Cold-Blooded: A DC Universe Fanfiction (#Wattys2015)

Chapter 24: Tim: An Ethical Dilemma

Tim looked at his phone. He had to call Rose back, it was the responsible thing to do, but he wasn't relishing the task. One way and another, Slade Wilson had caused the Titans a lot of pain, first through his son Grant, who died in his arms fighting the Titans, not because they'd killed him, but because he'd taken a toxic dose of serum to enhance his physical abilities. Then the man himself tried to destroy them in retaliation for Grant's death. Finally, there was Joseph, who joined the team and was one of them for years before he mentally imploded. They had liked Joseph. He was a good team member and a good friend.

So when Rose had come along, nobody was really keen on adding another Wilson to the line-up. They'd been burnt enough already. But Rose herself had done nothing wrong, and she needed their help, so Robin spoke up for her, because it was the right thing to do.

Nobody could fault Rose in terms of her skills—anybody who survived Deathstroke's training went on to be a first-rate fighter—but his idea of training somebody to their utter limits meant training them to the breaking point. Rose came in damaged—needy, depressed, and desperate. Those were not attractive qualities, and that meant she really hadn't made any friends on the team. Not even Robin himself.

Lately she'd taken to throwing herself half-heartedly at her male teammates, maybe because she wanted to be loved, or maybe because she wanted to form a bond through sex that she couldn't through friendship. As yet, nobody had taken her up on it, partly because she hadn't even turned sixteen until very recently, partly because she was so needy that it raised red flags, and finally because nobody wanted to find out what Deathstroke would do to a guy who messed with his little girl when he found out about it.

However, whether within the team or outside of it, sooner or later somebody who didn't know or didn't care was going to take her up on it, and Tim just didn't see that going well for anybody. Least of all Rose herself. 

Now she had run off to Tokyo, of all places, without warning or any explanation, not even a note. Tim's hunch was that it had something to do with Yukime Kuwano, Rose's father's girlfriend. He'd done some background checking on the woman after Rose had told him she was the same one who worked for Freeze. He hadn't found out anything that bad, other than that she was in a relationship with Slade Wilson. The entire Gotham underworld knew who visited her regularly, and Batman knew nothing about it at all.

Yukie had US citizenship through her father, who had been born in the States while his family was held in the Crystal City, Texas internment camp, one of many where Japanese-American citizens were wrongfully confined during World War Two. Since that experience soured them on America, the Kuwano family relocated back to Japan, but his citizenship was still valid, and therefore, so was hers.

Her credit report was impeccable, she had never had a moving violation or a parking ticket, and she had never been tried or convicted of a crime. However, she had been arrested several times for aggravated assault and once for manslaughter, but the charges were dropped each time because she was acting in self-defense. Her hobby was sumi-e, traditional Japanese ink-wash painting, and she belonged to a national society of sumi-e artists. Several of her works were on their website, energetic studies of nature and landscapes—unless it was a different Yukime Kuwano, which was quite possible. There was one who was a concert pianist and another who sold insurance, and that was only in the United States.

Other than that, she had no internet presence—no social media accounts, or none under her own name, which was unusual these days.

All right, it was now 3AM in Tokyo. If he was going to make the call, it was time. He picked up the phone.

"Uh—wha? Izz sumfin' wrong?" Rose asked when she picked up.

"You could say so," he replied. "One of my teammates flew to Tokyo on her own without warning and now she's avoiding my calls. What's going on? Why are you in Tokyo? Are you in some kind of trouble?"