Chapter Text
Mayday, we've been sinking here slowly
Turning into something unholy
Running away from the same sins
This is a place Heaven's not been
Eyes shut wide and going in boldly
You and I can never be holy
Don't be surprised by what the night brings
When you search the dark, you get dark things
“Dark Things” -Starset
It appears there’s still at least a trace of some of that cold, black, bad blood flowing in my veins after all, Shinichi Kudo, Shiho Miyano gritted her teeth as she disappeared below the water. It had been months since she'd been snatched from her own world, a very ordinary one, and "isekaied" away to one she knew well. The Organization had sent her to learn in America, so she was fluent in English as well as having an American education. During her time there, she had consumed American pop culture, but being taken to a world where superheroes lived was just bizarre.
Shiho endured torture by the mysterious Court of Owls; she couldn't remember seeing any movies about them. There might have been some back home, but she wasn't a DC Comics fan who knew everything and had vast knowledge about American pop culture. Batman, Superman, some members of the Batfamily, mainstream knowledge, she knew those, but the Court claimed to oppose Batman.
But Shiho endured the torture, and she managed to hide her antidote pill, the one that would revert her to her adult size. The criminal cabal would search for her childhood form, not knowing what she looked like as an adult, which would make it easy for her to hide from them.
There was one thing she'd never told Shinichi Kudo: that she had perfected the antidote. She knew the minute she told him, he would use it to become his adult self and go after the Black Organization, putting everyone around him in danger, even though he'd become very cunning over the six months she'd known him, he'd still be rash when it came to getting his body back.
With her perfected antidote, she could go back to life as Shiho Miyano. Not that she was thrilled about it, but she didn't have the Detective Boys or Professor Agasa to fall back on in this world. She didn't want to get lost in the American foster care system; she was an adult, and she could live as one.
Falling into the ocean, she lost consciousness, but a certain superhero rescued her, taking her to the hospital. This entire situation sucked. She didn't want to be isekaied any world, let alone one with superheroes in it. DC Comics was fun to read, but it was a place you wouldn't want to call home, especially when people like the Joker filled entire graveyards because he was bored.
Still, she'd make do; she'd have to fall back on old habits. She wasn't here legally in the US. The last time she'd lived in Boston, the Black Organization had gotten her into the country legally on a green card, not wanting to raise suspicions about what her American education in biochemistry was going to be used for.
Now she didn't have any papers to prove she existed, let alone her legal status. She'd have to earn money somehow and not in a way that would get her particularly noticed by the government. Still, Jump City was full of supervillains, and she might be able to get an illegal "job" to make some money to find a small place to live. Unfortunately, Jump City, California, was a very expensive place to live.
She heard whispers of an abandoned lab, one that sold tech that wasn't legal. Shiho decided to look into the place to see if she could find work.
She went to the lab and found a strange old man. "You looking for work? I do not need a lab assistant."
"I've heard Zynothium ore is very unstable. What if I told you I could stabilize it for you?" Shiho offered.
"Little Lady, that's quite impossible. If we could stabilize it, I would have done so."
"If you let me buy some proper clothes, we can discuss my fee for helping you. I'm not a charity case, contrary to how I look, I'm 18," Shiho told him. "And stabilizing this is child's play for me."
"Ah, and what shall I call you?" Professor Chang changed his tune when he realized he was dealing with an adult.
"Call me Sherry, that's the only name you need to know," Shiho told him. Her old alias in the Black Organization would be fine to use again. She also had her alias, Ai Haibara, to fall back on.
"My deal is that you buy me some clothes and I'll help you with your research. In exchange for my help, I want $10 million, that's worth what a stable compound of Zynothium will fetch you when you sell it."
"Very well, but what do you need my credit card for?" Professor Chang asked.
"To buy clothes that fit."
Professor Chang looked up in surprise as a young woman approached him. She wore a black lab coat, a dark red shirt, and a skirt. She gave him an amicable smile.
"Thank you for the clothes, you can take them out of my pay, which I expect once I start working for you."
