Disclaimer: I wish with all my might for Teen Titans! Please can't someone just be nice and get them for me? It's only a couple documents and signatures. Okay, you won't get them for me... so what about an iPod? If you didn't figure it out by reading this, then I'll say it now: I don't own Teen Titans. Go me. What great depressing news. Also part of this chapter is based on Apprentice Part 2.

Author's Note: I'm going to start off by saying thank you to all of my reviewers. You guys rock. And also people who have read this far into my story, you guys rock too. You're all so awesome. Anyway, now I have all of your reviews and all of the scenes you guys picked. I sorely wish that I could satisfy everybody and write the entire episode. But this thing is already really long. For the scene... there was a close match, actually a tie. So I had to choose one of them. I hope, though, that you will all be satisfied with it. Also, a warning, there is a bit of RobinXStarfire in this chapter. I'm going to say this. When I write long chapter stories like this, I tend to stick to pairings that the show (and comics) dictate. Oh, those of you who are my anonymous reviewers, on my webpage on Fan Fiction I have some review replies for you guys (since I can't really reach you guys any other way). Those replies will be up for a couple months. So without further delay, I present to you "What?: Chapter Twenty-Three Epilogue pt.1"!

Note:

Regular: currently happening

Italics: flashback

Regular within italics: emphasis

-T-

What?

Chapter Twenty-Three: Epilogue pt.1

The fresh evening air hits me. I smile. It feels so good to be back home. Back in my own clothes, my own uniform. I found that I had missed my Robin colors more then I had realized. When I had stepped into my room again for the first time in over two weeks, I couldn't help but smile. The Titans had left me alone, but they were all smiling as they left. I looked around the room. It was still plastered with newspapers and my sheets were in the same place they had been when I had left. I saw my desk still cluttered with files and weapons I had been working on.

The first thing I went to, though, was my closet. I wanted out of this thing as soon as possible. Once I was in my uniform, I had thrown myself on my bed and savored the feeling. I was home. I was home! I finally had to get up, though. I was going to go out when I noticed the newspapers again. I strode over to one of Slade. I started taking off the tacks and one by one the news clippings of Slade came off my wall. I had a feeling that I'd be putting them back up to help me work eventually, but I didn't want to remind myself anymore about the apprenticeship. Not right now. Not when I just got home.

When I was done, Cyborg had hooked up all of the wires and tubes necessary to remove the probes. Soon only Beast Boy was left to go. After he was done, "Breakfast Explosion!" (what a surprise), need I say any more. I talked to Cyborg though about re-doing the security system too. While I had a feeling that Slade wouldn't be up and running again anytime soon, I didn't want to make it any easier for him when he did by not changing our security system. Cyborg said he'd get started on it, but it would take about a week to finish. He finished in three hours.

The sun was slowly falling from the sky and performing graceful dive below the horizon. In some ways, I can't even believe that I'm home. I guess when he sent me out, that was when my hope of getting home hit a dive. And it only got worse. My grief turned to anger. And that anger just was pent up inside of me waiting to be unleashed. But when it was unleashed...

-T-

I had come back from Wayne Enterprises and had just entered, closing the door behind me. I leaned against the door. I was still shaking. Shaking from the shock, shaking from the rage, shaking from the hurt. I finally made my way back to the main room. I entered slowly so as not to make a sound. I saw my fight being played out on the monitors. Slade was in his chair watching.

"Thrilling," He said.

Thrilling? He thought it was thrilling? I didn't know if he knew I was here, but I still didn't make a sound.

"My apprentice is progressing even faster than I had hoped. All he needed was a little motivation."

Motivation?!?!?

I couldn't take it anymore. I ran up and grabbed his wrist, yelling, "Motivate this!"

I threw a punch, but like so many other times, he grabbed my fist and kept it from going any further. But this time, I kept fighting it. I growled at him. He finally forced my fist, along with my arm over as though to trip me. But I was not going to let anything like that happen. I flipped out of his grasp and landed across the other side of the room in a fighting stance. Yeah, I was angry and I knew that I had every right to be.

Slade flexed his fingers.

"Robin, that was vicious, dishonorable, and ruthless," He said crossing the room, "Excellent work. You're becoming more like me every second."

Huh?

Then he whirled around and began a fist fight. I dodged what I could and tried to defend myself. However, I turned and he grabbed me and lifted me off the ground. I kicked and squirmed, but nothing seemed to be working. I was angry, irritated and annoyed. He made me fight my friends and he has the nerve to make me think of him as my superior.

