OUR TIME IN REVERSE; MY MISSION TO STRIVE BY: PART – A
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Request fic from WolfGuardJadwiga; If Slade, at the death and seeing Dick's pare to fall to the ground, decided to step in – however, Dick's future was promised to a Mr. Billionaire Bruce Wayne. The kid feels isolated, neglected and knows nothing about his foster parent's double life. Slade ends up finding in a turn of events, a bit of a rebel in the kid and gives him an option he has to sleep on, his cementing their mentorship status in the future. There was no first Robin, but that does not mean someone else didn't take a whack at it. Find out!
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The boy's initial reaction was a if he were still up on that stage; his two caregivers since birth, cold and dead on the bottom of the trapeze – the blood pooling to remind that child of where he had to go. What came is last, as Slade Wilson that day stayed and watched a man in black stand up and rush over. Even he had that glint in his eye. An idea was forming. "Maybe he needs someone in his life. I could be that someone." Slade was a for - hire killer on the side. Today, was supposed to mean he didn't have to see blood shed this way, not a murder, as the man in black; his slicked back hair and a set of strikingly upset blue eyes that matched the child's own….
Slade had seen that man before, somewhere. So, he stayed there in the stands for only a second before silently making his way like a thief towards the exit. Over his shoulder, the boy's tensioning body unfurling. There under the dimming lights, he saw the kid's eyes no longer mirroring the man in black's, but Slade's.
THAT CHILD.
Slade didn't try to drop the topic from weaving webs in the back of his mind. He needed a reason to live harder. That,boy could be…..
Stronger.
He wanted…he needed it.
Vengeance .
( NOT A SLASH!!)
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Dick sat at the dining room table almost every night by himself. He was enrolled into a prestigious Gotham prep school for the high and mighty one percent, yet behind it all…that wasn't what he'd wanted. It was weeks since their deaths and Mr. Wayne had been supportive to, a degree. One night, after his room door came to open by a stray Bobby pin a d a bit of patience, Dick Grayson's heart had held plenty of regrets to hold back. He snuck out the hallway window and climbed down as any acro- brat could ever have been taught. He'd gotten beat up the first day out in the courtyard by a kid who called him that, and only their butler Alfred Pennyworth, Wayne's personal friend had shown his face in the principal's office.
Dick moved with grace towards the tree stretched out ward with one handy grip. It was in his blood to swing off of that bar, his one legacy….
He had the ground in view as his feet hit it with ease. His shoes clasped the grass as the wind blew through his tousled black mane. Richard Grayson had lost something dear and precious to him, and the man responsible was still out there. Asking for more lives to fall by his weapon, like he had done to Dick's last living family in the world…
The man who had adopted him, Mr. billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne wasn't quick enough; Richard sniffled and wiped his arm over his nose. Mr. Wayne wasn't looking for his kind of justice at all, so…. Richard simply, ran away.
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Slade was up on the roof of an upscale townhouse on the upper side of Gotham. In his Deathstroke regalia, a job had been finished earlier tonight for him than per his usual example. Not to celebrate this late, his binoculars looked down, seeing a kid running in the dark after his shadow. He passed on the boy, a cat on its ledge as it watched intently from up above.
~ Who…~
His brain fizzed and the memory of a crying ebony haired athlete's son, soon filled his one eye socket. That kid was a walking disaster, running faster into God knows what dangers this city had to offer up on a silver platter. Slade kept an eye open…no bat or clowns presently out for a midnight stroll. He decided to have a look for himself. Was the boy having a crisis? Slade then thought back to Wayne's eyes over his own single orb.
He didn't get to admit it then, but these were his exact thoughts. That the boy running from his own fears, and this golden opportunity could be his own way out of a rut he'd be very willing to expect from, his young new student's life turning the tides. Deathstroke was alone, but this kid needed someone better to let his demons lie...
Slipping into the side of the building soundlessly, Slade stayed close and quiet. The boy was panting, running with his fragile tears falling to the ground. By the back alley of a seedy bar, he'd found the wrong place to run out of breath.
Slade's alter ego was no guardian spirit from the beyond. This was not a hit on Wayne's ward, who clearly wasn't instructed on what he'd end up dealing with in the future. AND THAT.
Slade grinned and got his materials ready.
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Throwing a smoke pellet or four onto ground level, the boy coughed until he felt the first clasp of an arm around him…and then sleep, came all too soon.
