Teen Titans; ReBeL Yell – If I Had Stayed a Renegade-
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This chapter is in dedication to a Renegade Au and Robin (no slash!) Slade rivalry fan; Lucia Chloris- shout out is to you and I'm new to dedications too…Sorry if this sounds a bit corny, so roll the camera, folks! This, is about to get gritty.
Also! Takes place as alt – Terra (If Dick had stayed with Slade as his apprentice as the piece will explain.)
Warnings for torture methods, drugs injections of a kidnapper and Deathstroke – isms (RATED T and Teenage angst of a Renegade hero.) Also, a lot of tears and flashbacks. Gas lighting and that old chestnut…Hope it's a sure shot! Let me know what you guys think. All of this scenario BY THE WAY was Lucia's so don't go holding me to the depths of the imagination. I just put together the finishing touches. Credit to the Writer, and the author is just the paper to this future Inkblot. Let's hop to…
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Puddles of Mud
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He dodged empty street corners.
Panting, flying forwards.
He'd finally found a way back.
But, where was here? The airport was surrounded with drones and his master's spies as this apprentice breathed in, cool sweat coating his darkly knit and still masked brows.
He couldn't be Robin again.
There was a warrant, and he was on it.
~ What have you done to me? Slade…~
He wanted to rip his hair out, but the darkly clad apprentice kept running. He had to get out. This wasn't his city. Not any way, anymore than it was his...and one way or another…
The news screens showed him in fluorescent shades; a framed Robin on the run, paid for by Slade.
It was his punishment for trying to swipe up the button; the trigger that had started this, and now he had to keep running. A girl, Terra had taken his place and he'd let her do whatever she wanted. Sleep in that haunt without knowing Slade's real plans. And, then?
Dick Grayson. Former ally and Leader of the Teen Titans, had run away. He'd almost gotten out during a physical when Slade had left a Slade- bot in charge to patch him up. After that, Dick knew he had to put on a braver face. Slade knew; he knew what was going to eventually put him in a tight spot.
The sirens sounded and soon stilled, cop cars parked along the roadway where they were also out on the hunt.
For a lone Robin.
Dick's eyes widened with a hopeful gasp.
Batman!
Dick saw the man with Gordon, and boy…Did he look…
Disappointed.
It was one shot, and Dick had nearly caused the casualty of many lives on the second try of his Escape Plan Beta.
Yep. He was desperate and not in Jump anymore. Somehow, the road onwards by hitchhiking this far had driven the boy blunder back to Gotham. And he'd had no one to turn to after THAT posting had driven his world down the toilet.
Slade was so sure that Dick would have to come crawling home. That he had no choice? Really? He'd not gotten the device to the Titans on time, but he had tried. He had tried post offices in the closest range and to his shock?
Slade knew to get those checked out, and so…Dick had to resort to finding his old caretaker.
The Bat must have known this was all a set up. He didn't look the least bit convinced that Robin had done this of his own free will.
Truth was, he was wrong.
It was to survive.
The water mains spurted up as Killer Croc roared out and decided to act as a big bad distraction.
Dick bolted.
Slade was close, he could taste the metal and gunpowder, wafting along the filthy sea breeze.
He ran, his jacket and mask less eyes full of too much character, yet what could he do??
/
"I'm here to see Alfred Pennyworth."
"You…are you ok, kid?"
"Yeah, Tim…" Sniffed the boy wonder to the thirteen year old under his scope. From behind the Wayne Manor's very gates, HE looked like the real Robin. Dick…was too unruly and unclean to him, so yeah.
Looking back as the camera had him wary…Slade could hack things. Could, he be –
The older boy snapped.
"I need to get inside… It's urgent!"
"No way! You and the whole city; and how come you know my name?? –
"TIMOTHY!"
The green eyed child looked behind himself as an even older gent in a suit showed up with his hands behind his back. Dick gulped, and for a moment, the pose was too much like how Slade…
He fell to his knees.
"I need you and….Bruce, to believe me…I think I'm being followed. I…." He'd not eaten in several hours which felt like days, as the world had suddenly started to spin.
A thud, and the sky grew dimmer. The scent of roses was there, so faint…
"Oh, dear… Master Timothy! Come help me with….~
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~ Help me move the body to the den….~
It sounded as if he was dead, that they were busy moving a corpse and not a member of their family.
