A/N: Before any of you say anything, I know that it's been forever. I got blocked up on both my stories and have just recently gotten over my little slump. I've been doing a lot of planning and decision making in regards to the future plot and it's actually been really difficult. Normally, the chapters flow through relatively smoothly and are pretty easy to write. Lately, that has not been the case. I prefer not to force my writing but it's been so damn long that I just decided to finish this thing, do a quick, final edit and post it.
Keep in mind that these first stories for me are sort of just experiments. I make mistakes and I don't always catch them. I'm dabbling into different points of view and writing styles. TELL ME if you find any grammatical errors or places that you think lack flow. I have a plan, and I'm going to finish this, but it's difficult for me to get back into the groove of writing.
Disclaimer: It's fanfiction. FAN-fiction! I own nothing!
Erm, I realize that I left you all on quite the cliffhanger last chapter. Well, you'll soon find out what I've decided to do to poor Robin.
And so, here you are: the long awaited third chapter...
Chapter 3: Disappearances and Deceit
"Robin…"
His head throbbed and ached, little flashes and streaks of white, painful lights went off behind his eyes as consciousness slowly came back to him. His eyelids fluttered halfheartedly as Robin attempted to bring himself to full awareness.
"Ugh," he groaned. He was getting so sick of this: Slade knocking him unconscious, more often than not in a highly unpleasant and painful way, and then waking up afterwards with the same splitting headache and limited use of his muscles. It was getting to be extremely tiresome and frustrating for him, the lack of control over his own facilities and the disorientation.
He managed to roll his head upright from its uncomfortable position on his left shoulder, gently stretching out his stiff neck as he did so.
"Ah, you're awake."
He forced his eyes open, then closed them less than a second later, hissing and recoiling from the white light that filled his vision and burned into his retinas. Blinking owlishly, he waited for his eyes to adjust, dreading what he might see when they did.
It wasn't as bad as he had imagined it to be: He was seated in a high-backed chair at the end of an ornate dining table in another, rather large room. Slade was at the other end, leaning forward, chin resting on the backs of his clasped hands, silently watching his every move. Behind him was a large, floor to ceiling window through which the afternoon sun shined in - the source of the blinding light.
Robin attempted to stand, but was prevented from doing so by the bindings wrapped tightly around his shoulders, wrists, and ankles, tying him down to the chair. Slade watched his struggles with an amused eye, but otherwise did not move.
After several minutes of silence only broken by the occasional grunt or curse from Robin, the boy let his limbs go slack, panting, and looked up at his captor through narrowed eyes.
"What - what is this?" he demanded, tugging at his restraints.
"This, Robin," A door behind the boy opened and he craned around to see one of Slade's many robots walking surprisingly smoothly into the room, carrying a steaming plate full of food. "Is dinner."
Robin stared as the meal was set down before Slade, a small stirring of excitement fluttering in his stomach: Unless Slade was planning on eating his meal through a straw, the mask he wore was going to have to come off, finally revealing the face that Robin had obsessed over for the past year, the face that had taunted him during the long hours of the night and had baffled him during the day, his seemingly endless search proving fruitless time and time again - until now.
Slade's grey eye, unwavering in its intensity, flicked up to meet Robin's gaze. He reached a hand up, placing the pads of his index finger and thumb on either side of his mask, initiating a soft click that rang like a gunshot throughout the otherwise silent room. A small crack appeared, perfectly straight, stretching across Slade's mask from ear to ear, and the lower half fell away, revealing a devilish smirk and a silvery white goatee.
Inwardly, Robin groaned in dissatisfaction - even as he committed the few details he could see to memory - and this was an emotion that Slade immediately saw right through.
"Disappointed, Robin?" he asked patronizingly as he took up the knife and fork on either side of his plate.
It was at that exact moment that Robin caught the scent coming from the other end of the table. Suddenly distracted, his eyes focused in on the dish; Slade was having some sort of meat smothered in a dark red sauce and garnished with a few green leaves; a medley of vegetables off to the side, broccoli, carrots, and corn tumbling across the plate as Slade's knife bit into what had to be a juicy, delicious steak. A simple enough meal, but to Robin, it was the most beautiful thing he'd seen in days.
How long had it been since he'd actually eaten a proper meal, or anything for that matter? He'd been here for at least a couple of days, and the last time he could recall putting food in his mouth was during breakfast at Titans' Tower, a few minutes before they had gone out on their search for the other young heroes.