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The boy looked upset even in dreamland as Slade made sure he was only cuffed and sitting on the floor of the dusty, abandoned warehouse. Not tied to a chair or strung up like a piñata. It was his code to not kill kids, not like the bratty billionaire by his development here might as well have done.
"My…. head…. ugh…" The kid was up faster than Slade had hoped, but it was better that he'd taken his time with knapping the nine-year-old from any "suspecting" eyes. The last thing this had to be was a random for Wayne's dollar bills.
No stray cats, bats, or murderers.
Well, all except the one mercenary that the boy currently had to meet. Face to face.
"That wasn't an act of yours, child?" Slade put on the mask to scare adults mostly. Here, he left the eye patch to do the talking as he fiddled with the boy's wallet and a school I.d he'd been given. "Richard John Grayson." Slade hummed as he went over the contents while the kid was still regaining his senses a bit. "Famous. You were there at the circus that night, though you won't remember if I tell you anything about that time…"
"Sir…. you…. you just …. what is going on? I want to get out of here, please... You can't –
He was panicking right in his chest. Slade could hear every thump as he tried to relax. Dick's heart started to steady as Slade's presence changed in milliseconds. A trick he had learned, no difference in how one used meditation to still the mind. His voice becane smooth, soft and even casual. "Take a deep breath, kid... I'm not here to hurt you, I promise you that."
He had to do this, or Wayne would ruin this kid. Just like his alter ego. Just like the family this kid should never have gotten mixed up in.
"You were in the territory of some pretty bad people. You don't recall? I saved your life tonight but you tried to kick me in my face."
Dick blushed red and imagined that he'd almost succeeded, was that all true??
"I had no choice before the cops came running in. So. Where, do you have to go." The man moved his arm out as he went to adjust and remove a portion of the cuffs from the boy's wrists. The kid shrunk back, afraid to be lied to again, and afraid of a stranger in a brown long coat and a single black eye patch. He wasn't a dutiful nanny like the butler of Wayne's. Nor was he aware of how much Wayne and his associates detested Wilson's very presence. This could be problematic, if done incorrectly. The kid needed a nudge, just a push to get him started.
"Where is your home, do you need a ride or some cash for –
"I'm…not going home, I can't yet." Dick looked over the man while for a second, that knowledgeable part his senses picked up on this man's occupation almost….
"Your, you've got a gun. And you aren't just someone who said he helped me." DickDiquint3d his eyes a bit. "Who are you, sir?" Dick looked at the man with his big and rather expressive cerulean pupils. "Why did you come after me?"
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It was dumb to respond to nonchalantly. Slade slid a hand to the back of his neck and sighed to himself. "Here I thought there were no great detectives." The man wondered aloud, "Tell me, Grayson. Does your father know where you are right now?"
"He's not my father." Dick spit out nastily at the rogue male in a trench coat. "He's not even there half of the time, he doesn't ask for me or even remember why he adopted me in the first place. So, I ran away, ok?"
"I see." Slade bobbed his head, briefly in understanding. "I joined the army when my parents didn't help me out either. My own mother was afraid of my father and my brother had nothing to offer confidently in... I forged my age and saw the world; the army was my stepping stone, not that you should do what I did." Slade returned this time as he fished the key to the cuffs back out of his belt compartment. "Though, where do you expect to run to; Gotham is a cruel place for a boy who has nothing, even the money in your wallet. That doesn't belong to you." Smirked the male as he knelt down to grip the kid's wrist and remove the cuffs completely this time. His face was close, yet there was no lie in the man's eye. Dick saw it as he forced down a slow, dry gulp.
"If you need to get anywhere, tell me and I can drop you off." Said the mercenary. "Would you rather find another family member –
"I don't know where they are." Dick stayed on the dirty floor of the old warehouse and groaned out the last word. His knees were hugged to his chest with those eyes shimmering and ready to tear up at any given moment, with one last push.
Slade stated and brought himself up to full height again. "No aunts or uncles to speak of? Are you sure there isn't a single person you know to contact." Dick shook his head with somber resolute. "No, we traveled, mom and pop…. we went all over and they were there once to visit…. I don't even know where Gramma and Granddad are either, I was told in Minnesota. I don't know…"
"They didn't hear the-
Slade stopped as the tears finally were shed. Slade knew that face, his sons had the same looks when they came down to it. Being calm took willpower. Whether their fault or not, or Dick's, he needed that same support to stand on his own two feet.
"What happened," Slade got back to one knee, the wiping his face with the back of his sleeve of his hooded sweatshirt. "Tell me about them, Dick."