Had they taken a DNA sample? Called the authorities to report this " vagabonde" being a trespasser?
Dick felt at his ribs. They'd left, but he could still see the confusion in Tim's stare. The worry in Alfred's stance and the caution in…
Thunder awoke him as his body turned to look, the window right behind as rain fell against the rooftops.
Dick grunted and rose, his ability to shift was here, they'd not tied him down. Not taken away his strength to make themselves feel…
/
BOOM!
Dick shuffled and jumped. That, was…a big storm, He'd be stuck here. He huffed and sat up on what looked to be a vintage couch in the den…
Or.
Bruce's study, as it ached.
He knew?
Dick looked at his palms. Gloves off. They'd checked, and he smiled with a sigh.
"Al."
"Took them no time, while the Bat cleans up your mess…"
Dick turned his head to the voice, a voice he didn't need to hear right now.
"You can't be here." He tried to rise, to find in the shadowy room where that echo had come from. Sitting on his knees, he tried to find the ground, but a boot fell.
He froze and looked to the seat closest to the window, overlooking the rainy day outside.
BOOM!
His fragmented silhouette was terrific by example to any mobster and to any super villain with a sadistic side. Dick shuddered and forced his legs to move, to get to the door as he cautiously was let to reach out and move towards the handle. That calculating, one eye still watching him from the seat by the window.
Not moving, but smirking below his two – toned mask.
Dick tugged, blinking. That was…
He did it again, and then his foot went up to the door.
He started banging, louder and louder as the thunder only drowned out his yells.
"Al! Help!! He's in the manor! Please !! Open up!! Tim!! Al!"
"Not the most brilliant plan to run without checking your steps, was it?"
Dick snapped his head to face the creeper; the one who'd deliberately taken all this time to wear his unwilling protégé down. "You knew where to find me. How." The ex – hero demanded.
Slade laced his fingers together with a hum, leaning forth as he sat. As if to tell a story to this unruly son of Gotham's finest.
"You'd forgotten; the bots were able to hunt you down the very first time you'd plotted an escape. Yet, did you bother to ask yourself what their goal was then, apprentice –
"I'm done taking orders!" Dick spoke as the thunder rose; the lightening illuminating his face before it too went silent. "Tell me. How did you find me, Slade? I blew up an airplane to cover my tracks. The trigger...nothing happened. How did you prevent…I… stayed off the streets for weeks…But… How?"
" How, he asks…" Slade just chuckled, shaking his head. "Dear boy, I've always been a part of you. As you do recall, the bots had their orders while you were still under…that I'd be able to keep my eye on you, for a very long, long time. The Trigger is only able to be activated by my fingerprints. You can't use it, unless you kill me first…I was going to leave that little surprise until I'd dubbed your training as a complete success."
Dick held onto the side of the wall. The shock his him as his eye grew wide. "Where?? Where is it?? The tracker?? You implanted it in… –
" Inside." Slade let the word roll off of his tongue. "Below your skin, where I should have had it all along. You certainly can't be trusted to do what you want, Robin."
"I only have one, one person who can fix all of this –
"Running back to Daddy Bats?" Scoffed the mad man. His eye as playful as it was mocking to the disturbed teen. His heart kept racing. Slade was treating him like a pup with a shock collar. He'd get run over by a truck without that much discipline.
"You belong to me now, boy. If you think you'd get any pity from that, dark knight…" Slade was able to tell; the kid was going to come at him with everything he had. Tears had started to form at the corner of the brat's eyes. Slade rose slowly and spotted a record set. A more modern version as he found a classical track that bordered on a waltz. That, was exactly what would set the boy on fire and he flung his fists with a yell at the evil man's mask. His oppressor dodged. Ah, the boy was too weak to fight, yet he allowed the kid the option anyway of trying. Always trying and failing.
Dizzier and still, the room was a blur. Dick almost lost his footing as the waltz went along.
Faster and faster. The hits; sloppier and more erratic with his shaking frame.
Lighting streaked the sky outside, lighting the room as it fell and rose with the storm's direction.
BOOM !
Slade watched the kid's shock return as he rammed a leg into the kid's hip, pushing him into a book case, a few books falling in the process.
