Teen Titans; The Fighting Life – Epilogue Story; Chapter 17: Minor Digressions

/

He woke up to find the room like fire and ice, intermingled. His eyes were puffy…

So many tears had been shed. His body had pushed while the fire had started something else, anew. None of it was recounted. The probes, brainwashing, the physical trauma. Richard's hands still trembled, just a bit as he covered his face while in fettle position on the other's bed…

~ Sleeping with the enemy. ~

His bed at the tower was not a bed of roses. It had thorns, but last night…

It came back and washed away his thanks of having forgotten the cramping and pain in his rear. He cried and to no one's shock, Slade had yet to rise. His face…Robin peered over through his fatigue and tears. His aching arse was a wince away.

Was mask-less…Why?

Robin crawled onto his hands and knees to see for himself.

No mask…

A blunt hurt; he already had the Justice League unmasked, so his lovely enigmatic personality was already widely known.

It had never existed.

He was no mystery, yet he'd lead Robin to believe that unmasking his nemesis would make the hurt go away.

The desire to know had taken him from his home. Dick sat up, looking at the man's peaceful expression as he dreamed…. Dreamed of another's downfall.

"Oh, God…" He felt nauseous, but with the sensation came no vomit. The damned serum easily had stopped his distress in its tracks.

~ He's taken my virginity…. I have to get rid of this.…...I can't go on with being this scared…. I'm… going to kill him….one day, he'll pay

"Good morning…" Slade interrupted the boy's homicidal rant as he blinked up at the teen. Robin retracted his glare and turned with a pouting face and upper lip; he looked back at the wall beside his master's bed. His face looking away from the man, who seemed to get the picture after a few seconds to swear that he was fully awake in bed.

"I wanted to tell you, that you've passed my test…"

Richard sniffed and continued to give the man the cold shoulder, though he was terrified of the effect that would have. It was not something to use in an escape.

Even leaving this Earth sounded, inviting….

He did not take the shock well. His bum still needed to heal. As a grown adult's…. Well, this was to give Robin a taste of what was to be expected of his initiation into the world of the very villainous. He'd not get their pity. Slade wouldn't always be there to catch the kid from falling, either. Robin could detest him all he wished, but a deal was a deal.

He'd been safer with the beatings, the ridicule, the threats…and…

His defiant nature, which had acted as a subtle cocoon.

Slade had made him into an ugly larva; meant to be fed to a greater predator to sustain their hunger.

Not, his needs.

The tiger that slept beside him began to rise. The bed dipped as Slade went off it from his own side to let the boy be. He plucked up a robe from his dresser and a second set of clothes that had belonged…

"I'll take care of breakfast for this morning; you'd be wise to join me. Your training begins afterwards, Apprentice –

"I'm not…"

Slade stopped at those words. Oh dear.

"Not, what? Slade's glance was not as unreadable, since he masked it well for Robin to be suspicious. Even while he remained mask - less and near naked. He left the items for Robin on the foot of the bed. He'd rather not have his scent traced by any wild animals inside the haunt.

Robin licked his lips, but the words stayed dormant. He was afraid to change… His story was never - ending…he wanted –

"Apprentice –

"I…am…not…. Your, APPRENTICE!" The boy suddenly snapped; his eyes red with more tears. He receded and curled back up into a mound as he hugged his knees to his chest. Shaking to have the heat that WASN'T Slade's body against his own.

Slade did not think Robin had it in him to fight, so he did something else.

He left the boy in the room, to test out another theory.

No probes, no serum's effects to his progress.

Just, a basic chemical response to high stress. How loyal could he keep the boy? He'd soon find out how deep this rabbit hole could go.

/

In the depths of despair, he'd had to face, Batman's mortal enemy had always seemed to fall under this ludicrous example of what was sane or insane; a simply idiotic in – between notion that the big bad villain had a peanut sized brain and a large than life ego, while the hero had little to cry over by his own make -up.

Well, that simply was just not true anymore.

