Disclaimer: So yeah, um if anyone thinks that I own Teen Titans still, I'm going to say that I don't...Again. The creators, Marv, George, and Bob are pure geniuses and I by no means own these amazing characters or made them up. I just like to think up stories about them.

Author's Note: Well, in response to Chapter Eight being so late, I was going to get Chapter Nine out early, but my computer was on the blink and the server wouldn't let me upload anything :-( So here's Chapter Nine :- D Finally! I spent most of last Saturday staying up till like 11:00 or something writing this because I was on a roll and drinking up those imaginative juices in my head. Then I stayed up later to watch TV and I still have no idea why I did (stay up later that is). Also, Apprentice played this week! YEAH! I think it will always be my favorite story from Teen Titans. So I watched it and once again my stomach went all up in knots. For those of you that saw it, you guys now have a refresher of the original plot that I'm adding to with the middle that we never saw. So now onto Chapter Nine!

Note: You might want to know for this chapter that your Diaphragm is the main muscle in your chest that allows you to breathe and when it is hit, it hurts, bad. It's also pretty scary because you can't breathe, usually. (I speak from experience and just thinking about it still hurts)

What?

Chapter Nine

I bolted upright and gasped.

I was shaking to the point that I couldn't ever remember being so scared from waking up. Not even yesterday's panic attack could measure up to the way my heart was racing now. My fingers crumpled up the sheets like thin pieces of paper. I shut my eyes telling myself, 'They are alive. They are NOT dead...And you are still in one piece.'

I bit my lip and focused on breathing. Despite the obvious signs that it had all been a dream, it felt too real for me. I just wanted to shut it out, but every time I tried to forget, I couldn't. Flashes of the dream ran ramped through my mind. Being happy, us laughing, being told I was his, them falling, me failing...and his laughing. Him laughing at me was the worst of it. He just stood there laughing at my misery, laughing at my inability to do anything to help, laughing at his captured prey.

I shut my eyes and brought my knees up close to my chest to hug them tight. 'It didn't happen. You can't think about that. Don't think about what you might be doing at Titans Tower. All that will do is make your stay here worse.'

That laughing wouldn't stop.

Why did it bother me so much? Other villain's laughter just made me roll my eyes because they thought that they would win. But his was cruel. And not just cruel, it was reserved. It was reserved for unique and certain occasions. Times of slight amusement that usually seemed to be at the downfalls of others or the misunderstandings of others, mainly me and my failures. He never laughed at the other Titans like he did me. Every time he laughed it felt directed at me. But it wasn't because I was in his control. So why was it?

It took a long, daunting while for me to get that laugh to stop ringing in my ears. I finally laid back down and felt my head against a pillow. My brow furrowed for a second and then I bolted up staring at the bed and then the pillow cover. It had that 'S' emblazed on the cover. 'How on earth did I get in bed? And not just the bed, but this bed? I distinctly remember going to sleep in the corner so how did I...?'

I gasped and tumbled out of the bed, not at all landing very smoothly, "Ow."

Did he do what I think he...? I looked at the bed just thinking, 'He put me to bed? He put me to bed. HE, Slade, put ME, Robin, to bed last night?" I felt very dirty all of a sudden and backed away from the bed, when the door snapped opened. The old man once again stood in the doorway carrying a tray. It was smaller then the one last night. He looked down at me, probably wondering what on earth I was doing on the floor scrambling away from the bed, and then he stepped around me and put the tray on the nightstand.

He lit the candle to get more light in the room and then faced me, "Your breakfast. Eat it all. After not eating all of dinner last night, I'd suggest you maybe even dare to ask for more."

"Why?"

"It's not to quench your hunger, but some else's annoyance," At this he looked again at the bed to me, "Why are you on the floor?"

"I...uh, fell out of bed," I replied.

"Last night?"

"No, um... just now," He shook his head at this. The man then held out his hand and I took it. Once I was on my feet, he walked over to the dresser pulling out one thing or another and placing it on the top.

"Finish your breakfast, get dressed and be prepared for hand to hand combat practice in the main room when I come to get you." I nodded in understandment and with that he left the room. Again just as the door was shutting I remembered that I had to...

"Sir, wait, what's your..." Again the door shut and was locked. I turned back to my food and rolled my eyes. 'Nice, Robin, really. I can't wait to hear all the names you'll be calling him for your however long stay at this place! Let's see, "sir", "excuse me", "um would you", "hey man". Pretty soon you'll start talking like Beast Boy and be calling the old man "dude". And you'll never actually know his name.'

