Teen Titans – ReBeL Yell; If I Had Stayed a Renegade –

/

Fractured; Second Part of a Whole – Continued

/

Dick WAS going on that mission. Slade had drilled it into his apprentice's thick skull that nothing would change his mind in the slightest. Slade reverted to his old ways; tactics he'd stored up for a new day as master and apprentice once the boy was ready to move ahead again.

He was stubborn about it, oh -so stubborn. He was also a bit quick to point the finger, so Slade offered to snap it and reset the appendage should the kid's mouth go off like a ticking time bomb again in his presence.

"Bane's not the one you should watch with every fiber and knowledge you've had imprinted since this time began." Slade watched the boy standing there, fully readied as his glare was withheld by his promise to the Titans. Always the damned Titans…but it was what made him so lethal to begin. To have the bat's child doing the worst possible act under someone else's orders was an absolute right. Slade would not pollute that right. He would have it to shine and mark anyone who got in their way as a potential victim.

And an easy bit of pocket money to set the kid on his path as a real rebel.

"Are we clear on the conditions?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Are you going to come to aid me if there is an order given to take my life?"

"No, sir."

"What are you going to do?"

"I, am going to continue with the mission. I won't leave my station and…I will call for an escort back to the safe house and will wait for you."

"Don't ever underestimate what you can do with a little forgiveness, child." Slade put a hand onto the kid's shoulder. He was masking everything back, but Slade paid no mind.

"Bane is not our target. The cargo our client wants to keep safe is the objective. You are to not let a single hand but mine make it to the hold without the authorization of my back up squad." He was talking about Dick as the boy nodded, trying to grasp what that all came down to.

"If I fall, you flee. Get the cargo's security codes and run with them back to base. That is all he wants. Data that can be transferred in case of an emergency."

"Yes, sir." Dick understood. Nowadays, there was no real need to get some big bad item stolen. It could be imprinted into the next piece of hardware and so on.

"We'll be leaving here in 0800 hours." Slade said with a look down at his watch. "Set your time and make sure to pack out all of my gear and any of your weapons. I had them upgraded for today to be safe."

"Thanks." Dick turned to his watch and set the time. Slade's grip took to his chin and guided the boy not to avert his eyes just yet.

"You'll be fine, just follow my instructions." He had a burner cell with two numbers on it as he placed the cell into Dick's gloved grip. "Don't forget about what I told you."

"That you won't go down, and if you do…there is always our plan b."

"Exactly." Slade prided the kid with a pat on the shoulder as he let go of the kid's chin.

"You won't fail, not while I'm here to prevent another fumble like the one on my ship."

"Yes." Dick agreed, yet a part of his mind wanted to forget how much it had hurt to try. To listen to Slade as he hadn't enough…had been a death sentence wrought with tears.

/

The shipment docked into the ports as Slade had his binoculars up and ready. A few men in thug gear and assassins or body guards as he took it all in, were speaking in Spanish between themselves. "Bane must be waiting. He probably expects someone to go after his client's share."

~ Are you sure he's at that location? ~ Dick's link to DS's mask was impressive tech in a way, but it also meant that he'd be the one to fall back on for a rescue. All eyes on the protégé.

"The client was very clear on his instructions to be ready, so there is no other way we can debate that plainly…" Slade chewed his bottom lip. "I'm going in to create a distraction. Do you have the drone up and running?"

~ It's there, have it cloaked…. now. ~

"Good boy. Now…Watch and learn."

Dick was a hacker, a damned killing machine strapped and at his fingertip, ready to roll. Slade's stealth was unparalleled to his own or the Dark Knight's as Dick's monitor only heard the man's slashing blades and a man in the background cursing before…

Losing his mouth, to rather peeved Wilson.

Dick started tapping away. Sure, he could do this…just stay out of trouble.

~ Appren….ZZpptt……tice…zzzzp……se…..t..zzzz….the……zzzpt…..~

"No…no! Slade! Come in!"

~I'm….zzzp…fine…..get…..~

"Get? Get what? I'm going to –

~N..zzpt..no! Stay….bzzzpt…..posit…zppptt……tin……Win…..~

"Not again…." Not AGAIN!" Dick slammed a set of gloved palms to the key of his monitored drone – set up…damn it!

