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Plans
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The Teen Titans.
Robin.
Robin, always wanting to know what my plan is. What plans, my dear boy? My plans run far deeper than you know. Though it is only you that doggedly chased me throughout the years; the rest of the Titans always fell into anarchy, choosing to believe I was done for the moment, choosing to relax and be ignorant. Not surprising that Batman's son stands out from the rest. He trained you well.
You kept up with me, stride for stride, punch for punch, kick for kick, and I was impressed. Very impressed. For such a young child to actually have a chance in defeating me, I who possessed superior agility and strength through the experimental serums injected in me during my years as a soldier … I knew you had so much potential inside of you, potential I was sure would not shine to the fullest if left to your own defenses.
You are remarkably hard on yourself, but that is not enough. You needed an arch-villain, so to speak. Someone to obsess over and hone your skills for, just so that the next time we meet, you would win.
I fit that bill remarkably well, even you will agree.
I snuck through the cracks of your armor, driving you nearly to madness by my secrecy.
Robin. I did not need those chips. I could steal them quite easily myself. The main object was to capture your attention. Even I did not expect you to don a new persona and deceive your friends. Did I mean that much to you? I'm touched.
I worked it to my advantage. I saw then that you were not completely on the side of the law after all – you were malleable to dishonorable acts if only you had the right motivation. So I gave you the motivation. Your friends. Your weaknesses.
You became my apprentice with minimal fuss.
Richard Grayson.
Why else would I have had you rob Wayne Enterprises? It was a blow to the old Bat, I daresay. To watch his own son rob his company.
But your friends were ultimately the source of your strength. I could not kill you. How you managed to guess that…I suppose it was because I saved you on that rooftop.
I needed you alive if my plan would work. I needed to break you, to leave you in the dark, to make sure there was no other opponent in your book more heinous than I, but at the end of the day, you needed to be alive.
Even that naïve alien Starfire wouldn't possibly think I did this all for you Robin. You merely proved to me that I could use you and your pathetic team for my own gains. I'm no Father Christmas. Altruistic acts are not a part of my nature.
Addie, dear Addie. Contrary to popular belief, you are still my only real love. Lillian was just a fling, and Terra…well, Terra just couldn't wait to give herself up to me. What did I have to gain by refusing her?
I knew from the moment Grant and Joseph were born that they would most likely have some sort of powers. I could only imagine what my experimentally altered DNA would create once it mixed with yours. I knew one day, they would have to choose: villain or hero?
I fully intended them to follow in my footsteps. Grant was more promising in that sense; he was strong and somewhat cruel at times. He enjoyed the hunting trips that I took him along on. Joseph was different. He was sweet, sunny and loved small animals like rabbits and hamsters. Clearly he would not step onto the military path.
I never meant him to lose his voice. God, I can still hear his rasping chokes coming from deep inside his chest as he threw up blood all over the floor…I cared. How dare you accuse me that I did not care? He was my boy after all, he was my son.
You shot my eye out and took both of them away. You left me for a quiet life on your own. Perhaps that was why you did not expose me. You were afraid I would hunt you down if ever a rumor hinted that you would divulge my identity. You didn't want to disrupt your life.
Even so, I watched as Joseph, now stripped of his dream of singing in the choir, still grew up under your care as a musician, letting his guitar sing his songs for him. Grant, as I expected, went to military school.
Grant was a loose cannon and he died a loose cannon.
Joseph, I knew would never become like me. He would blame me for what had happened to him – you, Addie would make sure of that. I knew you would tell him the story of that night, telling him that I, his own father, was the reason he could no longer talk and sing.
So I targeted the Teen Titans.
A group of heroes just around his age, people he would be able to mingle with and learn from. Joseph had every reason to hate me, and when he defeated my attacks, I knew the Titans would welcome him in with open arms. I could cement his membership by being the most feared villain the Titans ever knew. And everything I had taught to Robin, Joseph would learn.
Rose…Jericho was in the hands of the Titans. Was it so wrong I wanted one of my children as my own? I injected her with the serum, yes. I definitely did not mean for her to gouge her eye out. All I wanted was my daughter. I distanced myself from her at first, but she wanted a father. I granted her wish. Too bad her father was me, a mercenary. A cold-blooded murderer.
It was another long journey of planning and work, but again, I was able to permanently induct her into the Titans.
From the beginning, my aim was this – that I would be a feared villain so that if my children chose the dark path, they would have clear passage. Equally, if only they defeat me in battle, they would be able to walk the road of a hero without shadow.
The best thing?
Robin doesn't suspect a thing.
He has been a puppet all this time, but he still suspects nothing.
And why should he? In the end, I am the only one all of them hate. It is as it should be.
…
"Slade? What are you doing, still up at an hour like this?"
"Nothing, Wintergreen. Just thinking."
"You should go to bed, I know for a fact that you don't have any errands to run this night."
He's probably right, time to hit the pillows into oblivion.
Time to clear my head of past memories.
Time to run.
A/N) Twas in the shower, this idea popped into my head...
Slade is contradicting himself. He does love all these people, even though he has a twisted sense of morality. He loves his kids, even though he pretends not to. Why else would he have gone to all this trouble? But I wanted to keep that only implied. Because he doesn't even want to admit this to himself.