Our Time in Reverse- What it Takes

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Chapter 62: Into the Cave – Womb of the Bat

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In shamanistic understanding, a shamans' death is a grueling thing to overcome. In Robin's case, he's pulling another Terra in this one so, we'll see. It might bring out the person he's meant to be or, two steps back. The cave represents the womb in some cultures, or a bat hanging right side up read that before in Jamie Samms Medicine Card deck. Love it for years, great inspiration. Always accurate readings based on pseudo psychological elements.

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Dick crawled like a child, like he had no breath inside the hull if his very un-birth. As if this tunnel would collapse, that was… when he saw dead ahead his end game.

Slade was coming. He wasn't ok. Jason…Jason was going to get hurt. They had trusted….

A traitor. That's what he'd always been to them in the first place. Slade got those words placed right in his noggin and now, now Dick's life belonged to a phantom of what was.

Slade had saved him once before. Been better in those times. Miee time to relax, to think of a different future…Slade not… less a Bogeyman in the dark.

The cave. Dick took in the history and the present with a dry throat. Swallowing, he continued deeper into the cave.

It was brighter due to those flashing, lit up apparatuses; for the sake of having an eye on the entire city of Gotham, Batman's ego being the norm here. Even for the world, but even so, Dick had wanted more than anything to be Slade's only son.

Like Bruce never understood, dropping him off. Treating him like a problem instead of someone to cherish dearly.

He'd back then only since heard about Slade's other kids. Then, Tara came along and made him even more, ruthless a strategist against metas.

He'd never….

Slade….

Dick realized too soon as he buttoned away his thoughts and kept walking, away from the dark walls, into the cave center floor. His ears picked up dripping water from the tips of the cave, heightened by the serum that had changed his body and mind almost overnight.

His eyes saw through to the other side where a well placed nook was.

The command seat, he seeped in a breath.

A seat that he imagined would tell him the truth about…

Dick moved to the computer. His fingers working fast as lightening across each key. Yes, those hacking courses had prepared the boy for what he was about to witness.

In.

He took in a steep breath out. Two files.

Zucco was on one, and on the other…

The other, Slade Wilson.

Dick scanned the screens quickly as the words and images buzzed, making his mind stir with story parts and bits. Images from the newspaper his parents' were shown dead on. In black and grey ink, he just had to know.

~ Reported missing. ~

~ Abusive parent removed from –

Dick came to a halt as boots tapped quickly, running in from the way he had come "Dickie??"

Dick stayed crouched on the far side of the cave. Jason faced the door, making sure to lock it up again.

"There." He sighed. "Dick! We've gotta talk. No more running away." Jason demanded, taking up the other's attention by his mental fortitude. Dick stopped typing, his mouth pinched shut as the other song bird sung away.

"I know about how confusing this is, but we wanna help. I know. I read about everything you did and I know you want justice. Slade, this guy is just using you. Treating you wrong, and I hope –

"He's, more of a father than…Bruce ever was. You're wrong about that."

Dick turned the chair around, his still eyes over the other boy.

"Dude, listen. Slade kills people." Jason exclaimed. "Batman…he wouldn't get to shoot a gun cause he won't. I'm sorry about what happened-

"He tried to control me. You still think I didn't run away from him??" Dick shot back. "He could have gotten close to Zucco at any time …Slade, I found out that he intercepted the call. Bruce called Zucco, and he showed. He should have just… I don't care anymore. He's dead. Zucco –

"Why are you being such a dumb, crybaby about it?? My mom died of an overdose. I never had a dad or knew him until B picked me up. I stole hub caps of the Bat mobile cause I didn't have what you got. Ah, and you don't see me acting like you! I saw you on that trapeze and I knew it meant that nothing was impossible. I didn't steal your name, Dick - head. I tried to honor it. Keep it alive, cause I wanted you to come home and finally-

"The boy said no."

Slade turned the corner by the wall adjacent to a different exit on the top level. Dick was below, the one where they could only see his eye peeping back defensively. As a mother lioness to her newborn cub.

Looking up, he simply walked onto the catwalk above and mosied round the place as if to admire it. "Your Bat is an exact double. How long did this structure take to be completely finished? A few years? A decade?"

"No idea, ya creep." Jason sniffed.

"Hum… Maybe, but I can say that he did put a lot of work into his little den. As I have as this child becoming my apprentice. We've arranged that we'll be leaving shortly –

"You won't!"

Out onto the platform, Slade was tackled by Bruce, the bat was angrier; that his boys were inches from the man that would not die.

Slade kneed the ground to prop himself up and kick out, yet Batman had a little trick he'd taken care to grab from his own arsenal while Slade was, preoccupied.

"There, now you're not going anywhere near those children..!" Bruce clipped a meta collar onto the man's displayed neck as the merc sounded out his pain from the device.

Jason walked as Dick leaped from the seat to attack the other Robin. Slade's file still on preview, it was about to become more conflicting as the clawing and biting did plenty of mental damage.

"Super serum…I…I had to be so strong to you, I did it. Why…why won't you tell me why?? What's all of this, those powers." Jason swung out at Dick as the kid avoided.

