Our Time in Reverse- What it Takes

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Chapter 57: Putting the Past Aside

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This is a side chapter that will lead to another run in, but be certain you get this – there will be a minor death. As in, death of a minor.

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Tara couldn't see anyone while the staff she'd chosen to trust, locked her up. Gave her a stupid suit like some runaway convict. What for? She didn't cry, her new goal was to pursue those that had wronged her and to get back to her beloved Bryon.

Her head in between her knees as she rested inside her contained cubicle, the JLA had said that the sentence to remove her from anything heinous would take some time.

They never specifically said how long, so she knew they would throw her out to the wolves, maybe deport her…

So much for trusting the good guys.

Beastboy had visited, and last time she had wept and then snapped at him to give her some "space."

She had none of that either, bound to lose her freedoms by all she had done for both Slade, and for her revenge against the rest of society. The other metas here were spread apart or sleeping a doped up, she felt the same, despite somehow countering her dose and not knowing why.

Had to be Slade. They said he'd injected something into her and she was useless to him otherwise if she couldn't handle the pressure of being useful at all.

As his weapon, always that old trick.

She grumbled into her position on the ground, not seeing at the corner of her left eye, a junior with a brimmed cap and a silver mop bucket….the whole thing made her look up. His mop didn't look very flimsy either. "You hot caught up in quite a mess, Huh? They might experiment on some, save us folk the trouble of seeing you kill even more. Metas." He spoke griffin, despite the mockery in his voice having a certain twinge that made Tara lift up.her blonde head. "Why don't you clean up another person's area and quit bugging me? I'm not the one doing anything wrong-

"But you did." Hissed the man as he let the water slosh over hard concrete. Underground, this base was only recognized by a few others. It was dark out, all of the staff had gone home or were rotating shifts and ordering donuts, she bet.

They wouldn't be able to catch this man teasing her about her wrong doings.

"You took the bull by the horse and shook em up – too bad, cause he got away, that bronco." Chuckled the janitor, his eyes hidden as if he had none to show her. She sat up, to her knees as she lifted herself. The inhibitor collar was the only set of precaution she'd been given. Her hands were free to pound the glass to get him to back off.

"I don't know what you're doing bothering probably only me. Yeah, so what if I didn't want people like you to come after me and screw with my mind? Is that a crime?"

"Crime? No, not that." Smirked the junior as he swirled the mop head closer to her feet, the glass parting their meeting as it pulled back as a wave to a rushing, waiting shoreline. Flowing out, before receding. Ebbing away, to coax her to get too close.

Push and pull, she knew he wasn't just doing this for kicks. Maybe this was her assassin from Markovia….she put down her head, her eyes burning before lifting them to see his one eye striking her back. She gasped, nearly yelping and falling down as he cackled. That eye.

No….

No way!

"Stay away from me…. you…you can't be in –

"And, why then are you them, Terra?" The man's voice turned to one she had already remembered, feared and hated. Gravely with bitten lips, she had plotted for this moment. Now, she was powerless if he decided to beat or ruin her like a broken object; one that had already turned on to its caretaker.

"It's a pity to see you suffering like this. I dod try to warn you that they wouldn't save you or your family. The Justice League won't get involved in blood fueds. Not if it takes away their image, or sullied their hands in the process. Have they told you about the trial yet?" He leaned into the mop and cocked his head, seeking her answer as her lips never moved quickly enough. "They, they want to clear it, to say I was manipulated, trafficked and abused….to say I'm-

"You and I know that this, simply isn't the whole truth, Terra." Slade swapped to using her fake identity under him. She seethed in a breath and tried to break from his eyes' trance, his hypnotic voice, keeping her down. "I fought to find him. You lied to me, you knew all along!" She shouted this time. Bryon's face in the back of her mind; never fading out, not until they were both reunited for good. "When they told me what you did to my body, that the suit was injecting me with a part of you…the whole time I was with the Titans…" Her eyes squeezed shut as her madness then and before was always because of him.

