Ghosts of the Past

Alexnandru Van Gordon

Red-X: Dragging him back to work is harder than it sounds. He seems to have lost his insomnia…

Victor: Yeah. I had to crank up the volume on his CD player and slip in Rammstein before turning it on. You should have seen him jump though. Fell right out of bed and hit the nightstand.

Alex: Yeah… (Sad) it broke in the process…

Victor: Sorry—but more work and less play helps us all to live the day.

Alex: It's night, idiot.

Victor: Whatever.

Alex: This can wait.

Red-X: No it can't! I'm falling out of existence and I bet barely anyone remembers the plot to this story anyway. You've lost it.

Alex: Jeez, twist the blade why don't you; it's already hilt deep in my back. What's the harm in a little pain?

Red-X: Precisely. I can go back to being a villain again if that's the way it's going to be…

Alex: …On with chapter eleven, then…

CHAPTER ELEVEN: Anger

"This the place?"

All eyes turned on Raven as she stepped to the front of the group. It was the park…which, they had to admit, was the last place they expected to see anyone like Slade hanging out. It was full of people during the day and the only thing to hide behind was a bush or tree. But this was where her mind was leading her. She could almost hear Robin think but his thoughts were so jumbled, so indecisive. It scared him. She tried her best to never evade on someone else's privacy if she could control it, but those few times she had accidentally slipped into his mind she had found his thoughts to be fast and precise, all organized and deep. He was a leader…everything about him was a leader…

These new thoughts…some of them weren't even in his own voice. What she could detect from him directly was a weary, crestfallen feeling, like he had just simply given up. It sounded as though he was fighting a demon, a thousand other voices shouting out together when he tried to think. But there were two words she could pick out clearly in the mess…

Friends…

And enemies…

What exactly he was thinking about was beyond her reach, but she supposed it had something to do with the constant trouble of destroying Slade and keeping his companions safe at the exact same time. Fate was such a twisted thing. He really couldn't both.

"Yes…this is the place." She confirmed, stepping forward and flinging that of her cape which fell in front of her over her shoulders. Pulling back her hood, she took a deep breath of the cold night air. "He's here…and, if I'm correct, he's alone."

Cyborg stepped up next to her and stared at her quietly for a moment. "You mean…he's escaped?"

"I'm not sure. All I know is that he's near. I think he's waiting for us…"

"Safe…?" Starfire whispered. She stood back beside Beast Boy, rubbing the chill from her shoulders with her hands.

Raven sighed. "Let's just find him."

And together they started down the narrow path ahead.

-R-

He had never been more lost in his entire life. Before he had been knocked unconscious, all that he had cared about was returning to his friends. Now…now he wanted to almost killed them. All those moments of doubts, times of disbelief and true hatred toward them…friends didn't do that. They trusted you through thick and thin and didn't give a care about sudden changes. If someone was happy and safe one second and then a harsh criminal the next—literally—most people would assume something other than the person's sanity was amiss. Not them—not the Titans. They were too stupid to notice that everything he had done—everything he had tried to do—was for them.

Why couldn't they just understand?

He had been down this road before. It was the same worries and wonders he thought about endlessly after his first…siding with Slade. He knew he could trust his team before that, but now that he couldn't he knew they wouldn't trust him the same again either. They should have known he wouldn't have taken to a life of crime in just one night. It went against what he fought for, what he believed was right, and they still threw it in his face.

Traitorous bastards…

He could hear them heading in his direction. He stood alone in the cold park within a small clearing surrounded by trees. They had wandered off the path (no doubt at Raven's advice) and were almost close enough for him to see them, but he made no attempt to hide. They wanted an untrustworthy criminal? Then let them have one.

It was hard to keep the rage inside.

Holding the blade close beneath his sleeve, he waited patiently for them to arrive.

Beast Boy was the first to see him and, judging by the dumb-founded look on his face, the kid wasn't going to say hi right away. It took Cyborg, who ran into his back and knocked him flat on his stomach, to get him to say something.

"Can't a guy pause in shock around here!"

"Whoa…" Cyborg lent a hand to help BB up, but his eyes remained on Robin as Raven and Starfire came into view. "You're safe!"

Robin faked a convincing grin and scratched the back of his head. Still stuck in the asylum shirt and pants, he stared down at a few tears cut in his brawl with Slade and gave a small laugh. "I'm a little worse for wear, but nothing's too broken to fix."

Starfire embraced him before he could say anything else. Crushing him with her inhuman strength, just about suffocating him, she began to cry. "I thought you were lost for good, Friend Robin. It stings my eyes to see you well."

"It hurts to see you too, Star."

BB saw it first. Raven and Cyborg were just giving each other looks of relief when he slipped the blade free of his sleeve, but the small changeling had his eye on it. He had no idea what Robin was doing until it was too late.

"Hey—STARFIRE!"

As he said before—too late.

Head resting on Robin's shoulder, Starfire loosened her embrace and leaned back to stare him in the face. He watched her face blanch in pain when the blade dug into her left kidney, crying out in agony as she released him entirely and slouched in his arms. Then he twisted the knife like the one they turned in his back every day before pulling it out swiftly. This earned a second cry from Starfire before she fell to her knees.

"Robin?" Cyborg asked, stunned.

