that freed him!!"

The heroes gasped. "Damian told me everything. About Mercy Hall, and about you attacking him to get to Blood's cell."

"The younger Titans have a super – villain jail??" Bb gawked. "How come I never heard of it till now!"

"I had my reasons." Slade shrugged, uncaring.

"You had a plan, for your sake." Robin spat. "You still put others in danger to get to Rose, who you let go on that mission as a student of Hive academy." Again, shot the boy wonder. "You started this, and when we took in Blood who wasn't the actual culprit by the evidence we found thanks to your wife –

"Keep Addie out of this, kid."

"No. She was also used by you AND the Hive, the same group you've been trying to shut down. Even when Rose is their top commander of HER own free will –

"She was there to destroy the base! Don't you get it??" Slade spat at the Titans' leader.

"Can we get going?" Bb tapped Cy on the shoulder. "They look like they need to cool it for the mission."

And so, Slade and Robin were left on the beach with Starfire to watch them in case either tried to leave.

Or blow up at one another.

Or gut the other senselessly.

And stab them in the back.

Starfire shook from the shrubbery she hid behind.

Robin was…so angry…

"You always screw up a good thing! Why did you have to kidnap her??? She doesn't even like you!"

" Shut that mouth of yours right now, boy wonder…So help me, you won't see the sun once I've finished snapping that beak closed, for you!"

"Want the bare facts, Slade? Ah, ok! I'll bite!" Dick counted Slade's miserable faults off of his gloved fingers. Grinning with a few tricks, Robin had become unhinged as right now, he was taking on the one person that made him want to turn this ship around.

The one person he'd rather see in a cell more than Blood.

"You attacked my teammates in Japan, you tried to take us out and undo an agreement that was already BROKEN because you just wanted what YOU wanted...Ah, oh! AND, what Rose needed? Heh, not at all to help Grant, but to silence him and her because if he deserved to be punished for making you look bad, that's all that mattered! You are a terrible person and everyone knows it! Including your entire family!"

"What is wrong with this argument…" Slade seethed back, feeling betrayed as he should, "Is that I'm the only one actually trying to correct the problem, when you brats couldn't even free Terra without my help!"

"What?"

Dick's thoughts were given a real tug. "Did you just…" Dick shook his head. "No way. So, it was true then. What you didn't tell me when we were fighting back then –

"I did, in a hint you'd not try to understand for yourself. She's out of my hands, Robin. Has been freed, ever since." Slade turned his back to the boy wonder, one last eye to the ocean. "When things…don't go as planned, I always keep to my word. It's my code, unless the Bat left that out of my files."

Dick sniffed, wondering if it was true at all. Still bothering to listen as Slade came, clean about…

Half of his wrong doings, barely.

~ He's always a winner to himself, no one else. Never wrong, huh? ~

"I brought her back, with a relic that Trigon's world made me aware existed, and combined it with our modern technology from that time. If you decide to tell Beast boy this "extraordinary" news –

"I won't."

Slade blinked and turned around to face the hero. He raised an indiscriminate brow, expecting some other painfully, snarky comment.

"You'll be coming clean to him." Dick said firmly with a gloved finger pointed at the mercenary. "Because that's what he needs to hear to get proper closure, over a problem that you originally caused."

If Starfire had not stayed away when she had, her head turned to the device in her palm. "Raven, Cyborg…friends…we, are in need of your assistance very soon. The fighting has since been abated, yet…" She bit her lip. "Not all wars may be won in this way, I fear."

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She's talking about Slade freeing Terra. This, is gonna get ugly!! And so? Grant's big spot will come. I don't want short as far she this story so spanning out. Hope you enjoyed the throw – backs! Find out more in the next "Gladiator Days - With a Tropical View of Nowhere, We Are Present in Our Own Lives."

Also, this is right before Dick becomes Nightwing since at 18 he considered it in the comics. In this case, it creates the "don't get in my way" dynamic between Nightwing and Deathstroke, and how this will eventually lead to his big bad case with Rose not being a good fit for Slade to educate any longer. Way to throw a stone at that glass house, boy wonder!

In decision as we speak, so stay curious and read on!