I took off the cover and found eggs, waffles, ham, bacon, strawberries, OJ, and some sort of cereal that didn't look at all that familiar. And he wanted me to finish all of this? 'Sure no problem. I'll just grow eight more stomachs like Star has. There's my solution. Now, I just need to stay alive for a couple thousand years to wait for evolution to occur.'

I started with the strawberries and found myself still hungry, so I went for the waffles. They were real, like Cy makes them. I had had the bacon too and found I was still hungry. I ate the cereal even though it tasted bland like Raven likes most of her cereals. By the time I was done, Beast Boy would have died at how much meat I had eaten.

I then looked at the clothes that had been laid out. They weren't the combat suit from yesterday, but more like a martial arts set of clothes. They were all black, but had orange stripes down the sides. They were also made of something that combined silk and cotton. The pants reached down to the bottoms of my feet, but I was happy to find that I didn't need to tie up my belt very tightly because they actually fit pretty well. Small, silver 'S's adorned the bottoms of the pant legs.

Trying to ignore it, I looked at the rest of the clothes. I threw on the shirt which I found had long sleeves, which was nice since it was still freezing cold in this room. Just like the combat uniform, it also had silver 'S' over the chest. It was then that I noticed where it was placed right over my heart. I never really noticed that it had been there that my 'R' had placed itself. But with the 'R' gone, I just couldn't not notice. I felt bad that I had taken it for granted.

There was a small black towel that I wrapped around the back of my neck and let it hang loosely over my shoulders. I looked around for anything else, but that was it. No shoes or guards... which made me a little uncomfortable. The door slid open and the old man stood there waiting for me. I sighed, blew out the candle and walked out to meet him. We started walking; me in front and him behind, but I quickly broke the silence.

I stopped and turned around to face him, "Sir, I don't know your name, but I'm sure that you know mine. So what is it? Your name that is."

He briefly looked surprised at my question but answered it none the less, "My name is classified as of now from you. You, young man, will have to ask Slade as to whether or not he would allow you to know my name."

I stared at him blankly and dumbfounded. "Why can't you just tell me?"

"Not my choice, now we have to get you to the main room," His crisp British accent reminded me of Alfred. 'Whatever' I thought. 'Just ask Slade. No big deal.'

When we entered the main room, it was dark. The gears creaked and grinded against each other. It was suddenly hot from steam being released from who knows where. I saw that chair in the lime light. We walked up to the edge of the light and I could feel Slade gazing down at me from the chair.

"Your apprentice, Slade," I cringed slightly at that.

"Thank you." 'Wow Slade has some manners.' I sincerely hope that Slade doesn't somehow know that I was just thinking that.

"Robin, it's impolite not to look at your elder," I looked up at him to make him happy.

"I'm assuming that you were told that we'd be going through some hand to hand combat today."

"Yes, I was told by him." He waited as though knowing that I had a question, "Um, what exactly is his name?"

He got up and walked up to me, "His name is William Wintergreen and he is a long time associate. He serves as something like a butler around here."

"Why?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Why shouldn't I ask?" I suddenly felt as though he was smiling at me and I frowned. Why was he doing that? What did I just do to make him so happy?

"If you must know, we have an...extensive past. In short, he basically owes his life to me," 'So he owes his life and that means he has to serve you? Some friend you are.'

"Let's begin with training today," The screens lit up and I found myself looking at old recordings of some of my fights. One took hold and enlarged on the screen. It was of the fight on the roof top after he had found out about me being Red X. The recording was from what I'm assuming was the eye of the robot impersonating Slade.

"You're style itself is a combination of many different Martial Arts, but with Jui Jitsu as your main source, am I correct?" I remained quiet, but nodded my head once, "It's a very good method offensively, but you've lacked in training yourself to really defend yourself. Things like turning your back to your opponent when you don't have an attack planned and not being able to take a hit to your diaphragm for example."

"No one can take a hit to their diaphragm. You can't breathe," I interrupted.

"Maybe that's where we should start then," Slade flipped a switch and got up. The room lit up and the monitors changed to a replay of me getting hit in my gut. I stared at him bewildered. How was he going to train me to take a hit like that? No one can. And I mean NO ONE (unless you're very lucky and have some sort of immunity to it). He walked into the center of the room. I left the towel on the floor and walked up to him.

