Hi guys...sorry this update took so long. Back to school, back to homework.
jambey: Thanks. Your probably right on that one, and lucky it was.
Tifereth Kantrishakrim: LOL yeah I tried to tone it down a bit. Thanks...I tried. That's how I feel when reading your stories, so I'm glad mine did the same for you. Keep it up, I really want to see what's coming next!
Raven of the Night 676: LOL yeah. Good, cuz that was the idea.
Strixvaria: LOL two Umbridges? I'm sorry...how horrible. I'll swing by and check it out...dang this stupid homework!
CloudsHalo: LOL sorry...you should know soon. Yeah, just trying to get from one place to the next. Hopefully you consider this action.
Mystyre: Nah, he wasn't dying really...his blood sugar and such was just dangerously low from lack of sustenance. More on her in this chap. LOL ok, I will.
CelticHeiressFiona: You'll see. LOL you'll see it all in just a minute.
gianluca de duonnie: Hm..that really seems to sum up this chapter. Interesting.
The Wings of a Raven: All right, if you say so. I did...lol I've been fighting it for quite some time, but now I've finally given in. Tricky...wish I could do that.
DarkGoddessAngel101: All right, I'll take your word for that. I don't read the comics, so if I make any errors as to that I apollogize. I'm just going off what people tell me.
Aeris-Raven: LOL yeah I thought one non-cliffhanger wouldn't kill me. That always sucks. Raven should be in it a lot more from now on.
Strixvaria: Thanks.
Furubafun24: Yeah a BB way. You'll see about that. Cool! No prob, rambling is what I do. Thanks:)
pureangel: 2.3? So one will be premature? LOL! We'll see...
im in a kill people mood: You're welcome.
AnnFaithDarknessGoddess: Yes. You should know soon, still trying to work out a few kinks when it comes to that. Yeah I know they've been neglected, just had to get the semi-climax out of the way. There should be more Raven from now on. Thanks:)
Child of Blood: LOL sounds good, can I help? I could hold his hands or something...Uh, yeah about that...
im in a kill people mood: A BB way...lol Wayne wasn't enough for you? Still thirsty for blood?
Water81: Yeah for a while there it was kinda like "what was the point of bringing her in?" but trust me she has much more to do in this story. Any grammar issues are just typos, the result of being in a big fat hurry. Thanks.
Ok, on with the story!
Batman...?
But no, he was gone. He couldn't be here...could he?
He frowned as he felt the warmth of his breath crowd around his face, almost suffocating him, like keeping your head under the blankets for too long. He tried to reach up to see what was blocking his mouth, but his hand wouldn't obey him. Instead, it dived toward his waist, whipping out something that glinted in the dim light, and pointing it at Batman.
He squinted, trying to see Bruce better...but in vain. It was as though he was seeing the world through one eye...
In one blinding flash, he knew. Slade, the gun...had to do something, had to stop it... With all his strength, he struggled to drop the weapon, but it remained firmly in his hand, a finger tightening around the trigger...
"No! Not again, wake up! Please let me wake up!"
Unbidden, unwanted, he felt his lips curve into a sneer behind the mask, felt a hideous pleasure tingling through him even as his mind screamed in panic. There was nothing he could do to stop it. His fault...
A gasp of pain ripped through the still air, ripped through his mind as Bruce Wayne fell. Pain-filled eyes stared up at him, burning holes in his soul. "Why? I...I'm your...father."
The sneer grew wider, though every muscle in his body was rebelling against it, the sadistic pleasure coursing through him bringing a rushing noise to his ears. He...he was enjoying this.
"I already have a father." His lips formed the words without his permission, but it was not his voice, it was not him, he was not Slade! No! Never!
"NOOO!"
The mask...it was still there...
"SHIT! NO!" Pain shot through him as he lifted heavy hands, tearing franticly at his face, desperate to get that horrible, cold, one-eyed mask away from his skin...
"Leave that on."
Cold hands forced his arms to his sides, forced him to hold still though he struggled against them. Slowly but surely, the pain and exhaustion took its toll, and he resisted less and less as his vision began to clear. Slade. It was all a dream.
