Milk And Cardamom | S. Brown ✔

[42]

Tim waited in the shadows, eyes focused on the door of the bar where Rose worked those days. The crowds had dispersed and the place was almost empty when Rose stepped out, her silvery hair gleaming in the moonlight. The light veil of waist length hair fell over the left side of her face, concealing her one missing eye.

Behind her was a coworker who locked the door and bidding goodbye to her, he walked off in the opposite direction. It was then Tim left his perch, following Rose silently until she reached the door of the apartment she was living in.

She paused, turning around very calmly and spoke up, "come out. I know you were following me."

Tim had expected that she would have enhanced abilities so he wasn't surprised to see that she had caught him. He stepped out of the shadows, watching her face drain of color as she saw the Red X suit.

"I need your help," he spoke up and she paused, realizing the voice wasn't the same as she had last heard which meant the Red X standing in front of her was neither Dick nor Jason.

"Who are you and what do you want from me?"

"Who I am is none of your concern, what I want is the same as you do. I want to free Lucas from your father's captivity."

Hearing her brother's name, she froze eyes darting around the street to make sure no one had seen or heard them. She unlocked the door at last, gesturing him to come in, "not here. Come up."

Rose lived as a paying guest with an elderly couple and she gestured him to be silent as she led him up the stairs. It seemed as if the owners of the house were asleep and she didn't want to disturb them. 

Reaching her room, she stepped aside to let him enter first then coming in herself, she shut the door and locked it.

"How do you know Lucas? And what do you mean he's in his father's captivity?" Her voice was threateningly low, "his custody was given to George Wilson years ago."

"I know that. But your father, in his attempts to reclaim his son, has been wrecking havoc on everyone close to Luke. You saw the news of the coffee shop destruction, that was all thanks to Deathstroke."

"Keep your voice down," she hissed, "no one here knows I'm his daughter and I would prefer to keep it that way."

He didn't speak further, watching her closely as she paced the room, fingers twitching slightly in anticipation as she pondered over his words.

"Explain everything. Or else you'll face the sharp edge of my sword and not my help."

He briefly explained how Deathstroke had broken into Dora's Coffee Haunt and took Luke with him after damaging the entire place and forcing him to surrender using Dora as a bait. Rose was listening closely, her brow furrowed as she heard about Shadow Walker aiding Deathstroke in his plans.

"I have a tracker on Luke and I will go after him whether you come along or not," he resumed, "but two against two would be fair and lesser risk. I might get to them and I might free Luke by myself but I can not assure whether we will make it out alive if it's just me going against the two of them."

She spoke after a long pause, "you said Shadow Walker is with him too?"

"Yes. Though why he's helping him is still unclear."

She nodded, the puzzle pieces fitting in her brain, "and they were apparently after the Bats then changed course and took Luke."

"Seems so."

"Shadow Walker is with him for that first reason," she elaborated, "he has nothing to do with Luke. He only wants to finish the Bats and reclaim his status within N.O.W.H.E.R.E. I was part of the Ravagers once, I know that's what he's after."

Tim nodded, "one last question, are you going to help me out or not?"

"This is a tough decision for me," she admitted, "you are asking me to return to the life I swore never to turn back to."

"Not even for Luke?"

His words cut through her and she closed her eye briefly, a resentful sigh escaping her, "only for Luke..." Straightening, she spoke up, "you said you had a tracker on him. Where is he right now?"

"Pack your weapons, we are going there together."

She nodded, lifting her mattress and took out her katanas, both with gleaming silver blades that rivaled the shade of her hair. Alongside the swords was her suit that she hadn't worn since years but she took that out too.

"If you dare backstab me, X, I will kill you," she had gathered her hair in a ponytail, revealing the dark patch that covered her left eye.

"Acknowledged," he replied, "we don't have much time, we must leave now."

"Go down and be silent, I'll join you outside."

She left a note at the vanity table and strapped the sheathed swords behind her back after putting on the suit. It was indeed a very tough decision for her but her brother was at stake and she knew she couldn't back off.

"Only for you, Lucas, and only because I owe you," she whispered, memories whirring in her head, recalling the frail nine year old boy she had seen him last.

Finally she descended the stairs where Red X was waiting and the two left the apartment together, headed towards the location the tracker in Luke's watch was indicating at the moment.

***

Lucas had no idea when he had passed out from the intense pain in his wounds. Though when he regained consciousness, his leg was bandaged, the blood on his face was cleansed and he felt considerably better.

The pain seemed to have been numbed by some sort of medication and though each joint in his body ached from fatigue, the pain from his injuries had faded. 

He sat up, eyes searching for an escape route but the room was bare with just the door as the only means of exit. And even that door was locked, leaving him no option but to wait for his father's return.

His eyes flickered towards the watch on his wrist, a short sigh escaping him realizing that a considerable amount of time must have passed ever since he had been brought there. He didn't know whether it was day or night as there was no way for him to determine that, but the doubt that a day or two might have passed since he was taken was reverberating in his head.

Much to his surprise, when he tried to recall why he was there in the first place and how, he was met by only a hazy blur of memories. It was almost as if someone had tempered with his head, making him forget things.

All he could recall was a dark haze, screams, a flash of red and then silence. 

Heavy, impenetrable silence that chilled to the bone.

His fingers lifted up to his temple, trying to hold in the throbbing that had broken out as he tried to recall what had happened. Straining to remember what had happened, all he had managed to do was give himself a headache and it was nowhere near pleasant.

He felt nauseous, his head swayed and he couldn't figure out what had caused the sudden uneasiness. It was not painful but was strange enough to make him uncomfortable. A sting in his arm caught his attention and he turned it to see a small puncture in his skin, treated with tincture and some cotton.

He realized he had been injected with something and that was the cause of the headache, the faded memory and the nausea.

Though he had no idea what it was and he could only hope that its effects would wear off soon. Because spending a long time in a room with no openings and that too in a nauseous state did not seem like a preferable condition to him.

Trying to compose himself, he pushed his head down, arms crossed at the neck, forehead resting on his knees. It worked for a while as he suppressed the feeling within him, regulating his breathing to come back to normal.

But whatever substance he had been injected with was strong enough for him to fight against for long and when the headache struck again, he passed out, unable to fight back against the intense pain.

***