An enemy had taken The Batman out like any other criminal, but the face of the one who'd taken his spirit, his force of good in just that instant, was incredibly intelligent. As in the motives he carried, they were golden notes to play him out his just reward. He'd sent a message, and not just that one time.

He'd impersonated countless others of the Titans and the League. He had an appetite for vey bad endings, and threw himself into an all out slaughter to play the part of a killer without capping his rage once.

Yet, all that control. All of that presence, still felt off.

~You're not the only one that thinks the same as me. ~

Raven's voice. A voice he'd tried to save, yet she'd fled to Jump to be saved by her true family.

"I've been fixed, and the chip is gone. The joint effect was that it wasn't exceptionally well done by his robots. There were no repercussions upon the removal of the device from my spine." As if talking to the air in the hospital ward, the S.T.A.R labs' doctors paid no heed to the billionaire fighting for his freedoms again.

~Slade didn't try to end you –

"He didn't have to. He already had Robin. That was the effect…"

~I…~

Raven returned to show him herself in an astral projection. She wasn't able to leave her quarantine room under any circumstances.

~I want you to think; is Robin really afraid of facing you? ~

Bruce looked at the child of a demon and human with a awe stricken glance – he was overcome with too many questions by that single one she'd uttered.

"What do you mean? Robin is in dire need of finding a way from that man; he's taken him and there is nothing so far –

~I'm asking you; would Robin want to go back to the way things had been? ~

"What –

~Between you. ~

/

Her words struck his glass walls; shattering his ego to bits, and flecking off the failure piece by broken piece.

"You, think I drove him to commit this act of treason?" Bruce stood, feeling light headed as he felt his heart hammer away inside his hardened chest.

"He left because he couldn't follow a direct order. He never told you -

~This "fight" isn't because you care for your family, it's because the name Robin being tarnished by an mad man like Slade, would scar Batman's reputation -

"No! I... I just don't want him to get –

~You're afraid to tell him, so you put up your guard and made him regret the name, now he's running away, but not in the way you thought…. ~ Raven showed the man her partial past and why the man Slade had such influence over his foes in a way that they'd never seen in the wild hunter's career.

"He's being influenced?" Bruce took a breath and sat back on to his hospital bed.

"By, what?"

~I am not so sure it is all his doing. ~ Raven's astrally - projected self shook its head and didn't know how to keep the name she knew, a forever secret.

"I can't play any more games. You're a Titan, why are you being so cryptic with –

~Because; if you knew the real truth, Robin's life would be in danger even if you went to save it. ~

"I don't believe it. You are not on our side if you say…." Bruce recounted the image of the perverse setting in which the man, Slade had set up for his ward to "better himself." To be "reprogrammed" as it were.

"I can't lose him –

~You can't go against it. ~ Raven begged him to listen in a lightly strained echo that was her own plea.

~I know what's going to happen. He doesn't need to be saved. Please, trust me –

"I'm going there, once I'm cleared to leave." Bruce decided on his own, ignoring the floating face in his vision.

~You won't get through to him… Please, trust this to

"You don't know anything about us!" Bruce snapped and saw her face still. Beneath her cowl, she was just a child. And, he'd lost his temper. She had the power to see things he could not, and yet…He wanted those things to be untrue.

"Richard, is going to get through to us, to me. I can't predict the future like you –

~ It isn't a normal prediction. ~ She stated, in offense to his badgering her before. ~It is fated; and he's not fated to stay with Slade. Not in this t-

"Not in any time will I let that, happen."

~For Batman's pride, or for Robin's future? ~

Her lasting words left him numb until Bruce's cell had gone off by its charger. He groaned and rolled over to pick it up.

"Al, yeah. They said I can go home the next day, yeah, from today. Tomorrow, the Batman is going to set up a rematch in Bluudhaven…H…I'm not waiting, I have to…But… -

~Fated. ~ Raven smirked before making her departure.

Bruce was left the one fool in the room without a leg to stand on. Raven had wit and was aware of the world around them, even while locked up in a cage.

The old ones understood fate. Which made Bruce feel like an over - privileged school boy all over again.

