I want to thank the amazing and talented SepticMind for helping me with this story. Without her, this story would have sucked and might never have seen the light of day.
Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans or any other DC franchise
Robin was worried.
His unease had begun with the Red-X debacle…well, the one after which he'd contemplated the line between good and evil. Red-X was...different. He didn't fit into the world of black and white. He was a thief, a villain, an enemy, and he was pretty damn good at what he did. And yet, he had helped Robin save his friends. If he hadn't, Robin would have been alone again. Ally to enemy, and back again; Red-X was as mercurial as the world. Even though much time had passed since that day, even though he prided himself as the Boy Detective, it was only now that he realized what it was that had him so wound up; why he had an insatiable drive to become better, to become stronger.
He knew it now; there would never be an end to it all. Good and evil, like all things, had to have a balance which would never be achieved if the Titans, no, if the good guys always won. If one evil was destroyed, a greater evil would rise and the cycle would repeat over and over until the Light fell. Of course, the opposite also held true. What struck Robin was how useless his, or rather, his and his team's struggles were. No matter how strong they became, no matter what precautions they took, someone or something would be stronger than them, smarter than them. He could only hope that their training would be enough to handle anything they came across, that it would be enough to live, if not to win.
That was not to say that he did not understand the necessity of the stalemate, but he was incensed by how much power the darkness seemed to wield. Evil was practically omnipresent in the world and it always struck the first blow. Tragedy had come upon the young Bruce Wayne which eventually drove him to take up the mantle of Batman and become Robin's guardian. And of course, the only reason Robin had needed a guardian was because his parents had been killed in a staged "accident". Starfire had been betrayed and sold by her own sister, and Beast Boy, after his parent's deaths, had been used by his uncle to commit crimes until the Doom Patrol took him in. Raven was the daughter of and the portal for the demon Trigon who had destroyed Azarath and had attempted to do the same with Earth. Strange, but there really wasn't a single hero out there without some sort of tragic backstory; it was as though they had to first experience the evils the world had to offer before they could fight against them.
It... it was as if they were being toyed with, as if the universe was simply playing a game with them, using the Titans and their enemies as pawns, manipulating them mercilessly. Each trial they endured, that they survived, was just another twist to the plot and there were so many more to come. It felt as though they were being watched, as if to provide entertainment. Huh, it seemed like he was onto something there. He'd talk to Raven about that in the morning, or at least when she woke up. He thought of everything he and his team had been through. First, they had faced the students of the H.I.V.E and lost, but they had recovered and it was the only time the trio had ever defeated them. Then, more minor villains came onto the scene but were expunged without too much trouble. And then came Slade, the most notorious villain that the Titans had come to face thus far and one that they, as a whole, had yet to defeat. Terra had killed him but, after a brief respite, he was resurrected by an even greater evil, the demon Trigon. He was skeptical about the validity of their victory though. It had seemed hopeless, after all who can expect to destroy an all-powerful demon lord? Yet they had emerged victorious and relatively unscathed. It was all very strange. Raven should have been destroyed after her use as the portal was over and the very fact that Slade had the Ring of Azar, from Raven's destroyed home dimension, was suspiciously fortunate. Besides, if the thought of being able to repel Trigon had been ludicrous, what were the odds of coming out of the battle without extensive injury? Afterwards, the Brotherhood of Evil had almost ended them all, an entire generation of heroes, but the heroes, mere children, had triumphed over the more experienced, and more ruthless villains in an all-out final battle.
Now, the question that plagued Robin's mind came into play: Who or what could possibly come next?
Terror gripped him and he suddenly found it hard to breathe. His mind flashed to different possibilities, each highly possible given what he went through each day, and not a single one ended well. Any of the naiveté that had remained after his days in Gotham had been destroyed by the realities of life. He saw himself, his teammates, and the citizens of Jump City dead or dying because of some new threat that they were unable to defeat. He tried to call out in fear, but was struggling to remain conscious. It was late, he'd been working into the night again and now, no one could hear him, and no one could help him. Lights danced in front of his eyes and everything was driven from his mind; his anxiety, his theories, his question all disappeared in his desperate need to breathe and then there was darkness. The morning would find him asleep in his workroom, sprawled on his desk. No one would find this strange; it was not the first time the Boy Wonder had collapsed after depriving himself of sleep after all. When he awoke, everything would be fine.
The powers that be laughed at the sight and the thought. Robin had been right all along. Everything was a game to them, but they had to make sure that no one found out or the fun would end. Robin was sharp though, he would go down this line of thought again. This was, after all, the fifth time they'd had to take care of him and it was only a matter of time before the rest of the team caught on. Raven was already beginning to sense the changes that they had wrought within Robin's mind. If her suspicion should grow, it would cause trouble for them and then there would be no choice. One day, maybe soon, the Titans and their world would have to go and they would have to be replaced by a new source of entertainment. It would do no good to have the world realize that it and its troubles were insignificant, that it only existed when it was needed for entertainment. It was so dreadfully boring to simply exist and they'd spent far too much time over the Titans and their brood. It would be simpler, so much more fun if they started something new. Now, the question that plagued them day after day: what would they do next?
Who do you think the "powers that be" are? Review please!