Teen Titans – ReBel Yell - If I Had Stayed a Renegade
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This is not a story; short stories within what if apprentice arc from 2003. I wanted a new story, but I'm overdoing the Sladin so this is an outlet. Maybe for later ideas – say of it what you will!
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Tough Luck
It wasn't.
I sat up on my mattress and looked at the wall in my way. The only way out. If I could do what Raven had so many times, see inside…Slade's mind…stop THAT from happening…
But, he did it. He stole them. My life is sold off to him now. Batman's still looking, but Slade always is one step ahead…
Now that my friends are gone…no one, not even my old mentor has the right to stop him…I'm trapped and right now…
I don't want to see anyone get hurt again because of me….so I'll suffer, I'll take my punishment.
Starfire was so sickly…pale…. I cried, I didn't stop it in time…
Hands…. so cold…he let me say goodbye, I buried them…I….
Of course.
After all, I'm the unofficial new apprentice of Slade; a criminal psychopath and mastermind of Jump City.
And he is my new, master…
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"You've gotten sloppy. Apprentice."
Training for me began.
"Again!"
The moment I put on that mask.
He shouts, I listen. Even if he knows how much I hate him for hurting my friends. They aren't here to protect the city, or to save me…
I jab a punch into his torso, but nothing lands.
" Harder. You can do better than that."
He's so sure? I'm sweating; hours lying on the mat, getting back up.
Only to be punched, kicked, beaten to a pulp.
And the worst part is, Batman taught me how to not cry, to let it all go wrong, just like Slade wants.
To make me into a monster like he is.
A killer.
I found out the truth. Actually, after my team was…. removed from "premises" Slade had a call come through. I stayed, hid and listened in.
He's not just a crime lord, he's a mercenary!
Killing them and enlisting me through blackmail? All a part of his plan. The Titans may be gone, but I'm still here. Still waiting to get even.
He'll expect me to follow him, always. He doesn't trust anyone, not even that weird creepy butler who's sometimes right behind him…
He feeds me, keeps me busy with everything from combat training to hacking courses. I did put up a fit, I did! I screamed, I was loud AND obnoxious…put that together…
And you end up in the "cooler."
So, I took a break… I'm sorry… I had to conserve my energy. The death of….it took a while but Slade buries his targets, deep.
I won't. In a few more days, he has to let me out on a job. I'm nothing if not a grade A actor. I was trained by the Dark Knight to face any foes that came my way. Slade, is going to wish he'd never come to my city.
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Slade has me on robotics' lessons. I have a plan to put him out of commission. He has no hold on me. The nanobots are gone. He didn't need them once…. once…. I can't forget, but for now I have to. Right. The plan….
The plan…
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"By the time that you're finished with piecing together this robot, inch by inch…I'll come to see your progress. Just remain in this room until I should return."
Bait me, and he didn't have to worry. I smiled up at his face with a nod to make this ploy, possible.
"Yes, Master." I'll recite it now, but later he'll be crying "uncle."
Just you wait…I can't stop the feeling of relief I'll have, if I ever make it out of here alive.
"Very good." Slade respects my gesture and leaves the room, leaving me to a goldmine of possibilities.
Weapons.
That's all these androids are.
Killing machines; but they'll have a new target to apprehend very soon.
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"You thought you'd repurpose my tools, boy."
I'm dead…. he's really going to take me out.
"I'll admit, you do have that killing streak after all. A bit unpolished, so some time in the "cooler" might have you with better thoughts, don't you think?"
I can groan, cry, beat my fists on the floor and say "no" all I want.
But in the end, he wins. He ruined my safety net; the tower is under his control. Soon, Batman will know everything…
Just like that, the robots had failed – I failed!
"Apprentice! Pay attention …"
"Yes…mas…ster…. sorry…. -
" Ung!"
"For…. gah ! –
The same robots I tried to hack are now holding me so that he only has to beat the message into my tortured diaphragm. I gasp. Every hit, another way out. He won't let me as he stops, lifting up my chin to face him, cut lip. Broken dreams of an escape from this pit….
I've been cemented to my fate. This is my bed, but I won't be sleeping forever here. He can't…because, I'm still a hero, even as he throws me into solitary confinement for the whole night.
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My twenty first birthday, he took me out to celebrate. It's such a moment where if I didn't bring myself to grow out my hair, face the music…and it's louder than my thoughts right now.
Slade. He didn't just mess with time.
He forced me to grow up.
I've learned who he is, broken down those walls, finding one opening at seventeen…
Then, I finally gave up.
Batman knows. He knew who Slade was. He never came for me. Slade's influence, his tricks…. he made it…believable.
The Titans were killed when I was only fifteen.
Batman pinned me as one of the bad guys and it wasn't until my first contract that…
Things really changed.
I take that glass to my lips, and my pain ebbs away for only a second.
He's staring back. His face is unmasked, just like I'd wanted as a hero. To have a real nemesis to face, and now…
Time only moves while my head is spinning sideways.
It's supposed to be simple.
I took a swig.
He knows I won't be going anywhere, tonight.
/
Twenty-three and Slade never ages. Getting to be a grouchier male role model? I hope he never asks me to become a super soldier. The last thing I need is to relive this life.
I definitely tried to die, today.
My blood's all over the sidewalk. He's there, plucking me from the dirty back streets, lugging me back to the haunt.
I feel something cold pierce my skin as his mask never leaves the room. A ghost. I'm dying and this is my punishment.
"You're not one to give up the fight, apprentice."
A needle.
Stitched together meticulously and carefully, I feel cared for when I know that's never the case for my master.
"You are having regrets, but I promise…. you won't feel a thing."
Another needle pierces this worthless doll. I'm nothing next to his robots, I'm nothing…even when I had a chance to get away.
I blew it, and now…
"The procedure will be mildly if not more effective than the original. I've tweaked the serum, and since its initial creation I can assure you…after this new dose is handed to you... There will be no quitting with me, apprentice." He hissed to me his plans. He's decided…. I'm worth more alive as a nutcase rather than in the grave, bound to haunt him.
"You'll rest."
I just can't keep my eyes from sliding shut, he's right…
"For now, you'll still need this week to adjust before the final step in our process is initiated. Once that's through…. I know a contract in Gotham that would just be so exciting. Just the two of us…"
My body slips away as I slowly lose all conciseness.
"Expect only that much from me, kid. You've almost completed your training…patience…almost…"
The painkiller drags deep through and into my veins. He's not fooling anyone.
BATMAN.
He knows I won't die, so he's giving me one last test to prove myself…
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Batman trained a new Robin. I made his "replacement" hang up the cape.
Slade…He tried to…I won't let this idiot push me around! The rage is from the serum, just a steroid to push me to strike my family.
Ain't gonna happen, Slade. I took out one Robin, but this isn't over.
No, it never was…
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I'm on my own a lot now. Slade let me choose the city I wanted to set up camp in for myself. Once my apprenticeship was fulfilled, twenty-seven and up? He kept me to be, perfect. And then along came his kids, vying for my master to teach them. I couldn't let it happen, but it did.
For the first time in a long while…I had to put up with a family again.
I was cut loose and that had to be why. Slade's perfect protégé, stuck on a side wall. Pinned to skinning small fish while…I've become immensely dangerous. Maybe he made me too much…like him?
No drugs or poisons can hurt me. I think that was what he meant when he said the serum was better…
I failed; I was always one step behind.
Whether Batman sees me now, I don't care.
I'm doomed to suffer as I kill and maim in that man's name.
All because I couldn't bare to give up my life back then…
All because I wanted to play the stupid hero.
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