Teen Titans Presents Robin – Torn Legacy of a Prodigal Son

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Chapter 39: Banging on the Gates of Hell

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This is because the Demon's head is involved and guess who's going to try to get in to the fortress? Well, you could have said Superman, but no. Not even close!

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Towers, turrets and killers from all miles….

Oh, he was going to need back up on this rescue mission.

Through a set of dark binoculars as the sun's setting by the time had the Bat wary, the ones still rising from their beds in the night had to be…

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Dick sneaked away quietly as the guards were avoided, the halls as somber as a vampire's castle in the distant past. He didn't breathe, didn't swallow as he invisioned a way up and out from the next start of those creaking walls. Slade could be resting, or he could be plotting. In all truth, the teen had never seen the man sleep on his own, only rest as he needed to. A cat nap for the tiger with the bird waiting around until it gave up chasing him down the mountain.

However, he wasn't going it carelessly, not as he was. Too many triggers. Guns, ammo and of course real killers out there…

Cheshire had looked his way, she'd not even tried to damage either while her coded hint was unclear now, compared to earlier.

Was it a trap and was Slade, right? Was she not going to help Ra's but someone else, if not for herself and her dignity? That could be so, yet he wanted to test his understanding of friends and foes, only on a whim. Out in the back, there was a tree and lower down the slope, a dip that led off to a cove and the sound of running water…

He'd only stayed on these grounds to not cause alarm, yet to be this easy to breeze by undetected? Was he getting better from the training after all? A sound, a solid splash had him jump, turning to see a slather of foam below and a waterfall, not a large enough one as the one in the water was rather illusive as a serpent in the dark twilight hours.

"You came, good for you." The character was clad in less, well enough to wear for swimming in an ancient set and fashion to some indigenous group of peoples. She had her hair down and it looked quite long, her striking dark eyes were shut as her feet moved to lift her from the froth and bubbling spring; a towel and her robes were there for the rest of her, as Dick turned away with a blush to clear his throat.

"You…tried…. ehem…to get my attention during our fight."

"More like entertainment for the grandpas." She huffed and took to a canteen by her cloths, the boy still avoiding being rude by sneaking a peek. This was strictly business, she had to have not minded –

"Anyway, didn't mean to drag you out of your bed…oh, no wait. I did." She chuckled as Dick grumbled and made a step to the side, letting her greet him while back in her night time gear. "I'm Jade." She stuck out her hand for Dick to stare at.

"That serious, huh? Well, I wanted you to be the only person to hear my part so sit and we'll be safe here." She hinted with her thumb to a scrambling device meant to keep outside contact away and blocked. "And I'm supposed to trust you…?"

"Once you hear what I have to say, boy wonder…you won't want to listen to anyone else." She smiled as a cat once had in his path. "I'm not the enemy, but they are. I know your story, and I know about the Titans because I'm now one of their double agents."

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Dick gawked at the princess, her hand to her hip as he slapped a hand to his face and snorted, chuckling at his dumb luck. "You could be killed for helping me, you know what he's done to them…. why I can't go back."

"Slade is no better than a brute, I lived with those for years." Jade shrugged and twirled a bit of long dark hair, thinking of Artemis and her dear old dad. "You can trick him; all you have to do…is use your gut. He is sly, devious and knows when to strike or disappear. Haven't you ever wondered why Ra's is so attached? Should I enlighten us both?" She walked over to the pool and simply used her acrobatics to avoid falling in, keeping the skittish boy wonder on his toes as she watched their surroundings.

"He was an army guy a long time ago, experimented on to be used to truth serums in the Korean war. His file said few survived the treatments and he was let go, the project a failure – but it wasn't."

Her next move was graceful as a swan as she walked and posed to hold a tai – chi like posture. Dick only watched and realized she was drying herself off. Clever way in place of a hair dryer.

"Slade Wilson returned to work with organizations. Black ops. Team 7. Task Force X. You'd never know he was the same, lost a kid almost too to an old enemy. The story goes that his wife took his eye out and it never regenerated. Yet THAT." She landed into a sowkow as Dick stepped back into the rock at his spine, her eyes closed in as she finished. "Is his one weakness. Make him lose his focus, have him so angry, and if you discuss his family or treat his honor like the trash it's become…he will –

Dick was pulled to her, her face so close as she smiled with a cheshire sincerity. He help his breath as her words brushed in a small puff over his ear.

"FALL."

Dick fell back as she giggled and let go, her teasing nature a shocker that any Titan would have –

No, he was still sure that she wasn't all on their side either. Maybe double agent for real, maybe not on anyone's side but her own. "I gave you my reason for you to lighteb up a bit. If you hesitate next time, Ra's will suggest that Slade work harder to break you. The old Robin won't survive, don't try to be a hero all on your own." She gave a sympathetic and small smile as Dick also felt that her motives maybe…were for something else, something fragile.

"How did you end up here? Why are you trying to help my friends if…if you used to be just like Ra's…"

"I have a little sister. You don't know since I do, Sports – master is my father, an assassin with a hot temper… She's my half-sister, Artemis and he won't let me see her. So…. this is one way I had a way in to get what I needed."

