A/N: A 'What-If' fic. Did anybody notice that Robin's mask in the apprentice episodes gave him eye horns? Sorry about the short length, further chapters will be longer.
DISCLAIMER: Sorry, no. What a depressing thought.
Summary: What if Slade could control which probes to use and which to not?
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Lost In Transmission
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R
"This is the price for your disobedience Robin. Now do as I command - ATTACK!" he yelled, his hand flying out towards Robin, silently (and verbally, mind you) telling Robin to attack his friends to save their lives.
"Robin…" her voice called out to him, begging and pleading for him to be the boy that she loved and not the one that would fight for Slade. He looked at her limp form, her body so wracked by pain from Slade.
"No." the word that came out was short but sweet. It covered the Titans like a blanket, their strong leader back replacing the back stabbing traitor that they had previously thought of. He ran towards the probe's transmitter, past his friends and towards the blinding red light.
Starfire stretched her hand out towards him as he ran past, looking into the opaque lenses of his mask, the tips arched up in a malevolent fashion. Raven was attempting to dull the pain in her skull, in all of them, and she tried to rise to help Robin but she couldn't, it hurt so much.
He ran past them, forcing every ounce of his body to not try to help them, to concentrate – concentrate on trying to save them from this whole predicament, even if it meant dying, but something told him that Slade wouldn't do that. For some reason, Slade wanted him alive. And you didn't kill off heirs. He barely even registered Slade's yell as he called out his name, anger lighting a fire in his tone.
With a yell he had leapt up and grabbed the transmitter, using all of his strength to keep a grip on the object. It hurt – worse than any breaks in the past, felt like every single part of him was being grabbed as his very blood vessels were squeezed. Every part of him ached as he began walking to Slade, after landing coincidentally close to his chart on the screens.
The man gave him a look of cold fury and he watched as Slade's hands clenched together, no doubt anger getting on his mind for once.
He gasped before starting his speech, "New deal, Slade. If I lose my friends, you lose your apprentice – and I know how you hate to lose."
Eventually the pain took his body and his red-orange body fell to the ground, gasping for air. He cringed and expected a hit from Slade – and there was none. The man was… Chuckling?
It was a low sound in Slade's throat that came out, and it was sickening. Seriously – men like Slade weren't supposed to laugh. Or chuckle. Or just show emotions whatsoever other than anger. It just ended up as creepy.
"Robin, Robin, Robin… Did you actually think that I didn't consider something like this happening?" Slade's voice was cold, mocking. He looked down on Robin with that single eye before seizing his hair and dragging the teenager up towards his line of vision.
Robin struggled, the pain coursing through his body intensified as Slade lifted him off of the ground. "Now, now Robin, you have to learn to accept the consequences of your actions. And trying to blackmail me - will – not – be – tolerated!" With each last word Robin was slammed into a pillar until black was crawling at his vision despite the pain.
"The Titans will live, boy… But I do believe that we should… move house." He felt Slade sling him over his shoulder and the last thing that he saw were Starfire's orange-red eyes looking at him until they both shut.
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S
Slade slung Robin over his shoulder and left the Titans lying on the ground in his old lair as he began the destruction sequence. He wouldn't directly kill the Titans with his probes, not to say falling rubble wouldn't indirectly kill them. There was always a chance. That was how he was able to have probes later on added on a different circuit. The transmitter wasn't out in broad fluorescent light for no reason, you know.
He strode towards the elevators, deactivating the probes as he walked out of the room. The Titans would be too weak to do anything other than sit for at least half a minute, so he was safe. Walking in and pressing a floor button the elevator lifted until he was at the transportation floor. Signalling to one of his robots, he got in the back seat of a small inconspicuous car, settling Robin down beside him. Holding his mask, he growled and glared at the sleeping figure. The defiance.
Robin wouldn't wake for a few hours yet. He had made sure to hit his head quite hard against the pillar. Not hard enough for any permanent damage, but hard enough so that Robin would know about it when he woke up.
Clearly he would have a back-up plan for this thing. It was obvious – he was Slade! Robin would have to at least take a small lesson in that from this whole experience.
Oh – and gratitude for allowing his friends to live. Because if he didn't start showing that soon, then let's just say that they wouldn't be living much longer.
The car started through the streets of Jump, settling in a large unoccupied greenhouse. The greenhouse was just a ruse – under it there was one of Slade's large complexes, hidden away by dead plants and broken windows that hid heat signature quite well.
