The outskirts of France were always so quaint, she enjoyed the forest for its subtlety in finesse and praised it for its coarseness. When she had retired she imagined a perfect life, cut off from all the world's obscenities, she would find herself living off of the land, and within the harsh workload, she found herself at peace. But while Jillian had retired, she knew that enemies could draw close at any time. Anything or anyone that could hide, could also be found.

She knew one day they would find her. Today wasn't an exception. Jillian had been collecting vegetables from her garden when the first whispers came, silence itself is quite the messenger.

"What did you do to my boys?"

It was a blonde child who greeted her with a smile as she turned to face her enemy. The girl shook her head. "No longer at your disposal." The older woman glanced at the girl, the anger evident in her eyes. "Is that so?"

The forest around them was so still, as if the trees themselves knew of the dangerous intentions this youth possessed. Jillian knew that in more ways than one, the forest itself would speak when it wanted to. And it was literally screaming at her right now. Run, hide, whatever it took to get away from this child. But that would be useless she knew.

"I don't have what you want."

She smiled. "I think you do."

The older woman grunted "Who sends a child to murder an older woman?"

"You know who."

Jillian grunted.

RIIIIIIIINNNGGG

The woman's ears perked up. Her cell phone was going off. The woman cursed herself at that moment for leaving her phone in the house. She always had it set to be as loud as she could, because as stubborn as she was, she would admit that her hearing was starting to go. Although she hadn't considered hearing aids quite yet.

RIIIIIIIINNNGGG

She cringed now at the sound. She had picked a old vintage phone ring. She understood now why Sariel had disliked it, it was rather annoying after it rang a few times. She sighed then. Whoever was calling her, it seemed urgent. But she couldn't answer.

Her eyes shifted to the child and readied herself for a fight. "Time to show you what a old woman can do."

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

The so-called US military had dispersed from the scene. Leaving the Metropolis Police force to clean up the mess. It took a while for Ksenia and Asif to make their way out, leaving behind the Titans and the Bat, and even longer for them to clean up the mess with the Metropolis Police department, who were practically begging the military unit to stay. But Ksenia was a resilient one. She played colonel or lieutenant or whatever it was she had played at, extremely well. She was mind you, a little harsh, but when the military rolled in to save the day, you didn't ask them questions afterward.

In the end, she did agree to leave one truck behind. Of course, as mandatory regulations go, a truck of soldiers was left behind to play out the deception of them all truly being sent by the US forces. Slade's own were all equipped with standard US military garb and provided with firearms to keep up the illusion. The group, when ready to depart would of course retrace their steps, and destroy all evidence that they were there, leaving behind virtually nothing, other than a police force that said the military had joined them to combat an unknown force. And when the MPD made their report the government would most likely deny they had any involvement. And truthfully not much else would or could be done since there was nothing left behind that could trace the events back to Deathstroke.

But it wasn't all this current clutter and chaos that seemed to put both Master and Apprentice on edge. It would seem Slade's soldiers were all trained in subterfuge. Trained so well that at this point he probably considered all of this to be beneath him. Which perhaps it was since he didn't have to do anything as he boarded one of the trucks and once everyone was on board they simply left the scene. Just like that.

But to be honest, he had never seen Slade like this in all of his time spent with him, the man was worried, he kept dialing the same number over and over. Asif was a little put-off but approached Robin regardless on the matter.

'What's going on?" his tone was hushed, just in case whoever the mastermind was trying to call actually answered.

His friend let out a sigh. "It's Jillian."

"Sar's grandmother?"

"Yea... "

"What about her?"

"She's the keeper of the Society's portion of the Legacy." Robin shook his head. "What do you know about Sariel? Nothing fits, was Jillian even her grandmother?"

Asif shrugged, not at least surprised that Jillian was more than what she portrayed. He didn't know of course, but was he surprised at this point? Not really. "Like I said about an hour ago, not much. Child soldier, she was a great shot. Pretty fast, sometimes a little too fast. But nothing like a meta-human or something. That and she was also so lucky. All the time, until... But I guess now we know that her luck is still running. She always said the only family she had was her "grams" in the woods. From what I know her family was killed when she was a child, that's how she ended up in that camp with the other kids."

Robin shook his head. "It doesn't add up. Why? Why get herself killed and then show up here, with them? She was there, talking to her as I left. Overlooking everything below them as they stood on the balcony, chatting like they were old friends. I just... don't get it. Who does she really work for?"

"I don't know, she always said she had a boss... but we never saw him. He was always a bit of a mystery. We followed Sariel because of what she was able to provide for us, which was safety, food and water, and a place to sleep. Which isn't much of a commodity in the desert."

