I'm really sorry for missing last weeks update and bonus chapter. My best friend tried to take her life recently and she has been my number one priority and my story got put to the side. To make up my absence I made you guys a super long chapter and added some really cool facts I got from Sam (one of my beta's alters) in the author's note. Thank you for sticking with this story :D

Come get your kicks out of chapter 6.

Chapter 6

Close to the Edge

-Day 18-

His stationed nanny bot lead him from Slade's study back upstairs to the kitchen. Robin had already memorized the schedule Slade had made. He woke up, dressed in a dull cotton shirt and grey pants, and was lead downstairs by a robot with a loose gear in one leg that clicked when it moved. He was then feed a plain breakfast made by another bot, was lead down the 24 stairs to Slade's study, stood by Slade's side, watched the man eat his lunch, stood at Slade's side. He would get dismissed, lead back up the stairs, fed a bland dinner and locked back in his room with the Sladebot with the loose gear. As Robin flopped down on the stool at the island he wondered if Slade knew what this schedule he was doing to him.

Robin always stayed active for a reason, it kept Richard at bay. Solving problems, training, running around the city after bad guys, all of it made a kind of mental barricade that kept Richard out of his head. Without all the simulates of his normal life Richard was stretching is boundaries. Richard would whisper dark things into his head hour after hour and would put strain on his bounds. It was agonizing mentally and physically and Robin had to focus every fiber of his being on keeping Richard locked up. Robin could honestly understand what drove schizophrenics out of their minds.

A dish shattered and Robin looked over to see the Sladebot with its hands up in the air, staring at the floor. Robin couldn't help but chuckle as the bot put its hands to its hips and paced around in frustration, its loose gear clicking away as it went.

"Having a little trouble there, Gears." Robin smirked tiredly.

The Sladebot turned to him and made an angry grinding noise, like a car in the wrong gear, before turning back to the mess.

It was a little more than odd to see a Sladebot behaving humanly and since this was the only bot behaving this way Robin suspected that the actions where caused by some type of prototype program.

Robin watched as the bot picked up the mess of food and plate splinters and put them on the counter near the sink. He could almost see what seemed like anger in the bot's stiff movements, or maybe he was thinking to much into it. Robots don't have emotions, it is just going through the motions.

"Oooh, the irony."

Robin tried not to grimace but failed. He put a renewed effort on stifling Richard and pushed Richards voice out of his head.

A shimmer of white caught his eye and Robin turned to see the robot put a six inch long piece of the plate down on the counter. It was a sick looking triangle with a dagger point and Robin wanted it. His eyes stayed trained on the shard of china as the bot piled more fragments of the plate around it. He needed to find a way to get it.

The bot had turned and was looking into cabinets on the far side of the kitchen from Robin. If he was going to make a move for the blade, now would be his time to do it.

He felt the adrenaline pump out to his arms and legs as he silently slid of his chair. The counter was only a few feet away, all he had to do was round the corner of the island counter and bolt the few steps to the sink, but a task had never felt so daunting. If he messed this up he would have to deal with Deathstoke. Stakes where extremly high and the last time he had disobeyed Slade's wishes he had been locked away in a room and beaten. The pain was too new to pretend it was any lest painful than he remembered. He still had to try though. With an exhale to ready himself, Robin slipped into a crouch. He was swift and silent as he creeped to the edge of the island. As he peered around the corner to his target Robin's hands went to his throat, as he subconsciously tugged the collar away from his neck. He had slowly been forming the habit of fidgeting with the device and the tick only got worse when he planned to do something against Slade, as if he was trying to avoid the shock before it happened.

Imagining his exact steps before he made them, Robin bolted. It all happened in a second. Robin took the three quick steps to the counter, already shifting his weight backwards for his retreat. He heard the click as the bot shifted and his focus zeroed in on the moving bot, everything else was forgotten. With is eyes locked on the bot's movements he recoiled in a rolling backflip, not trusting his legs to support him. With a quick spin Robin rounded the island's corner and facing forward. He lounged at the stool and landed with half his body slouched on the counter in a position that looked lazy but was really to keep him and the chair from topping over. The bot was looking at him with an armful of random ingredients in its hands and its head tilted to the side, like a dog. Robin forced his breathing to sound calm and gave the bot what he hoped was a bored look. The bot shrugged and turned to go about making Robin new dinner.

The robot hadn't seen a thing and Robin had to stop himself from groaning in relief as he put his head down on his folded arms. A few minutes later the robot clicked over to him and set down a plate of food. With tension still churning in his stomach Robin wasn't hungry, but the Sladebot stood over him, persistently shoving the plate in his face. He humored the robot and took a few bites of the food, not even bothering to look what it was. After cleaning the dishes the bot took him up to his room, which was all he really wanted at the moment.

