Disclaimer: Don't own any of these characters, they belong to the one and only DC and the Titans tv show.

A/N: Summer is here! Whew, so finally settled back home and had time post this chapter. Probably most of you were waiting, growling at the computer for the little note, but here it is finally. Enjoy

Ch. 31 Breakage

Breaking the gaze, Batman assessed the two fallen women. This was not good; Robin had taken out his entire team. Nodding, he knew that the only way to win this was through brute force, no more talking. Bolting to his feet, Batman attacked first. He swung out with a left hook, which he knew Robin would duck but followed through with a right uppercut. Robin knocked away the cut before dancing away with a swift kick towards Batman's feet. Robin frowned and took a couple steps back. Batman lunged forward again this time opening up with a right kick, which the boy slammed with his staff. With a left punch downwards, Robin raised his other arm to block it and was open when Batman broke through with a spin kick slamming his leg into Robin's side.

True to his acrobatic heritage, the villain regained his balance quickly and flipped over the next set of punch and kick, landing lightly on the ground. Stretching his side to ease the throbbing ache from the kick and easing of his leg that held the broken rang, Robin twirled his staff. Batman moved in for another attack but Robin slammed the pole into the sand and with one palm on the top he did a one-handstand and spin-kicked Batman in the face before landing on the ground on the other side. Pulling out the staff, he hit a button and it shrank to a small size, which he slides into his pouch. The fight was long enough for him and he was not in the mood to kill his ex-mentor, not to mention injured. Nothing was in his favor, so why continue the useless fight. He had made his point that he could stand up to Batman, even while bleeding and that was fine with him. Robin was about to continue to walk away, when he looked down to see a cord wrap around his frame.

"Why don't you fight me?" questioned Batman.

"Because I am not stupid," replied Robin. "If I cannot defeat Deathstroke, then I cannot defeat you."

That statement added more salt to the wound and Batman showed his resentment by yanking Robin towards him. Locking the boy in a chokehold, he stared down at the maskless eyes, "You are caught."

Robin looked up at him. "I am never caught until I am put behind bars in a high-security prison." With that, the boy kicked upwards, doing a split, and slamming his foot right between Batman's eyes.

Stars exploded into existence and he staggered backward, letting Robin go. Shaking his head, he watched as Robin shook himself free of the cord and began to make his trek up towards the road.

"Where do you think you are going, Apprentice?"

Robin halted. Lying in the sand, pain filled tears still dripping down her face, Starfire watched quietly from the sidelines. Her Robin would have a tense figure, anger radiating off of him at being called such a name. But…Robin's form relaxed, if anything seemed to be somewhat relieved. Squeezing her eyes shut, Starfire shuddered. Her friends were right. Robin was indeed gone.

Batman tensed up, sliding into a defensive stance. He shot a cold gaze up at Deathstroke's figure. The man was standing near the edge of the beach and grass, the road and forest behind him. The black and orange outfit intensified the power the man held. The half-toned mask was locked on Robin's figure. The cold voice continued, "Well?"

Robin placed a hand on his hip and cocked his eyes up Slade, "I was leaving Master. I didn't know when you would show up and did not feel like taking my chances in a fight against Batman."

"Is that so?"

Batman shifted his gaze on Robin, watching the boy react. A small frown tugged quickly against the boy's mouth. "Yes."

Slade narrowed his eye and took a step forward. A dark anger snaked down to the fighters. "Are you sure?"

Annoyance flashed in Robin's eyes but Batman could see the spike of fear in the boy's features. Shifting his shoulders, Robin's lips fell into a tight line.

Slade purred, "Good," sending shivers down Batman's back.