And he hung his head, just knowing that Dick understood that description of his mentor, too.

/

Her energy plummeted. The trip had nearly set off the cycle; Trigon was watching and waiting to collect more souls by his grudge against "those inferior mortals and their pesky morals."

~I'm going…to stop him…Robin, hang on…. a bit…longer…~

She passed out as Aqualad called for help right beside her unit.

The treatment for their conditions was underway. Thanks to the developers at S.T.A.R labs and Cy's genius brain, the Titans would have a cure in a few days, tops. Ready to undo Slade's unbearable curse on their delayed faction of heroes, the team would search, until Raven's probable prediction decided to rear its ugly head at them.

Bruce, especially.

/

As in those supposed stories; where royal couples kissed and were wed inside their "happily ever after," our prince and duke were not newly weds, nor were they willing to kiss again – not for a very long time, after that horrific turn of events.

Slade though, was bent on using Robin's unsupportive angst for HIS own benefit. He wanted to see the boy's reaction when he went missing for a few hours.

Maybe days.

Robin before had tried to get Slade to fire him, but that wasn't how apprenticeships worked. The teen he'd been before was hot – headed and knew that he could accomplish greater feats with the right amount of skill and training. But to utilize those tools correctly, one had to want to sacrifice his life for another's. The greater good, as it were.

Robin's resolve had been breaking; he'd seen it on the child's face in bed last night as he'd been taken by his unloving master.

His goddamned savior was more like it.

Although, he'd also not flinched when the man had bad mouthed his last mentor. He'd not spoken of or really, anything in regards to his caped - crusading partner.

Which had Slade to wonder, if Robin was using this time to stay clear of the obvious punishment he'd have if the Batman caught up to them.

Total disbandment of his team, for good.

So, Richard was trying to have Slade control his environment unconsciously to escape another form of torture…

He'd only just come to know of Robin's other flaws.

The toaster dinged* to alert the man of a "perfect" time – span that he'd set the device for.

And perfectly toasted bread. The best damn excuse to celebrate the small things.

Good. The eggs were cooked with a bit of his perfect toast to the side of each of their plates, and freshly squeezed juice to help digest the meal to its fullest was set out as well.

Had Robin been his lover, he'd have offered much more, but the food was plenty, he decided.

Speaking of freshly squeezed juice…

Slade turned around to see his pitiful apprentice in only his boxers and a loose-fitting tee. He'd been handed little else to snuggle up in.

"Speaking of, last night; though I won't dive into any of the more painful details…"

Robin mentally winced at the word.

"Aren't boys your age; fifteen, sixteen, supposed to have some understanding of the birds and the –

"I wasn't one of them –

"Ah, so you DO listen." Slade chuckled and readied himself to set out a plate and a new proposition for his star pupil.

The two sat on opposite ends of a rather narrow table and ate in silence for a while, before Slade picked up on the silence with some light conversation. He had to get this across, for the good of his research.

"Dick, Appre-

"Please call me Robin or that, but not apprentice…please."

Yet, the boy had stopped eating, leaving Slade to then wonder…

"Was last night so bad –

Robin slammed his hands onto the table as he stood up and eyed his plate, heatedly contemplating where he should place his fork.

Slade though, had only given them both spoons to use.

"I would rather eat my meal in peace than fight a crying child –

"The child you raped…"

Slade's hand now went down with clatter to the table top. His butter knife had never been more threatening to stare at…

Robin had jumped a bit; the impact had a deadly feeling to it, icy - which gave his hairs a reason to raise up.

~Wow, he'd gone cold on that call. ~ Gulped the nervous teen wonder.

"As I'd said last, Night." Slade breathed between light seething bites of toast that he'd still not finished chewing.

"We're in Bluudhaven now, so doing what I did may soften the blow in this crime – ridden rat hole of a city. It was your initiation into the criminal underworld." The man sat up with his chest puffed out.

"And. You passed. Congratulations." Slade sat back and smiled as if trying to mask his own displeasure.