The robot stopped the vehicle to allow Slade to bring Robin out and hand him to another robot as the first drove down the highway to stop at one of Slade's vehicle deposits. Honestly – what sensible crime lord didn't have one?
He began walking towards the complex and keyed in the password before turning to the robot. "Take him to a room in B Block and lock the door. Check all exits and have a guard outside. I don't want him getting loose before I lecture him." His eyes narrowed dangerously as he finished the sentence. Yes, he knew that Robin hated being lectured. He himself had never liked lectures, but with Robin lectures were best. Not that Robin seemed to believe that - must be a sore spot with his past.
He groaned as he changed his mask, sliding the old one into a drawer. He leaned back into his chair, looking at the cameras from his old lair, watching one gear turn on its shaft. The useless object seemed to be turning nothing now. Cyborg was lifting a gear off of Starfire whilst Raven was resuscitating an unconscious Beast Boy, who seemed to have been impaled on another shaft. The injury seemed minor though. The boy would be fine, sadly.
He looked across to the corner of the room, and sure enough the transmitter was gone. Smiling beneath the mask, Slade typed in a few commands and a screen came up showing the transmitter being placed in his haunt and the signal shielded. The Titans wouldn't be tracing that signal today.
His robots slammed the transmitter in place with a THUNK! and began wiring the red and black object again. Within a few minutes it would be completely operational. Good for him, bad for the Titans and their former leader and friend.
They would try, no doubt to save Robin again. His small performance at gaining equal leverage would clearly instil in them a confidence that their leader wasn't going to 'turn to the dark side' any time soon, doubtless of the Red X incident.
No matter. He had time. Like he'd told Robin – years, decades, all his for ever and… well, ever. Time was not his master, he was his master. Soon, with Robin standing by his side he would take the world, and league after league of super heroes would fall to his fists. Well – so to speak.
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BB
He felt the pain seeping away, draining from his body, the probes switching off. It wasn't even like that – a sort of click and her nervous systems were functioning again, registering more than pain. Good grief, Slade could be one heck of a mean man.
Then – he woke up? He stared at the rest of them inside the sick bay, their eyes watching him with a weary look around them – no sleep, he guessed. Figures. Enough of all of this Slade business and they'd all be having nightmares like Robin. Yes – he knew, too. His animal hearing had picked up Robin's tossing and turning, hearing his bed shift on the ceiling.
Starfire looked like she'd been crying. Poor girl – he reached out a weak hand and took her alien orange on in his, and she gave him a weak smile, a flicker of her previous blinding light, but still better than nothing.
Cy's hand took hold of his too, and then Raven's. They stared at the hands, transfixed by their own actions. Then, at once, they looked at each other and recognised their future at this point: to save Robin and reunite the Titans.
"For Robin," came the whisper. Their eyes narrowed with determination. "For Robin."
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R
He awoke to new surroundings. Slade's old lair was replaced with one that didn't seem as… sinister. In fact, he could smell… flowers? Strange, he never thought of Slade as someone with a green thumb.
He rose, keeping his elbows on the mattress to keep him up as he looked around at his new 'room,' if this place could even be called that. It didn't even look lived in! It wasn't cleaned to perfection, messy or even somewhere in the middle. It just – was! And who wanted to stay in a room that wasn't even human?
He got off of the mattress, where the robots had clearly just thrown him – ruthless things. Walking towards the door, he tried to open it, until he found that it was locked.
Oh, well. At least it looked normal enough, he could probably pick it. He bent down to examine it, looking through the keyhole, and saw a robot's shiny armor.
The door was slammed open, knocking him back against the end of the bed – the room wasn't very large. He looked up, to see the robots head shift down to look at him. It sent a shiver through his spine – it just wasn't natural, the way that it did that. It grabbed his left bicep roughly, yanking him off of his feet towards the door.
Oh, well – he thought as it began dragging him away from the room. He was lead down endless hallways, his mind memorizing routes and dead ends, preparing for escape. He didn't care – no matter how bad this seemed he would get out of it, get out and get back to his friends. He was a Titan – and Titans didn't give up easily. That was certain. He wasn't going to give up on this one.
Too bad that Slade wasn't either.
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A/N: This has been a long time coming. I should have been updating OOTFPITF (title soon to be changed, hopefully) but I read some of Dark Austral's stuff and was thinking about how smart Slade is and… well.
I think that I'll continue this. Quite frankly, I like it. I think that I might need some sunshine lollipops and rainbows everywhere, first…
Does anyone know the name for that song?
Just out of curiosity…