Teen Titans; Renegade's Last Resort – Finding Pandora = Hope
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Chapter 28: Treasured
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This one is sad, but moody crap. And we get a little conflict.
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The Duarte manor was quite large; larger than the one that had burned down, while Bruce Wayne had showed up on the top of the man of the hour's guest list.
"You poor child…"
He overheard a few women talking as the brunette of a teenager shown halfway into the main hall. Side stepping him, was a robot beside Mr. Duarte.
"Mr. Wayne." Slade or this con man smiled warmly as he took the man and clapped him on the shoulder, steering Bruce from Raymond's eye. "The boy is here. What is this."
"An introduction; seems his parents had a terrible accident and this is right now a hushed charity. It's actually for a similar cause as your…"
Slade cleared his throat, letting go. "Any - who, enjoy the food and go co – mingle. Many of those you'd have to your own galas decided to support our family. I hope you've done the same, by bringing yours along to see to not missing out."
"Are some more introductions in order, Duarte?"
"Wayne, call me Wade. You're no stranger, Bruce. Right?" His chiseled expression trumped Bruce's bravado as all Bruce had on his mind was two minutes with that boy. He didn't bring Jason and a deep part of him –
No. If Dick found out about the other kid, he'd be as devastated as Slade would be overjoyed at the reaction. Jason wasn't Robin. He didn't want that, not…not unless Dick passed it down on his own. It was his guise, his mantle to bare.
Batman might even BE someone like Dick if….if they saved each other in time.
"Right, then I'd suggest you hit the parlor and have a few drinks. We have all night to make things right between our families."
"What you –
"I forgot. Do you know….a, Miss. Kane?"
Bruce watched as Slade picked up a champagne glass from a tray being walked around by one of his disguised robots.
"I'd however avoid hassling "my" boy. He's going to be living with me as of today. His parents would have wanted a more than dependable guardian….kid needs to change his outlook." One sip, and Bruce wasn't talking.
"Save yourself some breath. After all, this isn't your chance to shine, but maybe someone else's." Slade placed the half-emptied glass back onto the tray as he sauntered off to put a hand off on Roland's shoulder. This kid looked petrified. Totally distant, maybe acting for his role as the mad man's little lackey.
Bruce took his stomping feet to the next room where he'd not seen a red head doing her make up.
"Barbara?"
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She shut her compact with a silenced grumble. "Mr. Wayne, is it?"
She was maybe seventeen almost while Dick should be sixteen next year. Gordon had to be someplace, or else she'd snuck out behind his back. "Who else disregarded my orders, Barbara?"
"Most of the team, including Roy. He's super mad you never called." She put a hand to her hip as her ivy green dress and up do was spikey enough for the teen to keep that way. She was a valedictorian with a mild – wild side, right out of a sitcom. Her intelligence was invested in helping the city and her father, Commissioner James Gordon.
"Is Jim at this event?"
"Not till much later. He got a call that some thugs were ln the move downtown. Has to be those robots. I'll join him –
"You'd be safer here, if you go out…"
"I'm a hero, Bruce." She grinned the way they'd done, when it was only Robin and she on his tiny team of bats.
"I can't go solo ever with that attitude, and you WILL appointment me as your official "Batwoman" once I'm as good as you with the super spy skills you taught…" She saw Bruce turn his head. The nerve!
"You are a little…fine!" She groaned. "I'll stay, a few hours. Tops. They have people hitting on me since I told them I'm not my age. But damn…" She sighed and put a hand to her scalp. "What is wonder boy even doing? He looks more miserable than he was when we first met."
Ti Bruce, it was the a funny observation at all. Dick had adjusted as Robin, before he'd made the error of trying to steal that child's future in a just way…but, it was to protect him back then. Until Jump City. Until….
The laughter down the hall had women fawning over Wilson's news stories and practical business models – his home life and the new son he'd acquired. Not exactly flaunted like this place, but close enough to say that Babs was not far off in her assessment of the kid's lacking smile.
Dick was looking so dead in the water that he could have run to the next –
"Pardon us."
