Chapter Fourteen-Teardrops of Trust

No real summary (RANDOM!)...this isn't the best chapter but...

Air flowed in to her lungs, then out once more. She awoke with a start in the night. The room filled with horror. "Robin..." her voice whispered. The young Tamaranian girl opened the door to the med.-lab. room in which I had been staying. "Robin? Are you there? Robin please answer me...Robin?" Her Robin did not answer. Her Robin was not there. Nothing was in the sheets...all was lost. Nothing was left of him-of me-except the locator that had been returned. She gasped in horror of what might have happened.

"Raven? RAVEN?!" she yelled in a whispering attempt for no one else to here her. The dimension's door opened to show a dark figure. "What?" she said with a daze, half asleep. "It is Robin. He is...gone..."she said. Raven stared. "He was not in the room of his bed! All that was there was this. His locator. Shall I attempt to contact him through the communicator?" she asked. "Whatever...it was probably a nightmare, Star. Call him, then go to sleep. If he doesn't answer-" "I shall contact you," Starfire finished. "...No...tell Cyborg..." The door slammed.

I awoke to the sound of my name. Several different voices saying it. "Robin? Robin, please respond......Robin, please...you must answer...Robin.................." one called, "Robin...Robin! ROBIN! Get up and fight me," another called, "Robin? Robin...it is okay, there is nothing to worry about...open your eyes! Everything is okay now, honey...Robin? Robin?" the other called. I opened my eyes. Darkness flooded my eyes. Normally, it wouldn't have been that much, but something was different.

I felt my flocculent, tender face only to discover...my mask...it was...gone... No one could ever see my face! No one...the voices continued. "ROBIN!" one shouted, "Robin! Answer! Please..." another called, "Everything is okay, Robin...Robin...Robin..." said the other. I was confused. Nothing seemed right. Then, they drifted away. A shadowed silhouette appeared into my vision. I groaned. I ached.

"S...Slade? Why...why am I here? What do you want?! ...I want to be normal...I want to be no one...nothing! Why do you want to torture me?! Why...why......why...?" I asked, calming down. My voice was raspy and rough. "You will be my apprentice, Robin...you will work with my daughter. You will both obey, or they will die, Robin...they WILL die..." he commanded. "Your...daughter? Who-?" I asked, naïve at what was about to ponder me. "I believe you have met before...you used to know her simply as...Terra," he said, moving for him to see a young girl.

Terra. Our Terra. The Terra that I trusted, that I gave a home to! The Terra...the Terra that had died seven months ago for me-for Robin! A worthless no body that deserved no tears or friends! How? "Terra?" I asked getting up to face her, "but you're...you're dead, Terra...Raven told me you died in the factory gears, Slade killed you! They told me? How...why...?" It was unbelievable. She had been alive, and yet dead. She turned. She wouldn't answer. I sauntered cautiously to her side, hesitantly putting my hand on her shoulder. She knocked it off, walking away. A teardrop fell to the bloodstained concrete.

"Hmm, touching...too bad it won't last...soon you will be under my apprenticeship," Slade chortled under his breath. He pointed down a long hallway, the same one from before. I knew that he meant that the room I would be living in would be the same one as before, but I didn't go. I stood, hands trembling, anger boiling inside. I exploded.

I knew one thing about the way Slade fought. There was one kick he could not dodge. I kicked him in that way, the surprised figure falling to the ground. He rose once more. I kicked once more, a different way this time. Slade eluded my kick, and grabbed my by the front of my neck. He pulled me from my feet, me halfway choking. "Listen here, boy. I am no longer playing your disobedient games. I am no longer giving you slack. One wrong move, Robin, and they are dead, Robin. I mean it this time. Go." It was plain and simple. His cold mysterious eye lingered on me, then he threw me to the concrete. I left before I got into anymore trouble.

Where was Terra? I searched. I found her in a room two doors down from mine. Inside the room beside ours was a blood drenched body. They had slit their wrist in order to escape Slade. I couldn't blame them. Their face was so badly wounded, I could not identify them to be anyone I knew. "Terra?" I asked, blindly opening the door. "Yeah?" she replied, not turning to me. "Why did you not tell me that Slade was your father?" I asked hesitantly. "I was afraid to. You hated Slade. You went nuts. Yeah, I knew. I had known ever since our chat in the mine before I came back to be a Titan. I had even known before you guys knew me." What was she saying? "But how...?" I couldn't find the words. They had left me.

"The whole reason the others were probed the first time-the first time you met Slade face-to-face-was my fault. It was because of me. That is why I didn't tell. If you knew, I would have to be on the run again. I liked you guys, and I wanted you to like me. If you knew, you wouldn't have trusted me. You would've said I was with Slade, that I was evil, that I was bad, that I did not deserve trust...and I don't..." I heard her let out a small sob. "Terra, no...I wouldn't have-" I couldn't say it. It would've been a lie anyway. I would've. I left in silence.

I walked into the dark room that had once been mine. It was mine once more. I got my com-link and opened the drawer, tossing it in. I saw it. My journal. The one I had kept for six years. That had everything that had happened-every detail. My past six and a half years have been nothing but Hell. And that is all my life ever will be. Why was I put on this earth? I had to be dead once more. The others had to believe I was in Heaven or Hell, dead like Terra.

author's note: HAHA! I told you I would fix it. This, in my opinion had an ironic twist, but trust me, I have WAAAAY more up my sleeve. As Slade said, "It is only the beginning." Soon chapter fifteen will be out, and I have a feeling it will be rather sad. Peace till then!

Niobe