The floor is cold hard steel, almost as frigid and unforgiving as the man who pins Robin to its surface, arm twisted so the previously abused joint shrieks in agony. Slade's weight on his slender form makes it hard for Robin to pull in breath, constricted and panicked, eyes blurry from the hot tears that roll down his face and drip salt into his gashed skin.

Starfire screams, mouth open wide to show the white pearls of her teeth, eyes glowing a bright, deranged red. Beast Boy is on his knees, green skin growing more vivid, hands covering his face to show horribly wide, bloodshot eyes, the veins beginning to pulse in a sick rhythm. Cyborg stands straight, armor locked, one side of him spasming as if electrocuted, over and over, limbs like that of a broken marionette. Raven hovers, a sickly orange swirling around her magic, nearly totally obscured.

Their screams form a ghastly cacophony, echoing off the walls and shearing Robin's eardrums. He realizes he is screaming too, throat raw as his lungs gasp for more air, chest compressed. Small points of light go off like fireworks against the awful scene as he chokes on his own spit, coughing it up onto the steel floor.

Koriand'r turns to him. Her eyes are wide and eyebrows tilted in something that might be concern but he can't tell, the red veins taking over her pupils, lines of gold cracking down her skin and glowing through the gashes as if she carries a nuclear explosion inside her slender form.

"Please." His lips are ground against the steel but he knows that Slade can hear him. Tears drip down his face and grace his lips with salt. "Please—I'll do anything you want, I swear, I promise I'll never fight again—"

There is no respite.

Robin struggles with every bit of strength he has in his body against Slade, an impossible mountain of a force on him. He raises his head inches above the steel, saliva smearing on his chin, gasping again as he fights the pressure.

Gar's sickly skin begins to change in fluid, bulging motion, fingers morphing into claws and then hooves while his eyes move to the sides of his head and then to the top. Extra pairs of arms cover his face, torso becoming almost too small to hold him as he crashes to the ground.

Slade slams Robin's head against the floor with horrible force, the pain erupting over the right side of Robin's face, blood dripping and mixing with his spit on cold ground. He sees Cyborg thrash so violently his arm twists all the way behind him, white pearled bone cutting through his skin, arm turned back on the joint. The man keeps thrashing as it swings like a sick puppet, skin straining against the metal side of his form as blood wells and oozes in torrents.

Robin yells again, something that should be a coherent name or a protest or anything at all but it simply comes to nothing. He can't even see Raven any more behind her curtain of magic, the sick whining sound behind the screaming that sends shivers down his spine. It swirls faster, more intense, more terrifying.

"No, please, I promise, anything you want—you can—you can even—" He chokes off. I see the way you look at me, Slade. I'm not stupid, Slade. I know what you want. Roving eyes and hungry lips tell an awful, nauseating story, a desire and an unbearable fate. His lips fall open in broken pleas. "Master, please. Master."

The vibrations he feels from the force above are horribly like laughter.

Gar convulses on the ground. The awful sound of shrieking metal and shredding vocal cords sound from above silvered boots, the awful tornado that used to be Raven whines unbearably.

Kori stares straight into Robin's eyes with her own, finding his own and still seeming comforting even as they turn a burning red. Her lips move in something he can't hear over the noise, but he knows her words like his own mind—

Robin.

She almost seems to smile, for a second of glorious respite.

Then the horrible gold light cracks across her lip, forming a deranged parody of her kind face. Her lose their brightness, pupils lost in in the blood that pools around her sockets. The crimson pours down golden cheeks in horrific beauty and so do her eyes. The irises melt into nerves and blood vessels and reddened muscle, falling down her face almost as liquid as the blood it mixes with. Exposed nerves wind into darkened sockets before gold overtakes all.

Starfire implodes with the force of a supernova, leaving nothing behind but bright imprints on Robin's eyelids. He screams and fights with every ounce of his being even as he goes blind from light, thrashing against the immovable object that is Slade.

Then, suddenly, he is free, the pressure gone as he gasps and gets to his knees, and then on his own two feet barreling forward without even looking at what's in front of him. Robin only gets a few paces before he trips and falls forward, bracing his hands against the coldness and turning as he reaches out to see his obstacle.

His fingers come away—sticky? He blinks, vision partially returning, A yellow green stains his fingers and he looks ahead only to choke on a gasp. Something inhuman lays on the ground, bulging eyes lining the crown of its head, ripped scales and patched feathers lining the slime that was once skin, too many fingers and toes.

Robin looks up and away with vomit burning in his throat only to see a metal skeleton blackened by an explosion, the parts of flesh still clinging to it, melted into the framework, nerves and blood vessels previously supported by the technology threading into thin air, dripping a dark liquid.

Robin turns to the side and empties his stomach on the floor, heaving the little food he ate over the past few days between his braced hands, eyes blurring, sickness in his gut. He heaves until nothing is left, staring at a cold wall, tears dripping off his chin into his vomit.

He feels the shadow fall over him like a cold front and he spins without volition, dripping blood from one side of his face and glowering with bloodshot eyes of absolute hate. Slade stands as implacable as ever, impossibly infuriating.

"You killed them!" Robin screams with a broken throat and a broken soul, lashing out with all his anger.

Slade sidesteps easily, dodging punch after punch, pulling them back down the room. Robin's blurred vision finds him again and again, a yell each time he tries to hit, a hiss each time he fails. Slade grabs his wrist after half a dozen attempts.

"You're not nearly as good as you usually are. Pity."

Robin tries to hit him with his other hand. Unbreakable fingers clasp around his other wrist. He kicks out and then his other leg is pushed out from under him with frightening force as he lands once again on the cold steel, Slade once again on top of him with all his awful weight. He stares down, expression impossible to read behind the mask.

"I hate you," Robin snarls with all his contempt and pain, all his blood and tears. His limbs strain against a downwards force as inevitable as gravity. "You can't control me anymore, Slade."

Slade tilts his head, as if considering the thought. "You fought for your team. Now you have no one." Robin can hear the smile curl in the man's voice at the next line. "Except for me."

"I will never give you what you want," Robin spits at him.

"Oh, Robin." Slade's voice is smooth as always, eye as cruel. A hand slips between the boy's legs with horrible ease. "I think you'll find I get it either way."

Tears burn trails down Robin's cheeks as he stares at the cold metal above them.