Pieces of the Puzzle

Alexnandru Van Gordon

I know many people are gone for spring break, but I decided to continue this anyway. They can read when they get back…Besides, I don't get spring break for another two weeks…sheesh. Oh well, I get out of school sooner than the South Eastern Canadians do, and I don't know when you Americans get out of school. I heard you get out in July and go back to school a month earlier than we do. O.o? I don't even know why I'm talking about that. Must be because Victor is gone to the doctors…Poor guy has the stomach flu, and I think I'm getting it again too…Just great…

DISCLAIMER: Don't own them.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Giving in to Satan

It was odd waking up the exact same way she did the first time she was caught by Slade…still groggy and so weak. It had to be his serum again. For a moment there, she forgot everything and though she was back in the time before Robin sliced Slade up to kill him. Wouldn't that have been something if it was all a dream? Or a nightmare…Sometimes she didn't know what to call it.

Her first mistake was moving. Her second mistake was continue to move in a feeble attempt to wriggle out from her bounds She saw Slade and that other man standing not too far away from her, and they saw her. The older man, Wintergreen, gave her a long hard stare before strolling out the room to leave her with Slade. And Slade…she could only imagine the smirk on his face when he slowly moved his hand toward his desk and took up another syringe.

From this day forth she was never going near another needle.

"I see you don't like to play the cowardess. I suppose someone of your strength and honour would stand up to someone like me even if it did mean death."

Honestly, she was afraid of him but what he said was also true. She would rather face him off than let Robin do it. Speaking of which, how was she supposed to help Robin out if she was tied and gagged and about to fall victim to that pale pink liquid in the syringe? Getting caught at his home wasn't exactly a smooth move on her part. That only seemed to make matters worse.

Correction—it didn't seem to make matters worse. It just did.

"Red-X." He called, turning to stare into the darkness. She could see the Dark Knight and Red-X when the boy stepped forward. What were they doing there? Why weren't they attacking Slade?

Why was Red-X taking the syringe from Slade?

Eyes wide, pieces of the puzzle finally fell into place and she knew exactly what was happening. But as much as she didn't want to take part in it, there wasn't anything left for her to do.

Despite her struggles, Red-X knelt before her and stabbed the needle end of the syringe into her arm before she could pull away. The pink liquid emptied from the syringe and left her was a small bead of blood where the point punctured her skin. And when Red-X stepped back, she could already feel the chemical take action in her body. She was just so drowsy…even after having slept for so long…

"I let you in on a little secret, little girl." Slade said as he dismissed Red-X with a wave of his hand. "You're going to help me convince Robin to just give in."

The notion alarmed her but there was nothing for her to do. If the serum did to her what it did to the Dark Knight and Red-X…she would possibly kill a person if Slade told her to…

A single tear rolled down the side of her face as Slade began to laugh, and she drifted off into sleep just as he turned toward a door on the other side of the room leading to another room. Where was he going?

Here's a blind guess—

Robin.

-R-

Waking up was a tricky business. Luckily (or unluckily—whichever way you put it), he had experience in this field. If you stayed still, didn't open your eyes right away, and made no sudden movements what so ever you just might wake up without the whole pain session. It was a hard task when you were kidnapped by the world's most insane and powerful man alive…err…dead, and when you were sure you were going to have a little chatting session with him the moment you woke, but somehow you willed yourself to face the music. Heh—life was like music. If you're off by one beat, the whole thing gets screwed up and you get nothing but an awful sound unless, by some miracle, the rest of the band finds a way to recover. Well, when you were short on time, you didn't have even a second to correct the mistake.

He was in for it now.

The worst part of waking up this time was due to the fact that Slade was the one waking him. His head was tilted forward and he didn't actually see the guy at first (with the help of the dark), but he felt the hand on the back on his head and heard the cool, calculating voice of his arch nemesis as he slowly remembered why his head was throbbing with each heart beat.