As soon as he got into the room Robin when straight to the bed and threw the covers up over himself. He heard the Sladebot station its self at the door and its motors quiet to a soft hum. In the dark quiet of the room, Robin slipped his hand into the pocket of his pants to the light weight that rested there. He slipped it out and brought it up to his face and even though he couldn't see it he could imagine it. He slowly fingered its broad side imagining the smooth white porcelain under his finger tips. A smile graced his lips. Now he could protect himself, he could fight back and he was one step closer to getting out.

-Day 19-

Robin woke with a start, his hand immediately patting his mattress where he slid his blade under the fabric. He felt the hard shape under his hand and he sighed, content that he hadn't dreamt up the blade. He flipped over and looked to where the bot was stationed. It was crouched down in a squat, twiddling its thumbs. Robin's mind instantly flashed back to the memory of a kid he had met a long time ago, when he was just coming to be.

He had been sitting quietly in a little lounge like room in Richard's subconscious. He had been able to hear the sounds from the world outside, but they were extremely muffled. He didn't mind though, he liked people, unlike Richard who detested them. He sat quietly and simply enjoyed the voices around him, all the while Richard seemed to be doing the exact opposite. He could feel Richard's irritation rising and the emotion hummed angrily around him like bees.

"Hey, Richard." he decided to pipe up.

"What."Richard growled back at him.

"I could talk to them if you don't want to."

Richard considered that for a moment then let him take over. They traded places seamlessly and he opened his eyes to see a room swarming with suits and evening dresses. He stayed still for a second waiting for the names and faces to matchup to the people he saw around the room. He spotted Bruce across the room with an easily smile on his face and he copied it.

He made his way around the house smiling and nodding at the people who acknowledged him. He did this for about an hour before a figure at the side of a room caught his attention. It was a boy his age and he seemed to be about as good a time as Richard had been.

"Hey." He said siting down on the couch next the boy.

The boy's head shot up and he looked at him, "Hey." There was a pause as he analyzed the face in front of him. "Arn't you Mr. Wayne's kid. Um... Richard right?"

"Yeah." He didn't really mind being called Richard, but it wasn't his name, "But you can call me, Dick."

"Yeah, ok. Hi, Dick. I'm Greg Rosewall." the boy said kind of awkwardly, as he twiddled his fingers.

They had chatted stalely for a few minutes about what schools they went to and what they had done the summer prior, before Greg had been called to his parent's side. There hadn't been anything particularly special about the encounter but he never met another person who twiddled their thumbs.

It was suddenly too much. Robin was sheathing mad and he wasn't exactly sure why. Maybe it was because Richard had been straining him for days or the fact that he was so powerless or the realization that Slade had kept him under his thumb for days or maybe the fact that the Robot though he was so insignificant of a threat that it could just sit around twiddling its thumbs like a lazy rich kid or better yet his actions had lead the robot to believe he was harmless. Regardless of the exact reason Robin was frustrated, angry and seeing red.

"Hey." He call to the bot as he strode across the room to it.

It didn't look up.

"Hey!" Robin roared.

The bot looked up a second to late and the orange painted circle on the bots face became a target as Robin's fist crashed into the bot's face. Robin let out a battle cry and fell upon the robot with every working limp crashing into the robot. It didn't take the robot longer than a second to process the attack and when it did it immediately started fighting back blow for blow.

Robin was absorbed in the fight as he used every ounce of his energy in his brows on the bot. He felt the pain as the robot attacked back with solid punches that would surely leave large round bruises to add to his collection, and the buzzing sting of the collar as it started to send out disciplinary shocks into the burned flesh at his throat. The attacks hurt but Robin didn't feel bad. To him it was satisfying. He was fighting back, he hadn't let Slade break him and he would never let Slade break him, and the same applied to Richard. He was still Robin and there was nothing either of them could do, short of killing him, that would change that.

It was all too soon when the door to his room slammed open and two sets of metallic hauled him away from the fight. Robin arched his back and pressed forward with thrashing movements and enraged yells, trying to get back at the robot.

"Robin!"

Robin froze as he heard Slade in the doorway. He went limp, letting his head drop down and his messy hair fall over his face.

"What are you doing?" Slade demanded.

Robin stayed quiet, his teeth clenching shut.

"Look at me, Apprentice." Slade said in a tone Robin was all to familiar with.