"You are a child." Slade chided the dazed protégé, now an embarrassment in a set of tights. "You sold yourself to this life and I intend to have you…"
Slade gripped the front of the kid's dirty top as he was tossed atop a rug by the fire. Dick felt sweat coating his bottom lip, the fear retuning as Slade kicked the kid in the side , this time while he didn't have the energy to stand back up.
Hard, as Robin bit his cheek. Forgetting to keep in his voice lowered.
~ Master Dick?? Hello?? Is anyone in there?? My heavens…. Wait just - I'm going to fetch –
"You'd better make him leave…" Slade hissed from above, a hand to the back of the boy's collar He was not being choked, but Slade had done far worse. He wasn't one to pull his punches, but now...
"Or I will –
Dick swerved his head back, breathing rapidly as he gulped air into his lungs and called out through the wood frame and by the stormy echo, still outside.
"I'm fine, Al!! Just, still kind of woozy…Can you –
" Ung!"
~ Master Dick?? I'm going to retrieve Master Bruce and Doctor Leslie Kyle, immediately. Hold on tight –
"We have enough time…" Slade wasn't done as Dick's arm was wrenched from the floor. "Now. I want you to say it."
"Say…. cug!...."
" Say that you'll come back with your master, of your own free will." Slade tossed the kid onto the sofa, his hands behind his back with the man's boots circling the fixture in the room as he stayed absolutely the hunter.
Dick was his prize. He had to comply, or fight and die trying to escape. \
Dick shook his head, a cough returned as his bruised side made ir difficult to speak. "No, not like this... I'd have to -
"You will tell Mr. Wayne's help that you have a new contract, and that you'll be saying your farewells… very soon… Otherwise, to a few in this city, they won't remember the face of the late hero; Richard Grayson. The Boy Wonder that you pretended to be."
Dick gulped, and felt his rabbit heart; taking in the position that he'd been left. Shuddering along with his quivering voice.
" Do it. Tell your butler that everything is fine."
For a second, Dick was sure that the storm had passed. That the day would break and there would be no more nighttime woes to swallow up the teen in his blanket of those, innermost fears.
Slade wasn't wrong. If Bruce ever took him back…
He'd be fighting the courts. Acting as a guardian to an unruly adrenaline addict, and worse?
Eventually…
The Titans would never speak to him if they found out, that people had died.
Just so that Dick Grayson could live.
"Come on, child." Slade coaxed in a warning filled lilt, lowering himself back into the chair partly, one part ready to flee. Eyeing a puffy eyed hero from the side lines, goading him with a desire to bring out the worst in his opponents.
Dick sighed. He didn't –
" Dick?"
The door handle jiggled and Slade's huff was there, low and gruff.
No.
He chuckled.
Dick started to panic, sitting up, looking between the window and –
Was Slade LEAVING HIM???
"You'll take your sweet time with these, excuses. Your mentor should already have guessed, and you can't deny it." The smirking psycho pulled open the window pane with a harsh yet swift yank. "You'll make that decision, or burn by it, Robin. If that's who you really are…" Slade swiftly stepped over and was readying his grip –
"Dick! I'm opening this door…. Alfred, get the –
Dick fell to the floor, on his knees, panting.
Which way? Which way??
Was this…
Slade was gone, he was leaving and…
The sheer upset of having to relive the Red X incident took hold. Yet Bruce couldn't trust him. He couldn't!
Was it wrong to keep running like this? Was Slade keeping the chip active under his burning red flesh a he withheld those tears –
The knob turned; the men stood to find the room quieter….
/
Yes, it could be.
Tim could be safer without…. without a poor excuse like him.
"Yet, I could have sworn?"
"Do we have spirits inhabiting the manor, B?" Tim bounded over to the fire place while Bruce saw the mess by the bookshelf. "There was a struggle." He told his family members softly, with a fixation on the sofa for a moment too long. "Check the live access feed and security for any intruders…. Even if he didn't…" Bruce put an unholy hand to his temples and sighed out, miserable.
"Dick…you couldn't have gone away…"
"A…wait…that WAS him?? I thought it was a –
"Master Timothy? Have you finished all of your school work for this evening?"
If only…
"But…. I can help! –
How he'd recalled being so carefree…
"We can't give up." Bruce nodded to his mini team member of the manor's grounds. "I'll send word for Gordon to call off the search."
