Illicit (Parts 11 to Conclusion)
In which the Titans and Olivia confront the Cheshire Cat while trying to protect those most precious to Lian.
Title: Illicit
Disclaimer: DC's, not mine.
Feedback: Appreciated, very much so
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Rose Wilson/Mar'i Grayson, Lian Harper/Cerdian, Damien Wayne, Chris Kent, Iris West II, Olivia Queen, Dick Grayson, Roy Harper/Jade Nguyen (implied), Lian's half-brother, Arrow clan
“I’ll take Lian with me to go to Roy,” Olivia suggested.
“We need to be together on this,” Rose said.
“We can’t be two places at once,” Damien spoke up. “Just because the Cheshire Cat goes after one of them in person doesn’t mean he won’t send someone after the other. We need to be able to protect them both.”
“He has a point,” Chris agreed.
“Yes,” Rose admitted. “I’m taking Nightstar, Robin, and Superboy with me to Dick. Olivia, you’ll take Red Hood, Cerdian, and Kid Flash to Roy.”
“That sounds good,” Olivia agreed.
“In the meantime, we have to get dressed properly,” Rose said.
The Titans quickly changed into their costumes and met up with Olivia once they were fully costumed. They went down to the vehicle bay of Titans Tower and entered a modified Tamaranean fighter, Ravager taking the pilot’s chair. Olivia took the seat beside Ravager, beating a jealous Nightstar to the punch. Of course, Nightstar simply sat behind Ravager, while Red Hood sat behind Olivia and the other Titans took their seats inside the Tamaranean fighter.
“I’m going to drop you, Red Hood, Cerdian, and Kid Flash off by Roy’s place,” Ravager said to Olivia. “Sound good to you?”
“Yeah,” Olivia answered.
After doing exactly that, Ravager continued on to New York City. The fighter craft was in stealth mode, with its engines quiet and invisible to radar, as it flew. After all, they didn’t need to be stopped by the Air Force while Dick was in danger. The fighter craft moved at supersonic speed, crossing the distance between the two coasts within minutes. Once over New York City, Ravager landed the craft in an isolated lot and opened the hatch, stepping out with Nightstar, Robin, and Superboy following.
“Time to fly,” Ravager said, taking Nightstar’s hand. The Tamaranean hybrid flew up while holding on to Ravager. Beside her, Superboy flew while holding on to Robin. Nightstar and Superboy flew swiftly yet carefully; the higher speeds they could achieve were not survivable by Ravager and Robin, even with the armor both wore. Still, they managed to make it to Dick’s apartment.
When they arrived, the apartment was a scene of chaos. Dick was leaping about, fighting the Cheshire Cat, who was garbed in a black shirt with wide sleeves that nearly concealed his hands and black long shorts with bindings around his shins. Dick picked up a tablecloth and threw it at the Cheshire Cat to blind him, but the Cheshire Cat sliced through it with his claws. However, the tablecloth had given Dick enough breathing room to tag the young assassin.
“Dad!” Nightstar cried out.
Dick whirled to see Nightstar, only to get kneed by the Cheshire Cat. Dick grabbed the Cheshire Cat and tossed him, but the Cheshire Cat flipped and balanced himself on the chandelier. Robin threw a Batarang at the Cheshire Cat, only for the Cheshire Cat to jump off the chandelier and attack Robin with his claws. To the surprise of everyone present, Robin pulled a sword out from beneath his cape and used it to block the claws. Then he kicked the Cheshire Cat in the stomach, knocking him backward. Pressing his advantage, he slashed the Cheshire Cat with his sword, only to find himself unable to cut through the cloth of the Cheshire Cat’s outfit.
The Cheshire Cat retaliated with a slice to the part of Robin’s arm that wasn’t covered by his glove or sleeve. Robin ducked under the swing and swept his leg out to drop the Cheshire Cat on his backside. Unfortunately for him, the Cheshire Cat jumped over his leg and kicked him while he was still low. Robin grabbed his foot and pushed the Cheshire Cat away from him. The Cheshire Cat flipped backward, only to be caught by a super-speeding Superboy. The Cheshire Cat attempted to slice him with his claws, but he only cut through the cloth of Superboy’s outfit and not the invulnerable flesh beneath.
“Got you,” the Kryptonian teen said.
“You think?” the Cheshire Cat asked, pulling out a pellet from his belt and tossing it to the ground where it burst, releasing a noxious gas.
