A/N: No reviews and yet I still write on. Kind of depressing, guys. And with this hits system, I know how many have been reading my fan fic. There are many of you readers out there that don't review. sigh Just frustrated, that's all. I'm like many writers. I love feedback even if it is nice or not.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Titans, Slade, or any of the settings. I wish I did, though.

Chapter 17

Robin ran a gloved hand through his hair with a long sigh. He moaned while rubbing his communicator on his forehead wearily. He felt like his emotions had been thrown into the air, and he was still trying to gather them because they were so scattered. The past few hours had been so mentally strenuous for him. It wasn't everyday he found out from his enemy that he had been cloned. Not only that, but that clone was going to destroy the world again if he wasn't properly stopped and put into rightful hands.

"Perfect," he muttered sarcastically as it began to rain. He stopped in his walk up the hill to Titans Tower and stood in the middle of the rain. The boy's raven colored hair hung into his masked eyes, running droplets of water to the end of a cluster of hairs and drop to the gravel below.

The Boy Wonder turned around and looked upon Jump City with a piece of light taken out of his usual bright eyes. The rain wasn't helping his already depressed spirits. He shook his head with a wry smile coming to his lips. At least now he had the challenge of trying not to drown in his own misery. The teen loved a challenge. Somehow the emotional ones in his life were a lot tougher than the physical ones. Was that so for the rest of the world?

In his own weird way, Robin had revised his hope somehow. With another sigh he turned back around to the Tower and continued his slow walk. The Titans had taken a small break from the Tower after they figured out where Red X was. They had agreed to let Slade go find Gene by himself only if he came back to explain things to both the boy and the Titans back at the Tower. The man was out there now looking for Gene while his friends were out in the city by themselves to have a small personal time. They had all needed time to think.

Robin stopped in his tracks when seeing two figures by the front doors to the Tower. Instinctively he took out a bird-a-rang and got into a fighting stance, on the balls of his feet with all his senses in tune to what was going on around him. He tilted his head slightly as his suspicion vanished. The two figures only stood up and stared at him through the fat rain drops falling heavily from the sky. They were harmless.

With a swift motion, Robin put his weapon back into his belt and started to walk briskly up to the pair at the Tower's doorway. The teens were shivering in the bitter cold. Robin looked them up and down in silence. Suspicion rose again in him. They weren't normal. The eyes could tell so much about a person.

"What do you need?" Robin asked them sternly.

"We have a friend who you have met," the girl said quietly but with passion. Robin folded his arms in front of him and raised a questioning eyebrow.

"It's Gene," the boy said audaciously, "Gene Summers. He was just captured by Red X, and we think Slade is right now going after him. You have to help us find him!"

Robin stared at both of them with his face expressionless. The two teens gazed boldly back at the superhero with desperate looks upon their weary faces. The only sound was of the rain gushing from above, pelting Robin, who wasn't under the small ledge like the other two, with thick drops of water.

"Come in," Robin finally said with a soft nod. He walked to the door and the sensors in it picked up a sensor in his belt indicating for it to open. Just like all the doors to the Tower, the metal entrance slid to the side to let the teens in.

Their faded footsteps echoed throughout the large hallway. Soft splashes of water added to the noise as droplets slid off Robin's short black cape and onto the carpeted floor. The two followed silently after him, looking around the room with curious eyes. There wasn't much to see, so their eyes quickly fell on Robin ahead of them.

"Is he here, sir?" the girl asked Robin meekly.

He turned slightly around while still walking and shook his head no. "And call me Robin," he told her. "I'm just as old as you guys."

"Okay, Robin, then where is Gene?" the boy asked. He was getting apprehensive for some reason. Robin noted the two kids' personality opposites as he glanced behind his shoulder at them. He decided to ignore the boy's question for the moment. They could all wait to ask questions.

They arrived at the main room. "Please sit down," Robin said to them while nodding to the couch. "My team should arrive shortly. When they do, then we can all get some answers to this mess." He began to ring out his soaked cape.

"You didn't answer my question," the boy pointed out. Robin glanced up with annoyance. The girl was already sitting while the boy was standing next to her with a stubborn frown on his face and his arms crossed to show his hostility toward the Titan.

"Ask it when my friends are here," Robin said calmly.

"We need an answer now," the boy persisted.

"Zach," the girl scolded him weakly, "We're fine. We can wait."

"But this butt sniffer is just ignoring us, Rose," Zach hissed back. "The dude is totally…hey!" he yelled in surprise when seeing Robin standing suddenly in front of him. "What is your problem, bird brain?"

"You two," Robin answered bluntly. "Your eyes are cat shaped. You're not normal. I'm suspicious for good reasons."

"We aren't here to make trouble, Robin," Rose said while standing up. "We are just here to find Gene."

There was a pause as they all looked at each other. Robin finally glanced to the floor and asked quietly, "So that's his name? Gene?"

"Yeah," Zach muttered.

