CHAPTER X

And one last time, his hand ripped a void in the air.

Passing through it, the events will happen once more.

He looked around the wide room of the lab again and noticed his reflection on the broken cylinder tank.

He has aged.

He is an adult now.

He never noticed.

He was so focused on trying to save Slade that he didn't notice the change in his appearance.

He smiled an empty smile.

'Much better,' he thought as he finally passed through the portal.

And gasp!

Ragna woke up.

"Good. You're awake." The shadowy figure stated. Ragna groaned and held his head before recognizing the shadow. "S-Slade?" The elder stood up from his seat beside Ragna's bed, "get up. We have work to do." He stated before going to the closet and grabbed a set of clothing, throwing it towards Ragna's direction. "Shower, get dressed, and come to me once doing so." Slade closed the door to Ragna's room. When his footsteps fade away, Ragna sighed and held on to the set of clothes he was given. He stretched and yawned before getting up and going to the bathroom to shower, his thoughts seemed to have ran in place.

He remembers.

He's been having blackouts after leaving the Labs and it bothered him slightly. He couldn't remember what happened in between those two-year gaps but now… now, he clearly remembers. In fact, he wasn't sent to the Labs at all. He was already there.

Slade was already there.

Ragna's eyes widened to this.

He said he would leave for Russia, so why is Slade here?

Why is the man he trusted in the Labs that created him?

"Ragna!"

A loud knocking on the door interrupted his thoughts. Immediately, he opened the door to see Slade standing there, still in civilian clothing. "Yes?" Ragna asked, his tone slightly nervous as to the elder man's intense look. Why does he feel nervous? There should be nothing to be nervous about! Just as Slade was about to say something, he stopped and looked at Ragna again, who was confused by the sudden pause. He smirked, giving Ragna an unsettling feeling.

"Shouldn't you be dressed?" He asked as he slowly moved towards the naked teen. Ragna only realized this when Slade had asked and tried to cover himself but was stopped as Slade's hands grabbed his wrists and pinned them to the wall with a hand. "Slade!" Ragna squirmed underneath him, "let go!" The elder chuckled and hummed his free hand roaming and sliding around Ragna's body, who squirmed even more. His hand grabbed the younger's neck, squeezing it lightly for the teen to get the message. And he did. Slade smirked again, resuming to what he was doing.

"Slade… please let go…" Ragna quietly sobbed but Slade ignored it as he started to lick the teen's neck and went further down to one of the boy's nipples and nibbled it, making Ragna flinch and moan. His free hand stopped to place it on the boy's hip as his other hand that was holding the copper-haired's wrists let go and did the same, hands sliding up and down Ragna's sides. Ragna shivered as his hands were placed on Slade's shoulders, ready to push the older man away but found himself weak to his knees and slid down the floor to which the mercenary laughed, the teen blushed again in embarrassment.

"You're so cute, my pet," Slade whispered next to his ear as he kneeled down, his hands spreading Ragna's legs as he tries to close the distance. He started rubbing the teen's crotch with his and soon after, Ragna got hard, panting to the pleasure he felt in the friction.

"Slade," Ragna panted, "Slade, please…" The white-haired chuckled to the plea. The hands went down to the boy's hard cock and pumped it in a fast pace. The sudden speed made Ragna's eyes go wide and moaned louder as his voice echoed the bathroom. Hearing his own lewd voice has never been more of such a turn on for himself than it is for Slade, whose visible bulge twitched. Slade licked two of his fingers and pushed it inside the pale skin's hole, never seeming to warn the teen of the sudden intrusion.

The two-colored eyes rolled back as the fingers in him hit a certain spot that made his mind blacked out, gasping as his hands gripped Slade's coat. Ragna was about to cum until Slade's hand that was on the boy's member stopped him with his thumb pressed onto the head, his fingers seeming to continue touching the teen's good spot continuously, making the boy suffer from being prevented to cum. "Ah, ahhhh, Master, please! I, I can't- I want to come! Let me… please…!" The pale-skinned begged and begged it made Slade laughed and let his thumb go, making the boy cum on himself as his seed slid down his stomach. Slade stood up and unzipped himself, sliding his hand in a fast pace until he felt himself nearing.

"Open wide, pet." Slade ordered as Ragna did, looking dazed and confused at what was about to happen. It only hit him when Slade came in his mouth as the mercenary's hand grabbed his hair and inserted his cock into the teen's mouth, releasing his semen inside and filled his mouth in it that it overflowed as some dripped down Ragna's mouth. "Swallow it." And Ragna did so and opened his mouth to lick the rest of Slade's semen off the man's cock. Slade zipped his pants back up and stared at the teen sitting on the tiled floor. He smirked and patted the shivering Ragna's head, exiting the bathroom.

"Good boy."

"Good morning…"

"'Morning…"

"..."

Robin, Beast Boy, and Raven were the first to wake up. While Robin went down the hotel's gym, Raven made coffee as Beast Boy ordered breakfast for everyone. Later came a beaming Starfire helping out with Raven, and Cyborg who just went to the roof of the building. They all gathered in Ragnarök's room since that was the widest room in the floor and ate their breakfast there. While eating, Cyborg interrupted by informing Robin about something.