He tried to force such thoughts away, tried to shove his hunger into a far back corner in his mind, but at the mouthwatering scent, Robin's traitorous, aching stomach gave a particularly loud grumble and he very nearly released a frustrated moan. Slade paused and looked up.
"You must be hungry, my boy." he remarked smugly. Robin flushed and glowered at him, but Slade simply returned to his meal, looking extremely satisfied with himself. "Would you like something to eat?"
Robin raised his chin defiantly and, in a voice laced with restrained fury, told him, "No." His empty belly gurgled as if in angry response to his denial. Slade looked pleased.
"Suit yourself."
With that, he returned to his meal, placing each forkful delicately, tauntingly into his mouth, apparently savoring the flavor as he chewed silently. Robin was fuming where he sat, understanding exactly what Slade was doing and cursing the man to hell and back for it - he was using a fairly obvious tactic after all, but that didn't make it any less effective. Robin turned away and glared at the different walls of the room, trying to ignore the aching emptiness in his stomach and the delicious smell wafting over from the other end of the table.
Eventually, Slade finished and ordered another robot in to take away the empty dish and bring him a bottle of wine. Robin remained quiet, his anger coming off of him in almost tangible waves. Slade smirked.
"So, Robin, I'm sure you must be curious about your future here."
Silence greeted this statement.
"Oh, come now. Only a short while ago you were so full of questions…"
Robin tested the strength of his restraints once again, gritting his teeth and pulling with all his might before he slumped into the chair, mumbling furiously, "Fine. Go ahead and tell me all about your grand, evil scheme, just like the typical cliché villain you are. Haven't met one yet that doesn't love a good monologue."
Slade frowned, un-amused, and walked slowly towards him, a predator stalking its prey.
"I simply thought you'd like to know what I had planned for you. This is all for your own good, you know."
Robin scoffed. "Yeah, just like everything else you've done to me over the past few years has been 'for my own good.' You know, stealing from my city and trying to kill off my friends isn't exactly the best way to win me over."
Slade stopped, a mere foot away from where Robin sat bound and virtually helpless, his one eye narrowed in what could be either anger or amusement. At that moment, Robin didn't care about the fact that Slade could so easily kill him right then and there, nor did he fear what Slade might do to him otherwise. True to the bright colors he wore, Robin boldly plowed on.
"None of this is for me, really, is it?" Robin hissed, his voice rising as he continued, "It's all been for you ever since the beginning, and you know it! Admit it, Slade, you're nothing but a psychotic, selfish man who -"
Slade's hand whipped out, faster than Robin could blink, and slapped him hard across the face, stunning him into silence. Robin's head immediately snapped back around and he glared at the man with all the hatred and fury he'd harbored since the day they had met, his domino mask not disguising any of his anger.
"Enough." Slade growled slowly, low and lethal, carefully enunciating each syllable. "From now on, you will speak to me with respect."
"Whatever."
Slade's eye narrowed dangerously, but Robin ignored it, thinking to himself that his situation could hardly get any worse. Getting the chance to make Slade angry and to dig under the man's skin was one of the very few liberties he had left while here and Robin fully intended to be as difficult as possible. It wasn't as if Slade was willing to just kill him outright; that particular fact had been made clear long ago, one of the few times Robin had actually managed to truly defeat him.
Unfortunately, Slade seemed to be able to see this conviction behind Robin's bravado and quickly made to rid such thoughts from Robin's mind.
"Don't test me, boy. I promise you," Slade leaned in, a hand on each arm of the chair, so that his mask filled Robin's vision, "you will live to regret it."
He shoved himself upright and used one steel-toed boot to kick Robin hard in the chest, so that his chair skittered a couple of feet backwards toward the wall, and toppled spectacularly to the floor rolling to its side with the boy held awkwardly in place, suspended by the thick cords. Robin gave a short exclamation of surprise and pain as he was knocked to the ground.
The door was pushed open once more as the Slade-bot entered the room, placing a tall wine glass and a green glass bottle upon the table, completely ignoring the strange scene. The robot simply plucked the stopper from the bottle's brim and poured a generous amount into the cup, exiting once more as soon as its work was complete.
Slade lifted the glass to his lips and took a rather large sip from it, visibly relaxing as he looked down at his prisoner.
