Disclaimer: All copyright and credit goes to the original creators of the Teen Titans, Batman, and the DC Universe. This is for entertainment purposes only! I do not own any of the characters!

A/N: Hey y'all! Thanks for all the reviews and favorites! The support helped me finish this chapter faster:)

Also, I posted a one-shot called Enemies in disguise that centers on Slade and Robin but in normal civilian life. I'll probably expand it later when I have the chance, but this story is my main focus right now! So give it a read if it interests you!

Alright, here's the next chapter! ENJOYYY!

Chapter 22

The Joker

Tick. Tock.

Mr. Wintergreen shifted in his chair, futilely trying to find a comfortable position.

Tick. Tock.

"Blasted clock," the man muttered under his breath as he kept his eyes willfully glued to his book. With a sigh, he flipped the page as the words began to blur together. He rubbed his tired eyes and snapped the book shut with an irritated huff.

Tick. Tock.

The incessant ticking pounded in the man's head. He reached over to the table by his side and picked up his long cooled cup of coffee. Wintergreen took a sip of the coffee, feeling the smooth liquid run down his throat, but it did little to keep his drooping eyelids open.

The man shifted once more in his chair unable to relax. He was uneasy with the whole arrangement tonight. He trusted Slade to take care of himself, but the boy was another thing entirely. He didn't know quite what to make of the boy. Robin possessed all the skills Slade sought in an apprentice, but also all the qualities the man despised. Robin was a beacon in the hero community – admirable in his just and fair ways. Why Slade had been drawn to him in the first place was a great mystery to Wintergreen. Slade had a wide scope of young individuals in the villain community that would kill for a chance to train underneath him, but the man rejected them all and instead choose the most obstinate boy ever to grace the planet Earth.

The man shook his head. They were so similar, yet so different. It was amazing the pair had come this far.

Wintergreen took another mouthful of his coffee. Perhaps Slade enjoyed the challenge of trying to convert Robin to his ways. Perhaps Slade actually did see a great deal of potential in the boy – Wintergreen certainly saw it. Or perhaps the man was trying to claim revenge on the hero community by corrupting one of their best.

All possible, but none were true.

Because Wintergreen knew, deep down inside he knew.

Robin reminded Slade of Grant.

And just like Grant, Robin is something Slade can never have.

Perhaps if he had been here during the whole 'apprentice fiasco' he could have explained this to Slade. Not that the man would have actually listened, but it would have been worth a shot. Perhaps he could have prevented the thick animosity that had developed between the pair…although the man seriously doubted it.

Wintergreen shook his head. If anything, Slade was determined and headstrong – resistant to any form of change. It was the same stubbornness that had caused them to form their unusual friendship.

Tick. Tock.

But that had been many years ago, and Wintergreen was finally feeling his age. He rubbed his pounding head with his tired fingers and closed his eyes. It was about time Slade retired from his line of work. If the man kept it up any longer, Wintergreen swore he was going to have a heart attack from the stress of it all.

The man rose from his chair and walked over to the bookcase, searching for the place he had pulled his book from. Where was Slade when you actually need him?

For now all seemed well between the boy and Slade. Hopefully everything would go smoothly tonight, but Wintergreen was uneasy. Robin was a strange wild-card in this entire mess. There were many layers to the boy that kept his actions unpredictable, and working with Slade, the pair was just asking for trouble.

The man turned and couldn't fight off the urge to look up at the clock. It was getting late. He expected the pair to be out far into the night as there were many unforeseen factors in their plan, but it was still later than he would like.

The man sighed.

Being the friend of a wicked mastermind could be taxing at times.

For the millionth time in his life, Robin couldn't help but wonder exactly what the hell was he doing?

He pressed his back against the wooden crate as more laughter roared around him, causing him to tense.

Teaming up with his arch-enemy had been a pretty insane idea, but ignoring orders from said arch-enemy…

…well Robin just decided not to think about it.

So far he had scouted out a total of six men, all clustered together in the center of the vast room. Robin gave a prayer of thanks to whoever had decided against having useful lighting in the space as the shadows gave him ample room to move through.