Robin must have felt the same thing, yet expressed it differently. He pulled out his bowstaff once again, springing it to life and ran head on at Batman. The Dark Knight barely had time to block the first bash and he felt himself slide backwards due to the brute force. Spinning around, Robin followed through with a kick to the gut and a ram with the pole at his collarbone. Batman knocked away the kick and just in time grabbed hold of the pole. The boy had improved greatly with the bowstaff. As if to prove his point, Batman heard a snap and soon saw half of the pole flying up in the air. Robin did a black flip, aiming his steel tip boot at Batman's chin. Batman leaned back avoiding the kick and lunged forward with a punch. Robin blocked the punch with the metal pole. Pushing back, the pair staggered backwards and Robin turned to the right slightly catching the other part of the pole. Rolling forward he leapt into the air and drove the pole towards Batman's face.

The Dark Knight blocked with his left arm. He felt the other pole leave his left arm only to smashed behind his knee. Batman swayed and clapped his hands together, his arms pushing out to prevent the poles from smashing into the side of his head. The teacher and student locked eyes briefly. Batman frowned and Robin sneered leaping backwards. But it was too late. The superhero had enough and lunged forward grabbing Robin by his shirt. Pulling him back, he brought the boy full into his extended leg. Robin's mouth fell open at the brute force. Breaking himself free of Robin, Batman reached forward and grabbed a hold of his right wrist.

"This is for Batgirl," whispered Batman.

Robin's eyes widened and the boy twisted himself around the arm, trying to ram his pole into Batman's chest while breaking free. Batman felt Robin's wrist move and tightened his hold, quickly snapping the boy's arm. All he heard was a muffled choke and a quick retaliation of Robin slamming the back of his head into Batman's face. Robin growled and pushed himself free. His broken arm dropped the pole and with his other arm, he quickly grabbed the pole and straddled it underneath his right arm.

Giving himself distance, Robin eyed Batman, his body tense, ready to spring into action as he connected his two staffs together once more. Spitting to the side, Robin twirled the staff in his left hand, body open for attack, begging the Dark Knight onward.

He conceded and the two met head on, bowstaff swiping away a kick, raven locks barely ducking in time under a powerful fist. Robin tried to slam his elbow in Batman's ribs but the man danced away. Feeling frustration rise in him, he kicked out wildly and couldn't help but yelp when Batman grabbed his ankle and threw him over his shoulder and hard into the rock, sliding face fist into the sand. Groaning he spilt out sand and shook the sand out of his hair as he rose to his feet. Both sides were screaming in agony. Pain spiked from his old and new stab wounds and now a flaring spike from a new broken rib. Grabbing a hold of his pole, Robin grunted when he barely had time to send the pole in front of him blocking the kick. But it did little and he flew backwards farther into the beach. Keeping an eye on the black figure, Robin skidded on his back across the sand and slammed into another boulder jutting out in the sand.

Gritting his teeth, he felt raw anger overwhelm in him. This was why he did not want to fight Batman. He knew he was going to get his butt kicked the minute Batman kicked the fight up a notch. He also knew that the man had not gone all out on him, holding bac, and that infuriated him further. Robin shook his head, trying to get a hold on his anger. The young man knew that letting his temper cloud his judgment would not be a wise thing, considering past fights and how painful and short those were. Shortening his staff, Robin sneered and bolted up into the woods. He needed higher ground.

Batman watched as Robin ran up into the woods and followed close behind. He peeked quickly over his shoulder to spot Deathstroke standing in the same position; arms folded a dismayed look radiating from his single eye. Returning his gaze forward, Batman wearily entered the woods, eyes scanning the area around him.

He stilled when he saw a leaf fluttered down. Glancing up he watched as Robin draped his broken arm around the branch and swung down to kick him in the face. Batman blocked his face. Robin's arm left the branch and the boy flipped backwards mid-air, did a spin kick in the same place, before leaning to the side and did a scissor kick to Batman's chest. Batman collided into the tree as Robin landed on his good hand lightly and did a hand spring onto his feet. Pulling out a triple-six blade he sent it flying at Batman's hand to pin the man to the tree. But Batman regained his senses and dodged the blade, letting it embedded itself in the bark before throwing his own blade. Robin flew right and threw a small bomb in return. A massive explosive rocketed in the woods, sending birds scattering into the air and the groaning of trees as they struggled to stay upright.