"Wake up now, Robin. I know you're weak, but I also know you can keep your eyes open long enough to see what I have to show you…"

He almost felt like telling the man off, but he wasn't in the position to be pushing someone around. He was walking on a very thin line between having his brains scattered out from his skull and living to see the painful tomorrow. It wasn't as if Slade was going to kill him, but if Slade did something to him, the villain could make sure Robin would live through all the pains of life. As if the denial of heaven wasn't enough—being killed a million and one different ways must be like hell on earth.

And Slade could co that.

Slade took his hand from Robin's head and somehow Boy Wonder mustered the strength to sit up and lean back his head to look up at Slade. He felt as though his neck would snap in half if he moved too quickly, the absolute opposite way he felt when HW gave him the serum to heal him. This was the aftermath of the serum, a physical weakness for trying to speed up the healing process of your body. That was probably why Slade was coming to him now.

Slade liked to see him weak…He must have loved it after the whole chopping-up-your-enemy event.

"Still the bright colours, I see." Slade said, referring to Robin's costume. "Red, green, and yellow. Interesting…Determination, serenity, and happiness. Hero colours…"

Robin didn't say anything, both because he had nothing to say and because of how sore his mouth and throat were. He couldn't speak if he wanted to. Too bad,…he'd just love to scream at Slade right about now.

"Are you still determined to win?" Slade asked, now trying to do a number on his spirit. "And you sure don't look happy or serene. I'd say black suits your personality more."

'And orange.' Robin thought, knowing what Slade was referring to. If Slade thought, he was gong to make Robin go through that hell again, boy was he in for a rude awakening…

"I think there's something you might want to see…" Slade continued and stepped toward the door of the room. He opened it more slightly and stepped aside to allow someone else in. "Come here." He told the person. "Show him what you think."

Who was he talking to?

Robin's eyes narrowed and he watched with a frown as he waited for the person to come. After a while, he thought Slade had really lost his mind until…until she entered.

Starfire?

Eyes wide, he couldn't say a thing. He wanted to tell her to run and quit fooling around, but then memories of the past day returned to his mind and he remembered what had happened at Wayne Manor…

In her hand, Starfire held a knife. Pressing the blade to her own throat, Robin watched in horror as a small red line of blood appeared over her flesh. If she didn't stop soon she was going to kill herself—but why! She looked absolutely normal. Her eyes, her face…all that was missing was her smile.

But why would she be smiling.

"Yet another one of my creations." Slade said with interest as he watched her slowly slit her throat. "You may stop now, girl."

Starfire did and her hand fell limply to her side, the bloody knife still held tightly in her little fist. She didn't look hurt or defiant, and that could only mean one thing.

Yet another one of Slade's serums.

Slade saw him piecing two and two together and gave a small laugh. "She's not the only one, Robin. I have three now and soon, I will have millions. I just you could call this a test trail, but I don't think she'll live long enough to see the end of it if I make her continue."

As if on Q, Starfire raised the blade to her throat once more and slowly began to press. Once she had it deep enough, all she would have to do was slit it across and…

"Stop…" Robin somehow managed to say, his throat small and hoarse. "Don't hurt…her…"

"But I'm not." Slade said, the pleasure of seeing Robin so weak evident in his voice. "She is. But if you insist…"

Slade looked to Starfire and she stopped once more, more blood dripping down her hand and wrist as she lowered the blade. She was really going to kill herself…Slade was really going to make her kill herself…

Robin couldn't stand it. If Slade could make Starfire kill herself, imagine who else he could kill with that little serum of his. He had the perfect 'world domination' plan…and the perfect blackmail…

Slade inspected Robin for a while before speaking again, this time cutting to the chase. "I'm going to make this simple for you—for them to live, you must serve me. Become my apprentice and, as long as you are loyal, no harm will come to your friends."

Well, that just cut him in half. Quite frankly, Robin would have rather gone to hell, but that didn't look like it was going to happen anytime soon.

"Well, Robin…?"