There was a tug as Bruce saw that Babs had gone over to nab the other's collar with a shove down the hall. "C'mon, don't be so formal with…"
She turned him round as they entered through another doorway. Bruce followed, only to be blocked by one of the supporters of the mayor's campaign. "Mr. Wayne! Good to see you've arrived…"
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Sighing against the door, Babs had done her sacred duty ti tear them all apart. Now, it was time to pull a "Gordon" special.
"I'm sorry, are you holding me in here right now? Mi-
"Stop it, Dick. I know who you're pretending to be, and why you care about getting out of that circle for a bit. To talk."
"There is nothing left. And I have to go."
She shoved him to sit in the seat where this door seemed to house a library behind it. The one place that was unoccupied by these billionaire dollar nit wits.
"Hey! I said –
"Don't care. You have to tell me why you're lying to him. We know a lot about…" Babs shoved herself back, not to crowd him after the news she had heard. Raven had relayed it and she'd overheard too much. "Whatever Slade is up to, whatever he did to you…"
"Why should you need to, it's fine-
"Nothing is!" She shouted.
"Not how we left things when you went off to California as Robin, and not when Bruce asked me to stop talking about what happened. I know, but look. This guy is…"
"He's not here only for me. He's here to stop the factory. I don't know what his plans are, so I can't help." Dick slouched into his hands on the ottoman seat in the room. "Half of these books he'll have me reading cover to cover by the time someone does "pay" the price. I've been forced to endure but I know they don't have all that much time, because of me…"
"No." Babs moved quickly as Dick felt her hands wrought holding his wrists. The darkened shine from outdoor lit up the shelves but not all of their faces. The teens eyed one another, a deep regret seeping into that dark space they'd left to stew for years. Months.
"I missed your whiney ass every day since….can't you tell how mad we all were? That you'd never called? You probably only talked to Alfred I bet." She sniffled as tears fell onto his face. Her height was nothing superior. At least Dick had not given up on knowing his own would stomp hers down in time.
She hugged him tightly as she wept while his were dry, wide enough to watch the doorknob. Slade didn't know. Bruce….
He clung to her arm as she sniffled a bit longer into them while leaning over the sofa ottoman.
"Don't ever forget….our own dynamic duo. That's fir life, okay?" She pulled off as he didn't want her to go. Not yet.
"I'm sorry I dragged you away from your own party. He totally copied Bruce by saying he's gonna….we're not going to let that happen, Richie."
She put a hand to his face as her bracelet jangled in time with her dangling chandelier earrings. "Have faith in the family for once. We aren't just a tabloid collectors item." She grinned ,not seeing him do the same.
"Dick?"
"I think you should go now, Barbie. Head back before they catch you. I can stay here."
"Why would –
"Bruce won't win. Even if Slade failed somewhere, he's already done so much damage…not only to me. He'd take Bruce down with him. That's why, and my friends…why I'm deciding to stay put. For now."
"You were tortured, Raven –
"She doesn't know the half of it." He trembled a little with his head lowered. "Barbie, just go."
She didn't want to listen to him. He'll, she wanted to drag him back out as if they were doing a reverse abduction here.
Bruce was holding off Slade , which meant she'd have to find a way out without being spotted.
"You can go through the escape…the bookshelf." Dick pointed to it as she gave him a confused look back over her shoulder. "Is he a copy cat off of everything?"
"It's a pretty old house. Not only does Bruce's place have that, but half the Gotham libraries did during the great War." Dick told the genius, her eyes brows up with a head bob.
"Right, so….what do I do?"
"You need to pull a book out from three different rows. Going high to low."
She did that as the mechanical parts activated.
Looking back at the sad sack on the sofa, she waved cautiously before dipping one foot into the darkness. "Where will this take me?"
"The rest room, hall."
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Her cheeks stated rosy as she climbed her way up a wooden death trap or steps with cell flashlight brought out to catch a doorway. She would have banged her nose into it, had she not seen the panel lift to reveal someone finally leaving the loo.