Superboy dropped the Cheshire Cat and shouted, “Open a window!”
“The window’s already open!” Dick shouted. “The Cheshire Cat broke it!”
Superboy whirled around at super-speed, gathering the noxious gas to him. The gas was pulled toward him as he flew out the window, still spinning at super-speed. He flew as high as he could, which was pretty high. In fact, it was so high that he reached the upper atmosphere, where the gas finally began to dissipate. He kept flying, exceeding the grasp of Earth’s gravity and escaping into space, the gas finally breaking apart in Earth’s stratosphere.
When the Teen of Steel made his way back to Dick’s apartment, he found the Cheshire Cat fighting Dick, Ravager, Nightstar, and Robin, the four assaulting him from multiple angles. The Cheshire Cat dodged Dick’s kick and evaded a swing of one of Ravager’s katana blades. He swung his claws at Nightstar, who flipped into the air and moved over for Robin to slash him with his sword. The Cheshire Cat barely moved out of the way of the sword, managing to get nicked in the cheek by the blade.
The Cheshire Cat somersaulted backward and attached himself to the wall via magnetic clamps on the soles of his open-toed boots. He sprang from the wall toward Dick, only to be smacked by a hard punch from Nightstar. The Cheshire Cat tumbled on the floor like a rag doll, but rolled back onto his feet and sprang at Nightstar. This time, Ravager kicked him hard in the stomach, her chemically enhanced strength knocking the breath out of him. The Cheshire Cat crumpled onto the ground, seemingly done for.
“We shouldn’t get near him,” Ravager said. “Not without being extremely careful.”
Superboy X-rayed the Cheshire Cat. “There are concealed weapons on his person. Poison dispensers, meant to get anyone that touches him and activated by synaptic controls.”
“Synaptic controls,” Nightstar echoed. “As in he could kill anybody who touches him just by thinking it.”
“He’s playing possum,” Robin concluded. “Hoping one of us takes the bait.”
“I’ll do it,” Superboy said. “I didn’t see Kryptonite on his person, but then he might just have lead on him.”
Robin placed a hand on Superboy’s shoulder. “Be careful.”
Superboy nodded once and looked at Robin. “I’m going to need your restraint cord.”
Robin opened his utility belt and pulled out a coiled length of steel-strong flexible cord. Superboy took the cord and wrapped it around the Cheshire Cat at super-speed, binding him. “You can drop the act,” he said to the younger boy. “We know you’re still conscious. Now . . . why are you after Red Hood?”
“It’s a contest,” the Cheshire Cat spat. “Strip the first child of everything and see if she can endure against the second without those things.” He looked up maliciously at Nightstar. “You’re looking healthy. Must be the alien side of you.” Getting only an icy stare from Nightstar, the young assassin went on. “As we speak . . . my mother is killing Roy Harper.”
Crossbow bolts flew at a dark-haired woman clad in green. The green-garbed woman dodged the bolts and threw darts at the man who had fired those bolts. The man, a redhead with fierce green eyes, dodged the darts and retaliated with more crossbow bolts. The two combatants - Roy Harper and Cheshire - stayed long-range, mainly due to Roy’s efforts. After all, Cheshire was poisonous in more ways than one and the only good thing to come out of her was Lian.
Roy found a set of sharpened pencils and threw them at her like darts. One of the pencils managed to strike her, barely slowing her down. However, that split-second delay was enough for him to find a pair of scissors and throw them at her as well. Cheshire dodged them as well and Roy found some paper clips, bending them into straight lines and throwing them at the assassin.
“What’s going on, Chesh?” Roy asked.
“I am preparing my son to take my place,” Cheshire replied. “By completely ridding the world of all traces of my daughter.”
“Lian?” Roy uttered. “You’re trying to kill Lian? Why?”
“She’s a failed experiment,” Cheshire answered. “I wanted an heir. You took her from me, made her more like you. I can no longer find a use for her. My son will have to suffice, and suffice he will.”
Roy was stunned into silence and that was the moment Cheshire needed to slice his cheek with a poisoned nail. As soon as Roy felt her nail touch his cheek, he dodged her second slice. He didn’t feel any negative effects yet, emphasis on “yet”; Cheshire sometimes toyed with her targets by giving them a poison that could only be activated by a second chemical agent. If this was such a case, he had to stay out of range and never give her a second chance to get that close.
