3/4. Twisted (Hyde)

They locked him in his room.

"You're going to… quarantine me?"

They refused him an answer. Blank eyes were his reply. Cyborg opened his mouth to speak, but…

"Just like that?"

Starfire turned, slowly, and whimpered, "Robin… Please, don't do this…"

He felt himself turn to stone. His entire body was cemented in place, and he felt a sudden death within himself. Nowhere inside of him did he have the courage to ask the big questions on his mind. If he would have been given more time to contemplate Starfire's reaction, he would have dulled into a more somber state than the others.

However, the door was shut on him, and he soon after heard it locked. Monochrome surroundings beckoned him, softly. It was not a strong call, but it was the only home he could find. Robin crawled towards his bed, and instead of hopping into it, he slumped down into a ball against it.

Drawing his legs inward, he wrapped them against his chest and sat there, back slightly lurched forward. For some time, he merely looked on, not so much searching for something in particular, but just looking as a defense mechanism.

Everything was black and white now. The light above was the only thing keeping the darkness from overwhelming him. A ceiling fan was joined with it, and with each aching revolution of the blades, black lines traced along the walls and across Robin.

"How long will this last?"

Robin made no motions. The fan seemed to pick up its pace.

"How long can you survive?"

He looked up and stared into the white, concentrating so much that his head began to hurt. Swinging his hand through his spiky locks, Robin sighed and whispered to himself, "As long as it takes. It's not like I have a choice."

"Oh, but you do."

With his eyes narrowed, Robin relaxed his legs and fired back, "I know what is going on here. Somehow, you implanted something in my head, Slade. You are literally in my head, but it is not going to work! I am the one in control here, and it is killing you that I am."

There came a sketchy laugh within the hollows of Robin's head.

"Are you really in control? You assume too much. And besides, not everything has to do with Slade. You really are obsessed with him, aren't you?"

Not knowing if this was rhetorical or not, Robin kept his calm demeanor and just sat through more.

"You think about him all the time and are always re-convincing yourself that you are nothing like him. Admit it; it takes effort to prove yourself wrong, because in the deepest trenches of your gut, you know your real nature."

Robin quietly stood up and walked towards a nearby dresser. After opening one door with a smooth creak, he plucked from the inside a faded patch, similar yet quite different from the one Robin usually wore on his costume.

"I think I know how he would respond," Robin began, "Every man has a light side and a dark side within him, and the one that grows is the one the man gives the most attention to. When he dove into the depths to save lives, he had to always remind himself of who he was fighting for, rather than who he was fighting."

He put the old patch back and closed the door, and as he turned, he felt a sudden piercing ring scratch through his ear.

"Or perhaps the old man was wrong. Have you ever thought about it? He has searched every nook and cranny for his nemesis, but he has never succeeded in bringing him down. Never. Despite all of his bravery, courage, and sickening ignorance, he has amounted to failure. For every victory he has, he loses twice. Robin, maybe you are similar. Your hopes of defeating Slade... They say that doing things the same way over and over again and somehow expecting different results is the definition of 'insanity.' "

Robin paused, rubbing his aching ear. "But it's also the definition of persistence," he continued in a confident whisper, "And I really don't care what you have to say. Why should I listen to something put into my head by an enemy?"

He crossed his arms and chuckled, "You're full of it!"

The voice did not return with a quick rebuttal, as Robin had expected. He had secretly hoped, also, that the voice might return, just so he could listen to it squirm for a response. After he realized that this was not going to happen, Robin sat down carefully on his bed and began to tinker with his gadgets.
"What happened with Red X was a mistake," he consoled himself, "And, knowing what I know now, it was probably Slade who made me do it. That inner voice… It had to be Slade. He is the only one that would do it."

