The Apprenticeship lasted much longer than Robin had anticipated.
And the worst part was, the Titans still had no awareness of the small and deadly probes that infected their bloodstreams.
Robin had tried countless times in the previous months to escape. But, to no avail he was still considered a Renegade.
And so that's why, when Slade had forced him to pick a new more intimidating name for himself, he chose Renegade. Robin had desperately hoped that the Titans would see it as a sign that he was being blackmailed with their lives, but they just saw it as another piece of evidence proving his treachery.
Whenever he fought them, he always hoped that one of them would whisper 'We know about the probes. Until we find a cure, play along'. But no, each time he arrived back at the Haunt Slade showed him video of the fight taken from security cameras, as if to say 'See they think your evil, and look how much you've improved here. You could never kick that high as a Titan...'
Robin lived day-by-day. Every morning he got up, got dressed in the uncomfortable uniform he was forced to wear, did whatever Slade had planned for the day, and if he was lucky, went back to bed, where he could safely retreat to his dreams.
For the first weeks of his time here his dreams were mostly of the Titans, Batman or sometimes even the Justice League coming to his rescue. But as time went on the dream of being rescued from this Hell was grated away, until it was just tiny shreds of hope that slipped through his fingers.
His hope was not fully lost, but it was slowly being run against that grater, like a block of cheese, the pieces slowly falling to the floor as Slade continued to pull it back and forth against the grater as he watched helplessly.
Yes, his hope was fading away, because one-by-one... The Titans were giving up on him.
Raven was the first to lose hope, being the most logical of the group. She soon realized that she needed to keep her emotions balanced and in check, and frankly, hope was not an emotion she could afford to have.
Cyborg and Beast Boy followed soon behind, when they discovered that even if it was all some sort of trick, Robin was too far down the path to ever become a Titan again. No, if he ever got out of this 'deal' he would lead a normal life as Dick Grayson.
That only left Starfire. Robin could tell she still held back when she fought him. Often times he caught her running instead of flying, or aiming her starbolts just a little off so that Robin wouldn't suffer anything worse than a second degree burn.
Getting the Titans to lose hope in his Apprentice was like trying to unlock a very complex door for Slade. The door had four locks. And he had to unlock them all to open the door.
And what was behind the door? For Slade, it was the sweet taste of victory and the
Perfect Apprentice waiting to be trained.
For Robin, however it was a sad and lonely life to live.
So Robin prayed every night before bed, that Starfire would never lose her hope in him. That there would always be someone who believed he wasn't truly evil…
but the day that Starfire lost hope was approaching much more rapidly than anyone had imagined.
It was cold and rainy, and as Robin ran through the woods near a science lab he had just robbed mud slapped up his legs, as if it was trying to pull him down and drown him in the thick brown substance.
And to be honest, Robin would have rather been swallowed up by the mud than face what was chasing him.
But, to his misfortune, as he got to a wide clearing surrounded by pine trees, they were already there waiting for him.
The four Titans stood (or floated) soaked and cold in front of him, the anger and bitterness clear on everyone's faces…
even Starfires.
Robin quickly attacked, starting with Beast Boy first, as he was the easiest to take out. He charged the small green boy with a yell, and threw a punch at his jaw, effectively hitting his target. Beast Boy fell to the ground in a splash of mud and water, blood pouring out of his mouth and now broken jaw and possibly nose.
Robin then went for Cyborg, who already had his sonic cannon pointed directly at his former leader and friend. Robin pulled something similar to a bird-a-rang from his belt and threw it viciously into the center of the sonic cannon, effectively shorting it out. He and Cyborg then engaged in a series of punches, until Robin's torso was encased in a
Layer of black.
He turned to see an angry Raven floating above him and farther in the distance, a sad Starfire helping Beast Boy to his feet.
Robin ran and jumped towards Raven, knocking her out of the air and grabbing her hood at the same time. He threw her into Cyborg's huge metallic chest and the blow sent them both rolling down a hill.
