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Original FFnet A/N: Hey guys!
How's it going? You're all doing well I hope? Staying out of trouble? =)
So OMG big thanks to everyone, this story has gotten a few more follows so I'm like super hype about that. Thank you so much!
Again you reviewers keep me going. I thank you guys so much for everything! You guys are awesome and amazing and totally make my day.
EDIT: 03/28/2022 Fixing things up and slowly moving story over to A03
Anywho ON WITH THE STORY!
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Sariel wasn't one to dread anything, but some of the files she and Gus had gone through were indeed dreadful. Taking apart the ben Elohim wouldn't be easy. But this was the first step. Information was always the first step in anything. No knowledge would equal immediate failure and that was something she could not allow.
She sighed and rubbed her eyes. It was pretty early in the morning, going on about four, maybe five... she didn't look at the time, instead she had her head perched on her woven hands and stared at her findings on the screen before her.
Things were getting more complicated by the second. And while she did indeed score a jackpot of information, it was old. It was their history, there was nothing recent in these files. She kept them safe regardless. Knowledge was powerful afterall, and the more she had the better. If anything, to simply figure out more of the puzzle, Sariel would have to confront them again. And prior experiences have told her that it would be easier said than done. They wanted her dead. They wanted the small portion of their Legacy back. And they would kill anyone in their way to obtain it. Which made it extremely difficult and dangerous to ones health.
"Unless..."
She rubbed her eyes again. Bed was beginning to sound like a good idea.
"Unless we fake our deaths?"
Sariel smiled at the idea. It would be risky. Very risky. But they could pull it off. They would need to copy the information from the USB drive she stole and put it on another and make it look as authentic as possible. Gus should have no problems with that. He could make a fake good enough to keep them happy for a few hours, until they figured it out. They keep the intel and the money. Trade away the fake up for... well whatever they wanted.
What would she want?
She'd have to think of something. In the end though they would 'kill' her and whoever came along with her. Make them think they got away with it, then in the midst of everything get a goddamn tracker on one of their trucks and follow them into one of their own bases. Sounds easy enough. In theory. She knew however it would be a lot more difficult.
If they were to go through with it, they would have to plan it out bit by bit by bit. She could get Gus to get involved, he was pretty faceless to them, he could pull the trigger. Gus would know that she would be wearing a bulletproof vest so he'd know exactly where to shoot her. And when they were gone, he'd give them the que.
Could work.
Too risky...
Very risky...
But it bloody well could work.
Where to meet them then?
Aurora Warchild was English, from London herself apparently. But to her and the others that worked against them, well everyone knew London wasn't her town and hadn't been for a long time. The ben Elohim had called Berlin home for over seventy years, ever since the war. She was pretty sure they had dozens of various headquarters around the globe. But Berlin being the nest... it could work.
If this was really going to work however, she'd have to talk it over with the others, see what ideas they could come up with. Maybe inquire if the almighty, all knowing Deathstroke had any good ideas on how to go about this. She yawned and leaned back in her chair. It was odd, Slade letting Robin take the reigns. But then again for the kid to change so drastically it was probably Slades idea to let Robin hang out in the midst of a warzone and let it happen naturally. It worked, to an extent. If Robin truly had changed sides... well it would be good for the villains of the world. For her? She didn't really consider herself a villain. She didn't take sides, she just did whatever it took to achieve her goals. Although some would call her a villain of sorts she supposed. But in truth they just didn't understand the world and how it truly worked.
But Robin switching sides... after all he had seen, he couldn't just walk away. It was the same for her. As a child, after all she had done, after all she had seen, all the blood she had shed... She couldn't walk away. The world was a mess, and it couldn't clean itself up. It needed a caretaker. Multiple caretakers. But no one wanted the job. Someone had to have the balls to do the right thing, even if the right thing was shooting that murderer or pedophil or rapist or child trafficker in the head. The world would put them in prison, only to be let out a few years later. No, it was better to shoot them. Kill them so they could no longer cause any harm to anyone else. Ever. After being used as a child soldier, Sariel was pretty headstrong on saving as many kids as she could whenever she found any sort of military using children for experiments or having them serve as soldiers. War was all she knew, it wasn't a good life for a kid, she had enough experience in the bloodbaths one called war since the age of seven. She couldn't stand by and let other children see the same horrors she had.
With the old memories once again fresh, she briefly wondered if Robin would pick up a gun and shoot someone in the head as she had done so many times before. If the kid had truly switched sides Deathstroke would teach the boy how to kill, and under Slades tutelage the former boy wonder would become deadly indeed. But Sariel knew Robin wasn't completely new to the darker side of things. How many horrors had he already seen in his first years as Robin? Being a child, running around the streets of Gotham must of done some serious stuff to him, being such a young age when he started. Sariel smirked at the thought, the two had roughly been at the same age when they both entered a very dangerous path in life. But now Robin was embarking on a much darker path then anything he had ever done before. And oddly enough he seemed ready for it, like it had been a long time coming.
She sighed and rubbed her eyes once again. "Confusing." That is what Robin was. Regardless, she would like to stay in touch with him, even after all this was done. She had to admit she really liked the kid. And being good chums with Deathstroke's heir to his empire... well it could help her out in the future.
"Still up?" Looking at her screen, Sariel shook her head. Speak of the devil and he's bound to appear. She looked over to see Robin leaning against the door frame. They were all still in her 'friends' little apartment. Which was technically hers but her 'friend' had taken up residence.
"Yea, probably gonna hit the hay soon though." she gave out a yawn along with the answer. "What are you doing up?"
"Can't sleep much myself."
"I see..." Silence, it was a old friend when it came to these two. It took a few minutes but eventually she asked. "You serious... you know, about everything?"
Robin looked away. "Yes."
