Harper Isabel Todd

Chapter 29

The building in front of Jason's safe-house

"Don't you think it's time the kid got a proper apartment?"

"I don't need you here distracting me with stupid questions."

"HEY! I've got better things to do but the bird asked me to keep watch-"

"Shut up Slade," Raja huffed annoyed, "I should be with him, I remember the bad days."

"You know I'm going to find out why your loyalties changed," Slade kept being a dick because it was his nature, "I'd rather hear your side of things."

"My loyalties have always been with what was best for Nanda Parbat," Raja lied.

"Now that's a lie if I ever heard one," Slade snorted a laugh and zoomed in with his binoculars into Jason's one-way window, "those windows are a fucking nightmare."

"Then they're doing their job," Cassandra said from behind them, "status update."

Slade would deny it to kingdom come, but Cassandra Cain startled the living shit out of him every time she appeared. Raja, however, wasn't as proud as Slade and didn't mind giving credit where credit was due.

"General Cain," Raja bowed his head, "nothing since your grandfather arrived."

Slade's eye twitched at the words he did not understand. He hated it when league members went out of their way to make sure he was missing parts of the conversation. Cassandra, as always, barely showed what she was thinking. She simply nodded before turning to look at him expecting an answer.

"Nightwing called," Slade found himself explaining, "I don't know why, but you can't keep cashing in his favours."

"Status update in 30 minutes," Cassandra said before disappearing into thin air.

"I hate when she does that," Slade muttered under his breath.

Raja didn't bother with an answer. At the 30 minutes' mark, Raja called in a status update and confirmed a 30 minutes' interval for the rest of the night. Slade knew it was going to be a very long night, but he's had worse. As much as he hated stakeouts, sometimes sitting in silence can't hurt and is actually welcomed. Three hours after Cassandra's disappearance, Raja called another status update then turned towards Slade.

"He gave quick deaths," Raja spoke softly, "never seemed to enjoy it, that's what interested me in him when we first started training him."

Slade remained silent, he was assuming it had something to do with Jason, or hoping because his curiosity was getting the best of him.

"Long before we found Jason wandering the streets of this cesspool, I had realized what a horrid man Ra's Al Ghul had become, a threat to mankind even," Raja continued, "and then the detective nearly went off the rails when the little bird was taken from him. The clown found a way to secure diplomatic immunity from Iran. It started putting things in perspective. When we picked up Jason from the streets, his mind was damaged, seemingly beyond repair, and still he protected the smaller ones. He even saved one of the younger soldiers sent from Nanda Parbat to retrieve him. Brought him to safety and bandaged him as best he could. You're not the only failed father on this rooftop."

"You have kids?"

"Had," Raja corrected, "Ra's Al Ghul made Jason Todd fight my son to the death. My son ever the Ra's radical loyalist went all in and volunteered himself. I begged him, I begged Ra's, volunteered myself, offered them whatever they wanted, they wouldn't listen. My son was not only good, he was great, one of the best, but Jason was better and fresh out of the pit. Ra's was testing the boy's limits, the effect of the waters on him."