I brought my legs into a ball and kicked up past my face and into his. He dropped me and I landed, silently thanking the fact that I was so lithe. I caught my breath, but when I got it back, I wasted no time in performing a back flip with a well aimed kick ready to hit Slade in the face again. I wasn't fighting because he told me to or for practice. It was the basic opposite.

Unfortunately, I saw it coming, the counterattack that is. He grabbed my incoming leg and scrapped me against the ground, throwing me into the gear-filled air. I screamed and grabbed a pipe to stop myself. I began walked around. I was neither glad nor happy about being up here. I had had my share of getting through this maze and knew that he could come out from anywhere, if he chose to. And yes, he did. A gear began to rotate and I knew that it would be him on the other end.

"Good, Robin. You're doing much better than last time. A few more years of training, and you might actually pose a threat," he said calmly.

I wasn't calm, though. I stepped back as he advanced. Finding a thin lever, I kick at it and it broke, becoming a weapon in my hands as I twirled it and then abruptly halted in it's path. Slade didn't take this as much of anything and took out his own bow-staff. The steam in the room surrounds us. I charge in knowing the advantage either of us will have.

I swung and swung again. Slade stopped me, but I keep pressing my staff against his own. It was almost a test of wills. Slade got tired of it, though, if that was the case. He forced my back against a large pipe with a good swift upper-cut of the staff to my jaw. I jumped up just before Slade jammed the staff into the pipe. Landing on the staff, I deliver a swing, again, right to his face.

Oh, that felt good. That felt so good. He wants me to fight the Titans? He wants me to hurt them? He better be ready to receive the same. I was still alert and focused my skills on locating Slade. He wouldn't stay down for long. Only, where did he...?

I revolved around just in time to see him behind me. I flipped out of the way and behind a swinging gear. I backed up and away. The gear kept swinging and swinging and swinging. He came into view behind the gear. One moment he was there and another he wasn't. He never seemed constant. And he disappeared without a trace. My eyes widened in disbelief. Even as I did so, I felt him push me to the side. The lever dropped from my hands and I was pushed onto another round gear.

I barely had time to register anything when I saw him jumping towards me with a fist meant for my face. I leapt into a summersault and back onto my feat. He stood up and as he removed his fist, a large crater was where my head had been moments ago. He stood tall and clenched his fist making a cracking sound of his knuckles. 'He'd hurt me without giving so much of a second thought,' I thought to myself. I didn't despise him for that. I didn't expect it from him. What really aggravated me was that he seemed to flaunt superiority over me.

I was so sick of him. I was so sick of having him look down at me, not in disappointment, but in pride. I was sick of him thinking that I would actually like this because under no circumstance, I knew, could I ever be happy being his apprentice.

I narrowed my eyes. I ran up to him and leapt into a spin and kicked him in the face. He hunched and I landed. Using the rest of my momentum, I spun around again and kicked him sending him flying backwards and off the gears back to the ground level where we had started. I yelled every time I had hit him just getting more and more of my rage out. I jumped down and landed on two feet. I came up standing upright and tall as if to say, 'Ha!'

Slade whirled around to face me. His eye said it all, narrowed, calculating... I had gotten him angry. Good, "You're going to wish you hadn't done that."

I walked up to him calmly. I didn't care if he was angry at me. I really didn't. I was angry at him. He had made me fight my friends, work for him, and steal. He had made me steal from the enterprises (while I don't believe he knew how personal that was to me, it was still irritating). He had made me hurt Star, too. That was just the tip of the iceberg. From there, he made me watch them suffer. I could practically feel their pain as my eyes sent the images for me to register. I didn't want to believe that they were actually happening, but I knew they were as Star fell into my arms and shuddered at the pain. The guilt he had caused me was immeasurable.

Now here I was. I was still wearing his colors which I hated. He was still trying to force me to go back on all that Bruce had taught me. It wasn't going to happen. I only had one thing to say to him. It was of mere regret and I made sure that when I said it, I gave off the impression that I wasn't going to back down. Because I had no intention of backing down.

Right now, I wasn't afraid of him, "I only wish I'd done it sooner."

I ripped the silver "S" off my chest and threw it into the ground in front of Slade.

Slade growled at me before leaping into action. I jumped back to avoid him. He threw a couple punches, which I back flipped out of the way from. He aimed a kick which I blocked. I dodged another punch he aimed at me and flipped into a handstand, hopping to kick him in the face with him being off guard. But he wasn't off guard. My foot was caught in his hand with ease. He held it there for a second.