Robin thought on this, "She mentioned something when I saw her, it was for a moment but there was a glint of sadness in her eyes, as if she was looking at me and remembering someone else. But she said something about how there was nothing for people like her, for child soldiers. Until she found him and she made a promise?"

Asif crossed his arms. "Who's the him? What's the promise?"

"Exactly."

Asif frowned, "She had always been a bit mysterious but I never questioned her. I don't think anyone did. Her rebellion against the ben Elohim was always heavily funded, she was part of something else that we were not. In many ways, we were only affiliated with her and not with whom she had taken her orders from. However, she never really received direct orders in front of us, that being again because we never saw her boss. But her plans were always so calculative, we hardly lost." he shook his head. "It made no sense to me that day at the church. Why send Gus in with you guys? Sure I would have made good backup if something went wrong, but Gus was a hacker, his area of expertise was in front of a computer. It just seems like such a rookie mistake. But she insisted it would work that way because you all were meeting up with him at the bar and not like Gus couldn't hold a fight it's just..."

"Weird right?"

"Yea. She always seemed to have the best intentions, although she was a bit reckless at times. But that was..." Asif shook the thoughts away. "Do you at least still have what she gave you?"

Robin instinctively clutched the two flash drives in his pocket. "Yeah, I do."

"We need to get that intel uploaded ASAP."

"Agreed."

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

She wasn't answering the call. He didn't know how many times he dialed her number and still nothing. She always kept her phone on the highest volume setting. This was unlike her, she never did not just answer her phone. Especially if he called her a multitude of times. Not that he called often but... this just wasn't like her at all. If anything she would have called back by now. He sighed as he dialed her number again and gained the same response. No answer. And before he knew it that gruesome feeling of dread was seeping into his entire body, blanketing over him with profound anxious thoughts that now plagued his mind. What if she was dead already?

Slade was usually a man of manipulative words and actions, all working towards his own goals. For the mercenary to worry over someone else was... offbeat for him.

This time he dialed another number and got an immediate answer.

"What do you want now?"

"Will." Robin looked to his master knowing that if he was calling Mr. Wintergreen, then things just got a little more serious. "I need you to send someone to check on Jillian."

"What? Why?"

"Will! I don't have time!"

"Alright alright, I'll make the call over to the base in France and get someone over there asap." William must of sensed the urgency through Slade's more serious façade. "What's going on? Is she hurt?"

"I don't know. Just send someone."

"Alright."

"Report to me as soon as possible."

"You don't have to worry about that, you'll be the first to know. I'll take care of this personally."

"Will... Thank you."

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

"What the hell do you do now!?"

Beast Boy was enraged, Cyborg could tell they were all a little pissed. They come all this way and Robin waltzes out, along with Slade, like it was nothing. Apparently the former boy wonder had other more important things to deal with at this time... and it just infuriated him deep down in his core. But Cyborg was the team leader now, he couldn't show that, at least not in front of the Batman.

"Must be nice for him to get his Spaghetti Western "riding off into the sunset" kind of fucking ending while we're still all left here, like.. DUDE!"

At least Beast Boy was able to let off steam for him.

"I wonder." Raven turned to her co-leader, "Who were the people we just encountered anyway?"

Cyborg didn't really think too much of it until now. "Some people Slade hired?"

Raven shook her head. "I don't think so, one of them knew Robin personally."

"What do you think they are?"

"I think Slade's military expands far beyond a slew of robots."

"You're right, Deathstroke has a massive operation. Quite the mercenary force. A military with no nation is a dangerous foe." The two looked at Batman. "Maaan why couldn't we have fought back?" The dark Knight looked at him then and studied his features. "I know you want Robin back, we all do, but what they were equipped with was a little different than your canons, and with this many people close... " Cyborg frowned, "I get it."

"Are we still going to continue our search?" Cyborg looked past the Caped Crusader to see Starfire standing there. "We should continue shouldn't we?" She looked angry, as if something had been robbed of her. "If Robin wants to continue this path then we must bring him to justice. We will continue the search will we not?"

"We will."

Starfire smiled at the Batman. "Together?"

The Caped Crusader could only nod. "We have a lot of work to do if we are to catch him, and Deathstroke."

Raven could only sigh, "Alright. But we need to move soon." was all she had said as she walked over to Beast Boy's side to help calm him down.

Cyborg nodded. It wasn't the task they wanted, but it was the one they were given. "We've come this far, I ain't gonna let him slip out of my fingers again."