A/N: What is Christmas and New Years really about? No, this isn't a Christmas story, per se, but it is around that core's theme… ;) You'll figure it out.

One-shot. And if this isn't to your taste you'll get a more domestic drabble tomorrow :)

A Glimmer

Robin's back hit the ground hard. Very hard. For a moment, a couple of seconds at most, his mind went blank. He knew that feeling. He knew that he had hurt himself, and that it was serious. Then the pain slammed into him, unbearable, tearing pain, but his open mouth didn't scream, merely whimpered.

His flailing hand found the injury, and it was bad. From the broken concrete rubble the ground was covered with, metal bars protruded, and one of those had pierced his left side, collapsing his left lung if his labored breathing was anything to go by. He might still make it if an ambulance could get there quick enough, but none would come. The world was dying around him. Dying with him.

He heard the screams of his friends. There was no defiance or victory in the sounds; they were screams of pain… fear… grief. They were losing. They were losing the only fight they just could not lose.

He saw the red shadow of Trigon looming in the distance. Robin's hands scratched at the ground. He so badly wanted to get up, wanted to fight just a little more. The dust and gravel he could feel through his torn gloves were wet. Wet and red. He was never going to get up again.

Suddenly heavy footsteps were heard and another shadow loomed above him. Smaller, but still fearsome. The Mark of Scath was gone. Slade was human again. And the only one who could help him. A wound like this, even with the bleeding… it would take time.

"Slade…" Robin breathed. "H-help me. E…end it."

"Trigon!" Slade bellowed, getting the demon's attention.

"Look at that. My loyal servant. And who is that? The leader of my dear little daughter's group? What do you want 'servant'? Betray me again?"

"Does it look like I have betrayed you?" Slade said, gesturing to the world around them. "You knew I'd take my body back. I wasn't made for the leash, but you knew that too. You spent enough time in my mind."

"I did, I did." The demon nodded. "So what should I do with you now?"

"I think I could be persuaded to help you control this realm. I know all there is to know about it, after all," the villain said thoughtfully.

"Are you making me an offer?" the demon chuckled. "You are useless to me."

"I'm not. If I had been, I would have been dead by now," the man stated clearly and calmly. "I'll help you gain from this… mess," Slade's voice had the same kind of distaste to it that could be heard in the voices of mothers when speaking about the state of their children's rooms.

"At a price?"

"Of course. I'm not a slave, I do not work for free."

"What do you want? Gold? Precious stones?"

"I doubt any of those things would hold much real value in your kind of world," Slade snorted. "I want the boy. And his friends."

"I remember he held a special interest to you, yes. But the boy is dying. He's useless."

"And you are the father of Raven, who has healing powers. Are you saying you are weaker in that regard than your daughter?"

"You might not want to taunt me, human," the demon growled. "I kept you alive with your body burned to a crisp, I can certainly heal a little wound like that. But why do you want him? What for?"

"As a pet. I think it would be amusing."

"And his friends? My daughter included?"

"As collateral. Making sure he behaves. Besides, they might offer me more amusement still. I bore easily."

"Very well. You'll be my right hand on this planet."

Robin suddenly felt like the air solidified around him, lifting him up, the jagged piece of metal slowly pulling out of him. The pain engulfed him until darkness finally set in.

He didn't know how long it had been. No natural light reached the dungeon where they were being kept. Food and water arrived regularly, magically appearing on a table. Waste was taken away. Behind a curtain there was a pipe with hot water for them to wash. Clean cloth to wrap themselves up in also appeared regularly. Not actual clothes, but big enough pieces of fabric for them to tie around themselves like makeshift togas. Those were the only clothes they had.

Only two of them ever got to leave the dungeon; Robin and Raven. Robin because Slade fetched him almost daily and Raven because her father sometimes took her away. What happened at those times neither of them knew, but each time the young woman returned a bit paler and more withdrawn, pain radiating from her whole being.

The rest of the Titans were mere shadows of themselves. Trigon had healed them but also blocked their powers, making them no more dangerous than human teenagers. The fact that they had failed to protect the earth had also taken a toll on them and plans to escape had by now died down almost completely. The most successful try had left to Starfire being whipped so badly that Trigon had had to heal her somewhat afterwards to make sure she didn't die. She had been in agony a long time after that though. Weeks. Had it been so long? No… longer. Months. Had to be.