"You are not in a position to be making threats, young man, nor do I appreciate your taking my recent hospitality for granted. Try and play the hero here, Robin, and you'll find that I can be very nasty when I choose to be." said Slade calmly, walking around Robin's fallen figure as if he were nothing more than a piece of furniture. "Be sure to consider this the next time you open your wretched little mouth in my presence." The last was said with an unusual amount of venom and was followed immediately by the slamming of the room's only door.
The ringing silence was not punctuated for several minutes as the truth and the absolute finality of Slade's words slowly sunk in. Robin's lip curled in a furious snarl and he let out a sharp growl. He began to thrash violently against his restraints, raising bruises and blood at his wrists and ankles, voice rising like a storm until he was shouting his frustration to the empty room, unheard and so utterly alone.
Two days earlier…
"Dudes, check it out!" Beast Boy laughed and tossed the last of their enemies into the path of the conveyor belt. There was a blast of concentrated cold air and unnatural fog, which cleared a moment later to reveal the Brain encased in a thick layer of ice and suspended in midair. "Brain Freeze!"
Nobody laughed.
"Alright ya'll, I think that's the last of them." said Cyborg, stepping forward. "If everyone's been unfrozen, I think we can all just go home."
There were a couple of cheers from the crowd of young heroes, an air of triumph lightening what had, only a few short hours ago, been a dark and dismal mood. It was over. They had finally won.
"And what are we supposed to do with them?" Raven muttered, sweeping one pale arm out towards the many villains lined up along what could only be called a display case, unmoving with wide eyes that stared unseeingly outward, arms and legs stopped mid-motion. The crowd fell quiet and looked upon the eerie sight that was what had become of their enemies with different blends of confusion, righteous pride, and anger.
"We could just… y'know, leave them here…"suggested Speedy, breaking the uncomfortable silence that had filled the room, his voice sounding only slightly bitter "For just a little while." he added at the odd looks he received, one hand reaching up casually to scratch at the back of his red head.
Raven shot the archer a haggard glare. "Not a chance." she said flatly.
"It would be as good as killing them, I mean, nobody else really knows where this place is." said Bumblebee, flitting over the heads of the other Honorary Titans to hover near the freeze-machine's control system. "They could stay here like this for years."
"I agree," said Starfire, her normally carefree voice unusually serious, "The idea of leaving our enemies in such a state is… unsettling."
"So… what? The police?" asked Beast Boy. "So they can un-freeze them all and let them escape again?"
"I guess so." Cyborg suddenly looked around, his eyes scanning the room.
The uneasy feeling he'd had niggling in the back of his brain suddenly clicked as he realized what was missing: Robin was nowhere in sight and hadn't spoken a word since their arrival; he should've been up front and taking charge by now, giving orders and making quick decisions. And when it came to it, he was usually the person who dealt with the police and the media.
Slightly unnerved by the leader's absence, Cyborg walked quickly over to where Raven stood, her face shrouded in the deep shadows of her dark hood. She glanced up at him, eyes brooding, and muttered, "What's wrong?"
Cyborg hesitated for a moment, not wanting to worry any of the team mates unnecessarily; then he recalled that, as an empath, Raven could feel his discomfort and probably already had some idea of what was wrong.
"Rae, have you seen Robin since the fight?" he asked gravely and without preamble, pulling the witch a few feet away from the still debating group, so that the rest of the young heroes wouldn't hear.
Her eyes narrowed slightly in concentration as she thought back, silently pulling her hood down to rest on her shoulders. "No," she said quietly, after a short bit of consideration. "And I didn't see him during the fight either, not since we split up the T-ship."
"You think he's still somewhere in the building?" he asked, "Maybe he managed to escape before the Brotherhood froze him."
"Maybe," Raven murmured doubtfully. Something about this didn't sit right.
Cyborg merely raised an eyebrow at her tone. "Well, where else could he be? All the bad guys are here."
"I don't know, I just have a bad feeling. It's probably nothing."
"Well, speaking from past experience here, knowing you, I'm pretty sure it's not nothing." he frowned, starting to share her feeling of unease. "Why don't you look for him? Y'know, like you did when he was infected with the dust…"
Raven looked around at him steadily. "I don't want to invade his privacy unless it becomes absolutely necessary. I've already seen a few things that I know he didn't want me to… Last time, we knew that the situation was life threatening."