Slade narrowed his eye and began his march over to woods. It seemed the fight was getting a bit intense and he didn't want to miss any of the action. Considering, his little bird had already did most of the damage to the Titans already, Slade was bit peeved. He knew the boy would not wait for him to come get him, Robin's impatience was too predicatable. He would have to do something about that. But from the reports that were coming in from the robots in the Tower, it seemed Robin did more than just fight the Titans physically. He licked his lips behind the mask, anticipation building in him. He couldn't wait until he heard the boy's report.

"Where…where do you think you're going?" hissed Batgirl as she struggled to her feet.

Slade gazed her way but continued to walk. "I'm going to watch the demise of Batman, my dear."

Batgirl snarled, "Like hell you will." Her hand began to work its way to her belt

Slade halted and raised his eye in amusement. Allowing mockery to enter his tone, he degraded the woman, "Come now, is that the best retort you have. Reaper has better comebacks than that." Spotting her action, he dropped his voice, "I would suggest you stop right now before you end up dead."

The woman froze and licked her lips. "That's a pretty lame threat as well."

The man frowned under his mask and was about to pull out his own metal projectile to end the woman's life when two green streams of light zoomed towards him. Jumping backwards, he watched as the beams collided with a tree, setting it ablaze. Glancing down, he smirked as the fuming Starfire who was struggling to her knees, eyes radiating in green energy. The alien shot another pair of beams at the man who had destroyed her life. Once again, Slade dodged the blasts with ease and watched as they hit another tree, exploding it into flames. The first tree crackled and collapses, setting other trees on fire.

Slade took in the growing forest fire. "If my apprentice burns to death, I am holding you responsible."

Starfire's eyes dimmed as she recalled Robin running into the woods. "NO!"

The supervillian ignored her scream and ran into the burning woods. It was time to end the fight.

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Robin watched as Batman let go his ankle sending him flying backwards in the air. Rolling into a ball, he tried to cushion his collision with another tree. Sliding to the ground, he spit out a mouth full of blood and knew that another rib had been broken and a couple was bruised. Wiping his mouth, he regarded the semi-panting Batman. The older man's uniform held few cuts and blood splotches when he took the brunt of the explosion. Robin pushed himself off the tree and ran towards Batman. Faking a punch to the face, he sent his knee flying into Batman's chest. He felt the crack of a rib and couldn't help but smirk faintly. Finally, after all these years he could deal a painful injury to the invincible Batman. The victory was short lived when a vivid Batman grabbed Robin his shoulders and slammed his forehead into the boy's face.

Stars exploded in his vision and he felt blood drip onto his lips from the broken nose. Pain numbing his mind, Robin felt Batman place him in a chokehold.

He looked up and saw smoke rise in the air and a glowing light coming their way. Distantly, Robin heard Batman yell into his earpiece, "Batman here! I need to beamed to the Tower immediately…detention block!"

Something snapped Robin out of his daze and adrenaline kicked his flight mode into action.

"NO!" Robin screamed at the top of his lungs as he began kicking widely at his captor.

Batman struggled to maintain his grip. He heard the idiotic man who manned the beaming station asked him to repeat where he wanted to go. Batman was about to answer when he found himself yelp in pain as Robin sunk his teeth into his hand.

Robin felt blood pool into his mouth and quickly let go of Batman's hand spitting the blood out of his mouth. Feeling the hold loosen slightly, Robin wiggled downwards and slipped from underneath Batman's arms. Taking a step forward, Robin felt a strong hand grab his broken arm. Another scream ripped out of his sore throat. Spinning around, he heard Batman yell "Detention!" and before he knew it he had slammed his boot hard between Batman's legs.

Masked eyes widened and the grip on Robin's arm disappeared. Robin staggered backwards and watched as Batman crumpled to the ground, doubled over with pain. It was a dirty, low blow but right now desperation was fueling Robin's mind and body. Smoke filled the air and he coughed lightly, but didn't take his eyes off his ex-mentor. Batman gazed up, trying to fight back tears of pain.

