Chapter 2

I think you need a shot gun blast

A kick in the ass, so paranoid, watch your back! - Shinedown

"Wake up..."

Robin was being dragged through the last corridor before he got to the freeze chamber. He redoubled his efforts. No longer thinking to help his friends, a still rational part of his mind reasoned that he was in no position to help anyone right now.They pulled him through the final pair of swinging double doors, common to almost every factory in the world, and dragged him over to a raised platform...

"...Robin..."

One of the guards turned away to operate the controls and Robin lashed out with his foot, almost toppling the man before he was struck on the back of the head with the butt of a gun.

"Robin, Wake up."

His head was swimming but he came back to his senses as the platform receded into the floor, leaving him in a circular indentation in the floor. He noticed that the guards had backed off but before he could try and escape the floor around him lifted, encasing him in a glass tube.

He could feel someone shaking him and talking. His mind tried desperately to cling to the sound of the far away voice.

There was a freezing cold mist all around him and he could no longer stay standing. He huddled over until he was curled into a little ball on the floor, terror growing in him as the mist displaced the oxygen and made it hard to breathe, yet the cold made it impossible to stand back up. There was a sound like a science fiction laser weapon and he arched his back and screamed as searing pain ripped through his body, radiating from his back.

Robin sat bolt upright screaming hoarsely, his throat too dry to allow for coherent speech. He panted for several moments, feeling completely drained before he collapsed back into the bed.

"You gonna live?"

Robin's head flopped to the side and a figure swam into view before his bleary eyes. He was a tall man, a little over six feet, with close cropped salt 'n' pepper hair and broad shoulders. A neatly trimmed obsidian coloured beard flecked with specks of grey adorned a strong chin.

"Yeah," Robin croaked out as the man walked towards him. His throat was dry and his mind was foggy but he could tell that despite needing a cane to help him get around, the man was in good shape for some one of his age, moving with a grace that told of a robust young athlete somewhere in this man's past. Robin accepted the glass of cool water an allowed a small amount to trickle soothingly down his throat before taking a longer pullof the cool refreshing liquid.

"Thank you." Robin left the sentence hanging, hoping the other man would fill in his name.

"...Wilson." He answered helpfully. Now that Robin wasn't so foggy headed something in the man's voice sounded familiar, as did the name. He brushed it aside for now, this man had had more than enough chances to cause him harm if that was his desire.

Robin looked around the room, and although he'd never seen this specific room before, it looked strikingly similar to a room he'd been forced to occupy once before, if a little nicer. Stark, sterile looking walls and a night table, two steel sliding doors adorned the walls. The wall was also recessed into several shelves containing basic everyday clothes; denim pants, cotton tee shirts and sweaters, sneakers and boots, and what looked like several pairs of sleep pants. It looked like one each of the piles of shirts and pants were shorter than the others, like one was missing. Robin looked down at himself and saw that he was wearing a slightly oversized grey tee shirt and dark blue sleep pants. He immediately bought his hands up to his face to see if his mask was still on. It was.

The fog was steadily lifting off of his mind and senses and as he took another sip of water and nearly choked on it. Anyone else would have either taken the mask off, or left him clothed in his suit, only one person would leave his mask on, wanting Robin to willingly reveal his features.

"Slade." He growled as he struggled to lever himself out of the bed before collapsing onto the floor, not realizing in time just how little strength he actually had.

"Your mind is just as sharp as ever, Apprentice." The velvety smooth monotone passed through his lips as he abandoned his disguise and bent to pick up the fallen teenager, placing him carefully in the bed. The kindly old man was gone, replaced by the menacing presence of Slade, even if he was out of costume. The expression on Robin's face did not tell of pleasure at this occurrence. "Save any escape attempts for later, you're still much too weak," he admonished in an almost fatherly tone.

"You died."

"Perhaps." The answer was about as illuminating as Robin expected it to be.

"Why am I here?" Robin asked, already knowing the answer.

"Because I couldn't let my apprentice get blown up with the rest of his frozen friends."

