Teen Titans Presents; Robin – Torn Legacy of a Prodigal Son –
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Chapter 8: Trading Spaces
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Dick looked up from the kitchen table at the wide-eyed blonde girl across from him.
Wintergreen was putting away dishes by the sink, while Slade in full regalia was trying to introduce his new addition to the family of Deathstroke.
Protégé meets temporary tool.
"He's your student? How?"
She was inquisitive, almost at the same time as Dick was skeptical towards Slade's ambitious play into another abductee sitting at his table.
"Terra? Renegade is still training to better himself. Don't pry, my dear."
"Sorry, but…he's Robin…right?"
Dick looked to Slade, almost as if those masked eyes had a bone to pick next work out session in the dojo.
"How can, you be sure?"
Dick turned to Terra, her shoulders slouching as her hands massaged her skull in deep contemplation.
"Nn…. I don't know, but it makes sense to think you were. The news said –
"That was a ruse to have the Titans on their feet." Slade explained. "And, it was almost all true." Slade motioned an arm to his fabled exemplar. "If this were the Robin that news reporter thinks he is, from your perspective in this kitchen, what would you think, my dear?"
Right then. Terra's face puckered as she turned the other cheek. Dick sighed and shook his head, while Slade uncrossed his arms over his chest before rising to stand up.
"You should both be equally excited. I've chosen not one, but two apprentices to teach. Though, Terra."
Slade watched the girl's wide blue eyes turn on him.
"Yeah, sir?"
"I'd like you to emulate Renegade, his movements and his mannerisms around the haunt…only, you'll be observing at first."
"What? Does it hav –
"Renegade, please." Slade huffed to the boy with a sardonic tilt of his masked head. "Terra will be learning how to control her abilities, and you've had plenty of practice. Aren't you a natural born leader?"
Dick bit his lip, trying not to bite too hard.
Dick was too flustered to reply. Sending, Slade a hidden death glare to NOT reveal his former identity to a minor was a must, yet Slade was the one to see things over. Dick only rubbed the back of his neck nervously and felt so out of place by the request to let Terra practically document his day-to-day routine….
"No, sir. Yes, I can…attempt…but she's not…um. She is –
"I have powers, so you don't want me to hang around? Just because I'm not like you?" Terra put her hands onto her hips. "Rude, much? If you're "not" Robin and you didn't work with the "Titans" then you can figure out what I can do, right? Why you need to be careful h-
"Terra."
She gasped and turned around, bobbing her head apologetically and walking away from clobbering the other outcast in the room.
Possibly her next runner up in being top dog around this tomb – setting of a hideaway.
"Sorry, won't bother him again…but, I'm normal, ok? Don't treat me like a freak!"
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Slade's new minion clung to him far too often. The next runaway he'd find, would be a proper mannequin to sit up on the shelf. He sure liked to play with his robots; action figures that Slade could put back together, or whenever he grew tired of tinkering with the same old design.
Was Dick then, a flawed design to him?
Slade rarely saw him for a few days, but when they sparred…
Richard refused to hold back.
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Terra would be introduced to the boy wonder's training regimen in a few weeks. Her earth powers were as rocky as her crass tongue. Slade had seen Robin boil over when they'd fought as enemies before, yet Terra was only a child. She still needed to know how to behave even if she was no longer a royal daughter of the king and queen to Markovia by right.
Slade never relayed the details entirely to his new protégé of her past. Terra had a defense mechanism built around her memories, but when it came time to reveal the biggest truth…She'd panic.
And he'd have to cage her as he'd chosen not to do to Robin.
It was all for his benefit, really. Dick could learn to lead and follow before getting aggressive – Terra was not here to replace Slade's number one star, yet…
She did seem to want to work harder for no extra cost. Nothing but eating alive Slade's entire food budget for the year.
Groaning, Slade sat up and pressed a button on his chair by the dais, where the probes were on full display like always. Whenever the man had to call on his right hand to do a difficult task, there they were, red as blood and white as fresh snow on the ground.
This truly went against all the Bat had taught the rather, perfect boy scout.
"Renegade. Meet me in the main room, don't delay."
He was laxer some days with his commands, but the kid was doing his part. He'd dethatched himself long enough to get into the dojo and work up a sweat, with a way to get strong enough to find a way out of his apprenticeship, maybe.
It all depended on how Slade saw the kid.
At the end of the day however, win or lose, he was still the master of this underground base. Robin had no need to dig that deep to find the other side.
Not when it was currently staring at him from all angles of the room.
Glowing red, white and black.
A heartbeat did sound, and it was Starfire's. Sweat pooled over the boy's hands. His vital signs had taken a steep climb due to the implied threat, as Renegade entered through sliding doors to seek out this malevolent king.
"Yes, Sir." Dick never said master. It would be a long road before then, but Slade could wait.
Dick's loyalty could only be spoken in some words more than by, many others.
He'd never call the man father, that was for sure…
Slade tapped his gloved fingers against the arm of his iron wrought throne.
Dick automatically walked up to the steps, as he was expected to come closer.
Looking a lion in the mouth was a risk, yet he'd had no other way out.
Up his legs climbed.
Four steps, and so little time to dawdle.
"Very good." Slade echoing voice had the kid's skin prickle. "Your timing was much better than the previous week." Slade continued and praised the boy, his apprentices face as stony as the Bat's…but wait…More so, ashamed?
"Why the dour expression, apprentice?" Slade leaned into his fist as his fingers continued to strum the throne's arm on his right. "You don't look very pleased to be present. That will earn you some points."
"Sir, my sleep was a bit…disturbed by our new guest…" The boy bobbed his ebony scalp, apologizing for the behavior. The screens being the only reason why.
"I can see your bags are showing too much….should I switch it? Your quarters, I mean."