He was currently on the outside perimeter of the space, wedged in the middle of the longest wall hidden behind a crate. As he had moved to his current vantage point, he had seen a door in the back corner of the room, far away from the men in the center and had a sinking suspicion that the Slade had already made his way there. But somehow, Robin knew that wasn't what he was looking for.

"Your turn to deal."

"Hell it's not like I have a chance at winning anyway."

Robin's ears tuned into the conversation the men were having and blinked…

Were they playing Poker?

"You could always try to win your money back."

"Yeah right."

The voices blurred together, each raspy and slightly slurred. Robin peered over the top of the crate and watched as a man, taller than the rest, began dealing out cards to the other players. The table was old and dilapidated and the men standing around it looked even worse. Each was laced with bruises or scars from years of crime, and all had the notorious white and red paint smeared onto their faces.

A chill ran up Robin's back as he ducked back down and tried to clear his mind of the gruesome image that flashed into his mind.

The red lips…

The smeared white paint…

The chilling laugh…

The gruesome smile…

The boy cringed, pushing the thought away.

"Suit yourself. Winner of next round is in charge of gettin all these boxes to the boss before he shoots all of our heads off."

Discontented grumbles filled the boy's ears, causing him to pause as he considered the man's words. His hand brushed over the rough, wooden crate with a renewed interest, taking note of its smooth and clean surface. There were no markings on the wood however, giving the boy no inkling as to what exactly was being held within all these crates.

Whatever it was though, the Joker certainly wanted it.

"You're on."

Robin sighed as laughter from the men raced over his ears. Unless he could find a way to knock out all these men without setting off an alarm, there was no way he was going to find out what was in these crates. Besides if he did anything besides breathe, he would immediately alert Slade to his position, and as much as his curiosity screamed at him right now, the wrathful temper of the masked man still hauntingly loomed over his head.

He rolled to the left and skirted behind another crate as the dim lighting flickered overhead.

The boy halted in his movements as the light flickered again, drawing his attention upwards. An idea began to formulate in his mind as his eyes scanned over the exposed ceiling. Perhaps he didn't need to attack the men…just distract them…

His eyes outlined the area of the ceiling as his brain pierced the simple idea together. Three light-bulbs kept the room pitifully lit, and he doubted, considering the condition the building was kept in, that any of the large emergency lights would work. If he moved fast…Slade would never know….and all it would take was…

He pulled out three bird-a-rangs and before he could think twice about his actions, he flung them at the ceiling. With and buzz and a hissing snap, all the lightbulbs in the room immediately blinked out, casting the entire room into darkness.

"What the hell?"

"Damn. Stupid generator acting up again."

"I was just about to win."

"SHUT UP."

Robin crept up from his position and pulled out another bird-a-rang as the men bickered among themselves. Only a shred of light from the staircase filtered into the room, enough for Robin to see, but not for the unfortunate men huddled together around the table. Years of training under Batman had prepared him to fight in every situation – including complete darkness.

"Where the hell are the backup lights?"

He slid the bird-a-rang under the lid of the crate and popped it off, setting it quietly on the floor. None of the men heard the quiet noise as their yelling echoed and expounded in the room.

"I don't know, go find the override switch."

"Where the hell is that?"

"HOW SHOULD I KNOW?"

Robin peered into the crate, pushing aside the layer of shredded paper that covered its contents and blinked. He didn't know what he had been expecting – a bomb, a stack of ammunition, maybe even a pile of grenades – but it certainly had not been this.

Test Tubes. Hundreds of them. All were stacked on top of one another in large containers that prevented them from smashing and breaking. The boy squinted his eyes and pulled one out, turning the small vial over in his hands. A few drops of clear liquid pooled together at the bottom of the glass container and a series of numbers were imprinted on its side.

What the heck was the Joker doing with this?

He put it in his utility belt and grabbed two more, a sinking feeling forming in the pit of his stomach. The Joker wasn't one to invest in scientific research, let alone have a reason to want hundreds or maybe even thousands of test tubes. The crazy clown was notorious for being a more of a let's blow everything up kind of villain not a let's invest in scientific research kind of villain.