"Yo, Rob. The signal to Ragna's tag is steady. Seems he's still around here." Robin nodded, chewing before talking, "is the mic working?" Cyborg replied with a yes, tapping some reports on his robotic arm to check the status of the tag. "You wanna use it now?" The half-robot asked. "Maybe later," Robin stood up his seat and headed for the door, "Titans, I know you want to have your vacation," he stopped and stood by the door, "but I would like to inform you that we are leaving this afternoon. That is all." He turned around and exited the room, footsteps fading out the background and too late to hear a few whines from his members.

"We're leaving? That sucks!" Beast Boy went and pouted.

"Please, as much as I miss our home, I would like to explore this city still." Starfire followed.

"I guess we'll just have to go here some other time," Beast Boy sighed as his ears drooped, later shouting 'goodbye, land of good tofu' with Cyborg and Starfire trying to calm the shapeshifter down from tears. Raven sat quiet as she sips her coffee, not minding the other Titans present in the room until they called for her. "Rae? You okay?" Cyborg asked as he put a hand on her shoulder. Raven looked at the half-machine and stated, "I'm fine," before standing up and exiting the room. The three Titans looked at each other, confused.

Raven walked around the hallway before deciding to go to the rooftop as she summoned a black hole up the ceiling and flew upwards, her legs now crossed and her arms resting on her lap, meditating. She cleared her mind before she remembered what happened yesterday. The tall white-haired man, she knew who he is.

It was Slade.

The time when Ragna had shared his memories, the last image she saw, she was definitely sure who he is based on that image. The aura that Ragna was feeling in his memories compared to when she met Slade, unmasked, was quite different, however. True, there was no killing intent whatsoever but… what was it that she felt? It was as if Slade was… impatient? She wasn't sure. It was now that she realized that she worries for the copper-haired teen. Her feelings stirred, she shook her head and went back to meditating, calming herself down.

Ragna was all dressed and ready, and went around the place he is residing in. Now that he thought about it, he never knew how he got here. It was only now that realized that. Where is he? A long hallway to start. He was outside of his room only to be greeted by a long hallway. He frowned, this was as if he was back in the Labs in Hokkaido. He started walking and in a few seconds was met with two paths, and a door in the middle. He opened the door. No luck. The room is empty, figuratively and quite literally, seeing as there was no furniture to be seen in the room. He exits the door and closed it, going to the left path. Another door. He opened it and recognized it to be a storage room. Opposite him is another door, he went and opened it to see himself back in the hallway.

Huh, he internally went as he looked around before closing the door to continue his little adventure. He opened the door across him to see another storage and another door. This time, he didn't go further, thinking he would just end up on the path he didn't choose earlier, the right side. And yes, he was right. He went out and walked the hallway again. He opened another door. Just how many doors are in this place, he complained. He was greeted by a room full of books. A library so big he was walking on a bridge, he just noticed. One, two, three… Five floors with shelves filled with books. Jesus Christ, he feels as if he was walking in just a piece of a giant castle, which could be possible, he thought.

He walked and walked and walked, his feet are getting tired roaming around to look for Slade. And that when he was starting to get nervous. His heart started beating in a faster pace, his breathing started to go ragged as he was hit with dizziness. He collapsed on the floor, calling for Slade continuously, tears seemed to have tracked down his cheeks as his consciousness slowly fades. It didn't stop him to see a silhouette fading in his vision, however. He smiled, knowing who it was as he clung on to the man's arms, calling out to him more.

"Slade… Slade… Slade…" He continued. The man's arms embraced him, calming him down as it went up and down his back. "I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I'm sorry…" Ragna continued as he felt Slade's hand caress his back. The older of the two replied, chuckling as he whispered to him, "you are so useless." This made Ragna cried even harder as much as he apologized again and again. Slade continued, "but you were so entertaining to watch, so I'll forgive you."

It was when Slade had said those words that the teen finally looked up, eyes beaming as he held up a smile like that of an excited smile of child when they receive a gift they really want, "really?" He went. Slade's other hand went up to the copper hair and started stroking it lightly like stroking a cat, "yes, you are forgiven," Slade gave a dazed smile. Ragna smiled bigger, appreciating- no- cherishing his master's forgiveness. He does not want to be useless to his master after all.

Slade smiled as his 'pet' snuggled closer to him. And so it works. He thought. Slade had planned to do this to Ragnarök all along. This child never knew that he slept for over a week, heavily sedated. As for the dog tags Ragna wore, Slade made sure to take care of it with a pre-recorded conversations of he and a hypnotized Ragna, recording Ragna's voice and speech patterns and applied it to a Sladebot after making it wear the tags and walk around a place or two to distract the Titans. Being heavily sedated, the teen was experimented on through cognitive hypnosis.

Making him realize that there is no escape from him, no denial of Ragna's need of him. After all, he is the only one the boy has. A bit of Wintergreen in some bits but he made sure to make Ragna loyal to him the most. And Ragna have not a clue of what happened, Slade smirked to this, that the teen has been altered to have a very low self-esteem with only Slade as his pillar of hope and support. And now he is mine, the white-haired thought.

All mine.

Just mine.

My pet.

My very own loyal apprentice.

A/N: Shhhh... I'm just as confused as to what happened here but I also understand that I wrote it, so I'm kind of in between comprehension and incomprehension based on what I wrote. Meh, might as well go with the flow... See you next chapter, then! :) Reviews are always welcome, negative or nah lmao