Naturally, he began to list off the other possible candidates for the mind control, by continuing, "Control Freak would have nothing to gain from this. Mumbo Jumbo and Doctor Light have more against Raven than me. Whoever did this is targeting me, specifically, and other than Red X, all that remains really is Slade. Mad Mod would have made me grow my hair out long and buy a lava lamp, not pummel a 'properly' behaving adolescent like Red X…"

He laughed off his worries. Really, there was nothing to fear from a mere voice. Unlike last time Slade attempted to manipulate him and appear through his fears, this time he had no physical presence. He could not harm him.

"I am not Slade."

Robin stopped messing with his weapons and stretched himself out on his bed, ready for whatever chat he had to endure next.

"I am you, Robin."

The boy closed his eyes and furrowed his brow, hissing, "I'm nothing like you!"

"Ah, but you are. This is part of your nature, the darker part, the part that is willing to do anything to get what it wants, be the cause justice, revenge, or something more. You are the one who attacked Red X today; I am the one who took control when the rest of you was too weak to do what was necessary."

He grimaced, firing back, "Prove it! Prove you're not Slade!" The answer echoed through Robin's skull.

"I don't have to. You know it already… There has always been this part of you, but you repressed it, until it would burst out. When you went against the Teen Titans, it received the light of day. This is who you are, and for once, your friends did not hold you back. No, it is because of Raven that you are able to come to this realization at all—"

"What?" He asked, shooting upright in an almost delirious fashion, "What did she do?"

"It's more what you asked her to do, Robin. You asked her to sever the ties between your light and your dark; and, here I am. Are you happy now?"

Robin clasped his head and slammed it back, against the wall, letting out a miniature snarl. "I wanted her to remove you—that part of me," he explained, eyes trying to keep up with his racing thoughts, "So that I could move one…"

"Some things change, but not even magic can change who you really are. You can deny yourself only for so long; you hypocrite! You still don't understand! The dim shades are not always evil, just as too much light can be blinding and even kill. I am the part of you, then, who wants you to elevate yourself. The potential you have, Robin, is being misplaced with the Titans. You could do so much better, so much more."

Robin again slammed his head against the wall, repeating, "Out, out! Shut up! You're not real!"

"Nonsense! You would deny yourself, even now? Even when I am speaking to you more clearly than ever? You are many parts a failure, but no part of you is an idiot! Listen to me! The reason you cannot beat Slade is because—"

"I don't care!" Robin interrupted, trembling.

"You don't care about defeating Slade?"

Robin remained still, quiet, and he attempted thoughtlessness.

"You don't care about this entire City going up in flames, or worse yet—your dear Starfire being in danger? He knows you two are close; he knows everything. He knows how you have suppressed me, and he will use it to his advantage! He will count on your weakness! He will dangle her life before you, and this time, you will lose more than just the trust of your friends! You may lose them entirely. You will be another failure…"

"No!" Robin erupted, "I won't let that happen! I'll figure out a way to stop him."

"By doing what? Relying on your friends? They may not be there. You're going to have to grow up, Robin. One day you will be on your own. Slade will eliminate them all, and you will have no choice but to complacently accept this destiny—because you are too much of a coward to take the future into your own hands!"

Robin dove off his bed and paced about the room, plugging his ears uselessly.

"Cyborg is but a machine; he is half the salvation you would need—"Robin bit his lip, drawing blood.

"Beast Boy is a mere child, and think back to how he did not save his precious Doom Patrol friends—"Robin lurched forward, then swayed back, faint.

"Ah, Raven… Try as she might, she can barely save herself—"Robin tried to drown out the words with humming.

He stopped after awhile, hearing no more from the voice in his head.

"...and as for Starfire." Robin felt a pang within.

"She is the worst of them all. She is so wrapped up in you that she will be the first to jump into the line of fire. She is also one who will keep coming back to take your fall, and even as she suffers, it will not once dawn upon her that she is only being hurt because you are not willing to save her. Robin, what more of an ultimatum do you need? No more fighting fair in an unfair game. It is either you fight to win, or you lose everything."

An immense knock came from the door, from something superhuman. Robin, like a jittery rodent, turned and watched timidly as the door quaked and finally gave way. It was kicked down, and through the piercing light of the outside hall, a shadowy figure rose. It was a foreboding, oppressive presence.

