Milk And Cardamom | S. Brown ✔

[41]

The darkness lifted at last and Luke was thrown face forward into a deserted room. He struck the cold ground, his face roughly colliding with the stone wall and blood trickled down his nose and split lip. His leg was at a dangerous angle, the bandage was soaked red and pain clouded his senses.

He heard the door lock shut, the footsteps retreating away from the place and when he was certain that he was alone, he straightened. His palm fitted over his nose and mouth to stop the blood trickling down and he repositioned his leg carefully, discarding the deep red bandage. 

Memories from the past that he had buried deep in the back of his mind resurfaced, making him recall that it wasn't the first time for him to face such a harsh treatment. Years ago, he had been rather accustomed to it.

Years ago, it was all he had known. Following his father's orders had been ingrained into him from a very young age but once even the slightest thing went wrong, he would have to face punishment far worse than the treatment he had just experienced.

But back then, he had had Rose beside him and her presence, though not much helpful to his state as she didn't stand up to their father either, still it had been of slight comfort. At the current moment, he was all alone with no one to save him from the torture that was to follow once he refused his father's orders again.

Yet his mind was continuously flickered towards Dora and Alex as well. Both of them had been put through too much because of him and he felt horribly guilty. He could not erase Dora's painful screams from his memory, nor could he stop picturing the dark tendrils that had wrapped up around her, sucking the life out of her.

And along with that guilt came a jolt of rage, anger at the fact that his father was still not going to back off and cared nothing about all the lives he would wreck in his path.

He had to stop him.

But how he was going to do that was still a question with no possible answer.

He pushed himself back against the wall, palm dripping red as he clutched the wound on his leg and applied pressure on it to somehow numb the pain. He had no idea how long passed with him sitting there by himself, his brain whirring with worrying thoughts.

Then at last, the door creaked open but Luke shut his eyes adamantly, not willing to look up at the threatening figure of his father.

"Lucas, have you made up your mind yet?"

His voice came out in a choked whisper, "yes, my answer remains the same."

"Look at me!" The voice thundered but Luke refused to look up.

"I said I would come with you but I did not agree to join you in any of your plans," he spoke up when the armored fist closed around his throat, "you can do whatever you want to me, you'll get the same answer."

"Bold of you to think you have a choice here. You don't."

Hazel looked up at him at last, a dreadful calm taking over the boy, "I accept the consequences."

Frustration took hold of Deathstroke but he didn't let it show as he let go of him roughly, hazel eye observing his son in speculation. 

It was the first time he had seen something in the boy that reminded him of his own self, that proved Luke was indeed his flesh and blood.

Just like Slade, Lucas was stubborn; not backing off from the decision he had made and staring back defiantly at all the trouble that awaited him as a consequence of his choice. He would rather die than back off, just like Slade would risk anything and everything to achieve his targets.

It was ironic seeing his own traits in his son but in a different light as his alliances laid with the opposing side.

"Haste only causes destruction, boy. Think this through. If you won't cooperate, I have other means to make you give in."

"You will do what? Break my joints again? Torture me again? What will you do that you haven't done before?" His voice was laced with hatred and his hazel eyes locked with his father's at last, burning in an inexplicable rage.

"I will break every single person close to you and you will see it right in front of your eyes," Deathstroke threatened in a low but firm tone and the loud smash of the door closing struck Luke along with the words that he had just heard.

***

The vigilantes were in the Bat Cave, pondering on what to do next when Jason stormed in, throwing away his helmet and going straight up to Richard, "will anyone tell me what the hell is going on?"

"Jay..."

"No listen to me first, why is Babybird unhinged? What the fuck happened to him that you wanted me to strap him even in order to stop him from leaving?"

Richard's eyes flickered towards Bruce and Jay looked in his direction too.

"Did you do anything? Because if so then help me God, I..."

"Todd, shut the fuck up!" Damian thundered and Jay's steely eyes focused on him, "you can be your unnecessary dramatic self some other time. And listen up if you don't know already; Deathstroke destroyed his favorite coffee shop, tortured his girlfriend almost to death and abducted his own son and now our idiot of a brother has gone to get himself killed at his hands. If you still need an answer to what happened, then help me God, I will pluck your eyeballs out."

Silence gripped all of them, even Jason, who was staring at the boy incredulously.

Bruce spoke up, sensing the tension growing between his sons, "Dick said he had come to your place. What did he ask from you?"

"Rose Wilson's whereabouts. Said he couldn't proceed without her help."

"At least he's not going alone," Richard let out a short sigh of relief.

"There's an eighty percent chance she won't help him," Jay reasoned, "she did everything she could to leave that life behind. She won't go back for any cost."

"Her brother's life is at stake," Damian reasoned, "perhaps she might."

"Her brothers are both dead."

"There's a third one too that you might not know of but we don't have time to explain everything," Richard added, "Tim left his Red Robin suit so we can't track him out. I had trackers on the Red X suit but you had disabled those back when you stole it. Do you have anything on the suit that we can track instead?"

"I don't use trackers so no, we can't track him out," he replied, "and knowing him, he would have disabled any tracker even if I had one on the suit."

Bruce took charge then, "we use our means to track Deathstroke out instead. We'll find Tim wherever Deathstroke is, I'm sure."

"Sounds like a plan," Richard agreed, "Jay, you coming with us or not?"

Jason had been operating with the Outlaws recently so he hadn't been on any of the Bats' missions recently but that once he agreed, "I am. I have to beat the little shit's ass up when I find him for causing us so much trouble. But after we beat Deathstroke's."

"Then stop wasting time with your rants, pick your helmet and leave," Damian kicked his helmet towards him.

"Dami, there's a bomb in there," Dick warned him.

"You wear a bomb on your head, Todd? Ridiculous. Can't wait to see the day it blows up in your face."

Jason shot him a glare but Richard's hand landed on his shoulder, steering him away, "don't listen to him. Tim is our priority right now."

***