Our Time in Reverse- What it Takes
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Chapter 58: Major Flaws and Dark Figures
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"You never said how we tricked em." Cy stared at Manhunter as he related something of the events prior to their escape from Slade's destroyed base. "Wilson was disturbing at best, more than anything he'd ever appear to us in older archives; if Raven's prophetic seeing is in fact viable or truth, then Slade in fact is a man possessing a demon's protective aura. His desire to seek their demise, our destruction was greater than ever – the trick on his mind psychically allowed the man in the mask to see your team in peril. You were in fact well, and the trick worked wonders to distract the man, the ego he holds clouded his path and that, is why he will seek out another time. Another fight."
"You think he's gonna go after us, and Richie?"
"Yes, what of Richard, if he is not the here…" Starfire clung her hands through her red long mane, anxiously. "Will Slade not go after his very life as well?"
"He may, Bruce better be ready to fight dirty. I wouldn't play nice with a man whose boss is a demon from another planet." Flash saw out the window of the tower while Cy wondered when they'd have to go off to the watchtower again; if he couldn't join up, help fill in some missing blanks for himself. For his teammates.
"We don't kill, but the exception is…crucial." GL rubbed his chin. "If we don't stop what he's gonna have up his sleeve, geared an 'ready, we could face more attacks. Slade hated to lose them, and now he's as bloodthirsty as he was after the first time they made him a monster."
"Richard is no monster as you say!" Starfire yelled with her feet levitating off the ground. "He is confused, and hurt, and as you say, he should be protected from harm! We failed him. I, could not see past the lies Slade had him to say. He wanted a family, there was no one to say what that was, and…."
"Bruce said the case with Dick's mind is not great, but it's worth looking into. He made sure Jhonn was willing to put up a block. If that's enough, he can let Slade outta his life. Let us deal with boarding up that old wolf from the places he's used to crawling back to."
"Like, where." Raven returned to their circle as Green Arrow turned his head, not even knowing she had wandered away in the common room.
"Hey, Chicka….eh, you left us?"
"Tea." She even brought the pot with her. "This will be a deeper discussion if I'm in it, so I had to pull away once."
"I understand, Raven." Manhunter nodded. "She is able to sense the emotional states of everyone in this room. For those with this ability, it is trying to stand up and face the frequencies representation each being alive in this area of your tower. You have our support."
She smiled, just a bit and levitate a cup for each of them. Flash caught his, Raven pouring each a small amount as Arrow had to gulp his, Cy was not against being polite to a spot of anything healthy, and Starfire was relived by the bitterness with an afterthought of a soft sigh.
"I hope he is well…they did try to do what they were able. Raven? What have you learned in your time meditating alone?"
"A few things, some…parts." Raven told them all as she sipped from her own cup. Manhunter taking to the practice as his senses lit up by the tea and its warmth.
"The cloaked boy wasn't Robin. Not, Dick Grayson, he was blonde this time."
"Huh?" Flash sipped and she poured him a second cup. "Blonde, green eyes, younger. He was, speaking to me through telepathy. So, I answered."
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Dick sat in the waiting room while Jason tapped his foot. Dick couldn't move while the shadow had morphed. It was tall as an adult now, leaning against the wall as he tried to look at his sneakers and ignore it.
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~ You know my name. Why won't you say it? ~ The voice was foreign to him, strong and had the air of one that possessed the world. Or with such a promising sound, Dick too would be pulled into it grip as he shuddered, rubbing his arms to get warmer.
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"Mr. Wayne?"
Dick looked at the representative and she looked at him, the inside door to other offices opening as the shadow walked and flanked from behind, until Bruce walked through it. Both dispelling its connection, and saving Dick's time on this plane.
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Slade's eye snapped back open, the book from his troubled time as an old soul was the gateway. He'd been close, he'd try again in a few moments.
~ That boy, if he is returned, you must not break your promise to me. ~
Slade sat up from his space on the floor, the blood etchings and the symbols used to find his sacred way through the Astral space were, a temptation underserved by a mere criminal mind. This is what he was now, now and forever.
Not a soldier, a murderer.
"I'm working on getting their attention in the meantime." Slade replied to his mysterious following force. The red eyes at his feet in four and six were of his shadow as the dark form swallowed up his own. He knew what failing meant. He'd become its way to this world. Trigon would get his soul to top it off, and the earth.
His desire to banish it was there in the book. He first had to use these gifts to get his apprentice home. Where he belonged, with all of his memories intact.
Mostly.
/
Jason sat by Alfred until they were allowed to go back. The rest of what they expected, was not as Bruce had anticipated to hurt thus much.
"Leslie. We never agreed to sedate him unless it was absolutely certain he'd lose control –
"He's fighting my staff to get a blood sample. I think what you did and what the doctors here know, qualifies for someone to make sure he can't be of any harm."