"I'm the trade to finding her."

"Sorry, you're only special to some of us." Jade rubbed her arm and said with a nervous laugh. "She is in danger; he'll only teach her how to keep breaking the law…like he tried to do to me. Sports – master is low tier compared to Deathstroke's rep." She explained as Dick cataloged the info in his mind, bit by bit for later's escape attempt. "If you've met his own kids, you know what that kind of manipulation eventually leads to."

"I know." Dick replied and wondered if Jay was still working beside Bruce to come find him. "I saw how he treated them all –

"Even the mute one?"

Dick looked at Jade, a bit confused by the question. "Mute? What do you mean? Grant and Rose –

He remembered Slade talking about it in the old lair in Jump. The ink bleeding onto the desk and Slade showing Jason's grave as he spoke about TWO sons. Or, so he recalled….

"He has another kid, a younger meta who has some extremely vague "psychic" powers thanks to we believe from the serum activating Slade's meta – gene."

"I…." Dick couldn't speak, that was by the time he felt his eyes look away. Jade nodded and retrieved a mask from where she had set her clothes before. "Our time is now up." She said with a face now covered completely. "I'll keep the device going until you've reached the gates. Go, and…it was nice meeting the real boy wonder…not a rip off of the original."

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The night of that time, he slept well. Better, that was before a knock on his door had the boy bolt up to stand before his bed, messy.

He was a mess!

The hero worked fast, worried that one hair out of place would put a damper on Slade's already soured mood. The door swung back as not only did Slade come in with only his patch and armor to show for, yet a smug smile as he moved across the room to identify any takes that seemed unbecoming. He walked in a military fashion and shook his head, frown replacing in the smirk that didn't suit the merc's true character at all.

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"I want you to report with me for a briefing, on last night. Come. Be better prepared next time. You've barely slept a night…" One look was all it took as Dick nodded, learning from Cheshire to put in the effort of a decent poker face.

"Yes, sir." Dick walked out once he was decent and his teeth scratched with the toothbrush that Slade had given him. His boots were tugged on and Slade wasn't even worried about that, no. He was letting it slide of all things – but why?

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The assembly, or a small group of Ra's instructors and the assassins of the same class as someone ese currently NOT present. Dick looked over past his master's arm until the man sent him a look to quit it and act according to their traditions here. Ra's came out of the next hall and his traditional garb someone seemed a duller green than Dick had remembered.

"I have just received word from my Shadows that a problem occurred on these grounds late in the evening as you all slept..." Talia stood by and just took to keeping seen yet not heard until that was called for.

"We've believed it to be a mission to detect one of our own; Cheshire, our illumini of Lady Shiva's unit was found missing from her quarters the next day…as was the mask, which we found on the grounds my the only sacred spring left untouched. It is, perplexing a matter that she was either abducted or…."

He turned to Talia as she nodded softly, letting her father then continue. "She was not at all loyal to the Shadows and the League!' The classes erupted with shouts and boos. Something so harsh, what was their policy for defecting and had she?? Had Ra's done some –

Dick turned to Slade as he just looked on towards the podium. No, his smugness wasn't readable or reliable to be able to tell anymore. Dick grimaced and looked at the crowds and the staff all wrought with a temper not found in a society where Dick had come from. This was…

A cult, each time he just shrugged it away, but it always would be. No matter the good they claimed to have done, there was always the terror of the League of Shadows that divided Slade and he from trying to stay close to the fray.

"Our forces are already searching the plateau and the paths below to see if any clues might be found; I will again demand that you all and to reassure our likely hood of not ending up as Jade perhaps has…That no one leave without permission from those watching over Nanda Parbat's leaning fortress. We are here to learn and to grow strong against the weak, there will be not one of us left if we divide. Come quietly, sisters and brothers. You are all home, there is no need to try and fix what is not already broken…."

That speech…something about it again struck Dick as more sinister than he'd been willing to accept. "Slade…"

"Hush, Apprentice. We'll speak afterwards."

"Sir?"

"I know you'd never listen, so why should I trust that you didn't allow her to be captured behind my back…That traitor, as are you; aren't you exactly the same thing then?" He hissed with his growl as worse as a rabid dog's.

No longer was he waiting to be loyal, he'd be made instead. Dick's eyes darted to the crowd, then to Slade as he must have smirked then, his villainous character dipping into shadow by the swell of dark shades placed across the room as dozens of arms shot up, the cult's grievances not withheld. Instead…. they were openly celebrated. That, which made Robin's stomach churn as Slade asked again, begging to see the boy run away on his own this time.

"Isn't that right, my apprentice ?"

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So, Slade is actually trying to mess with Richard by ACTING as if he takes in Ra's announcement. The truth is, he suspected she was only taken by RA's to be sort of, reprogrammed after Dick got back to his room, so who benefits? When the JLA come a knocking, what are they going to find but a brainwashed crowd of killers? Slade may just as well escape in the chaos with his pupil and send the kid to their new lair before -Oh~ No spoiler!! And, no. that was already a plan. No recycling yet! Read on! Find out…

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