Disclaimer: Is this not clear already? Guess not. Okay, I'll make this very plain and clear, I Do Not Own Teen Titans. Alright? I also don't own some of the quotes in here either as they also come from "Apprentice Part 2".

Author's Note: Hey everyone! Well here's another chapter. Now I have a confession to make. Do you remember reading the summary that said that this story was what happens between Apprentice Part 1 and 2? No, this isn't the last chapter. I'm not saying that. But I haven't actually planned to write what happens during Apprentice pt. 2. Don't kill me! But I think I have something that will satisfy everyone.

PAY ATTENTION TO THIS: If you review me, please also tell me one scene that you would like to see me write. Or you can PM me. For me, a scene is basically determined when there's a major change in the set, a cut to commercials (or to/from the theme song), or a change in the tone or mood. I'll see what the majority of you want to read and see what I think I can do it the justice it deserves.

Author's Note Continued: Okay, so now you know about that. Slade's POV is also in present tense like the last one. I hope you'll like this chapter. So enough with me taking up your time and let's get to What?: Chapter Twenty-One!

-T-

What?

Chapter Twenty-Two

Waking up, I go to work immediately. I have robots set up cameras in all of the right places and the signals begin to come in. Wintergreen tells me when we have the Titans' communications undetected. I smile. Good.

"I'll be right back, Wintergreen," I say.

He says nothing, but I know he hears me. He can be bitter all he wants. It won't change how I train Robin. I open the door to Robin's room. I look around. The smashed cube lays in the corner along with the ripped fabric. Annoyed, I make a mental note to make Robin fix it all later. I go over to the bottom drawer and pull out a syringe filled with a sedative.

Robin lies on his bed, asleep. I see the goose bumps on his skin and notice that the sheets are wet around him. Pulling the sheets back so that I can grab his arm to find a vein, I notice the ice packs that he has surrounding him. At least sleeping with the packs got rid of most of the bruises that would have appeared.

I pull Robin's left arm out and easily find a vein. I get the needle in, only making Robin twitch slightly but do nothing more. Yesterday was enough for him in terms of physical pain. I wasn't going to use this to punish him. If that was the case then I wouldn't have been so careful. Robin's breathing relaxes a bit. I get up and leave, my job done.

I walk back to the main room and Wintergreen nods in acknowledgment of my presence. There was no time to waste. I hack into the main frame of Titans Tower and put it on screen. They get up and get ready for the day. I half-smile. I'll make sure that it will be a day they will remember for the rest of their lives, not in the good way, of course.

I check the settings of everything. The robots that will be keeping an eye on my apprentice are ready to do their jobs. The ones there to make sure nothing goes wrong are fine as well. Them not needed? I don't take risks, so yes they are needed.

It's a question of pure loyalty and trust. The fact remains that Robin has yet to become loyal to me in the genuine way. His loyalty has ways to go. On the matter of trust. That goes both ways. I trust that he knows the consequences. He trusts me to keep to my end of the bargain. However, I will not be around him when he makes his debut. That is a situation that has to be controlled. And controlled it will be. The day passes as the preparations are made.

"Wintergreen, get his guards," I tell him.

"Guards?"

"Arm and chest guards."

He comes back with the items, "Thank you."

He remains silent. The clock ticks away. It's around 8:45 PM. I realize that Robin's sedative should be wearing off and so I nod to Wintergreen towards the door. He knows what to do. I wait about 30 minutes and then go back to the console. The screens turn to the blood streams of the Titans and their soft talk die down to nothing. I wait watching the screens. It can never hurt to have reassurance nearby. I know what I'm going to do. I know what my apprentice is going to do. All I have to do is wait. I hear the door open and the shaky steps that follow. I turn to see my apprentice in the half done up uniform. His masked gaze keeps dashing from the screens to me.

"Well, how did you sleep, my apprentice?"

Getting things out of the way he says, "Fine, but Slade... please, I didn't mean yesterday for any of this to..."

"Don't worry about yesterday, Robin," I start toward him. He begins to scrunch himself. I can't help but smile looking at him. He doesn't know anything about tonight and it's rich. Just like he didn't know the day he became my apprentice...

He panics, "Look, Slade, I'm sorry for yelling and..."

"What did I say, Robin?" He lets me finish, "I said not to worry about it."

"Then why..."

"The monitors?" I inquire and I get a nod in response, "Just a little reminder for this evening."

"Evening?" He asks back. I know that I'm being cruel by not telling him.