-Gene-

The teen swore under his breath while forcing his beaten body up with the support the cold brick wall behind him. He grimaced as a flare of pain gripped his side. The footsteps were steadily getting closer. They were balanced and perfect. You could time them if you wanted. That concept was what scared Gene so much. He knew the footsteps belonged to Slade.

Gene pushed off the wall and faltered on his unsteady legs before righting himself. The boy ran down the damp alley as best as he could in his pathetic condition. He swore again as he heard the footsteps switch into a run. Gene winced as he picked up his own speed.

A small glance over his shoulder told Gene he wasn't going to go very far. Slade was only a few paces behind him now. Gene gasped for breath as he desperately tried to run faster. After all what he had done he didn't want it to end like this. He had made it so far.

"Stop, Gene," Slade ordered coldly. Gene knew he was either going to be plowed down by Slade, or he could stop and save himself from doing a face plant on the coarse cement. The boy skidded to a stop as did Slade.

"So it's Gene now?" Gene asked in a growl.

Slade didn't answer him. He shot out a hand to grab Gene's wrist. He stopped short when the boy gave a sharp yell and created a black force field while taking a tentative step backwards. The teen's eyes and hands were on black fire as he used his anger to use his dark powers.

"Don't bother," Gene muttered. Just as quickly as he had stopped, Gene took off in a run. Slade narrowed his one eye in deep annoyance and went after him. He barely made it around the corner. Gene slammed into his chest with a short yell of shock. Before Slade could understand what was going on, Gene shoved him away and started to run the opposite way he had been going.

Slade looked down the alleyway to see what had scared Gene enough to make him turn around so quickly. His eye widened in surprise when seeing a woman running toward him with her automatic pistol raised. Slade took off after Gene just as the woman from Red X's apartment fired repentantly.

It was clear to Slade that Gene was slowing down from so much exhaustion. The boy was pale and gasping as he tried his best to get away from both adults. Slade was surprised the kid had made it this far. As he ran up beside the teen, Gene glanced over to him with a deadly glare. At least he was persistent.

"This way," Slade whispered suddenly. He latched onto Gene's arm and yanked him into a smaller alley. He practically dragged Gene down the narrow pathway. Slade stopped halfway down the alley where they had submerged themselves in the thick shadows. Slade forced Gene's body against the brick wall and put a hand over the kid's mouth to prevent him from making any noise.

Gene looked to the bright opening of the alley and held his breath when seeing the police woman look in. He looked back to Slade with panic in his wide violet eyes. Slade wasn't looking at him, though. His hard gaze was locked onto the woman hesitantly coming into the alley.

A crack of thunder warned them all it was going to rain soon. Water fell from the sky in fat rain drops that instantly soaked the three to the bone. The unwanted weather was the thing that changed the lady's mind to venture into the dark alleyway. She peered into the dark, searching the blackness for the two before finally giving up and holstering her gun. Soon the woman was gone and they couldn't hear her splashing footsteps.

Gene struggled in Slade's grip and yelled some muffled words into the hand covering his mouth. Slade slowly lifted his hand away from Gene's mouth. "Let go!" Gene hissed as soon as he could talk again. Slade complied silently and watched as the boy sunk into a weary sitting position on the wet ground.

"Who is that police woman?" Gene asked.

"Someone hired to find you," Slade answered. "Her name is Daphne Hawthorne, and her orders are to bring you to her client dead or alive. She might look like a respectable police woman, but she is really a bounty hunter for a secret branch of the government that takes care of everything or anyone with supernatural abilities. You are on the top of their list."

There was silence as Gene took in the information. "Okay," he said with a sigh, "Didn't think you would give me that big of an answer."

"We need to keep moving," Slade said. "She always has backup." He raised an eyebrow in confusion when hearing the boy moan and clutch his side in pain. He didn't know the kid was injured. He bent down and forced Gene's hand away from his wounded side to take a look at it.

"This time it wasn't my fault," Gene said. "That idiot, Red X, did it to save our butts back at his apartment. That crazy Daphne woman showed up there with a whole freaking gun squad." Slade watched in wonder as the kid smiled bitterly and told him, "I learned how to levitate myself. You never said I could do that."

"There are a lot of things I didn't tell you," Slade said. He grabbed the kid's shoulder and forced him to his feet while saying, "We don't have time to fix that here. We need to move."

"What's with all this 'we' stuff?" Gene asked him. With a flick of his wrist, he latched his power onto a garbage bag and plowed the thing into the man. The teen bit his lower lip to keep himself from stumbling like a drunk down the alley away from Slade.

Slade threw the ruptured garbage bag off him with his eye narrowing in frustration. He should have seen that one coming. The kid had the worst sense of trust he had ever seen. The man got to his feet and seized the back of Gene's shirt in a vice grip before the kid could take more than four steps. He heard the poor teen choke as his shirt went taught around his neck and body. Gene lost his balance and fell backwards and into Slade's hands.