My eyes widened as he threw me across the floor, which I did not recover from at all gracefully, rolling over and onto my chest. I got up on my hands and knees, breathing in and out to catch my breath. Slade walked over to me, not flaunting superiority, but standing over me as though saying, 'You are in no position to be doing this'.

Calmly, but with an edge to it he told me, "I have much to teach you, but the first thing you need to learn is gratitude."

He eyed the monitors as I stood up. I wiped my mouth and looked at the screens too. They still showed the same thing that they always had, the blood pumping with the probes along with it. It infuriated me. I was supposed to be grateful that my friends were always going to be in danger and that I was to always be at his mercy? Yeah, right.

With a yell, I threw a punch which he grabbed, but he did not stop my momentum as always. He let it carry me forward as he pulled my arm back. Slade sent me crashing to the floor, my arm still behind me. And it hurt. I finally succumbed to it and he let me go. I rolled onto my back for the first time since the fight begun, thinking, 'What if I don't win this? What will he do?' Maybe that's when I realized that fear had started to creep back into me.

"I made you my apprentice. All my knowledge, all my power," While rubbing my sore arm, I felt my head being pressed into the ground by Slade with the utmost force. He radiated fury. Looking me in the eye, down on his knees and close to my face he continued, "All for you. But the only thing you care about is your worthless, little, Friends!"

I was still angry and growled at Slade, but I listened to at least some of what he said. All that he was giving I didn't want. I couldn't understand why he couldn't see that or if he did why he wouldn't accept that. I felt humiliated being in this deal. I felt desperate. But I didn't show it, I wanted him to see how aggravated I was and that I wasn't going down without a fight. He let me go again. I kneeled on floor, my head close to the ground, regaining my breath.

As I rose and got ready to fight again, with me behind him he said, "If the Titans are so distracting, maybe I should just get rid of them."

He brought the button into view and I halted my movements. There it was, the thing that would make me obey him. He had left it out of this fight until now. It hurt me to realize that as long as he had that he had control over me. I succumbed.

"Don't," I said raising my hand. I let the bitter words come out of my mouth, "I'll do whatever you say,"

I hated him. I hated him, I hated him. But I was at Slade's mercy as were the other Titans. I had to endure this apprenticeship for them. I had begged and now I was doing it again. And I'd do it however many times I would have to. My breath became tight in my chest as I tried to keep my breathing steady and controlled. I was no longer filled with anger, but with agony. I kept my head down low so I wouldn't have to look at him.

"Good boy," Slade turned to face me, "And, from now on, I'd like you to call me Master."

Master? It might have been a mere split-second, but in that second I felt whatever freedom I had begin to slip quickly away. My suspicions from the start were confirmed in cement. He was cruel. I almost felt like I was being locked away from everything and my fate ready to be sealed. I struggled to keep my knees from buckling.

Just as my hope was almost out of reach, I heard a starbolt and I saw Slade being thrown to the side from the force of the impact of the green energy. In that moment, the shackles that had almost been locked were removed. There in front of Slade's chair were the Titans. Each looked completely ready to fight. Starfire's eyes glowed the bright emerald, neon green.

"Leave-him-alone!" She yelled infuryatly, controlled, serious, menacingly, and determined.

My hope came back.

-T-

It's strange how things like that work. When you think you're done for and then someone gives you hope. When the Haunt was totaled, we all leapt into the T-Car and headed home. Cyborg explained that he took a blood sample and was able to trace a faint hint of the general area that the signals were coming from. They quickly searched the area and were able to find the Haunt.

I keep playing things over and over in my head, even though it's over. His orders, seeing them in pain, beating Slade at his own game. I can't help but remember the pain the probes made in me. It was torture, but I wanted to defy Slade directly and let him know that he was going to lose one way or the other. The thing that stands out the most, though, is that Slade didn't let me die. He would have any of the others, but not me. And in a subconscious manner, I had known that. At the moment that I had needed to know it most, I realized it and used it to my advantage. Hints had pieced it in my mind. Just things here and there, nothing much.

The biggest clue I'd have to guess, though, was when he said, "I might even become like a father to you." I had thought that it was meant for me to agree to. When I told him, "I already have a father." I meant it. Bruce is not my blood father, but he had taught me everything that a father would. And when I thought about it, I always had tried to please him, make him proud. Slade though, what he asked for I didn't want to give him. Thinking about it now, I could have agreed, but then, he had had to think about the offer in the first place. It makes me think why he would want someone in that sort of place.