First Jump, then the ship where I had to save our payment…. Damn it!" Dick gripped his head and shook it at the man's miscalculation.

"Win…. ter…." Dick voiced soundlessly as Slade's message had him gripping the burner cell in his pocket.

"Wintergreen." And so, he dialed.

/

Slade's folly made Dick's babbling worth it as Will picked up right away. His tone was not at all laced with the same concerns as his friend's protégé's.

"Will! Slade…He's been…. I….have to ge-

~ Slow down, child. Tell me what has happened, in every detail. Leave out nothing. ~

"Slade…he made me man the drones and watch for the cargo's handler from a safe house nearby…He's not responding. He said not to go out. I…Bane could be –

~ Slade has no trouble facing Bane. ~ Wintergreen sighed over the line. ~He always runs in, getting the heat of battle under his hood. He's impossible! But, he's not dead. I can assure you based on that man's hard – headed resolve, that Slade will sustain plenty of numerous injuries and will be in bed moping, just as he has had the experience of doing in the past as Deathstroke. ~

"Then, why is his link already –

~ It could be the signal and one of the guards meant to work the location over. He could have been hunted as the hunter turned prey. Very common in our line of work…~ Will thought back to his horrible moments where Slade was back at his door. Blood in his eyes and hair like some rabid beast from the woods out back behind his cabin.

"How can I keep my promise if I can't even fight? When Batman had me with him on patrol in Gotham, I fought Bane. I just knew where to avoid…being hit."

~ Dear lord! That is a careless decision if you'd have to ask. I actually respect my old friend Wilson for keeping you away from that maniac. This isn't Gotham. In any sports game, the home team is slated to win regardless of how much practice the other team has in their field. ~

"It's Madrid." Gulped Dick. "Slade was…watching out?"

~ Would he want you to relive your last experience? That was all an incident outside of his control as well as yours. Or, had you forgotten? ~

Dick felt a flashback come on as he shut his eyes and breathed. "He, went into the water to save me…why wasn't he hurt?"

~ He was, but he was devastated until you awoke from being unconscious. As I had said before, he has a healing factor – but this in no way makes him invincible. ~

"I…did it to save the thing those pirates were trying to take…it was –

~ The trigger. ~ Will clarified. ~ He salvaged it and even made sure to make it waterproof since the prototype –

"I…had a five second head start." Dick threw a hand to his lips. He wanted to cry. Slade had lied. The pirates on board that ship had tried to…stop them from getting away. They weren't pirates.

"They weren't pirates." Dick grunted under his breath. "They were there to save me. But I went after the device, he flew in after me…and then…"

Dick remembered a sound so turbulent on those waters.

The patrol boat and their threat to come after Slade for crimes he could only hope to slam the man into a cell for one day. Someone had helped him…but, who? And why were…

"Is he still offline??" Sitting back in his seat, Dick checked the feed. A single beeping dot. He was alive, but barely.

~I'll send a bot he had shipped with his supplies to recover that idiot. ~ Will frowned. ~Though, you should be happier about this predicament. ~

"I could have gotten out."

~ You only got hurt, and he didn't give up on you. Would you do the same? ~

Dick just leaned into his arms and tried to let the pieces fall into place. Scattered, he let out a weary sigh and did not bother to lie to the butler. He wasn't Slade. He was still trying to go home, so this was…just for the dip in the pacific that week before.

"I'll be here…Tell him, that I need some time to process."

~As you wish. ~ Will let go and Dick was left to beeping machines and an empty feeling in his gut. He was saving a man who had saved him…twice now. No, more…

Getting pulled from those waters, a part of him wished he'd just let go of the trigger.

Firing another.

/

" Anch! Will! I'm fine."

"You, said that you'd be careful! Look at you! Bane wasn't kind, I can tell. Yet… Did you secure the "objective," sir?"

"Win…. where is Dick?"

The med room was now with a new patient as his vitals slowly picked up speed. He was a super – serum exemplar. With a lot of energy that he'd have to save for his white knight.

