Chapter 22

Buzzzzzz.

The McGinnis residence's buzzer rang.

"I'll get it, mom" Terry stood from his chair and wiped his mouth with a table napkin.

"Who is it?" He asked as he tried to see who it was through the peeping hole.

The person outside was a girl with long silver hair.

"Terry? It's me, Rose."

Terry opened the door with force.

"What is it? Why did you come here?"

"Can we talk?" Rose pointed outside of the house.

"... Sure. I'll go get changed first." Terry was still in his suit from last night.

Just when Terry was about to close the door...

"Who is it, Ter- Oh.~ Who might you be~?" Mary McGinnis smiled mischievously

Terry facepalmed.

"H-hi." Rose greeted Terry's mother.

The timing couldn't have been more worse.

Mary McGinnis walked to the door.

"Aren't you going to invite her in, Terry?"

"No. She was just leaving. Weren't you?" Terry signaled to Rose.

"Huh? O-oh. Yeah. I just dropped by to give something to him."

"What did you give to my Terry?" Mary McGinnis pinched Terry's cheek.

"It'sh nothing. Shtop pinshing my sheek."

"Well, would you like something to eat? We have some food left because his brother left without eating." Mary asked Rose.

"No. She told me that she just ate. Right?" Terry said in suggestion.

"Y-yeah." Rose played along.

Grrrr. Her stomach growled. Terry and Rose got stiff and Mary just smiled brightly.

Rose ended up going into the McGinnis household.

Terry changed his clothes in his room and put the belt containing that batsuit in a special container where it charges up and repairs itself.

"Of all the people that my mom could meet." He muttered.

What bad luck. He thought as he left his room.

Going down the stairs, Terry could hear the silverware hitting the plates and his mother talking to Rose.

"You're eating well. You said you already ate." Mary said while watching her eat.

"W-well, I didn't want to impose." Rose replied.

"Oh!" Mary chuckled. "I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Mary McGinnis. Terry doesn't usually bring friends home and I got too excited. What's your name?"

"Oh. I-I'm Rose Wilson."

Terry looked down. His mother shouldn't be able to realize the relation to Slade Wilson right away but it will surely remind her.

"That's a beautiful name." Mary said with a smile.

Terry widened his eyes at her statement.

"Thank you, Mrs. McGinnis."

"Please. You can just call me Mary. Or maybe Auntie?" Mary said. "...Or Mom?" She teased and covered her mouth as she chuckled.

"W-what?" Rose said dumbfounded.

Terry facepalmed as he listened to their conversation.

"I saw how you looked at Terry earlier. You think I wouldn't notice?" Mary was so sure of her deduction.

"N-no. You're misunderstanding somethi-"

"I know you kids like to be discreet about this nowadays. It's fine. You don't have to explain." Mary was happy in her own little world.

"But-"

"How old are you?" Mary asked Rose before she could object.

"...Twenty nine."

"It's not that big of an age gap. As long as you're okay with him." Mary is really selling her son off.

Rose was really uncomfortable. She felt like she got trapped by a fearsome foe.

"Did you meet Terry at the party last night?"

"K-kind of."

Mary gasped. "What did a woman like you see in Terry?"

"A woman like me?"

"Yeah. You must be someone important if you got into that party."

"O-oh, yeah...R-right. Ummm..."

"I'm done changing. Should we go right now?" Terry cut in their conversation before it gets too deep.

Rose Wilson took a sigh of relief and said "Yes." She got saved.

"Just when it was getting good." Terry's mother pouted.

Terry can't believe he felt guilty from spoiling his mother's fun even though it was a major misunderstanding on her part. But he felt more sorry for Rose.

"Thanks, Mary." Rose thinly smiled as she went outside of the house.

Terry was about to follow but his mom grabbed ahold of his arm.

"What?" He asked.

"Don't screw this up. She's a nice girl, okay?"

Terry wanted to say "It's not like that" but he held his tongue and just sighed.

Terry caught up with Rose outside and they walked together.

"I'm sorry about that." He apologized about his mother.

"No, It's okay. The food was great."Rose said with a wry smile.

"What did you want to talk about?" Terry got straight to the point.

"I'm sorry for what happened last night. It's my fault that you couldn't capture d...deathstroke." Rose Wilson said. Terry noticed that she has trouble calling Slade Wilson her father in front of others."I didn't know what he did to your father."

Terry snapped "Don't talk about my father." He scowled at her.

"...I'm sorry." Rose said dejected.

"Did you just come here to apologize?" Terry said as he continued walking without looking at her.

"No." Rose replied immediately. "I came here to tell you that I want to help."

"You will help me capture deathstroke?"

"Yes."

"Didn't you come here to save him from me in the first place?"

"From you killing him," Rose Wilson corrected him "but now I know we got off on the wrong foot. I also want him to atone for all that he's done."

----

"Tsk. That girl always gets herself captured." Slade Wilson was in a restroom looking at the mirror.

He was contemplating on why Rose hasn't found him yet. If she searched for him, he would let himself be found because he wanted to spend some time with her away from the Titans.

His conclusion was that she got captured by Batman or his ally.