"FOUND IT."

Robin snapped his head up as the men suddenly paused in their yelling match.

Found what?

With a flash, the room erupted into light as row after row of large panels on the ceiling spurred to life. Robin swore to himself as brightness bombarded the room, causing him to slam his eyes shut at the sudden intensity. Like everything else in this decrepit warehouse, Robin had assumed the large, rusty lights embedded in the ceiling had long since blown out.

He never expected them to be brighter than the freaking sun.

Momentarily blinded by the rush of light, the boy reflectively jerked back. His back collided against something, and the boy grunted at the sudden impact. He felt the weight behind him shift and looked up.

Oh no.

Slade was not going to be happy.

The stack of crates against his back toppled over, crashing onto the ground. The loud smash resonated through the entire space as the thin, wooden case shattered, sending vials and test tubes in every direction. The sound of breaking glass blared in Robin's ears as the boy froze in his movements and watched as a vial continued to roll along the floor and into the middle of the room. It trailed to an ominous stop, and a deathly silence fell over the now motionless space.

A pair of booted feet walked forward, the footsteps reverberating throughout the silent room. The figure bent down, picked up the vial and twisted it in his hands. With a crack and a hiss, the man snapped the tube in half and dropped the pieces to the floor. His blood-shot eyes looked up and locked onto Robin.

The man's face twisted into a thick scowl, causing Robin to flinch.

Slade was really going to kill him now.

Within the span of a few heartbeats, Robin's instincts kicked into overdrive. The boy sprung to his feet, diving at the man in front of him and whipping out his bo-staff. The man had no time to react as the blow drove into his skull, knocking him off of his feet and erupting the room into chaos.

Shouts of panic exploded from the men, and Robin dropped to the floor and rolled behind a crate as gunshots whipped over his head.

"Where did the damn kid come from?"

"How the hell should I know!"

The boy leapt, rolling into a second man and driving his bo-staff into his stomach. With a grunt the man stumbled back, giving Robin room to duck the bat that came whistling inches away from his head. The boy lashed out with his leg, nailing the third man in the groin and knocking him back. He flipped backwards onto the rusty table as bullets hurdled into the air in the spot he had been moments before. Robin flung out a bird-a-rang, nailing the gun in its barrel and causing the man to drop it as it exploded on itself.

His eyes scanned the room as he reassessed his surroundings. The man he had nailed in the head was on the ground unconscious while the rest had formed a disconnected circle around him, warily watching him for his next move. Two burly men to his right had guns, each trained on him with eager eyes.

"The Joker wants the kid alive," one spat, "but we can still have some fun boys."

Robin's eyes shifted to the one who had just spoken. He was taller than the rest, with an intimidatingly thick frame and had a weak air of authority about him. His blood-shot eyes had a wicked look about them, and they glared at Robin with a deep-rooted hatred.

"Someone call the boss," he snapped as he took a step forward. Robin tensed as the man twirled the rod around in his hand with a devilish grin.

The two men to his right raised their guns, and Robin took a deep breath, his hand moving to his utility belt.

A fourth man almost directly behind him, pulled out a communicator.

"T-3 to home base…"

The fifth man stood behind the leader and swung the bat in his hand, his eyes unwavering from the boy.

Robin took a deep breath, centering himself as adrenaline flowed through his body. He could do this. He was ready.

His reflexes responded instantaneously as five loud gunshots echoed in the air. He back-flipped off the table and rolled to his feet, whipping around to throw a smoke bomb –

The boy froze…

As five figures collapsed to the ground.

No one moved.

No one breathed.

All were dead.

Robin looked up as Slade walked forward, two hand guns resting effortlessly in his hands. The man's gray eye scanned the room and fell onto the man Robin had knocked unconscious. Robin's blood turned to ice as he immediately understood Slade's intentions.

"Slade-"

BANG

Robin's words were drowned out as the last gunshot tore through the air. He reeled backward as a shaky breath tore through his lips. Six bullets. Six deaths. All on the span of a few seconds. The men that had threatened his life only moments ago were now dead – every single one of them.