"You must be Sherry, then. Is this a solo job or are you looking for a partnership?" Professor Chang asked.
"I just want you to keep my Organization in mind if you ever need some more Zynothium, that's all."
"And this organization's name is?" Chang looked at her.
"The Black Organization," Sherry told him.
As much as she loathed them, the Black Organization in her world had been extremely powerful, with many members. If she was going to fight the Court of Owls without superpowers, she'd need an organization behind her.
"That's a little cliché, isn't it?" he laughed.
"Only if you want it to be," Shiho shrugged, flippant.
"Is this Organization just you, or are there others?" Chang asked.
"Just me for now, but I'm sure more people will come; people are always looking for opportunities in the underworld."
She gestured to his lab, "So, are you going to show me around?"
"Yes, of course, I look forward to working with you, Sherry."
Professor Chang left her to inspect the laboratory, leaving Shiho alone with her thoughts.
Shiho Miyano focused her rage on the one person who had consistently been a part of her torture, the one they called Grandmaster. Shiho had an excellent memory, and while she wasn't as good as Shinichi Kudo, she could still do plenty of detective work on her own.
She'd have to find a place to live, preferably somewhere secret. She knew Slade's old hideout had blown up, but she could salvage pieces of it and live under the floor of the warehouse in Pier 41; it would be perfect, and it was the last place people would look for her.
The Grandmaster, Shiho, noted the Court spoke like high society types, so she would merely have to wade through the many that lived in Jump City to find her, and she could tell the voice was female; the Grandmaster didn't bother to use a voice changer, so finding her shouldn't be too difficult.
It was a small step towards revenge; it didn't matter how long it took, she would make the Court of Owls pay for taking her away from the only family she really had, even if she had to get her hands dirty to do it.
Unlike most heroes in DC Comics, killing didn't bother her as it should; she didn't want to do it, but it wasn't off the table. She needed to take a walk and clear her head.
Robin sighed. Starfire had gone back to Tamaran, to a marriage she couldn't get out of. He was alone and single again. He grieved quietly, but threw himself into his work again. He was out on patrol, everything was normal, quiet.
He was driving by the docks, and he stopped his motorcycle and got off. He noticed a stunningly beautiful woman standing at the edge of the dock, staring out at the water.
He dismounted his motorcycle and walked towards her. He reached out and put a hand on her shoulder.
"Don't touch me!" her voice snapped in Japanese.
"Take it easy," he replied to her in her native tongue. "I didn't mean any harm. I was just going to ask if you're all right."
"I'm fine, Robin," she replied in English.
"I didn't know you could speak English. Are you a visitor?"
"Yes, you could say that," she smiled.
Robin looked over at her. She had reddish auburn hair that went down to her neck, and her bangs fell over her striking blue eyes. She was beautiful.
"I'm Robin, and you are?"
"Ai, Ai Haibara," she replied in Western fashion, taking his hand and shaking it.
"It's very nice to meet you, Haibara,” remembering the Japanese etiquette of not calling people by their first name unless you are close.
"The pleasure is mine, Robin, but to answer your question, I'm all right, honestly. Just enjoying the view."
"Sorry if I startled you," he apologized.
"No, I'm sorry, I snapped. There are just some times I don't like people touching me."
He noted her black lab coat and wondered if she worked in one of the many labs in Jump City.
The wind picked up as the two stood beside each other watching the sunset, their coat and capcapesaying in the wind, and she turned to him.
"Robin, do you like your life the way it is?" Shiho asked him.
"Yes, I do, I wouldn't change it for anything," he replied.
"That's good to know."
"And you?" Robin asked, meeting her gaze.
"My life could be worse, but it is what it is."
"If there's anything you need, please call my communicator. I'm always willing to talk," he said.
"You're a very kind young man," Ai smiled at him.
"You're not that much older than me," Robin laughed.
"I'm 18."
"So not that much older than me," he laughed.
"By how much?"
"Just a year," Robin smiled.