"Take a hit at me, Robin."

"What?"

"Hit my diaphragm any way you'd like. I'm not going to attack you back," he told me.

"Fine," I get to hit him and not get attacked. I'm not complaining. Maybe this will be my way to let loose on some anger. With a yell, I ran a fist full of fury right below his rib cage. I pulled back, shaking my hand. 'Ow. Ow, Ow, OW! Why does he have hard armor and I don't?' Looking back at him, he hadn't moved at all. I stared at him in disbelief.

"I believe it is possible, Robin."

"I bet you can't attack right away though," I retorted, "You have to have time to recover."

"You want to bet on that?" He asked me raising his eye brow (I think), "Try again and this time I will attack back."

Shaking my head, annoyed, I did as I was told. I preformed the same maneuver, but was shocked to feel a sharp fist connect with my shoulder knocking me to the side on the floor. I got up and shook my head. How did he...?

"It's the principle of training one's self to be prepared for the attack as well as being accustomed to the attack so as not to be caught off guard," He said.

He walked around me so that my back was facing his chest. I could feel the hair on the back of my neck prickle. I felt a hand come down to the bottom of my rib cage and I started to try to move out of Slade's grasp. He stopped me.

"Calm down, Robin. I just want you to feel how your diaphragm moves as you breathe," I waited and when he thought that I felt it, he spoke again, "You feel your diaphragm contracting as you breathe in air?"

I nodded, "You feel it relax as you release that air?"

I nodded again, "Knowing this is the key, Robin. I want you to shut your eyes and just think about this. Which would hurt more? When your muscles are tightening? or loosening?"

I really didn't feel like listening to him, but I did. I shut my eyes and kept on breathing trying to figure out my response. For some reason I listened to him. I don't know why. When I found my answer I responded to him, "Loosening?"

"For now that is correct. When your muscles tighten, you potentially could make it as though your opponent is hitting a brick wall. That's actually what I did when you attacked me."

"You what...?" I began and opened my eyes, really ticked off.

He cut me off, "I only did it because I could and as you get used to it, tightening your muscles will be the easiest thing to do. For now though, it will only hurt you. It doesn't hurt me because I've trained myself to be resistant to it. You however are right in that for you, loosening your muscles would be the best thing to do. It's because the force of the blow travels slower when you exhale then it would when you inhale. It's really just physics and biology put together." DIV to

I nodded in understanding. He let go of me and walked off to my side. He snapped his fingers and a Sladebot appeared in front of me, "Let it hit you, Robin. Let's see what you took from that lecture."

"Wait, wha..." I didn't have time to finish as I felt a fist connect with my diaphragm. I stumbled away and found myself dizzy. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't get that precious oxygen. I literally couldn't feel air moving in or out of my nose or mouth. I couldn't even gasp out or yell. I didn't pay attention to what the rest of my body was doing. What I did know is that I had to get air. I had to get...

I gasped as oxygen entered my lungs. I could breathe again.

I felt a strong firm hand grab my arm in a tight squeeze and pulled me up. I hadn't realized that I had fallen to the floor. How did I... what...? My mind was dizzy.

"Do you really forget everything this quickly?"

I felt his hand leave my arm and I heard a snap, "Again."

'Oh no.' I spun around and saw the Sladebot coming at me, so I dodge out of the way. I dodged again. I felt a strong chest behind me. I spun around to look at Slade.

"You aren't to dodge this, Robin. You are to confront it."

He pushed me away from him just as the Sladebot threw a fist at me. I felt air escape my lungs again. It hurt more then the last time. I willed air to flow through my mouth and down my throat, but nothing came. I couldn't... nothing was... why wouldn't...

My eyes fluttered open as I regained the consciousness that I lost when I couldn't breathe. I saw that black and orange mask looking down at me. I gasped and tried to roll away from him, but felt a foot step on my stomach. I struggled to push it off, but Slade wouldn't give. I growled and ground my teeth. It did no good.

"You really don't listen, do you?" He bent over and grabbed my arms. Slade twisted me around in his grasp so that my chest faced the Sladebot that was standing across the room.

"There is a reason I wanted you to feel how you breathe, Robin. Now, you are going to go through this until you understand how to do this," The Sladebot came started closer.