"I'll scream bloody murder if you don't let me go!" Gene swore. He grunted and struggled as Slade simply dragged him down the dark alleyway. "I'm not freaking kidding. I'll scream so loud that lady will hear me and come back and take you down!"

"And she'll most likely kill you in that process," Slade said with amusement in his voice. He wanted to laugh at how grown up the boy could be when danger was staring him right in the face, yet fall apart and be such a spoiled brat when something so simple went wrong for him. Just a minute ago he had admired Gene's persistence, now he was deeply annoyed. Funny how things can change so quickly. It sometimes baffled the man.

After a few minutes of Slade just pulling Gene around different dark alleys in the poring rain, the teen calmed down somewhat and stopped struggling so much. Slade didn't know if the boy was complying because he was too weak to fight back, or if the kid was coming up with a way to escape. It didn't matter much to the man. He was just thankful Gene had stopped making things so difficult.

They stopped once they got out of alleyways and to a sidewalk and street. They were in a pretty deserted neighborhood. Few cars sped by. When they did, the automobiles crashed into many puddles, forming a perpetual wave of water on the road. Apartment windows were closed and shuttered. Warm lights from these windows made Gene long for the indoors. The freezing rain was making him shiver uncontrollably.

Slade led Gene to a parked car. It was an old rental that barely had any life in it. Gene didn't know what kind of car it was because it had so many different parts welded onto it to make it respectable enough to drive on a street. It had many paint jobs as well. One part was a dull blue while the hood was rusting silver.

Slade dragged Gene to the other side of the car and opened the front passenger door. He lightly shoved Gene into the seat while still gripping his wrist. The boy swore under his breath when Slade took out a pair of handcuffs. The man handcuffed both of Gene's hands to the handle above the door before closing the door and coming around to the driver's seat.

Gene pulled a few times on the cuffs with a defeated sigh. He paused when seeing himself in the side mirror. He didn't know he could look so pathetic. His matted black hair dripped with rain water. His face was covered in dirt and grim. He looked like he had just gone through a long and hard rugby game in the rain and mud…and his team had lost. He finally turned away, dissatisfied with what he was looking at. He wasn't going to let defeat set in.

"Where are you taking me?" Gene asked Slade once the man sat down in the driver's seat and shut the door. "You're not going to keep me up in some prison cell like the last one, are you? I'll get out of that one as well."

The only sound for a second was the rain pelting the windshield of the car. The water splattering and dripping down the glass made the world outside warped and twisted. Slade only looked at Gene. The boy finally gave up with is hostility act and lowered his gaze.

"I'm taking you back to Titans Tower," Slade answered. He saw Gene's expression turn into confusion and explained. "Because of your foolishness, the Titans knew you had something to do with me. I told them how you were a clone. They then made a deal. They showed me the fastest way to you only if I brought you back to them so I could tell them everything about you. Those curious teens just sold you out for information. Really tells you about their true character."

"You're kidding, right?" Gene asked in disbelief. "Is this another one of your sick jokes? The Titans wouldn't do that to me!"

"Why would I lie?" Slade asked.

Gene rolled his eyes and gave a grunt of disgust. "I don't know!" he said. "You just seem to like to torment me."

"And how have I tortured you, Gene?"

"Oh! Don't play nice guy with me!" yelled Gene. "First you kidnap me and throw me into a pit for a whole week. The only thing you tell me is that I'm some superhero clone. Like that's believable! My whole life has been a freaking living hell ever since the day I met you! Just two weeks ago I was most likely sleeping peacefully in my bed at home. Now I'm handcuffed to a car with a psycho path sitting next to me! That is not an improvement."

"Life comes at you fast, my dear boy," Slade said slyly back at the kid. He smiled under his mask when seeing the hurt and shocked expression Gene had when he said this. He had managed to shut up the kid so quickly. The poor teen was left completely speechless. It was very amusing on Slade's part.

Slade saw Gene painfully glance down to his wounded side. The man reached for the blood soaked rags wrapped around the boy's waist. As expected, Gene brought up the only thing he had for his defense, his foot in this case, and tried to kick Slade away with a shout warning him to back off. His stubbornness and infidelity was getting in the way of him getting his side healed.

Silently, Slade grabbed Gene's ankle before shoving the boy's foot out of the way. Swiftly he untied the binding and slowly pealed it away carefully from Gene's skin. The teen squeezed his eyes shut. He couldn't stand seeing more blood.

"This needs stitches," Slade informed Gene.

"No kidding."

"But I don't have any. You'll have to get that fixed at the Tower. What were you thinking; running around an alley with the only thing to help you is dirty dish rags? You'll be lucky if you don't get an infection."

"I'm so glad to hear that you care."

A/N: I have to end it here or it will get too long for one chapter. And I'm not putting this in Gene's journal for a reason unknown to you guys till the end of the fic. My finale is coming up soon, so I'm so excited! Make sure you review! Thanks!