"Well, I won't keep you busy, hero, I'm sure you've got people to save, Detective," Shiho said as he turned around.
"Hmmm," Robin frowned. The only person who referred to him as 'Detective' was Ra's Al Ghul. He kept that in his back pocket and drove away.
As she busied herself in Professor Chang's lab, she glanced up from her work and saw a man she recognized from seeing his picture on the internet. It was Slade Wilson, Deathstroke.
"I've heard through the grapevine they call you 'Sherry', like the alcoholic drink. I've heard you're very enterprising."
"While I'm looking for members, I'm not sure someone like you would enjoy working for me."
"That depends on you. I don't mind working for others; it lets me be more hands-on," Slade smiled.
"Would you be my right hand, stand in for me at meetings, do my bidding?"
"Why not? Sounds entertaining," Slade reached out and shook her hand.
"Any jobs you do, you get your 50/50 cut; anything else, I can pay your usual fee, at least once I finish this job for Professor Chang."
"I see, and what shall my first job be?" Slade asked.
"Bring others into the Organization, whether they're your fellow supervillains or civilians, but people like Joker are off limits. I don't want any psychotic loose canons working under me; those sorts of people talk."
Robin calls me a madman. How do you know I won't talk?" Slade asked.
"You value your professional reputation too much to talk, not that you know anything about me, which keeps you from talking."
"You're very intelligent; keeping secrets makes you more cunning."
"I learn well from my former colleagues," Shiho frowned.
"Trust is easy to destroy but takes time to build," Slade noted.
"So you've said, we don't have to trust each other to work together, but betrayal usually ends in death for people like us."
"Speaking from personal experience?" Slade asked, curious.
"Let's just say I didn't let my former employer execute me, I killed myself," Shiho sighed.
"But you're still here, rescued by some do-gooder?"
"No, I bungled my own suicide by pill," Shiho shrugged, "but I still escaped them all the same."
"Fascinating, it still means absolutely nothing, it's not like I know anything important about you," Slade said.
"That's true, because none of you exist in my world."
"That's an interesting thing for you to say, boss."
"So when I talk to others about my employer, what should I call you?" he asked.
"Just call me 'that person', it's more than enough," Shiho looked at him with a blank expression.
"Ah, building up a legend around yourself?"
"No, just hiding behind your mask, does that bother you?"
"No, it just makes this job much more interesting than I initially thought. And why are you forming this Black Organization?"
"To take down The Court of Owls, for one, and the other…"
"The other?"
"To get me back to my own dimension?"
"Can't just rip open a portal?" Slade asked.
"No, my world is heavily rooted in reality. Supernatural things don't exist; you're just a fictional character, along with everyone in this universe. Can't just rip open a dimensional portal to go home. So unlike you people, I'm stuck here; you can go where you wish, because your dimension is not tied down to scientific logic. Magic, supernatural things, run-of-the-mill for you people."
"So is this world like a video game to you?"
"Oh no, it's plenty real, I have experienced it for months. I know I'm not dreaming."
Shiho crossed her arms, "But I know that there are a few people in this world who can stop me."
"It's full of geniuses, myself included; how can you make such a boast?"
"Because the only one who can stop me is the one who saved me, and that's Holmes' Apprentice, Shinichi Kudo, the most brilliant teenager I have ever met, and very few of your enemies can rival him when it comes to his intelligence. Much to my dismay, he's back home, but I suspect he's figured out I've gone to another dimension, but I doubt that he can open a portal to here."
"My great rival is a great detective," Slade observed. "How are you going to deal with him?"
"Has Robin ever solved a locked-room murder before?"
"I don't keep track of that."
"Then I have your second job for you, the Court of Owls said they had the Mayor in their pocket. Just follow my instructions after you kill him as you see fit. If the Teen Wonder is half as skilled as Kudo-kun, he'll be able to figure out the locked door trick."
Shiho crossed her arms, "Does the Mayor have an old answering machine in his house?"
"That's oddly specific, but I've visited him as a civilian, and yes, he does have an old answering machine with the cassette tape in his house."
