ghosts | d. grayson

chapter 28

28. planning

•—✽—✽—✽—•

ten minutes later

AS IT TURNS OUT, PEOPLE ARE CONSTANTLY changing and evolving and, of course, Paige is not an exception to that. Every life experience has changed her for better or for worse. And with every life experience came a decision to change her mind on certain thoughts and opinions she had, but she could say for certain that the things on her infamous 'Top Ten Things to Hate' list stayed exactly how they were.

Especially, item number one: the worst of the worst. Although the people in that category have changed the hatred level toward them still remains. Deathstroke had managed to quickly rise through the ranks without even having to interact with Paige at all. As long as he was alive, he would still be her main target simply for the fact that he had kidnapped Jason.

Another member of the Wilson family had also managed to wedge themselves up there. Rose Wilson, whether she knew it or not, was one rank below her father in the subcategory that ran through Paige's mind of who to hate. Jason was taken because the Titans had Rose and the only way to get him back alive was if they handed Deathstroke his daughter back.

Running down the list to item number four, Paige hated group discussions. She liked to work alone so having to hear more than one other person at a time discuss something that should seem like such an easy choice was annoying to her.

That was why the woman had been rather distant from the group discussion about whether they should hand Rose over or not. "Paige?" She looked up to see everyone suddenly looking over at her. "Anything to add?"

"Well," the woman began, looking between Hank, Dawn, Dick, Donna, and Kory, "It seems like you all have covered everything there is to know already. Hank's pretty adamant on handing Rose over, and Dawn thinks we shouldn't cause the girl's what's keeping us alive."

"And where do you stand?" Donna asked.

"Is that even a question? Hand her over. See if I care. Jason is our number one priority right now and if turning her over to him is what gets him back, I'm all for it."

"She's just a kid," Dawn retorted.

"Deathstroke's kid," Donna mentioned. "Let's be honest. The further away from us she gets, the safer she's gonna be."

"If we leave her out there alone, Deathstroke will hunt her down."

"Or worse, we lose leverage over Deathstroke once he finds out she's in the wind," Dick added.

Dawn shook her head as a scoff escaped her lips. "We've gone down this path before. We all know how that ended. We're not using Deathstroke's kid to get to him again."

"Fuck it. I'll take her there myself. Good luck trying to stop me," Hank announced as he went to turn around.

"Wait, have you lost your mind?" Kory interrupted, causing him to turn back around to face the group. "You're all turning into monsters instead of trying to figure out how to fight one. If Deathstroke is as bad as you say he is, we all need to get our shit together and figure out how to fight him as a team. Otherwise, we've already lost Jason."

"I wasn't the one—" Hank was once again interrupted by the sound of footsteps running past. The group managed to catch a glimpse of the silver-haired girl as she ran down the hall.

"What was that?" Kory asked.

Gar instantly appeared, leaning against one of the glass panels that made up the training room walls. "Rose overheard you guys talking about giving her up. She's trying to leave." He scratched the back of his head awkwardly as he tried to look as calm and normal as possible. They watched as Dick quickly locked down the building as they all scattered to go look for her.

The group circled back around to the kitchen where they found Rachel standing over Rose who had been lying on the ground, her arms and legs were broken from being thrown against the wall. "Rachel, don't," Dick quickly said, stopping the girl from getting closer to Rose.

Rachel, whose face was visibly apologetic and regretful, turned away from them as she walked out of the room, followed by Kory.

"I'm sorry, kid," Hank said, looking at Rose before going his own way.

"What are we supposed to do now?" Gar said as they watched Dawn kneel down beside Rose's body to check for a pulse.

The bleach-blonde woman hadn't expected to feel a steady beat under her finger-tips when she placed them on the side of the girl's neck. Raising her eyebrows in surprise, she turned to face the others. "She's alive."

Bone cracking was soon heard as her neck, arms, and legs snapped back into their normal position. It looked like something straight out of Paranormal Activity. "Ok, I've seen some weird shit, but that... that's gotta be the weirdest."

-

Dick had gone to his room to think about what to do next when he found Paige sitting down on the edge of the bed, her back facing him. Her head hung in her hands as she tried to cling to whatever feeling of normality she could find. She was spiraling and didn't know how to stop herself from ending up in a dark hole that she could never crawl out of.

"It's gonna be okay," Dick said as he sat down beside her.

The woman looked up at him. Her sad eyes locked onto his that were more hopeful of finding the kid alive. "Is it?" She asked. "Is it really? Because I'm starting to not believe that right now. You're all saying that it's gonna be okay but none of us have done anything to get him back. We're playing right into whatever game Deathstroke's planned."

"It's not as easy as you think it is. This isn't the first time we've gone against him. Like Donna said, we barely made it out alive."

"I really don't want to lose anyone again. After my mom, I can't handle losing anyone, Dick, I just can't," she began, "The same thing that's happening right now is what happened to her and I don't want to take those chances again."

Confusion was evident on his face before he asked, "What do you mean?"

"Just as Deathstroke kidnapped Jason to get to us, my mom was kidnapped to get to me. I'm not sure who did it, all I know is that they go by the name Laverna. She's been coming after me for I don't even know how long. I played right into her game and all it did was get my mom killed. I followed clues she left for me instead of trusting my gut and all I found was a video of my mom getting murdered," Paige explained, not meeting his gaze. "All I'm saying is to expect the unexpected."

"We're going to find him alive. Jason's strong you know that."

Paige sighed before nodding as her eyes finally met his. "I know his mouth is what'll get him killed so I really am praying that for his sake, he keeps his mouth shut."