Chapter Text
𝘛𝘏𝘐𝘙𝘋 𝘗𝘌𝘙𝘚𝘖𝘕 𝘗𝘌𝘙𝘚𝘗𝘌𝘊𝘛𝘐𝘝𝘌
TITANS TOWER.
The heavy thundering of rain is the only sound heard in Titans Tower, other than the vague tinkering of a computer. Blue light feels colder in the hallways, as Dick walks through, hands stiff by his side, jaw tightened. He's dressed in civilian clothing, fitting, since it's not Nightwing who needs to be here. It's Dick Grayson. Whether as Robin, or Nightwing- Batman, or even himself, Deathstroke never cared, and when it comes to him, neither does Dick. The doors to the console room slide open in silent greeting, weary Titans staring over at him.
Donna. Kori. Gar. Vic. Raven. Dick's team. His family. They seem apprehensive, cautious, a darkness settling over their attitude. Donna nods to acknowledge his presence, Kori rushes to hug him, the others remain quiet, waiting for Dick to shift his eyes to the screen. Dick nestles into the comfort of the woman he loves, trying to find what relief he can before it's all shattered. Dick pulls away, immediately missing the sweetness.
All the sweetness fades away as Dick looks up. He's not sure what he was expecting. It's just Slade. That's all Dick sees, even though Slade is nowhere to be seen in the picture. Instead it's the beheaded corpse, a boy the Titans had known called Grant.
"What happened?" Dick asks, noticing how unusual it is for him to break the silence.
Donna heaves a sigh. "After Respawn betrayed Slade and sided with Damian and Talia, Deathstroke kind of lost his shit. He nearly killed Jace. He murdered the entire League of Assassins. And according to Rose, we're next on his list. He still blames us for Grant's death, remember?"
"In conclusion, Grandpa Deathstroke decided it was time to settle down. So, he decides to sort out his affairs." Gar adds. "Why do we even let him live? It's getting exhausting."
"He's right." Kori agrees. "Deathstroke has caused too much pain to this world..." She hesitates for a moment. "And to us."
"We can't let our hatred blind us, Kori. He's still a man. He's let us live multiple times, worked with us multiple times." Dick reasons.
"So we just sit here while he kills others?" Kori asks, sounding a mix of rageful and exasperated.
"No. But killing him would say alot more about us than him." Dick says. "We need to put him in a prison he can't escape. Maybe we could trap him in the speed force-"
"Absolutely not." Donna disagrees. "Did you forget what happened last time?"
"Exactly." Vic chimes in. "If that happens, there's a 64% chance Deathstroke might get a hold of the speed force again. And that could never end well for any of us."
"Raven?" Dick asks the the one who has remained quiet. She's zoned out, Dick assumes she's listening to the others' thoughts. It's not an invasion, not anymore, they've all gotten used to it.
Raven speaks, eyes unfocused. "We wait. When he comes after us, we neutralise him. Then we figure out a way to put an end to his bullshit. Forever."
"But only a small addition to Rae's wonderful idea, let's find this asshole, not wait for him." Gar adds.
"No." Dick and Kori disagree simultaneously. Dick stays quiet, allowing Kori to continue.
Kori sighs. "No, he expects that. He expects us to be the aggressor, that's what he wants. He's always had this control over us. But we're not bending to his will. Clear?"
A round of nods passes through the Titans. "Good," She goes on. "For now, we stay back, anticipate Deathstroke's moves. We stay in a power position, that means no leaving the Tower for at least a little while. We're safe here. Out there, who knows what Slade and his new ninjas are planning?"
"That's great. But what if this picture he sent us is just an empty threat? And he just... does nothing." Gar mentions, as the team begins to dismiss the meeting.
Raven snorts. "It's not. Take my word." Is all she offers to reject her boyfriend's theory, who resigns nearly immediately, understanding the true capabilities of Raven's telepathic and empathic radar. He nods, as the team slips away, all of them splitting to attend to their own activities- all to reunite at dinner, a standard Titan family time meal for their reunion.
"You seem lost." Gar notices, as Raven remains behind in the room, arms folded, a blank expression on her face. She looks over at him with a sigh.
"I sense something." She says darkly. "I sense betrayal."
"Maybe Deathstroke's taking a toll on your powers, Ray-Ray. You might want to lay down for a bit, it might help." Gar suggests, taking her hand gently. Raven squeezes his hand softly in return.
"I'm fine. Its just, a nagging feeling." She says, rising to her feet. She kisses his cheek.
"You sure?"
She smiles softly. "Yes, Gar. I'm sure." She says, taking his hand. "Now come on, let's go help Kori make dinner."
THE DAY GOES BY UNUSUALLY NORMAL.
The lingering presence of Slade's name still
hovers in the atmosphere, every now and then, Raven can swear she sees him standing in every room she walks by, she can feel him creeping the halls, hounding, waiting.