How the mad man could justify what had occurred, was criminally insane to Robin, so he started with a fight and naturally…

He'd end up losing –

/

"Ahhhgh!!" The boy's body was knocked off into a hard wall from within the man's labyrinth of a lair.

"Don't you DARE!"

Slade made it perfectly clear who was in charge as his arm wrenched the ebony haired boy's scalp back into a cabinet next to the sink. The sink was next, and it wasn't hollow enough to cause a couple of bruises.

"You think you'd get to go back? They can't stomach what you are, now that you can't even suffer for someone OTHER than yourself! Look!" He had Robin look his reflection in the water in the sink…. He'd filled it, when Robin was quite dazed before….

His face was black eye now less than healed but getting there, and his lip was bleeding. Sweat on his head and cheek, and…Was that a zit?

"Can you honestly say that you'll return to being as you were? That you don't belong here doing as I ask in order to forget what was never yours to begin with, in the first place?"

"Stop…. I…I'm not –

"You aren't listening, so we are going to have to drill you on respect; once more

"No! I'm not

"Who is Robin the boy wonder? Hmm?" Slade's grip on his shoulders was tight, he looked into the water, and then ended up under the faucet with the cold flush of water rushing as ice, right over his head.

Slade let him take the heat for a few seconds, and then he'd stop and give Richard room to gasp and back under he'd go! Five, six….

Finally, a shivering, panting ex -hero had it. Slade knew better than to ruin his bratty student's progress with petty arguments. He pulled the boy up and shook his shoulder to listen this time.

"You have to realize it; there is no Robin. No Slade. There is only Dick Grayson who needs to get a grip and LEARN to move on when he's given another opportunity right in front of him. You'll live your life thinking that your freedom was due to him. The BAT that made you – but, Robin?" Slade's breath against his cheeks was icy as mint in a peppermint winter land of horror.

"Your hero career in Jump City." The man purred into his ear as Richard shivered from the burning cold against his exposed skin. He was tugged out of the spray's line of fire, that could change, so he stayed and nodded as he shook from the chill against his scalp and ears too.

The man hissed in his frozen ear.

"I made that. I MADE your friends what they are, they'll never rest…. And neither will you…So. This lesson…is now done."

He let Richard's shoulders go with a sudden tip. The boy used his hands to have his balance re-adjusted as they caught hold of the sink's edge. He coughed and stayed over the sink, while Slade came beside him and plucked up the drain stopper to let the water go down, turning the faucet off as he'd miraculously finished their little lecture up in less than fifteen minutes. Or was it ten….?

"I was going to have you with me for your next mission, but you require more training. That is why Bluudhaven is perfect for a stubborn Dick like you –

"Why are you –

"A shaman's death. Do you know what that term is in your case, boy?" Slade stayed laser focused on Robin's reply as his apprentice attempted to get a good glimpse of his teacher's real face.

"What…what does that have –

"I just asked you a simple question; what does a Shaman's death mean to this apprenticeship of yours?"

He hissed the question a bit, now becoming quite impatient by the boy's confounded stalling.

Robin thought back, but his answer was too vague to put into words, let alone to paint a practical picture for the man to follow or understand, himself.

"It's when you let a part of yourself, hurt. Die off, in order to fulfill the orders of your mentor or teacher and elders."

"Well done, but you forgot to add WHY the psychological effect is so important to achieve this level in one's training. A shaman's student will suffer humiliation brought on by every person in their home and life. No stone is left unturned. They'll return to the first stage of life, and LIKE your mentor the Batman, he knows of the custom of "returning to the womb."

"When you're buried and left in the wilderness until morning, a way to sort of –

"Face your greatest fear. It is an initiation practiced by cultures who do not wish to fear the inevitable. They are willing to break and bend in order to understand their place within society."

"That's…Harsh, I guess." Dick was afraid to ask. "But, why did you say…he knew about the custom? How do you know anything about him?"

"Finally. Not letting your mentor stay out in the cold this time, are we?" Slade raised a brow, seeing the boy blush in his Tommy's without consequence.