Dick Grayson had understood that Will had gotten him out of a jam. That Slade had ACTUALLY completed the job, but his jump from a ledge had him banged up in all the right places.

His leg was in a brace that was coming off in the next hour. He'd taken off the bandage on the side of his skull, saved by a dumpster where he'd landed only at the kindness of his pursuers.

He saw something of Bane that was troublesome. He'd contact his employer about it later. Right now, he had to thank one luckier star that had…well, he'd lost a lot of that spunk. It was natural to be double crossed, but for your own safety?

Slade had not told him about the patrol guards in the water than day.

He'd not told Robin about the shots fired and the warrant for their arrest.

He'd left out how that episode had made the trigger fall into the water where Dick had gone in to find it or drown trying. Only to hit the boat by an explosive mess that Slade had started, thinking too far ahead and not in the moment as he was prone to doing.

Almost killing his protégé.

Almost fracturing the boy in body and mind. Piecing himself back together as Dick's injuries were now non- existent.

"He's gone out of the haunt. Did you not check the date today?"

Did he dare? Time was under his lock and key here. Had…

Had he gone more than –

"Will. We're heading out."

"In your state?? I refuse to –

"I won't be denied." Slade pulled Will's collar close, breathing out a dragon's smog as his impatience only had the butler to relent. "I know where the boy plans to go." Slade furrowed his brow. "Have my clothes and the car ready. We're headed to Gotham City."

/

Dick knew how to hack, but Slade had been fully out of commission for a long enough time for his own actions to work in the boy's favor. Today, was an important day as he left the train station behind. A florist shop was around the corner. A waste but…he had enough of Slade's credits to get away with one purchase. Slade had to have figured it out by now. That Dick was just making amends.

That he had some figuring out to do, for only now and not again until next time.

/

He walked to the gates of a cemetery. An old one, where a family of few had been buried after a tragic incident…

The Flying Graysons. The marvels of the performing world. Globally renowned for their acrobatic skills and daredevil feats of epic proportion…Even with a young boy to watch over. Their son.

Richard, John Grayson.

The head stone stood. Untouched by time, Dick gulped in a breath as the spring wind pushed him closer. A god's breath. A single coaxing that he longed to never forget.

"Mom…. dad…. I'm back…" He swallowed, the trail of tears still not there yet. Getting his commentary ready, he had an idea that there were others…

"I don't know when I can see you next, I missed the date of your anniversary last time and…I promised to make up for that…." He sniffed.

"I did some things this time that…might upset you. I don't put the blame on anyone but myself…I was too worried about what I had to do. I'm a hero, I always will be your little Robin." His lip wobbled as he rubbed his sore eyes. Sleep deprived from the confession by Slade's butler.

"Bruce is safe. The Titans…my friends…I don't know how long I have until I can't see you again…I may be gone for a while…And…I'm afraid…I can't…make it happen! I can't DO what I want! I can't be hopeful enough and say, "Am I ok? Should I keep going?? Will they still hate me for leaving?"

Dick was trembling as his hands reached forth to place a bouquet of sweet-smelling violet shades with some white layered in atop his parent's graves.

"I'm sorry…I…had a choice and it was too much…I won't bother to explain. I just need to know if I'm stuck like this or if...I can have that chance...Please…" Dick bit his lip with hands praying for a word from the unknown reaches. In himself, in some place he couldn't see. He just wept and was unable to move. He cried as the wind carried his bawling voice – far enough that a crisp sound of dried grass being crushed underfoot, led Dick to raise his head.

"You came all this way." The face of an eye – patched male with white hair and a difficult expression made the boy's eyes sink. "I'm sorry…I…"

"Why didn't you tell me about this week? You could have made the trip. But…"

Slade sighed as the boy hugged his arms to his chest, back to the healing older male.

"How did you find me."

"You should know better than to hold any secrets from me, Dick."

"I needed the space."

You had it." The man nodded and surveyed the grounds with a grimace internally. "Now, it's time to come back h –

"Why? You lied about how I almost…You were looking after me he told m…" Sniffling, Dick wouldn't look at the man who'd come across the states to find his protégé.