Robin gave a second glance to Starfire and it almost appeared as though her hand twitched for a moment. Slade wasn't going to stop her if she started a second time, and there sure as heck wasn't anything Robin could do. There was really only one way Robin could go.

"I'll…" Robin hesitated. "I'll…do it."

No one moved until Slade spoke again, and his voice sent shivers down Robin's back.

"That's my boy."

-G-

It didn't take him long to reach the warehouses…well, factories outside the city by jumping from rooftop to rooftop. It all felt like routine and somehow he ever wondered why villains always picked the same type of hideout. Didn't they understand that the heroes you could do this sort of math—a dark, creepy criminal plus a dark, creepy building equals "evil villain hideout." He would literally laugh if Slade was so careless as to hide in one of these warehouses. But you had to check just to make sure…

He had the scare of his life when he noticed the camera and flipped backward up into a nearby tree (by pure accident) just as it turned to look his way. There were three others and they all turned at the same time to monitor the spot he stood last. He was lucky he didn't get caught on film or his whole surprise attack wouldn't work at all. Slade might have been old, but he knew everything there was to know about his enemies.

Quietly, he pulled out his communicator and turned it on, holding it close to his lips so he could whisper. "Ummm…Grayson here. I think I found Slade…"

"Dude, really?"

"No, Cyborg. I'm just fooling around—of course I found his place. It just so happens to actually be one of the power plants outside of Gotham."

"Which one?" Kori asked, sounding worried and excited at the exact same time.

"Ummm…The largest one."

"Sheesh, man—that's reeeaaallly specific."

Grayson rolled his eyes. "Just get down here—if you don't notice the one with the cameras, shame on you. Not hurry up. I'm going in…"

"Humph!" Cyborg muttered. "I'm coming. Jus don't get caught before we get down there. Watch what they're doing and call us if anything comes up."

When both Kori and Cyborg were offline, Grayson watched the cameras carefully. Then, just as they paused, he stood on his branch and ran to the end toward the building. Bouncing on the edge of the branch as he ran off the tip, he flipped twice in the air as he sped upward and caught the ledge of the roof with both hands, placing his two feet firmly on stone brick wall of the building. Then, pausing to see if anyone had spotted him, he pushed off the wall with his feet and, still holding the ledge with his hands, flipped backward and waited until he was upside-down until he released his grip. He landed quietly in a catlike stance on the roof before standing and taking one last look at Gotham.

God, it was so good to see it again.

Turning away from the view, he made his way to the roof exit and kicked down the door. Knowing Slade, he probably would have the first and second floors monitored instead of all five levels of these building.

The villain was so sure of himself.

Sighing, Grayson took light steps down the steps and came to a second door. For some strange reason, this reminded him of the time when he first went back in time to stop Robin.

Grabbing the doorknob, he twisted it and pushed the door opened into the dark room. The room was dark, but the moonlight streamed down from the stairway and lit the room enough for him to see the other figure.

It was Batman.

"Where have you been?" Grayson asked, quite confused to find the Dark Knight already there. "Why don't you answer when we try to beep you on your communicator."

Silently, Batman reached for something under his cape and tossed it the floor. It slid along the floor and stopped by Grayson's feet, and he picked it up. It was the man's communicator and there didn't look to be anything wrong with it save for the 'S' carved over the paint on the back. How odd…

"What's this supposed to mean…?" He asked cautiously. He really didn't like how Batman was acting. "Why don't you say anything?"

The Dark Knight said nothing and simply started toward Grayson, narrow white eyes pinned on the younger hero…

-A-

Sorry it took so long to update this one. I decided to take a break on it and ended up working a lot on "Not Again" and a new one "Slade's Tale." I'm also sorry if this one was short. It's only because the next chapter wouldn't be as exciting if I were to keep going at it. Well, I hope you guys liked what I have going so far, so keep reading if you like it.

Hmmm…without Victor here, I'm kind of lost for words. I guess this means goodbye until next time.

So long for now,

Alexnandru Van Gordon