Disclaimer: I had fish named after Teen Titans, once… but my cat ate them. It didn't count for owning them anyway.

Training

It's like you're a drug
It's like you're a demon I can't face down
It's like I'm stuck
It's like I'm running from you all the time
Addicted, Kelly Clarkson

Raven officially declared Robin re-obsessed with Slade when Robin started waking everybody up four the four AM training session. Not as a bad thing, but as a statement of an undeniable fact. After all, the only way to get the newest Titans in shape for whatever stronger villain to come next was through the intensity that Robin had constantly put the original Titans under to beat Slade.

Two hours into the session, Raven, like everyone else, was starting to change her mind about the necessity of tough training sessions.

"For the record," Jinx called over her shoulder to Kid Flash, keeping a barrier of bad luck between her and the androids they were using for training, "if I wanted to have a dictator run my life, I would have stayed with Blood. At least we got to sleep until five."

"Look at it this way, you're on the good side now," Kid Flash called back grinning. "The bad guys are always the ones to go to jail."

Groaning, Jinx broke the floor under a small group of androids. "Yipee."

"Less talking, more fighting," Robin ran past the two, slicing through the chests of even more androids as he went.

"Does anybody know how to stop him?" Bumblebee called from the other side of the room where she was slowly being backed into a corner by an advancement of androids. "Because he seriously needs an off-switch!"

Beast Boy shrugged, luring another group of androids to where Raven and Starfire were waiting to blast them. "We blew up his hair gel once. He had a nervous breakdown and gave up for all of two days."

"Dude, we are so not trying that again. I still have bruises from the first time," Cyborg shouted.

Turning his attention skyward, Cyborg cupped his mouth and called up, "Yo, Star, Rae, what do you say to ending this now and calling an intervention on Robin?"

"I got the androids if Starfire gets Robin," Raven nodded, already allowing her soul self to split from her body.

Starfire nodded and started her descent to the floor of the training room, dodging the various exhausted Titans and the androids that were falling under Raven's direction. Upon reaching her goal, the alien caught Robin around the waist, covering his mouth as she flew up towards the ceiling and the portal Raven had kindly provided to get to the roof. Almost as soon as she had lighted upon the roof, Beast Boy and Cyborg also came through the portal, just in time to restrain Robin from attacking Starfire.

"Robin, you need to calm down," Raven joined them on the roof, closing the portal behind her and sealing them off in a dome so none of the others could overhear. "You're pushing them too hard, too fast. They'll be burned out before Slade ever gets the chance to touch them."

Robin rounded on her, fighting against Cyborg and Beast Boy's hold. "And if I don't push them, then how are they going to learn to beat Slade? Or any other villain for that matter?" he demanded of the half-demon angrily.

"Dude, they're not learning anything," Beast Boy informed Robin before shifting into a gorilla to get a stronger hold on him.

"Yeah, man, the guys that can do anything against those androids just kicked butt, but there are still several that are powerless against them," Cyborg growled, pushing Robin back from the two girls.

"Agreed," Starfire murmured. "The Kid Flash and Mas y Menos could do little to stop the robots and spent much time outrunning them. And Jericho seemed very scared because he cannot possess an android."

"Let's not forget the fact that Kole sent Gnarrk home so she's simply turning into a crystal and hoping that's enough not to get hurt," Raven injected.

"Or Slade's brilliance in making the androids waterproof and immune to your tech. Aqualad and Speedy are useless against them," Cyborg continued.

"And Herald can only send so many through a portal at a time," Raven kept going on with the list, counting on her fingers the number of powers that were useless.

"Then they should learn to use their bodies as weapons. None of us are guaranteed that our powers will work in the face of any villain, and especially in the face of Slade," Robin hissed, finally breaking free form Beast Boy and Cyborg.

"Robin, they need to be taught," Starfire said softly, placing her hand on Robin's shoulder.

Beast Boy nodded, reverting back to human. "Dude, they haven't come from Batman or the Doom Patrol or the Olympics or the monks of Azarath or a weird little super strong planet thingy."

Raven rolled her eyes, hitting Beast Boy in the back of the head. "We all know where we learned to fight, you idiot."

"The fact is, they learned from some of the best too… Green Arrow, Aquaman, the Flash, Brother Blood, Madame Rouge, the Master…" Robin glowered at them.

"And did they train so hard against sims that it hurt to blink? Did they take every self-defense class this city had to offer?" Cyborg glowered right back. "Man, face it, we have trained ourselves harder than any of the first generation of heroes even tried to do."

"Because they don't have Slade," Robin pushed Cyborg. "They had the Brotherhood of Evil and Lex Luthor, and they look like freakin' angels compared so some of the villains we've faced."

"And that gives you the right to put them up against Slade's androids with no forewarning and knowing that it's hard for us to take them out and we've faced them for two years straight?" Raven crossed her arms over her chest.

Robin ground his teeth and fumed silently, looking over at Starfire for support. "Fine, tomorrow we'll do evaluations of what they already know and design programs around that." With that, he stalked across the roof to the stairs leading back to the Tower, the alien close behind him to make sure he was okay.

