Allow Me to Live Like You

Alexnandru Van Gordon

Hey, people. Sorry I cut my last chapter short. My mom's been having trouble sleeping lately from working unearthly hours at the hospital and my laptop hums really loudly every fifteen minutes or so for some strange reason. She's asked me not to write up until the crack of dawn. I've been going to bed earlier (well, staring at the ceiling, really) and that's why this seems to be taking me longer than usual to write this story. No fears thought. I go to my dad's place on the weekend and my room's basically sound proof. Yay! I'll get so much done on Friday—I promise.

Last chapter—thank you for not beating me to death. That was much appreciated. Also, I'm sorry to you Robin lovers for leaving him the way I did. I thought—what the heck? It's an angst after all. Let's give Boy Wonder a few bruises.

Robin: (opening closet door and looking inside) I know—you warned me about that the last time we talked…and why are you sitting in the closet?

Alex: It dulls the sound and I can't sleep, so…I'm just going to write until I think I can fall asleep. You need me or something?

Robin: Actually, yes…May I?

Alex: (Moves feet for more room) Take a seat. Just close the door behind you.

Robin: (Does so and hugs knees to chest) It's about Starfire…

Alex: Girl trouble?

Robin: (Worried) No…it's about what's going to happen…

Alex: I see…

WARNING: Brutal character death. R rating for that soul reason.

DISCLAIMER: I love the new episodes to bits, but I will never own them. Life is just too cruel!

(P.S. For those of you who asked—yes I do take martial arts. Taekwondo actually, and that's why I find Robin's style of "super-heroing" so interesting. No powers, but he's got all the rest. It makes s me wonder…)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: So I do

Too many Slade-bots—what could you say? No fears! With the adrenaline pumping in her blood and the urge to save her friends, Raven wasn't likely one to tire easily. The building was a maze, but her brief mind reading of Robin back when they believed Slade was dead allowed for her to sense something of his presence from short distances. Wherever he was now, he was close. She could almost taste him.

"Where to now?" Cyborg asked, blasting down another robot in the dark. They had found something of a tunnel, a short cut from the parking lot to the inner most rooms. Whatever this building had been, it could have once stood as a mall, and this tunnel could have been the private walkway for shop owners. Who cared anyway? As long as it led them to Robin and the others it was alright with her.

Gazing at the pipes, she sighed. "He's close…wait…"

They were both quite…It sounded like a yelp and then a rather large thud. The strange thing was, it sounded like Robin.

She turned to Cyborg.

"I hear it…" He whispered and she noted the fury in his voice. They were both pretty T-ed off at Slade momentarily—or forever. Take your pick. "Sounds like our leader alright. Always in a fight."

"Hurry. We don't have much time." And she took off down the tunnel at an incredible speed in mid-air, Cyborg barely able to keep up with her.

-B-

He'd have to fix his laser one of these days—it was so (Curse/swear/what have you) slow! Robin could have been dead by now for all they knew if it hadn't been for the echoing walls and poorly made air ducts. He could hear it all and now his blood was boiling. Deathstroke was going to die before tomorrow's end.

"Got it!" He exclaimed, surprised he actually let his emotions be known. Since when had he sounded that happy?

He took a step back before planting the base of his foot on the door above the lock—and it gave way. The door swung open viciously and Red-X was out with Beast Boy over his shoulder before he could blink. That guy was pretty fast for a kid. Faster than a heck of a lot of the other villains he chased.

"Hurry up!" The young hero…err…thief shouted as he dashed down the hall, Batman hot on his heels. This was going to end tonight.

-R-

The next hit really did a number on his body. He fell back for the hundredth time, only to be picked up and thrown again by his archenemy. His body was numb and he could barely feel the aching pain of his broken ribs, though he was sure something else was broken by now. Slade was showing mercy this time like his hallucinogenic self did that long while ago. How long ago was it?

He kept thinking about various things, keeping his mind wandering—keeping awake. He couldn't let himself fall unconscious in fear of what Slade might do to him but, moreover, what Slade would think. He had to prove Slade that he wasn't as weak as he thought he was, in more ways than one.

I'm not listening.

"Say it!" Slade hollered, but say what? He hadn't heard. Probably a plea for him to stop, or his admittance into the hell Slade was creating for him. No way.

Robin, although his body prayed he would give up, pushed himself up onto his knees and then unsteadily onto his feet. He faced Slade, vision blurry for a moment before he was hit square in the jaw by Slade's staff. He somehow kept his feet and merely stumbled back.