"It's 9:30 PM, Robin," He looks bewildered, "I hope you don't mind. I gave you a sedative while you were sleeping so you'd be well rested. Tonight, you will have your first mission, my apprentice, which will commence in fifteen minutes."

I turn around and wait for the sound of shock.

"What?!"

Same as before. Must be his signature sound. I walk over to my desk, "You will be stealing a Thermal Blaster from the Needle. You already know the route."

"I, I do?" His voice reveals his confusion.

Offhandedly I wonder why he isn't trying to conceal it. Probably because he figures he can't conceal much from me now that he's my apprentice. I reply, "The Cube. The first route yesterday is the Needle's layout and your objective is this."

The blood dissipates from screen and turns into the Thermal Blaster rotating in its place. Robin looks at it intentionally, his gaze not moving. I open the drawer and pull out his arms guards. I walk in front of him and wait for him to get what he's supposed to do. I begin to put them on him so that they won't fall off. Many people don't realize that control is something that is established from the beginning. You don't wait until half-way through a mission to make sure that the people working for you will do what you say. This act was to reinforce that subconscious thought in his head. I was the one he listened to. My order was his law which he would respond to.

"You will most likely end up seeing the Titans, Robin. And I trust that you will act accordingly, right?" I ask him.

Robin nods as he switches his arms and I continue, "We will be receiving their incoming signals so we will know their positions. I'll be telling you what to do. Just listen and don't mess up,"

I finish with his arm guards and go over to get the chest plate. I lift it over his head and place it on his shoulders. Robin's gaze is back on the monitors which have returned to the Titans' blood streams. I let Robin secure it. I can't help but like how much the uniform makes him look exactly like one would envision my apprentice to look like. I notice that he fumbles with the clasps. Nervous, huh? He'll begin to enjoy it soon enough. Which reminds me... I walk back and grab two small devices. Very useful devices actually. They provide easy communication and also will give me a clear idea of how my apprentice is doing physically throughout the mission, thus the sharp inside. Once in, they won't hurt.

Placing them between my fingers, I walk back over to Robin. I grab his head and he jerks slightly, but stops just as soon. I can feel him shaking. His eyes don't move from the monitors, but I know what he's paying attention to. He knows that he's my apprentice. I smile at this. For a moment, I can't help but feel proud of him because I know that he'll do well tonight.

"I know that you can do this, my apprentice," I move my hands back towards his ears. As I pass over his jaw, I notice that he cringes slightly from the pain caused by last night. 'It will get better,' I tell myself.

"I will be there to direct your every move," I place the receivers in his ears. He gasps as they go in, "I know that you won't disappoint me."

He stands still, but understands what he is to do and nods. I lead him to the roof and hand him his belt which I grabbed off the desk as we passed. He stares at the openness of it all. I understand that it's a lot. He's never actually seen a blue print and he has only been outside once this entire time.

"Go on, apprentice," I lean down and whisper in his ear so that the sound from the receivers sounds exactly the same, "Go on."

Robin puts on the belt and walks to the edge of the rooftop. He stops and stares. I go inside and back to the console. When I put on the screen that shows the top of the Haunt, Robin's still there. So I give him a little push.

"What are you waiting for?" I ask him (The receiver's mike is inside my mask).

Robin starts to run. I pull up on the side of the screen, the monitors coming in from the receivers. His heart rate goes up. His running becomes quicker. His breathing changes. Finally, the receivers begin to pick up small traces of adrenaline in his blood. Then more and more and more. As he gets about half-way to the Needle, I give him instructions.

"I'm feeding you their conversations," I tell him tapping the keyboard to send the communications from the Titans to him,

We both hear their voices.

"Robin? Robin! Please, Robin, where are you?" The alien's voice fills the speakers,

"Starfire, enough. You've been calling for forty-five minutes," The telepath drawls.

"Perhaps if I just try one more..." Starfire tries, but is interrupted.

"Come on, Star. If he's gonna pick up, he'd have done it by now. 'Sides, you're kinda giving me a headache," The changling says in a tired manner. He should be. They've been searching the whole day, again.

The Tamaranean continues, "But why does he not respond? Where could he be?"

Cyborg delivers more bad news, for them, "Robin and Cinderblock definitely went a few rounds, but I can't tell who won... or where they went."

Back at the tower, Raven reports, "No sign of him here either. His locator is still offline. I've been monitoring all the frequencies, but he hasn't checked in."