"He doesn't need –
"Master Bruce??" Alfred ran over to the room where Dick was being held down as Jason caught an glimpse of an inhibitor collar and roared back at Bruce's idea of keeping quiet. "Stop doing that to him! Hey! Someone open the door, we're not gonna just –
Jason turned his head to a moan as the drug went in, Dick's state stabilized from both the collar and the drug that wouldn't be there longer than the next few minutes. "We want to see how long it takes to disappear. If the traces are light, it's more than enhanced, Bruce." Leslie wrung her hand through her scalp and sighed. "He fought as soon as he saw the needle, so without this, we won't know how far along the serum is to his structure inside and out."
"Funny way to put how he's being treated like a –
"A meta." Bruce said, his tone tense while Dick blearily pouted back and dropped his head upon the second vial of blood. "He is, technically. Though underdeveloped, we can't let it progress without constant monitoring."
"You came here of all places." Leslie shook her head, not understanding the contract. Star labs was far better equipped to see to a more neutral and humane stance of care.
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Jason's arm was pulled out to the side as another doctor examined him in the meanwhile. That, she understood. "Jason abd Dick were fighting?"
"No, he …his reflexes pulled at it too hard cause I kinda egged at him to do something. He was zoned out so I snapped my fingers in his face."
"Repeat that. Please."
Leslie looked up from his arm and commanded.
"Ah, I…snapped my fingers?"
"Right. A cue, a command. Maybe even more."
Bruce looked at the glass and beyond it where Dick was laying on his side, the tests a mess of tunes and wires as je didn't reach out at all. Too tired, to started by what might be true about his heroes.
"You did that, and soon after you had, he reacted to it. Maybe through a form of –
"Slade." (Dick can't hear him so it's ok.) Jason snarled. "Fucker messed with him like a dog taking orders! Fuck –
"Don't move, you're in a splint for a week otherwise." Leslie reprimanded. "Bruce, the best I can tell is this; his abilities to…work like he was taught as you told us all last, I heard about the case, he will remember those lessons and search as to why. You have to tell him and even bigger story. Tell him that he had an uncle that trained as a killer and was with the circus, that Dick learned from him as a boy."
(Meaning: Cobb in a way.)
"It's not…Leslie, that's-
"Bruce."
"Master Wayne." Alfred said very matter of factor. "Richard's mental capacity is still not as it was when he'd been in his own power. That power gradually will belong to another if you cannot cut ties with that reason, yet the reason now that he's fortunate not to fight so soon. What if Wilson had some way to get ahold the boy? You'd have lost the option to play fire with fire. It would be damaging to yourself abd this family."
"Slade won't deliberately make his move. Richard is still vulnerable. But, we are safer from him than anything. We are what he wants out of the picture." Bruce grumbled as the boy's head through the glass had turned away. His wasn't crying.
Thank God, he was still in there.
"We can up his education as a homeschooling regimen for now, not...not send him out to finish until we're already sure that the League has kept Slade from dragging himself to our doorstep for another feud to start."
"And it may, if Richard's state does not wish to forget, sir."
Bruce chewed his nail at the thought mentally. Leslie watched and finally, she let them come in once Dick was no longer put under – hours later. "Two hours, four to five tests without a break…"
"So." Jason saw how Dick was so peaceful in his drugged dreams more than his regular ones. Some nights the manor had him getting caught wandering; Alfred would find him crying beneath the portrait of Dick's parents, or he'd be curled up beside an ever-loyal Ace the hound.
Alfred sucked in a breath as Bruce went in after Jason had asked, what Dick was looking to see upon waking. To evaluate with his own many senses.
"The tests today, were more in depth." Leslie told the family. "He still needs to perform in psychological testing to see if any increases or alterations to his ability were hindered, or if his I.Q from the scan…"
"What scan?" Jason looked over as Leslie caught herself, "What's up with his brain? It's just PTSD, right?"
"No." She responded with an eye on the boy's comatose body. "His blood reads at a different volume. Not, constructed. Before, he was a B positive blood type, this one is the same yet the reaction…. He's starting to hold those secrets looser still, and we may need to send it to STAR or central for a proper –
"Wayne Enterprises is safer knowledge-
"It's not, I'm sorry." Leslie took to her word, being blunt. "Slade can arm himself with what he knows, yet, Flash? Does he have that position in forensic sciences?"
"Biology was his major, so…yup." Jason said. "I can't thank you enough. My arm is much better, but why not Gotham?"
"Too many chances I believe for a coward to get filthy, bloody rich."
Bruce blinked over at Alfred. The words were clearly unheard of in all their time together. "Alfred…is, is that what you believe is best? Dick needs things done right away, not a week from –
"If your security is up to par with hiding what you've found from your competitors, then by all means. That blood could fuel those to war as never before. What good might it do to keep your enemies any steadier to pounce than they already might?"