Slade dropped his staff with a murmur of curses before he came over to Robin and reached a hand to the back of his head. He grabbed his hair near the neck and pulled Robin slightly straighter up on his feet, forced to tilt his face up to look at Slade directly. He grabbed the hand holding his hair but there was no way he could loosen the grip. He was too exhausted.

"You're very entertaining, boy—I'll give you that. But you will submit to me sooner or later."

"Grayson held out for five and a half years." Robin answered weakly, unsure if he had even said anything at all.

Slade gave him a hard shake before pulling Robin up onto his tiptoes. "One—Grayson is just a possibility of your future. You will never escape. And two—he still worked for the Slade of his time, and that's all I really want of you right now. It's entertaining to watch you struggle."

Robin laughed. "Or irritating that I deny you. Which one is the truth."

He hit a sore spot—that much he could tell from the hand Slade lay on the left side of his ribcage and dug his fingers in-between the two broken ribs. Though numb, this pain hard to ignore and he almost regretted not falling unconscious sooner. He cried out in agony briefly and then fell silent, listening as Slade laughed.

"This is just the beginning, apprentice. I will teach you every form of pain and how to inflict it on others. By the end of your life you will have broken every bone, twisted every joint, and strained every muscle of that tiny little body of yours. You would have bled and have bleed—you will see others suffer and love it. I have acquired a nak for stimulating and manipulating emotions, Robin. The feeling may be artificial at first, but it will soon become automatic once the years fly by."

No…he wouldn't…he can't!…

He struggled, but it wasn't even noticeable. Slade was taking him over toward that table, all his little inventions catching Robin's eyes. There were those chemicals…those awful chemicals, like the one he was using on the city at this very moment to turn the people against each other. He wondered how many were injured. He wondered how many were dead…

The explosion rattled his very skeleton and he was dropped to the ground as Slade lost balance. One of the closer walls was hidden in dust until the gray cloud cleared and a large hole was presented in the wall were nothing but brick had been before. And there…there stood Cyborg. Behind him was Raven and he could have never been more shocked in his life to see them. It was beyond him how they had found him in Gotham and a mystery to how they found him in this labyrinth of a place. But they found him, and, more importantly, proved Slade wrong about friendship again.

Hands glowing, raven gave Slade no time to regain his stance before she was upon him with her magic. He dodged her shots while throwing small bombs at her, the two almost dancing as they made there way away from Robin.

Cyborg, the logical (not magical like Raven) doctor of the group ran to Robin's side in an instant. "Dude—you've got to get out of here!"

"Not…yet…" Robin said, coughing from the dust. "Slade—"

"Is immortal, man!" He exclaimed, human eye wider than he had ever seen it before. "I don't know how to explain it, but even if you do kill this guy he's just going to come back alive. There is absolutely no way you can kill him!"

"How do you…" He knew Slade could heal quickly, but come back form the dead! That was new.

"Grayson told me." Cyborg said, a grin playing on his face. So, Robin finally had proof that he wasn't insane—at all. "He also said you'd know how to deal with him."

"He did?"

Now that he thought about it, the idea of Slade being immortal had come to mind more than once when Robin was aggravated by the man. He had taken time to think of every possibility and planned an action for each case. Maybe he would win tonight…

"Nice suit." Cyborg joked. "Where'd you get it?"

Robin grinned in return, but now was the time to act. "Cyborg, do you have anything that's—"

They were interrupted by the shrill scream of Raven. She was sent flying across the room and soared right over their heads before landing painfully near a piece of old machinery. She appeared to be out cold.

"Great." Cyborg muttered before he stood with his arm charged. "Hey…where is he?"

Robin stared at the dark room. It was pretty dark save for the glow of the monitors and large screen. Slade was gone, but where to? Possibly somewhere in the jungle of machinery, but what reason would he have to hide?

There was a bang on the two large doors before they both flew open and three new figures stormed in. Batman, Red-X, Beast Boy…it seemed the whole team was here now except for—

"Starfire!" He exclaimed, eyes wide as he forced himself to stand. "Oh my God! We have to find her!"

"Why?" Red-X asked in his robotic voice, morphed by his mask.

Robin was paralyzed. "Because…I think he already killed her…"

-St-

Well, that wasn't good. But he was right. Starfire hadn't yet made her presence known and the last thing anyone (but HW and Slade) knew was that she was supposed to be dead right now.