"Dick…don't…"

He watched as the flight mode began to wear off and Robin's panting, battered form looked down at him. "I-I can't…"

Batman grimaced as he extended his hand, "Yes, you can. This isn't you, Dick. You just need to get away from Deathstroke, you need a nice, long vacation."

Robin stepped forward, "NO! I don't need anything, not from you, not from anyone!"

A crackling spooked both men. Batman watched as the massive tree behind Robin caught fire.

"DICK!"

Robin turned around and yelled as the tree broke from its' base and fell towards the boy. Snapping out of his shock, Robin bolted to the left.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Batman couldn't hold back the scream as he watched the flames collide with the ground, Robin's form disappearing into the flames. He grunted to his feet and took a few steps forwards when he noticed his body begin to dissolve. "Nononono!" Tapping his earpiece, Batman lost complete control, "STOP!" But it was too late and his form flew through the fire as the flames erupted to the area he stood only a few moments ago.

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Alfred ran onto the beach and took in the war zone before his feet. He had just called the fire department to deal with the raging forest fire that was blazing off to his right. He could only hope that Master Bruce and Master Dick were alive.

"Master Dick," whispered the old butler, feeling tears well up in his eyes. The boy he had helped raise had snapped and turned his back on everything. It was something Alfred always feared with Bruce, but somehow the man managed to stay on the right side.

Shaking his head, Alfred saw Batgirl pop Starfire's arms back into her socket, cradling her sore wrist to her chest.

"ROBIN!" Ignoring her sore arms, Starfire was about to blast into the air to rescue the ex-hero when Batgirl grabbed a hold of her.

"Star, let him go!"

"But what if-"

Batgirl shook her head, gazing down at the sand, "Knowing how valuable Robin…Reaper is to Deathstroke, the criminal will not let him die." Pausing, she turned up to look at Alfred before gazing down at Starfire, "But we first have to save Beastboy and Cyborg."

Starfire nodded weakly. Alfred joined the women and helped Batgirl carry Cyborg back to the helicopter as Starfire gently held onto Beastboy. There was no exchange between the group, their thoughts over everything that just happened and the pain that burned their soul was nothing compared to the heat of the forest fire.

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Robin staggered out of the woods, the fire right at his back. His clothes were scorched and his face was covered with black smoke and ash. Crashing onto his knees, his red eyes took in the warm tarmac of the road. Wheezing, he felt his lungs contract before coughing racked his body. He felt his whole world narrow onto the mere reaction of hacking out all the blood, spit and smoke out of his body. When he finally emerged, Robin took in eager gulps of oxygen into his depraved lungs but soon coughed more when he noticed the air was full of smoke once again.

He heard something come up from behind him, but his body was getting too tired. When a hand touched his shoulder, his last surge of adrenaline spun his body around to send his fist flying at his attacker. Eyes snapped opened and through the tears, he halted his fist a mere inch away from Slade's masked face.

Slade took in the shaking form of his apprentice and the fist that was frozen in the air. "A bit too close, wouldn't you say."

He watched as Robin's mouth moved to form a comeback but another series of coughs racked his body. Slade frowned beneath his mask as tiny droplets of blood dripped onto the tarmac.

"Hm." Glancing behind him, he took in the raging fire to make sure a certain Bat wasn't behind him. Realizing the coast was clear; he turned around and grabbed Robin by his broken arm.

A small whimper escaped the boy's lips but Slade ignored it. Shifting, he hefted the boy onto his back. Adjusting the boy, he grabbed the boy's legs and watched as a thin arm wrapped lightly around his neck, fingers creating a death grip on the collar of his uniform. Nodding, Slade stood up and ran down the road towards his hummer, Robin's small, steady wheezing sounds marking the boy's slip into unconsciousness.

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A/N: Really, did you think I would kill Robin after all this? lol. Sorry to disappoint but he's going to live a nice long life of villainy. I plan to have the next chapter up some times this week as well. So be on the look out!