Dick blinked up. He held no real attachment to his cell as it was. Dick nodded. It could be a whole lot better if he didn't deny being in Slade's good graces.
"I'd prefer it –
"You'd?"
Dick bit his tongue.
"You tried to make a demand. That was not what I'd hoped to hear, Apprentice."
"Sorry…She's just…always trying to get control…her shouting is –
"As if you've only lived in a quiet room in your Bat's tall tower." Slade scoffed. "You'll have to train to drown out her tantrums. You are the one she'll be looking up to the most."
"She'd rather find out who I am."
"What was that?"
Slade's head shot up. The boy's backtalk had returned, with that vile angst that all teenagers had to overcome in their daily lives. Slade would not have any of it, as Dick scrambled backwards, his foot twisting while Slade did the most unlikely of things.
He reached and caught Renegade's shaking limb in his grip, pulling the boy from a fall that could leave him immobile for far too long. His body barley leaving his seat.
"Careful."
Dick gasped and saw that steely eye observing from far too close…
He swallowed, pinned to the one person who might have been the one to kill him.
Had he wanted his tool to be in a coma or with a concussion.
"I know it seems bad now, but she'll get used to the routine. You'll just have to put up with the girl for a few more nights."
"I…don't…"
Slade's eye slipped over to the screens with the probes' status. Robin's blood in his face, drained. Gathering the words, he reacted as expected of any blackmailed individual.
"Sorry, sir…I won't bring it up again. I promise…."
"Good." Slade returned the boy his sore wrist as the kid rubbed at it to build back up some feeling.
"You're not to disrupt her progress, as she'll be doing the same for your sake."
"Yes, sir."
Slade nodded, Richard backing away to head for the steps.
All before Slade held up a palm to halt his protégé a moment more.
"Wait."
Dick was to the third step down as his body froze. A red light – green light stance that he forced to keep steady against the concrete and stone work.
Beneath his boots, he had the urge to trip and make a scene. To be as unpredictable as Beast boy could with his transformations.
The beating veins of his friends were very bright. He just felt, lost in this place every day…. never getting to escape or see them…
He would never. Not after before…
"You'll be going on a tag -team mission with a new partner. Though temporary, he'll let you know just what's to be expected of the plan."
The screens swapped to blue prints of a lab off on the far side of the business district in Jump.
Home. As Dick only looked up to see who he'd be facing.
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He bumped into Terra in the hallway. She looked to have a slight yawn she craftily masked, but not so well to Wintergreen.
Dick lowered his masked eyes to the blonde as she was squinting to see what he'd been hiding.
"Did…. he hurt you?"
She rushed over as Dick's stance failed him. She ran to grip the fading mark as he'd taken off his glove to retrieve an ice compress from the kitchen.
"I'm fine –
"Why are you being so defensive?? Let me see it!"
"Terra!"
Slade wasn't here to stop her as his voice shot out acidly. Pushing her back as he growled, the wince in his wrist returning as he needed to focus on his rest.
"I…don't need you to bother me. Ok? I'm tired, he just…"
"Oh…. did…I was having a dream…" Terra gripped her own arm and swallowed. Her face softer and more sympathetic to his needs. "I didn't want you to think…look. I think and forgive me if I'm wrong, that you are here but you didn't turn –
~Terra. Come to the training hall immediately. ~
Her COMM sounded as the girl lost her voice for a minute. The pause between the teens being clearly visible.
"Sorry, I got to go. But if you need Will, he's down the next hall. Feel better, I guess?" Terra shrugged her shoulders and ran far from this domain, only for a while before she'd be back.
Tired, exhausted. Sore.
The training room was not a game, it was a fight to survive. He'd been…too much had happened to have gotten the mad man' attention. The Titans simulation chamber didn't want to rip you apart. It just…
Was wrong. A torture chamber in his eyes.
And yet.
She dashed off.
Her mentality was that she was in school and the principal expected her prefect attendance record to be nothing but flawless.
He'd known she was talking about it. That Dick was Robin and Robin…was a Titan. Even if he couldn't fire a bullet through a person's chest. Even if Slade wanted him to rob and cheat the law…
All to protect four others.
And now?
He was stuck with one more kid to help in getting away from that, murderous psychopath.
Even if it meant speaking her languagje.
Or getting hurt, so she wouldn't have to.
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Slade's hits were more than a reprimand as the girl next to his door was busy past nine at night in the training hall.
Dick heard it as he rolled onto his side; a pillow over his ears as he groaned, out loud, it had to be safe…
The knocking continued, as did a sound not at all foreign to the teen's ears.
A moan, and a whimper.
His eyes wide open, Dick hopped into his best stance and the door slid back.
Wait…. did –
Dick felt his heart stop a moment; Terra was there, arm bandaged up and a swollen cheek.
Slade.
"Ow…."
She collapsed into him with a shaking sniffle, his shirt would be soaked…
But she looked terrible. Slade hadn't…. had he?
He reached an arm to keep her upright as she was coaxed to a chair on the side of his bed. He went to changing over the sheets, a dutiful big brother while her swollen face continued to sink by how the night had left her mood to transform. Her powers were useless in this state. Slade had been sure to drill that into the child's skull. He offered her his bed as Richard snuck out to find the one responsible for ruining his time off the clock.
Slade, would have to start up a new, few rules to their agreement if he wanted things to continue.
No super powered teens left behind; a slogan that was more his motto than Slade's.
Fists clenched at his sides, breath not yet released from his lungs, Dick pushed open the next door and the next.
Until he was once again, feet before the iron dais and the screens, the ones that determined if their hearts were still soundly beating for another day.
"Slade!" Dick called out; voice raised to get his echo to the other side of the main room.
"We need to talk about Terra."
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