The marksman reloaded his hand crossbow and fired the bolts at Cheshire, hoping to give her pause. Cheshire simply dodged acrobatically, moving almost like a demonic mannequin due to her unusual contortions. She threw poisoned darts at Roy, who threw himself into overdrive dodging them. He wasn’t the natural acrobat Dick was, but his own battle-trained reflexes would suffice . . . he hoped. He picked up his house keys and threw them at Cheshire’s throat, hoping to knock the wind out of her.
This was the scene that Olivia, Red Hood, Cerdian, and Kid Flash happened upon. Olivia let out her “Canary Tweet,” a similar power to her mother’s “Canary Cry” but a hypersonic whistle instead of a scream. The high-pitched whistle nearly shattered Cerdian’s eardrums, blinding him as well, and it certainly disoriented everyone else present. Olivia sped toward the addled Cheshire and slammed her into the wall.
“Dinah’s other brat,” Cheshire uttered with a smirk. “You’ve certainly gone a long way from the nest.”
“I don’t see why you’re smiling, bitch,” Olivia sneered.
“I’m smiling because you shouldn’t be this close with to me,” Cheshire answered. “Aren’t you time travelers supposed to know those things in advance?” The next thing Olivia knew, she was stabbed by Cheshire’s hidden poison dispensers. She fell off Cheshire, going into seizures on the floor. She clutched at her throat, feeling as though she was suffocating.
“Olivia!” Roy shouted.
Red Hood withdrew her bow, nocked her arrow, and released right at Cheshire’s stomach. The arrow hit its mark, its head embedding itself in Cheshire’s stomach. Cheshire gripped the shaft of the arrow and pulled the arrow out of her stomach, grimacing and smiling simultaneously. “So you have some killer in you,” she purred. “Maybe you aren’t such a hopeless case. I’ll only know for certain when your brother comes.”
Red Hood glared furiously at Cheshire. “Is that what it’s about? Pitting your children against each other to see who’s better?”
“In a nutshell, yes,” Cheshire confirmed.
“You’re sick, lady,” Kid Flash spat out her conclusion as to Cheshire’s character.
“Someone has to continue on for me,” Cheshire answered coolly. “Why should I entrust the name of the Cheshire Cat to someone who isn’t qualified for it?”
“You have the antidote for that poison you gave Olivia on you, don’t you?” Red Hood surmised.
“I do, but the only way she’s getting it is if you defeat your brother in battle,” Cheshire answered. “Don’t worry, Lian. It’s a slow-acting poison; she’ll have plenty of time to suffer before she dies.”
“You -” Red Hood uttered. Unable to finish, she vented her rage at her mother’s callousness by charging at Cheshire.
“Lian, don’t!” Cerdian exclaimed.
Cheshire merely grabbed Red Hood’s outstretched arm and spun her into a throw that sent her crashing into a wall. Red Hood crumpled to the floor, only to get up again and remove shuriken from a hidden compartment in her quiver. She threw those shuriken at Cheshire, who dodged them all with triple-jointed agility and flexibility. Cheshire was about to attack, but then she paused, smirking at her first child.
“What are you smirking about, you bitch?” Red Hood asked.
“That’s not the way you respect your mother, Lian,” Cheshire chided.
“Please,” Red Hood spat. “You were no mother to me. Dinah was more of a mother than you ever were.”
“Your brother is coming,” Cheshire said, her tone not betraying her rage.
Indeed, the Cheshire Cat had come. Granted, he had come wrapped in steel-strong flexible cord, courtesy of Robin and Superboy, but he had come. Nightstar and Ravager flanked him, along with Robin and Superboy holding him fast. Actually, Superboy alone could have held the Cheshire Cat, but Robin felt the need to let the young assassin know that Superboy wasn’t the only one he had to worry about.
“You can release him now,” Cheshire spoke.
“And why should we do that?” Nightstar asked.
“Because Dinah’s girl is dying slowly from one of my poisons, I have the antidote, and if Lian wins against the Cheshire Cat, I will give it to you,” Cheshire replied as though she were reading her grocery list.
“We don’t have a choice,” Red Hood answered. “Besides, the little brat has a lot of suffering to do and it’s only fair that his big sister be the one to dispense it.”