"Will was right. You are just selfish and bitter. You'd kill me with you so you wouldn't have –

Slade came up to the boy and whipped him around, a stray arm wrapped round the kid as he embraced him. He hugged him! He…was so shaky…why??

"You are not a replacement. You never were. You were and continue to succeed my expectations and if you believe in second chances, Dick…"

"I….they were all I had…Y…you need to let me go –

"I can't."

"Why?" Dick tried to push the man off as he was let go. Boiling red under his pale skin. "I can't even maintain my sanity with you! How can I trust someone who just…treats others like ammo?? You pick it up and start over?? I'm not going to kill."

"We'll start smaller."

"I won't try to help you out if it means getting involved with the police –

"You signed that oath and you're telling me what to do now?? Dick, I own you."

Dick's rants went quiet. "You are just like me, Slade." The boy rasped in a smaller voice. "Ruined. Whatever made us, we can't fix it. You made me exactly what you wanted. Into some brat that is only good for ending up a human shield. You know they would have killed you and no one would have been there to protect me or Will from YOUR enemies!"

"That's what this little trip was about?" Slade raised a thick brow, expecting, more of a fight. He'd trained the kid well.

No more fighting the master. No more, but words were a weapon. He was learning about his other super power of a sort.

"You ran in and didn't even bother to think about what…that would do to us." Snorted the boy with his tears now drying.

"Batman never would have let you take charge. He would have done the very same with the Joker or even Two Face. You were shot by that thug, weren't you?"

Dick lowered his eyes, tucking that set of scars away beneath his coat and uniform.

"Did…Batman really let you fight them, Dick? Was Bane as murderous as you'd remembered? Had you been there, you'd have noticed he wasn't there to actually do any of the punching or killing this time." Slade shrugged.

Robin gritted his fists.

Not another flipping –

"How long are you going to play these mind games with me??" He finally slugged the unmasked older male. This was just to blow off steam, yet he had never gotten the hit. He'd have to kill the man to get his wish.

Of course. There was always a finer "catch" when it came to one of Slade's games. How far it would take to break a person.

Mercy killings.

Espionage.

Assassinations of important political figures in other countries.

Working with the FBI.

Working against Interpol's watch.

Ticking of the JLA.

Offering to assist the JLA during a world - wide crisis.

Slade was an anti – hero, and it hurt to say it.

He was not safe. He was in danger always without a single second to feel safe anymore.

He hated it. As a Titan, he was loved, laughed and lived his days with online classes to not fall too far behind on his studies.

Dick was going into high school soon. Sixteen. This next year, he'd no longer be fifteen…wow, had he already passed his birthday in march? (21st we are going with.)

"You have to let me in on all of it, or at least what I should know."

"And if I don't agree?" Slade leaned in as the kid pulled away. Wide eyes fully narrowed now; contempt spilling forth across his face, as red hot as his determination to break free from the mad man's hold.

"The Titans have kept you going all this time, Robin."

Dick blinked. His face trying to find a moment in time to not, regress. Slade was sure he'd be crushed by the guilt first, rather than from answering the male's question. "I promised them…. I'd never leave –

"You did not try to live before, you almost took your own life to save theirs. Because they were holding you back."

"I didn't want the control to –

"I can replace plenty more of them." Slade watched as the kid gawked in silence. "That was a prototype device, and you should have dropped it then. Sooner." Slade was entirely serious as Dick looked up to see just how; that Slade was trying to fix what he'd broken in a way that…was not…. Ethical, to poor Richard.

It wasn't!

"You want me to go back with you?" Dick shuddered as he dragged out his voice, a question mark injected into each part of his sentences. "To go back to learning how to shoot at a point-blank range, or to follow you around and to never ask for anything ever again ??! Do I look desperate to you??Did I ever look like I ever needed you to come into my life !?"

Slade let the boy's hands unfurl, his white knuckles too sore to land another hit. Too upset to be focused on his other goal.

Making Slade pay for the nanos, the ones swimming around, STILL stuck inside his friends' bloodstreams.