When I told Star that he didn't have any friends, it was true. He really didn't seem to regard Wintergreen as a friend. But I wondered about his family. Maybe he offered to fill some sort of gap. I don't know. What I do know is that I do already have a father and I don't want him to be in the place that Dad was. He didn't deserve it. Bruce did and I wanted Bruce to have it.

You don't treat someone with cruelty and expect for a few nice acts to get something in return. You don't treat someone with cruelty, period. No one deserves to be treated in a manner of disrespect or to be taken for granted. People deserve kindness, security and protection. The sun was on the horizon. I heard the door open behind me and the sound of boots crossing the rooftop. Starfire sat down next to me.

"It is beautiful," She said slowly.

"Yeah," I said smiling, "I missed it."

"You did?" She asked looking at me.

I nodded.

"I missed you," She told me.

"I missed you too," I replied, "I thought of you guys all of the time."

The sun kept diving.

"Do you know where Slade is?" She asked, curiosity and concerned intertwined.

"No, there's no sign of him," I told her, "But I don't think he'll be a problem for us for a while."

"I still..." She searched for the words, "Can not believe in some ways that all of this has happened."

I sighed, "Me neither."

"I worried a lot about what had happened to you," She said silently.

I let out a small deflated laugh, "I worried more about you guys then my own welfare."

I smiled at her reassuringly, then she continued, "I am sorry that we were not able to find you before..."

"Star, it's not your fault. Slade's not the type to leave a trail. I know that. I don't blame you guys in the slightest," I told her firmly, but soothingly.

She nodded and looked out again.

She smiled and rested her chin on her knees. The colors of the sky changed. Soon the shining star had disappeared beneath the ocean. I looked over at Starfire. The wind blew her hair around and she shivered. I stood up and so did she.

"Beast Boy and Cyborg were going to pick out a movie for the evening's entertainment," She said.

"Oh?" I asked.

She nodded and continued, "Raven said that we would probably not enjoy it though."

We were silent for a second, then I started the conversation back up again, "You know, Star?"

"Hm?" She said.

"Um, I meant it when I said I missed you," I left out 'you guys' intentionally. Inside I was telling myself that this was a bad idea, that this wasn't the best thing to do after I just got out of the apprenticeship and had an angry super-villain after me. But my reason was sort of being pushed to the side.

"Um, thank you," She said. I saw blush creep into her cheeks. Then she gave me a hug, which I returned.

She backed a step away before asking, "Are you okay?"

I smiled, "I'll be fine."

"Are you still worried about Slade?" She inquired innocently.

I looked out at Jump. The city lights shown and over the ocean stars twinkled. I turned back to see her staring at me, willing me for an honest answer. So I gave it to her.

"The only thing I'm really worried about right now is the Titans, us," I told her, "That's what's the most important to me."

She smiled. The wind blew and her hair surrounded the sides of my face. I guess people really do want the thing they think they can't have. We leaned in close, so close. I felt my heart beat hurt in my chest. Batman had always said never to get to close to anyone. I knew he was right after the apprenticeship. But... I mean, come on, Batman's got something for Catwoman for crying out loud! And Starfire was, well, Starfire. I knew that I liked her more then a friend after the Wayne Enterprises theft and I really couldn't deny that. She could handle herself, defend herself. Whatever mess we got into we could get ourselves and the others out of. We just had and we could do it again.

We were centimeters apart, but then we heard a window shatter. A yell followed, "BEAST BOY!!!"

I sighed, then smiled at Starfire who looked a bit embarrassed. Inside I thought, 'Okay, if I get into a relationship, it will happen at the right time.' I laughed, then grabbed Star's hand and began running downstairs to where Beast Boy was most likely hiding, Cyborg was probably trying to keep Raven back, and Raven's rage was yelling at the changeling in the utmost fury. I looked behind to see Starfire smiling at me. I smiled back.

It was so good to be home.

THE END

(of Robin's POV)

-T-

A/N: Okay, there's the happy part of the "And They Lived Happily Ever After" even though technically Robin and Starfire are not a couple and they didn't even kiss and so I shouldn't say that. But there you go. Please review, but don't flame because you don't like the pairing. Also, Raven yelling at Beast Boy was not supposed to be a pairing thing. It was more of a joke since he almost always aggravates her. Okay? Now I will have to say these painful words. The next chapter, Twenty-Four, is the last chapter. Ah! It hurts! I've had so much fun writing up this story and I'm sad that it's coming to a close. You guys all rock by the way. I just feel like saying that again. Later!

Rena