"Let this be a lesson to you," Slade said as he put away the guns, "Never focus solely on your target. Be aware of your surroundings."

The man paused as he picked up the communicator of the dead man and crushed the thin plastic in his hands.

"Danger is always around you."

The pieces of the communicator crumbled to the floor as Robin's eyes remained glued to the bodies around him. His stomach churned and twisted as the masked man rose to his feet.

"You killed them," Robin whispered. He had seen death before but never like this. Never in cold blood. Never from the hands of the man before him.

"I told you to go upstairs," Slade responded as he walked forward, wiping the spattering of blood off of his gauntlet.

Robin watched as the red droplets hit the ground, the words Batman had spoken to him long ago rushing to his mind.

There are those who view lives as expendable, and those who fight to save them.

You must choose the side you fight for.

"So you could murder them without me around?" Robin said as his gaze slowly lifted to the black and orange mask. Staring at the man, he didn't know what he felt. Betrayal? Anger? Disbelief? A cold numbness traveled through his body, and Robin turned away, unable to face the figure before him.

Slade shook his head. "I don't want to argue about this Robin. We need to get going."

"Well maybe you should have thought about that before you shot all these men."

"They were going to kill you-"

"NO they weren't."

"So then what did you want me to do Robin?" Slade said as his voice bled with a deep coldness. "Waste five minutes knocking them all out - risking your life in the process - just for them to wake out up again and come after us?" The man stepped forward, so that he was only a few feet away from the boy.

Robin flinched but didn't move. He remained motionless, staring at the cold, gray ground and feeling his emotions cloud his mind.

"That doesn't make shooting them in cold blood justifiable," the boy said as he closed his eyes.

"I never said it was right."

Robin threw up his arms as he stepped away from the man, gesturing to the bodies that were littered around the pair. "Then why Slade? You know Batman –"

"Batman isn't here," the man whispered, his low voice holding a sharp warning tone to it. He turned to face the boy, his body deathly still and his eye, cold and unblinking. "We're playing on my terms now, Robin. Those men deserve to be dead.

"NO ONE DESERVES TO BE DEAD."

The words burned through the boy's throat as he turned away, clenching his hands together. The harsh light dug into his eyes, illuminating everything.

Every speck of dust…

Every shard of broken glass…

Every drop of blood…

There was no place to hide. There was no place to run. He had agreed to work with the man, and now he had to face the blinding light…

Here was where the line was drawn. Here was where their differences collided.

"No one…" he whispered as he opened his eyes. "Lives aren't expendable, Slade."

Footsteps approached him, but Robin didn't move. He kept breathing, trying to calm his unreasonable mind. Now was not the time to breakdown. Now was not the time to let everything fall apart. Now was not the time to crumble into pieces.

Now was not the time to let his doubt consume him.

"Robin, turn around."

The boy blinked at the sudden change in the man's tone. It was softer, no longer laced with a cold hard edge. This wasn't Deathstroke talking, this was the voice of the man under the mask – this was Slade Wilson.

He turned, but kept his eyes glued to the floor, unwilling to meet the gray eye that rested on small his frame.

"Anthony Blood."

Robin looked up as his eyes furrowed into confusion.

"Leader of the most lethal drug gang in Jump City. Operated for two years before he and his gang came to work for the Joker."

"What does that have to do with-" Robin started but was cut off as Slade stepped to his right and pointed behind him.

"Dead."

Robin froze as he looked at the unmoving body behind, Slade. If what the man was saying was true, then those men were criminals. He glanced back up at the black and orange mask, opened his mouth and then snapped it shut. Slade very well could be lying to him, making all of this up just to justify the man's death.

He glanced back at the body and felt chills race up his arms.

"Never heard of him," Robin said.

Slade shook his head as he turned his gaze back to Robin.

"There's a lot of things in Jump, the Titans have never heard of."

Robin remained silent at the statement, his thoughts rolling around in his head. He looked up into the deep, gray eye and found a seriousness there that made him pause. Slade wouldn't lie.

Not about this.

"They may not deserve to be dead, but the world is better off without them."