"Next month there's a black moon."

They all straightened up and turned towards the sound because it was Raven who had spoken.

"What does that mean?" Beast Boy asked gently. He was ever so gentle with her and the others nowadays. No loudness, no pranks, no… childishness. He still had the green color of his skin, but not a lot else was left of the young hero. Only very seldom did something of his old optimism peek though and now there was a hint of it in his voice.

"Demons are at their weakest at that time. It only happens here on earth. My father might not know."

"Then maybe we could…" the changeling started but the sentence died with a sigh when he couldn't figure out how to take the plan further. "If he comes down here…?" he continued lamely, but that was it. None of the others had anything to add. Robin filed the information away, but wasn't sure how he was going to use it.

"Boy."

Robin sighed when he heard the call, but stood up immediately and headed to the bars which magically parted to let him out to his master. Slade snapped the leather leash onto the solid metal ring surrounding the teen's neck. Robin had woken up with it and didn't know how it got there. He and his team had tried and failed to find any way to take it off.

"Been a good pet?" Slade smirked down at him. The man wasn't wearing his mask anymore, unless he went on missions for the demon lord.

"As always," Robin told him, and got his hair ruffled as a reward.

"Then come. Trigon is having a bit of a party again and asked that I'd be present."

Robin made a sound of disgust and the leash tightened in warning. He quickly fell in step behind the man, wondering what horrors he would be forced to witness this time. Trigon liked torture, blood and death and enjoyed things like gladiator games and hunting trapped prey- animal or human. Slade had a chair close to the throne where he was expected to reside, and Robin had his place by the man's feet.

Other than that, though, Robin hadn't been hurt. Slade seemed to only fetch him to show him off to the 'court', but had never laid a hand on him, barely spoken to him in fact. The young hero was torn between hating the man for making him live to see all this, and loving him for having saved his friends, only to hate him again for what he had done to them all… he was happy enough to be a 'good pet' though, as long as his friends were at least safe. He was forced to watch the goings on –Trigon liked to point out when he wasn't paying attention– and had learned to focus on a piece of wall behind the proceedings to not actually have to see most of the gore.

Today not much was going on, however. Demons were gathered around the dining table eating and drinking, leering at Robin as they passed, making some very rude remarks and gestures. The teen was used to it, however, and ignored them.

Trigon greeted Slade with a nod and the evening proceeded.

Alcohol, or whatever demons drank to get intoxicated, was flowing that evening. Even Trigon had a bit of an unfocused gaze.

"What are we celebrating?" Slade asked dryly. He rarely ate or drank anything at these feasts.

"We will have soon held the earth for six full moons," the demon said, making Robin gasp. Six months?

"And?" Slade, who didn't seem to think it was particularly impressive, asked.

"Then the earth will be truly ours."

Robin looked up sharply at the demon and Slade seemed to tense.

"What does that mean?" the man wanted to know.

"Ah, you're not familiar with this kind of deep magic, I see," Trigon chuckled, clearly enjoying teasing the man. The hero felt his collar tighten, a sign that Slade wasn't happy and unconsciously pulling at his leash.

"Then please educate me," the man growled.

"When I broke through to earth I created a… bubble, so to speak, containing magic and time. It swallowed the earth up and, though what you see of it is really happening, if my influence over it is stopped before the magic and time has stabilized, it will go back to how things were. You and others touched directly by my magic will remember, but the rest of the earth will just go on… and it's soon time. Just a little over a month from now. We have celebrated each month, haven't you noticed?"

"Been too preoccupied by the entertainment I suppose." Slade's voice was dry.

"Of course. And speaking about entertainment… you don't seem to get much out of your pet."

Robin tensed again and made sure to lower his eyes. He didn't like it when attention was on him.

"I get what I want out of him," Slade snapped.

"Is that so? My boys down there," the demons around the table cheered, "complains that they never see the pet do any tricks. Do you know any tricks, Robin? Has your master taught you?"

