Author's Note: Welcome to chapter three! I know that it has been a long time, but homework, SOLs, and band competitions have really taken over my schedule. Updates right now are going to be slow, until summer break starts.

I'm sorry for the long wait.

Anyway enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans.

Warnings: There are a few profanity words. Nothing too bad, but just incase you're sensitive to bad words... Also there might be quite a few grammar mistakes, so please forgive me if there is a lot of bad spelling.

Chapter 3: The training room- part 1

One of the most things he hated to do with Slade, besides being held captive by him, was eating with the man. And that's exactly what he was doing right this very minute.

They were in the dining room eating pancakes, bacon, and a mixture of blue berries, strawberries, and black berries. The food was good, but it was nowhere near as good as the food Alfred made. Alfred would always add a special ingredient to everything he prepared, while the person who fixed the meals here seemed to only follow the ingredients on a box. That's what made the food taste good, but not great.

Looking down, Robin put a spoon full of fruit in his mouth. Even after nine times he had eaten with Slade, he couldn't even glance at Slade while they ate. The man was too intimidating, and radiated dominance. It made Robin feel inferior.

Grabbing a piece of bacon, Robin munched on it. It made a nice crunching noise indicating that it was crispy. Feeling board, he absent-mindedly traced the designs carved on the side of the tabel. In the middle it had Slade's 'S', and beside it on both sides it had crossing swords, and the rest of the designs were a bunch of swirls.

Sighing, Robin started to drench his pancakes in maple syrup.

"You seem depressed", stated Slade eyeing the boy in front him. He had his fingers laced together, leaning forward. "Care to explain?"

Robin rolled his eyes. The last thing he would do was tell the mercenary how he felt. Slade was only trying to irritate him by asking how he was feeling. The man didn't give a crap about him.

"Well", the assassin egged on?

Robin scoffed. "Why do you care", he snapped?

Slade's single eye lifted in amusement. "Why shouldn't I?"

"Oh, I don't know", said Robin sarcastically not caring if it would anger the masked villain. "Maybe it's because you're evil, you blackmail me, you kill, you steal, you're always threatening me and my friends, you constantly put the city in danger, you act like you have all the answers in the world, and..." Robin paused. "... you're just Slade."

"Well then, I must be very cruel and heartless", replied Slade.

Robin nodded. "You are."

Shaking his head, Slade took a sip of his water with a straw through the slits of his mask. That made Robin fume even more. "That's a lot to say about someone you don't even know", said Slade putting his glass down.

Robin shrugged. "Maybe. But that's not a good enough excuse for everything you've done."

"Perhaps", Slade said with a smirk. "So you really don't need to know my intentions, my reasons, my goals, my past , my..." He stopped getting a smug gleam in his eye. "... my identity."

Robin crossed his arms looking away. "Like you would show me your true self. You're probably not even human."

And it was true. Slade is so cold, that it isn't funny. The man only cared about one thing and it was himself. He's a selfish, mean, inconsiderate, vile, infamous, no good, inhumane, one eyed freak, cold hearted, son of a bitch!

All my power. All my knowledge. All for you.

Liar!

You need to learn to have some gratitude.

What for? You're only doing this for your own selfish deeds.

You've gotten sloppy...

No. I'm stronger.

Don't tell my you've gone soft.

Shut up!

I could be like a father to you.

Never!

All you care about are your worthless, pathetic, friends!

And as long they are alive, nothing can stop me from protecting and being with them.

Robin bit his lip trying to come back to his awful reality. He just had to get away from his dark thoughts. His dark memories.

Slade eyed the boy in front of him ignoring the comment about not being human. Robin was truly a magnificent child who held much potential, and could easily achieve any goal, but he lacked the patience and gratitude. The minor yet important qualities of being the perfect apprentice.

One day you'll let your guard down.

Fat chance.

And I'll be there to stop you.

I'd like to see you try.

Chuckling, Slade decided to continue the conversation.

"What makes you think I'm not human?"

Robin glared at him. There are a lot of things that made the man unhuman. "Everything."

"Everything?"

"Every-frickin-thing-you-do."

Slade snorted. 'This is such a juvenile argument. It's time to put the boy back in his place.'

"Robin", Slade said calmly. "What did I tell you about disrespecting me?"

"I don't care", retorted Robin. "I only give respect to those who deserve it. And you Slade; don't deserve a single thing! You can force me to do anything you want, but I will never show you any respect!"