Slade dared to chuckle at this change of pace.

"Welcome back, Richard."

Ri…Robin, seemed to have vanished….Where, it was as if he didn't have a face anymore to confront.

Robin just couldn't compare to the man behind the iron mask in front of him.

/

"Dick; do you understand what a "persona" is, when regarding the human psyche?"

Richard looked up from his mess in the kitchen. He'd been forced by the man to clean every nook and cranny; with an unmasked Slade bending over him to say and ask, what THAT was to him. More mind – games.

~Just humor him for now. We'll get out of this haunt, first chance. He's not going to hurt anyone else…~

Dick continued to clean up the broken furniture and some dishes from their meal. Well, interrupted until lunch.

Slade seemed willing to keep him as his "student" only because he was a valuable toy to play with. That thought, made Richard's skin ache once more with that familiar unease the adult usually presented to their conversations.

Robin licked his lips to reply. "A persona; like our individual identities, right." He spoke out to add, "A personality that defines a person and the traits their persona inhibits. The word comes from the same root –

"Then what about aspects of the self."

That one, was a bit more than he could handle. Robin bit his lip while crouched over and picked up a chair leg to chuck it into the trash, still in Slade's grip. He had to make eye contact, but did so rarely to keep his distance from the man.

""I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become." Slade recited this quote with a voice one could look up to.

If they so wished to go mad like the master of psycho – un – therapies.

"Is that from a daily calendar you have, Master?" Robin snorted and turned to pick up another sharp piece of wood with his bare hands. Still dressed his boxers and a tee, his backside to the man, he squatted to not give the male any extra, just desserts.

~ Like HELL, I'd let him touch me. ~

"I wish, but time is ever - changing so much that the only materials I could read in my own spare time, would have been reports of various casualties and, your precious face." He joked.

Robin stopped and realized that this was a second part to his earlier lesson in gratitude. Minus his face looking damn "darling."

It sounded like it bordered on existentialist views for some reason. And Slade not being a freaking pedo - case.

Bullshit.

"You won't drop this until, I answer. Fine." Richard took in a breath and tied one thing to another. The psyche, what did he NOT know?

What he could say was that criminals swooned around beating a person up, mentally. It was a sick joke to them. Even joker had a PH.D from the University of "Psycho and Clown Inc."

"The persona is the social face or role an individual presents to the world. The root of the word persona comes from the Greek word "actor's mask." Robin recalled a piece he'd read as Slade listened and fervently awaited the time when he too could press at the boy's Ego, some more.

"And like the Greek's masks of both Comedy and Tragedy, placing on a mask could, show a different side to a person's persona that they originally might never display towards others in their own everyday life."

"Yes, like heroes. I know. We are the "sort" of figures that people associate with "Gods" or archetypes to humanity. " Slade shrugged and had the idea.

Robin rolled his head to the side. He'd gotten a minor kink from kneeling down for that half hour of tedious grunt work.

"True; and however reliable that attitude may be, a villain might as well be an anti – hero to his hero's "heroic" counter part." The older male concurred.

"Or, nemesis." Robin nodded but huffed at the correlation, agreeing that the point had already been made before by any other wing – nut quack in World War One - Europe or America.

"So; to say for instance if…You took off one mask to place on not a second, but a third of fourth." Slade pantomimed himself returning a mask to his face, quite well. As he had been labeled ninety percent impressive to watch in one lifetime. (Messing with 90% of his brain, again.)

He watched the child's reaction but held back his own amusement. He didn't want to seem invested in a little psychology - lesson from the nineteenth century. Heaven forbid it, if he had…

Robin cleaned up a bit of broken glass next.

"That's a piece that Carl Jung would have stomped on to further prove himself right -

"In theory, he was no master by any means." Slade frowned and stood up straight again to ponder the other man's theorizing. "He refused to admit to his own "aspects" and was terribly inclined to deny his prejudicial viewpoints, which may as well have stunted him in his mediocre exploits of understanding the human consciousness..."