"You'll be paying the police to keep Renegade's information hush – hush, sir?"
Bruce saw the flutter of a drape by an open window. Tim watched from the doorway as he was shooed off, but not before he'd seen his new dad with such a determined stance. Who was that kid? He couldn't get the question out of his skull.
"He's only a kid, Al. A scared, abused and hurt individual who's forced himself to get help from his kidnapper…and If I ever think to confront that monster one day." Bruce squinted at the scuff marks from a set of high quality, steel toes boots.
Militaristic.
Tim held in a breath.
~ Bruce…. who was he to you? ~ Wondered the young orphan as he stood in silence by the door. Alfred too, knew that there was no turning away.
"Then I'd make it hurt. The way Dick wanted him brought to justice."
/
Muddy prints as the rain fell, and fell.
Dick clutched his arm and winced at the cool sting of it on his bruised legs and back. On his face as he tracked down prints that had been left intact.
He kept walking, his feet close to buried in mud and grass as spring was about to bloom right in May. When the heat would have him remembering Jump city. He was sure they'd leave it behind. He'd already tried not to. So much, that he didn't see a steep slip up ad went down. Muddy and cold, coughing as the rain just made him shiver. Yet the woods behind the manor were indeed maze – like. They had been perfect in his earlier days for stealth exercises, but now?
The trees bowed, disappointed in his return. No longer a true son to the man who had let them to grow this tall. The wind too, as it howled out. Moaning a "whoa – is – me" in every wave of those lashes across his pale face.
When the boy was to his knees, panting, shivering and damp with mud and rain, he saw a shape come out of the mist. It did not make a sound until it was close enough to see.
"I…"
Dick shivered. His eyes refused to look right at the man at first, but it was impossible not to. His armor; nothing touched it but the mud. The mud only got the soles, but he was immaculate. Always. Never vulnerable as Bruce had taught…
Dick felt at his cheek with a muddy set of fingers.
Tears….
About time.
"I left."
Slade cocked his head, not saying a word. As if an animal admiring a human's movements from only a few feet apart.
Parrot – like, he was in this to have his way.
And sadly, so, he'd won it.
The boy wonder bit his lip, head down as the rain pelted his unclad scalp, harder.
"They can't do it; they can't bring Robin back…."
"I know."
Dick gasped a little as a band of fingers lifted the boy's chin to see; to see what a monster he was dealing with.
"You belong at my side, and that's all that matters." Slade wiped back a tear with his thumb. Truly, he did pity his apprentice, but it was not to be. "Are you ready?" Was all he asked to the unsure boy, covered in mud. Unsure of his identity any longer.
Slade could fix that. He just had to listen for once.
"Renegade. Answer."
"Y- yes…. sir…." Dick swallowed and stuttered, truly unsure of what he could do. He was only human…Slade was…was….
What was he?
"You're going to catch your death; let me help in any way I can." Slade's fingers left the boy's chin to splay out in welcome. In invitation, as Dick took that hand with cold, muddy prints to mar the older man's gloves.
"Sir, why?"
"Hn?" Slade reached and pulled Richard to his feet; a bit ridged as he almost fell back into the mud with the boy. Slade's bulk held and Dick felt the tears still falling.
"Why did you leave me there? You could have just…."
"You, apprentice…" Slade smiled as he said this is a calming tone, more a derivative of what a threat he was being…. no. He –
Dick felt his body go to ice, the thoughts…growing dark as Slade lifted the kid over his shoulder. The sound of a great dane and its loud howl had him bothered. Slade clicked his tongue, yet the boy had needed an answer. So, he gave it, even as the injection he'd shot into the brat had started to keep him still in the mercenary's arms. Slade whispered, low and taunting. As if to punish, he'd have one new headache to deal with before they left this filthy city by tonight.
With that answer in the kid's ear as he trudged back to the jeep through mud and wasted hunting ground, the answer was granted with great pleasure in the mad man's accomplishments.
" Because; you, Robin…. can't be trusted…"
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More psychological, but I hope you liked it, Lucia Chloris. Enjoy more to come and I'd be glad to collab with any future fans to be! Thanks, and stay curious for more one – shots. Night y'all!
