Author's Notes:

Hello!

Wow. It HAS been a long time, hasn't it? I know it's been years since I last updated this fan fiction, but I wanted some sort of closure to it.

Truth is, I never ACTUALLY finished Death of the Apprentice. As I was writing it I started to get more involved in writing scripts and so moved into that and film making. I'm now at university doing a creative writing and media production course. Essentially this means I've been able to write scripts and end up creating them for the screen. Currently I'm in the process of turning one of my scripts into my second year "film" project.

I had always intended to finish Death of the Apprentice, but I guess I could never quite find the time to do it. Although it sounds arrogant, I felt that it was a great story. I don't want to explain too much in case I suddenly do finish it, but I always wanted to explore Robin's dark side. In the comics Dick Grayson (the Robin I chose this Robin to be, who it turns out is that Robin anyway) is a very dark character himself. Although some people call the Teen Titans series "Kiddy", I felt that Robin's nature was translated very well, and the very close similarities between Slade and Robin made for compelling stories. I especially enjoyed the episode "Haunted", which I still believe to this day was the series' best episode.

The following chapter is the ending which I wrote back in 2005. In fact, this was only one of 2 different endings. There was a happy ending and a sad ending. This is the sad one. Why did I choose the sad one? Well I could've gone with the happy one, but I felt that after what Robin did it was more fitting for him to have sacrificed his life to save everyone. It also made the loss of Robin that much more tragic for Raven.

If I get enough requests I'll put up the happy ending. Heck, if I get enough interest I may just decide to finish the story (and perhaps change some of the original chapters since some of them could be better written).

I wont spoil everything that has happened in the stroy, so I'll give a summary of the previous chapter (or two).

The titans have all been incapacitated by Slade and Robin except for Raven. Batman has been fighting Robin and preotecting the incapacitated Titans from being killed. Robin is finally freed from Slade's shadow (don't want to explain too much here), and fights Slade on the rooftop of Titans Tower alongside Raven. They are hurting him severely, but Slade still has the upper hand. Finally, Robin throws Raven to one side as Slade pounces on him. Robin is lying on a trap he set earlier - a bomb. He struggles with Slade, and rolls aside slightly before setting it off, seemingly killing Slade, whose corpse lies on the edge of the tower before slowly sliding off and into the sea. Robin however has been caught in the blast of the explosion.

So I hope you enjoy the final chapter of Death of the Apprentice.


Chapter 15 - Death is but the next big Adventure

"Robin!"

Raven's screamed pierced through the dark night. She sprinted over to the bruised, and battered body of Robin. Slowly lifting up his head, she cradled it in her arms. Raven broke down onto her knees, laid his head onto her lap and weeped. As she weeped, Raven suddenly felt Robin moving slowly. She began to stifled her tears and whimpers, and looked down at his bruised and battered face. Robin slowly opened his eyes, and looked into Raven's. At that moment, he was looking at the most beautiful sight in the world. He felt weak, and knew what was coming, but there were still things he had to know...

"S-Slade..." Croaked Robin. "Is he..."

Raven managed to let out a cough that was supposed to be a laugh.

"Yeah." She replied. "He's dead. Your bomb killed him"
"Are you sure?" Robin asked.
"Yeah. I made sure of it..."

Robin slowly moved his right hand up to Raven's face, stroking her right cheek gently. Raven gentley held his hand with hers, allowing her soaked long hair to fall past her head. She closed her eyes, and tears began to drip onto Robin's face - he didn't notice though, since it was raining.

"Well at least that's over." Raven said. "We can finally move on with our lives"
"No."

Robin's interruption caught Raven completely off-guard. She stared down at Robin in horror, not wanting to believe what he ahd just said.

"What do you mean?!" She cried tearfully. "Was it because of me? Did I do something wrong? Do you really like Starfire more? Are you mad about-"

Raven shut her mouth as Robin pressed a finger to her lips. Raven allowed her salty tears to flow freely from her eyes, but this strong emotion also caused a small crack to appear in one of the windows below. Robin removed his finger and answered her.

"Raven... We can't move on because... Well... I won't be here..."

Robin continued to smile up at Raven's confused facial expression, and then pointed down at his shirt. Raven looked over at her eyes widened in horror. Blood was soaking through Robin's outfit, causing a large red blot to appear. She quickly undid the shirt, finally seeing what Robin meant - debris from the explosion had pierced his chest and lungs.

Robin was slowly dying.

Raven turned back to look at Robin's face, shaking her head frantically refusing to accept her biggest fear.

"N-No... You won't die! I won't let you Robin... Please... You've meant so much to me recently... I don't want to lose you again... Not after we've just been re-united. It's too much for me"
"Raven... You know I love you. Just remember that, ok?"

Raven sniffled, but nodded her head. She bent down over Robin, and pressed her lips against his own. Robin closed his eyes and relaxed into the kiss. He about to die, and wanted to savour ever moment of this. After a few seconds he opened, his eyes, and felt his body slowly weakening. He stared at the angellic face of Raven, until everything finally went black...

Raven broke away from the kiss, when he suddenly couldn't feel Robin kissing her back.

"Robin?" She got no reply. "ROBIN?!" Raven let go of his head slowly, and it slumped down into her lap. All the windows in the Titan Tower exploded as Raven screamed at the top of her voice in anguish.

"ROOOOOBBBIIIIIIINNN!!!"

Raven pulled Robin's body closer to her, and she lay down next to it, holding him tightly against her. She knew he would slowly become cold, but she didn't care. She simply closed her eyes and held him close.

"Goodbye Richard..."

Raven turned to look up, and saw Batman standing over the both of them, a sullen look on his face. Raven sat upright, continuing to hold Robin's body close to hers.

"Were you... proud of him?" She asked him.

Batman pulled a small smile, and began to walk away.

"He was like my family. He was like my son. He knew how I felt about him. And so do you."

Just as he reached the top of stairs into the tower, Raven asked one more question.

"Do you regret anything?"

Batman hesitated, both in movement, and in speech. He looked up at the sky and then turned to look at Raven.

"He once told me that he wished he had died alongside his parents. I knew how he felt, and that's why I took him in. I treated him like my son, and that's all there is to it. I regret only not helping him, like I couldn't help Jason..."

He turned his head around slightly.

"Perhaps now he's finally got what he wanted."

With that, Batman walked down the stairs from the roof into the depths of the dark Titan Tower, leaving Raven alone on the roof, still clutching Robin's body. The rain slowly began to lighten, until it finally stopped altogether. As that happened, the Sun began to rise over the horizon, it's light flooding accross the water and the two people on the Titans Tower rooftop. Raven watched the Sun as it began to rise from the depths of the sea, before once again looking down at Robin's peaceful face.

"There's the sunrise Robin..." She whispered into his ear. "We're watching it together. Just like we wanted..."


And that is Death of the Apprentice.

I hoped you enjoyed it.

Please Read and Review.