"I knew it," Robin seethed, watching as the figure came more clearly into view, "It was you, this whole time—Slade!"

The one-eyed menace seemed to be smiling at him, but one could never tell. What made him especially frightening was his unusual silence; Slade perhaps tuned in on this paranoia and was further exploiting it.
"You have been in my head," Robin continued, ripping at his own hair, "And you nearly made me kill Red X! You've gone too far! I do not know how you got past the sensors, and I don't care! Get out now!"

Robin thought he saw Slade smirk, somehow. Instead of turning away, the enemy took a few steps forward and extended a hand toward him. In turn, Robin drew forth his bo-staff and extended it, twirling it with a no-nonsense attitude.

"You stand on the verge, Robin. It is you, or it is me. It is justice, or it is tyranny. It is Starfire, or it's…"

"You!" Robin screamed, finishing the sentence in his head. He ran forth and plunged his free hand at Slade's throat. With incredible strength, Robin shoved him against a wall and ran him vertically, holding him up for further scrutiny.

Slade's eye neither twitched with fear nor was flared up with anger. There was nothing pitiable in that look; it was just the sort of glare a machine might give. It had processed what was going on, and it was not going to stop it. In fact, it looked like Slade wanted this. Robin could not help but wonder what sort of a role consent might play, if indeed he had to—

"I dare you."

The two men in masks were locked thusly for some time, with Slade soon gasping for breath. Robin was building up the courage to do what he now knew had to be done.

"You were right," Robin conceded, agonized, "I have been denying a part of me, and through this, I have let scum like you wreck this city. It is because I do this, that you even exist. Everything you have ever done, I could be blamed for. Every second I let you live is another second in which my weaknesses failures are made evident and people are put in danger."

Robin squeezed a bit tighter on Slade's neck, smiling even as his victim was on the verge of turning blue against all the monochrome.

"But—"

Robin, with his tight hold on Slade's neck, tapped into that same wellspring of energy that allowed him to pin his opponent against the wall and keep him there, launched him away, to the floor.

"But what you said about me, extends to you," Robin continued, his smile growing, his back to Slade, "You tell me to own up to my responsibilities, yet you run every time from your's. You say that I will forever pursue you, that I will never accomplish what I need unless I use your tactics. But you have not obtained what you want; in fact, you are the larger failure. Even when I was your apprentice, I was grudgingly against you. I hated you. It has something to do with free will, Slade…"

Pivoting, Robin sharply pointed at Slade and continued, "The same will which I have as a whole, as a full human being, to choose how I act, rather than be a slave to the lesser parts of me! The parts you wish to exploit, the parts I sought to destroy, are a part of me, yes, and I see now that they are inseparable from the rest of who I am! However, what separates me from you—what keeps me from ever becoming you—is the fact that I never will never be less than human! You would forsake all of your humanity, all of its strengths, for the more focused power of evil. But these narrow powers will defeat you, every time. Evil has only one purpose— to undo that which is good. But, Slade, the power I have, the part of me I will choose to feed, is the part of me that can defeat you in a new way every time, and every time I will find a new reason to oppose you! These reasons give me strength to carry on. I have a meaning. You, Slade, are nothing but a figment, a flash in this world. If I kill you, I kill the humanity in me—and you are not worth that much."

Robin turned, triumphant and nearly out of breath and emotion. He took a few steps out of the room, to rejoin the others.

"Robin…"

His heart skipped several beats, and he made a 180. Laying in the place of Slade, who now seemed not to exist, was Starfire, tearing up. With wide-eyes and an absolute overflow, Robin swept down to meet her again, and scooping her up with his hands, he held her as he too sobbed.

In a few seconds, there were more footsteps behind him; but it could have been Slade again, and he would not have cared. He just kept Starfire close, but he did catch some words from the person who just entered:

"Dude, what have you done? Star, are you OK? Quick, everyone! Cy, Raven- something really, really bad happened, guys!"