Robin In Chains

Part Three: Two reactions

The boy had become very withdrawn, he noted. Quiet. Passive. In a way that was good, because it was a sign that he was becoming moulded to Slade's will and did no longer talk back. In fact, he hardly talked at all now. Hardly even ten words in three days. He'd started to just keep his head bowed and out of trouble.

Not that Slade ever let Robin forget what he had done. The reason Robin hadn't orchestrated another escape plan after the first was partly because he'd learned his lesson, and partly because by the time three weeks had passed Slade's grip on him had only strengthened, and the means of blackmail could easily switch from defending his friends to the basic needs. Sleep, food, peace…Robin had to earn all three every day, and if his work wasn't pleasing enough, he would get none, and Slade had the means to make sure of that. Of course, it had been early days, but once the Titans had reached their extendibility he had planned to kill them off right from the start. He just hadn't expected that time to come in only three weeks.

Slade had several windows up on his computer screen; video feeds, some useful currently some not, and largest of all, one measuring his apprentice's vital signs.

He wondered why the boy hesitated so much before he began. Lifting a microphone, he sent him a little reminder, and nodded when he stood and began his mission.

He was pleased by the ease in which Robin managed to acquire the device he was hoping to utilize in his computer system. Then his concern rose, as he could only hear by sound feed and see by the jump of adrenaline that there was yet another ambush.

"Don't even bother waiting, Robin. Get out of there and throw them off your scent."

The boy had almost been captured some weeks before. Slade wondered if Robin even knew that all the police would do was haul him off in chains. The hero he had been was now nothing more than a memory to most, and he was on the list of all the Public Enemies Slade could find. He made sure Robin knew that.

Then something went terribly wrong.

He was startled by Robin's cry of pain, and the sudden jump of his vitals – and then the unstoppable slumps.

"Robin? Robin, what happened? ANSWER ME!"

But he did not. More like, he could not. For Slade knew what the slump of all his vitals meant – someone had used a tranquilliser dart, and must have hit the only place where his skin was exposed, and that very good shot had known exactly where to aim.

He could do nothing about it but watch as the strong sedatives threaded their way swiftly through Robin's bloodstream, his racing heart pumping it to his brain. In the space of a few seconds, his skeletal muscle relaxed completely, sending him toppling backwards as his brainwaves dipped into deep sleep.

There were no two ways about it. His apprentice had been captured.

Cursing and blinding angrily, he pulled up a window that screened for what it had been – and more importantly, how long it would last. He couldn't help but feel enraged at the boy, even though Robin couldn't possibly have done anything about it – hell, nobody could have. Also, for the first time in months, there was that incorrigible sense of powerlessness.

The screen came up with a quick reply: Sodium Pentothal. He felt a quick twinge of fear before he dismissed it; the typical effect this drug was supposed to have was only perpetrated by the media. It did not mess with one's self-control, although it did make the drugged victim, after they'd woken up, much more talkative than normal. Plus it only lasted for ten minutes.

That is, until the vitals screen showed something else being injected. Something much stronger, and that would last for much longer. Therefore Slade could not rely on Robin waking and getting away. This was one hell of a sneaky tactic, and he was fuming.

Knowing that he had only the locator to go by now, he pulled up that blueprint-esque screen; but a large part of the desktop exploded in a scatter of sparks. Kicking the now dead computer angrily,Slade knew that someone had used a magnet on the small device to cause a shortage wheneverhe checked on it, as it hadjust now.

Still swearing under his breath, the masked enemy of the city sat down at a table and switched on a small desk lamp. Whoever had captured Robin obviously knew too much, if they had been able to do what they did, so he had to work out where he stood now. Perhaps they didn't know of one of the last resorts Slade had up his sleeve when it came to the boy, but it was also equally possible that they would take precautions over it anyway. Whoever had done this would pay dearly, and so would Robin, if he even dared to think that this might benefit him too.

No. He had heard the saying, "Good things come to those who wait". That was what he would do, to stow his hand only to bring it out later for a grand defeat.