"So, you are a freedom fighter now? Am I supposed to be shocked? Empathetic? Well, I'm not."

Robin said this very begrudgingly to the man who still towered over him.

Still, his master held his finger on that "metaphorical button."

"You did all of this for your research; to amuse yourself because –

"Quiet, boy. I won't say it again." Slade's word was the truth as Robin's will deflated, his Ego no longer in check. It wasn't to say that he'd acted any differently than upon….

Richard blinked, as if he'd come to the conclusion that he'd been granted a separate voice just then…

Had Slade suggested…

"What did you…do —

Slade walked over by the kitchen fridge; grabbing an apple from a drawer inside it, while still clothed in his same sleeping attire he'd had on during their little, test of courage last night. And not to forget; his extra robe from that morning in its most unappetizing, starchy - white cream color. Not too suitable for a white haired – meta – human.

Making himself to feel proud with his shiny red treat, while looking absolutely younger than his age was on paper; his hair was white and his pony tail was slim and a long enough to hide away in any high octane battle, while the man's goatee was sharper than his white eye patch was striking – too much to imagine the pair having been there in the first place. He reminded Robin of the ancient Greek paintings of men with squared faces instead of rounded features, that gave off an air of a warrior or someone who rarely acted out of sheer impulse.

~ A soldier, in a nutshell. Great; and what a wonderful day to be a detective, crime fighter…~

He looked, human. Really, really different but still, he'd taken the team, Titans and authorities all on….

Single – handed.

His mass could be more than Batman's equal ratio of muscle tone, and he reminded Robin of a tiger by how he held himself.

"What…What is going –

"A trust exercise is hardest to initiate if both parties are not presently aware of one another's somewhat, subliminal attributes. Similarly, to the rule of "like attracting like."

Robin was horrified by that logic, but magic? Was Slade into voo - doo?

"I did a little searching by way of an honest, distraction. My own introspective methods have bore plenty of results this way, before. Nothing more than that. Your resentment is stronger than ever, and I'm not sure on how to break you from that dual – edged degree of habitual –

"Stop talking. Right now…" Robin's legs wobbled as he almost fell to the floor. They couldn't have him standing for long. The bots were helping, maybe. Slade could rip him apart without a mask; he'd lied about who HE really was!

A literal DEVIL in man's skin.

"What will you do to come to terms with your Shadow, appren –

"I told you not to call me –

"Then." Slade chewed the juicy apple in his palm again, turning it lightly, to have the sharp CRUNCH break the boy's concentration, stilling Richard's words within a brief moment of pause. The man swallowed his food quickly after, and then spoke;

"What is it that I SHOULD call you? What is the name you want me to associate by your obvious "persona" you'll be adopting while under my care?"

"A, name…That's not an iden! –

"A simpler way to look at this, is with a transformation. A progression; the human cycle of conscious choices and why this could very well be your crossroads. You've obviously been faced with this new and difficult trauma in your life. You can either run and hide as I can see you're already trying to do from it, or you can fully embrace these changes and make a better life for yourself. As my eventual partner, should you do as I ask willingly, over time…"

"Partner?" Richard scoffed within a mock - laugh. "You think I'm going to stay a –

"You've taken on the League's finest toy soldiers, so that would certainly qualify you…. I think even if you had left things as they were, your instinct would have been to flee the spotlight for a while."

He bit into the apple again and chewed it thoroughly, pensively reflecting on the original plan to have Robin go up against his old mentor in Gotham City. Again, he digested the scenario. Getting closer to the very core of the man's unfathomable plan wasn't going to be a cinch, and Robin knew that by now...

"If he takes you back, he cannot cure you. I was not so lucky, and the madness that enveloped my mind meant that the only thing that could save me, was by doing what I do best."

"Holding a gun to a person's head –

"For the right price, what can I say? It pays the rent and keeps me entertained on the side –

"Like holding a trigger up to my friends?" Robin grimaced.

"Something along those lines, yes. And yet, you can have me reconsider killing them, if YOU have them let us be."