"What!?" he was hit with a flash back of all the Titans, frozen and lining the walls of the compound.

"Relax, Robin." Slade soothed as he bent to pick up his prop cane. "They were rescued before Brain activated the self destruct."

Slade turned his back to Robin and made towards the door. Robin levered himself out of bed and this time was able to get his feet under him. He took a step and collapsed to the floor.

"Robin," Slade was audibly exasperated by the boy's stubbornness, "didn't I just tell you that you were too weak to launch a proper escape?" Robin growled and got to his feet. He threw a punch at Slade and nearly toppled over again from the movement. He righted himself and launched a staggering charge. Slade stopped Robin dead in his tracks without so much as having to brace his stance. He gave the boy a light shove and he was sent stumbling back to land on the bed.

"If you're finished for now?"Slade asked, "I have other things to attend to. I'll come back and check in on you later."

Robin ignored Slade and staggered to his feet. He stumbled to the door that he assumed led to the bathroom. Closing the door, he hit the electronic lock knowing that it wouldn't keep Slade out should he choose to enter but feeling better for it all the same.

When he exited the bathroom, he saw that Slade was gone and a covered tray was laying on the freshly made bed. It was a simple meal of chicken soup, fresh baked buns, fruit salad, and pudding and as he ate he felt his strength beginning to return. After he'd eaten he felt his stomach beginning to gurgle and churn and he staggered into the washroom to vomit. When he came back out of the washroom he saw on the digital clock on the night table that half an hour had passed. An immaculately dressed and groomed man worked efficiently and silently to clean the tray and remaining food as Robin looked on.

"Thank you for lunch," he said once the man had finished cleaning up, "I was starving."

"My pleasure." The man said in a clipped British accent that reminded him of the one Alfred used to scold him; ever polite and cordial but with a biting undertone. "I do hope that this time you'll show master Slade a little more respect." And with that the man left Robin alone. The boy collapsed back onto the bed, his mind screaming to stay awake and escape even as the blackness began creeping past the edges of his vision.

Robin had spent over a day confined to his room; being too drained to do anything more than sit up and eat the food that Wintergreen bought him, sparring huge amounts of effort to get himself to the washroom when need be. The meals were smaller than he would have liked, but they came more often than expected. Eventually he was able to make his way into the bathroom for a shower without needing to rest along the way or use the wall for support. He was only mildly surprised to see that Slade had stocked the room with all of his favourite products; from his favorite shower gel to his favorite color towels, a fact he had overlooked on previous visits. The thought crossed his mind that Slade had simply broken into the Tower and rifled through his room, something he was perfectly capable of, but that thought was banished when Robin remembered exactly who he was dealing with. Anyone else would have had to go to those extremes, but not Slade. Slade was on a whole different level. He seemed to just intuitively know everything about you on first sight. Eventually Robin banished these thoughts from his mind and turned on the shower, waiting until the room was thick with steam before taking off his mask and borrowed clothes and stepping into the water.

With the shower taken care of and fresh clothing donned, his next order of business was to try and find a way out of there. He moved to his bedroom door but it slid opened to reveal Slade, standing there in full uniform.

"What's going on here?" Robin demanded, hoping his confusion didn't show through, but accepting that Slade probably picked up on it anyway.

"How do you mean?"

"This isn't anything like last time. What game are you playing?"

"Well Apprentice, you are allowed free run of the facility because it would be rather uncouth of me to confine a guest to a single room, and I expect you would quickly grow tired of that arrangement while I was away." he said.

"What do you mean 'guest', and where are you going?" Robin demanded hotly.

"I mean you're my guest for the time being, I brought you here to recuperate from your ordeal with the Brotherhood. And hopefully get some training in. I assume you've grown soft to have been captured by those fools."

Robin ignored the jab "Guest. Do you expect me to believe I'm free to come and go as I please?"

Slade didn't answer.

"How do you know I won't just go back home?"