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"They were killed, mom and pop….by a man who wanted Mr. Haley to pay a fee for protecting our show in Gotham, but we all refused to give him what he was asking for then….so…so, he cut them!" Dick bawled out as Slade watched not tears, but red fueled hate pushing its way through the cracks. "I wanted him to show himself, but he got away…he killed my parents…took away my life…. I want him to see that I wanted as much as they did, for him to be made to pay for his crimes… even in heaven…. they'd forgive me, right? I mean, he killed my family – I wanted to stop him but never said…." Stopping himself, Slade understood everything thus far. "You saw the ropes being tampered with but they never listened, kid?" The man finally had the traumatized boy's attention. Those eyes now only for him to view up this close. "I can show you how to fix things to a degree, though nothing can bring your parents back. Not the family you deserve, if you'll allow me to offer my services in full."
"Why?" Dick wrapped and let his lips stop trembling to ask, "Why are you trying to help me so much…. I'm not special. I'mjust a kid without real anything...it was all taken away. You can do it, right? I don't know how to fight like that...But, because I didn't say it loud enough…I…I killed them too-
"Shake that thought from your head; it isn't real." Slade gripped the boy's face for him to quit crying. It was over, he had to try to focus now on the objective at hand right in front of him.
"It isn't the truth about what really happened. You could never have stopped this, you and I both know, even Mr. Wayne." Slade saw how the boy considered his every word. "My real job since leaving my platoon a long time ago with a warrior's spirit, is as a mercenary, Dick. And I can kill and capture that same man who took away your happiness. The only thing I'd ask I return from you as proper payment, would be for me to teach you, train you in everything that I know to train you on one shot, just one to put away the man who did you a wrong that was unforgivable; no officers will catch him in time and the Bat, has he shown up since then? Has he, Dick?"
Dick shook his head, trembling from the pep talk going in a direction he'd never expected to turn into a gym coach's speech. "No, sir."
Slade smiled a bit. ~ Good answer, boy. Your superior would be proud of that semblance of respect.~
"Once you do start down this path, there will be other opportunities to better hone your weaknesses to turn them into your greatest assets. You can never undo yourself, and you have to be strong, stronger than any hero you may still idolize. My job isn't pretty. Usually, there are only happy endings if someone depends on one to happen, that has to be outside of our control. But…." The man confided in the child, a child. One left to live by the law of someone who could crush his confidence underfoot. He'd make the boy shine again, just as he had besude his family in the limelight. Even if this new life could tend to gather some gore and grit along the way, he'd be OK.
He'd learn to like it, eventually….perhaps.
"I…. I've never hurt anyone before like that-
"Did you ever punch a classmate? Go hunting in the wilderness with your father? Or have you flown before, Dick. I've seen it. You can do anything with enough drive behind your actions, and that." Slade openly promised, "Is what I'm here to offer, to build the real you back up. To learn to fly high again, just like your parents would have wanted."
He lifted himself off the ground, letting his hands drop and then Slade pulled out a device. Looking like a compact disc from his belt compartment, Dick moved from his knees and held onto the wall for support as he just stared over at the man and then the strange device. Slade eyed the item as well before setting it to the correct sequence he wanted. He reached his arm out, palm up, as he offered the device now to Dick. "If you open that up, there is a button that anywhere on Earth, I will hear it and come running. It's an offer I know you want, child. I'm a father myself of two boys a few years apart, so you'd not be without someone who does not understand your needs." He wryly smiled back. "I'm not as exclusive as Wayne is…though I made a pretty penny and have my own estate not far from a safe place in California at the moment. That was my next flight back by this week. If you change your mind." The man turned and Dick saw that on the boy's person was also a wad of money for a cab. He didn't want to back, but he was safer with Bruce until he could find out more about this man.
"Wait!" Dick tried to keep his voice down, only a little.
"What is your name? Will I see you around..."
Slade let his feet stop a minute, boots scraping as he looked back Ober his shoulder, "That's all up to you, Dick. And my title, my name for you is…. Slade Wilson. I know you'll make the wise decision to stand at me side one day."
With the idea planted to set root off into the boy's mind and heart, something would bloom upon his return to that manor, and he would be hand delivered in person later to the correct estate.
In due time, as the boy picked up his backpack and collected his cell as he flipped it open, his hands were no longer shaking.
