Reminiscence - A Dick Grayson Fanfiction

Chapter 14 - Amnesia

AN:

This one's a shorter update, sorry.

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"Can the light afford to leave Guardian in charge without the G-gnomes?" a man asked from a circle of glowing screens.

"We have subtle means of control. What concerns me is the children. We now know the League is willing to employ young heroes to do their dirty work."

"Tch. That's a dark twist."

"Yes... but one that can be played to our advantage. Especially with the Talon in their midst. However, he may cause more harm than good. Recent events indicate that he has joined the League's side."

"I assure you, that is only temporary, he will return to us," joined in a new voice, walking into the circle of screens. Deathstroke looked up calmly at the glowing faces. "I couldn't retrieve him. When I arrived on scene, the heroes had already gotten a hold of the boy. Intervening would've been foolish."

"I hope you have a point in telling us this, Deathstroke," spat someone venomously.

"I don't think the boy deliberately went there to help the sidekicks," the mercenary said.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"From the interaction that has taken place between the Talon and the heroes, I'm safe to say that their so said 'relationship' is not based on trust."

"Do you have proof to your claims?"

Deathstroke took out two small devices from inside a pouch in his utility belt. "This was once used to acquire data from the Talon during missions," he resisted the urge to call him apprentice, and held the small cubical object up for them all to see. Then he continued and held up a USB stick. "This here is the security tape I managed to recover from the holding room of project Kr," with that he connected it to a nearby panel.

The recording showed Reaper as he emerged from the shadows then approached the holding tube and control panel. A few seconds later the sidekicks entered the picture. The associates of the Light watched as 'their Talon' threatened the other kids then suddenly decided to throw Kid Flash aside and opened the tube. The fight with the clone was short, but they could see the Talon trying to go for the kill instead of playing defensive as the others.

"It seems he originally went there to kill the clone," Deathstroke stated. "The sidekicks intervened."

"Interesting..."

"But how could he have known of Project Kr? We haven’t uploaded any files of our developments into his archive since three years ago, when he disappeared. Considering the circumstances of his disappearance and all... Even if we wanted to, with the malfunctions we couldn’t even have kept The List updated."

Instead of answering, the mercenary held up the cubical device again. "This is more precise than the main computer at base, but it only works within a certain distance of the subject."

He pressed a button on the side of the golden device and holographic screen popped up.

"I was able to perform a throughout scan. Our lost communication with the subject and his lack of signals or presence anywhere in particular was explained," he looked at the hologram.

"What do error codes #3, #5 and #24 stand for?" asked a confused but surprisingly calm voice from the screens.

"I thought him being your 'Harbinger of the Light',or something, would give you a motive to actually look into how he functions," he sighed sarcastically.

"You little--"

"Code #3 basically means that the chip has suffered physical damage. This isn't unlikely, considering the last time we saw him, your guys drove him off the edge of a building," he added with venom in his voice.

Before anyone could say anything, he continued. "The chip, which is quite literally inside Renega--" he quickly corrected himself. "The Talon's head, can only take so much before it starts to malfunction. Code #5 stands for data loss and errors regarding data storage and use."

"The Light has copies of everything the boy took when he ran away. It's nothing we have to worry about. We wouldn't loose any data ourselves," said a snarky voice, which Deathstroke recognised as one of the white masked guys.

He shut down the hologram and put the device back in the belt puch.

"Well of course it's an issue," he grit his teeth. "Ask yourself a question: What happens when a trained assassin, who mixes up information about who, what and when to kill - making the wrong connections - , is set loose?" he paused for the dramatic effect. "If you had had monitored GCPD's locked files, you would know."

"He can't talk to us like this," someone stated. "He is a no one, only here to ensure the boy's safety. And look how that worked out!"

"Deathstroke played a major role in the Talon's training beside your organisation and the League of Shadows." another glowing face reminded the Court member.

"Oh, I'm perfectly aware of that..."

There was an awkward pause until a young voice decided to break it.

"So what does code #24 mean?"

"It means," he looked at each of the screens to ensure he had their full attention. "That the feedback between the chip and the host’s brain is flawed. The brain might still receive commands from it, whatever they might be considering the chip itself is in questionable condition, but it can’t process all of the information. This, more often than not, causing an overload of some kind. From what I gathered however, it’s not only the chip that’s not functioning correctly."

"What are you implying?"

"It may have been caused by the impact after the fall, or even just by the malfunctioning chip," Deathstroke shoved a clenched fist behind his back and clasped it with his other hand. "He shows clear signs of amnesia," he could only hope it was temporary.

Either way, he was going to get Renegade back. Not as the Light's knick-knack, but as his apprentice.