"If I'd known about you organizing the death of my uncle on top of that, that wasn't for me. That was for –

"Against your curious nature, you worked as well behind my back. Didn't you? To steal all of my secrets and flee when it was time." His hand held something in it, a small device that was hardly similar to a remote. Was…

She gasped. "My dear. I didn't just inject you to keep you alive. I never showed that boy or your allies the other small dose of executioners houses in your bloodstream. Still. Undetected."

She wasn't able to breathe as her vision went red.

"It would look like cardiac arrest from an overdose by the staff." He said with a didactic tilt of his head at the glass. "That should you betray our first agreement, I might remove you from it. If you're not up to date on the terms this far, here…" Slade pressed the button, Tara's heart rate speeding up inch by inch without her deciding to stop it. She clutched her chest and whimpered out. "Let me show you, what happens to those that decide to go against their vows in MY circle."

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In the tower, Beastboy only a day late was forced to gather the heroes as at their rooftop, Manhatten and Green Lanturn had come bearing some unpleasant news.

The morning had looked up for them all, despite waiting to see if Tara would confess to her reasons or if she had been altered to work against the law by Slade.

"She was injected with a stolen supply of nanoscopic probes. The bugs were only found after an autopsy, but at first they thought it was due to a drug induced heart failure. We know she was murdered in her confinement. I'm sorry, Titans."

The heroes had no choice but to hold a memorial, to get deeply involved – Beastbou however, howled out his curses at the Titans' senior advisers as mother Gaia had never intended.

"MUDERERS! YOU LET HIM TAKE HER DOWN! You're not gonna just drop this, I won't let her death be in vain. Slade has to be stopped!"

"Deathstroke's is still at large, yet untraceable." Manhunter said to the green teen. "I am sorry once more, Garfield. You truly wished to care and help for that girl. She however will be given peace. The staff in the facility will be fined and punished in the sake of the law here for leaving her unattended. There will be a thorough invest –

"That doesn't mean it won't happen again. Tara was only one target Slade was after." Raven told the older heroes. "She had connections to Slade even before coming to this city."

Starfire bobbed her head. "Yes. She's a princess, abd none of you of the League jad really truly thought to help her save her family, not before she was stolen from them –

"Slade bought her, but the real reason we can't get in to Markovian air space is because of who's running the show since then. A society called the Brotherhood."

Beastboy's eyes went electric. "Did you say…. Brotherhood?" His fists shook as he pointed the finger again. "Slade was working with the Brotherhood of Evil! You let her die because they took over Markovia – her uncle let them!! And you won't stop the war he's probably helping them plan to overthrow and torture anyone who resists!!"

"And it's in the border of a lot of politically afflicted areas. Resources….how could you let them just…"

"We got outta there before anyone got hurt and half of those metas the government experimented on are out if the country to look for a cure. Paid for by Wayne Enterprises." GL dictated as Beastboy only grew more upset by their grandstanding.

"Bruce Wayne then, let an innocent girl DIE." Her shouted. "You let her die, and he's gonna keep killing anyone that was ever connected to her whole world…I know the Doom Patrol won't stop me from being right." Beastboy threw his comm unit to the ground, shouting a last appeal before Starfore and the others had no choice but to walk away. "The Titans are done. I'm leaving and going back to someone who will actually stand up to the Brotherhood and quit running away…. tell Mr. Wayne that he can deal with his crap. I'm done walking your shadows all the time."

"But you'd go back to them, stop being you?"

Cy wasn't sure if Bb got the gist, yet the slam of the rooftop door told him enough. "We'll alert you on the funeral date as soon as we know it…I'm sorry, Vic." Starfire and Raven left well before as their leader worked out a strategy for future attacks with an old accomplished member of said Justice.