"Well, after all that's been happening, I'd rather be safe than sorry. I mean, how are we supposed to know whether or not he's in danger? All our communicators are offline." Cyborg pulled the broken scraps of his own communicator from a compartment in his side. The small device had been destroyed only a few hours ago by the person they were now trying to find.
"I can do a general scan, see if he's in the area…" Raven relented, already beginning to fall into her meditative stance, legs subconsciously crossing in midair, elbows resting on her bare knees. Cyborg nodded silently and left her to it.
"What's she doing?"
Cyborg startled at the sudden, very loud question, and looked around to see that Beast Boy had joined them.
"Just having a look around the area."
"What for? We got all the villains."
Cyborg sighed. "Yeah, but it's lookin' like we didn't get all the heroes."
"What d'you mean? We're all…" Beast Boy's eyes widened comically, and he gasped as realization hit him. "Oh man, do you think -?"
"Look BB, I'm sure he's fine." said Cyborg quickly, "We just want to know where he is."
"Well he's not here."
Raven had come out of her trance and was standing once more, her dark blue eyes serious and showing the first hints of worry. "I couldn't find him."
"Are you sure?" asked Cyborg.
Beast Boy piped up, "Yeah, I mean, when our group was coming in, some of the bad guys even told us he was about to be frozen. He couldn't have gone far."
"I know, and it doesn't sound like him either." said Raven, hands raised to her temples in thought. "I looked all over this building and into the surrounding jungle. Even if he did escape on his own, he would have known that we'd eventually turn up here looking for a fight. He wouldn't have left."
"He could've thought we'd already been captured…" suggested Cyborg half-heartedly, "But then he would've tried to pull off a rescue or something, not run away. It makes no sense."
They stood in contemplative silence, oblivious to the continued chatter of their fellows, each of them slowly coming to realize the same thing.
"So how are we supposed to find him? Do we even know how long ago he left?" Beast boy questioned, beginning to pace in a small circle.
"If he was never frozen, then it would have to be some time between his capture and the time you guys entered the building, before the Brotherhood realized that he was gone." Cyborg rubbed his chin thoughtfully, trying to piece together a more specific timeline. "Had to be within the last couple of hours, so he couldn't have gone too far."
"Unless he had help."
"…."
"Dude, this sucks."
"I know, we've just got to think about it logically." said Cyborg. "Do we know where he was kept before he disappeared?"
"No, but we could probably find out if we follow that." Raven said, indicating the large hole through which the conveyor belt disappeared.
Cyborg shrugged. "Sounds like a plan."
"Friends, what is this 'plan' that you speak of?"
Starfire had drifted over from her conversation with Bumblebee and was looking down at them from where she was floating with eyes full of curiosity and naïveté. She a quick double-take with her short eyebrows furrowed and frowned.
"Why has Robin not yet joined us? He should like to be of assistance to this plan, yes?"
"Sure he would," said Beast Boy, "Y'know, if we… actually knew where he was." He took a step backwards, rubbing the back of his neck in discomfort under Starfire's gaze.
"If we do not know where he is, then we should find him with much haste. He is our friend and he could have been injured! Why have you not -?"
"Star, we're going to look for him, okay?" Cyborg interrupted her, "But it's gonna be hard. We don't have our locators anymore and Raven couldn't sense his mind anywhere on the property so we're gonna have to do a little digging.
"Beast Boy and I will be the ones to check out the conveyor belt while Starfire and Raven get everyone organized here. We'll come back in a bit to show you whatever we find."
Raven nodded and Beast Boy quickly transformed into a green bloodhound, but Starfire looked like she wanted to protest. She fell lightly to the ground as her joy left her.
"Please, I -"
"Beast Boy and I are better at tracking, and somebody's got to stay here to hold down the fort." Cyborg moved forward and gently squeezed her shoulder in comfort. "He's going to be okay, Starfire. We're gonna find him."
Miles away, Slade sat comfortably in a wide arm chair that stood, almost throne-like, before a large display of flickering monitors, showing every angle of the Brotherhood's lost base. He smirked in amusement as the Titans split off into groups of two, the changeling and the cyborg going off towards the cell rooms in search of their leader while the alien and witch stayed to watch over the proceedings of the group.
They did not know that their efforts were already wasted, their hunt fruitless, their anxiety founded.
"Feel free to search the world, Titans. The boy belongs to me now…"
A/N: Dear Lord, I feel horrible about this chapter. Definitely going to go back and edit this, but for now, I'd like to hear your thoughts.