Starfire's gives her say, "Oh, we are bad friends! We should never have left Robin to do battle alone."

Beast Boy adds, irately, "Yeah, especially since Slade's big do-dad was a dud."

I look back at the monitors. The adrenaline is pumping even harder now. The endorphins are kicking in. The boy is having a headache but can't feel it. I know it's stressful for him, but it will all be worth it.

"The Chronoton Detonator wasn't a dud. It was a decoy to lure us away from Robin... and we fell for it," Raven says evenly. The girl is a quiet one, but also a controlled one.

Concrete falls to the floor, while Cyborg adds roughly, "I should have known that thing was a fake!"

"But, why?" Starfire asks. The girl asks the question that I can't wait to answer or rather I can't wait until she sees the answer, "Why did Slade wish to separate us from Robin?"

"You're there?" I ask him, seeing that he is close to the Needle, almost right on top of it.

"Yeah."

"Dive for it."

And he does.

Robin and I hear the last question. Beast Boy starts it, "And if the Detonator was a decoy..."

Raven ends it, "What was Slade's real plan?"

The alarm goes off, but I knew it would. They have sensors that I didn't add to the Cube's route. My reason? I want Robin to see the Titans. I know very well that while stealing, people tend to keep it unknown to the owners. And Robin's plan would have been that. But no, he was going to see them. I wanted them to see him. He could get out of it. I knew he could.

"Titans! Trouble!" Cyborg orders and they all move to get to the Needle.

They'll get there soon enough. I know that Robin has time. Robin lands and goes into the ventlation system. He remains in the dark. When he comes out, all I see is a shadow of him, but I know it's him. I think back to all of the times where all Robin saw of me was a shadow and an eye watching him, Robin grabs a small bomb blade and throws it at the case containing the Thermal Blaster. Once the blast is gone, Robin walks up to the Blaster and takes it from it's place. I smile. Good. Footsteps are coming closer. Robin leaves the room.

A guard shouts, "He's stolen the Thermal Blaster!"

Another yells, "Stop him!"

The guards spot him and Robin begins to run the opposite way. Somersaulting into a leap, he dodges and loses the guards.

I know that he loses them when I hear them say, "Where'd he go?"

They leave and Robin lands. I knew they'd be here soon enough. Robin's form remains a shadow.

"Freeze!" Cyborg yells.

His adrenaline spikes. Here's where that control comes into play. The first time seeing your enemies, the first thing that you notice is how they look and how much of a threat they are. You size them up and feel a hint of fear if they radiate danger. The Teen Titans are no exception. Cyborg, Raven, Beast Boy, and Starfire, all of them can have that fierce look about them. It's not as bad as it can be today, I will admit, but for Robin right now, any look is bad for him. He'll get used to those looks, though, after a while.

Robin starts to run the opposite way in a matter of seconds. He keeps running and I don't bother to remind him that he'll reach a dead end soon. They chase him of course and he hits the dead end.

Robin's shoes brush the ground as he stops himself. As he turns, I smile. The moonlight illuminates him and the moment that I've waited for is indeed sweet. Robin's outlined shadowed figure is revealed to be wearing the black and orange uniform with the silver armor. The "S" insignia gleams where his "R" once was always placed.

For the Titans, it must be like looking at a combination of an 'evil Batman' and myself. That I will admit would dampen anyone's moods. Their eyes scan my apprentice for some sign of reassurance that this is all a nightmare. I have a feeling that subconsciously they realize the devastation that this revelation is about to bring. Shock, confusion, upset, bewilderment. I could list off many adjectives to describe their faces, but one would really have to look at them to understand. Losing a friend is one thing, but having one betray them is another. And that's what they think right now, isn't it?

My apprentice remains still, poised and ready to fight when needed. He knows what's on the line and he's being obedient. He's obeying orders. The adrenaline and endorphins are pumping through his nervous body, but he controls himself. I can't help but be extremely pleased when I hear what comes next.

"That's not Slade, that's..." Beast Boy says.

"...Robin!" Starfire ends.

Perfect Apprentice indeed.

-T-

A/N: So how was that one? Now that I finished this chapter, I want to go watch "Apprentice pt.1 and 2" (I hope it's playing, lol). Don't forget to tell me what scene you want to see! Otherwise, there won't be one and I'll skip it! Thanks again to all of my reviewers and readers out there! You guys so rock! Oh, also, Happy Thanksgiving! Later!

Rena