The image of Slade pressing him up against the wall of his old prison with his hand clasped tight around his neck flashed through Robin's head and made Robin want to shrink back. Instead of retreating, Robin obeyed the order and looked up at Slade through his hair. It didn't seem to be what Slade wanted because he swiftly grabbed Robin's jaw in his hand and rose the boy's head higher, so there eyes met. Robin kept his glare steady on Slade's storm colored eye and he saw something glint there. A smile cruel cracked on Slade's lips.

"Ah. There you are, Apprentice. I was wondering when you would come back from that pathetic state of yours."

Robin simply snarled at Slade. He wanted to spit in the mans smirking face but didn't feel it was a good idea. Slade seemed to see the thought in Robin's mind and his face went solemn, Slade looked up to the Sladebots who were restraining him.

"Take him to the Room 110." Slade looked back down to Robin, "I think my dear Apprentice is ready to start his training."

Robin was wheezing like an obese old lady who just ran a marathon. He was hunched over with his hands braced on his knees, in the classic 'I'm dying on the inside' athlete pose, staring down his two robot opponents. He wanted to call them Sladebots but they where a completely different make and model made for speed rather than fighting, so he had dubbed the things Raptors. The Raptors where tall humanoid figures with heads that looked like an aerodynamic bike helmet with diamond shaped slits for sensors, their torsos where extremely slim and they had oddly long arms with slender clawed fingers. The characteristic that had given the anorexic hell bots their name was there legs, the Raptors had animalistic legs. Positioned the balls of their feet with their heels high in the air and strong hydraulics running through the whole system, the bots could give Flash a run for his money.

Robin braced himself as a buzz rang out in room like the blast of a starting pistol and he started to run. The Raptors reacted immediately and advanced on Robin. With quick erratic movements Robin dodged the bot closest to him and sprinted blindly past the second. The only advantage he had against the bots was his maneuverability, the raptors where faster than him but the where slow to turn and more often than not slammed themselves into the walls of the room before they had a chance to correct their path. Robin heard the familiar hiss of hydraulics and spun on his heel to see a thick metal cylinder rise from the ground in the direction of the Raptors. Without even thinking about it Robin ran towards the cylinder. He saw a Raptor sprinting towards him and waited till the last second before moving to its right with a quick spin, letting the bot fly by him. There was just a few feet between himself and the cylinder, he reached out to it and heard a soft mechanical grind to his right. He slowed his next step by a fraction and watched a metallic blur speed past him, a hair's breadth in font of his face. He continued his sprint and as he passed the cylinder he slammed his hand down on its glowing top. The cylinder instantly slid back into the floor and out of the corner of his eye Robin saw another metal cylinder slide up from the floor across the room. Robin turned to his new target and raced to it. He only got a few steps before one of the bots slammed into him broadside and sent him tumbling across the floor. Robin stayed on his back on the cool floor, he would get a least a minute of rest since he had gotten to one target.

Robin stared a the fluorescence lights over head and tried to ignore the bruise slowly forming on he shoulder where the Raptor collided into him. He hated this. Standing around next to Slade was bad but this was worse on a whole new level. His breath burned the back of his throat and he started to cough as he sat up. He was vaguely aware of the clicking of a loose gear approached him. Robin looked up to his Sladebot roommate holding a cup of water out to him, he took it and downed the liquid greedily.

Robin couldn't help but wonder if the bot could hold grudges. Despite the humanoid movements it was still a robot and it couldn't care less if he had dented a few of its panels. Robin flopped back down and fisted the cup up for the bot to take. It was all too soon when he heard the buzz on the room's intercom system.

"Get up, Apprentice."

Robin grounded and got up and walked to the center of the room, while glaring at the mirrored glass of the observation room where Slade was watching. The Raptors got into position around him and Robin got ready for another run. The intercom buzzed and he started to run.

-Author's Note-

So guts I thought I would put some fun info in here. I was chatting with Sam who is an alter and he was happy to share some things about what it is like in the life of an alter.

1) Alters can communicate to the main person. Unlike Richard and Robin it comes through as a kind of gut feeling, not words.

2) Alters have a place that they live in the main persons sub-conscience. Sam describes his place as a lounge. Oddly enough my beta tells me that when one of her alters are in control she feels as if she is in this dark lonely void.

3) Alters come up with there own names. Sam wasn't very clear with this one and described it as knowing what your name is suppose to feel like and 'picking a word that matches the feeling'. I have personally met Alters with names like Shadow, Luna and Aqua so I guess it makes sense.

4) The main person can call out alters. It's kind of a common fact but people call up an alter when they don't want to deal with something personally, the closest thing I can relate it to is like putting up a cold front.

So Yeah. I decided it was about time to give the plot a kick in the butt. Things are going to start rolling from here on out so hold on tight, it's going to be a fun ride.

See yah later (°v°)

-Missing Jay