The Dark Knight Chronicles – My Brother; Renegade - My Father, The Batman –

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Chapter 6: Two To Tango

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Dami bumped into Slade in the hall. Grayson was elsewhere as if he'd been shooed off to go and try to fill the big bat's shoes. They all knew it. Slade was as willing to strip the current vigilante of his role as he was when Dick had been Robin. The new Robin however, wouldn't stay quiet.

"Wilson."

"Yes, Damian."

Damian clicked his tongue at the man's attempt to throw off his guard. "This isn't your mission, it can't be. Grayson had you to stick to and coming back is maybe, what? Are you being chased by some cult? Why are you even interested in what father wanted."

"It was a desperate plea. Something cracked in the dark knight, a year before…"

"Before, he vanished." Damian sniffed. "Understood, but he had a motive for picking you. That's why I want you to tell me. Did you make it so that Dick secretly had to mend his ties before coming here? Is that why he toyed with father's fragile memories of that?"

"I have no idea."

Damian stomped forwards; a finger pointed as he seethed between clenched teeth. "I don't think you didn't. Dick does everything and it's not out of adoration or respect. You made him fear you. There wasn't another set of pro –

"No." Slade frowned. "The bots were no longer efficient as a training method in doing their job, same as your father." He scoffed while he saw Dami's neck bulge a bit at the insult. "Richard made a deal. None of you were to become a target in ANY later plans outside of killer's contracts. That was a sure shot, yet there was always a way out, he made sure." Slade huffed and looked down the hallway. Dick was one scary child to push a hitman's trachea to shatter.

"Of course, within our agreement at the time until he was deemed worthy, I had the utmost command of my apprentice. Yet, if he stayed. No collars would be needed when that time came, and later with Ivy it was too late to disregard our partnership. I took it as a way to have Robin buried from both our minds so that he could step out of the bat's circle for once and focus on the present." Slade seemed to be making peace with the youngest, yet it only made Dami madder for the fact he'd ever stand to listen. "The fact that your bat had so many secrets kept from the rest of you, that he still knew Dick was in contact through me…"

"You made a change, somehow. That video could be evidence of your estranged good deeds…. Father would –

"He would." Slade turned with his eye quite quick and bright in the dim light of the hallway. "He would do this, for a family he wants to salvage and for those he cares about. Same as you and your mother."

Dami let his mouth twist into a smirk. "You knew about the trick then?"

"I did, and it was impressive, little bird. I must say, I underestimated your leadership as the new Titan's commander."

"DON'T."

That was a no. Dick was called that and now he was getting…. Fondled, by a madman!

"That's what you are, a Robin. A brother in arms of the one that lost his post to a bigger calling outside of his own, control."

"You can't control him once he finds out that Bruce wasn't the one who made that video."

"He was, admit it." Slade smiled back, hauntingly similar to a snake. "Your father put too much trust in a man from his past to care about whatever became of his other wayward birds and bats. He cared for Dick before that, and however you slice it…. we won it. The role he has given to us, is what gets Dick the costume the he leaves it once we decide if the bat really is gone or alive for good."

"He will be, Deathstroke. He's not alone and you know where he is!" Growled the tired-out teenager.

"I said it before, I don't." Slade sighed. "Very, clearly." Slade's eye narrowed as he turned to walk away. But then, he turned back. "Who in the world was that man who gave you the business card, Damian?"

/

In cave entrance, they had brushed arms. Slade must have –

Dami tapped his pockets, eyes turning to hide no more of his ire. " Where is it –

" Evidence." Slade didn't pull it out, but it wasn't NOT in his pockets. He checked. "You were going to get killed before you saw your father again."

"If I were to TELL said "father" what you've been doing to his oldest, abducted son for –

"He asked for it."

" That's it!!"

The two tossed each other, the card still stayed hidden where only Slade had it. But for some reason, he was toying with Dami. He wasn't using force, only blocks. Dami could hit him, drag him to interrogate the mass murdering psycho. To him, that was all he saw, purely red. Red with horns as the notorious grandson of the Demon's Head took no steps backwards.

"Richard is not a prop; I've said that and we did it, we took out the thing you'd worked so hard to venerate as the cure all…to my brother's rejection of your will... We destroyed those bugs inside his body to hit you as hard as it took to speak some sense into the meaning….behind your demented ventures….I think it was well earned for all you've given us."

"You didn't die tonight, because I didn't let you."