Robin eyes fell on the unmoving bodies, but was unable to find the words to refute Slade's claim.

"Lives aren't expendable," he whispered again, clutching onto he one truth he had left in this mess. But even to his own ears, the words sounded hollow and worn.

Slade paused, contemplating the boy. "I never said they were. But some just aren't worth saving."

Robin turned away and rubbed his hand against his head, wishing for once this whole mess would finally be over. Slade had yet again smeared the line in the sand. There was no black and white anymore. No visible divide between good and evil. Everything had fogged over with a gray haze in the boy's mind.

He looked up as the man grabbed his shoulder.

"We've wasted enough time. We'll finish this conversation later."

Robin nodded and dropped his head, his entire body feeling numb. He didn't know what to think anymore, he didn't know how to feel. Pushing aside his jumble of thoughts, he blocked out the sights around him and focused on the one goal he had left. The one motivation that kept pushing him forward – find Batman.

Slade moved off towards the staircase and Robin followed behind, feeling a wave of exhaustion fall over his body. The man disappeared as he began the trek up the winding stairs, but Robin paused looking back one last time.

Six seconds and six dead.

Robin forced himself to turn away and pushed down the conflicting emotions that rose up inside of them.

They were criminals.

With each step Robin took, he couldn't help but feel himself growing heavier and heavier.

They were human beings.

Perhaps it was the fact that Robin felt he could have stopped it, he could have someone saved them…somehow…

The pair entered the hallway and continued their trek. Robin kept his eyes glued to the man's heels as his thoughts tumbled around him. He paused in his steps as he suddenly remembered the large amount of crates they had left behind – the crates the Joker needed for something.

"Slade what about the-"

A rumble shook through the building, forcing Robin to throw his arms out to balance himself.

"Already taken care of," Slade said as a devious look entered the man's eyes. A gush of hot air ran through the hallway from the entrance to the staircase and rushed over the pair. Robin's eyes widened with horror.

"Are you trying to bring the entire place down!" he yelled as bits of dust from the ceiling sprinkled down upon the pair.

Slade shook his head and as the rumbled faded away as quickly as it had started.

"Looks can be deceiving, Robin. This place is a lot stronger than it appears."

Robin wildly looked around, throwing his arms in the air.

"Not against freaking explosives."

"Low powered explosives."

"Key word explosives, Slade!"

The man shrugged.

"We have a good ten minutes before it does any real structural damage."

"A lot can go wrong in ten minutes," Robin muttered under his breath as he broke into a light jog to keep up with Slade as the man resumed his quick pace.

"A lot can go wrong at any time, the key is to be prepared," Slade responded without missing a beat.

Robin rolled his eyes as another burst of hot air rushed over his body.

"You can't always be prepared for life, Slade."

The man came to an abrupt halt in his steps, and Robin just barely managed to stop himself in time before he went flying into the man's back. He opened his mouth to ask the man just why exactly he decided to stop when the lower level of the building was burning in flames, but Slade raised his hand and motioned for him to remain silent.

Another rumble echoed through the building, soft and quiet but gradually building in intensity.

"Really Slade? Don't you think two explosions is a little overkill?" Robin asked as he rolled his eyes.

The man reached out and grabbed his arm.

"That wasn't me," Slade said as he turned around, his eyes scanning the end of the narrow hallway. Robin grew still as the words sent a spike of fear shooting through him. If Slade hadn't done that then who-

The man swore and whipped around, gripping the boy's arm tighter and pulling him forward.

"RUN."

Robin didn't even process the word as his mind kicked into overdrive. The rumbled grew into a dull roar as the pair dashed down the hallway, the ground below them beginning to shake. Dust and debris rained down on their heads, covering the pair with a thin film of dirt. Slade's grip on his arm tightened as the man swore again.

"We're not going to make it," he muttered.

The words caused Robin's pounding heart to skip a beat. He had no idea what exactly they were running from, but if it caused Slade to worry then it must be bad.

Really bad.