Seeing the mortified look on Robin's face, and seeing that everyone else was already present, she punched open the grate to the air duct and flew out, hand smarting from the action. She landed quietly in the shadows, wondering how she was going to explain this all to Robin. Would he think of her as a ghost if she just strolled up to him right now? He was in so much shock and fatigue, she had no idea how he was going to react.

And where was—

A hand grabbed her hair and yanked her head back. She screamed and tried to grab behind her for her attacker but she already knew who it was, and she also knew beating him up wasn't going to work. After the arm demonstration, she wasn't sure what to do anymore.

All eyes turned her way as an arm crossed over her throat and she was forced forward into better view. "You mean this brat, Robin?" Slade asked coolly from behind her. Then the arm squeezed her throat tighter.

She attempted to pry his arm off but her previous chemical sessions with him proved to have dampened her inhuman strength. The bone in his arm almost seemed to crack, but he paid no attention to it.

Now what? She couldn't breath.

"Let her go." Robin warned, sounding weak no matter how hard he tried not to.

"Why should I?" He mocked. "Grab the vial on the table containing the dark blue liquid and drink it Robin, or else I'll break her neck."

"No…" Starfire tried to say, cut off from almost all her air. She could breath—but just barely. Dots were dancing in her vision and she felt light-headed. She never knew she could faint so fast.

No…Slade was right. Robin had suffered so much for so long and no one ever thanked him or repaid him. He wanted to kill Slade and that she would allow—but she was going to be the one to save him. He needed his saving and it was his turn now to watch someone else do the work.

Starfire chomped down on Slade's arm. Though this didn't apparently hurt him, all eyes pinned on her—including Robin's who had turned toward the table to do as he commanded. It was the "Exciting" serum Grayson told her that one time they met. Slade wanted Robin to kill his own friends and that was going to work. The serum was hard to fight against—too hard for her Robin.

She knew what would hurt Slade.

Tucked into her own belt was the knife HW gave her. Quickly, she grabbed it by the handle, lifted it—and stabbed it into Slade's thigh. He released her at once as she pulled it out and spun around, aiming a fist at his head. Mask or no mask, weakened strength or no strength, the blow knocked him out and he fell to the ground unconscious.

-R-

He was shocked. That was…new. Starfire? Did Starfire just stab him and knock him out? That just wasn't in her character…

He didn't know what to say, speechless as Starfire ran up to him and embraced him tightly. Even though he was crushed by her powerful arms, he didn't ask her to stop. He melted in her warm arms and finally allowed for himself to rest. Being beaten by Slade dulled his thoughts. Ignoring his urge for revenge, the man actually helped Robin to focus on something else. Like someone he loved…

"Starfire…you're alright."

She pulled slightly out of the embrace but still held him to keep him standing. She had been crying, eyes red and salty tears streaming down her pale face. "I am—and you mustforgivemefornothelpingyousoonerbutXsaidthatIshouldwaittogiveyoutimeto—"

"Whoa!" He laughed, his voice so tired and weak it almost made the girl start to cry again. "Whatever it is, I forgive you. I'm only glad you're alive."

This was what he needed—more than anything in the world. He needed to talk to her, and, though he had been blind to it from the start, he needed to let someone else do the saving for once. Maybe that was why he hadn't stopped Slade from beating him. He needed to be the citizen in distress.

There was a soft moan from Slade and the two fell silent. Raven and Beast Boy were out cold, and the others were probably too shocked to say anything at all. But they still had one problem.

How do you keep an immortal dead?

Starfire pulled one of her arms in between them, the bloody dagger still held carefully in her small hand. "I regret drawing blood, but I needed to. HW gave this too me. It was the one a man used to try and kill her with and she said you would know what to do with it."

"So I do…" He said, taking it and turning away from the others. His eyes fell on Slade as he slowly, and somehow steadily, walked over to the immortal. There was only one way he could think of at the time and it would just have to do.

Batman choose to spoke now, just as Robin was gaining the guts to do what he was about to do. "You're not suggesting that…"

"I am." He said plainly—without a trace of emotion in his voice. Knife ready, he began…

-HW-

Electric witch or not, she was stupid to believe she could manage Overload in her system. She suffered from burns on her flesh where the electricity entered and in other areas where she shocked herself from trying to move. But, sure enough, someone came to look for her and she was found by the JL.

Wrapped up in bandages and seated on a wheelchair, she presently sat watching Robin in the Batcave. He was seated upon a large crate filled with chemicals and something else…There were three in total in the room and four already delivered to different isolated areas in the world. One was to be delivered to the HQ of the Titans East (whom she was leaving to join in just a couple of weeks), the second to reside with the Teen Titans, and the third to stay with the JL. Red-X left yesterday with one of them and they were getting rid of the rest pretty quickly.