"No", whispered a little voice in the bakc of his mind. "Not all of it. Bruce..." He didn't want to remember that! He wouldn't!
Slade sighed, releasing him and turning his back. "So foolish, Robin. The sooner you learn that nothing and no one is worth your time, the better."
A small, faint voice in the back of his mind was telling him to get up, to fight, to care, but it soon faded into the background of howls and screams. His body felt so heavy, a dark cloud was hovering in his mind, and somehow he preferred it that way. It was a shield, a wall between him and the monsters. He watched Slade moving about the room, watched him selecting various vials of liquid, watched him advance, syringe in hand, and still he didn't move. He didn't care, didn't care anymore. Slade could taunt him, hurt him, kill him, but it didn't matter. He was already dead anyway.
Slade busied himself with the vials, glancing up every now and then to check Robin's vital signs. That little "energy booster" he'd administered seemed to be helping a little; heart rate was closer to normal though blood sugar was still dangerously low. He doubted Robin would eat of his own free will, so he would just have to get his nourishment in liquid form.
Reaching for a mild sedative, he turned to face Robin, then froze, rethinking the matter. The boy was limp, his eyes staring blankly at him like an animal that has been shot in the heart and is merely waiting to die. He doubted that Robin would give him any trouble. Surely, a sedative was unnecessary at this point. "Now, Robin", he muttered, turning his back once again as he searched for antiseptic and bandages, "it seems you are finally ready to listen to reason. I knew you would eventually 'wise up', so to speak. I'm quite proud of you, actually." He glanced up just in time to see the boy wince as though in pain. Imagine that. The first reaction he had gotten from him since he woke up cursing.
Robin made no move to stop him as he took hold of a limp hand, examining it carefully. He smirked, unsurprised at what met his eye. Dried and congealed blood clung to torn and ragged knuckles, two of the fingers bruised and swollen. His right hand was, if anything, worse. With a sigh and a shake of his head, he got a firm grip on Robin's hand, and began cleaning away the blood. He felt Robin tense, and glanced up to see eyes squeezed shut, jaw clenched. Experimentally, he dragged the rag roughly across the raw flesh, and was rewarded by a grunt of pain from Boy Wonder. Smiling slightly, he turned his attention back to the wounds.
Five of Robin's fingers were broken, bent at odd angles. With a glance upward, Slade took hold of his hand and bent the fingers back into place. A scream of pain choked its way out of Robin's firmly closed mouth as the grating of bone on bone drifted to Slade's ears. He did the same with the other hand and recieved much the same response from Robin. He smiled a little, then bound up the hands tightly to allow the bones to mend correctly.
The rest of Robin's injuries were minor, a cut here, a bruise there. Slade cleaned and bandaged the more serious of them, then turned his attention to Robin's leg. This was where it became complicated.
Robin was obviously experiencing pain in his newly-mended limb, so much in fact that he could hardly use it. That was hardly a desirable trait in a possible apprentice. The bone, amazingly enough, appeared to have healed correctly. The problem was most likely caused by nerve or muscle damage, and unfortunately, not much could be done for that.
Slade turned to see Robin's eyes, still fixed unwaveringly on him. With slight interest, he observed that nearly all traces of green and blue had fled from those hazel eyes, blotted out by a deep, dark gray, full of pain and indifference. Those eyes bore an uncanny resemblance to his own. "All the same", he thought, while readying the syringe, "I think I'll give him back his mask." Slade refused to admit it, even to himself, but those eyes sent a tiny shiver up his spine.
What was wrong? Why was he blocking her?
Raven tried yet again to reach him, feeling for his mind, searching for some sign that he was there. "Robin, what's wrong? Where are you?" Nothing but swirling black and silence. "Robin, answer me! Robin?"
She slowly opened her eyes, glaring at the wall across from her bed. She tried to ignore the fear raging through her, tried to be logical. Panic never solved anything. He was here, she knew he was here, he had to be here! "Robin! Listen to me, you can still win. Slade does not control you, you have to keep fighting! Don't give in, you can still do it! Don't let Slade win!" Raven tensed, sending as much energy to Robin as she possibly could, reaching out to him and pulling him to her, saving him.
