"Slade." I swallowed my fear. This couldn't be real. It had to be some sort of nightmare. Was I hallucinating?

"Madolyn." He twisted a knife in his hands. "Or should I say, Eren."

"You keep my new name out of your mouth." I should call for help, press the panic buttons, something. "What are you doing here?"

"I can't see my daughter?" Slade's brow rose.

Shit shit shit.

"Oh, so now you claim me as your child?" Backpedaling into the hallway, I was relieved to see the living room empty. Jason had taken Tim away. "How much did you hear?" My heart slammed against my ribs. If Slade knew their identities because of me...

"Enough to know that you knew about the poison. Why, someone out there you don't want me to see?" His smirk said it all. "Tell me, dear daughter, who is Tim?"

It was fine. We weren't even in Gotham. Make up something Eren. "Coworker of mine."

"And why would your coworkers be so calm about your knowledge of poisons? How much do they know?" There was a dangerous glint in his eye that had my gut churning. He wanted to know how much I'd told.

"I see that your eye healed." Damn it. The theory had been wrong, but it also begged the question, why hadn't his other eye ever grown back? Who was powerful enough to take it?

"It was a gift from my benefactor. They're rather motivated to use your gift."

My blood chilled. "What?"

"Your little stunt slowed my healing factor, I don't know how, but it will not be happening again." Slade stabbed his knife into my desk, making me jump. "Stop dancing around the subject, tell me what your coworkers know."

He stood and I panicked. "Nothing! They don't know anything. I made up a story!" I blurted, throwing up my hands in defense.

Believe the lie, believe the lie.

The things he'd done to ingrain keeping his secrets still haunted me.

This is what happens when you are disobedient.

Heavy boots made their way toward me, Slade caught my wrist, dragging it into the light. My heart nearly stopped when I realized he was inspecting my panic buttons.

I tried to wrench it away but couldn't. He was stronger than me.

"Buddies with Superman are we?" He unclipped the watch, ignoring the bracelet, and let it drop to the ground before he stepped on it. There was a loud crunch as he ground it into my floor.

"No, I swear." The last thing I needed was for him to go after Clark. Slade's grip was unyielding and all I wanted was for him to leave me alone. "Please." I was most definitely going to have bruises. "It was a gift."

Believe my lie.

"You think I don't know that you've been with the Waynes." I froze. No no no. "At first I was confused, why would Wayne care about a runt like you." Please don't figure it out. "Then I saw the news."

What?

The shock must've shown on my face because he chuckled.

"You and Jason Todd. Paparazzi found the both of you arguing." Relief flushed under my skin. So he hadn't figured it out. "Witnesses in the club placed the two of you as a couple, that's where you got this." He touched my bracelet. "Perhaps I'll pay Todd a visit."

My head spun. Wait. Slade thought Jason and I were together. That was so much worse. "What do you want?"

"I want you dead, but that'd be breaking a contract and a life debt. Making you suffer is the next best thing."

"Go anywhere near him and I'll kill you." I managed to get a knife from under my shirt, stabbing his forearm in an attempt to get him to let go of mine.

He swore, grabbing a towel I had on my counter, he pressed it to his wound.

I immediately backed up, holding my bloody blade out in front of me defensively. I needed to not be afraid for once, to trust that I could protect myself from this monster.

"You're going to pay for that." Slade dabbed away at his healing wound.

My first instinct was to plead for mercy, to try and somehow lessen my punishment, but I couldn't do that to myself anymore. This was undeserved, his treatment of me my entire life. I should've had a family who loved me and instead I got him. "I'm not afraid of you."

His eyebrow lifted. "Aren't you."

I swallowed, adjusting my grip on the dagger. "Not anymore."

Slade took a step forward but before he could get any further, the Red Hood burst through my window, gun raised. "I'd back off, if I were you."

"What are you doing here?" I panicked, automatically going to set myself between him and Slade.