&&&

The three had retired to a room to wait. Judging by the relatively long elevator ride upwards, a lot of the hidden, recently built police complex was underground. And therefore, safer. Their room was like an employee's lounge, and littered with wrappers and paper; ever since the two boys, on the run from Slade, had met the young blonde girl and began formulating their plan, they had fallen in with the police and had abandoned what was left of their hideout. And with good timing too: the drone-like robots of that crazy man had collapsed the whole building not four days later. Hopefully, Slade thought the boys were dead, just like the other members of Robin's team. That gave them the element of surprise, even if it wouldn't be much.

So now this room was their home, messy as it was. There was a curtained window on one side, an old television with channel-changing buttons, three sofas and a sink and a fridge built into a cupboard next to the door. The sofas all had blankets piled on them, as they doubled up as their beds. The television didn't work well, but even if they could wrestle the aerial into the back they doubted it would pick anything up anyway.

Speedy was testing this, without much success. He found the lack of a remote control irritating. He could just about get a VCR to plug into it and work, and not much more. Aqualad, oblivious to Speedy's muttered cursing as the static changed direction, stood at the window, watching the sky go a darker blue and the clouds turn pink. He was pondering what was to happen to Robin next, and even if he would accept it.

"Bloody thing!" Speedy swore finally, giving up.

He was met by silence, and only a slight humming and crumbling noise broke it.

The Atlantean turned from the window, drawing the curtains. "How is he?"

At first he was taken aback, but realizing what he meant, Speedy turned the TV back on, pressing the lowermost channel button. One thing that did work was a piggybacked feed from the CCTV in the locked room several stories below them.

"Sleeping like a baby."

That was from Terra. The smiling geokinetic sat on the sofa she had claimed for her own, practicing her talent on a trio of small polished pebbles. Evidence of mistakes and broken pebbles lay around her feet as sand and rubble, but the two boys watched her delicate control as the three pebbles danced in circles in midair, guided by the gentle aura that wreathed her hands. The noise before had come from her.

"You're doing much better now, Terra," remarked Aqualad.

"Thanks, but it's thanks to you two that I can do this now, y'know."

She had come blundering into the city and fallen foul of a random Slade-bot attack. She had escaped with the two boys who had come to her rescue, with a sprained wrist, a hole in the road and one very damp, pincushioned robot crushed under a huge lump of granite and asphalt. The boys had quickly realized her powers were unstable, manifesting randomly and only working properly on large hunks of rock. After she had gotten over her fear of the only two friends she had in this dark world shunning her because of her 'uselessness', they had begun training her control by starting off with the pebbles. Now that had paid off, and Terra's control was definitely improved.

At the same time they told her the sad tale. Aqualad himself had grieved the loss of the Titans the most, distraught over the deaths and fearing for Robin's sanity. After being taken in by the police – they were still minors, after all – they had a hard time convincing those important to their plan that it would work, but the detective had been the one who agreed first. So far it seemed like Robin was willing to co-operate, but the three were really only waiting for Slade's backlash. They knew it would come, and come hard. They only hoped they would be able to glean something from Robin's information first so they would be prepared.

As they shared in Terra's practicing and their individual thoughts on theirs and other's situations, the feeling of foreboding could not be shrugged off.

"I just hope that when this is all over, we can resume some semblance of normality…" mused Terra.

"If we can ever get closure on all this," murmured Speedy.

"And if we can get Robin's help in stopping Slade in his tracks," said Aqualad. "I still haven't the foggiest how we're going to do that, or even if he'll agree."

"Oh, I'm sure he will!"

"Why wouldn't he?"

"I don't know. It'll be unlike him to refuse, but you never know…we don't know the entire story of what he did to him."

The other two deflated a little.

"But I saw the salvation in his face. If we – us three, not just the detective – talk to him some more…he might agree…and we have to do all we can to make sure he won't get in trouble."

"Why would he?" asked Terra.

"In the eyes of the justice system, Robin has actually broken the law…but I'm sure as hell not letting him be punished for it," Aqualad said, his eyes narrowing defensively.

"He already has been."

Muh. Poor Robin.

Cheers to eeeeveryone who reviewed! I'm still going on the non-TT version of this, and kinda shoveled in things form other ideas of mine. But I'm doing this just before I go out tonight, so enjoy and plz review moremoremore!

Thanks Dlsky for two heee-uge reviews...and no, there's no betrayal from any geokinetic coming up. Bleh, that'd totally screw the whole story I'm building here! Hopefully the second part of this chapter gave you all a little insight as to her past eight months.