Chapter 15
Oh, he was ticked. BOY, was he mad. Even the way that he walked portrayed his anger, for each step was so ferocious that as he passed some lonely squirrels on his way, they scattered in fear, along with any bugs, rodents, or any other unfortunate living thing that happened to be in his way. He was mad!
He could tolerate the emotional pain; he had experienced grief and anguish before, it was not a new concept to him. He could tolerate the physical pain; no doubt he had felt even worse in previous years. He could even tolerate solitude; after all, hadn't he locked himself away for most of the time back when he lived in the Tower? But he could not tolerate this at all. He would not stand for any of this insanity, at all. There was no way he would stand by and let his former best friends suffer like that, no way that he would watch a confused little girl standing under Raven's force field, wondering what in the world was going on. This was what he would not tolerate: the suffering of others.
Reaching the familiar black door, he entered the lair with but one thought in mind: to make Slade pay for everything, to make him suffer every atrocity that he had forced upon him. One way or another, he was going to get that villain back, so why not now? He stomped through the hallways, absolutely infuriated at everything that the evil man stood for, for everything that he had been forced to endure for the past year.
He almost didn't notice Wintergreen in the hallway, carrying a dinner tray. In fact, he almost ran into the poor man; had he not seen the look of surprise in the old man's eyes. Wintergreen was obviously upset, upset with both of his charges; Slade for the atrocities he had committed and Robin for the way he was acting. Doubtless the old butler thought pretty badly of him right now, stomping about like this. With an odd sensation of guilt, he dropped his guard for a moment and tried to calm down; his anger was clouding his thoughts, he needed to think straight if he was going to fight. As he did so, he couldn't supress a smile. It was amazing how the old butler could get him to do things without uttering a single word. He really would miss their kinship.
He continued on his way, still ready to fight, but not before he said good-bye to his old friend. Continuing down the hallway, he heard the familiar buzzing of cameras and clicking of buttons that suggested that Slade was watching more clips of the recent fight on his various computer screens. Remembering that surprise was the key, he opened the door as quietly as he could, wasting precious time but also gaining an element in battle. Fortunately, metal doors have a tendency not to squeak, so his goal was accomplished.
He couldn't quite hear what Slade was muttering to himself, most likely something about how he could improve or how he needed to learn not to be distracted by his former friends or something like that, but he really didn't care at that moment, right now he was too focused on getting the control for the probes so that he could leave. This time his footsteps were silent, like a cat, and he sneaked around, completely invisible to Slade's mind's eye. He now had the element of surprise on his side, as well as the fact that he was ready to fight for an eternity if neccessary to win.
With a startling cry, he lunged forward and threw a hard punch at Slade, striking the man across the face and causing him to veer slightly to the side, giving him an odd sense of satisfaction. Jumping backwards, he tried a quick kick, but it was parried by the armored arms. Stepping back, he balled his gloved hands into fists and bared his teeth, not afraid to show that he was fed up.
"I told you that after a few years of training you'd begin to think like me, didn't I? Now look at you, Robin, willing to take revenge, willing to be brutal and angry. Good, you're doing well." As he spoke, he staightened the armor on his uniform and assumed a fighting stance as well, calm and monotone as ever. Suddenly, with a strangled yell, he lunged forward, throwing a strong right punch his way.
Thankfully, he saw the blow coming and was able to leap away at the last second; the same was not true of the floor, it sustained quite a large hole in its metal surface. Doing a graceful backflip, he landed gently back on his feet and deliver a swift kick towards that dreadful mask, but his foot only touched the air until he felt a gloved hand grab him. Rolling in the air, he wrenched his leg out of the villain's grasp and landed back on the ground, turning immediately to face his opponent, not wanting to turn his back for a moment.
"Well, I told you that sooner or later, you'd let your guard down and that I'd take you down, didn't I? Now look at me, I'm fighting you, aren't I? And this time, I intend to win!" As he spoke, he punctuated that last word with a strong kick to the man's chest, sending him backwards a bit. He smiled. It felt good to be fighting back, something he had been wanting to do for a long time.
The two followed each other's moves closely; after a years' worth of training together, they had learned each other's fighting styles by heart, and at this point they were quite evenly matched. Eventually, they were tiring each other out; after at least half an hour both were pretty battered and bruised and both were breathing heavily, and yet neither had gained a significant advantage quite yet. Slade's mask was cracked partially down the middle and a few places in his uniform were torn where the metal armor plates had fallen off. Robin had sustained equal damage; his hair was plastered to his head in sweat and he was missing half of his left sleeve. With both opponents gasping for breath, it was doubtless that sooner or later, one of them was going to collapse.
"This has been going on for too long; I thought it would be over far before this," Robin thought, wondering why Slade hadn't played the "destroy your former friends" card yet. He pushed a lock of hair out of his eyes and gave a strangled cry as he rushed forward, throwing punches left and right and parrying the blows that were sent back in response. They went at it like there was no tomorrow, neither wanting to give the other the slightest advantage. Finally, they both fell back again to catch their breath. "Soon, it's got to be soon. I can't keep doing this; one of us has to give out soon, and I just hope it's not going to be me," he thought as he grabbed a nearby pillar to support himself as he caught his breath.
Suddenly, the pillar burst into several pieces, and he found himself on the ground, staring at an incoming boot. With a grunt, he felt the hard metallic foot strike his face, and he stumbled backward before he could even get up all the way, and he was once again sitting on the ground. Angrily, he rushed forward to deliver a sharp punch, but Slade pulled on of his old tricks, sidestepping his oncoming blow and instead grabbing his arm, wrenching it behind him. He felt his shoulder dislocating slightly and gave an involuntary shudder of pain as he stumbled away, rubbing his shoulder and glaring at his opponent.
"You didn't think that you actually would win, did you?" the menacing man asked, his voice full of contempt. He then played the card that he had been expecting for a while; the "destroy your former friends" card. It really was bothersome when he stopped the fighting like this. "Perhaps your recent missions have brought you too close to the Titans; maybe I should just eliminate the distraction that they are creating once and for all."
His eyes blazed angrily behind his mask, but what could he do? He knew that eventually the fight would end like this, but he had hoped against hope that this card wouldn't have to be played. His mouth worked furiously as he struggled not to scream at Slade, tried to let himself calm down enough to keep that gloved finger from pressing that little hidden button again. Finally, he sighed, saying, "Don't. You win for now, but sooner or later, I'll figure out a way to eliminate the advantage you have over me, and then you won't have a way out." He paused, letting his words sink in before he got in his last sentence. "And then I'll win."
With that, he put his hands down by his sides as a symbol of his defeat, something he seemed to be doing more and more often these days. Still, a trace of a smile stayed on his lips as he gloried in the fact that he could only be defeated by a threat to his friends' lives. In a fair fight, he would have probably won. He waited for Slade to deliver his usual taunt and then dismiss him, but there was a sudden noise above them and they both turned to see what was going. It was the scrape of a door; and two shadows, one with a billowing cloak and one with long hair that waved in the wind.
These two figures stepped into the light. One had glowing white eyes and her hands were completely black and balled into fists. Her blue cloak covered her head, showing only her mouth and nose, not to mention the normal glowing eyes. The rest of the cloak was billowing out behind her, revealing a tiny figure in a black leotard with a golden belt. The girl had a slight smile on her face at the looks of surprise she was earning. The second figure remained suspended in the air, her short purple skirt waving in the wind the other's powers were creating, and her long red hair flowed beautifully behind her as she remained above them, hands on her hips and green eyes lit up, signalling that she was ready to use her powers at any given moment. He immediately recognized them and wanted to cry out in joy: Raven and Starfire!