Cry Me a River

Author Note: This is my third Story please check out my others. And stay with me here I am trying something new.

Disclaimer: I own nothing from any shows I use in this writing.

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Chapter 1

) Slade's POV (

You could not get far in the life in crime without developing certain senses, and right now, those senses were telling Slade something was very, very wrong at the Titan Tower. What was so wrong was his apprentice. Something odd was happening to Robin and he was not sure if he liked it or not.

Turning his back to the wall full of monitors which were now all turned off but still warm from displaying the most recent fight that had taken place between Robin and himself. He now faced his desk, which was in front of a large window. Propping his head up on one hand, he ran the other throw his untamable mane of jet-black hair, which was now being show from him throwing his uniform and mask across the room he was in now after the last battle, he was now in a pair of sweat pants and a tight muscle shirt.

Sighing he leaned back in his chair showing his now lean form of an athlete which could now be seen form striping off the armor. Rubbing his eyes to try to ease the pain from his brain, which was going into overtime from trying to figure what, was so strange that had occurred with Robin during the exchange, Slade was determined to figure out what it was. What bothered him was when the boys friends had arrived he had acted so strange. Of course, he told himself it only bothered him so much because he was not the one to completely unnerve the boy. Still the look on the his face, it showed so much fear; it unnerved him till no end.

Shuddering he sat up and looked down at the city somewhat tiredly yet amused. This town was quite boring, it made him miss his home in Gotham, he loved the city, with of cores the exception of the bat but yet he could not completely hate his existence for without him he would never have met robin. Smiling he remembered the boy the first time he met him he was an adorable nine year old, though he looked not a day older than four. When he first seen the boy in the bright tight fitting costume that showed way too much skin, Slade was sixteen. He had thought the bat was as demented as the joker was. The child was nothing but a baby, and all ready so beautiful, did the bat even think what some of those sick twisted freaks would do to that child if they got their hands on him, and yes, even villains have morals. Most sane ones tried to stay away from children, he knew for a fact many were not using half of their abilities until his little bird started to kick there asses.

Chuckling he thought of the reason he had came. Coming to Jump made other villains question his power and strength; it gave him a bad reputation. What they did not know was the reason he had came here only for his for his successor and to pay back an old dept when he finally staked his claim on the boy, and it also did not hurt that the boy was stunningly beautiful.

Truthfully though none of that mattered for when he leaves Jump City, when he puts on that other uniform, he is feared universally by heroes and villains. Leaving out the obviously insane ones. He turned his eyes toward that chest in the back of the room holding his supplies and wondered if, maybe, it was not time to don that suit once more. Maybe a trip to Gotham was in order.

It would not do for the Titans to figure out the pattern of Slade being absent from Jump City and Death stroke the Terminator appearing in Gotham. They would, naturally, put together the information and inform their mentors. He did not need trouble from Green Arrow, Aqua man, Flash, or Batman. Especially not Batman, not yet. He made his way over to his computer and began to detail an assignment to a small time villain who would comply out of sheer terror. He would leave payment for the man in some ally before he left. Of course, his instructions were simple: distract the Titans by any means necessary. He hoped that the man had enough brain cells left to accomplish that task without robbing a bank. Robbing banks were obviously not the forte of anyone in this city. No one got away with the task anymore. Now that he had, made plans so his playmates would not get so bored that they would notice his brief absence from the city.

Now that that was out of the way, he needed some way to keep an eye on the Titans, and, more importantly, his apprentice. An annoyingly little game they played, he would routinely placed surveillance equipment in the tower, and it was routinely found and destroyed. However, it did give him insight into how the Titans reacted to his bugs. He had placed them in the same places over the past few weeks, and discovered that once they had checked a place once, they would not look there again. All he had to do was plant more bugs and cameras around the tower. The only question was how to get in without being noticed. Especially since, they upgraded their system last week.

Then he had a brilliant idea. He chuckled at his former idiocy. He would hack a backdoor into the system. He threw himself into code writing and managed to synch up to a favorite website of the big mouthed, green Titan. He wrote the code into the site and rigged it so that if the changeling clicked anywhere on the screen, it would be activated and the system would require a reboot. Once the system rebooted itself, the code would be hidden inside the security system and Slade could activate it at any point. He quickly synched his phone up to the program and set an alarm to notify him when the Tower rebooted and he was granted access.

Faze three. He looked out at the dark shadow of night slowly covering light of the day, grabbing his electronics and jumped out into the city. He shifted through the shadows, easily getting to the Tower and back in twenty minutes. Heading back in his hideout he went to his desk and switched on the computer to his favorite viewing spot, the main room, but it only showed green thing playing a video game and he had no urge to watch that. No, no urge to see that at all, but he did have a desire to make sure his apprentice was not completely crushed in a spine-breaking hug from that Tamarian child, who had gotten to excited over a complement on her latest bowl of poison which she called food. He watched and watched and yet he saw nothing new and was about to turn off the monitor when he seen something shocking.

He had found his apprentice struggling to remain awake at his cluttered desk. Another odd thing, over the last few weeks robins room was absolutely a mess, but he knew for a fact that before he had started acting all strange Robin had OCD, everything had to be neat it was something that had somehow been installed in him that Slade did not want to erase. Maybe this was not such a terrible thing. Maybe if Robin's mind became a little more muddied he would be a little more pliable.

Robin had fallen asleep on top of his files. Looking at the scene even Slade had to admit it was adorable. However, watching further the more he worried. The boy was twitching in his sleep, obviously distressed. He cocked his head, thinking. Maybe it was the lack of sleep that caused his apprentice to lose his concentration and made him talk back to his master. Either that or it was just Robin's annoying tendency to do the exact opposite of what Slade wanted, he thought chuckling.

Nevertheless, when Robin started to shift uncomfortably in his seat and whimper, Slade started to put things together. He was having nightmares. Sleep deprivation was one thing, and it was one thing Slade knew well, but nightmares were something else entirely, and while he was skilled in giving them to others, he was not exactly the master of his own. He could not exactly control his own horrifying memories of a boy with no voice and a man with a wicked right hook, the same man who he had ran away from after he had been raped when he was just ten. How was he to use this to his advantage? And could he use it, knowing what nightmares were to someone? The straight answer, yes. Nightmares were the most personal of all dreams, but as it was, Robin was his apprentice, and was not yet allowed any privacy. He heard the Tameranian child at the door, and saw Robin pull himself from the dream and wipe his face off before she let herself in. The first thing he would do, once Robin was back in his possession, is break his attachment to that girl.

Not wanting to watch the exchange, he turned off the monitor. Nothing could ruin this day, well until he heard the alarm go off and shouts of a bank robbery. He growled and vowed to never hire that crack-head again. Still, he was in such a good mood, he planned on simply not paying the man. After all, in Jump City, he was not an assassin for hire, and he would not get anything out of killing the man. Other than a slight satisfaction, of course.

He could not help the smirk that graced his lips as he straddled his motorcycle and took off. A blue and orange cloth mask now covered his face matching the rest of his form fitting uniform. He had tossed a couple of belts of ammunition around his torso, and had weapons decorating every inch of his body. He felt more at home than ever, Death stroke the Terminator was back and Gotham was waiting.

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