"The security system notified us, someone else was in the apartment." He shrugged. Had they wired my windows too? Surely not. "Move out of the way Princess, I want to shoot this bastard."

"It wouldn't do anything but piss him off." Slade merely watched, unimpressed. I gripped Jason's jacket, planting myself firmly between the two. "Please."

"You heard her." Slade crossed his arms, a smug smirk plastered on his face. "I'd lower the gun, boy, lest you meet the fate of your brother."

Shit.

Jason lunged at him, knocking Slade to the ground.

Shit shit shit.

I pressed the panic button.

They tussled on the ground, Jason was holding his own surprisingly well, considering who he was fighting against. I slipped past them into my room, desperate times call for desperate measures. Bruce and Damian were in Gotham and there was no way Tim would be in any condition to fight tonight.

"Hey! Asshole and dumbass!" I yelled and both of them froze when they saw what I had.

"You wouldn't dare-"

"Put the grenade down." Jason backed away from Slade, closer to me with his hands up like he was calming a wild animal.

Neither man moved, it was a silent standoff.

"You don't think I will Slade? You've made me desperate. I'd rather die than go work for your benefactor." I held the pin, the intent clear. "I don't even care that there's civilians beneath me and that you'll likely survive, I'd be too dead to mourn the loss."

I'd never go back to being under that monster's thumb.

"Eren." Jason had removed his helmet, domino, thankfully, firmly in place over his eyes. He spoke slowly and gently, inching to where I was. "Put down the grenade. Like you said, there are civilians in the building and Red isn't too far from here, he'd get caught in the blast radius too."

"I can't do it. I can't. Nightwing won't be there to save me again."

"Then pull the pin." Slade looked like he was seconds away from lunging at me himself. "You're useless to me. Brainwashed by these heroes." He spat.

"Hey, hey." Jason had arrived at my side, his hands inches from my own. "How about we just take a breath and not do anything too hasty." Then he looked over his shoulder. "You're not helping anything."

"I wanted to torture her before I turned her over, but this works too." Slade replied stonily. As if I was nothing. It hurt more than I'd like to admit.

"Alright, do you want to hear my secret weapon?" Jason took an earbud out of his utility belt, before pushing it gently into my ear.

It was an interview.

That wasn't what got me. It was Dick. He sounded bored out of his mind, droning on about some speech he'd given recently. A second voice asked him questions, and he answered.

As if he were still alive.

Jason carefully took the grenade out of my hands, settling it in his utility belt. "I'd be gone before Bats gets here. He gets testy when he faces the people who have killed his kids." His masked eyes were still on me, carefully gauging my reaction.

I was frozen.

Slade tutted. "I'm not afraid of the Batman."

Scuffing from the other side of the room drew our attention. "You should be." Superman squeezed through my window, an easy smile on his face that held an underlying danger to it. The scene would've been comical if Clark didn't look murderous. "You know, I don't think we've met." I'm sure he continued talking but I became hyper aware of the fact that Jason was still holding my hands. This was the second time he initiated contact today.

There's that damn fluttering in my gut. What was that?

I was shaken out of my stupor when Clark decked Slade. There was an echoing crack that split through the air like a knife.

Superman broke his jaw.

Jason pulled me behind him, backing the both of us as far away from the tension riddled fight as he could.

We hit a wall.

Slade gripped his jaw, grotesquely resetting it. "I didn't think you had it in you, boy scout."

"Kick his ass Supes!" Jason called, Clark sent us a grin before lunging at Slade the way Jason had earlier but his strength sent the man through my kitchen wall. "Alright, time to go." Jason tried pushing me toward the open window but I dodged his grip, running into my room. I managed to snag my backpack along with my bunny right before the two broke through my bedroom wall.

"Now we can go." I tucked my bunny away, slipping the backpack on my shoulders and clipping it to my body.

Jason smirked. "Cute."

My cheeks burned and I couldn't stop the warmth that bloomed in my chest. He helped me out the window, shooting a grapple and pulling me to him.

We jumped.