"Us –

"NOT. YET." Slade snorted out as the Batman only pinned him for a second before Trigon's fire made it easy to have the rodent leaping to his feet. Bruce held his scorched hands into fists and growled out. Slade dusted off his arms, ready to stand and fight back.

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Still in their training uniforms, Dick fought Jason hand to hand and aimed to strike him down harder than before. The computer chair splintered as Dick leaped after the other teen. "You're not –

Slade watched as the child lured Jason away, going for his own throat as Wilson tugged the collar off. In two large chunks of broken tech, there was no stopping the inevitable. "Waller's design?" He asked, idly seeking the Batman's answer to his question.

"Never." Sneered Bruce. "Stop doing this. Don't go after my –

"He's not your son, anymore." Slade hissed, as he vanished in a blaze of whirling fire. The bat ran down to find the floor where Jason might have been outmatched .

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No gears. No skylight. Dick had strayed from his home when the Titans had gotten too close. He had not tricked them far enough, and going back…

Jason lunged and pulled the kid back, hand over his mouth as Dick used his acrobatics to get out of the hold. "Ow! Shit, you're-

Richard punched, Jason blocking as the kid went to run in the other direction. Goading his enemy? Dick growled and ran after, thinking a trap to be very, very likely.

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Batman did everything in his power to hunt Slade down, yet the man wasn't just invisible. He appeared, then left a reflection as hitting mirrors did no good. Bruce was led to a training wall of them. Slade face on every single one. The image changing of a future that Slade had in store. Bruce yelled at the monster as he only cackled and let his voice carry. ~ If I do what I'm told, the boy should do the same. I'm been promised a seat of power, and to not share that reward with my own protégé? ~

"You manipulated an eight year old –

~ Nine. He was turning in a few months, yet he trusted me to spare the cake and bring him a better future instead. Hand caged beside my own, there will be no stopping –

Batman didn't have to listen. Yet the illusion magic was extreme as the walls fell, glass splintering until the Bat pulled his arms away. It, was a fake vision??

~ I respect what you did, yet you can't expect what I'm doing now, Wayne. Give it up. You've lost. Let us leave in peace through that door as a symbol of our truce, and I'll leave a take over for your city for the very last –

"Whatever power you're being offered, it's one sided. I know about the contract. I know that those powers will consume everything left that Richard every cate for. You'll never come back-

~ Why should I care about that? The boy respects me as I am. You. He will always call his little abuser. I'm the one who took action.~ Slade nearly boasted , petilly. ~ You, stood by and did. Nothing. He deserves a true teacher, and as long as you're no longer the thing holding us back…~

"Slade." Bruce coughed, fire filling the cave as the man intended to do his worst. To leave the message clear.

~ I'm taking the boy. I've wagon the right to teach him to hate anyone but his master. However. As I said. Let us go now, you'll be spared…a bit, longer?~

Bruce scoffed at the man, Slade's eye narrowing in as he started a bit of a fit. ~ What? What's so funny?~

"Abuse. AND YET." Bruce pointed to the case file as it began to say a news clip from Slade's past automatically.

Slade peeled himself from his illusion to watch as Dick kept his ear put to the side as Jason dragged the brat onto his stomach. Pinned in a choke hold as the former star wonder looked and saw Slade in court, saying something…

Just out of his character.

~ HE'S A MENACE TO SOCIETY. ~

Dick's heart beat faster as Jason made him look up.

~ Deathstroke's moniker struck fear into the hearts of the Panamanian government and Interpol in Bruges has also issued –

~ Grant Wilson was charged for arson as the assassin known as the Ravager. His body was found after his falling in with a criminal organization called the H.I.V.E left him stone cold dead. His own partner, Deathstroke had escaped, the men responsible had funded the organization for a few million and claims that this boy was working by his own accord. That the man known as Deathstroke was actually a benefactor that called out on letting his partner become subject to their heinous experiments with meta gene technology. ~

~Wrong. Don't believe-

~ Adelaide Kane, the head if the platoon of one Slade Wilson did not comment on the assassination of her son, Grant. She has one boy however who lost his voice during another attack on her family; a man by the name of –

~ Batman. Do not –

Bruce made Jason drag Dick up higher, his own ears buzzing as the pages if stories. Reported by those who had Slade's entire –

~ His dealings were shady. Money laundering. Extortion. The man he contracted for a kill earned a pretty penny and Wilson took hold of his entire company. If he wanted to, that asshole could run for office. Too bad his kids are all either hurt or dead, and his ex? I'd hate to –

"WHERE!?" Slade came out of the mirage he'd woven to grip the bat's collar and lift him off the ground. "Where did you find that footage??"

"A soiree." Bruce recited under the pressure his neck was twisted to feel. A puff coming from Slade's masked nostrils.

"An associate had all of the details, and it opened a number of doors at the time. At the time after Jason came to live with me. I knew fir certain, that you'd never help him. Or anyone else." Slade stepped back, his grip slacking up as Dick struggled to rip Jason's arm away. Slade turned to the boys; arm up as red tendrils of fire without heat shot forth from the floor to drag Jason off if his apprentice.

