stranger things | dick grayson

twenty-five

word count: 4.9k

tw: death, graphic violence, blood, swearing, inaccurate depictions of firearm use

a/n: y'all this is a hell of a chapter but oh my god. please let me know what you guys think!!

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'Are you sure this is going to work?' Eleanor murmured to Dick as they stood in the corner of the lounge room, huddled closely.

'It has to. We don't really have a choice, it has to work,' Dick said as their eyes remained on the group who were loosely hanging around the kitchen. He looked down at her and saw the small frown etched into her features. 'Hey, look at me... You can do this. I believe in you.'

She gave him a small smile and gently placed her hand on his chest as a small token of appreciation before stepping aside and joining everyone in the kitchen. Dick followed closely behind her.

'Hank was right. You all were. Jason needs us, we can't just stand here and do nothing. Deathstroke wants to make a trade, so we'll make a trade,' Dick said and looked at everyone as they all moved to circle the bench.

'We can't hand over Rose,' Hank said quietly, his stare on the counter. Eleanor wondered how long it took for him to swallow his pride before building the courage to say those words out loud.

'We can't,' Dick reassured him.

Eleanor added, 'And we won't.' Giving Dick a pointed look, making him nod. She then processed what Dick had said about making a trade— Who the fuck were they trading?

'But I do have an idea,' Dick said and showed everyone the phone in his hand. 'Gar, you and Rachel stay here with Rose. Protect the tower. I'll contact Deathstroke and confirm our meetup at the plaza. And then we take him down, once and for all, together.'

'While it's a good plan, how are we gonna do that Dick? We've tried before,' Donna said with a deep sigh.

Dick looked at Eleanor and smiled a little. He placed his hand on her shoulder firmly and squeezed it before saying, 'We didn't have El last time.'

Everyone looked at Eleanor with doubtful expressions.

'Listen, I know you were a cop with Dick and everything, and you can fight like hell, which you clearly proved by running rampant around Gotham with Deadshot, but how is any of that gonna' help take down someone who's almost killed every one of us?' Hank asked her, annoyance heavily evident in his tone.

'Deathstroke's not expecting me. Well, he is, but I'm not who he thinks I am. He may have been able to beat me in hand-to-hand combat, but there's one thing he will never be better than me at, and that's shooting,' Eleanor said and pulled her gun from her waistband and placed it on the counter.

'Do you carry that with you everywhere?' Donna asked her, earning a shrug in reply.

Eleanor looked at them all individually and sighed when she saw the still look of doubt on their faces.

'I have never missed a shot. Ever,' she said. Hank laughed in her face. She raised her eyebrows at him, causing him to shut his mouth rather quickly. 'If I don't make a fatal shot, I make a wounding shot. And if Deathstroke isn't dead, or at least heavily wounded by the end of this, I never took the shot. You need to have faith in me with this,' Eleanor said and knocked her fist on the counter.

Dawn sighed and said quietly, 'We want to, we really do, Eleanor. But we just haven't seen what you can do recently. We're all older, we're all slower. We really might not be a match for him.'