AN: Hey guys, sorry this is a little late but I've been struggling with this chapter all week; it just didn't want to flow I guess… but here it is! Hope you guys enjoy it!

Chapter 4

Robin had described Slade's haunt to him before so he was not surprised when the Titans led him to a warehouse that looked old and dilapidated from the outside. What he wasn't expecting, however, was what it looked like on the inside.

"Whoa, who revamped the haunt?" Beast Boy asked, "And when did they do it?"

"I don't know when," Cyborg answered slowly, "But I've got a pretty good idea who."

"Why would he only revamp the inside?" Raven wondered

"Most likely to stay off your radar. Robin does still monitor this place, doesn't he?" Batman asked

"Yeah he does," Cyborg answered, "But then how did he miss people coming in to revamp the inside?"

"I don't know." Batman answered as he moved further into the haunt.

"Where are the Sladebots?" Beast Boy wondered, "We should have run into some by now."

"You're right." Cyborg answered, "But I don't see any..."

"Maybe Robin took them all out." Beast Boy said

"If Robin took them all out then where is he? And where are the beat-up bots?" Cyborg asked

"Maybe Robin escaped and Slade cleaned up the bots! We probably just missed it!" Beast Boy said

"Yeah I don't think so." Raven answered

"Bunch of pessimists." Beast Boy muttered

"Quiet." Batman grumbled

They soon came into what Batman thought must have been Slade's main operations room as five wall-to-floor screens covered the back wall.

"Slade had our vitals displayed on those screens when he was blackmailing Robin into being his apprentice." Cyborg said

Suddenly Starfire gasped and ran forward towards a colourful pile of material sitting in the middle of the floor. She fell to her knees and looked through the ripped pieces of material. She gasped again as she pulled out what looked like a piece of red cloth from the pile.

"Starfire? What is it?" Cyborg asked as Batman moved to kneel next to her.

She handed the piece of red material to Batman and he almost gasped too. It was a piece of a red tunic, ripped in places, with the remains of a yellow R embroided onto it.

"Robin." He murmured as he looked down at the pile of red, green, yellow and black material

"Look." Starfire said as she pushed the pile of shredded cloth aside. Underneath it was an S in a circle.

"Slade." She and Batman growled in unison.

Suddenly the screens flickered to life.

"Children," Slade's smug, velvety smooth voice washed over them, "You've taken so long. Robin would be disappointed, if he was able to worry about you lot at the moment. Oh and I see you've brought Batman in on it too. Don't trust a bunch of kids with your baby bird, hmm?"

"Slade!" Batman snarled, leaping to his feet, "Where. Is. Robin?"

"Ahh that's for me to know, Batman, for me to know." Slade answered in a condescending tone.

"What have you done with him?!" Starfire demanded

"I believe 'what am I doing to him' would be the correct way to phrase that question." Slade answered menacingly.

"Slade you sick son of a-" Batman started

"Ah, ah, ah, Batman, there are children present." Slade cut him off.

"Where. Is. He?" Batman growled, his voice coming out so low that it sent shivers down the Titans' spines.

"He's just in the other room." Slade answered, "Here I'll show you."

The screens flickered and suddenly they were staring at a room so white it hurt their eyes to look at it. The only break in the white was the black of Robin's mask and of his hair. Batman felt his breath catch as he caught sight of his son. Robin was dressed completely in white and was strapped down with white restraints to a white bed, but that wasn't what bothered Batman, it was Robin's behavior.

Robin was thrashing on the bed, trying his best to get free but obviously failing. Batman could see that his boy was panicking; tears streamed down his face and his chest was heaving frantically. There was no sound so when Robin's mouth moved his team mates couldn't hear what he was saying, but Batman didn't need sound; he could read lips and therefore could see exactly what his son was saying, and it broke his heart.

'Please, make it stop! Make it stop! Please!' and when that didn't seem to work: 'Bruce... please... help...'

Bruce felt like his heart was being ripped out, it reminded him of that time he had come home to find Dick on the couch in the den, having a nightmare and begging for the imagined torture to stop, and now Bruce was watching him beg for real torture to stop. It made Bruce sick.

"Robin!" Starfire called out in horror as she too took in the scene on the screens.

Batman tore his gaze away from his son to the Titans. Cyborg and Beast Boy were staring at the screen in abject horror, seemingly unable to avert their gazes; Beast Boy looked as if he might be sick. Raven was also staring at the screen and for once Batman could read the emotion on her face, she was just as horrified as the rest of them but, unlike the others, she seemed to be glowing. Tears were streaming from Starfire's eyes but Batman could see fury and determination quickly beginning to replace the horror in her eyes.

The screen flickered again and Slade reappeared.

"What are you doing to him you sick monster?!" Cyborg demanded immediately

"I'm reconditioning him." Slade answered blandly, as if it was obvious, and to Batman it was, glaringly so, "Blackmail didn't work as his friends were always a distraction, but by the time I'm done with him he won't even remember his own name and then he will be mine. I will build him up into the perfect assassin apprentice that he was always meant to be."

"Not if we have anything to do with it!" Cyborg retaliated, "When we find you you'll regret the day you laid eyes on Robin, do you hear me?!"

Slade chuckled, "Silly boy, you will never find me. I'm not even in Jump City anymore! Granted you may have found him if you had searched my old haunt first, as I'm sure Robin would have done, but oh well."

"You are wrong." Starfire said, "We will find you because we will not stop until Robin is safely with us, where he belongs."

Slade shrugged nonchalantly, "Perhaps you're right, but by the time you find him it will be too. Late. And don't think that having Batman with you will help at all, I've done my research and have learnt that the best place to hide something from a bat is right under its furry little nose."

Batman bristled, "It doesn't matter where you hide, Slade," he growled so low that his throat would hurt for days afterward, "It doesn't matter how many times you switch locations, it doesn't matter how good you think you are. I will find you, and I will make you regret the day you were born."

It took a few minutes for Slade to reply, "I'd like to see you try." And with that he ended the communication.

For a moment there was silence. Then Cyborg crossed his arms with a determined look on his face and said: "Challenge accepted."