//------------------------------// // Epilogue: Part 1 // Story: Six wishes for six elements // by Malcolm Merlyn //------------------------------// [Gotham City, local time: 10:30 PM, Slade's safehouse.] Sitting down in his living room in a tidy yet spartan apartment, the mercanary pulled out his laptop and placed it on the coffee table, besides him, a new freshly taken photo rested upon the bed. By the bedside, a family photo of himself and his family from about 50 years ago sat on the cabinet. Next to it lay Adeline's ring. She had died just a week earlier, her slit throat would have provided far too much. Though... he risked retribution from not just Rose and Jericho, Slade had attended the funeral. There were those who were... slightly more aware about Deathstroke and Slade Wilson. Suprisingly, no one had attempted to kill or even as much as say a threatening word to him as Slade sat silently amongst the mourners, saying nothing the entire time as his two children shot him hate filled glances, not even as much as speaking to him. The fact that he attended the funeral at all was suprising to some, but insulting to others. And now here he sat, back home in Gotham by his laptop. Amanda Waller of ARGUS had called the other day. Apparently, the guy in the bat costume and his friends weren't the only ones aware of Deathstroke's true identity. The only thing here was, ARGUS had the proof. The guy in the bat costume didn't, and this proof would be more than enough to give him a life sentence. Considering that he could expect to live a pretty long time, that sentence would for obvious reasons, be just as long. Of course... there would be a way out. The US goverment had quite the list of several notorious criminals and terorrists. All marked wanted, dead or alive. Mostly the former for rather obvious reasons. For this reason, the guy in the bat costume or any of his pals would be unlikely to do anything along these lines. The world's greatest assassin however, would probably have no qualms with any form of assignments like this. Needless to say, he called Waller the first thing he did after returning home from Adeline's funeral. He would accept this contract (or rather, contracts). Waller had said... not much actually. Only told him that she had expected nothing less from his good judgement and that he could expect this to take a long time, years as a matter of fact. Clever. He wouldn't have much time to go around murdering any other people while working for ARGUS. Plus... this was the sentence. Working for ARGUS. At least the pay would be rather handsome though the missions... he could expect nothing less than the one's that Task Force X AKA the suicide squad would be assigned to. Speaking of the suicide squad, Slade had made one thing clear. He would accept Waller's offer, from the way things looked, she needed the long list of people dead or behind bars quickly and efficently. As such... he would deal with her. On his terms. That meant no bombs in his head and that Waller kept her distance. Grudgingly... the woman would expect. Nevertheless, Slade could still expect someone to be watching his every move lest he did anything to violate their contract. On his coffee table, he looked at the colored picture. Strange... they lacked things like cars but still managed to produce perfect HD photos. Within the picture was himself, wearing his Deathstroke costume, save for the mask. He looked over at the people in the picture again. Himself of course, frowning as usual. Humph... as a crazy pink horse had described, it probably would kill him to look cheerful for once. Sorta hard to do that in his shoes. Jim... pretty big guy... actually the only person who was taller than he was. Then again... if he knew history right, it always seemed next generations were taller than the previous ones. When considering how Medic and Steve were around similar heights (Steve being marginally taller) and being born at the same time, he could make that assumption. He chuckled to himself as he realized it now. Jim, Medic, Steve and himself were actually all litearlly taller than both Sanya and Armin by at least a foot. Each. He looked back at those two, Armin who was rather confused by the camera and Sanya who was smiling for it. He considered showing the photo to Rose and comparing the two... though something told him that even as much as going near his daughter would probably end with him getting two bullets in the chest. Sitting back down, he grabbed himself a cup of ice water and considered going to bed.But first, he would have to look through the armory before doing so. "We're.... um... we're technically not allowed to be doing this now are we?" Eila asked Sanya as she drove down the street within the gotham city outskirts. "No." Sanya replied flatly as she looked down at the wedding ring. "Just... I hope we don't get caught driving." "Yeah... but this city... I always knew Liberion was famous for it's cities... but this? This is a bit much." "It's called America here." Sanya commented as she took a look around. "But... this is 2014 for them..." "Oh... no wonder. I thought this car was a bit fast... and... hey... I think we're here..." "Nice." Sanya said as Eila parked the car. (By parked... I mean scratched the paint off of the car next to her before pulling the automobile to a stop.) "Come on!" "Alright... but... um... this is pretty weird." "I know... I know... but you believe me... right?" "Right..." Eila said hesitantly as she looked at the homes. Finding the right address, she knocked on the door. Much to her suprise, it was actually not even fully closed it swung right open. Well.... "Umm... do we just go in?" Eila asked. "I hope he won't mind." Sanya said as she held unto the wedding ring. "He's a good friend." "He does sound pretty awesome. That nickname though..." Eila chuckled as she entered the house with her friend. They were greeted by the interior, a mostly empty living room with a strange device a top a table, and what Slade had called a "Smartphone" right next to it. "Hello? Is anyone home?" Eila called out. "Hey kid... brought your older sister?" The voice called out from behind them, causing Eila to jump. To Sanya... it was just Slade being Slade. "She's not my sister.... wait... do we look a like?" "Yeah... fairly similar." Slade said. "Take a seat kid... it must have been pretty hard for the two of you to get here. What's your name kid?" "Eila." And.... this is the part where Slade all of a sudden had the impulse to bash in Steve's face the next time he saw him.... okay that aside... "Why are you two here?" Slade asked. "I am certain you're not here to ask me to kill someone now... RIGHT?!" "No! Of course not!" Sanya said. "I... well... you forgot this." Slade eyed the object for a moment before his mouth slowly hung agape. It was his wedding ring.