“If you wish,” Superboy answered and cut the Cheshire Cat out of his restraints with precisely targeted heat vision. The Cheshire Cat sprang loose and lunged at Red Hood with his poisoned claws out. Red Hood dodged and grabbed her half-brother by the back of his shirt. He used that to swing at her with his claws, forcing her to drop him and spin out of the way. She swept her leg out as she spun, hoping to trip him, but he jumped over her leg. She threw herself into a one-handed cartwheel to evade his kick and jumped up to kick him again.
The Cheshire Cat evaded the kick and lunged at Red Hood. “They’ll never be safe as long as I am alive,” he taunted her. The taunt slipped just barely under Red Hood’s skin, just enough for him to slice her cheek with the claws on his outstretched hand. She dodged the swing from his other hand, grabbing his wrist and pulling him close for a knee to the gut. She slammed her elbow into his spine, knocking him low. Unfortunately for her, he landed on his hands and feet and sprang into a rolling aerial kick with a surprising amount of force behind it.
Red Hood stumbled back, the Cheshire Cat pressing his advantage with a clawed punch. Red Hood bent backward to evade the punch and kicked his outstretched arm as she did so, knocking his swing off-balance. She shifted her weight onto her hands and flipped back onto her feet, charging her half-brother and striking him with swift and precise blows aimed at his body’s weak spots. She finished with a hard kick to his throat, nearly crushing his windpipe. The Cheshire Cat coughed and stumbled back, but Red Hood wouldn’t let up on him, tackling him to the ground and pinning his hands above his head so he couldn’t slice her again.
“Go ahead,” Cheshire prompted. “Kill him. Kill him and prove that you, not he, should be the Cheshire Cat.”
Red Hood looked at Cheshire and said, “No. I’m not like you. I’m not a murderer.”
“Not even to save your ‘real’ mother’s child?” Cheshire asked.
“I have him pinned,” Red Hood answered. “He’s beaten.”
“You think so?” the Cheshire Cat asked. Suddenly, Red Hood was flung off the Cheshire Cat and the Cheshire Cat found that his poison dispensers had pierced Cerdian instead. “What?”
“I’m just that fast,” Cerdian answered with a pained smirk. “And your poisons won’t kill me. My biology isn’t quite human.” With a vicious punch, he knocked the Cheshire Cat unconscious. “He’s defeated. Hand us the antidote.”
“The victory had to be Lian’s,” Cheshire stated. “Since you interfered, Olivia’s life is forfeit.” The smirk was slapped off her face by a purple starbolt to the shoulder. She gripped her bleeding and smoldering shoulder, glaring with fury at Nightstar.
“Give it to us,” Nightstar spat. “Or I aim somewhere else.”
“Do your worst,” Cheshire taunted.
Nightstar’s answer was to fire at Cheshire’s knee, causing her to crumple to the floor. “Do you want me to aim for your heart next?” Nightstar challenged.
“Mar’i, don’t!” Roy exclaimed.
“I’m trying to save Olivia from dying a slow and painful death,” Nightstar answered tersely. “In the meantime, I still have other spots I could fire on. As many as necessary to get her to give us the antidote.”
To the surprise of everyone present, the Cheshire Cat had regained consciousness and managed to speak. “Give her the antidote,” he pleaded weakly. “I don’t want Nightstar to kill you.”
Cheshire reached inside her outfit and pulled out a vial of something. “Give this to Dinah’s girl,” she said, tossing the vial to Nightstar, who caught it and went to Olivia, who seemed to be on the verge of passing out from her spasms. Nightstar kneeled beside Olivia and opened the vial, pouring its contents into the cyborg’s mouth. Olivia swallowed and her spasms ceased almost immediately.
“It worked,” Nightstar uttered with a sigh of relief.
Olivia was lying in a cot in Dr. Mid-Nite’s clinic, the antidote steadily doing its work to purge her body of the poison with which she’d been infected. Cerdian was lying in another cot, his Atlantean physiology working overtime to purge the poison. Cheshire was in a heavily guarded room, recovering from the reconstructive surgery that had been done on her shoulder and knee. Ollie, Dinah, Connor, Mia, and Sin were by Olivia’s side, waiting for her to awaken. Lian was beside Cerdian, curled up over him on his cot, comforting him with the warmth of her body. The Cheshire Cat and Roy waited next to Cheshire’s cot.