He redoubled his pace, sweat rolling off of his face as hot air swirled in and out of his lungs. His legs burned with a deep intensity as he pressed on, the man never wavering or faltering by his side. The ground shook again, and Robin stumbled, breaking his stride as the uneven ground threw off his balance. Slade's firm grip lifted him up and steadied him, pulling him forward and around the corner of the hallway.

They were close, but not close enough.

The roar erupted into an overpowering thunder as heat exploded into a flood of fire. Slade tackled Robin to the floor as shards of debris showered down on the pair and the walls exploded around them. Robin slammed his eyes shut as heat licked his skin and washed over his body.

Explosion after fiery explosion rained down among them, bringing the roof down in a crashing wave. Robin felt himself gasp for air as the pressure on his chest suddenly increased. Slade tightened his arms around him as the dust and ruins of the building poured down among them.

The few minutes felt like an eternity to the boy as the world twisted into some sort of living hell. Everything around him shook and moved as if the building had come alive and was trying to devour them whole. Robin's ears burned and popped with a fiery pain until everything drowned out in a rushing wave. He couldn't see. He couldn't hear. He couldn't think. He couldn't move.

The roar began to die as the air around the pair calmed. The ground stilled as the explosion burned itself out, leaving behind an eerie silence riddled with falling debris. Robin coughed, his lungs burning with a stabbing pain as he tried to inhale, only to find his chest compressed and being crushed under a mountainous pressure.

Within a matter of seconds however, the arms around him disappeared and pressure on his chest lightened, as a gush of cooler air came over his body. Robin blinked, struggling to open his burning eyes. He felt himself being pulled up and hoisted to his feet.

The world around him though, spun and twisted.

A thick ringing in his ears drowned out the words from the man next to him. Robin stumbled as his eyes blearily took in the disaster around him. The ground around him was littered with huge chunks of the ceiling and walls, exposing the pair to the open sky around them. The ground they were standing on was shifted and uneven, but somehow the skeletal structure of the building had survived. The inside wall was weakly supporting the last remaining part of the roofline and was the only thing preventing the entire building from caving in on itself.

Robin gazed forward toward the night's dark skyline as his world shifted and turned around him. He was quickly spun around however, and a black and orange mask filled his view.

"ROBIN."

The word was distant and far away but the boy clung to it and pulled his mind toward it. There was a sense of urgency in the air.

"WE NEED TO MOVE."

The boy felt himself being shaken and tried to fight off the darkness that encroached on his body.

"HE'S HERE."

The boy blinked as the ringing in his ear faded and everything came rushing back into focus.

Slade.

Batman.

The Joker.

Robin nodded as Slade pulled him forward, and off the pile of debris they had been buried under. Smoke was heavy and thick in the air as Robin felt himself being dragged forward through the smog. They needed to move.

Time was finally up.

Out of the smoke he heard it.

The crackling laugh rose in the air and echoed across the remnants of the long hallway, filling Robin's ears with the sickeningly familiar noise.

He was here.

The Joker was here.

He felt Slade stop beside him as the figure emerged from the smoke. The gruesome red eyes buried their way into the boy as the Joker gave him a smile.

A shot echoed in the air and Robin collapsed to the floor with a cry of pain as his leg suddenly caved in on him. A searing agony rocketed through his body as blood poured from the bullet that was now embedded in his thigh. He pressed his hands over it as the red liquid surged through his fingers and onto the floor.

Slade immediately whipped out a metal disc and sent it hurdling towards the second figure who had just emerged through the smoke – the same figure who had shot Robin. The gun clattered out of the silhouettes hands and onto the ground.

The Joker's smile widened.

"Hope you don't mind, little bird. I decided to bring a friend."

Robin looked up as the smoked cleared around the figure. But even with the smoke, Robin could recognize the silhouette anywhere.

A fiery numbness and disbelief spread throughout his body as hot blood gushed through his fingertips. The figure stepped up next to the Joker, and Robin felt his world shatter into pieces.

His voice was a mere whisper in the dark night.

"Batman."

A/N: I'll try to get the next update out soon, because cliffhangers are never fun...:)

Let me know what you think/hate it/love it/like it? Leave a review and let me know!

Alright so until next time,

THANKS FOR READING!