"How is Dickie? Richard, I mean…" He changed the subject, Manhunter trying to be as neutral as possible while he answered Cy's question, "Richard Grayson is becoming as he was before the kidnapping. Before Slade had ever put the thoughts of an assassin for the boy to absorb as a young child. He is learning to control a part of himself, though I fear…"

"What?" Cy wondered as GL had to do the same. "The boy has reflexes more attune to his fighting style taught by a pervious mentor. Right now, tests are being conducted to understand what may be trying to resurface. As a result of what I was able to do to his mind to protect it from more so regressing further, his old teacher's name has been erased. He cannot hear, nor speak or remember what it was. It will come up as silent meeting, or nothing at all."

"So, to Richie….Slade can never exist. What about Deathstroke?"

"Any persons or feelings associated in time will bury themselves and dissolve. Bruce Wayne specifically made certain that these tampered memories will continue to plague the child until he has been set free from old tethers that bound him to his forced apprenticeship."

"He was afraid to tell Slade off, Luke he really thought the dude caree about him. Is that him as a victim, or.."

"Richard was coaxed into the plan to avenge the man that killed his parents. Bruce was against and always has been, vengeance, yet Slade came in first and foremost. He took over the role as teacher and care giver for either nearly full years. Bruce never once stopped his search, he was too wrung with guilt to see how these events would take shae. How Richard was never safe had he chosen the path of a murderer."

"He never did, but we saw how when he attacked Bb the first time they fought, he had trouble controlling his reflexes."

"The serum was in the boy, for as long as he was with Deathstroke. Slade added it along each fight you had, made him sick with it until his mind certainly would have been changed. Had Slade come in – had we nor gotten there in time."

"Totally brainwashed for good, even if in the beginning he believed it was the best thing for him. Slade…what about Terra? You said her too, right?"

"Tara Markov was used for her powers, only." GL butted in. "Slade never wanted her to train beside em, the fact he used a small dose of his own blood ta keep her from expiring means the probes would have patched themselves up. It would have counteracts how many times he'd hurt her. The kid had no clue, she wasn't crazy. She was drugged up and reacting to some side effects, making her stress worse than before the longer she wore that neural interface suit."

"I couldn't pull it off a her." Cy frowned. "She was a mess, but she really was just…scared of everything that she'd gone through. Raven always like that with –

"Speaking of Trigon." Jhonn put in a second, "Has the empath on your team seem any new visions of what's to be expected under the last prophecy. The one we were warned about when she appeared on earth?"

A few years, not even ago, Raven had spoken an eerie prophecy before fainting and becoming a later Titan. Cy had translated the inscriptions and the weren't pretty.

"Wait." Cy scanned through his arm and an image of the disc that Dick had found after their fight with Lightning; the staff in Slade's hands as Manhunter gaped.

"The symbol! Of Scath…."

Cy looked down on it, then scanned back to the texts from the prophecy. It was a match, he swallowed.

"Slade made contact with the guy, Raven's father." GL said. "You need to let her know that the man's takeover was incited by something even more dangerous than we first pictured. I'll let Bruce in on it, see if Dick was affected by any black mojo or whatever."

"Dark magic is the specific norm fir one other person in the League that we do know of, Stewart. He's also met Lord Trigon before. In an alternative reality."

Say what?" Cy dropped his arm to beg out, "Who? Who can stop this ogre from having a second coming on earth??"

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Not over yeeet…..and I cut the thing with Terra short because originally it was going to be Slade helping her to escape, then getting her and killing her woth a blade but that's too messy and they would have figured him out too soon. This way, she is given a bitter end and that's that. The next will be Bb going to talk to Elastigirl and Mento, while Dick is told something disturbing by his shadow and the good doctor who only wants him to forget about a man he can't remember by name or face, or voice.

Glad abd Cy with Raven are going to see if Trigon really was after Slade and making him go a little angsty more than usual, or of more is happening because Slade sold his soul to a devil in ep 4. Will the bat fam cope? Will Slade strike again? Find out!

Next up…Constantine, because you know you love that joker!