A Darker Path AU Fic: Changing the Rules
Sep. 6th, 2006 01:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sylph_ficsI don't get to blame Coldfire for this anymore, though Forever is an Awful Long Time and Pieces of A Puzzle are still the inspiration for the 'verse.
This has become Filly and I's fault. Yes, be afraid. We're plotting.
The sequence of fics is now coldfire's, then my Broken Past, Darker Futures, and Negotiations, which is Dick's point of view of how "Broken Past" came to happen. This is Slade's view of events following "Negotiations".
("But, but, "Negotiations" and "Changing the Rules" happen before "Broken Past, 'Yena..." Yes, I know. Trust me and read them the way I'd like you to. It's important.)
Title: Changing the Rules
Pairings: Dick/Slade, Dick/Roy referenced
Rating: Ah, PG
Warnings: ...none I can think of.
Summary: Slade never makes less than the best of any contract. Or any opportunity.
Feedback: Still willing to beg.
Almost precisely an hour later, Slade sent Dick back to the gym, knowing Rose would be waiting within the next few minutes, and he wanted the time to think, in any case. His boy had startled him--how had he not seen this? A commitment that deep, that binding... how had he missed its existance? He took slow, steady breaths, casting his mind back over the years. Slowly, an acceptable answer emerged. Their respective behaviors with women were too... overt, too real and unforced, to be merely cover. Dick's adulation of Batgirl, then Starfire, had given the sure and certain impression that the boy had kept his desires to the... more conventional. Even his... unihibited and certainly nonvirginal reactions to their mating could be explained by the boy's naturally sensual side and a totally unihibited lover. He'd never even questioned where the kid had gotten the experience--he should have. As for Harper, well... the boy was truly his father's son, if you looked at the list of his conquests. Barring tha--the mother of his child, he even had more than decent tastes in women. When the tempestous, often outright antagonistic nature of the two's //on the surface// relationship was added to the mix of their entanglements, the idea that they'd formed a romantic relationship was almost laughable--and yet, it did make sense. They were so very similar in some ways, and so critically different in others, that they might indeed mesh well.
A thought struck him, and it was actually an effort to remain still. //Dick may have claimed Roy as his pet, but... I would place money that he's played the submissive just as often.// Were he the type, he'd have cursed himself for vowing that the younger pair could play as they chose--the idea of his boy pliant to another's hands did not.. sit well. But he had, and he could not retract it. He would simply have to insure that he was available when Dick started to crave the simplicity of submission, and give him an utterly free hand in the matter of controlling his pet. That would do.
He'd seen the terror, agony and desperation riding his boy despite the truly excellent attempt at composure, and had it been over Starfire he would have let him rage. The alien was simply too dangerous to let live--but Harper... he was right. The kid could come in handy, he had connections everywhere above and beyond the Titans, up through the League itself--and his eye heated at that thought. The Justice League had much to answer for, these days. Had had for a long, long time. He shook off those thoughts, they were for later, and returned to the question at hand. He'd let his boy save the archer not for his usefulness--though he appreciated the attempt to provide him with reasons, in a distant way--but because Dick would never have forgiven him for forcing the boy to betray that bond. He'd handled the acceptance of the contract on his lover and team with such complete grace... he'd earned the boon, and allowing him to salvage that single portion of his life would help the rift in him to heal.
That matter adressed to his satisfaction, he turned to considering the new complications he'd allowed Dick to bring into his life. //Another girl... hopefully Rose will be happy, and not jealous. She has spent time with her, though, so it may not be an issue.//
//Three days, and the Outsiders die... Hm... now, what will this do, beyond the obvious? He reminded me. None of these children exist in vacuum, they all have ties... Starfire's death will devastate every last Titan, leaving them all vulnerable to the enterprising. Even the Flash will be distraught--there is value in that. Shift... not worth much consideration. Grace is a mystery, a cipher, street-rat. Nothing useful there. Thunder, on the other hand... Black Lightening will not take this well--it will be best for his enemies to lay low. That word can be easily passed. Jade. Jenny-Lynn. Her death will agonize the Sentinel... prostrate and enrage the old guard beyond belief, and that will take the younger ones along with them. So angry and dismayed, they would be much easier to disrupt. Hm. ...and with the two mortal members, Nightwing and Arsenal gone missing, not a trace of them to be found... tensions will be running very, very high--// alarm twinged through him, his eye widening slightly. //This house is not protected enough to bar a Lantern's searching... time to deal with the witch again, and soon.//
Her name went to the top of the list of the calls he needed to make as he kept considering--and he heard Rose yelling, something profane she certainly hadn't learned from him. He frowned. She knew better--admittedly, she was still recovering from what his hands //son of mine, how could you?// had done to her, but that was not an excuse. //Perhaps living in such isolation, and with only Dick and I, is not the best situation for her... but she would be safe nowhere else. My daughter is not going to finish growing up into purely a tomboy.// That he would not have. //But who would possibly agree to serve as a role model for my daughter--that I could possibly trust far enough to allow her inside my home?//
Most of the women on the villain side of the fence, while predominantly stunningly attractive, were, bluntly, too deranged, too uncultured to be appropriate, too terrified of him, or entirely too steeped in their own goals and agendas to even be considered. How... frustrating. That left either some random civilian--his lip curled slightly at the very thought--or a heroine... //Riiight, Wilson. Who on the side of the angels would even consider--"a lever on Green Arrow, his son, Green Lantern, and Black Canary for a start"// His boy's voice whispered to him, level, but desperation deep under it as he bargained for Harper's life. //Black Canary... Dinah Lance.// The thought of the stubborn little spitfire was shocking in its intensity... but when his instincts spoke that loudly, it was wisest to listen.