"For how long?" Robin dared to ask the decisive murderer in the background; who was mere seconds away from throwing out the core of his apple into the trash Robin had filled with, broken furniture.

Broken things, in pieces.

"Oh, you can do a number of things to fulfill a "shaman's death." He said this, then chucked the remaining core into the trash bin.

"Two points. Well, you can firstly fake your own death – the way you did in Metropolis; but without having a body removed from their view to call it a missing person's case, not as unsolvable to your ex – teammates like before." Slade easily recalled their skepticism. The heroes had probably gotten enough samples together to make a temporary counter – serum for their league and Titan members to continue to scan the world for a real solution to the long – term sickness that the probes had left behind.

They wouldn't find one so easily. Of that, he was certain.

Robin shook his head. "No, my friends, probably will have Raven or Manhunter to tell if it's really my, body." He tried not to feel disgusted by the plan. Slade came back into the discussion as if he'd never left it.

"Alright. Then the only other option…" Slade rubbed his goatee and look to the ceiling a bit, making himself seem important, when the answer was clearly there in front of them.

~ Mind – creeper. ~

~ But creeping around in your head is what I do best. ~ Slade's faux form of telepathy using the Nano's was genius. Also, creepy as hell. Robin groaned at the man and his jokes. They were in very poor taste.

"Your second option that I would recommend, would be regarding your "persona."

He implied this and let down his hand at the "quoted" word. Which he'd helped by holding up hand quotes with his fingers to spell out to the boy.

"If you give up Robin's name and identity; every quip and quirk that comes with the trademark value of your childhood self's favorite character, then you'll be able to have another mask to put into place – to eventually dissuade your mentor from coming here to search for his little lost, ward."

"Son." Richard corrected. "I'm not a passion project to him –

"Yet, your involvement in his affairs balances his ego as well as my own. Our views are entire self – centered. Even if we don't always care to admit it."

That soured taste in Robin's mouth had him worried; that it would produce an after effect that he would not later rid from his system, or that Slade may have been onto something…

Slade stood before his pupil and left a lasting impression; he'd meant to get through to the boy and with every exact and planned method of interrogation, he'd won his attention over. He never wished to lose, just as Robin never wanted to wholly submit to the man like before. He'd been under the influence of a poison that was Slade's delusion, that he actually cared to create Robin from scratch. Or would, or…may have played a part with tampering with the toxin's contents in his mask that lead to the boy's outbursts and regressive states.

Robin had his mind lost in thought, deeply trying to work with what he had. His tools were to be crafted by his intuitive side. His right brain needed to lay low for a bit until otherwise proven useful.

~My friends can't lose to him, either. I bet Cy already found a cure. Wait, a question…"

"Just curious, Master?" Robin lifted his head and tried to get his words across to have the man able to act, if not just for now.

"If say, the Titans found a way to get rid of the probes –

"Partly, it's left over effects would be a post – viral one. So, no. It would not be severe in their case."

A but, was coming Richard guessed.

"Ahem…but the results for each Titan would vary greatly. Even for those not of Earth. Starfire could end up bed - ridden for years, or Cyborg could go de-

"How…How can you claim to be the one who saved me? You are…. You are…"

"You don't have a reason to be by their side. And I'll only let them go ONCE you've proven your timeless loyalty as my apprentice. Though, thanks to your serum's influence, even if the bots were taken from your system, you'd go completely mad first."

"What?" Robin stormed over to the male as he held up his palms to still the boy's anger with a –

Slade's eye narrowed.

~ Damn animal! ~ Robin gritted his teeth and growled in the male's face.

"BUT I can make it so that will never come to pass." Slade's head tilted to the side. As a living puppeteer, he held Robin's strings back – and the Titans.'

"I can remove the bots in you, causing zero cases of any post – syndromes as a thanks to your ongoing, and continued apprenticeship beside me. Wouldn't that be nice of your dear master?"

Robin with held the right to spit in his face. The bots had his nervous system in a better place than he could have ended up.

Beneath the man's armored boot.

