A Renegade Knight

CHAPTER VIII

It took all of Damian's will power not to shout out as he recognised his former mentor. Grayson looked like hell. His face was pale, no colour except his blue eyes and a dark bruise rising on his cheek. His hair was a mess and he looked ready to collapse if it went for the restraints holding him upright. Clearly whatever Deathstroke had done to his father's charity case hadn't been pleasant. Damian could feel the anger rise inside him, even as he watched the look of recognition and horror pass across Grayson's face. It was clear this man wasn't Renegade, the villain Drake and Todd had tried to paint for their father. This was Damian's older brother, the former Batman and one of the only people who had ever managed to gain Damian's respect.

Quickly, those blue eyes looked at Damian, then at Deathstroke's back and back again to Damian. Then he tilted his head, nodding towards the door. Grayson was clearly trying to silently tell Damian to leave.

Receiving the message, Damian quickly shook his head. He wasn't a coward who would run from someone like Deathstroke. He wasn't someone who would leave his former partner in danger. He was Robin, the Boy Wonder.

'Damian.' Grayson mouthed the words at his younger brother, trying to glare at the boy.

'No!' Damian silently said back, shaking his head again to get the message across. He wasn't leaving without Nightwing beside him.

Grayson continued to glare, his shoulders shaking slightly. Damian quickly scanned his older brother, trying to see where the shaking was coming from. Grayson was tugging ineffectively against the restraints around his wrists. Either trying to break free, or signal to his former partner how trapped he was.

"Nightwing." A voice called.

Grayson's head spun around to look at Deathstroke's back. The mercenary was still standing with his back turned. However, the screen in front of him was blank, his conversation with Talia al Ghul already over. On the screen was the perfect reflection of the room. From his place restrained to the wall, Nightwing looked at it in horror.

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As he talked with the Demon Head, Slade was careful to only give her half his attention. She was upset. Her latest attempt at cloning had failed, leaving her with no choice but to start again. This turn of events had made her irritated and in no mood to hear of Deathstroke's successes with Renegade. It was because of this, Slade found himself observing his surroundings. Trained to kill from an early age had left the mercenary with impressive abilities to see, hear and even smell changes in his surroundings. His later exposure to the serum had increased those senses tenfold, giving him an almost unnatural ability to take note of everything around him, to use one sense to cover another. It was the reason why losing his eye hadn't affected his work and if it were possibly, made him more dangerous. Because of these abilities, it wasn't difficult to know that someone had entered the room.

Listening intently, he heard the light sounds of footprints and the muffled thud as the intruder entered the room and rolled before a strange silence fell on the room. Then, slowly, he heard the breathing of the intruder over Nightwing's heavier panting. Using the computer screen, he was able to observe the flash of red in the reflection and the former Boy Wonders reaction as he too realised there was someone else in the room. Based on the flash of red, the clear lightness of the footsteps, Nightwing's reaction in the reflection and the fact that they were in Gotham, it wasn't difficult to guess who had entered the room. Only an assassin could move with such stealth. And there was only one assassin in Gotham who would give a damn about Nightwing.