Anonymous
Plans
Disclaimer: Not yet and probably not ever.
A/N: Questions, Comments, or Criticisms? Please Review!
Summary: In a world controlled by Slade since before his birth, a now servile Robin struggles to deal with right and wrong and good and bad, before the evil that controls the world swallows him up as well.
My name is Robin
Aname is an important thing, not because it defines you or labels you, but because it can give you power over someone to the highest degree. Parents have that power at your birth. They name you; do you ever wonder what would have happened if your name wasn't actually your name. Would your life be different; can you even imagine having a different name? Could something so small be so important?
My name is Robin, only Robin. I have no last name, not even really a first name, because well…what sort of name is Robin? It's the name of a bird…a nothing, who cares about a bird?
My real name wasn't Robin, I can remember being called something else, what it was, I don't recall. If I ever find out though, it'd be one less thing Slade would have of me. And taking that back from a megalomaniac who controls everything and everyone…well…now that's something.
April 26, 1998It's easy to kill.
Soon after I met Cyborg, Raven and Beastboy, Slade led me into his office to have a… talk. I'm not sure what the talk was about, but at the end of it, I had a gun in one hand and a piece of paper with an address in another.
I was nine.
It's easy to kill, terrifyingly easy to pull the trigger and see the blood spill. It's as if you're seeing it all from a distance and that you're really, really not there. There's only one moment in which you realize what you're doing. You think, oh my God, what am I doing, I'm about to kill someone! Then the moment passes and trigger was been killed.
BAM!
The body will drop and that's it. It's actually quite anticlimactic. The blood covers the ground and you're just…numb…just there. It seems fake, surreal, like any moment the dead body will jump up and go on with life like usual.
He doesn't of course.
I didn't throw up the second time I did it; instead I pictured Slade's face, taunting and laughing at me. I blew the guy away effortlessly, hating Slade with every recoil from the gun. I think that that's when I began hating Slade, hating what he'd done to me. I probably should've hated myself more; I let him do that to him, I let him manipulate me…just like I let Batman manipulate me. There really is no difference between the two. Both want things and neither care who they step on along the way.
And they both say I'm like them…
Am I a bad person? Yes…am I sorry? No.
Sighing off,
Robin
Robin pulled himself off the ground a couple hours later. He walked forward, around the crest of a hill and saw the crumpled form of Beastboy lying in a heap in front of him. Robin sighed and leaning down, he pulled Beastboy up and slung him over his shoulder. Then sagging under Beastboy's weight and limping slightly, Robin continued on his way.
Robin grunted as he climbed up another hill. He was heading for the safe house; if Raven and Cyborg weren't there then he'd go back and search of them, but at the moment, Beastboy needed medical attention. Robin wasn't sure how badly he was hurt, but the pasty green look and the trickle of blood from his head didn't hold well.
Looking to the right, he finally saw what he had been looking for, a small, almost unnoticeable S on a stone. Sighing in relief, Robin staggered forward and fumbling in his utility belt, he took out a similarly shaped metal S and pressed it against the stone. A faint whooshing sound was heard and a wall of rock came up slowly.
Robin threw himself and Beastboy inside before the wall could even come up fully. Ducking his head, he entered the cool metal facility thankfully. Stumbling through the kitchen, training room and planning room, he finally halted at the medical facility. He heaved Beastboy onto a bed and hooking him up to a few wires and inserting an IV into his arm, he attached a wristwatch that would tell him Beastboy's condition to his wrist. Then he left the room sparing the small figure on the bed only a glance.
He ran back outside into the burning sun and looking downwards, he started backtracking from where the fight had begun. He had no idea how far Raven and Cyborg might have gotten, but if they were scared, they could have traveled miles before regaining their senses. Robin was counting on Raven infallible steadfastness to stop Cyborg before he got too far ahead of himself.
Sure enough, after a couple of false starts and some hard trekking, Robin heard voices in the distance.
"We should go back and find the safe house; Robin will be waiting for us there."
"What if they're still fighting? Robin doesn't want us to be caught, Raven."
"Well then, what should we do?"
"You could just stand here arguing," Robin said, walking into the clearing of stone, "but I'd prefer if you follow me back to the hideout so we can take care of Beastboy."
"Dude." Cyborg bounced forward and slapped Robin on the back, "You beat him?"
"Of course he did, Cyborg. He wouldn't be here if he didn't." Raven's tone sounded as warm as it got, which was still as frigid as an ice cube.
"Actually, he got away and Slade counted it as our first chance. I…think he's a bit angry at us…" Robin rolled his eyes at the thought of being on the bad side of the manic.
"Well then…" Raven thought for a minute, "We'll just have to do better tomorrow on our next try."
Robin smiled at her, "Raven, can you teleport us all to the safe house; I'll save a lot of time and effort."
"Sure." Raven closed her eyes and let blackness bleed around her.
A minute later, Robin felt a peculiar feeling of darkness…evilness enveloping him and tugging at his soul. He let out a short gasp and then when he opened his eyes, he was back at the hideaway and Cyborg was looking down at him concernedly.