"Hi…I need a ride to –
He barely needed to yawn or even explained his real age and face, as the pointing finger he added only defined his perfect spot to the driver. At Wayne manor, the cab driver was greeted by not one, but two individuals. Dick scrunched his head down, ashamed still as the driver was thanked by Alfred and one more. Did he need to be awake this early?
The boy clicked his tongue and wondered if that billionaire ever slept like a normal person. ( Future bat reference!)
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"It is two in the morning, currently." Alfred spoke to the master of the home as he sauntered in cool with his gaze rather stern. "Dick." Bruce came to the boy as Richard sat in the large arm chair he'd come to find as a second bed. Hanging above the fireplace there was a framed painting of his parents. His dead parents, and Bruce, was blocking the view.
"You snuck out, unsupervised and with the desire to do what, exactly? Dick…"
"I didn't think you cared that much." Muttered the boy, disdainfully.
"What was that, young man?"
"You weren't around, I was by myself." Dick shrugged, feeling helpless as he tried to secure himself inside the cocoon of indifference as Wayne reprimanded his ward. That's right, never his son. Nothing to him if he screwed up any other time. "You can always take me back to Saint Peter's–
"DON'T ever talk like that, Richard." Wayne got to his face as Dick's eyes searched him, weary with sleep. "You're grounded. No video games, your work at school should be done as I'll see to it with your tutor twenty-four seven, and you…. you are not…"
"A, what? Not what you wanted, Mr. Wayne?" Dick shot up at the taller elder. "You're not even my real father so why should you care what I am?? I can be as loud and dumb as I want and you would just walk away like you always do since I got here!!"
Bruce didn't speak, his hands to his side as he thought about those words. "I'm sorry, Dick. I have my work and, it's frustrating. For all of us. I haven't been much of a guardian you were holing fir, but you don't have think less of yourself for anything in the world."
"What about the killer."
Bruce's hope suffered greatly by that blow, his hope shattered in the question. "I've been incontact with a friend. He's looking into –
"HE COULD HAVE FLED THE COUNTRY!" Richard shouted and forced himself to face the liar, the biggest one in his life right now.
Besides his parents.
Alfred, the stooge…. The police…. all of them were….Useless.
He….
"You can't do it…." Dick curled up and looked at the other wall, his legs held tighter to his body as his nine-year-old tears never came.
Just pure, damning hate as he screamed at his supposed savior.
No more.
Liar….
Liar….
Lies.
All of them!
"GET. OUT."
Duck felt apart of him willing to snap, yet he maintained it, knowing he needed that compact.
"I…won't, Dick. You need-
"I…. HATE. YOU. Leave me alone…."
Bruce felt a shock go through his heart, knowing Dick was so very hurt by the wait to find and arrest Tony Zucco. He knew, and so did Bruce's special source below their feet.
His wristwatch beeped, a bad time as Dick clicked his tongue and stared at the wall away from his keeper. That's all he was, caged in by the person he'd come to no longer consider as any good for him.
If only Dick knew how wrong that was…
"Alfred will help you to settle in. Soon." Bruce cautiously took his time not to bombard the boy with more reprimands. "Still, you're going to school this week. You have time to change things Dick, and I will find Zucco."
Dick gasped, the words coming out as Bruce saw the boy reach out an arm.
"Bruce, I -
Yet, he was gone again…...yet, yet…. he'd dropped an important bit of information into the child's lap just now. Dick sat in awe for a few seconds before snapping out of that embarrassing state.
He had to find Slade. He had to find him to say his mind was made up; and he would be the one to make Tony Zucco pay for what he had done…before this case was left cold in the GCPD'S tracks.
And off of a certain flying rodent's radar.
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Dick figures out that Batman is the informant, but not that Bruce is the bat??
(NOTED THIS IS MORE AKIN TO THE BATMAN 2004 BRUCE WAYNE BECAUSE I HAD A CRUSH AS A KID. AND THE DICK IN THIS IS A YOUNGER TT 03 VERSION TO KEEP IT KORE RELEVANT TO THE MATERIAL I WANT, THIS IS AN ALT SETTING! IT IS NOT A STORY BUT A ONE SHOT TO BE CLEAR. SCENARIONS ONLY, PEEPS! ONCE AGAIN. IDEA and DEDICATION to fan, WolfGuardJadwiga AND THEIR MIND – great twist there! I JUST DID SOME TOUCH UPS TO THE PLOT.
A STORY IS IN ORDER! FIND OUT!
PART B ...DICK KILLS ZUCCO?
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