Robin let Starfire fall to her side on the ground, curling up against the pain, and stepped over her body with the blade still in hand. The small smile had long fled his face and now only mirrored the once pent-up anger. He wasn't going to let them go…not one of them. He was going to kill them all…

-RX-

Escaping took a while, but what is a thief that can't get out of any situation when the only person he (or she) had to worry about was themselves? Finding Vincent could wait because as long as he was locked up in that cell he would be fine—and even more so if Kyle really did rethink his actions and was there to help him. He'd be on his way shortly to lend a hand, but first he had to find that belt. After all, that's why he was there in the first place. Slade needed the belt…for whatever reason.

Stumbling down the dark hallway until he could balance properly, he popped his head into any ill-lit room he knew no one was occupying in search for a lab or something, anywhere really that Slade would put the belt. So far, nothing, and soon he had nowhere else to check but…

…the main room.

He was hesitant to enter for two reasons. One, Slade, and two, that guy he called Wintergreen. Mark his words—never underestimate an old dude, especially if he's pals with an insane, mastermind, meta-human villain whose mercenary name was Deathstroke the Terminator. It was plan suicide if you did and even the church would certainly recognize it as so.

Oh-and don't mess with the insane, mastermind, meta-human villain either. You'll only be in for worse.

The door was a-jar when he tiptoed down the hallway and finally found it. Peeking inside he could see the two ex-military men watching a screen. It was a battle—between the Teen Titans and…well, a Teen Titan. Robin had either hit his head one too many times or Slade was at work again with his little serums because—wow! X had never seen the kid stab at someone with a hunting knife before. It also made him wonder where he got the thing but that was probably compliments of Slade.

He shook his head. He had to focus. Leave the superhero saving stuff to the heroes. Leave the stealing to the thieves…

His pushed the door opened slightly further and scanned the room quietly over each of the tables Slade had laid out. Most of it was broken down mechanical parts of his little chemistry set of doom, but…

X almost had a heart attack when he saw the belt. It was—to put it lightly—crushed to a million pieces. That must've meant Slade searched it to his heart's content, found nothing, and took out all his fury on a high-tech piece of technology. When Robin found out what happened to his belt he'd freak (not that he hadn't already, judging by his attitude on the screens) because invisibility, instant transportation, really funky sticky and sharp red X weapons—that belt was quite the toy. The kid must have been some sort of super genius…Or maybe he really was. He had a knack for catching criminals and not all of them were petty thieves…

"Isn't this just sunshine and lollipops…" He muttered, stepping back from the door. "Now what…"

Now what? Now he had to play the hero. Robin was looking pretty peeved on those screens—and where was he anywhere? It looked like the JC Park…It shouldn't be too hard to find him…

-St-

She had never seen Robin in such a manner before. Sure, he had had his bad days when the thought of Slade outsmarting them again had driven him far enough to beta the stuffing out of the punching bags, but this wasn't her old friend anymore. He stabbed her—and right after he pretended he was happy to see her too.

It had to be Slade.

Pushing herself up off the ground to sit, she tried to drag herself out of the clearing as the battle between her friends raged on. Even without his protective gear and utility belt, Robin was beating them, hands down. Flips, kicks, punches and stabs—everything about him was mapped out in his head along with a zillion back up plans before any of his old friends could make a move. Raven constantly tried to hold him down with her powers but he dodged away and jumped behind a tree or another person, Cyborg wanted to knock him out but Robin was giving as good as he got, and as BB tried to charge as a battering ram all Robin had to do was stab at him with the knife to scare him away.

The Titans were losing.

"Robin…please…" Starfire moaned. She was seeing double now and black dots were dancing across her vision. The pain in her back was numbing now and she felt rather…cold…

"Hey there, cutie. Don't say goodnight just yet."

The voice surprised her, and at first she thought it was her imagination, but when she turned her head off to the side and stared straight at the young man crouched down beside her, her heart leapt in joy.

"You're not dead!"

Red X shrugged. "Yeah, and I know that even if I was you'd never stop loving Mr. Psychopathic maniac over there." He nodded his masked head toward Robin. "Too bad Slade never picks out a new toy. I'm sure Robin needs a break—and what do we have here…" He stared at the blood pooling beneath her. "Took a fall, did you—or is it that nasty little knife old one-eye lent him?"

"Robin…" She wanted to say 'betrayed her', but deep down inside she knew it wasn't true. It was just as X had said—it was all Slade's doing. "…is confused."

"I'd be too if I had a maniac screwing around with my morals every day of the week. But everything's reversible. Just keep him away from Slade—literally—for a while and he'll be as good as new."

"Really?" That sounded rather far-fetched.

"Trust me—it's something in the food, air or whatever Slade's giving him at his hide-out—which, by the way, I can show you to the moment you regroup at that annoying T-tower of yours."

"It is…annoying?"

He shook his head. "Never mind. Let's just snatch up the goods and go."

"Goods?"

She could hear the sigh behind his mask and had to laugh. She was more annoying than the tower at times. "You need to brush up on your English, cutie. I mean—let's knock Boy Wonder out and drag him back to the safety of your tower before Slade sends someone to take him back."

"We are…experiencing difficulty with the knocking of the out…"

His head turned back toward the group of battling teens who still couldn't see him in the dark. "Not to mention Slade has a camera somewhere around here. I hope you have good security. Either that or you'll have to be ready to call up the JL again."

"Robin would be most displeased."

"Alright then…perhaps they'll be the safety catch if you're almost all destroyed. Is that fair?"

Destruction didn't sound too fair…but leaving the JL out of their business for as long as they most possibly could sounded good enough for her liking. As long as nobody died…

-A-

Have to get going, guys. Have fun.

Until Again,

Alexnandru Van Gordon