Truly parasitic creations of a monster.

"Either way, kid." Slade turned around to head for the path, the one back towards the gates that they'd passed through to meet the tomb of Richard's loved ones. He let his one eye shoot back over his shoulder as dick's one foot shifted in a defensive stance.

"I'm the only person you have left who'll listen to ANYTHING you have to say." Slade nudged his chin towards the exit. "Come." He commanded the despondent child. "We're wasting precious time. You can have your time to reflect back at the base. Robin."

Dick took one look at the graves of his parents. He took one look to see why Slade had not seemed to upset about letting it all behind him. Down there on the headstone on its side was a small emblem. A price to such a feat as Dick had regrets. So too did Slade.

He left Robin's old emblem. His old round badge with a yellow outlined "R" right beside the bouquet.

Slade had a reason for doing what he did, yet after that spring's stirrings, Richard refused to question it any longer. It was all too symbolic; that Robin was weeping upon their graves, not yet meant to continue as he once had been. He was gone, like the wind over this place, he was gone and never coming back.

Slade had fractured; cut a part of the boy out and had left him here, to relieve nothing. To simply, let go.

He had succeeded where no one else would have, even as a cowled face from afar viewed the scene and thought very differently…

"It didn't have to end like this."

Stepping out of the light and back into the shadows, there is no time for a guardian angel. There was only then, and then

~ I wasn't there, not enough to let you know that your parents know. They always will, and so will I.~

"So will I…"

The many words unspoken as the train was boarded, and when the darkest knight caught a glimpse of that unmasked male with one eye looking up at a skyscraper – one housing a rather complacent…

A story to tell, as he'd just shattered another's dreams underfoot.

Someone would always be waiting, watching. Fighting to put the pieces back together, striving to return that boy's rights to him.

But to him, there was no turning back.

Robin had saved a monster. He had allowed it to coax him back to its den as unspeakable changes happened; a transformation would take place away from the light of day. He'd remain there, starved of it. Never getting to see the sun, or return to his youth as he'd always wanted.

No.

Robin the boy wonder, had moved on.

And he was almost certain, to never return like he had today.

Tomorrow, they'd be enemies.

And then, someone would pay the ultimate price…

Always, always a piece missing, as the train left the station.

The wind's stirrings breathing out unease with it over the sky line.

All as one dark night, faded into another.

And another.

With decades to go before they'd meet again.

/

Wow…ok. Pretty deep…let me know what you see in this.

That both master and apprentice are similar. They mask the same, eventually they'll fight the same way.

Dick ran off to leave flowers on his parents' graves and he was watched over by BATMAN. Yes, B was the "Knight" I put in there to freaking make it look like a dramatic farewell from afar.

Sigh…so Dick, against everything, was saved by Slade – but because he could have gotten a chance to flee! Yes, and had he let go of the trigger and NOT jumped off of the boat to recover it, he would have been able to leave Slade on his exploding ship in the pacific. A running head start. He could have run back to the base, stopped the nano - device or told his team about Slade's tricks. Save them, and with so many ways this could have gone…

Why was Batman afraid to go and intervene when he'd spotted his ward's kidnapper?

Was it…because Slade scared him off and they know each other's identities. Right? Or, was it not to scare Robin into choosing sides when he'd still just come back from a major trauma. One that didn't matter, had he decided not to save the trigger.

Fractured ; as in how they've managed their lives so far and what pieces might be left behind in that process of growing up or in Slade's case, going backwards. Making the same mistakes and not regretting how much pain one lie can grow into for another person you may care for. With Joey and Addie. Grant, Sweet Lili and eventually, Rose. If you left those lies to turn you inside out and to never come to terms with who you are – what's left then, are broken shards.

Dick feels like he's going to keep losing those shards, and Slade will carefully try to set them back as one may broken bones. Like scar tissue, something will always be missing. In the end, Dick won't question what Slade "thinks" he is. Why he really stayed was all just to protect his friends – if Slade will ever let him go, or…

He'll scatter. As Wintergreen said, Slade would have to change too.

But the question really is…

Can he? For Robin's sake. Can he ever be more for the sake of that change?