Slade moved to a crouch as Damian flung himself to the banister of the main stairwell and did a spinning kick. Slade grabbed the boot and tossed it, not only twisting but applying a light pressure to have Damian ten seconds too late to undo the itch. "Damn, more tricks for a killer… You can't even be one of us!"

"I don't intend to convert. This is only a way to end things in the interim, Renegade has this covered."

"He's Richard ! Not a –

"He is , though." Slade hissed back and his voice grew sorry for a second. Pity laced into it on the tip of his tongue. "Oh, did you think he was the same as back then? Time has sealed the many of his wounds up. Of course, that he was given by my will….as you said. Still, you should see his kill streak." The man cackled with a grin. "A world class –

" RRAH!!!"

Dami had picked up an item to toss as Slade caught the vase that Dami now had tossed with eyes so wide, that his corneas could have imploded. "Stop!"

"And, what?" Sneered the current boy wonder with his next weapon already decided. "Let you continue to make a mockery of my family? He's not going to do as you say. Father knows better; this was a way to get in, so now…. you…."

Damian kicked as the vase shattered to pieces. Shards cut across the merc's half protected face and body; his main armor was put away and there was the ability to hurt. Dami wanted that, he wanted to bludgeon Slade with more days of suffering for what he'd just learned. "Richard was only made to trick father because of your tricks, first…. he's not –

"It was his idea…. cough…...!" Slade's confession was a dribble of blood as pounding footsteps came through the swinging doors of the kitchen. Mostly, everybody.

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"He is so benched."

" Very, Master Todd."

"I mean, they looked like they were bonding…. right?" Steph shrugged as Richard stepped forwards to lean on to the merc's side a bit. He seemed, disturbed by this as if this couldn't happen but had.

No. this was just those damn plant side effects. Nothing more, was all Dami could correctly see, by how the two didn't stare at each other as much now. Maybe he'd driven a wedge –

"He's getting that training. First one, sun up. All of you. No buts." Dick moved past the group as his family sat awe – stricken. Dami stomped off, not before announcing he was going to his room.

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A few minutes down the hall, he saw a figure by his door and it wasn't Cass as he'd hoped. "Did you vent your frustrations enough, little b –

"Fuck off, cyclops"

"Creative." Slade chuckled as he leaned against the wall outside of Dami's door. "I thought I'd wish you a good night, since no one else is permitted to."

"What?" Dami shot a glare over his back. No. There was nothing but silence on that end. "Did Alfred agree to you stalking me now?"

"Training, taking care to do my part. I'm a teacher right now, after all." Slade looked mildly amused at his choice of words. " Your, teacher. Young "Master" Wayne." He leaned back, eyes nostalgic somewhat, that smile still a health hazard. "And that question; if I'm a stalker or not? Every bird, even Grayson has asked that exact same question of me. Like some timeless tradition…Thank you, for having me add you to ours."

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Sun up. Definitely a robot as Dami rolled out of bed before the clock struck four. Stupid, but he had to pit Slade against the new big bat. Somehow….

"Mind control. Maybe the sex pollen was a trick too. He could know –

A knock at the door drove Dami to grip his gi and imagine that being anyone else.

"What." Dami mumbled to the guest on the other side. Silence, then a small two words.

Cass.

"You up?"

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Cass walked Dami to the kitchen for a piece of fruit and anything within snatching distance. They chewed quickly; door opening to find Steph and Jason yawning back. "Wh – you too??"

" Shh!" Dami hushed his sibling. "Not too loudly, I'm adjusting so we won't end up killed by those –

" Ehem ."

Jason shook his head as Steph jumped in her socks. Slade was crossing his arms in full camo. "Did I miss the part where you all, skipped breakfast?"

"We just wanted a fighting chance!" Pleaded a squealing Stephanie. "It's true! They say you two don't even eat –

"We do, just in increments. We eat large plates to refuel, after breaking a sweat."

A sweat drop might have seemed passable, had Slade such stories to tell.

"You mean because six plus hour sessions is kid stuff." Jason grumbled. "Yeah, original."

"And demi – gods still don't sweat." Tim wondered to himself aloud.

"Our training regimen is for soldiers, which you'll understand sooner or later." The man said. "What are you? Just some spoiled brats looking for a sugar crash and a ticket to the emergency ward?"

"High cholesterol. He's junk food shaming us." Cass did a face plant for some added, dramatic effect.

