Our Time in Reverse- What it Takes

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Slade is now physically and mentally he'll bent on bringing Dick back into his circle; Trigon is filling out the scare factor- Jason is confused and alarmed by what he saw. Will these scares continue? Find out!

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Chapter 59: Living (Haunted) with My Brother's Ghost At My Heels

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With as in a subconscious level.

Only, Dick could see the figure when he was in his room at the manor. In the dining room, bathroom. Parlor, study and library.

So could Jason, but not Bruce…nor Alfred.

Ace had scented the fact, snarling under the table at Dick's feet one supper - time squabble ago. Dick had been shown to have his functions heightened and might even perceive on forms of ESP in the near future. His brain's capacity was alarming. Jason however, wasn't convinced this was that.

More so that, Leslie still had tests to properly decipher. The sample was extraordinary yet complex. Standing there, Dick could become something greater than a hero, worse than a tool.

Another reason that Jason dove behind every corridor to avoid his astrally bound stalker.

It didn't speak always. Sometimes, it waited until he was calm, collected.

It looked after Richard's health as it had said, swaying his thoughts in its direction as a dangling pendulum over a road map. Jason was disturbed by the fact Dick allowed himself to act so vulnerable. Shy, even as small and meek as he'd ever heard. The fact even when Dick was in the damn shower, getting out, Jason would put his ear to the door and hear that eerie chuckle.

~ You're not carrying a scar on you, yet you can't even grin about that. Can you, Renegade? ~

Jason pushed the door back as Dick stood there, all by himself in a towel while his eyes were on his nosy brother. "Who the hell were you talking to?"

"Jace, I was –

"No." Jason stomped over to the window, the tub. Anything he felt, anywhere it could hide, even as he darted his eyes and missed it – only Alfred stood in the doorway while Bruce stood further apart with his arms crossed.

"Jason, a word." He turned his back as Jason bounded over with a grimace at where the shadow might have grinned back at him.

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"I heard him talking to someone. I'm not lying to you, B!"

"Jason, you said at the office…that a shadow has been following Dick around." Bruce tried to picture it. In the room when they got to Bruce's study were two people he had not seen before. "Jason, meet Mr. Zatarra and his young daughter, Zatanna."

"Old league associates, I take?"

"Yes." Mr. Zatarra was warm with a matriarchal dark appearance to his hair and beard, yet no way did his eyes betrayal anything less. "We are not without any understanding of the paranormal, and to this you may not know how attune, though our company is. Mr. Wayne also wished to ask for a few tips on controlling a living specter in your reality."

"Hi!" The girl was many as old as Jason, a year or so difference as she waved back. "My father and I can perform magic, and we are also sorcerers with a background you might find handy. To translate my dad's English, we can sense these things so you can trust our assistance in cleansing and protecting your home from whatever has entered it." She told the team's Robin of the week. "This is about my older brother, Richie. He's…being haunted by a psycho, I think. It called him –

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Slade growled and stomped from his estate doorway to the basement where a rather pissy demon was expecting his life force to hold up. ~ They have sorcerers that may discover your plan. It wasn't bound to hold steady. ~

"I agree." Slade pulled the spellbound from its case and flipped open a chapter. "How do you replicate an image." He asked, Trigon's eyes being as curious as any other worldly imp. "We'll continue to haunt the brute. Jason is expecting to stay sane in this mess I'm working with. The closer to the present that revel is, the greater I can dig into his own spirit and rip it from him. An offering, would that suffice?"

Anything went in the side of a winner. Todd had crossed his gate over with Slade now calling him to suffer on into the next world. "He can die. The same with the butler and the bat. Once there is no one else, it will be a replay if the first time we met, but with zero spectators; safe, for us."

~ It is accepted. The dead will serve as my next meal. The daughter I have there in hiding, she will come out and wish to meet her father. To negotiate a life for another. ~

"Then, only one may thrive. My apprentice deserves to know that, as do I."

Slade pulled out a talisman as he shoved it into the face of Trigon's many eyes. ~ Human! You dare turn –

"A- bup- bup." Slade wagged a finger as he stood the victor, the demon cowering before a warlock instead of a simple mad man from earth. "Magic us all about intention. My will and mind power allows me to see to your tantrums a bit longer. Keep to your part, and we'll have no trouble once you're mine to command."

~ You…would lead me to chains, mortal?? How dare you raise thine word! –

"You're not the only villain with a hunger for power in this world or any other." Huffed the mercenary. "We go through with the plan. If it fails, a portion of my life is yours to consume. It heals anyway. What else is there to give?" (Read it and weep. End part 1 a coming!)