"I thought he was over Slade," Raven said softly as soon as the two were out of earshot.

"So did I," Cyborg shrugged.

Beast Boy bit his lip and looked down, toeing the metal on the roof of the Tower. "When I was trying to figure out what was wrong with Terra, I ran into Slade," he said softly. "I may have mentioned it to Robin…"

Raven sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, "And so close to the final battle with the Brotherhood, I'm sure he's freaked about what may happened to the new Titans because so many were caught."

"Don't you just love homecomings," Cyborg bit out sarcastically.

Meanwhile, the other Titans had crowded into the living room. As many as could fit were sprawled over the couch in a half asleep state and the others had made themselves comfortable on the kitchen chairs that had been pulled in and the floor.

"Anybody have any ideas what's up with Robin?" Hot Spot broke the half awake stupor, shifting slightly and making himself comfortable against Bumblebee's legs.

Bumblebee shrugged from her position sprawled across Aqualad and Speedy. "Sparky once told me something about this Slade guy who ate them from the inside out three times. And I overheard BB and Robin talking about Slade earlier… Maybe that has something to do with it."

Only half paying attention to the conversation, Speedy played with a lock of Bumblebee's hair and groaned slightly. "Do you have to call him 'Sparky'? I mean, is it really so hard for you to say Cyborg?"

"It's because she loves him," Aqualad pointed out, yawning.

"And I think you three have spent way too much time together, luvs," Argent cut into their conversation, leaning over the back of the couch from her chair.

Grinning slightly, Bumblebee closed her eyes. "We spent two years in the same Tower with only two hyperactive six-year-olds, who incidentally don't know English. It was inevitable."

"So, does anyone think that Robin's going to make us train anymore?" Kid Flash asked from the floor where he was half sleeping. "I mean, it's like – what? six? – that's when training with the Flash always started."

"As long as I'm not forced to sit through classes on the art of warfare while some kid in the back row makes comments about how spandex makes girls' breasts look, I'm happy," Jinx shrugged, leaning back on her elbows. "Training was the fun part of the day at the Hive."

"Yeah, sure, for you, you were like… the star of the school," Bumblebee grumbled, pillowing her head on Aqualad's shoulder. "The rest of us were forced to watch videos of how well you guys did and then learn from it."

Hot Spot made a face. "This whole secret past with the Titans is starting to drive me completely nuts."

Argent laughed, covering her mouth with her hand politely. "It may annoy the others too, if they were awake," she informed him, kicking Kilowatt's chair out from under him to prove a point. The young hero seemed completely oblivious.

"Maybe he has the right idea," Herald nodded towards the heap that was Kilowatt. "Sleep sounds good… at least until Robin decides to freak out again."

Slade carefully illuminated the Brotherhood of Evil's Paris base, looking over to the two mercenaries he'd hired. It wasn't that he particularly needed the mercenaries, but that he had to test them before he carried on with replacing them. Admittedly, the two had been out of his control for years, however, there was nothing wrong with a little test every once in awhile.

"Tell me, what do you see?" Slade motioned towards the main room of the base, examining every inch of the destruction the Titans had caused.

Deathstroke crossed his arms and examined the room. "The fighters had great power. But it was un-harnessed, virtually useless for anything other than complete destruction."

"The Brotherhood underestimated them too," Ravager climbed up onto the shelves, flipping her hair back and examining the rows of frozen villains. "They intended to use this freezing system to destroy the Titans, and had it turned against them. It might have helped if they had made sure to get all of them… but I'm not certain if that was their failing."

"Good, good," Slade nodded, kicking a stray bit of tile into a hole. "And where were the Titans weaknesses."

Frowning, Ravager knelt on one shelf, examining a burn mark. "Looks like Mas y Menos were key to getting the Titans unfrozen. The only ones who can speed up molecules enough to break through this ice-stuff. But they and several others seemed to weigh the team down in the first place. I say, don't split them up and wait for them to get too cocky and slip up – not just for Mas y Menos, but for all the dead weight, if not all the Titans."

Nodding his agreement, Deathstroke examined the frozen Brotherhood of Evil, trying to figure out how long they'd been out compared to the others. "They didn't know who to hit first. Had they gotten the original Brotherhood of Evil, the others would be like a headless chicken. Easy enough for anyone to take down."

Slade smirked beneath his mask, "And your suggestions for taking them out?"

"Your poison idea is a great way to get the Titans to come to you," Ravager said, jumping off the shelf. "But you need a way to make them stay with you."

Deathstroke nodded, idly knocking the frozen Brain over and watching the glass shatter within its icy confines. "Hit them were they're weakest. Their wants, their needs. Hold it over their heads until they are completely yours – mind, body, and soul," he contemplated while walking around the Brotherhood of Evil, breaking off a couple of Madame Rouge's fingers for the fun of it.

"You two are well on your way to surpassing your master," Slade crossed his arms and started to make his way out of the room. "I believe I'm leaving the future of vice in good hands."