//Dinah, hmm? ...It could be done. She's fiercely devoted to her family, and when I have both Harper and his daughter beneath my roof, in my power...// He had no doubt of his boy's ability to control his lover, not after seeing his eyes. //She might give way.// The raven-haired woman hiding beneath the blonde dye... just might do nicely. She was well trained in several of the more feminine fighting arts, and had never lacked for poise, dignity, or quality. Of course, she had been part of that League... but the details were still unclear on what part she had played. Her love for the little girl might well keep her tamed, and if she knew there was no chance of Lian's father coming for either of them... Yes. She might do quite nicely. //Her word binds her, if she swears to care for my daughter and her godchild, she will do so. If she refuses... simply one more casualty of the war.//
That settled, he began adding the variable of the Canary's disappearance to his listing of the fallout. //Green Arrow will be absolutely unhinged. Jordan likely not far behind. Oracle... hm. If I take her from beneath her very nose... it will throw even she off her stride... how very, very useful. Batman will be little better off--of course, he has more than enough to keep him overwhelmed as it is,// and his lips curved in a small, nasty smile at the thought of his coup against his only true rival within the hero community. //The Canary disappearing will rile the JSA yet more, especially coming so swiftly on the heels of Jade's death... This must be carefully, carefully done,// he warned himself. //Not a clue left to point to you, or you will lose this game spectacularly, and Dick along with it...//
The dangers of this game were so very, very high... but the rewards... would be so sweet. His own children had been taken from him, he'd missed so much of Rose's life... The chance to change that pattern, to watch a child with the chance for such amazing potential grow beneath his roof, with the training of two hero families and his own extensive skills, and at the same time give Rose the gentler guidance of a strong woman--was worth the risk he would run. The stakes he was playing for had reached a level that touched his personal life in ways he had not had since Addie took his sons away. That thought cinched it in his mind; he would play the new game within a game, and keep the rules in his favor.
This has become Filly and I's fault. Yes, be afraid. We're plotting.
The sequence of fics is now coldfire's, then my Broken Past, Darker Futures, and Negotiations, which is Dick's point of view of how "Broken Past" came to happen. This is Slade's view of events following "Negotiations".
("But, but, "Negotiations" and "Changing the Rules" happen before "Broken Past, 'Yena..." Yes, I know. Trust me and read them the way I'd like you to. It's important.)
Title: Changing the Rules
Pairings: Dick/Slade, Dick/Roy referenced
Rating: Ah, PG
Warnings: ...none I can think of.
Summary: Slade never makes less than the best of any contract. Or any opportunity.
Feedback: Still willing to beg.
Almost precisely an hour later, Slade sent Dick back to the gym, knowing Rose would be waiting within the next few minutes, and he wanted the time to think, in any case. His boy had startled him--how had he not seen this? A commitment that deep, that binding... how had he missed its existance? He took slow, steady breaths, casting his mind back over the years. Slowly, an acceptable answer emerged. Their respective behaviors with women were too... overt, too real and unforced, to be merely cover. Dick's adulation of Batgirl, then Starfire, had given the sure and certain impression that the boy had kept his desires to the... more conventional. Even his... unihibited and certainly nonvirginal reactions to their mating could be explained by the boy's naturally sensual side and a totally unihibited lover. He'd never even questioned where the kid had gotten the experience--he should have. As for Harper, well... the boy was truly his father's son, if you looked at the list of his conquests. Barring tha--the mother of his child, he even had more than decent tastes in women. When the tempestous, often outright antagonistic nature of the two's //on the surface// relationship was added to the mix of their entanglements, the idea that they'd formed a romantic relationship was almost laughable--and yet, it did make sense. They were so very similar in some ways, and so critically different in others, that they might indeed mesh well.
A thought struck him, and it was actually an effort to remain still. //Dick may have claimed Roy as his pet, but... I would place money that he's played the submissive just as often.// Were he the type, he'd have cursed himself for vowing that the younger pair could play as they chose--the idea of his boy pliant to another's hands did not.. sit well. But he had, and he could not retract it. He would simply have to insure that he was available when Dick started to crave the simplicity of submission, and give him an utterly free hand in the matter of controlling his pet. That would do.