"I thought you'd die a superhero or something. What the fuck is Batman gonna do without his Robin?"
Smirking he answered. "He's been doing fine without me, I left to lead the Titans because he wanted me to quit being Robin. And... I just couldn't do that. So I left."
"And went to Jump?"
"Yea... "
Silence.
...
...
"You know... at first, when Slade offered me the position and the opportunity I hated it. Abhorred it. I've always had the obsession of taking him down like the good little superhero I was, and he always had this obsession of taking me under his wing. And I hated him for it. To the point I just wanted to kill him, to just get rid of him. And I hated that, because heros don't kill people. But in truth he always brought that side of me out to play, and then I started to hate myself."
"And yet here you are."
Robin sighed. "Thing is... I don't know if I hate him anymore. Although, I do hate him for bringing me out here." The former hero scoffed. "But if he didn't I would-" he took a deep breath then, not really wanting to finish the sentence. "I would probably be dead. The Titans, we were going after the Brotherhood as you know. I would still be on ice, maybe. I know eventually we would of figured it out. The Titans from what I have read did win against the Brotherhood. And-" he stopped himself again.
"And what?"
"I'd probably be back in the Tower with the rest of the Titans. Moving forward with the team to face whatever threat came next."
"Would you like to go back to the Titans?"
Robin gave out a chuckle then. "No." it was such a simple answer, but the implications were huge. "I don't belong there anymore. It's odd really. I have saved the entire world with them at my side, but at times I feel more at home talking to you or even to Slade of all people. Why? I don't know."
"Well we did go through a chunk of bullshit together."
"Sometimes I still see the faces Sariel. All those I left behind. I killed them, because I left them to die. It haunts me. All my life I was taught that true heroes don't kill. They bring about justice. But that night Sariel, there was no such thing as justice. It didn't exist. All those innocent people that died... Sariel, someone's got to make them pay."
She smiled at him then. She was just thinking about all this moments ago. About how the world needed it's caretakers, to do what was right. Because no one else would.
"Whole world will move against you, ya know that right?"
"It always has."
"Do me a favor then."
"Yea?"
"Since your now Deathstroke's heir and apprentice, let's remain friends shall we?"
"Sounds more like you want something." His smirk was evident.
'When do I not want something? But seriously. Friends? Let's make a deal never to cross each other on bad terms. Be good for business on both of our ends. Plus a few years from now when everyone is terrified of you I get to sit in that room and shrug it off."
"You want gloating abilities?" Robin almost sounded surprised. Almost.
"Fuck yea!"
"It's a deal then." one hand grabbed the other and the two shook on their bargain.
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Asif had long since dragged Omar's body out onto the streets and left it in an alley to be found at some point. They would all be long gone before then however.
"Did you dispose of it properly?"
He had to admit, Deathstroke freaked him out. Why the hell would Robin join this guy was beyond him. What vexed him more was that Sariel seemed to fine with the man. Gus didn't even care that a living, breathing, walking legend of a killer was among them.
"Of course." Slade was talking about Omar's body of course, Sariel's little 'friend' that they had previously taken hostage. For a brief moment he got free and started causing some havoc, he tried to kill Sariel. But Asif would have none of that, so he shot him. Thus it was his responsibility to dispose of the body.
Slade just stood there outside of the building with his hands behind his back. What was the man doing out here anyways?
"Good." It was all he said as Asif quickly slipped past the man into the building.
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He didn't trust Asif, and he would keep his eye on him. He betrayed them all once. He would betray them again. If it meant he could get an upper hand in life, he would definitely think on it. Slade had originally just been outside to get some fresh air so to speak. He didn't need to sleep. He could be up for a couple more days before he would actually need any form of rest. That's when he noticed Asif wandering off to drop a body off in an alley, behind a dumpster most likely.
He could tell that the feeling was mutual. Asif didn't like him either. But most likely for different reasons. He knew that his presence gave the young man a bit of what one would call the jitters. He had to admit, he did find that amusing.
He actually prefered the cocky newer addition over Asif.
To be honest however, other then facing off against the Titans, it had been awhile since he been surrounded by a group of youths. In some ways it was rather refreshing. Albeit quite a few of his men within his own military were young, but he hardly ever had to deal with them.
These kids however were not part of some sort of military, although he couldn't quite tell who or what Sariel worked for, it did seem she had more control over things and that her higher ups did indeed trust her to do things on her own, and she definitely had a more of a military background then the rest of her little team. He figured one day he'd find out since her and Robin seemed to be quite close these days. She really wasn't the type to tell all about herself, although she seemed to tell enough to get people to believe her. But he knew there was far more to her then what she lead on. In the end it didn't matter, the only thing that did matter when it came to Sariel was Robins interest in her. The boy would make alliances. Over the years some would stick, most would fail. It would be interesting to see the two interact ten years from now. Would they be allies still, or enemies?
Again it didn't matter, all that did was Robin's loyalties to him. Not to his little friends.
However, at the end of the day these "kids" were different then the Titans. They were not molded to be the good guys, they didn't want to be heros. They just wanted to live, and that is what drove them. Wasn't that what drove everyone? The unfortunate part of these kids was that life had been cruel to them at some point and somehow they all got involved with wars and the killing game.
Shame really. But he wasn't going to get sympathetic.
He would still need to get back soon enough. But for now he would let Robin take the reigns and decided on what he wanted to do next. If this ben Elohim was as big as threat as they were sounding, he to would want them out of the way. Not all things were meant to last forever.
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Don't worry things will pick up eventually, more action and whatnot to come. It's just a slow period atm. They all got to get their shit together kinda moments. XD
Anywho...
PLS PLS REVEIW! I'll give ya cookies and gold stars and I'll let you pet my cat. His name is Max and he actually loves cuddles.
See you all later!
-Fangy