[A/N] Okay. When I said that this chapter would have some Slade in it, what I really meant was that it was going to have mostly Slade in it. I just didn't realize that at the time. So, Hoots, glad you like Slade. Hope I do him justice with my own take on the Teen Titans character. Obviously this Slade is not the comic book version. Otherwise, everyone would be dead already. Go team.
Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans. Sometimes, I put on a stovetop hat, twirl my mustache and pretend I do though. It's an exciting life I lead. I do own this plot, what little of it that you can see.
24 Hours Previous (assume 24 hours has passed between chapter 2 and now.)
Something strange was going on. He could feel it. He hadn't gotten this far in life without developing his senses, and right now, his gut was telling him that something odd was happening in the Titan's Tower. Something odd was happening with his apprentice. And, like it or not, that's what Robin is, was, and will be, his apprentice. He turned his orange and black clad back to the array of monitors displaying the most recent fight between Robin and himself, and faced toward a large window. His brain was going into overtime. Something strange had occurred with Robin during the exchange, and Slade was determined to figure out what it was. He had been focusing on the boy's strange reaction to the arrival of his friends. He didn't normally just mutter their names in shock, and it bothered Slade. Of course, it only bothered Slade because he hadn't been the one to completely unnerve the boy. He would get to the bottom of this. His eye narrowed out at the city before him.
A storm was blowing in from Gotham. How strange, he thought, usually storms brew in Gotham and rot there. He did enjoy that city, with the obvious exception of the Bat. He enjoyed the fear, the respect. Coming here to Jump City and playing with his new toys, the Titans, gave him a bad reputation. It made other villains question his strength, his power. Little did they know that he was only here for one thing, his successor. And it didn't hurt that he would be paying back an old debt when he finally staked his claim on the boy.
But when he leaves Jump City, when he puts on that other uniform, he is feared universally by heroes and villains. Leaving out the obviously insane ones. He turned his eye toward that chest holding his supplies and wondered if, maybe, it wasn't time to don that suit once more. Maybe a trip to Gotham was in order.
But first, his lips twitched up in an unseen smirk, he had to make plans so his playmates wouldn't get so bored that they'd notice his brief absence from the city. It wouldn't do for the Titans to figure out the pattern of Slade being absent from Jump City and Deathstroke the Terminator appearing in Gotham. They would, naturally, put together the information and inform their mentors. He didn't need trouble from Green Arrow, Aquaman, or Batman. Especially not Batman, not yet. He made his way over to his computer and began to detail an assignment to a small time villain who would comply out of sheer terror. He would leave payment for the man in the park before he left. Of course, his instructions were simple: distract the Titans by any means necessary. Hopefully the man had enough brain cells left to accomplish that task without robbing a bank. Robbing banks were obviously not the forte of anyone in this city. No one got away with the task anymore.
Now that that was out of the way, he needed some way to keep an eye on the Titans, and, more importantly, his apprentice. He routinely placed surveillance equipment in the tower, and it was routinely found and destroyed. It was an annoying little game. But, it did give him insight into how the Titans reacted to his bugs. He had placed them in the same places over the past few weeks, and discovered that once they had checked those places out, they stopped looking. All he had to do was plant more bugs and cameras around the tower. The only question was how to get in without being noticed. Especially since they upgraded their system last week.
And then he had a brilliant idea. He chuckled at his former idiocy. The best way to get a good look at everything in the Titans Tower was to be inside the Titans Tower. Not physically, of course, but rather, electronically. He would hack a backdoor into the system. He threw himself into code writing and managed to synch up to a favorite website of the big mouthed, green Titan. He wrote the code into the site and rigged it so that if the changeling clicked anywhere on the screen, it would be activated and the system would require a reboot. Once the system rebooted itself, the code would be hidden inside the security system and Slade could activate it at any point. He quickly synched his phone up to the program and set an alarm to notify him when the Tower rebooted and he was granted access.
Phase three. He looked out at the storm making its way over the city under the cover of night, grabbed his electronics and jumped out into the city. He shifted through the shadows, easily getting to the Tower across town in twenty minutes. He made his way to his favorite viewing spot, checking in on the main room, but it was just the green thing playing a video game and he had no urge to watch that. No, no urge to see that at all, but he did have a desire to make sure his apprentice was not completely crushed in a spine breaking hug from that Tamarian child.
He found his apprentice struggling to remain awake at his cluttered desk. Another odd thing, usually Robin was OCD about his desk. Everything else in the room could be messy, but his work was organized and neat. One of the few traits the Batman had instilled that Slade did not want to erase. Organization of the area around you helped to keep your mind organized. But maybe, just maybe, this wasn't a terrible thing. Maybe if Robin's mind became a little more muddied he'd be a little more pliable.
Robin had fallen asleep on top of his files. If Slade had a scrap of humanity left in him, he would have thought the scene was endearing. As it was, all he saw was Robin's inability to maintain his focus. He watched as the boy twitched in his sleep, obviously distressed. He cocked his head, thinking. Maybe it was the lack of sleep that caused his apprentice to lose his concentration and made him talk back to his master. Either that, or it was just Robin's annoying tendency to do the exact opposite of what Slade wanted.
But when Robin started to shift uncomfortably in his seat and whimper, Slade started to put things together. He was having nightmares. Sleep deprivation was one thing, and it was one thing Slade knew well, but nightmares were something else entirely, and while he was skilled in giving them to others, he wasn't exactly the master of his own. He couldn't exactly control his own horrifying memories of a boy with no voice and a woman with a wicked right hook. How was he to use this to his advantage? And could he use it, knowing what nightmares were to someone? The straight answer, yes. Nightmares were the most personal of all dreams, but as it was, Robin was his apprentice, and was not yet allowed any privacy. He heard the Tamaranian child at the door, and saw Robin pull himself from the dream and wipe his face off before she let herself in. The first thing he would do, once Robin was back in his possession, is break his attachment to that girl.
He was about to leave when he saw something that made his eye widen comically and his jaw drop. Robin had just attacked the girl. This was…perfect.
He heard the girl's strange rationalization and snorted. She was never ready for any attack. She was one of those people who genuinely believed in the goodness of the soul. She should know better, her past should have clued her in on the fact that people are not inherently good, but then again, she did show a great propensity at ignoring the lessons the world tried to teach her. But, with any luck, Robin would finally be the one to teach her about the cruelty of human beings.
And Slade felt lucky today.
He watched as the two left the room, quickly slid the window open and planted the camera, switching it on. He heard a high pitched beep and looked down at his watch. Slade felt very lucky today, the green thing had managed to activate his trap. All he needed was for the mechanical teen to reboot the entire system and he was in. Nothing could ruin this day.
He heard the alarm go off and shouts of a bank robbery. He growled and vowed to never hire that crack-head again. Still, he was in such a good mood, he planned on simply not paying the man. After all, in Jump City he wasn't an assassin for hire, and he wouldn't get anything out of killing the man. Other than a slight satisfaction, of course.
He couldn't help the smirk that graced his lips as he settled down on his motorcycle. A blue and orange cloth mask now covered his face matching the rest of his form fitting uniform. He had tossed a couple of belts of ammunition around his torso, and had weapons decorating every inch of his body. He felt more at home than ever, Deathstroke the Terminator was back and Gotham was waiting.
[A/N]- Sorry it took so long, Hoots. Hope you're still there. Yeah. So this was all Slade, and I think next chapter will have a lot of him, too. I like writing him, so let me know if I did okay. Review please. Criticism is wanted and welcome.