Our Flag Still Flies – War Of Rebellion
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Part Twelve: Adoration and Disgust
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Eyes fluttered open as the man towered. His anchor.
Richard's throat felt dry, though he pursed his lips through the strange sensation of being watched. "How was your rest, Robin."
The General was in his military regalia. He must have been meeting with the top brass of the country to dispute some serious matters. Richard turned onto his side, craving his neck and ignoring the epithet. His title, his bird themed ball and chain to this day. "Why…was I at rest at all, sire?"
The man didn't wait for him as he moves from the mattress to the desk of his own room. "You had such an experience while out in the town square that it made you weak. I can't have weak stock in my army, boy." The man moved towards a glass stopper where a red amber colored scotch was just within reach. "Here. For your head."
Getting up to prop himself onto his elbows, Richard knew that he was not to drink like his family at his age yet. Only a sip at charity events or when the crème de crème showed to the manor just to gloat on how many they had left out on the streets of Gotemiln. Bluddbechia was not this city. It could never be. As he was handed a shot glass, the boy reluctantly took his poison. The burn went down less than smooth as he coughed, the dead feeling in his limbs remaining capped while he started to try and make sense as to how he had ended up in his keeper's bed under the covers like some child, ungrateful and unwell, he felt useless to anyone. Drinking to celebrate. That was a trap and he listened as Slade spoke of a time long ago…
He didn't, to Richard's dismay as his head began to float. "What….was that drink y –
"OH. Right, Talon by blood cannot sip red concoctions."
Richard gasped, choking as his hands flew to his throat.
"It would do you no good to resent me now, soldier." The General sipped his shot and had another. Impervious to the pain that Richard was currently being handed. "Tell me about your dreams, and I'll allow you mercy. If not, the talon of old inside your whelp – veins will end you for me."
Richard was pale, blue as the veins of his brotherhood. His grandfather's sworn legacy erupted from him, within. As scars across the flesh, he screamed. His back arched as he was on to it in a cry of desperate agony. The pain was injected, feeding off of his will as he rasped and spoke only the truth.
"JAA…SIN……BRTHER…..OUT….THERE….ALIVE! ALIVE!! LET ME DIE, NO!"
"You did as expected." The General moved quickly, a jar set aside of a strange freeze dried item that looked inedible. The boy's jaw was gripped, his body possessed to kneel on the bed. "Chew this, don't stop even if the taste is unpleasant. You've earned my mercy today, boy."
The red of this was not just unpleasant but it too made his lips tingle as a sweet ooze poured out. Like a stripped shrimp, he chewed as the sourness uttered a need to up chuck his cure.
"CHEW." The General commanded, and so the noble son did. He did so with a teary blue gaze at the man's utterly grey single eye. His one hand expecting better as the boy's master had a hand clench to his throat. Lips moving, another command was uttered quickly.
"Swallow."
Richard gripped the bedsheets and as soon as the taste made its way further along, his body and mind began to return to him. Slowly, he let the sliding pulp of some unknown cure come into his stomach. To heal and reduce him to pull along with it against the new leader's mattress.
"That wasn't so difficult." The General released the boy's neck as the noble son coughed, getting back precious oxygen with every gasp. "I saw that your ability from a young age is not only why I've come to you. Why Cobb and I won something far of greater value than any ransom." The General crossed over to the room, hands behind his back as he recalled the elixir and how he knew things that others would die for. Knowledge, that if his mind were capable of committing to it, the boy might learn from. Only if he gave up on wishing for that Dark Knight to save this tainted child.
"The boy in the square. You said, he was your brother."
"Sir, I –
"Answer the question, Robin."
The teen swallowed, thick as dust his lips were in need of refreshments that were not with the tang of copper. That scotch was for demons, not mortal men.
"He looked, similar." The boy reluctantly spoke in a coarse voice.
"Richard. You need to tell me, if he can he be found. Will you allow me to –
"He was not well!" Richard shook his head. "None of them will make willing soldiers for you at all, I'm enough. Aren't I??" The boy moved from the bed, he walked shakily to fall to the man's boots as he grieved for the lives of his siblings without a tear being shed. One tear, one execution. Korinna's life for their own…he, he could not do that.
"I promised you the return of your beloved. I did not promise you your sway over me. I will take." The General moved a boot as Richard avoided it with a scuttle backwards. "Sir! I am your soldier! I'm yours by rite, by our agreement. You cannot take more –
""I WILL !" With a startling backhanded slap, the boy was to his back, scrambling to get up. Eyes knowing what he was about to receive as punishment. "On the bed. I'll punish you properly for coming to cross me with your begging. It's disgusting."
Richard let his head fall as he started to rise up. He moved slowly to the bed and started to remove his top. "How, sire." With cold eyes glowing back, the General had to have seen it before. "You'll allow me to take, and in return each time. Someone of your choosing may be spared." The General rose. "How long, however…" His beard brushed the boy's collar bone roughly.