He'd seen the terror, agony and desperation riding his boy despite the truly excellent attempt at composure, and had it been over Starfire he would have let him rage. The alien was simply too dangerous to let live--but Harper... he was right. The kid could come in handy, he had connections everywhere above and beyond the Titans, up through the League itself--and his eye heated at that thought. The Justice League had much to answer for, these days. Had had for a long, long time. He shook off those thoughts, they were for later, and returned to the question at hand. He'd let his boy save the archer not for his usefulness--though he appreciated the attempt to provide him with reasons, in a distant way--but because Dick would never have forgiven him for forcing the boy to betray that bond. He'd handled the acceptance of the contract on his lover and team with such complete grace... he'd earned the boon, and allowing him to salvage that single portion of his life would help the rift in him to heal.
That matter adressed to his satisfaction, he turned to considering the new complications he'd allowed Dick to bring into his life. //Another girl... hopefully Rose will be happy, and not jealous. She has spent time with her, though, so it may not be an issue.//
//Three days, and the Outsiders die... Hm... now, what will this do, beyond the obvious? He reminded me. None of these children exist in vacuum, they all have ties... Starfire's death will devastate every last Titan, leaving them all vulnerable to the enterprising. Even the Flash will be distraught--there is value in that. Shift... not worth much consideration. Grace is a mystery, a cipher, street-rat. Nothing useful there. Thunder, on the other hand... Black Lightening will not take this well--it will be best for his enemies to lay low. That word can be easily passed. Jade. Jenny-Lynn. Her death will agonize the Sentinel... prostrate and enrage the old guard beyond belief, and that will take the younger ones along with them. So angry and dismayed, they would be much easier to disrupt. Hm. ...and with the two mortal members, Nightwing and Arsenal gone missing, not a trace of them to be found... tensions will be running very, very high--// alarm twinged through him, his eye widening slightly. //This house is not protected enough to bar a Lantern's searching... time to deal with the witch again, and soon.//
Her name went to the top of the list of the calls he needed to make as he kept considering--and he heard Rose yelling, something profane she certainly hadn't learned from him. He frowned. She knew better--admittedly, she was still recovering from what his hands //son of mine, how could you?// had done to her, but that was not an excuse. //Perhaps living in such isolation, and with only Dick and I, is not the best situation for her... but she would be safe nowhere else. My daughter is not going to finish growing up into purely a tomboy.// That he would not have. //But who would possibly agree to serve as a role model for my daughter--that I could possibly trust far enough to allow her inside my home?//
Most of the women on the villain side of the fence, while predominantly stunningly attractive, were, bluntly, too deranged, too uncultured to be appropriate, too terrified of him, or entirely too steeped in their own goals and agendas to even be considered. How... frustrating. That left either some random civilian--his lip curled slightly at the very thought--or a heroine... //Riiight, Wilson. Who on the side of the angels would even consider--"a lever on Green Arrow, his son, Green Lantern, and Black Canary for a start"// His boy's voice whispered to him, level, but desperation deep under it as he bargained for Harper's life. //Black Canary... Dinah Lance.// The thought of the stubborn little spitfire was shocking in its intensity... but when his instincts spoke that loudly, it was wisest to listen.
//Dinah, hmm? ...It could be done. She's fiercely devoted to her family, and when I have both Harper and his daughter beneath my roof, in my power...// He had no doubt of his boy's ability to control his lover, not after seeing his eyes. //She might give way.// The raven-haired woman hiding beneath the blonde dye... just might do nicely. She was well trained in several of the more feminine fighting arts, and had never lacked for poise, dignity, or quality. Of course, she had been part of that League... but the details were still unclear on what part she had played. Her love for the little girl might well keep her tamed, and if she knew there was no chance of Lian's father coming for either of them... Yes. She might do quite nicely. //Her word binds her, if she swears to care for my daughter and her godchild, she will do so. If she refuses... simply one more casualty of the war.//
That settled, he began adding the variable of the Canary's disappearance to his listing of the fallout. //Green Arrow will be absolutely unhinged. Jordan likely not far behind. Oracle... hm. If I take her from beneath her very nose... it will throw even she off her stride... how very, very useful. Batman will be little better off--of course, he has more than enough to keep him overwhelmed as it is,// and his lips curved in a small, nasty smile at the thought of his coup against his only true rival within the hero community. //The Canary disappearing will rile the JSA yet more, especially coming so swiftly on the heels of Jade's death... This must be carefully, carefully done,// he warned himself. //Not a clue left to point to you, or you will lose this game spectacularly, and Dick along with it...//
The dangers of this game were so very, very high... but the rewards... would be so sweet. His own children had been taken from him, he'd missed so much of Rose's life... The chance to change that pattern, to watch a child with the chance for such amazing potential grow beneath his roof, with the training of two hero families and his own extensive skills, and at the same time give Rose the gentler guidance of a strong woman--was worth the risk he would run. The stakes he was playing for had reached a level that touched his personal life in ways he had not had since Addie took his sons away. That thought cinched it in his mind; he would play the new game within a game, and keep the rules in his favor.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-04-18 06:36 pm (UTC)Excuse me. I'm really, really scared now. (cries)
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Date: 2008-04-20 02:33 pm (UTC)*pets your hair, keeps giving tissues*