"Man, Robin, are you okay?"
"Yeah…yeah, I'm fine." Robin blinked and shook his head, "Where's Raven?"
"She went ahead to check on Beastboy; you blacked out on us for a couple of minutes." Cyborg said worriedly.
"Sorry," he said apologetically, "I'm just tired from the fight."
"Well you better go rest; you don't want to be weak for the fight that's coming up." Cyborg laughed, "Come on, I'll get you to a room."
"But what about-"
"Don't worry about Beastboy. Raven and I will watch over him for you. Just get some rest." Cyborg propelled Robin towards a generic empty room and pushing him inside, closed the door.
Robin watched as the door slid shut and looked around the bare room. There was a four-poster bed with a wooden desk to the right with an old-fashioned lamp. Rubbing his head resignedly, Robin flopped ungainly on the soft bed and buried his head in the scented pillow. He breathed deeply and then picked up the pillow and threw it to the side angrily.
Damn him, it smelled of Slade.
Somehow, someway, he always seemed to be around. Someway…somehow. It sickened Robin that not only did Slade try indoctrinating children, but he succeeded too. Robin turned and blew his hair out of eyes sadly. Life just wasn't fair…
Robin closed his eyes and threw his arms out to the sides. Life would never be fair; if it was, then there wouldn't be a Slade.
Three hours later, Robin blinked his eyes open and rolled off the bed, rubbing his eyes. Yawning, he shuffled over to the room and opened the door quietly. He crept down the carpeted hallway and reaching the medical room, he threw open the door, surprising a reclining Cyborg, Raven and Beastboy.
"Beastboy, you feel better?" He asked roughly.
"Umm…yeah, Robin, I feel much better, though I could do for some tofu." Beastboy grinned, rubbing the back of his head, sheepishly.
"Good, all of you follow me." Robin said brusquely.
Cyborg, Beastboy and Raven shrugged to themselves and timidly followed Robin to the planning room and took pre-assigned seat around a metal table. Robin walked over to the corner and pulled out a portable whitewash board and took up a marker. On top of the board he wrote the word: Objective and then looked at the three expectantly.
"Our objective…" Beastboy bit his lip, "is to kill Batman."
"Good." Said Robin, writing that on the board, "When you have a hard opponent, it's often easier to write and plan things out so you can actually see them. It's easier to tie things on when you can visually see them."
"Cool," Beastboy bounced up and down in his seat, "did Master Slade teach you this?"
"No," Robin's smile felt grated, even to him, "actually he taught me to do this in my head; it's supposed to be the sign of a genius if you can plan and plot in your head while envisaging every type of mishap and change. So far, I know only two people who can do it properly: Slade and Batman. I'm…not quite up to par yet."
Beastboy looked at him, then, "Don't count yourself short Man; you're pretty amazing. You did get yourself out of Batman's trap without killing all of us."
"Yeah…" Robin let the words hang, "Now, let's list his strengths."
"Smart." Raven called from her corner.
"Experience; he's a lot older." Cyborg said seriously.
"Scary."
Robin wrote half the word down, before staring at what he wrote and erasing it. Beastboy cringed, expecting a reprimand, but Robin just wrote: Is Intimidating.
"Anything else?" he asked, tapping his marker against the board.
"Umm…"
Robin smiled and wrote, "He's strong, and he has nothing to lose, that makes him very dangerous…now what about weaknesses?"
All three stared at him, finally Cyborg piped up with, "He's not willing to kill."
"He hates Slade; maybe that'll make him angry and he'll make a mistake?" Beastboy said hesitantly.
Robin smiled at him and said, "Good point."
"He seems unstable…after all what kind of person would willingly do all this." Raven said musingly.
"I don't know," Robin muttered, "I think he's in full possession of his mental capabilities. He sounds and acts sane…in his own way."
"I don't know Robin," Raven monotoned, "A lot of the old-timers are radicals who've went insane. He definitely shows the characteristics of the someone who belongs in an institute."
Robin sighed, "Raven, there's a reason that most of the radicals are older; they remember a time before Slade and only they know if it was better or worse."
Cyborg's mouth opened in outrage, but Robin cut him off, "I'm not saying it was; I'll never know, maybe it was horrible, all I'm saying is that we shouldn't blindly accept everything Slade tells us. The winner always writes history; you'll never once hear the losers side except from those you'll never be inclined to believe."
A heavy silence settled over the room and before one of them could accuse Robin of treason, a line, which he was definitely crossing, he turned back towards the board and wrote two more things.
"He doesn't know the territory as well as we do and he underestimates us."
Robin took a step back and stared at the board calculatingly.
"Got anything Robin?" Beastboy asked.
Robin scratched his chin thoughtfully and drew a couple of lines, connecting a couple of things together, while his friends watched confusedly.
"Alright…" Robin sat down and leaning forward clandestinely and rested his chin on his hands, "Here's what we're going to do…"
To Be Continued…