She pretended to wash her hands and flush as soon as she'd fixed any signs of the entrance from the library. Dick had to be getting an earful from Slade. Was that why he'd stayed behind? To save her from being tossed out into the road?
She tugged a red strand of hair and recalled those awkward, flirtatious moments. He was becoming quite a bad boy under the wrong person, but…a gentleman. As he'd always known he could be. And a dear friend, as Kori or Starfire had called him on more than one occasion.
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Bruce stepped into the kitchen to find an exit to the outside through it. If this were a replica to one degree, then –
"Hello??"
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Dick's eyes stared back as his hand was around a cookie from the cupboard. Slade didn't need to stuff dry dirt into his face as the kid's cold expression sent shivers to the adult billionaire. He was being warned, unlike Babs.
"Mr. Wayne." Dick dropped into his role as Bruce knew l
were too close to the other rooms to act like old friends. "You must be happy to be back, after humiliating my…uncle."
"Is he worth it to support?" Bruce tried to play the part while Slade could pop in at any time.
"He has an idea and he'll go through with it. I'm not allowed to protest it. Why would I? People could lose their jobs, or…"
Another bite of the cookie, the biscuit made a less than satisfying crunch round the empty room. "There is more than an occupation to anyone at stake. I could talk to someone. Find you another-
"Stop it, okay?" Dick threw the treat in the trash with a growl. "Back down from this. You're going to kill off everyone before I have a CHANCE to redeem myself…why are you here?"
"Why are you not enjoying the party, Roland."
Dick walked to the counter and grabbed another cookie, abusing his taste buds as he stuffed in one more, dragging his feet ti pour a glass of water instead of milk for the anxiety eating he was doing.
"I came at an awkward time. I had no idea –
"You left him at home, but not her."
Bruce stepped back. "Who told you?"
"Doesn't matter." Dick shoved the jar back into the pantry as Bru e watched the kid biting down on rocks in his mouth. It wasn't Alfred's recipe. He was trying to forget about the taste. The texture had to hurt, to distract from his mission to remain alert. He was on such thin ice that one more abrupt delay could have them tumbling into that water together. Winter was over, yet that bubbly kid didn't tell Bruce what today wasn't.
A few days after, no. It was just before his fifteenth.
He'd forgotten.
"For the record, you can't tell me that wasn't a bad impression of me when things go wrong." Bruce chuckled before holding a hand over his mouth. "Ah, er….in my pocket, before I go."
Dick blinked with a blushed frown on his face. "You …can't be serious. I told you-
"You're losing out because I didn't know. You didn't want me around, but Dick?"
He stood as Bruce Wayne dug into his pants pocket for what looked to be a small gift, a circle disc drive.
Dick looked as the kid didn't know what to say. "It's a way if anything goes wrong, for us to stay, connected. Slade won't find this. Watch." He pressed it as the entire thing vanished in his palm. "If you press it again." The thing reappeared. Making Dick gasoline had to be a good thing. "You're even able to contact the league with it. If you're in any danger at all…"
"Why…are you giving me this?"
"If the case doesn't go as smooth, we won't necessarily lose. It will be a setback I'm willing to address. But, I won't lose my son to anyone, Dick. You're my precious family, so never forget. Chum."
Dick wiped his eyes as he reached up to grab a cookie for Bruce to try out. "Not from Alf, I think a robot baked them though."
"Ow! How can you taste a thing?"
They laughed a little before Bruce took to the exit, the kitchen door swinging back as Slade watched from a corner.
"How was that heartfelt chat?" Slade responded with the question, carefully.
"Bitter."
"Like a biscuit from the cupboard, boy?"
Dick nodded. "I'm not used to something as flat as cardboard to curb my cravings, sir. But if it keeps me from breaking all of the windows in this place."
Slade didn't say a word yet as he coaxed the kid to come back for that toast. "They're all waiting. Did… Wayne, already head off?"
"He's got work at the office that came up." Dick fibbed.
Slade made a huff with his nose before the kid ducked his head and finally came as called to the main hall.
Bruce looked out the window of the back kitchen door as Dick's expression had changed. Maybe, there was hope.
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