For a split second, he was there. A howl of pain tore through her mind, hammering against her skull until she too was screaming, aching, bleeding. A whirl of voices, flashing images, a blur of memories not her own racing before her eyes. She struggled to fight it, struggled to control it...
"No! NO! NO NO NO!"
As suddenly as it had come, it vanished. There was a pushing sensation, almost like a light shove in the chest, and Robin faded out.
"Any luck Star?"
Starfire sighed, staring up at the sky with eyes deadened by fatigue and hopelessness. At another word from Beast Boy, she reached for her communicator and flipped it open. The green changeling bore much the same expression as she did. "I am afraid that, thus far, my search has been unsuccessful."
BB nodded sadly. "Same here."
Before either of them could speak another word, the screen divided in two and an image of Mina appeared, looking just as hopeless as they did. Starfire had given her a spare communicator so that they could keep in touch while searching the city for the missing Wonder.
"Anything?", she asked, an almost unrecognizable undertone of hopelessness weakening her voice.
Starfire and Beast Boy shook their heads, and all turned their eyes away from the screen, unwilling to gaze at the mirror image of their defeat. All three of them, even Starfire, were beginning to lose faith. A nagging doubt, harder and harder to push away by the minute, was creeping into their minds. Was there even a Robin to find anymore?
"I...I shall check downtown once more. Perhaps I...overlooked something", said Star, a feigned courage masking her fear as she surreptitiously wiped a tear from dull green eyes. "Please friends, let us continue the search."
There was a silent plea in those words, a desperate attempt to renew the hope so very lost. Her "team" nodded firmly, a stubborn set to their mouths. Robin had never given up on them, no matter how hopeless is seemed. It was the least they could do in return.
The room was dark, a naked lightbulb casting enough light for him to see the shadowy figure before him, but not enough to chase the darkness from hidden corners. It was cold, empty, suffocated. It cried out for something long-lost and never returning.
"You have led many lives, apprentice. Worn many masks. Carried many burdens. Are you ready to be free of that?"
Something, a haunting whisper, a dying spark in the back of his mind was screaming defiance, but its voice could not be heard about the gray. "Yes."
"Are you ready to cast off the foolish pain of this world?"
He knew the answer to that question, knew it without doubt...but then why was something telling him he was wrong? "Yes."
"Are you willing to cut ties with those vicious betrayers who dared to call you their friend?"
Something reminiscent of anger, of hurt, of betrayal, awoke inside him at those words. A flood of painful memories threatened to engulf him, but he pushed them back desperately, digging his mind back into that blank nothing. The were never his friends. "Yes."
A quiet chuckle drifted from the towering, shadowy figure as he circled him, the glint of weak light on cold metal adding to the shiver of fear inside him. "You say that, but you don't entirely believe it. Your...affection for the others is nearly dead, but Raven...Raven is another story."
Horror wrapped its cold fingers around his throat at the sound of her name. He knew that he could not survive another loss. He could not survive without Raven.
"You love her." The figure haulted in front of him, hands clasped behind his back, eye glinting down on him. "An error, Robin. A flaw. But that need not be addressed at the present time. The girl is safe, and will remain safe as long as you cooperate." He resumed his pacing, the silence echoing off the walls as his metal boots sent sound waves reverberating, rebounding. If any doubt had survived the cold indifference in Robin's mind, it was extinguished now. He had no choice.
"Do you swear to serve me, always, no matter what the circumstances, now and forever?" Slade's eye burned down on him, shining like sunrise on the blade.
His chest was tight, his hands clenched despite the pain. A slow breath shuddered through him as Robin tied the noose. "Yes."
Slade stood silently before him, the entity that had struck fear in his heart now the commanding force that controled every aspect of his life. "Welcome to the other side."
The dull echo of his footsteps, the click of a door, but not a lock, the deafening silence of solitude. Slade was gone, but his taint remained. A small part of his escence clung to the walls, hid in the shadows, curled itself around the little boy standing alone beneath the dying lightbulb. Slade was inside him, Slade was a part of him. There was no escape.
Well there you go. Review! -Dusty