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"Talking"
'Thinking'
Writing
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Summary: Takes place in an alternate aftershock time zone, where Terra doesn't turn on Slade. Robin, after a trip to Gotham, decides to bargain with Slade- a life for a life. A oneshot.
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It's over. I'm done with this. My friends are hurt. One by one, they've been captured. One by one, I can't help but to think that I could have stopped this. I could have stayed; I could have refused to go with them when they found me. I could have tried to convince them that I didn't care, if only to keep them alive. There isn't anything left worth fighting for. The city has been destroyed. The Titans east haven't been seen in weeks. All of the people have lost hope. Jump city is now under Slade's control.
Of course, there is another. The only one I've ever really wanted to kill. Terra. She took the forbidden fruit, and by doing so, condemned everyone she knew. She's under Slade's control now, but it was her choice. She didn't regret her mistake.
I can see the base in the distance. It's our old tower; Slade must love it. He's probably waiting for me to show up and try to save my friends. But that isn't the plan. My friends could have been happy without me in their lives; they would be if I hadn't entered them. I don't care what I have to do; Terra is going down and the Titans' innocence is going to be avenged.
I steadily get closer to the tower, and after a quick swim, I'm there. Slade's got cameras and bots everywhere, but they don't attempt to stop me. I walk past them, waiting for the fight.
It never comes.
I walk through the halls, which are perfectly clean, except all of the pictures are gone. Burned, probably. I enter the common room, where more Slade bots are guarding the doors, but they still don't attack. I walk past the bedrooms, all of which are guarded. I doubt they'll let me into the rooms, so I walk on. I feel for the weapons at my belt, and I make sure that everything is ready. It is. I walk up to the door labeled 'Robin'.
'This is the last time we will be fighting,'
'On opposite sides, you mean,'
Slade's standing, looking down at Terra, who's kneeling at his feet. He looks up at me, and I can practically feel his smirk.
"Why hello, Robin," he said casually to me.
"Where are they?" I demanded, wasting no time.
"Patience, Robin, patience. Your friends aren't dead…yet."
I don't like the way he says yet, like he knows that threatening them usually meant he was threatening me. Not this time, though.
"I want to make an exchange." I said quietly.
"What could you possibly have that would make me want to trade your friends for?" Slade asked.
I smirked in response.
"I know that they're dead. I just wanted to know where the corpses were. They all deserve a proper funeral, don't you think?"
"What makes you think I've killed them?" Slade asked, and he seemed surprised that I wasn't freaking out. No, Gotham has taught me better. All of the violence, blood, hurt, and crime have taught me how to control my fear, anger, and bitter sadness.
"Raven saw the others die before you killed her. She couldn't broadcast anything, but I could feel the ripple of her mind shutting off when she died." I said.
"I thought I felt something," Terra muttered, "But it wasn't very strong."
"Because you didn't know her as well as I did before you decided to betray us all!" I said to her, never glancing her way.
"Then what do you want to exchange, Robin? Your friends are dead, your tower is mine, and soon will the rest of the world. Go on, I'm curious." Slade said.
"You hate to lose, don't you Slade?" I said, waiting for a response.
"It isn't enjoyable," Slade agreed.
"When I escaped from being your apprentice, I won. You lost." I said.
Slade seemed a little angry, but he nodded.
"You told me that I was like a son to you. What is Terra then? A pawn? She doesn't fight by herself." I said.
"I am my master's tool!" Terra said angrily.
"Yeah, a pawn," I said.
"We were so alike in many ways, Robin. I did see you as a son of sorts." Slade said.
"And Terra?" I asked.
"She is a tool." Slade said.
"Good." I said. Now, Slade seemed completely thrown off. I guess he was interested in what I had to say.
"It seems you've finally tamed that anger you have, Robin." Slade said.
"I took a trip to Gotham. It helped." I said. Slade knew of Gotham's horrors, but naïve little Terra didn't.
"Gotham? Isn't that where Ba-"
"Don't say it. I didn't see him at all." I said to her.
"Gotham has the most violent city statistics in the world. Only a fool would go on vacation there." Slade said to Terra, glancing at me.