"And the Bat deserves it", quipped Slade? "The same 'role model' that you so much looked up to, who doesn't even trust you and threatened to take 'Robin' away from you forever? The exact same Batman who never begged for you to come back to Gotham and fight crime as his partner again? He never even bothered to call or send a letter to you."

The retort that Robin was going to say caught in his throat. How did Slade know about what happened between him and Batman? Not even his friends knew about their fight that ended the dynamic duo.

"How did you know-?"

"Breakfast is over", Slade said cutting across his apprentice enabling him from finishing his sentence. "You have five minutes untill your training starts. I want you to be in the gym on time. Don't be late."

'The gym', Robin thought? He had no idea where the gym was.

"But I don't know where-"

"You'll find it", Slade replied standing up.

"But I don't-"

Don't be late. There will be consequences if you do."

"But-"

Slade's eye narrowed dangerously at him. He knew that it would be the boy's first day of training, and he had no clue where it was, but he wanted to see what Robin would do. So basically what he was doing is just out of mere curiosity. Mostly.

Robin stared incredulously at the mercenary's back as he disappeared out of the room. He knew that Slade good and well knew that he didn't know where the location of the gym was. In fact, Robin had only been in three rooms inside the entire Haunt. The dark room with the gears, his living quarters, and the dining room. This place could be huge with and upstairs and downstairs. Maybe even three, four, five, stories high. Possibly more.

Gritting his teeth, Robin stood up. Might as well get it over with.

Taking a piece of bacon with him, he headed towards the hall. The hall was dark and dimly lighted with candles. There were glass display cases beneath the candles that contained army weapons and medals. There were also a few pictures that lined the cream colored walls. The pictures were nothing special though. One was mainly a picture of some fruit in a basket, another was a sunset with a lake, another was the interior of a house, the fourth was a picture of a garden, the was just a bunch of shapes, and the next was...

Robin stopped in front of it. The picture wasn't as big as the rest, but it was framed in a nice black frame. The picture looked like it could have been drawn by a little kid no older than seven. The scene had five stick figures of all different colors. The first one was tall and had rectangles for pants, triangles for shoes, and a square looking thing for a shirt, and rainbow hair. The second one had an orange filled triangle for a dress, and was shorter. The third one was a boy in similar attire as the first; also with rainbow hair. The next one was also a boy, but had shorts on instead of jeans. The last one was a little girl with a red triangle dress.

Robin smiled sadly. It was a picture of a family. Something that he'll never truly have again.

His fingers ghost over the messy hand writing. Dad, Mom. Grant. Joey. Me . So it was a little girl who drew it.

'Why would Slade have a picture like this in his house?'

Not wanting to waste anymore time, Robin continued his search down the plush red velvet carpeted hall.

After about two minutes of taking two rights and one left, Robin started to worry. Had he went the wrong way, or taken the wrong turn? Maybe instead of taking that extra right he should have went left.

Sighing, Robin leaned against the wall. There was no way in hell he was going to make it in time. Slade was either going to punish him for his tardiness, or for disrespecting him earlier anyway. Now it would be for both.

'Stupid Slade!'

Groaning, Robin banged his head on the wall, and instead of hitting something hard it was soft. 'Weird.' Robin stepped away from the wall and reached for the spot he had just hit. He traced it with his fingers going straight across(horizontal) and the down the middle of the line(vertical). It was the shape of an uppercase T.

Curiosity getting the best of him, he applied more pressure to it. Immediately that part of the wall rose up, reveling a large room. Robin stepped inside taking it all in. One side of the room had weights and treadmills, the other had a nice sized swimming pool, to the left there was a two sided track about half a mile long or more, on the right there was a spot that had an acrobatics area, and finally in the center was a place for sparing.

"You're late", came Slade's sharp voice from behind making Robin jump.

"Sorry", Robin said not meaning it at all. "I wasn't aware that the gym was secretly hidden behind a wall. Next time I'll just go roaming around beating on the walls until I find what I'm looking for."

Slade's one eye narrowed, clearly not amused. "Once again, must I remind you of the consequences of your back talking?"

Robin scowled. "I've said it once and I'll say it again, that I will never respect you..."

He was cut off by Slade holding the trigger.

"You really are despicable", replied Slade. "Endangering your friends, always putting their life on the line."He chuckled darkly. "Some friend you turned out to be. You should have just isolated yourself from the world like your former mentor did. I'm almost positive that he didn't want to get too attached to you, because that is his weakness. Getting close to someone."