"Real mature, Slade." Slade turned to see Grayson in a similar black get up as his master. "In the yard. First thing's first. After you guys get your shit together."

/

"He's got sticks."

"Not pointed, right..."

Cass snickered as Tim made the same joke from one of Alfred's least favorite retro British comedy acts. (Monty Python. Self-defense fruit with pointed sticks.) "Um, so…..like……what's with the bo staves, bro?"

"First off." Dick moved as light as a crane in a drifting air – swept calm, then he pushed off of his toes as the staff hit Tim in the shoulder. Todd looked on, the strike far too inhumanly possible to be his big brother anymore. "Did you just –

Another hit to the knee had Jason grasping his, the pain a bruise and enough to simply ache for a few seconds. "That was foul –

Steph tried to dodge as Dick's hits were twice as ready. He sent her toppling in ten seconds too soon.

"Ok!" Dami put up his hands. "What is the lesson today, Grayson?"

"Funny, you didn't call Bruce "Wayne." Dick swiftly did the same to Dami, his eyes seeing shooting stars in the early hour as Alfred watched with confusion in his pupils by the veranda. "Play nice, if you'd be so kind. Master Dick and Wilson." Away he went to be sure they all had enough supplies for an afterthought.

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"The things you learned were good, but I can do you one better." Dick grinned as he set the staff into the dirt. Not, pointed. "I'm a bit different and the serum has me on another level. But for both of our sakes, this won't be my fight. I want to watch." He soon said. "Slade is the coach, I'm just the ref when it comes to that."

"I went to college for a major that I didn't even want…." Tim bemoaned into his hands. "To get taunted by a circus kid??"

"With a complex for doms."

"Stephie!" Tim slapped her for that term being tossed in the air. "Well, you think he's gonna turn out a bot –

"No more of that." Slade took the staff from Dick and then a second, tossing it to Steph as she caught it. "I may be in control, but you certainly talk more than act the part. Submission comes from your example."

She gawked as he set her tone back a notch. "You didn't just –

"Dominate the arena, or fall." Slade let her pick up the stick as she was reluctant to get hit. "No armor –

"We won't need it. I can hold back. Dick is still learning to dismiss the fact that he's not as advanced yet."

Richard shrugged and waited, as he'd said he would. "Will you let me face you all, without holding any anger over our pasts together? Can you try to do that –

"I…. sure! Why the heck – but let's not forget…" Her eyes revealed an old self she'd kept in the back shelf with some dusty old memories of red and green tights.

"That I was a Robin once, too…."

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Tim was beaten up a bit harder as he and Steph nursed each other on the grass. Jason and Cass were there while Dami waited to fall in line after the loser pair. To his sure joy, Cass held up a bit more against Slade. She even managed to use her staff at a killing range before the "ref" broke them up. He had to see if maybe he'd have an ally for later. Todd was too stubborn, rough from the get go, his focus was not there. Until just as much, the boy noticed that his siblings were NOT trying to lose, but they'd eased into not trying as much on purpose.

Was that….to get out earlier for a meeting?

/

Dami was the last up, and Slade hadn't even broken a sweat. He had to lose, but he'd been able to do so much last night only because Slade had allowed it. That pissed Dami off as he refused to lose or try to until he was out of steam. Thankfully, he stood the longest as Slade finally wore him out into twenty minutes of non – stop hits and parries.

"I! Will! Not! Fall!" Dami sent his staff low, and then it felt like his own ribs were jabbed through.

The kid let go, Dami seeing Grayson there with two fingers at his ribs. Pressure points.

"You were going for a killing blow. Non – permissible."

"Stop. I had it under control, Grayson." Dami whipped around before grasping his side and wailing. "I can fix it if you promise to drop the staff. You lost, because you tried to be what we all want behind bars."

"Stop…."

"Dick, he's done."

"He will be once he tells me what I need to hear."

Dami was faint as he nodded, drool at his lip as Dick locked his thumbs in a spot that he recognized would –

Dami coughed, life coming back to him as Cass ran to check the afflicted ribcage. "You're alright."

"It wasn't too severe. Just a stun of your cavi –

"Dick."

Jason moved over to the older ex hero. "That wasn't necessary. We don't train like assassins. We train like fucking vigilantes."

"He was going to cross that line eventually, I had to get him to slow it or drop the act."

