The Dark Knight Chronicles; My Brother, the Renegade – My Father, the Batman
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Chapter 13: Abandon Thine Faith
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Taking back up the mask of Owl man, his anti – character suddenly somehow made sense. A terrible amount of it as Slade burst in with Dami, Selina and Cass. "What did I miss." She held up her knives as Dami motioned to whom it was they'd cornered this time. "The ringleader. He's after –
"Wayne's only lifeline to our vast wealth and demand for more power that he NEVER even deserved." Huffed the look alike Wayne beside the dusted family portraits. "I was the one. The owls never caught me, no. They saved me!"
"You're wrong, they're using us to work their pieces on the board." Slade said. "You are under the impression that we've come to give you what you want, yet the actual reason is not here."
"What are you playing at, Slade?" Selina hissed at the merc, yet he just went on; "Your associates, the talon are not only loyal to you. But to your targets. I think you should flee now while you can. You're just a puppet, no matter how wide your wings spread." The man sneered. "A lonely soul that lost his inheritance by a dual chance of fate. The owls used YOU to get Wayne to break. Wherever he is, you have ten seconds to cough up the location."
" I was going to say that." Pouted Dick as Dami jumped in to bring up his sword. "Do as he says; or we won't let you leave."
"Why, should I?" Thomas didn't seem the least bit willing to cooperate. Pairs of golden, glowing yellow eyes came out of the ceiling. Cloaked, bugged and the bats were now outnumbered.
"Dear Talon? Show these unfortunates just how loyal you are to the court, and to me. NOW, Go."
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Slade looked to spy Cobb, then lost him as he noticed that there was no way he could be clashing without throwing in a monologue. The man was a gloater, yet Dick was facing with Slade, Thomas and two head commanding secondary talon.
"The gray – son is brainwashed by the Waynes! We must free him –
"No." Dami slashed out with his blade, as the two dumb "ignoramuses" slipped away to regroup for their next counter move. "You won't, and he's staying right here."
"Cobb would forgive and forget, little Al – Ghul…" The one talon had its hands up, as if to be so peaceable. Dami's growling upper lip and his stance were enough to say it held no sway. He ran at the men, charging into them with a battle cry. "You don't know! Stay away from my birthrite, it is not yours to keep!!!"
They knew too much, and that unnerved the son of Talia and Bruce. She was still loyal to him, so how –
"You do not know what our purpose truly is." The talon never gave in, taunting and dragging Dami into their world filled with conspiracies that came from the very founding. Well before even. He panted, his eyes going softer, his vision a blur.
"Damian!" Cass ran out as she didn't see the Talon come at her and jab the back end of his blade at the harvest part into her shoulder, right by a pressure point. "Cass…leave her –
"Do you wish to know who shall rule us? It is not the Gray - son, for he rules the Talon of Gotham…the court belongs to the head. The man who knows immortality. Our lord, Ra's. Al – Ghul…"
"What?" Dami nearly lost the grip of his blade, face going blank. "Who…who has him?" His voice was broken, had he only known (Based off of series Gotham) that his grandfather was that influential. Even in…. the past, in Gotham? He'd pushed him….it clicked. "Grandfather….why?"
Selina saw Slade fighting and Dick pushing back the talon. She called out, yet her only whip had enough in it to pull her to one kid. Cass, who was trying to fight the fatigue and was slipping, or Damian Wayne, who had just learned another awful secret about his dark inheritance.
Both boys, both Wayne boys were manipulated by his grandfather….Wayne, Bruce had turned down becoming a successor to the League, yet….Why did Grandfather plan it by killing? And grooming the bat to be him??
Dami's eyes through his mask shook back and to, he had to fall to his knees. Dick had a history with the talon to his great grandfather, but Wayne…HE was chosen to ruin this city. This was…
"Quit crying and fight your oppressors, Robin!" Slade snapped the kid out of his slump with a call; "Who cares if they are being greedy as sin; If you surpass that old fossil, you could run the court until it's gone for good. You can fight back, to save your father."
"Dami, we have t –
Damning his luck, Dick held his skull and wailed out. Thomas only grinned as he beckoned their one true success this night, to follow. Dick was sure his mind was hidden away. As he was swallowed up in the trap that was his consciousness, the gaping beak of an owl gulped him in and to his fate. As he…
Was free, to rise.
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"The solution wasn't completed…. how?" Selina gripped Cass as they let her go, beaten but alive. "We didn't see it." Slade scowled. "Dick…you change –
"No, sir." Smirked the talon, the golden eyed ex boy wonder with a cock of his head. "YOU made this all possible, master."
The merc looked gob smacked. "What?"
Dick walked to where Thomas was waiting, and to their scare, Dick had his hands on a few smoke pellets designed to have these flies drop on to their knees once more. "Damian can come too. I promised myself I'd be back and Bruce isn't going to get to train you. I could though –
"You….you're not my brother. You were supposed to be him! Bruce! –
"I wasn't going to bother." Dick spat resentfully. "Bruce forced me to put on the cowl and I ut up with it, but you still hated my guts!"
"I…I was furious that you and –
"Slade was good about it always and you just….never trusted me or our plan. I could have been a better bat…." Dick sneered at the others. "If my team wasn't also trying to out me into giving up the post. You KNEW I couldn't be him, you said I should and it failed. So this is better, right? I'm back, we don't need to be so gung ho ab –
"Thomas, if that is your name." Slade dropped his gaze from Dick back to the man behind the goggles. "You're not a father type, are you. Do you know what it took to convince mysel that this was a bad idea?? That being brainwashed by you, by the way, it was a fluke. My abilities terminate drugs that enter my body in mere hours."
Thomas's hand moved to place it upon Dick's shoulder. "I'm not trying to ask, Deathstroke. The boy's fate has always been to liberate this city. It's written –
"In MUD." Slade growled out. "Hand him over, and I won't have to counter your dirty methods. Only a coward could run when there is more to accomplish." He aimed, dead serious.
" Where ." Slade pulled out his pistol. "Is. Bruce. Wayne."
The room was still as the talon vanished to cloak themselves like phantoms again. The bomb Dick tossed was not gas, but darkness as the room turned pitch black as a moonless night above. "Tonight, under a dark moon, you will not see a city like this come to crumble…yet to finally be the key in our rebirth. My brothers, Cobb and the court all know the prophecy that you deny…. we will not be found, be it by you or a blood sucking rodent ."
"Richard!" Dami sprawled after the dark figures. His feat being impossible as Slade rushed in to grab the boy before he could be taken as well. "Cat and mouse it is…" The merc snorted. "We won't stand still for long."
"You won't even need to blink…" Quietly, as wings of a night bird, the smoke vanished. All that remained were the last standing, that - and Luke had better have found with Kate a way to keep the talons from breaching the surface.
"War is coming." Slade turned as the only face they could view, was the gutted-out face of the boy that would destroy Gotham city.
The lost Wayne heir, Thomas Jr.
And Bruce. Who's location was seemingly becoming a slimmer and slimmer possibility.
Until Dami croaked out a name unto his dried out, ashen lips.
"Mother…." He gasped. "Mother, is the one who is, doing this to us…."
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