I would like to take a little time to thank the wonderful people repeatedly who take the time to comment. You guys are awesome so thank you!

TRON0602- Thank you for all your work bringing this story to life and your continued support.

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SandmanSlim- Stark! We need to meet up at The Bamboo House of Dolls for a drink.

Guest- Tu eres un buen amigo. Yo soy muy mala en espanol pero me gusta leer tus comentarios. I hope I wrote that right.

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Willowinter- It always makes me happy to post for you. Continue your RtD addiction my friend.

On to chapter 7, your little slice of heaven.

Updated: 06/23/14 Cleaned up spelling and grammar mistakes

Chapter 7

Command 13: As I Say

-Day 21-

Robin cartwheeled backwards away from the impending punch in a flawlessly executed flip.

"Wrong." Slade's voice boomed from behind him.

Robin spun around.

"What!" His voice cracked. He was exhausted, irritated and was not in the mood to be criticized.

Not understanding Robin was no longer engaged in their spar, Gears continued its attack and slammed its foot into Robin's back.

Robin stumbled forward and whipped around to glare at the bot, only to have to bring up an arm to block a steel fist. Turning his back had been a terrible idea, Gears was now bearing down on him with a flurry of quick jab punches and he was trapped.

"Find a way around him, Apprentice." Slade commanded.

Robin moved a hesitant foot backwards, getting ready to dance back away from his opponent so he could come back at him at a better angle.

"No, Apprentice." Slade bellowed. "You are not to retreat! No apprentice of mine retreats. Fight through him. Now!"

Robin was too tired to protest, he had been sparring for hours now and even though he was about to drop, the adrenaline kept him up. His body wove around the hits being thrown at him surprisingly well. He was able to slip past most of the hits and the others he blocked with his forearms. Lucky for him, the odd cast Slade had given him was shock resistant, if it weren't his broken arm would have been shattered hours ago.

As if by some silent command from Slade, Gears' pace quickened and Robin stumbled to keep up. His footwork was steadily getting messier and his arms weren't coming up in time to protect him. A fist slammed into Robin's shoulder before he could sway out of its way, and another attack glanced off his cheek. Robin tried to slip in close to Gears, attempting to get too close for the bot's hits to be effective, and hopefully close enough to switch into the offensive. He twisted his upper body to the side as Gears' right fist flew by him, leaving its steel body defenseless. Or so he thought. He took the opportunity without a second thought, advancing with a sliding step of his right foot, straight into the bot's waiting steel fist.

Gears' jab sunk deep into Robin's gut and for an instant Robin wasn't himself anymore. He was the embodiment of pain. Light flashed bright in the back of his eyes, leaving dancing black dots in his vision. His gasps were empty, not drawing in the air his body craved. He wanted to stop right there, curl up in a ball and grasp at his empty chest. He wanted to grasp the air and pull it into himself, replacing the breath that had been stolen from him. But even through all the pain, he felt the eye more than anything else.

The intense stare of Slade's eye burned into his back and Robin was sure he could hear it's silent demands of him. Do not retreat. The command was clear, and despite any of his later justifications for his actions, Robin obeyed.

With all of his self-control Robin forced himself not to stumble back with the force of the fist's impact. Instead, Robin leaned into the punch, bracing himself against it on the balls of his feet. With a tightly clenched fist, Robin slugged the sladebot. His fist connected with the steel paneling of Gears' jaw making the bot stumble back.

Without a second spared to catch his own breath, Robin leapt at the robot. Launching into attack mode, his fists riddled the robot's side with dents, unbalancing the metal being. Robin followed the punches with a roundhouse kick that could have shattered bone and landed it squarely on the robot's neck, quickly sending the bot into the floor.

"Brilliant work, Apprentice." Slade commended, with slow claps. Robin heard the man cross the room and settle right behind him. "Just what I expect from my apprentice."

Robin didn't waste a second spinning around at the man, his fist aimed to smash in the mercenary's nose. The man caught his fist inches from its intended target but Robin didn't care, he forced his fist in closer to make his point clear.

"I'm not your apprentice." Robin promised with a growl.

The half pleasant look fell from Slade's face and Robin almost expected there to be a crash as it broke against the floor.

"On the contrary, Robin, you are." Slade's stormy blue eye loomed over him as he leaned closer. "You have become my obedient little apprentice, and I didn't even force you."

Slade's tone sounded smug to Robin and at that moment, a smug evil mercenary was exactly what Robin didn't need.

"So beating and starving me isn't force!" Robin roared.

"You forced my hand, Apprentice." Slade told him dismissively, "What I did was just a punishment for your actions."