The others simply hovered outside the rooms inhabited by the patients, waiting for them to finish recovering. Rose looked at Mar’i askance, prompting the half-Tamaranean girl to ask, “What’s wrong, Rose?”
“You tortured her,” Rose replied.
“I had to,” Mar’i answered unrepentantly. “She was going to let Olivia die because we wouldn’t play along with her sick game. I did what was necessary.”
“You tortured her,” Rose repeated. “What would you have done if Cheshire hadn’t given in to her son’s pleas? Would you have killed her like you said you would?”
“There’s only so much pain a human body can take,” Mar’i answered. “Only so much. All I had to do was keep pushing her buttons until she gave in.”
“And what if you pushed too far?” Rose asked. “What if she died? What would you have done then?”
“Raided her corpse for the antidote,” Mar’i replied.
“And what if your starbolts had destroyed the antidote?” Rose asked.
“What’s the point of all these questions?” Mar’i asked.
“The point is that the reason we don’t cross certain lines is that it brings us nothing but trouble down the line,” Rose replied. “Take it from someone who’s been there. Doing good doesn’t always make what you do to get there right.”
Mar’i looked Rose in the white lens concealing her singular eye. She pulled Rose into an embrace, nuzzling her neck while making sounds reminiscent of a cat’s purring. Rose simply let Mar’i hold her, placing her hand on the younger woman’s back to reassure her. She looked up at Mar’i and smiled at her.
“You think we can go see Olivia now?” Mar’i asked hopefully.
“I’ll ask Ollie and Dinah,” Rose replied, pulling herself out of Mar’i’s embrace. She walked over to the doorway leading to Olivia’s room and rapped on it, drawing the attention of the Arrow clan. “Is there room for two more?”
“Sure,” Ollie replied.
Rose gestured to Mar’i and Mar’i joined her in Olivia’s room. Mar’i looked at Olivia’s figure on the cot. According to the readout on the machines monitoring her, her heartbeat and brain activity were steady, but she still hadn’t woken up. Mar’i took a spot next to Mia and Sin, while Rose leaned on the front frame of Olivia’s cot.
“No change?” Mar’i asked.
“No change,” Sin echoed, reaching out to hold Olivia’s hand. Olivia’s hand gently squeezed Sin’s, making Sin look up to Olivia’s face, seeing green eyes open and aware. “You’re awake.”
Ollie was the first to hug Olivia, squeezing his Hypertime-tossed daughter tightly. Olivia gently wrapped her arms around her father. Dinah was the next to hug Olivia, along with Mia and Connor. Sin hugged her as well, gripping her tightly as though to confirm to herself that she was real. When Sin finally let go, Olivia smirked at Rose and Mar’i.
“Aren’t you two going to hug me, too?” she asked coyly.
“You wonderful, vicious little brat,” Rose replied mirthfully.
“I love you, too, Rose,” Olivia answered sardonically, smirking wider at the jealousy barely concealed on Mar’i’s face.
In Cheshire’s room, the Cheshire Cat finally spoke. “You must have been something, for my mother to love you as she did,” he muttered.
Roy looked at the young boy askance. The Cheshire Cat continued on, “She thinks about you a lot. She acts like she doesn’t, but she still . . . she gets this faraway look in her eye sometimes.”
“Do you know who your father is?” Roy asked.
“I met him once,” the Cheshire Cat replied. “Too noble. Too sentimental.” He paused. “My sister . . . I see a lot of what my mother loved about you in her.”
“Yeah, she’s something,” Roy agreed with an unconscious smile. Beside him, the Cheshire Cat merely looked at his mother stoically. “I still love her, believe it or not.”
“I can tell,” the Cheshire Cat answered. “Where is my sister? Why isn’t she here? Is she with her boyfriend?”
“Boyfriend?” Roy echoed confusedly.
“The boy who stopped me from killing her by throwing himself on my hidden weapon,” the Cheshire Cat clarified. He smirked with grim satisfaction at seeing the dawning realization on Roy’s face.
Speaking of Lian and Cerdian, the latter regained full consciousness, only to find a most tantalizing and embarrassing sight. Specifically, it was Lian lying next to and partly on him. Her outside leg was hooked over his front and her outside arm lay on his chest. Her smile was equal parts warmth, sex, and mischief.
“Welcome back to the world of the living,” she greeted him.
“Lian, I . . .” Cerdian uttered, only for Lian to shush him with a kiss.