"You could," the mastermind admitted, "but you're in a foreign country, you have no identity papers and you won't fight the authorities. If you're curious, then Wintergreen can show you the exit. Just don't head west once you exit the forest" And with that he turned and left, not confining Robin to his room or ordering him to follow.

Robin was stumped; this didn't seem at all like the Slade he'd known. Allowing him to leave, the clothes, the freedom, it didn't seem like him at all. What game was he playing?

After a few more days his strength had fully returned and true to Slade's word, Wintergreen had shown him the exit, even going so far so to tell him how to get to civilization. Robin stepped through the door with his uniform back on, all his equipment still intact, except for the stuff he'd used while fighting the Brotherhood, even his communicator was still present, although it was heavily damaged from the battle and freezing process.

He breathed fresh air for the first time in what felt like forever, and basked in the glow of a quarter moon. Once he'd felt the refreshing effects of the fresh air and open spaces Robin began to walk through the trees and soon came to the edge of the forest. He could see a city not far off, the lights twinkling like stars in the distance. He was about to go when he stopped himself. Slade said not to head west? Why? What's west? Could it be a sloppy attempt to get me to avoid finding an escape?

Robin changed course and headed west, keeping the forest to his immediate right. Eventually the terrain became rockier and he began having a harder time making his way towards whatever was in front of him. He heard a rustle from the forest followed by a low animalistic growl. He immediately braced his stance and drew his staff. A wolf stalked out of the darkness with his shoulders hunched, head lowered, heckles raised and luminescent eyes glowing a menacing yellow. He prepared to fight the lone wolf off but then another one emerged from the forest, followed by a third and fourth. The four massive animals surrounded Robin and began stalking around him, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

Suddenly one lunged and Robin forgot entirely about the contents of his utility belt, he swept his pole upwards, catching the beast under the chin and snapping its head back. The three remaining wolfs attacked as one and Robin was forced to dance around, swinging, slashing and dodging as the three enraged animals pressed the attack. Eventually his stamina began wearing down and he was being backed towards the forest, the wolves no longer attacking him, just playing with him.

Slade told me not to go west, he said to himself as one of the wolves lunged, but he wasn't quite quick enough and the wolf locked its powerful jaw onto his forearm. The two other wolves attacked, biting and mauling him. One of the wolves swung with his massive jaws and Robin tumbled down a rocky slope, the impact of his body breaking rocks loose and creating a mini rock slide as he fell. He came to an abrupt and painful halt at the bottom of the small canyon some fifty feet down a steep slope, and through blurry eyes he could see the wolves carefully picking their way down the slope to move in for the kill. Robin tired to shove some of the rocks off of himself so he could get up and escape while the wolves were stuck on the slope but one of the predatory creatures showed impressive intelligence by knocking more rocks down onto him.

Terror began to well in his heart then, his vision blurred more until all he could see were three sets of luminescent yellow orbs slowly picking their way to him. He saw those eyes and heard those growls and knew what countless other animals knew before the end; he was going to die, and as his vision left him completely he tried his best to come to terms with that simple yet complicated fact. Suddenly there was a change in the commotion and the wolves were yelping and scrambling and then there was silence. Footsteps grabbed his attention as his quickly waning consciousness gave everything a pitch dark hue. He looked up as the darkness closed in around Slade's mask.

Slade saved me...was his last conscious thought.

Slade looked down at his bloodied and torn apprentice, he had expected the boy to go west, but this is what he got for relying on wild animals to protect his lair. Sure they had acted just how he'd expected, but for some reason Robin hadn't used the smoke pellets to hide his escape, choosing to stand and fight instead. A brave move to be sure but that didn't subtract for the sheer stupidity of the act. Slade reached into his belt and pulled out a syringe that was filled with a thick silvery liquid, he wasted no time injecting the liquid into Robin's jugular vein. After a few minutes the bleeding tapered off and Robin's breathing became less laboured. Slade sent up a flare from his flare gun and stayed with Robin until he heard the telltale thumpthumpthump of an approaching chopper. He planted false ID in Robin's utility belt and then vanished into the forest, not leaving so much as a trace of his presence.