Chapter Twelve-Dimensions

In the med-lab, Robin is out of it, and not doing to well. He is drifting to the darkness of Death and may not be able to be save. They thought Slade was over. Terra had taken him down. He was not coming back. But Slade has other thoughts.

I was in an unknown place. Between dark and light, love and hate, life and death. Voices. Familiar ones. All around me. Weeping. Crying. The things I did not deserve. A voice spoke up. I heard this one louder than the others. "Robin. Wake up. If you can hear me, open your eyes," it commanded. I had been taught obedience, but that was gone. "Can't...light...fading..." I was surrounded by three dimensions. Light, Dark, and Time. Time, unknown, Light, life, and Dark, death. "Hang on, Robin! Stay as close to the light as you can! Robin! Robin?" it yelled hopelessly. Hopeless...that is what I was.

As soon as I awoke, I would go with Slade, only to keep these unknown voices safe. The light was fading in to darknight, midnight, no life. Restlessness was aching through me, the voices fading away, still. Solemn stillness. Dark-black. So dark. No light-Death was consuming me! 'Fight it! Fight Death! But why? I have betrayed my only friends. The only people that care about me. How can I live for that title. I must go! I have to go! Take me, Death, take me! Take me straight to the burning pits of Hell! Let them live for happiness. I am sorry, but how can I tell them. I must die...I must...'

'Don't think like that, Robin. We still love you. We still need you. We always have and always will! Don't let death convince you otherwise-you belong here! With us. Don't go Robin...don't go...' The voice arose rapidly this time, unlike before. The voices...coming back...light surrounding me...darkness gone...all well... 'Open your eyes, Robin. Please...you cannot go! We need you...more than anytime now, Robin! Damn it! Open your eyes! ...Please...please...' the voice was saying, breaking down into small sobs in which was in attempt to be hidden.

Light flooded my sandy-brown eyes. Unfocused smudges appeared in my eyes. Two of them. One tall and dark, the other taller than the other, with bright hair and eyes. Who are these people? They were speaking, but what they were saying dubious to my ears. I tried speaking. Nothing but a groan. "It's okay, Robin. You are safe. You'll be just fine," the darker ones voice was saying, both my hearing and vision coming into focus. "Slade...probes...have to-get out..." I said, in a failing attempt to rise from the crisp, frosted sheets. The darker one was calling someone as the other one comforted me. "Robin...Robin...Robin! It is okay! We are okay! We are victorious!" she said. "How?" I managed to croak back. "Terra found the probes that Slade had put inside our bodies. We got liberated from them, and we are victorious!" she replied, people piling into the room. None of them familiar, yet they were so.

I felt myself staring at them, face to face. "Robin? You 'member us?" the partial robot one asked me. No. I don't. I wanted to say that. It was true. "'Course I do. Uh..." I said, "Cyborg." I had remembered like a nail hitting a hammer. Four of them. When I left one year ago there was six. The dark one...Raven...the gentle one, Starfire...the half human one, Cyborg...the green one...Beast Boy-who was missing. Terra. The newest one. "Where is Terra?" I asked, seeing sorrow appear on their faces. "I'll tell him," Raven said, signaling the others to leave.

"How long, Raven? How long have I been sleeping?" I asked, seeing the door shut. "Months. Six to be exact. Now about Terra...when you...were...with Slade six months ago...we decided to see if Slade was trying to pull off his apprentice move again. He was. Terra was good with computers, and hacked into his only to discover that we were probed. Not all of us though. Not Terra. Why, we didn't worry with. She came moments after Slade pushed the button to activate the probes. Terra fought him, and threw the remote into the gears.

"We saved you afterwards, finding you in a run down room. Slade got away before we could catch him. We...tried to save her, Robin. But there was nothing we could do. Nothing..." there was a pause, giving time for a tear to slip away from her eye. "What happened?" I asked, curiosity in my tone. She paused. "She...was fighting Slade, and...she...fell into the factory gears. She didn't have a chance, Robin. We tried to get her out, but it was no use! The gears pulled her in. When we did get her out of the gears, she was still alive. We were going to take her to the emergency room, but before we could............Slade got her......he stabbed her with his pole. He killed her, Robin...Slade killed her." Sorrow was killing her heart fast. It was also killing me.

Nothing. There was not a thing that we could do to save her. Terra. Was gone. Is gone. And it's all my fault. "What was Terra's last name?" I asked, thinking hard. One thing I remember Slade telling me was that his last name...was Wilson (niobe: see the DC Comics). "Her full name was Terra Somiah Wilson. Why do you as-" "Wilson! Slade! He told me that his last name was Wilson!" I said over top of her question. "Robin, Wilson is a common name. I do not think-" once more I began talking over her. "Why else would he not probe her?"

"Maybe it missed. Besides. He killed her anyway. Why would he kill her?" Raven carried a good point. "Simple. He didn't want to see his daughter suffer." Mine was better. "Maybe. But I'm not going to be convinced until you have some proof," Raven said, hatred in her eyes. "I will get proof. You'll see," I said, striving to uproot myself from the sheets. I ached all over, my whole body. "Get it later, Robin. Now you need to rest and relax," Raven said pushing me back to my bed. I decided better of ignoring her, and staggered back into the bed.

The past seven years had staggered for me. Seven years ago, I came face to face with Slade. Well, his android replica of himself (niobe: see Masks). Why? Why me, why Terra...why the team...? I risked my own life for theirs, but when I make a mistake, or do something I have to...they yell! They don't understand! They never have understood, and they never will understand...

"Did you ever catch Slade?" I managed to ask, not making eye contact. "No. He had the R-Cycle when we were chasing him. Before we caught up, he rode off Pier Forty-One. We never found him." She got up after that, saying I needed to sleep. I wasn't tired. The door slammed. "It was over, Slade...or at least it is now," I whispered, rolling over for rest. Hopefully I would be able to get some. It has been seven years since sleep has occurred to me.

The face of Robin was soon followed with static. A voice spoke over it. "On the contrary, Robin...it is not over..." it said. (niobe: see the end of Robin's dream in Apprentice Part One for this next way he says this). "It is not over," it repeats, followed by psychotic laughing, the agitating gears drowned out by it.

author's note: RUN! Nother chap soon, and hope you like so far!

Niobe