Gouged Roses

Deathstroke's pov

He's dead, he was dead before I got down the elevator. My oldest son. My boy that I was so hard on. I had held him in my arms as his cells started atrophying rapidly. I carried him to my boat and went back to the car. Now his body was in the back like luggage. His dead eyes looking back at me from the rear view.

My ears picked up something as I came closer to the hospital, even being a mile or two away wittle clutter and noise of the city. Shotgun, AR, pistol; those were Wintergreen's guns! My foot smashed down on the pedal but the pain didn't stop. No, as I closed in on the hospital, I saw someone hanging from the roof.

I was cracked when my son died in my arms. When I saw Lillian hanged and drawn, and the helicopter flying away with Rose and possibly Wintergreen inside I broke. I jumped out of my car and screamed their names. I checked the tracker on Wintergreen's phone and noticed that he was in the hospital.

Not even bothering to remove my Kevlar vest I put on before entering Titan Tower or my weapons I ran inside. I almost slipped on the blood. Everything that breathed or had a chance of breathing was brutally murdered. I nearly vomited when I passed the nursery.

Sirens grew louder, but I finally passed the spot where Wintergreen got a few of them in a hall. They cleared out their dead though, if they hadn't I would have clipped off a finger for prints but they were covering their tracks. By the scorches on the stairwell I knew he had used some dragon's breath rounds.

These men were animals, their bloodied tracks all came through here. I got to the final floor and found Wintergreen, down, bleeding and unconscious. Letting out a sigh of relief and cupping his head in my hands I told him,

"Hang on, I'm going to get you outta here!"

My mind and heart aching, I went to Lillian's body and pulled it up. Struggling to think, I wanted to get everyone out and give them a proper burial but Wintergreen's depending on me! Why can't I just do everything!

Then it hit me. I'm weak, I'm too weak all by myself to do what I must do. Tears streaming down my face, I cupped Sweet Lillie's hand one last time,

"I-I am… so sorry. I will find who did this," I swore, rage in my voice, "and they will pay!" Closing her eyes I kissed her cold lips, "I love you." Breaking apart, I kissed her again, not wanting to let go, "I love you so much!"

Sirens came to a screeching halt outside the hospital and I saw them surround my car. Grant's body was still inside but I said, sobbing, "I'm sorry I was never there. I will get those Titans. I will get them back for what they did and took from you. I'm sorry my son. I'm so sorry."

The police were probably going to waste time checking my car for bombs. So I tore myself away from my family, wiped my face, and picked Wintergreen up over my shoulder and made my way to the fire escape before the police blocked that as well.

***

Wintergreen would recover. I made sure of that in one of my condos. The news reports were confused about the small car with a trunk full of weapons and an armored dead body. At least I had nothing in there that tied back to me specifically. I had guns out on the coffee table. Uzis. Glocks. I was going to need more. For now I busied myself with carving x's onto all the thousands of bullet tips. This would cause the bullet to fragment more in a target and cause more damage.

I was interrupted by a security alert on my phone. Someone delivered mail to my address even though I made sure my address wasn't in any mailing lists. I loaded two full-size uzis and walked outside hoping an army was outside. I was mad and depraved, I was going to find them and kill all of them. Hell, families might need to die as well. Rose and Lillian had nothing to do with my work. It's not going to be mass murder; simply animal extermination.

The night was quiet when I stepped outside but not too quiet. I scanned the area and kicked the porch in frustration, snapping the wood with ease. I wanted to kill them, and they ran from me even now. Uzis in hand, I went to the mailbox and removed the package. It wasn't a bomb, but a tape.

Going back inside I took a deep breath and dug around for an old VCR. I had an idea what could be on there but it's my only lead to Rose's kidnappers. Steeling myself, the first thing I saw was a mask. A mask I recognized from Qurac*.

(*DC fictional Middle East country.)

"I had once said that nobody was as fast as you." I heard a smile in the wheezing man's voice as he stepped aside, Rose behind him, "I was proven wrong. However," he said, flipping out a butterfly knife and holding it to Rose's beaten and tired neck, "you might not remember me but you remember what I did to your son."

It was true, my whole body tensed when he put the knife to her neck. The event was seared into my subconscious and I knew he was prepared to do it again. Taking a fistful of her hair, he yanked up her head into the dim light above her.

"I made sure her mother suffered in front of her and if you don't hurry," he took the blade and gouged out her eye, she was so weak she tried to scream, "it will be the last thing she sees."