I was in mute horror, but soon found my voice and started to shake my head, "No, no Slade, don't..."

A fist connected with my gut and I doubled over. I closed my eyes and willed my chest to work. My lungs were still. I remember my body shaking as though the more I shook, the more air I might get. Soon, I regained control of myself.

I looked up at Slade, my mouth gaping open in shock, "Slade, what was...? There's no point in me doing this."

"You have to be able to control yourself, or if not all of yourself, part of yourself. You have to maintain control over your limbs and mind. They control if you live while you can't breathe for those short times. You almost died when you fell off of that building and you can be sure that there will not always be one of robots there to save you. Your lungs may not be in your control or giving you oxygen, but you still have the energy and nutrients in your blood to allow you to control yourself."

"Slade this is mad..." Again the fist. I shook my head and struggled in his grasp, but he was firm and not about to let me go.

"Slade, don't..." The robot got me again.

I looked up to see it coming at me as I regained my breath, "No, no no, stop!"

Again I was hit. My mind screamed to find someway to stop the attacks, "Slade... no..."

My lungs were still again, "Slade...stop..."

Again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

I was hit.

I was punched.

I was kicked.

I lost count. It felt like an hour's worth of losing my breath by different attacks. Finally, I felt like if I was hit one more time, I'd pass out for much longer then I had been. I looked at the Sladebot as though I were delusional.

'Control yourself, or if not all of yourself, part of yourself.'

'Feel how you breathe, Robin.'

'You are to confront it.'

The robot came at me with a ready hit. Against my better judgement to brace myself, I let lose a breath as I felt the fist collide with my diaphragm. I waited for my body to start shuddering again. I waited to feel myself writhering in Slade's grasp. I waited for my eyes to blank out.

It didn't come.

I still couldn't breathe, but my body wasn't panicking. I could see. I couldn't move my body on my own, but at least my body wasn't acting without my mind's consent. I felt safe. I felt like I could control myself. I knew that in a couple seconds I'd regain the ability to use my lungs. I relaxed in Slade's grip.

Soon, I gasped for a deep breath and after took several deep breaths. Somehow, I knew that the Sladebot wasn't going to attack me again. I had done it. I hadn't burst out uncontrollably. I was able to take the hit.

Slade leaned over my shoulder and whispered in my ear, "Well done, Robin."

I felt his warm breath vent out from the grated mask and tickle my ear. I could feel his gaze on me. I felt small compared to him, little. My safety seemed all of a sudden linked to something, but what was it?

He released me and I fell to the ground on shaking knees, "It took long enough, but you got it."

I wasn't listening. I was just so relieved to be out of his grasp and not the Sladebot's target. Slade turned around and allowed me to see his back, "Let's see if you can attack an opponent with a disadvantage like that."

That got me listening. I wasn't going to do that. No way, no how. I started to crawl away and then got up on my feet. I went into a sprint. I ran for the nearest exit and found the door locked. I struggled with the door, but to no avail. It remained locked. I glanced around the room and saw another door across to my right. I also saw Slade walking towards me.

I ran at the door, not stopping when I felt my shirt rip and my sleeve leave my arm. I reached the other door and pulled at the knob. Again, it was locked. I was about to search for another door, when I saw a shadow cover my own. I felt Slade grab my other arm and begin to pull me into the center of the room.

"No!" I screamed. I bit at the seam of the fabric which gave way and the other sleeve came off of me. I fell to the floor and found myself crawling away from him again. This time, Slade grabbed the back of my shirt and pulled me up.

"Now, Robin, I can't very well teach you if you run away from me," I shook my head 'no'. I felt him take hold of my wrists and proceed to drag me to the center of the room.

"No! Slade stop, leave me alone! I don't want you to teach me like this! I want out! Please, anything! I'd hand you over to the police if I could! You're a Low, Disgusting, Filthy, Crimina...!"

I felt my arms yanked forward and felt my face collide with the back of Slade's elbow. I yelped. I fell to the floor and collapsed. My head had a migraine the size of Alaska. My top teeth felt like they were going to fall out. My nose had been hit so hard I could feel drops of blood from a nose bleed making their way down my face already. The bottom of my right eye was starting to swell and I knew that if I didn't get it under any ice soon it would turn into a black eye. The pains that had been caused in my chest were nothing compared to this.