"I'd be nothing more than the lifeline that keeps your world together, strung up in a tangled heap as YOU kept it as a Titan, only…better."

His one eye grew at the word YOU, narrowing on the other word,.

Better.

The word he loathed was not his own name, but Slade's.

Robin let down his fists, unclenched. Unclear of anything…

"I'll become your equal, but not to make you happy that you took me from my old life." Robin began.

"I'll stay here so I can learn how you'll be gone from my life once I'm strong enough to finish you."

"That sounds like a threat, young man." Slade's arms moved, but only to cross over his chest.

"Quite a good threat, actually." Slade nodded and hmphed* softly, as he usually did when analyzing a project from a less hostile perspective.

"Your Shadow side; you have no reason to hide it from me, but you'd better learn to Act like a true villain while the Titans are still on the hunt for my lair. I doubt this city can hide us for much longer, should one of us give this position away unintentionally…"

"I thought that most heroes have trouble getting involved with the criminal underground in Bluudhaven?" Robin wondered if that was only a rumor.

"Batman could make it here in a single night; given he has a team already on the inside –

"What if –

"Like I said, you'd best keep a close watch and report anything you see or notice that looks, out – of - the - ordinary. Out of place in this city, besides the already bizarre characters you'll be meeting eventually."

"What's on the agenda for today for you "willing" protégé, Master?" Robin sang along to this lil' diddy, getting on the man's good arm if he' have such an honor to do so later.

To keep Slade in the dark, he'd have to fake his real initiations; by putting on a false face that he'd chose to fool almost everyone.

"Your ridged thinking will have you killed, Richard. Don't push your position so far ahead." The man frowned and looked right into Dick's strained and emotionally turbulent, blue orbs.

"One thing I've seen, you've used your eyes to tell a story in order to mask your real intentions. Such as with, Aqualad."

Dick jutted by the name of his fellow Titan of the deep.

"Y- yeah, I…It was mostly the Nano -bots."

"And yet, you could have touched him otherwise. But, a kiss? Did you think it mattered how, when I very well could have been lying?"

Richard turned red from the taunt. "I was not, you were going to –

"I suppose that was a bit drastic of me, but you got results all the same. So, why isn't this going to be any different?"

~ Aren't you ALSO a whore to your industry of hired – hit people? ~ Robin wanted to scream at Slade to quit his prying, but he just didn't have the strength.

"I didn't push to make myself look, pushier. I'm not that way." Richard rebuked, obstinately with his eyes back on the man's mask – less and nearly passive stare.

"Then, change your face." The male wasn't suggesting he do just that, he was giving a basic order to the teen.

" The hero that was "Robin" is too vulnerable to save you. To protect anyone, let alone any nearby city."

"Don't I…need a new outfit – but not that Slade costume!" Richard responded and rebuked the idea of putting on his Halloween suit. Heck! He'd rather go in his birthday suit or Christmas colored pj's from the good old days of wearing "bloomers" to fight bad guys! (We pulled out the boy wonder gag! That's the ticket!)

"Then, you've convinced me – for the remainder of this time, while you train under your master, I'll be expecting one thing from you by this week. I hope you don't mind trying to get extra credit, because this will be loaded with the opportunity to gain some of that as well."

"Try me –

"Watch what you say, your word could be taken for granted…" The man scared him as his gaze almost was akin to a subtle, leer.

"Oh, I…I mean….I'll do it. But… what is it you want me to do, anyway?" Richard looked to the ground and blushed. He hated that look. It expected too much…

Slade sauntered over to his protégé and with his hand outstretched, palm up and facing the boy, he gripped his teen's shoulder and rested his larger palm onto the child's eyes. With a voice soft as stardust in the distance, Slade's voice brought the hero to think as he coaxed out the teen's deepest side to himself. The side he kept hidden, locked away.

"What do you see? What can you envision of YOU that should be behind the mask? What is, and who are you; Dick Grayson?"

/

That's it for this chapter -next will be a real page turner so stay curious! Find out in 18 what becomes of our heroic fall – out!