Tim was upset, but Steph even more so. "He's not in trouble, but you nearly stopped his heart!" She yelled. "You can't teach us if we're all drooling psychos like…like…"

Dick let his arm down, the world getting slightly off kilter in his mind as he let his voice drop back a bit. "I, will need some time. This is what I can do. It's why you won't die…" He spoke. "If I can be as hard as Bruce was on everyone here, and better at it…then you won't end up in danger." He said with an eerily, teary chuckle. "Never again, I can't lose all of you to him."

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"He's whacked out."

"Draw straws." Steph raised her other sore arm with a hiss, as she set it back down. Jason's arm had been much better, but right now it needed an ice bath badly. "I just got out of one circle of freaks, and now we're back in again." He sighed. "Oy vey am I AN idiot for volunteering to babysit you dweebs…."

"Hah." Dami shook his skull and felt out of the loop already. "He is as bad as I had previously believed, and that is all thanks to that gorilla and his "control" options."

"Slade is not the only thing you could watch for." Cass stood up and cracked her neck, minor pains since she'd held her own pretty easily. "Dick is not the same as when he was still an "apprentice." She frowned. "Something is unnatural about how he speaks to us."

"He's trying to mimic father and is failing at it. Something else is preventing him from taking his time with the role the right way."

"Slade is…."

"Could be my hunch, but who wants to snoop on the two love birds?" He pointed at the group, all of them groaning and lowering their faces. "Send Duke."

"God damn it, Timmy!" Groaned Jason. "Aren't you hurt in so many places right now? Why would you even suggest that?"

"Hey, where was he this session anyway?" Steph scratched her chin before wincing again.

In the other room, the door opened to have Alfred enter with a man that Tim could certainly tell the others he was off the hook for having to greet. Beside Duke, was a very restless Luke Fox.

/

Duke in a sense, had been told to stay put, and so his restless legs with his keen desire to peek out the window at everyone had the heroes concerned the most. He made a mental note of the fight from his window, and to some this would be bothersome timing. It wasn't until after the rest of the group had left that Slade's lone eye moved as if to pull him in. Duke gasped and dropped his notepad. He eyes beating near white until he shut down his lack of control with a mantra. "Ang…. he…. how did he do that?"

"Master Thomas?"

"Whoa, Al!" Duke turned around with a second gasp. "Am, I….am I in trouble?"

Alfred looked at the boy from the doorway and shook his head softly. "Not at all, Master Duke. Masters Dick and Wilson spoke on your behalf about how you'll be training with your powers, divided from your family for a time until they are fully aware of any implications. It would be a step in the right direction, and I have even asked to stay to be sure they won't cause you any such stress. This was more so to keep everyone on their toes and to gauge concentration and skill."

"He's really coming down hard on them, is he afraid I'll snap?"

"Not at all." Alfred paused as a set of boots moved down the hall. Sadly, it wasn't Dick as he had feared. "The way he fought was a tad vicious to the real Master Dick I had helped to nurture, over all of these years." Alfred went out and said it. "Any chance he's improved in any other ways by your hand? Master Wilson?"

"Only for our positions back home. Ah, Duke. Good to see you're up and awake." Slade gave Alfred an upturned single brow as the elder male furrowed his own two. Their own old person's language, Duke imagined.

"Alfred, I'll need a moment with Duke, if you'd be so carefree. Dick is waiting to talk to you about preparations with the next gala. He's made it very clear." The man said in a stronger, deep enough tone to have the elder shiver in his well pressed outfit of a Wayne family heritage. "He'll be here by the time I return. Promptly within the next few minutes. Call if you require anything, anything at all." He told Duke with a turn from the door.

"Well then." Slade moved on in, having Duke left to this king kong of the big screen of screams. His powers seemed to steady only by his own fear of that man's one eye.

"I won't bite." Slade's air again swapped to a less serious tone as he pulled up a chair from by the boy's desk and sat in reverse on it, arms swung over to get the boy's guard down. "Whatever you think I was, there is not much I can do but try and right these wrongs in the present…Richard is, preoccupie with his own mind at this very moment and I'd like to pick at your thoughts of course. To help out around my, partner."

"Work, with work you mean."

"If you'd prefer to be close minded, then yes." Slade smirked. "First thing; you are a meta. That –

"Was that why y –

"It was in the files he left." Slade finished. "Seventeen and finishing high school. Did you know Duke, when I was your age, I was in the army. Korean war, faked it to make it. Never finished that last year."