"Good, because that's how you're going to lock that room after you kill him."
"I've heard of this trick, but why waste time on it?"
"It'll stump the Titans for a few hours at least, if they can figure it out that fast."
"Why's that so impressive?"
"Shinichi Kudo figured it out in half an hour."
"You sound like you're in love with this detective of yours," Slade observed.
"I love him, yes, but I'm a hopeless romantic; his heart belongs to his childhood friend Ran Mori, and not to me. It doesn't matter; I don't have time to pine for him. I've got too many important things to do. I want my revenge on the Court of Owls. While I share Shinichi's views of justice, I don't share the methods to bring people to justice. He called me a murderer for creating a drug that others used to kill people. That wasn't my fault; I was groomed inside the Organization I escaped from. I will do what it takes to get my revenge, and unlike him, murder doesn't disturb me as it should. As much as I hate to admit it, I can be just as cold-blooded as the people I used to work with."
"So the Court captured you, I see. What did they want?"
"Something to make them immortal, I refused to give them anything, so they tortured me for months."
"And yet you're here talking about this like people talk about the weather."
"I've been trained to withstand pain, I've been shot multiple times and didn't even scream."
"It'd be more impressive if you were just a darker shade of black and not this gray area you've placed yourself in."
"I don't impress you?"
"Oh no, Sherry, you're very impressive, my employer is actually intelligent and not just a brainless psychopath. I think I'm going to enjoy working for you."
"You can carry on as usual, but leave Robin a clue that will lead back to you. If he can't figure that out, he'll disappoint me. No one can stop me, except Shinichi Kudo, Holmes' Apprentice."
"Is this Shinichi Kudo so impressive?" Slade asked.
"He'd put you in jail and have the proof that even your lawyer couldn't dispute."
"What do you know about my lawyer?"
"That he can make Darkseid look like a librarian."
"You really do know far too much," Slade laughed.
"I've always had bad blood in me, I'm just falling back into old habits."
"Do you expect these heroes to save you?"
"No, there's only one person who can save me, and he's not here."
"Here," Slade said, pulling out a bottle of wine. González Byass Matusalem Cream VORS, it wasn't cheap, but he had good taste.
"Now you're being cute," Shiho laughed. "At least you didn't bring me chocolate."
"Don't like it?"
"I prefer other treats," Shiho set down the beaker. "Would you care to join me for lunch? Not that I have much."
"Join me for dinner, I'll take you somewhere nice."
"It better not be your hotel room."
"I don't care if we work hard or play hard as long as I can get up in the morning."
"I'm not interested in that kind of a relationship with you; you remind me of Gin far too much."
"Is this Gin a former lover of yours?"
"Yes, his abnormal attachment to me makes me cagey with men; it's not a good memory."
"So you're not a virgin, you do have some experience in the world, not just couped up in some lab like this. Nice to see you're not naive."
"If anything, I'm cynical," Shiho told him.
"I see. I will take you up on that lunch. What do you have? All I got was just a burger from a nearby place with a chocolate shake."
"Peanut butter and blueberry sandwich, the only nice thing that I got from living in America."
"Why's that?"
"Got bullied by people in middle school for my Japanese features."
'Where'd you go to school?"
"Some place in Boston, I barely remember it now."
"I see. Well, shall we eat?"
"Yes," Shiho said, clapping her hands, "I gratefully receive."
Her Japanese thanks weren't lost to him; he didn't say a word, and they began to eat and converse.
Things were looking very promising, and Shiho looked forward to seeing if the Teen Titans would be the heroes she read about and watched on TV, or if they would disappoint her. This was going to be a long game of chess, but she'd been very good at chess, so she expected to win. She could be very ruthless, and she'd have to dig deep into her criminal past to survive in this world, and she always prioritized her survival over everyone else.
She looked over and spotted a small chess set.
"Do you play?" Slade asked.
"Yes, this city and its people are just pieces to move on the board."
She picked it up and placed it on the table.
"Your move, Robin," She placed down a chess piece.