Milk And Cardamom | S. Brown ✔

[50]

"Where is he?" Batman's voice thundered as he investigated Deathstroke, features composed apparently but deep down it was taking a lot of will from him to refrain himself from being violent.

Black gloved hands landed at the table heavily in front of Deathstroke, eyes taking in each flicker of expression on the mercenary's features.

"I don't know," Slade replied, tone unnervingly calm, "you can ask me a hundred times and my answer will remain the same."

"You took him with you after your hideout exploded and you are responsible for answering what happened to him afterwards," Nightwing accused, blue eyes burning in anger.

The Bat vigilantes had tracked Deathstroke and raided the location he was temporarily taking refuge in. And even though they had managed to capture the mercenary, there had been no trace of Tim.

Jason and Damian had both lashed out on Deathstroke the instant they had spotted him. But they had to be restrained with Batman and Nightwing intervening or else Deathstroke would have suffered extreme damage at their hands.

It was not that the elder two weren't angry at the man for torturing Tim, but they chose to take the rational and just approach with him. They had him locked up where he couldn't escape from, they had some time with him before he would be sent to the top security cell at Belle Reve and in that short time they were going to force the answers out of him if he didn't cooperate willingly.

"Yes, I took him with me and kept him in captivity," his voice had not wavered even then, "but Timothy Drake rightfully has a reputation of being insufferably stubborn. He tricked me and escaped even though I warned him not to."

"Escaped..." Nightwing's tensed features relaxed a bit. If Tim had escaped that meant he would eventually make it back to them as well. But what Deathstroke said next shattered that slight bubble of relief.

"Yes. For all I know, he might be dead by now. I hadn't left him in a condition to try to escape and then also survive the wounds."

Those words pierced through Batman and Nightwing, both thinking what condition Tim would have been in when he escaped. The room was deadly silent, the tension coursing through the three evident, until Deathstroke decided to go for a jab again.

"Why don't you check the surroundings? You'll find the corpse not far from there, I'm sure."

Nightwing's jaw clenched, his hand balling into a fist but Batman's hand rested on his shower, stopping him from aiming a blow right at Slade's jaw.

Hazel eye flickered observing the silent exchange between the two and Slade knew he was pulling sensitive strings at the moment. No wonder the Drake boy was surprisingly important to the Bat vigilantes. If he had time to think it out thoroughly, he might figure out why that was the case too.

"Where's Red Robin? I'm surprised Boy Genius hasn't showed up yet. Or rather... Is that why you're so concerned for Timothy? I see... Boy Genius and Boy Stubborn, quite the enigmatic duo or if I'm not mistaken... Quite the enigmatic twin performance given by a solo actor."

Nightwing glanced at Batman knowing that they were in risk of being exposed. Deathstroke had landed on a point that could lead him to figure out the rest of their identities.

"Whether Red Robin decides to show up to your investigation or not doesn't concern you," Batman remarked calmly, cleverly masking the unease he had felt at Deathstroke pointing out the possibility of both Red X and Red Robin being the same.

"Certainly... Now I have been patiently giving you the answers to your questions for long, how about you answer some of mine as well, to keep it fair?" He remarked, leaning back in his seat as far as his cuffed limbs could allow, "how is Lucas?"