Chapter Text
Gar sat at the kitchen island, silently stewing. It had been a couple of hours already since Dick revealed the truth about what happened with Jericho and how he died and yet, Hank, Dawn and Donna were still fighting with him about it. After he told them, Rose stormed out of the apartment and building and no one stopped her. Jason and Rachel both yelled at him briefly before they walked away, probably to their rooms. Kory stayed with the group of former Titans though Gar didn’t really know why. Hopefully to try and keep things civil and to keep everyone from losing their heads. He though, after processing what he had just learned, took himself out of the situation and the room while they went to a different room themselves so they could fight without forcing everyone to hear it. He couldn’t make out what they were saying, but he could still hear them though.
Personally, Gar wasn’t truly sure how he felt about Dick right now. He was a bit upset that Dick didn’t tell them truth about Slade and Jericho when Deathstroke first showed up, but he wasn’t furious like the others were. Personally, he wouldn’t want to bring up his past mistakes if he didn’t have too and he didn’t really understand why Hank, Dawn and Donna were so mad at Dick. From what he understood, they were with Dick every step of the way. They made the decision to get Jericho involved together. Yet, they were putting all the blame on him.
And it’s not like Dick went out of his way to kill Jericho, and his lie didn’t change the big details. Slade was still the one to technically kill Jericho. Dick didn’t hide behind him or force him in the way or something. Jericho made that decision himself. He supposed that Dick didn’t have to go to the church in the first place, but he had just attacked Donna, his friend. He probably would’ve done the same if he was in his shoes, and he knew that the others would too though they didn’t seem to think about that. And besides, Slade had tried to kill Rose. It was very possible that he could’ve killed Jericho for simply siding against him. Gar just didn’t understand how they were all so furious and how they figured that Dick was the only person at fault. It didn’t even seem like they were even mad at Slade. Just Dick.
“I can’t believe him.” Rachel muttered angrily as she stormed around the kitchen, apparently looking for something, though Gar didn’t know what, nor did he really care.
“I can’t believe any of you.” Gar replied with a harsh tone, surprising Rachel. She turned around to face him and seeing the stony expression on his face, asked, “What?”
“They were a part of what happened too Rachel. And honestly, the truth isn’t that much different than what he had originally said happened.” Gar explained, his voice just as harsh as it was before which still stunned Rachel just as much as his words did. She had never heard him talk like that before.
Once she processed what he said though, she shouted, “He didn’t have to lie!”
“You’re lying too, remember?” Gar questioned, voice quieter but just as infuriated. “Or have you finally told Dick what’s been going on with your powers?”
“He,” Rachel started, then stopped as she tried to figure out how to defend herself. She knew that Gar had a point, but she didn’t want to admit it at all. She was still mad at him for their feet when Jason was kidnapped.
She opened her mouth, though she still had no idea what to say, but then she spotted something big flying straight for the window. With a loud crash, the window shattered into thousands of pieces and she and Gar both instinctively ducked. She started crawling over to the other side of the island where Gar was to make sure he was okay and to see what was going on, but the sound of gunfire made her pause.
Suddenly, Gar appeared in front of her, also on his hands and knees. He grabbed her hand and said, “It’s Deathstroke, we gotta move!”
2018TITANS2018
Dick rushed towards the sound of a gun going off. Donna, Dawn and Hank had been yelling at him for hours about Jericho and his lies and he let them, fully aware he deserved it. Kory was also there for a while, trying every now and then to interfere and calm them down, but she then got a phone call and left to answer it. Finally, they walked out of the room and he made his way to the training room, needing to get some frustration out. The second he got to the room however, he heard the sound of something shattering. Before he could deduce what it was, he heard a gun being fired.
Before he could get to the main room where the sound was coming from, he saw Gar and Rachel running towards him. Right behind them, he was able to make the figure of Deathstroke in all of his armour with a gun in his hand. Immediately he pulled them along and run behind them. That way if Deathstroke started firing again, the bullets would hit him instead of the kids. Ahead of him, he could see all the others coming into the hall, wondering what was going on. Seeing Deathstroke, they started running along with them.
They all ended up on the roof before Dick realized what a mistake that was. It was the worst place to go, but from where they had been when Slade arrived it was the only place that they could go. The elevator and emergency stairs leading down were on the other side, along with the suits. As far as he was aware of, no one actually had any weapons. This wasn’t going to end well.
By the time everyone realized they were trapped, Slade had come out on the roof as well, holding out his gun. While they might have him out numbered, the man was an extremely skilled fighter and with a gun, could easily take down at least two, maybe three of them before they could reach him if they were going to try and fight him, and Dick wasn’t willing to risk that. There had to be a way to get everyone out alive.
“Slade, your problem is with me. Leave them alone.” Dick said, doing his best to remain calm despite the panic flooding his body.
“If I recall correctly, these three were with you when you got my son involved.” Slade replied, pointing his handgun at Hank, then Dawn, then Donna. He then turned even more and aimed it at Jason as he said, “And this one, this one should be dead.”
Dick’s, and everyone else’s eyes widened as they realized what Slade meant and was about to do. He immediately started running forward as he yelled, “No!”
Before Jason could process what was happening, Slade pulled the trigger. But then Dick was in front of him, right before the bullet got too close. The force of the bullet pushed Dick backwards, right over the ledge of the roof.
“Dick!” Jason cried out as Dick disappeared from sight. He took a step to the ledge, then turned back to Slade and shouted, “You b*****d!”
Before he could reach him, Slade pulled out three concussion grenades and threw them out at the approaching vigilante. Jason, and the others who were also about to attack him, were then blown back down to the ground. Not wanting to risk them getting back up, especially since he wasn’t sure about some of their powers, he threw a gas grenade filled with chloroform. Almost immediately, all seven of them were knocked out. He had made the chemical bomb so strong that if it wasn’t for the ventilator in his mask, he’d be out cold too, despite his abilities.
As soon as he was sure they were all out for the count, he walked over to the ledge and looked down. Instead of landing on the sidewalk or road, Grayson had landed on a balcony only two floors down. He was lying on his stomach so Slade couldn’t see the bullet hole but he was able to see some blood around his head. He tried to focus his hearing on the man’s heart, wanting to make sure that he was dead, but with the sound of the others breathing, their hearts’ beating and Jericho becoming very present in his mind at the sight of the so called ‘hero’s’ body, he couldn’t focus.
“Well, I guess that takes care of that.” Slade commented to himself. Inside, he could feel, hear Jericho screaming at him, giving him a headache but he pushed it to the side and turned his attention to the unconscious figures on the roof. He had work to do.