"So, he also brought someone, huh." He muttered as he wiped his hands.

He walked out of the restroom with his helmet under one his arms.

"Slade! You took so long to get here!" Derek Powers shouted at him as soon as he entered the room."

"Calm down. I'm here." He said calmly.

"You got stopped again!"

"It won't happen next time."

"How come you got bested by some freakshow?"

"I didn't."

"What do you mean you didn't?! I don't hear the news that Batman is dead yet."

In truth, he really didn't get bested in a serious fight. He held back on purpose because he knew that Rose was watching somewhere. He wanted Rose to "save" him from "impending death" and come to his arms. But he didn't account that somebody else was there with Batman and Rose wasn't able to escape them.

Slade Wilson has a weird sense of family. He doesn't want them to stick around very long because it's dangerous to be near him but he also doesn't want their dependency on him to be gone. He has made convoluted schemes to get his sons to still recognize them as their father. Because of this, both of his sons died.

That's why he has a love and hate relationship with the Titans. He recognizes that he owes them for caring for Jericho, one of his sons, but also loathes them because of their contradicting morals that caused the feud between him and the Titans which ultimately led to Jericho's death.

Then, Rose also joined the Titans. That led to his other son's death.

You would think that by the second time, he would change his ways but he didn't think his actions were wrong. Not one bit.

"Should I just cancel our contract and just find another mercenary?"

"Hah. You wouldn't find someone that can do a better job than me." Deathstroke scoffed.

"But you're not exactly doing a 'better' job are you?

"I have a plan." Slade Wilson said.

"And what could this great plan of yours be?" Derek Powers said in a condescending tone.

Deathstroke rolled his eyes at his provocation. Like he doesn't want to waste his energy on him.

"I'll lure Batman in and kill him. Only then will your plans proceed smoothly." He said in a serious tone.

"How sure are you that he will even come?"

"Oh, I'm sure. He has his reasons to get me."

"And what is that?"

"Apparently, I killed his father. Or so he says. But I don't really know his identity to recall who it is." Slade said. "Plus, he has something of mine." He said with a glint in his eye.

Derek Powers laughed because he found the situation funny. "Good! You're finally getting serious. Do whatever you want to do as long as you can get everyone out of my way. I'll even gift you a larger sum than the one in our contract depending on the outcome."

----

"He sent your brother to try and kill you?"

"Half-brother. And yes. He sent Grant to try and kill not just me, but also my mother. I didn't know that Grant was my brother back then."

Terry and Rose were sitting next to each other in a park.

"What the hell?" Terry exclaimed.

"My mother almost got killed because of that incident. In fact, I thought her to be dead for a while. That's why I escaped here to the US to find my father who my mother told me was a powerful man. I wanted him to help me find my mother's killer. It was a good thing that Dick and the Titans found me first. But because of that, he sent Grant, the previous ravager, to kill the Titans. I had no choice but to kill him when he pinned them down. It was only after that that I found out that he was my brother and that my own father sent him to kill me."

"All that just so he could spend time with his daughter?"

"I know. Crazy right?" Rose said with an empty laugh.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Rose waved her hand "But you know what? The funny thing is, even though I want to disown him, I can't help but feel worried for him."

Terry felt down by the story he just heard. It sounded so absurd to the point that he can pass it off as false, but Rose's emotions were real and so he believed her. Terry looked at Rose. Even now, she was really hurting.

"Then based on your story, he must have held back during our fight just so you can tend to him afterwards."

Rose looked at the dejected Terry. He must have lost confidence in his strength because he was played with just for Deathstroke's benefit.

"Hey-" Rose tried to console him.

"It's okay," Terry cut her off "I kind of knew it afterwards. I mean, how could someone who just got to this level defeat someone like him without any trouble. I've thought about it when I left Wayne Manor."

"What now?"

"We wait." Terry said "The tracker that I have on Powers sent a location where he is at. Right now, he's in his Home which has already been searched before by Barbara personally. Now we wait until he leads us to an unknown location, then, we strike. That's where Deathstroke will probably be."

They both grew silent as they ran out of things to say. The cold breeze blew and they felt the space between them. There was a wall between them before but it was gone after they opened up to each other. All that's left was a gap. It was awkward.

"H-hey." Terry tried to break the silence.

"Huh?"

Terry stood up and scratched his head. "D-do you want some ice cream?" What am I doing? Terry thought.

"Sure." Rose replied with a faint smile.

Terry glanced at her from the side. Now that he got a good look at her, he noticed that she was beautiful. Her silver hair really accented her facial features. Her complexion was a little tanned which made her pinkish cheeks and red lips stand out. Her baggy clothes couldn't hide her appealing figure.

He couldn't deny that her accepting his invitation made him happy even if his mind wanted to contradict it because she is the daughter of his enemy.

"I know a great spot near here." He said to her as he led the way. "No, Terry. It's not a date. It's just to make our working environment friendly." He mumbled to himself.

Rose who followed him closely behind chuckled.

Terry turned around "What is it?" He asked with a smile.

"I have heightened senses." She said as she pointed to her ears.

Terry became a statue.