"Starfire told me everything." HW said, alarming the Boy Wonder who was staring at a letter—probably from one of the holders of the crates to inform him it was under tight security.

He grinned. "You two are pretty good friends now, aren't you? And…yeah…What does that make you think?"

She cringed. "Your method was a little…gruesome, don't you think?"

"How so?"

"How so!" She rolled her eyes, somehow laughing. "You cut the guy into pieces, and now your splitting them up as far apart as you can so that he doesn't reassemble and return to get his revenge. I'm sorry—but you harvesting body parts with a knife all one your own…that's pretty creepy, especially when I look at your bright coloured costume and that careless grin. Makes me wonder if I'm next."

His grin never left, and he laughed weakly. "Yeah…but I only did what I had to."

"Be careful, though." She warned. "Someone might get an idea."

Wouldn't that be something? Hunting down the body parts of a dead maniac to put him back together again. It reminded her of some sort of horror movie…and she shivered. What did the others think when Robin came up with the idea. They probably offered to help. Robin was right—that was the only thing she could think of to stop a man from coming back to life. Unless you froze him…but that wouldn't work. Starfire said he was waking up at the moment and that was all that was left for Robin to do.

She ran a hand through her short hair and frowned. She would never forget this day until the day she was good and gone. How long would it take her to grow her hair back…

"Starfire said you knew I needed the knife."

She shrugged, smiling again. "Honestly—I didn't. I just got angry at that guy and took the knife in case he woke up. Then I remembered the last horror movie I watched before I left Canada. The main actress chopped the murderer to bits and buried the body parts in the garden because she was afraid he would come back to life. Ironic, huh?"

He just stared at her, blinking once in surprise before returning his attention to the paper. But he wasn't done talking. "By the way—Speedy has his first mission for you."

"Oh?..." She was curious, but also worried. He was, after all, the guy who cut her hair.

"You know where Red-X is with Slade's left arm?"

Cautiously, she nodded "Antarctica…why?..."

He grinned. "You get to go there and check up on him in one month."

Dammit!

-

So that's what was happening, was it? How arrogant they were to think it was going to end that easy. Oh well, they were wrong and they would regret what they had done when Slade returned—because he was going to return, and get what he wanted.No doubt about it.

And Robin…He'd see his future soon, taught to be the way he should have been from day one by the hand willing to bend and break him to perfection. Let him smile and regain his strength, ignore the pain with those whom he still thinks of as his friends. He just had to wait until his master returned and then things would be back on track. Once Slade was back, he would fall again and the world would suffer…

-A-

Wondering who "?" is. I don't know what your reaction will be when you find out, but I hope it's good because, yes, there will be a book three because I'm so damn addicted to this story. It helps me to ignore the fact that I can't sleep at night. Words…(happy sigh) how perfect…

Sorry if I cut this chapter short too—I had meant to attach it to the last one to make it longer, but somehow it would take too long to submit and I didn't want you guys to wait too long to read from me. I may take a break to work on "Not Again" and…I can't remember the other title, but I will when I work on it. Don't worry—if you tell me not to take a break I won't because I love this story too much.

Gruesome? My little sister actually puked when she read this. I did warn her that it was R rated, but—like always—she ignored me. What else is new. But what did you think about it? Unorthodox? Yeah…I guess. Oh well, it's not like I write Yaois or rape stories—that would be too against my religion and my clean mind O.O. Not that people who do write them are bad. Some of them are really good writers…I should shut up now, shouldn't I?

Okay—so please contact me and tell me what you think. Get ready for Book number three: The Pieces of the Puzzle. You guys, as smart as you are, should know what happens in the next book. You're so smart! If not…then you'll have to read the book anyway like everyone else.

Enjoy—

HW: I'm going to kill you!

Alex: (Surprised) What are you doing here!

HW: (Flinging arms up into the air in fury) Antarctica!

Alex: Come one. You're Canadian—you can handle the cold.

HW: Can I strangle you?

Alex: No.

HW: And what about Robin. Didn't he come here to talk to you about Starfire?

Alex: He was worried I was going to make her kill Slade.

HW: Hey…and what about Slade O.O? If us characters can come out and talk to you, what's stopping him from coming here to get revenge on you?

Alex: O.O…

-Gulp

-Alexnandru Van Gordon