Starfire was carefully watching from a distance the entire time, but as Beast Boy went to go help Cyborg and Raven who probably still hadn't stopped rolling, she was left alone with the cruel looking boy she once called friend.
"I do not know why you have become what you are Robin, but I do know that it is wrong, and you are a criminal now." She began speaking calmly, "And I know that criminals must be stopped." As soon as the sentence was finished she spun quickly into the air, green bolts of energy lighting up her hands.
She began rapidly throwing them at Robin, who was now running thought the trees in an attempt to guard himself from the oncoming flow of deadly beautiful energy.
What happened next seemed to take place in slow motion. As the starbolt left her hand Starfire knew she would give him much worse than a burn this time. And she did. The starbolt moved much faster than Robin could ever dodge, and effectively ripped his pale skin open in a violent crash of flesh and blood as Robin fell to his knees.
A cry of panic and hurt escaped his lips and echoed loudly through the forest, alerting anything and everything nearby that he was severely injured.
"Apprentice, return to base. Now." He heard Slade's angry voice command through the small earpiece.
Starfire had run off somewhere, and he was now alone in the rain. Robin winced as he stood up and began his way back to the Haunt.
When he returned back at the Haunt, Wintergreen and Slade were waiting for him with a stretcher. Robin knew he would never make it to the rolling bed and collapsed on the floor with another cry of pain.
Wintergreen quickly hoisted him onto the stretcher and gave Robin's belt to Slade, who would keep it until Robin needed it for training or a mission.
But all three knew quite well that Robin would not be doing either of those things for a long while.
"Oh my... Let's get you all fixed up shall we?" Wintergreen tried his best to sound the least bit worried, but inside he was terrified for the boy. He could easily see that Robin had lost a lot of blood and that the starbolt had taken away a large chunk of skin on his left hip. As for the rest of his body, it was covered in many deep gashes filled with mud, and there was a large purple bruise forming on his right cheek from a blow he had taken by the metal hands of Cyborg.
Robin could feel his skin slicing through the hot air as Wintergreen quickly pulled him into the infirmary where two robots were waiting to help.
As Slade watched his very beat up and bruised Apprentice being pulled away, he smiled wide under his two-tone mask.
The girl had meant to cause such damage. Which meant…
he had finally opened the last lock on the door.
Robin tried not to scream in pain as Wintergreen poked and prodded his side.
"Now, can you feel this, or is it just numb? Is your head getting dizzy? What blood type are you?" Wintergreen asked the questions he already had answers to as he put an IV to Robin's arm and dropped a heavy sedative into the clear liquid.
"You're going to go to sleep now okay? I promise, when you wake up you will feel much better..." Robin could just barely make out Wintergreen's frantic voice as he drifted off to sleep.
But Wintergreen had lied, because when Robin woke up he felt much worse.
The pain in his side was almost completely gone, which was the problem. If he could not feel the physical pain he was in, then Robin's mind was forced to focus on the mental pain.
Starfire had delivered a death blow to him, and not by accident.
She had lost hope in him. This meant...
Slade had won.
So, hope you guys liked the first chapter and if not then… I'm sorry? Haha I know some of you guys are probably mad at me for posting this story instead of updating White Walls but I just had to okay? I mean, when an idea pops into my head it starts forming into some really awesome sentences and then I gotta write them down fast before I forget them, and then more and more just keep coming! Okay so, before I say bye there are just a couple things I wanna go over.
THIS IS NOT A SLASH! Okay? Got it? And I'm not trying to trick you by saying that. THERE REALLY IS NO SLASH IN THIS STORY.
The ending hasn't exactly been planned yet, but I can tell you there will probably be a sequel and that the ending to this story will not be all lovey dovey.
This story is about ROBIN. Not Starfire, not Raven, not Beast Boy, and not Cyborg. So it will be told in his point of view most of the time. Don't like? Sucks for you.
I'm not actually as mean as I sound, but I'm kinda in a hurry to post this sooooo…. BYE!