"Wow, that's very…. Deathstroke if you, but to tell me all this?" Duke wondered in his sleep clothing still. "Aren't we still gunna be enemies once you two leave us and Bruce gets back – it…if, he is found I mean." The kid rubbed his neck and Slade hummed his thought on that. "I'm not an open book, I don't have to wear a mask and parade around at night. I put on a face and do my job. Soldiers are the same, and I know you can be better while he's not around. Tell me…do you remember the last case your team took. Against some owls, by chance?"

Duke knew this was too easy, he felt like he was being interrogated. No wonder Dick was always keeping his head down. "The Court?" He scratched his cheek cautiously. "Y- yeah, we drove them back to their lair twice. Bruce led the first wave attack, and then you saved Dami. I think…. but I didn't get to fight em' too much."

"That's right. Drugs, hallucinogens and not to mention, hypnosis." Slade said in a forked tongue – tone. A snake, as Duke gulped. "Wow, you know them pretty well? Any chance they tried to recruit you too?"

"Never had to try." Slade let his eye wink a bit into a slit, making Duke quiver at how the snake was now a tiger, looking at him with a Cheshire complexion. "Dick is important to me, and I think your powers could do our team a great favor. I want you to listen….to the sound of my voice…."

The wave of ice and cold had Duke suddenly gasp, his body going numb as he heard the man, the sound of radio waves and a watery shore….

"Good." Slade leaned in; his eye much more familiar with the kid thanks to a piece of tech he'd remembered to retrieve from an old friend. Arthur had this toy to control light and sound, but never to manipulate a user of that power.

"Then listen to me, and only me. When you see a bird in plain sight. I want you to…."

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What is Slade up to? Is he pulling a Cass and Dami again? Find out! Also, Arthur is Doctor Light, thought I'd bring that one out. So one of the team will be hypnotized and not know it, Dick is even unaware right? That Slade is back to his old roots? Find out….

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To clarify; Dick was seventeen when he officially stayed and stood by Slade to save everyone. It was until he's twenty now so back in the epilogue of Torn legacy, Dami had a growth rate in his aging because of how his mother created him. Right now, that slowed down due to him not allowing her to fix him. (Test tube kid. Go with it!) So in this effort, Jason is nineteen to keep it on a "rival – basis." Tim is two to three years in a difference and so is they are about sixteen onto seventeen. Cass is technically fourteen since she came to the manor at twelve almost after Dick had left with Slade to be Renegade since. Duke is about Tim's age and Dami is fifteen, Cass is fourteen. It balances out….Maybe?... Dami ages differently due to his grandfather's experiences (and my dyscalculia,) and it is not one year since but he slowed back down since you saw him age about…. five years into a future which is one hell of a time – leap! Actually, this whole thing is kind of odd because Dick ages rarely enough to tell his age. He looks about eighteen but taller and Slade is an effing demi god! He doesn't crack. Bruce will look different too later and Kate Kane is going to show as a rival to Dick and a skeptic just like Dami. She is Jason's age but tall. So, there. This is weird and I know that. Comic ages are too old for me. Twenties for me were being petite with a set of abs and no ass. So what? They can't all be Amazonian gods in my eyes….sigh….perspective in art. And so~! Dami told Slade a secret that he already had figured out and Slade took an answer from Dami to set him off as the lil rascal of the group. What will happen now that Batwing is back? Batwing is the oldest and twenty – three. He's no happy camper about all of this. Tim is a genius so he actually got into his second year of college earlier. Wayne bucks, and his stuff. He and Luke met through the man's business and the rest was history, so Tim has an old man brain of the group. Dick is not the oldest of the group, but the siblings and he thinks so much that he has to learn to BE the bat, thing is? He is starting to really let that sink in without noticing it. Reminds me of Cera in Hazbin Hotel when her eyes got to flames based on the projection of her sense of justice being clouded as good, not as a sin in and of itself. So I used that when Dick laughs and says "If I can be as hard as Bruce was on everyone here, and better at it…then you won't end up in danger." That sentence very soundly, dictates that the real Dick would never do this, but Bruce in a tougher light to HIM, would. He's going to start training them until they weep. Not until the others discover that Dick…knows how to dethatch and become a whole other person…Also, is Slade ok with this attitude, or is this how Renegade always was when they never got to know his change of heart? Because heroes don't kill. And Jason hit the nail on the head. Like Vigilantes, which means not like cold blooded assassins. Slade taught Dick those moves and for any thought, the truth will eventually find their ears. Find out!

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