"Only someone with Gotham level experience would go on vacation there. Beating up thugs is a great stress reliever, Terra. You should try it." I said.
"Oh, get lost Robin!" Terra said, glaring. I ignored her and looked directly at Slade.
"You don't really need Terra to take over the world, do you?" I asked Slade.
"I want an apprentice. Someone who I can teach." Slade said.
"You aren't teaching her anything." I said. "You're controlling her."
"SO!" Terra shouted, but Slade waved her down.
"What do you want to exchange, Robin?" he asked, and I could see the hungry look in his eye. He knew it was coming. He's been craving it for months.
"A life for a life. I will become your apprentice, the son you've always wanted. I just want Terra out of the picture." I said.
"You're going to have to take her out of it yourself." Slade said, taking control of Terra's suit. She was now kneeling on the ground with her arms behind her back, looking up at me, frozen.
"Good." I said, walking towards her. She looked alarmed, and was trying to speak. I reached her, and pulled out the only knife that I carried; the one that I had bought in Gotham.
I put the razor sharp blade to her throat, and she looked up at me.
"Robin! Don't do this to me! We're friends!" Terra said, but my heart didn't skip a beat.
"We were friends, Terra. This is the only choice I have left, because of you. I'm going to enjoy this." I said, smirking at her. I'm pretty sure if Slade was anyone else on earth he'd start clapping and cheering for what was about to happen.
I don't care what Batman would have done, I was going to relish this. I grasped the blade and only listened to Terra's screams at the blade cut into her neck and into her jugular vein. Terra lay bleeding on the ground, shocked that I had actually done it. She looked up at me with her dying breath and said,
"Robin…I thought you were different…" her throat could barely form the words, and it extinguished itself when the sentence was complete.
"Terra…that's your fault." I said back to her, calmly watching as her lifeblood dripped out of her. In minutes, she was dead. I turned my attention to Slade, who was looking down at Terra.
"Now, Robin, you've gotten what you wanted. Now, about what I wanted…" Slade said, turning his back to me. I knew what was coming next, but the strange part was I didn't feel like this was wrong. Slade might have been expecting me to run, but I didn't.
"Yes, master." I said, and the words didn't feel wrong. It was a fair trade, not like when he blackmailed me into this. This was my choice, like Terra's, but I, unlike her, had something Slade wanted. He wanted my skills, and he got them.
"Good…Your uniform will be ready shortly. Until then, please patrol the city. I will expect a detailed report in 0130 hours. The time is now 1821 hours. Dismissed." Slade said, and I turned to leave. Before I left, Slade called me.
"Yes?" I asked, turning around to face him. He threw me a pill, and I caught it. I didn't recognize the color or texture, so I waited for Slade to explain.
"I will explain after you have swallowed the pill." Slade said. I looked at it carefully, but it didn't seem to be poison. I swallowed it without chewing and waited.
The pill took effect ten seconds later. It didn't hurt at all. It actually felt…nice. Like someone was cracking a joke or I was having a pleasant time.
"That was an immortality pill, Robin." Slade said, which shocked me. Was that possible?
"The pill's chemicals were taken from my DNA. I am immortal for unknown reasons, and now, so are you."
It was a lot to process, but I nodded.
"Is it immortality meaning I'll only live as long as I don't get myself killed, or I can't die no matter what?" I asked.
"The latter," Slade answered. "But try to refrain from doing anything…life threatening."
I nodded, ready to do my job.
It would be a long century.
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Finished. The End. No more. This is a ONESHOT.
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Sooo, how was it? A darker Robin, obviously, who's been pushed once to often a little to hard, has finally accepted who he wants to be. He wasn't surprised to hear about the immortality pill because he believed that Slade was immortal. The trip to Gotham was to get away from the grief of losing his friends. In truth, when I read fics, they alter my feeling about Terra. Some stories hate her, so I hate her, while others pity her, so I do. I find it really amazing how stories can do that, so I just wrote this in hopes that I could do the same.
And I was bored, okay? I needed to get my mind off of things, so I wrote. Please give me some feedback, preferably CONSTRUCTIVE Feedback.
THANKS!