"I dare, because you begged for my assistance. Pretty petty for a fallen overlord. We're one and the same, Trigon." The mercenary would be full of himself. And maggots born to rot upon his skull cap. Snarling, Trigon paid mind to the plan before letting the page of Slade's book flip to a hidden set of chapters. "Ah, thank you kindly." He used one hand to hold the amulet with the symbol of Azar's cult enshrined upon its surface, gleaming and taunting the dark lord in his prison. "After I'm through taking things a step further, we'll renegotiate. For right now, I'm having more fun than in a while…Todd will be driven to say he's lost his composure. The bat will lose both his children, while Renegade reclaims everything he knows. I know he's not really gone."

~ The alien lifeform failed to address the gaps in his subconscious. ~

"True, it makes things just as satisfying to know that that very vulnerable state is what was needed to make him into my soldier. My apprentice. Without that extra tug of war to his emotions, Richard will finally remember who saved him first, while the bat isn't helping matters at all."

~ Hum, if you wish to sew your agony and destruction abound, allow my shadows to throw the very heroes each and every way. Away from the true source of their demise. A game, wager. Your life and that boy's for the bat man's entire family – says your apprentice…. ~

"Done, on one condition. I can change the rules at any time if the bat holds an advantage. Deal?"

~ Done, mortal. I will enjoy reading the souls if my fallen enemies and foes. ~

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Bruce bit his nail as Jason's word was a light in the dark for the older adult.

"Renegade…it has some attachments to the boy's old past, no?"

"Papa, I think…I could try to cast a few wards about the house. He seems distracted-

"Not right now, my dearest." Zatarra sighed and went over to the bat. "If he has found a way deeper, will Jason also not be in danger? I have an item that might help."

Zatarra pulled out a wandering as he began to cgant, the little clear crystal was orb shaped and very powerful as Bruce put a hand over his eyes a second until it had dimmed. "This is an amulet of protection. It can be worn by the boy being hunted. If that creature is no spirit of the great beyond, it will still block a great amount and keep you aware through its connection to this home. However, you should be inside the home or close by for it to activate. Nifty trick, no?"

"There is only one, you said it can work to keep him protected, yet what if it were to let me know if he wasn't?"

"To activate? I suppose." The magi scratched his head to wonder as well, "These things are entirely by intent and will. If you will it so, then it must be only if you are strong of that intention. The relic if you wear it, might act unpredictable while being used in another manner. Try it on."

Bruce did as he slipped the orb round his neck and felt and saw things that the Bat might see best of.

~ Damn it…I gotta prove to you he's literally in this house. Or, something is bothering us. I'll just use the damned stuff in the cave. We confiscated a bunch of anti-magic relics so why not? ~

~You think I'm a ghost, mainly, ghosts don't know where to strike next. They wander. ~

Bruce and the Zatarra family ran to the cave, not even waiting up as they saw…

No Jason.

"A vision."

"By the clock on the bat computer, it was after I'd left to patrol. Jason would be here tonight."

"Sleepover!" Zee sung as her father thought it amusing. "Very well. Why not go introduce my daughter, we can set up the traps and clear the rooms as we go?"

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Slade waited, seeing as the bat would want him during that time, grinning when he knew how to fake it. ~ Will send the dummies to throw off the bat's nose." Slade agreed, the other shadows were mixed in as he ordered them to find their way after sundown to Wayne manor.

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Jason offered to stay up with Dick and watch a scary movie, yet the boy was something of a stranger to gore as he didn't want to look at all. "Fine…what do you -

"A Dr. Ghoul marathon."( Dr. WHO OR VINCENT VAN GHOUL.) Zee popped in the door in her sleep top and pants, her cell in one hand as she showed Jason her favorite show in a bright flash. "He fights the supernatural and goes back in time." She went to set the settings on the streaming box as Dick leaned into his knees and yawned into the air. "I'm tired enough. At least the gore level is not as…-

"You sure like to take a dump on this party, Grayson."

"HEY. Play nice or I'll turn the T.V into a …a rabbit!"

"Can not."

Can to –

"Do quiet yourselves in here, young master Jason and Dick. Miss Zatanna is doing her very best to be a beacon of hope. I won't have you boys fussing this late at the hour. Is it bedtime or not?"

"No."

The three shook their heads as Alfred huffed, shutting the door as Jason and the others let out heavy exhales. "Dodged his detector. He's good."

"Shit, you should see when we're in the tree house. That man has some psychic link to this whole family." Zee giggled as Dick then laughed into the side cushion, trying not to be the biggest awkward soul in the area. "Hey, you finally came out of your shell." Zee grinned, tugging Dick's arm playfully as she let the series, she loved so much play from episode one to ten. The binging, had begun.

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So…

Will it? Next chapter is a double attack. And I trick. Find out! Watching the Ghost hunt anime adaption so going to borrow the scare factor to it for fun. Find out!