Chapter Text
"Pet"
Renegade looks up from the books he's reading beside Master's foot. He has his back to the throne, leaning part of his weight to Master's leg.
"Yes, master?" he smiles, he loves when Master calls to him.
"You've been...bored," Master says.
"Yes, master," Ren says, because it's true, and he's learned not to disagree with Master. Every since the haze began to lift, like the mage said it would, he has found himself restless more and more often. Before, when the haze filled his mind, hours disappeared without him noticing. He could sit in the same place all afternoon and never think to move. Now his thoughts stayed with him. If he wasn't reading, reorganizing paperwork, or climbing the fortress walls, restlessness crept beneath his skin. Although, Ren can't say he's ever bored when he's curled next to Master, and able to listen to his breath and feel his warmth. Then he's just content.
"I have a mission for you."
Ren perks up. Missions are fun. And he gets to be useful to Master.
"Tomorrow, you will travel to Waterdeep, and go on an adventure."
Ren blinks. An adventure? Thats...vague. That doesn't sound like it would be helpful to Master. Master must've noticed his confusion.
"I'm running an experiment. This will be useful," Master slides one hand into Ren's hair.
Ren melts. He always does when Master pets him.
"Of course! Anything you ask."
Master continues petting Ren's hair. Ren sighs in contentment. His eyes get heavy, and he falls asleep curled in the place he finds safest in the world, next to the man he loves the most.
Dick Grayson is returning.
Slade is not quite worried, but he is cautious. His little bird is not the useless thing he was before, the one that would drift off mid conversation, or fall asleep while eating. His mind is sharpening, and his body remembers years of training.
Slade caught him balancing on a banister on his hands yesterday. And napping in the chandelier the day before. He read the contracts Slade was working on while tucked into his chest and made suggestions. Good ones.
Dick Grayson, hero of the Material Plane, is returning. The only question is, how much of him?
Slade has been meticulous. With every day, every command, every punishment and reward, he has been deepening the conditioning and loyalty, making Renegade's body respond before his mind. With the spell wiping his memories and encouraging compliance, and the haze making it difficult for him to form thoughts, it hasn't been hard to turn Dick into Ren.
He has to test it. How much of Dick Grayson exists in his Renegade. An adventure will be a good way to see how many of the skills, the mannerisms, are back. How much of his work holds.
This is an opportunity. Perhaps soon, Slade can have what he wanted originally: the satisfaction of Dick Grayson, with all intellegence and skill, willingly at his feet.
Ren sets out the next day.
Master has prepared a travel pack for him with everything he could need. He's provided him with weapons: a matched pair of fighting sticks that are his favorite during training. Master is so thoughtful.
Master has given him a new outfit, still orange and black, but subtler. Less like the prized pet of an archfiend, more like an adventurer with a preferred color scheme. Master has also given him careful instructions: no one can know that he serves the archfiend Deathstroke. Don't call him Master either, that's not something a typical adventuer would have. Ren frowned at that, but didn't complain. He would never complain about anything Master said.
Finally, Master took the gold collar off his throat. His hand immediately went to his throat. It felt strangely light, as though he'd forgotten something important. But Master said that it stands out too much. And Master is always right. Master replaced it with a leather cord necklace with an orange pendent, a tool that will let him open a portal back to the Iron Fortress once the adventure was over.
Once Master had looked him over and approved, which made him feel warm and fuzzy inside, he opened a portal and sent him on his way.
...
The portal closed behind him with a soft pop. Ren looked back instinctively. There was no fortress anymore. For the first time since he could remember, he's outside the Fortress without Master. His hand rose to where the collar would be, then shifts down to the leather cord around his neck. The pendent was warm beneath his fingers.
The city of Waterdeep is loud. But fascinating.
The Fortress was buld from black iron and dark stone, every corridor dressed in orange and black banners. Here, nothing matched.
A bakery spilled warm air into the street, carrying the scent of fresh bread. A tailor hung bolts of blue, red, emerald, and yellow cloth outside his shop where they fluttered in the breeze like banners. Someone yells from an upstairs window. Someone else yells back. A child darts between carts with sticky fingers clutching a small cloth purse.
Ren has never seen this many people so full of life.
Now how does he go on an adventure? A tavern! His master said once in passing that most adventurers start in a tavern. A tavern he will find.
Finding the tavern proved harder than expected. Ren spent most of the morning looking for a building helpfully labeled Tavern before finally giving up and asking a passing dark elf.
She stared at him for several seconds.
"…You're standing in front of one."
Ren looked up.
The Sleeping Dragon.
Ah.
Taverns had names.
Ren steps in and immediately freezes. It's busy inside, loud, groups of four to eight sit at various tables. Ren is not sure what he's supposed to do next.
How does an adventure start at a tavern?