I was brought away from those pains to one of my hair being tugged upward to meet the masked face of my captor, "I have my limits, Robin. That was not out of lack of patience, rather it was for punishment. The more you resist, the harder it will be for you. Either way, the end result will be the same. You will still be my apprentice and I will still be your master. You could make it much easier on yourself if you would just change your attitude."

"Not...in a...million...years..." I breathed out as defiantly as I could. He dropped me to the floor. I just wanted to go to bed and not wake up for a millennium.

"Tell you what, Robin, I'll give you a choice. You don't have to come to more practice sessions today. You may do one of two things. One is go get something to eat and go back to your room for the rest of the day. Or you may go and run out of this place. I will even leave every door unlocked and I won't try to stop you."

'What? Why...?'

"Just remember, the second you leave the premises, I have permission to destroy the rest of the Titans," With that, he left the room.

I heard all the doors open, but made no attempt to get up. I just laid there curled up into a ball. My mind was having trouble thinking straight. My head didn't want to comply with what had just happened. I wanted to leave, to get away from Slade. I wanted to stay away from the pain. But last night... my dream...it stopped me. I wouldn't. I couldn't. My life would be full of pain anyways. I'd rather deal with physical pain rather then emotional pain.

I had to get up. I had to somehow numb the pain. I slowly rolled over and got up on shaky legs. I leaned my piqued body against the walls and headed for the hallway that had taken me to the Dining Room last night. When I got there, I saw nothing at first. Then I saw a doorway on the other side of the room. I brought myself over to it and knocked on the door. It opened and I saw Wintergreen standing before me.

I felt my jaw tremble as I spoke, "Help."

I fell down on my knees again. I felt him give me a hand up. He draped one of my arms over his shoulders for support. He brought me to a small table and set me down. He continued to stand up straight as he did. I closed my eyes and felt an ice bag being pressed against the right side of my face. Slowly, that half of my face went numb. I just wanted it to stay that way. I held it up myself.

I heard a dish being placed in front of me and saw a small bowel of broth. I ate what I could (which was really only a fourth of the broth) and then quit. It was no use as my stomach was still sore and slightly upset from being hit so often. He led me to my room after that and put out another pair of nightwear on my bed. Wintergreen then lit the candle and I saw the flame burning again. He left me as I reached the bed. The door's snap seemed quieter now. Once again, I slowly put on the nightwear which was still too big.

I felt very tired. Very tired. I didn't care now that that 'S' was on the pillow. I didn't care one bit. I fell onto the bed. It had been the worst day of my life, but then again I had thought that about the day I had been forced into this deal. I knew I'd have many more days like these to come. I didn't want to think about it. I wanted rest. I wanted to relax. I wanted to heal. I just wanted to be back home in Titans Tower. I wished that this was not happening. But no matter how hard I willed it to not be happening, I couldn't stop feeling the pains that scared my injured body.

I was really tired and it wasn't just from the fight. It was from something else, but my mind was too foggy to be thinking right. I felt myself surrender to the sandman and went off to sleep.

A/N: Yes! I know you're all shocked! Slade did a total 180 from the last chapter. He goes from actually thoughtful to cruel in one day. I think my favorite thing about writing two POV's is that you will see Slade's logic in doing this. There will be more of the last chapter sort of themed chapters coming very soon. Don't worry! Also, how I may post chapters might have to change. I might have to post at the beginning and ending of a week then wait a week and start again instead of posting once every week. Sorry, my computer is having spasms now. AHHHH! Also, I'm sorry for those of you who had this story on alerts and you got multiple emails for Chapter Eight. The chapter wouldn't go up right at first.

Also, the code from the last Chapter, "oaoaao". Well, no one I know has actually gotten the code unless I've told them, so now I'll spill. The code is based off of an actual code used in the military at times: Morse Code. You know, the thing they get SOS from with all of those dashes and dots. I didn't want to do the dots and dashes because it would be too easy to figure out. Plus, I don't think that Slade would use something like that with all of the high tech stuff he has. So I changed the dashes to "a"s and the dots to "o"s. The meaning of the code spells out the word "eye". "E" is one dot and "Y" is dash dot dash dash. I got the idea from my grandpa since he knew Morse Code. I thought it would fit because in the comics Slade spent time in the army for some time so he probably knew Morse Code.

Thanks again for reading and reviewing! Chapter Ten will be up soon!

Rena