Kori is frustrated, spending the day trying to cook and eventually butchering a pizza- calling for Gar to save the atrocity of bread and cheese the alien powerhouse has conjured. However, her failed attempt at making dinner doesn't frustrate her nearly enough as Dick. She loves the man with all her heart, but his stubbornness in refusing to kill Deathstroke is one of the exact Batman things that Dick does, and it drives Kori off the rails. She attempts to view the situation from his perspective. Perhaps she's too used to violence, which she is. Perhaps her views surrounding the concept of execution and murder are different— whereas for Dick, they are the same. Kori scoffs internally at herself, execution. She begins to understands why Dick makes more sense. She's not a princess here, despite her rights and entitlement to killing a villain as a superhero, she is not the supreme ruler of this planet like she was on Tamaran. Maybe that's why. She gathers her humility, heading to apologise to him, a part of her convinced not to kill, yet another wondering if Deathstroke truly deserves the worst.
Donna runs through the idea. It doesn't seem incredibly outlandish. As she works away at her body, performing exercises a regular human's muscles could not tolerate, she begins to think of an idea to somehow to counter Deathstroke. To hurt from the inside, the way he hurts the Titans. She considers the similarity of this idea to what happened with Jericho, how the Titans had planned to use him to gain leverage and information over Deathstroke. Donna sighs, Jericho wouldn't help them, his relationship with the Titans aside, despite the strained relationship, he loves Slade too much. But Donna knows a Wilson who doesn't. Never did in the first place.
Vic checks the numbers. The console doesn't lie about numbers, especially Deathstroke's. He scans Deathstroke's assassinations post Grant's death with greater concentration, identifying and analysing the terrifying patterns of increasing blood volume split from his victims, and his rapidly increasing brutality and reduction of his humanity at the same rate. Deathstroke is hindered insane, at least, these stats would show. His assassinations are no longer single, calculated murders, he owns the League of Assassins now. The Al Ghul's legacy, in Slade's hands. Vic realises the Al Ghul's aren't all dead, only Ra'as is. Maybe, just maybe, someone who hates Slade as much as the Titans might want to help.
Dinner is calm, quiet. No one mentions Deathstroke for a while, poking light, comical fun at Kori's cooking. Even Dick laughs along, for a moment, forgetting about Deathstroke's return, it's just the family catching up after Dick's return to the team from months in Blüdhaven. Raven doesn't relax, though. She's almost sure she can't, her mind wandering away, flashing images of blood splattering over wooden floors, screaming, the irrefutable sting of a knife in her back.
"Raven," She hears Kori speak through Vic and Dick's chatter about mechanical nonsense no one else can hope to understand. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, just a little queasy. A foreboding kind of queasy." She mutters.
Kori frowns. "What does that mean?"
Raven shrugs with a confused huff. "I sense bad things. Evil. Betrayal," Her eyes darken. "Death."
Whatever Kori wants to say gets caught in her throat, however. The Tower gets lit in red, threatening luminescence flickering on and off as a piercing alarm blares over the sound of dragging chairs and rushed footsteps, all created parallel to the Titans rising in action and out their chairs to investigate the alarm's unsolicited, loud noise. Donna whisks away in a flash, a quick zoom of brown hair flying behind her as she sprints down the halls, searching for the cause of the alarm. Vic rushes to the console room, hands coiling away into wires, plugging into the computer. A green hummingbird zooms around the vicinity, pausing momentarily to get a steadier look, as Gar flies off again.
"Intruder alert, security breach!" Cyborg says in an alarmed tone.
Raven rolls her head back, eyeballs following her movements into her skull, as she begins to try and sense any kind of foreign presence beyond the annoying green bird zipping from corner to corner. Kori's hands catch light with starbolts, green energy swarming around fists, her eyes glowing green dangerously like a toxic chemical with ability to burn the sturdiest metals. Dick busts out his escrima sticks, blue lighting sparking as he holds them out, back to back with Kori, the mere temperature of whose starbolts makes Dick sweat. The couple face the elevator as the aggressors in the team. Donna zips back in, with a small shake of her head, and glances towards Raven.
Raven's eyes snap back into her sockets, faded consciousness returning. She groans, head spinning as she falls forward. Gar catches her, seemingly materialising from thin air.
"Raven, are you okay?" He asks. She mumbles something incoherent. Then her head clears, her nausea dissipating as she looks up at ar Gar, eyes wide.
"Downstairs." She chokes out, voice disgruntled. The Titans rush to the elevator, and as it begins to climb down the floors, Raven shakes off her stupor, relegating her empathic radar to the back of her mind. Her eyes begin to burn red, hands charged with magic. Cyborg charges up a blast, aimed at the elevator doors.
With an anticlimactic ding, the elevator doors slide open.
With bare arms covered in ruthless cuts, a top ripped with slashes, legs adorned with blood, is a girl, barefoot on the grass. Her knees tremble, head split open, her short, blond hair sticking together with blood. Her skin is pasty, fading blue eyes fluttering, as if though she stands on a line between losing and maintaining consciousness.
"Shit." Raven pushes past the others, bolting forward. The girl tries to take a small step forward, and Raven instantly slides to her knees. The girl stumbles and falls, eyes rolling back, straight into the dark Titans's lap.
For a moment, there is silence. Raven gently places her hands on the girl's forehead. She looks over at her friends, her own forehead beaded with sweat.
"She's alive."