"Because, in here." He stood and then knelt over the boy's back, his spine trickling sweat as the General fished for the buttons on the teen's trousers. With a whisper, his words brought no revolution to the teen's world.
"Here, I intend to spill out every secret that will have your father's legacy in pieces. Just. Like. This. Body."
He hissed in the noble son's ear as his breathing hitched.
"And I want him to never see you cry again. That, is my greatest pleasure. To watch you squirm beneath me. As. My…little Robin."
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Another set of eyes watered at the feeling; this time of relief. Two people. A young half Asian girl with short dark hair and a black African Gotemiln teen who had concerned eyes as well as a strong body. Beside them was a copter that sat in the warehouses just within the outer ring of the city. Jason blinked and sat up, the older male with his chocolate gaze as worried as the girl with her hazel orbs was in fact intrigued to see if this trafficked child remembered anything of his old life.
"Hello, Jason."
Jason moved. He'd had the knack for retaliation being his safest weapon as the girl was strong. Strong enough to pin him while the boy also clad in a black uniform….
Jason quieted. His eyes mesmerized by a single badge pressed to the heart of either person.
"Knights…you both aren't them?"
The two looked at one another. The African Gotemiln native spoke instead. His voice had a societal air to it as if he'd never left a charity auction empty handed in his lifetime.
"We are the ones who strive to revive their power, their justice and everything the Knights stand for. You may not recall it, but you are the adopted child of the Dark Knight of Gotemiln." The teen told Jason as the girl then introduced herself. "My name is Cassandra."
Jason let out a small breath, a gasp as she turned to her eldest brother. "This us Duke Thomas Wayne, and I am Cassandra Cain Wayne. You, are Jason Peter Todd Wayne –
"I wasn't." The sullen teen shook his head. "You expect me to believe I was worth something? That I have a Enfamil with a lord's title?" Chuckled the blundering clown's filthy trade. "I was taken from my family and ran…I ran and…. I don't even remember what they looked like. What I was like. I lost so much time, and you believe you have all of the answers? To cure me?" He exclaimed. "The Dark Knight has forever been missing since the General took charge. The Knights vanished along with him. We have no hope!! I won't live in a world where war is the answer…so, take me back." Jason demanded desperately. "Take me back to whatever hole you dug me from! My roots are barely spread to either side –
"NO." Duke refused. "Cassandra and I have the intent to support the new order of the Knights of Jumperei. We will not leave you again. Brother."
Jason got up, Cassandra warning him with her body language, bow string tight. "You will help up stop the General. He took a rare being not from this plane and plans to use it to enslave us all. To start a war with the city of Nanda Parbat where the Dark Night is currently being kept alive!!" Cass shouted, just as Jason's eyes squeezed shut. "Why…. why can't I remember anything…. I'm just a brainless… kid that…. please ." He begged up at Duke who heard the other's plea. "There was a boy that I saw. He was in a carriage and…I think I know his face. Please. If you are the ones to make such things occur, miracles even…. then, get me an audience with that noble." Todd put a hand to his temples and sighed. "He knows too. What you know, what I desire to remember…. Will you then? He may be the one I've been searching for all this time."
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Lady Talia moved from her seat at the dining table as her beloved was far from being treated much better. For the price of never making contact with her boys, he could wander on a leash at her side. In her bed, but as her pet. At her feet. "Bruce…. I wish for you to stay silent while I go speak to father." He was left gagged while under the table, there in the light she departed. Only, there was a set of feet that sneaked in after.
The flap of the tablecloth was flipped up as the face of a young boy made Bruce's face pucker, as if he'd just swallowed his gag.
"She puts work into you as she'd never us." The boy was no more but mid – age of his youth. Dark hair and green eyes as the other, but not of blood as Talia had explained in how she'd acquired her young son's playmate. This child too was trained to kill intruders as well. He was currently Ra's favorite example.
"You told me that I was someone you knew. I want to know why you believe that the be so." Timothy moved his hand to put the gag out. Bruce took in some air, knowing full well that he would lose his chance if he didn't speak. Or if he did, someone would pay the price for treason against the royal temptress.
"I am called Lord Wayne of Gotemiln. You, look like one of my children. His name was-
"I'm to go now." The locks clicked as Tim rose. "We'll speak at another time. I want to know why mother treats you better than all of her favorite toys." He frowned. "What makes you exceptionally different, and why my little brother will not stop talking about you…goodbye then." Tim swept off as the door opened no sooner than the boy's leave. "Beloved? Oh, you lost the mouth piece I had for you…. It must be useless then." She cooed and lifted it up. Taking it to her new toy's lips, she redecorated the man's puckered face as the item fit snuggly again in his teeth. "You must have been rather restless. Did you miss me, my beloved?"