"I am a private man, Trigon," the man claimed. "and I'd like to keep it that way."

"That displeases me," the demon lord claimed, his voice icy cold. "One might think you might actually care about your pet… and seeing as he's the only one that still poses any danger… I'd like to see you play with him. I want to make sure he's broken."

"No."

"Very well. My boys will, then." As the chairs around the table all moved as one Robin looked up, statled. The demons, twenty of them of varying sizes and colors, some resembling humans but most of them looking like horribly mutated animals, had all stood up and were now removing their loin cloths. The teen gasped as their organs came into view. The demons themselves were large and their manhoods were all much bigger than any human male's. Some were as long and thick as Robin's arm. Some had huge, swollen heads, some sharply pointed. There were bulbs and huge warts on some, while other seemed to have little jagged barbs. There was no doubt what kind of play they had in mind.

"No. They will rip him apart," Slade stated. Robin found that he was pressing himself against the man's legs, fearing what might happen.

"So? I will heal him. I'll heal him while they play. I've always wanted to see if two of their cocks could meet inside a human's body. Hey, maybe one can go straight through?" The demon said. "Their cum is very acidic to human flesh, we discovered. It was all very interesting, I'm sorry you missed that…"

"Not interested. And Robin is mine," Slade's voice was clipped, almost strained. Robin thought he could hear the disgust in it, but it was kept carefully at bay.

"Then show me. Use him."

"Fine. Boy!" Robin's leash was yanked as the man parted his legs and he was pulled in between them. "Use your mouth like a good little slut," the man told him.

Robin stared up at the man wildly as Slade unzipped himself. He had never done anything like this.

"Here, just as you do every night before I fuck you," the man told him and met the teen's bewildered look.

There was a clear message in Slade's eye: do it. Obey. And Robin knew he had to, that Slade was saving him for something he'd never truly live through, no matter if Trigon healed his body ever so perfectly.

He quickly sat up and leaned over the man. At first he had hoped that maybe he could only mimic the movement, but when he saw Trigon lean closer from the corner of his eye he didn't dare, and took the still flaccid member in his mouth. It was a relief to him that Slade wasn't hard, but that was also a problem: Trigon wouldn't believe this whole thing if the man didn't seem to enjoy it.

Robin might have no previous experience of this, but he had seen it done on some of the sites he used to visit at times and he had imagination enough to figure out what might feel good and use that to reach his goal. He still had to work hard and even glared up at Slade at one point, silently telling him to do his part of the job. The man let out a short chuckle as he saw the look and grabbed the back of the teen's head, controlling the speed and depth. Now Robin could feel the man harden and grow, and he grew quite a lot. The teen tried not to choke, as that wouldn't seem very professional. Instead he acted enthusiastic, sensing that as a well trained pet he probably would be. His master seemed to appreciate it, and just as the teen started to get really tired the man grunted and filled his mouth with hot, salty semen. The good pet swallowed obediently and then licked the tip clean very, very gingerly.

"You're not going to fuck him?" Trigon sounded disappointed.

"Not now. Us humans need to recuperate for quite a while. Besides, some things I'd rather not do in public. There human and demon culture differs."

Trigon snorted but didn't press the issue. Instead he ordered demon dancers to entertain his disappointed crew and soon after Slade called it a night.

They were almost back to the dungeon when the man's steps slowed and came to a halt. He turned around, starling Robin who almost walked right into him.

"You were very good back there," the man told him, a strange expression in his eye. "Dangerously good. I could get used to treatment like that."

"Does that mean I should suck less next time or more?" Robin asked, some of his cheekiness returning simply because he felt like he had some kind of strange power over the man right now.

"Very funny, boy," Slade smirked, but then turned serious again. "You heard everything, of course? About the bubble?"

Robin nodded, almost afraid to breathe.

"My dilemma…" the man said slowly. "Is losing this." His hand yanked slightly on the leash.

"You don't have to!" Robin urged him desperately. "You can have whatever you want! Anything!"

The man looked thoughtful, then gave a small nod. "Next month there will be a black moon."

Robin looked up at him and smiled.

The End

A/N: hope you enjoyed. It's up to you to decide how it will all end… ;)