Bruce thought about Selina, Freeze, Cobblepot, Firefly and Bane. Blood for blood, Joker was in no need, yet it would be good for a chuckle…
The villains Flash had, had been metas, thieves and carelessly dressed. Yet Bruce had the best security. Why would Leslie tell…
"You think he's already inserted himself into my circle." Bruce seethed. "He's not that far off –
"Cannot say." Leslie checked Richard's pulse as she made sure to adjust his drip. "I'd like your son to stay overnight. Maybe you can stick around, be my eyes and ears?"
The bat wondered on it as Jason shrugged, hands behind his head as he leaned to appear lazier than usual. "I'd bite. Want us to do a few rounds? Make sure the perimeter is clean?"
Bruce nodded, Alfred seeing the edge in his master's reluctance to stay that close. Dick was not a test subject. This was invaluable to healing, yet to him, something didn't fit.
"I'll take the offer, Leslie. We won't be going far. Alfred?"
"Right away, the car has a single pair for each of you in the trunk." He smiled. "Glad to see your nocturnal self-active, be safe then." He got up and went to fetch the suits, knowing they were in a duffle for none to see, come sundown.
Come the dead of night, as Richard slept on inside a dreamless bubble of manmade security.
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The digital clock moved softly by, not a ring to it on the wall. The beeping devices and Dick's softer breaths while Jason stood at the kid'sake side to finally sit down as Robin, made him feel himself for once. Dick had no clue about him being this way, yet he then had started to croak a few words as Robin listened.
"Jay…. not asleep?"
He knew…
"I'm Robin, you're in good care. Batman's here to watch over us both."
"Oh…" Sighed the other teen. "He, has to…right…"
"Um, listen. You, are really hurt right now –
~ Is he? ~
Jason swerved around.
The shadow was back, leaning to the wall. An unmistakable entity as it revealed only a silhouette of black. An adult, as Jason's blood grew colder.
"Who the- are you an evil spirit! What's going on?"
~ I'm also here, imagine my surprise to find you this connected. It's not my cup of tea. The boy knows this, right? ~
"I…"
Dick looked away.
"Did…you two, talk? When??"
~ Before. You gave us time to, reconnect. ~ Purred the evil soul in the corner of the room, its voice much deeper than any mere nightmare. ~ You should rest, the night is still fairly young. ~
/
Jason lifted his head with a shout. Dreaming. Not a dream.
Bruce cracked the door as the infamous cowled, Batman looked inside. "Ah, bad dream…" Jason rubbed his neck. "I, saw a shadow and it spooked me."
"We are the only ones in the building tonight, Jason, the cameras know nothing. Leslie is counting on us." Bruce told the boy. "Dick is put under only for so long, don't let yourself drift off, this is very important."
"Yes, sure." Jason saluted as Bruce walked away. (Yessir.)
The kid sighed, his heart beating as if they were not alone. A few seconds later it happened again. The room grew heavier with dread, and the shadow was now by Dick's bedside, closer as Jason seeped in a startled thought. "Are you haunting him?? You got out, are…. wait…" Jason swallowed. "I…I can take you out. He has to wake up, but I fell asleep –
~ You talk far too much to be taking orders, child. ~
The boy thought back. "Child…."
The shadow shifted, drifting along as it identified a problem and spoke again. ~ The series of neurons being monitored should be doubled. The boy is still awake, mentally. Tell your bat that this should be remedied, and quickly. ~
Jason gawked, but nodded at the ghost. "Are you, were you human?"
~ I still am, wandering from to time. ~ The pseudo demon hinted. ~ My intention is not to lose this life, ~
He tapped a finger to point at the boy in bed. ~ He's very precious, I'd like to help wherever I can –
"Jason!"
Jason turned around to face Bruce. "You were…talking, to someone?"
"I, was just being nice to Dick. He was all woozy, maybe dreaming? Sleep talking?" The boy lied, "It calmed him down…. s –
Jason saw the changed devices as more activity showed up on the pixelated chart. "Impossible." Bruce took it all in. "Jason, what did you do."
The boy couldn't tell his mentor, not even a thing. A ghost had set the record, not just any.
He dropped his head, eyes downturned and dismal. "I…. don't really know, either…"
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So, Slade has the ability with the book to appear astrally as a faceless shadow? Now he has Jason's attention, and will he use that to get what he wants? Absolutely! Also, I swapped back a step; Manhunter used his powers to make it look like on the screen, Slade had killed the Titans. It was his illusion to have the egotistical Wilson lose easily and it worked. Sorry, if you saw before, this is why. Problem. Solved!
Find out, the spook factor rises!