Robin was speechless, he opened and closed his mouth like a gasping fish. There was so much wrong with what Slade had said he didn't know where to start. Slade had made it sound like there was a choice in the matter, like it was all his fault for making a bad decision. He had needed to run, it was his only option. It was what he was supposed to do. It was what was expected of him, he was a hero and hero's beat up the bad guy and foiled their plans. It was all supposed to make sense that way, but there was a part of him that wasn't so sure. A part at the very center of him, that was much more Richard than he would like to admit, and it didn't see the world with the same black and white definitions. Not wanting to wage and internal war with himself, he forced all of his frustrations outward into a battle cry as he pounced at Slade.

Angry passion gave Robin a new energy that surged around his body like fire, giving his hits more speed and power. Robin hadn't gotten five hits thrown at Slade before the man had him pinned down on the floor with a heavy booted foot on his chest.

"And what did that accomplish." Slade said solemnly. "Do you think that throwing a few punches changed anything? You are still my little apprentice."

Robin growled defiantly at the man.

"You're already mine, Apprentice. You're never going to get away from me."

Robin continued to grapple with Slade's foot, trying to get it off him.

"Maybe you just need to be reminded of your place." Slade mused the threat.

"My place is with the Titans, jailing bulangiu like you." Robin roared up at the man defiantly.

"Your place is at my side, as my pupil." Slade corrected, his temper slowly growing deadly, "Your propose in this world is to follow my every order word for word like your LIFE depends on it, because it does."

Slade was so dead serious, that Robin stopped his struggles as his gut clenched and did a slow flip. His body was frozen by the overwhelming anxiety Slade's words stirred in him. However, his deer in the headlight stare broke when Slade reached into his back pocket. Robin thrashed wildly as something sleek and metal came out of the pocket. Robin's brain went on overdrive as it flashed through images of all the deadly metal things it could come up with, in rapid succession. When the object appeared to be a phone Robin was confused, but not enough to stop thrashing. Slade brought the device to his mouth and spoke slowly and deliberately.

"Command 13, As I Say."

The device let out a beep and whir in response.

With his eye locked on Robin's he continued, "Activate."

There was only a brief moment of nothing before Robin's world erupted into fire. He screamed wildly as he clawed at his skin, trying to remove the invisible force that was hurting him. It felt like his insides where being slow roasted on a hell fire. It felt like his nerves where being pulled through a meat grinder and the remains where slowly being pulled apart atom by atom. Excruciating was an understatement.

It seemed to last an eternity but when the worst of the pain had passed, Robin felt like he had been run over by a sixteen wheeler and he was grateful for the relative relief this pain granted from what he had experienced before. Somewhere between when he had lost his voice screaming and where he was now Robin had stopped breathing, he was now sputtering and wheezing trying to refill his lungs. He didn't even notice Slade over him until the man started to talk.

"How do you feel, Apprentice?"

It took Robin a while to realize that Slade actually expected him to respond. He could hardly blink, so talking was out of the question. So he opted to just lay there and hope that the punishment for doing so wasn't too bad.

"Well, Apprentice?" Slade asked.

"...ooorrrrraa..." Robin said, as he tried to form one of his groans into words.

"Don't speak to me from the floor, Apprentice. You are to stand when you address me." Slade said, his sternness edged with a hint of something else.

Robin's teenage brain came up with a handful of snarky replies, the most basic of which held a great number of four letter words and the others containing some of his more exotic Romani curses.

"Stand." Slade ordered.

Robin's body reacted instantly. There was a burn and ache similar to a cramp as his muscles flexed on there own accord. Robin tried to stop his body's movements and was rewarded with a very familiar pain and the faint tang of blood in his mouth. As Robin's body forced him to his feet he knew his situation was now a hundred times worse than it had been before. As he came up to Slade's level he saw the wisps of a self-pleased smirk on the man's bearded lips, while waves of dread washed over his own face.

Slade had reactivated his nanobots.

"So, Apprentice." Slade said getting in close to Robin's face, "How do you feel?"

Fuck. Richard growled, and at that moment Robin couldn't have agreed more.

-Author's Note-

Bulangiu- Jerk ( I prefer to translate it as Scum)

This was a hard chapter. The only thing I had to go off for this part was a bullet point on my outline that said 'Slade gives Robin some gadgets' the first gadget was the collar and the second is the newly reprogrammed nanobots. I seriously need better story outlines. As for the next chapters of this story I will get more into the nanobots, there will be a time skip (about a mouth or so), some Wintergreen goodness and a super awesome plot arch that I'm sooo exited about :D.

Hasta la Vista (°v°)

-Missing Jay