Teen Titans Presents; Robin – Torn Legacy of a Prodigal Son –

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Chapter 9: Shortcuts

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Robin was a hero.

Slade was some criminal mastermind and mercenary that liked to play God way too often.

Or, as a jail warden.

Dick Grayson as Renegade clenched his fists and swung out. It was stupid, yet Slade never refrained from a spar, not with the bat kid.

Dick's wrist was wrenched from him, the boy's gasp loudest as the fist was deflected. Slade's back to his number one, the man just countered with a disinterested glance.

"It's late." Was what the mastermind simple spoke. "You shouldn't be up."

"I had to be." Dick snarled. "I don't want you to hurt anyone else."

"You're speaking for her. That isn't very admirable, Richard." Slade walked off to one of his many machines in the room. The problem was that Slade thought it was right. His form of training was dangerous. Just because she had meta – powers, he could see her…

"NEW DEAL." Dick spat, acidly at his master. With a finger pointed at the mad man's armored back, he could certainly be seen as a formidable force.

"I can take it, the shame. The beatings, but no matter what she can't do… I'll take her punishments."

"You'd not only be shaming me, boy." Slade icily glared over his shoulder, yet he was certainly contemplating the action from a few mere feet away. "She's more than capable of adapting to her new life as my apprentice. I wouldn't administer such treatment if I hadn't known –

"She won't last, not with not knowing." Dick said with his eyes drawn to look up at that one eyed monster in the darkness. Beeping machines and winding, cranking gears had his skin flushed. That rage in his gut had been of pride, or fear mostly. Nothing the great protégé of a dark hero couldn't swallow.

Even if, temporarily.

"How."

Slade spun round, his body towering as he came before the boy wonder, Dick's fists up in case he were to be hurt this soon in some retaliation.

" How can you be her hero, when I might have you control her body and mind one day as well."

"She –

"She's already ruined, kid." Slade told the boy wonder. "I'm doing her country a favor. That girl has a history of using her abilities, destructively…she wasn't about to understand the consequences of her actions."

"Not by getting ripped apart!" Dick protested. "If it's…. a hit, just a whack on the skull, sure…but not that. Not so many injuries that she won't trust anyone, including you."

"Child, you misunderstood. "Slade shrugged, his arm going out to the screens again, the probes falling away to reveal videos and clips of Terra. As a runaway danger to society.

"She needed this." Slade said with a purr in the boy's ear. Robin's mask widened at the destructive power. The fact that she was…. was…

Out of control…

"You've never had kids yet, boy wonder." Smirked the mad man. "She has a history of doing wrong, even if others are in the way, all because she won't listen."

"A beating like that?" Dick raised a brow. This was no better than Jason territory. But Jason was dead. He had no right to compare the two.

"Sometimes a swat on the nose isn't enough."

Dick flinched, gritting his fists some more at the comment. "SHE'S NOT A WILD ANIMAL!" He attacked, that lovely pride what would lead to even more plump bruises on his face and arms by tomorrow.

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Terra was given an evaluation a few days later, coming into Robin's room soon after. Her face healing up and no extra marks to have her on her knees, Dick was in the middle of fixing up a nasty purple and blue mark on his shoulder. Slade had decided a bot would be best to remind the boy, that the robots had no other 'objectives."

In she stomped, her brown boots not yet swapped out as she let her tan gloves swing out to throw Robin from just seat, his eyes confused and shocked that –

" Hey! What –

"YOU TOLD HIM I'M NOT GOOD ENOUGH???"

Dick stepped back, dropping the compress onto his side dresser. Eyes on her, almost concerned that she wasn't at fault, his lips moved last as she jumped down his throat.

"I am so sick of you trying to get in the way all the time…but, you just…. sabotaged my lessons?? I'm not going to learn anything if he won't take back off the training wheels! You… jerk !!" With a furious yell, Terra let her hits be anything but. Dick understood; she was demoted in this case, a lower score on her tests meant everything. Slade had not only twisted Robin's deed to become something more negative, yet she still wanted to impress….

He had to tell her. He didn't care what Slade did to him, his friends were fine. This was between he and Terra. The angry girl with a sad sob story.

"Look; he's not who he says he is, Terra! And…. you were right!" Dick would have scrambled, would have tried to look past it, even as he gripped at her arms and made her see his resolve up close. "I'm here to stop him. He's a criminal who's hurt the Titans…. I'm not allowed to leave…but you have to believe me! He's only using you –

"He warned me that you knew how to woo a girl." The princess bit back in her intent as Dick let her go. "Terra, I AM Him." He put a hand to his heart, the one with an S just over it. "I'm Robin, and that man is holding me against my will."

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It all hurt. Dick had crossed the line, begging Slade at his feet as he was dragged out into the hall and to stare at the many screens, white of his eyes now again bloodshot.

Slade punched him in the stomach, the face, until he'd finally blacked out.

When he rose, the scare was realized. He tried to open his door, yet it wouldn't. He pounded, in tears as he KNEW the deal was over. Terra was going to take her beatings like a soldier to impress a dictator like Slade. Richard had tried to reveal his hero identity only to her, eyes widest when Slade had come to drag the boy from his own domain as she was currently, possibly left to sulk.

Who knows what he'd do…

Richard fell to his knees, sleeping in a crouched state until what would be day break when the door, slid back. Slade was there, his first aid kit in hand not appearing as pleasant feeling. Dick gripped his ribs miserably and seethed.

"I need to have a look. Move."

Dick didn't, so Slade boot shoved him out of the way, ungrateful for the gesture.

"You brought this on yourself, Dick."

"I, had to." Heaved the poor boy.

"As a hero, but as my apprentice?"

"Can't, hurt anyone…" Coughed the kid, beyond speaking casually to this killer at his side.

"Get up. On the bed, I need to dress your wounds." Slade tapped his foot as Dick just stayed, in a stupor of pain as he refused to take orders.

"It didn't have to be this way."

Dick looked up, only to get a fist, and to there, he was taken elsewhere so that he wouldn't squirm so much.

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He looked like a war victim, really and truly.

Terra hadn't been at the table, and Dick believed she was being brainwashed by Slade to forget the previous night.

However, Slade was present to all of Renegade's meals. It made things even more awkward between them.

"Finish, then we'll go over some languages. You're falling behind on your Russian."

" Da." Dick nodded, his head splitting from whatever drug he'd been given in the infirmary while he'd been put under.

"I had to move your team - up to the next few weeks." Slade sighed a bit behind the mask. "Those ribs will take a few extra days. No intense movement, not until I say you're –

"I've been hurt before." The boy put down his fork, eyes feeling as sore as his extra limbs. The ones that weren't broken…

"Excuse me?"

Dick should have stopped, but pushing Slade away while he was this damaged was his only defense.

Slade couldn't touch him.

Dick got up to take his dishes to the sink. "Thanks for the food."

"Renegade." Slade stood as well, his fingers atop the boy's beaten shoulder blade. "We're not done, here."

Licking his lips, Richard's head could burst at any second.

"Sorry, sir…head's, still hurting. I just need to rest it –

"Did I give you permission? Answer me, Apprentice."

Dick sighed.

Control freak.

"Da…. sir…." Dick winced as Slade let go, an electrical field metaphorically keeping the master from reprimanding his pupil.

Slade's widened gaze narrowed considerably, as the boy curtly excused himself.

"Going to my room. Will…suggested I should sleep this off. Sorry." The door shut and for the first time, Richard in some sad little way that he had, then left Slade to back down for an entire week and a half. All the more to catch up on some missed sleep.

Terra after all, was no longer staying in the room across the hall.

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