"If I never cared, then why is your boy trying to chip him?"

Jason dropped the device as Dick realized it too much. Too well.

"They won't see the truth, Richard. Even when it's right in front of them. Those images are ripped out of a few frames. Would you like to know the real story, Wayne? I'll gladly let you record this while your partner loses his breath –

"Jason! Dick, you….don't let him do what he's trying to. He's proved nothing. Nothing but how sadistically twisted –

"Stop." Dick glared at the bat. "I want to know, for myself. Stop telling me what I should believe. You always, always thought I should sit down and stay quiet. What was I even to you?…" Dick turned to Slade, his voice cracked a bit if unease. "Tell the truth. Please. You always do…"

Dick was relieved as Slade righted himself. Jason had gone unconscious as he was held midair by the red demonic tendril. "My eldest boy, was brash abd wanted to be at my side through any fight he could find. Grant one time went up against the H.I.V.E even when I'd told him about their intentions. That I was vehemently against him joining their ranks to take a closer look, he spit on my comment, saying I wouldn't see him as enough." Slade did found frustrated, yet Bruce caught wind of a lying voice. A con man behind the mask. Even if it were true, Slade was playing his same tune. Same song and dance if a sociopath.

Keep Richard in his back pocket.

"His contract there was the last he ever would have, and I failed to stop them from changing, killing him. The info the bat had on a company that is rightfully mine, on another note? On the contract carrier's death bed, he gave his final word. Nothing illegal." Slade held up a palm to swear his whole truth. Dick believed it. He and Slade had seen that his underbelly was not a true villain's circle. "The laundering was actually a stint to get into Wayne's offices and do some espionage work. I had no intention of joining that board so quickly." He was smug about doing one dirty. How old was…

Was that when Dick was gone, or before?

Bruce opened his jaw before shutting it.

"As far as funds to the H.I.V.E, that was to save my ex. We have, a mutual understanding in one another's motives. She trained me as a soldier, my captain in command. I changed in Deathstroke and did some things behind her back to keep the thrill going. I didn't stay a war hero. The country's highest honor was nothing to celebrate, yet isn't it interesting?…" Slade rubbed his chin.

"Your "Bruce's" alternative methods involve torturing and forms of police brutality of a dangerous kind being committedto the common folk. It makes me wonder if he even sees them as human any longer. I sure can't, it'sin my nature to pass judgement. The rats that still run this city can't be held accountable. And then, even after all this time he sees that his work isn't done, that he still needs to put a tab on his own children. Not children, toys on the shelf How long will it be before he tires if one bird fir another? Not until he has absolute control over what makes his little world, tick. I think…You'll not be the first nor the last to abandon your children, Wayne. "

Slade turned back to Richard. The boy, didn't know what to say. All of it, alluring as he had put it, sounded too true to be wrong. Slade, used things to work his way, but he couldn't really lie. Not, really.

Tricky, yet never a lie.

Bruce pulled back to try and find a way closer to his station by the screens, yet Slade pinned him beside Jason in the air. "See? There you have it. Cowards." Slade proclaimed. "All to treat you as if you can never leave their sights. I'm protecting you from what these heroes think is right, even if that means stripping you of a part of yourself that knows better. You'd follow me now then, right?.."

Dick saw them tangled up. He heard it while Bruce looked pathetic as Slade wanted him to. "Just, don't kill anyone, sir…"

Slade cocked a brow, suggesting he wasn't going to admit that he could. Or should. "Why not? It would solve a lot of our grievances to do so. You could escape as if there were never those chains pulling you back down to this spot."

"He, he can't do much, if I give up here. To you." Swallowed the boy. "I did promise to stand by you, sir. Master…you, you need me. That's why I'm here. Right?"

That hope made the man stand still. Somewhere deep down, it wasn't Joey or Grant but a combination of the two staring back at the aging meta. "Yes, I believe I do, my ….boy." Slade beckoned and Dick took to follow him through a whirling portal to their last base. Or so he pictured, as Bruce shut his eyes, facing the floor as his body was only released once Dick and his master were nowhere to be found.

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The JLA members found Bruce and Jason both waking up as they stood by, seeing the scorch marks and Zee even scented the miasma that made her sneeze. "I have to cleanse this place." She held her nose, the next portal opening to have her father popping through with a panting set if eyes at the state of things. "Bruce! Are you and that boy –

"Slade, he came and…Dick, decided." Bruce sighed into his chest. "He chose to go, and told that man to spare our lives…"

"As in, can you not still recover his –

"Jhonn, I think…we need to monitor the situation. For now." GL answered the Martian.

"Let us then have you given proper care, Master Wayne. Master Jason as well." Alfred was able to walk and he did his best to hold up Jason while GL helped Bruce to the med tables and gurney by the side of the cave.

"This odor, it is…truly, demonic. Do not breathe this in!" Mr. Z took care of the rest as Zatanna felt out done once more, yet she waited by Jason's bed. Waiting, for him to tell her all if what he saw and what…if Dick really was now and forever, a future criminal.

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