He lowered the trigger. "Is that why you have trust issues, and endanger people? Because you were so deprived of the affection that you needed at such an early age. Did the Bat really rub off on you that much? Did he? The last time I checked you didn't want to be the Batman."

"Shut up", snapped Robin! He didn't need to hear this from Slade. He already knew how Bruce and Batman did not let himself get attached to others. Besides, caring about someone else is not a weakness, but a . . . . . . . . distraction.

Some of the flames inside of Robin started to smolder. Never in a million years would he have ever think of such a thing. Starfire, Cyborg, Raven, and Beast boy are not a distraction. Right?

"Having second thoughts about your friends, Robin", asked Slade?

"No."

"Are you sure? To me you seem very conflicted with yourself."

"I'm not conflicted."

"Yes you are."

"No I'm not."

"You're a terrible liar."

"I'm not lying!"

"Then prove it."

"I... I... Arg!"

Robin rushed at Slade with his fist ready to strike. He was sick and tired of the mercenary always taunting him. Why couldn't Slade just leave him alone? Why couldn't he just go away?

Slade caught his fist in mid-air, and kicked Robin's feet from under him. Before falling on his butt, Robin arched his back and positioned himself into a hand stand, swinging his legs around landing a hit on Slade's chest. The man stumbled back caught off guard. Taking it as an advantage, Robin gave him a strong right hook and then a kick to the waist. Robin then avalanched a series of punches and kicks until Slade was backed up to one of the closest walls.

Robin grabbed onto the front of the assassin's Kevlar shirt with both hands, seething in anger. "I'm not so conflicted now aren't I", Robin replied in between breaths?

'Maybe now Slade will learn to back off.'

Seconds passed on by as Robin waited for his "Master" to say something. Anything. Even a twitch of the eye would be satisfying. Maybe even a blink.

More time passed.

Still nothing.

His patience was quickly diminishing.

More time.

There was no reaction from the man.

Robin lost it!

"Aren't you gonna say anything", he snapped! "Don't you have anything smart to say, or any cryptic threats to intimidate me with? Aren't you going to pull out that stupid trigger, and hurt my friends?"

Nothing.

"Answer me!"

Robin's grip loosened, as his masked eyes turned somber. His bottom lip was trembling and his once even breaths turned labored.

Slade's one eye narrowed, as his hand shot up grabbing both of Robin's wrist, swiftly jerking the boy's body changing position.

Realizing what had just happened, Robin started to struggle. "Let go of me!"

"No", said Slade calmly.

"I said let go!"

"Haven't we already had this conversation?"

Robin growled. He was mad, he was frustrated, he was tired, he was scared, he was confused, and he was... conflicted! He had to get away. He had to do something. Something clever. Something smart.

He spit in the man's face.

Slade's eye turned to a slit. "You're going to wish you hadn't done that boy."

The mercenary flung Robin across the room into the weight area. Robin landed on the flat surface of a treadmill head first, briefly blacking out. He could hear Slade's foot steps getting closer and closer.

'Note to self. Never spit in an assassins face ever again. Especially when the assassin is Slade.'

"You know at first I was really impressed", said Slade as he advanced forward. "You had control over your anger, by channelling it to your advantage. But-" He stopped towering over Robin."- you lost that control, causing you to let your guard down. That anger is what prevented you from seeing the bigger picture. That anger is what brings the worst out of you in mental and performance wise."

"Well I wouldn't have this problem if you had just stayed out of my life", replied Robin with a glare.

"No", said Slade. "You still would. By what I've found out, you have always had trouble keeping you emotions in check. But your anger is a completely different situation. You don't even bother to control your anger anymore."

Robin downcasted his eyes. It was true. Ever since his parents died, his emotions have been going haywire. Bruce had tried to help and it did work for a little while, but after their argument things hadn't been the same.

"I could help."

Robin's head snapped up. "Really?" The word had left his mouth without him even thinking.

Slade smiled under his mask at his apprentice's reaction. He knew he had the boy now.

"Yes, really", Slade said with a nod. "But now-" He walked over to a bench press. "Let's see how many pounds you can hold. Your training starts now."

Wew! (stretches cramped fingers) This took forever for me to type up, and I hope that it was worth typing. Your comments are very inspirational, so please leave one so that I can post updates faster.

Please review a.s.a.p.