Bruce nodded. She pulled his lead as the man was taken out from under the table. "I fancy a walk in the gardens. Will you not wish to join me?"
Of course, Bruce was doing this to gain her heart. To exorcize a demon this twisted took time. Not enough time, as they spoke of wars starting in the west, in a country once named Marvkolia (Markovia.)
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She came to the compound, in chains. Her golden long locks covered her eyes, while her blue set of sights were grades darker by the horrors she had witnessed.
"The prisoner, princess. Sire." William brought the child before the General as he'd arranged for someone to invest their time in cleaning his home from top to bottom and…
She was almost as lovely as her mother.
"The royal youngest child of the throne of Marvkolia; Taranovka Marvkolik." He presented her as the girl hid her face, rude enough as it was to the General.
"According to the documentation of the family, their three children were tested to be used as weapons in the late war against BIYALIA. She has the genetic material and the awakened gift of the goddess of Earth. TERA." (So as not to confuse with TARA or TERRA.)
"Like her mother's brother intended. Well done in acquiring them all, William."
The man cleared his throat, as the General raised a brow at his man servant. "What, speak then."
"Well, sire…. the eldest was acquired by rite by his relative who indeed helped to reduce the house of Marvkolia as we have it …. yet, the middle child Bryonovitch. He, escaped during the arrest of the royal family ...
"My brother and I deserve to have our freedom." Scowled the child in front of the General. "You cannot take away them from me, nor can you command the people of my country with your underhanded tactics !"
"I can ." Slade corrected the blonde and native daughter of his formerly admired courted woman. Her mother once believed that her people would understand a merger of the two nations, yet he broke her heart. The child in her stomach, now here as proof.
(You'll see. This is going to get weird again. Slade is Tara's real father in this but he's not aware. She is reminding him right now of a love lost so…yeah. Incest in there.)
"I will die instead. You cannot make me hurt my people. There is no rise to an empire made of suffering! You – unhand me!"
"Slade, the girl is a horribly unruly creature and needs the proper training if she is ever going to be of any use to our cause." As Tara was removed from the room by the men employed under the General, Will and he spoke in private.
"Did you not notice that fire in her?' Slade rubbed his chin, his body remembering the scent of the princess gone before her time. "Her mother was strong like that. She'll be tested for the ability she wields tomorrow."
"But, sire!"
"Do not test me, William." Slade directed his finger at the male servant. "She would make a lovely maiden to have around as much as a killer to my operations at the front lines. I'll do as I see fit with my weapons. You as well, swore to me your allegiance."
With that, the boneless adult let his chin fall as he dubbed it all true. "FOREVER, should I follow you into the bowels for all eternity. My ruler. My ally in life and death."
Slade nodded, letting the curtain close on their meeting as he went to see about someone who could ease his troubled mind more than anything.
Rosa was called before him. Her one eye as sharp as her superior's, just as strict as she stood front and center. "How are the recruits coming alone, Commander?"
"SIR. The noble son now understands a direct attack much better. Grant is no longer fearful of his punishment s, sir. Joe is getting better in manipulating his opponents. Sir."
"At ease, Commander. I have a new task for you. The newest to join your squadron is a girl. She once lived in luxury yet now like your brother, she too carries a special ability. I want you to test her in battle. See if she has need of my teachings to proper further her control. She could be the deadliest weapon we've ever collected from these many conquests." The General was rather pleased as Rosa emulated his response. "Sir! I shall see to keeping the new soldier in line, sir! What is her power, sir?"
The General took to her gaze. Yes, she was just a child after all. "She has the power to move earth. I want that strength, to bury those cultists of Ra's Al – Ghul into the rubble of their own unholy temples. None then, shall oppose us!"
"Fantastic news, sir!"
"Very good, that is why you are in charge of my special unit." He smiled at her as Rosa bobbed her head. Agreeing, he sent her off to oldest what was needed. In that time, the General still had a caged bird to keep singing to him before supper time.
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Shifting this a bit. Recall, next is a rebel uprising as long s Jason gets an answer. Bruce may discover the secret Ra's won't speak to even his daughter about. Damian will discover that Tim got his memories back and will find out his mother has been cursed by his grandfather to gain immortality. Richard will give up his body to save a life each time the General commands him to his quarters. Rosa is in charge of Slade's new pet mutt who he seems to have an unhealthy affection towards due to her mother being his ex-lover. While that means Tara is Slade's illegitimate child??
Also, Slade called Richard the same thing HIS mother used to call him, so was his being the General's not a fluke but determined by the General manipulating the board since his birth?? Jason is begging to see Richard again, but what happens when he finds out what his older brother has really been up to? Fucking the top dog of the country to spare his family? Find out!!