Teen Titans Presents – Robin; Torn Legacy of a Prodigal Son –
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Chapter 15: Ice Cold – Return to the Streets
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Tipping the scales; a feminine prefect in the school of kill or be killed – she was coming.
Grant's eyes shot open, his mouth gasping open from the grave of…
Quilted blankets?
"What, is this? A live - in…ow!"
"Sit up like that and I'll have to get you bandaged up again, Lancelot."
Grant squinted in the direction of a caped blur.
Black and red x'd.
"Sorry about the lack of space. The sofa was a steal… ah, really."
"So, it looks it…" Grumbled the merc's eldest child. "Am I healing?"
"You got a super – power for that."
"I kinda do, yeah." Grant rolled his shoulders. "Slow, but it works."
"So…you know a guy who can hook a pal up?"
Grant snorted at the request. "You'd have to die first TWICE ta' be like me or my pops." Ravager had failed, so he knew it was time to pull back. Rethink the situation.
"I was brought back by a form of alchemy, but you don't see me cryin' over my losses."
Grant ignored the complaint of his fellow criminal's and tried to raise himself from the quilted comfort of X's stolen sofa. "An…I can get there on my own."
"To go where?" X rushed to Ravager's side as if he'd fall onto the sofa accidentally. "I won't let you off the hook until you tell me why he gave you the boot."
Grant clicked his tongue and slumped back into the sofa's folds. With a strained flop, he sighed and put a bandaged arm over his masked eyes. He then used his other gloves fingers to slowly tug away the hooded piece covering his face. The mask was off, as green hazel eyes shown back. "Mom doesn't get it, but Dad…" He sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "He wanted me to be the best. I strove to be just likee my pop, ran away and got into a military academy…no fooling with my age to join…I hated it, and I left. Couldn't stay. He caught up ta' me an wanted to take me on as his "pupil."
"Why? You could have just…" X rubbed his neck. "Why tell me your life story –
"Because I want you to realize, what I did to catch Slade; Deathstroke, red handed. How much it ruined my fam to know that it was all me. Not him…"
/
" You can't hope to defend yourself if you're constantly fighting the smallest feelings of regret. If you can't stand up taller, Grant…you can't be by my side."
A sixteen-year-old Grant a year ago had never wanted to fail him, he who had taken the effort to train a future soldier. His own son was the spitting image; he was the next to become a threat. Yet, this wasn't a walk in the park for the faint of heart.
Grant fell again, pushed to his knees. Screaming when he dropped the blade. When his staff work got sloppy.
It was hours, that's why.
This man's boot camp was brutal. Intense. Demeaning.
"I have it! Just…back off! –
" Annh!"
"Twisting my arm is what you should be doing, kid."
"Kid?" Grant spat back from being hog tied on the mat of the man's basement gym. "I'm your oldest CHILD! Don't you know me, anymore??"
"In the heat of a fight, there is no daddy to help you. Call me sir, coach. Whatever gets your head back in the game!"
"I can't!"
"You can! You're my flesh and blood, you can do it. I know." Slade leaned down as the boy had no choice but to take the lecture to heart.
"You'll fight, and you'll win. Now, don't be beaten. Not even by your teacher. Face me and never stop…!"
/
"He pushed the mask on me cause back then, I wanted his approval. I craved the attention of a man's that…he was always off with guns blazin. I was good at it; he taught me how to slice n' dice…. until…"
X leaned over the sofa.
"I got killed, and then he was after the ones responsible. His little magic serum patched me up…but the HIVE back then hated losing its credit for a target gone all wrong."
"Wait, wait. Hold on! The HIVE??" X gagged on his tongue still lolling out of his mouth from that confession. "With the pink haired witch and her crew? The odd ball - gang? THAT clan??"
"Uh, is it so hard to believe that the old leader was a bigger sicko than my pops?"
"No." X bit his cheek. "Maybe?"
Grant frowned. "Well, they were. I died on one of my first gigs. Scrambled my brains. I was sick, I mean…deathly. The serum was a dud…. but even when I sided with the crazy cult…" Grant wasn't crying was he?
"Kid?"
"He still dug me out. Killed a ton of HIVE jerks…he did it, then what I had left…I just got away. They took me back but…never got well."
"And your pop?"
"He just looked at me like I am, scum."
"For staying in the game and working "with" the guys who literally killed you…I did the same with my papa B!"
"Huh?"
Grant saw the mask pull up as the kid revealed his face. A streak of white in his black hair. Green eyes and a goofy grin.
"Who…. the hell is the happy –
"I'm just like you, dweeb. I worked with the League of Assassins and bolted. There associate had me kick the bucket, but wow. I bounced back and was on my own. Love it! Why can't you?"
"I, only know what I was taught."
"So, un – learn it." Jay picked up his mask and grinned over the seat. "You are freaking free. He can't touch you, so if you want to get even..."
Grant's mouth slipped open before he shut it, shaking his head as he denied this obvious proposal.
"No way! I'm not gonna stop his plan by….by, how? Callin –
Grant gasped. "Get me a line, X – ma' man." The killer said. "When there's trouble."
X snickered and tossed the kid his old unit.
"You know who to call." He sat back to enjoy the story as it slowly, progressed.
"Go for it, kid."
/
So far, if they got up…
Slade would push the button.
Getting impatient already, he watched Dicked body remain still across a metal operating table.
"Ravager is out once, but twice?" William Wintergreen appeared by the exit way.
"Pardon my intrusion, sir. You have a guest at the doorway to your lair. Shall I concern myself to –
Slade swished past the older male. His militaristic steps were silent yet steady as his feet found the main room's control image of the outside hatch. The one where the only person who could reach his home and not care, was exactly whom he'd expected to brighten their afternoon.
"Bring her in." A smile fell across the man's lips as the butler excused himself to go fetch their rather qualified guest. "As for that boy, sir?"
Will's question had Slade clench the control panel.
"Leave him, Wintergreen."
The silence between the men was vast before Will had nodded to finally be off; Slade's bidding now done, and his time on this earth, revolving once more.
/
Whirring, twisting and clicking gears greeted younger ears as a fifteen-year-old turned off the sound. Clomping, steel toed boots met those ears as they echoed into familiarity. She felt foreign to this place, and yet it was where her journey had taken the pirated princess. Where her fate was resigning her to; a person who had just as much appetite for growth as she –
"Welcome."
The voice that greeted the ears of a white, long-haired, blue-eyed princess with an olive glow, was a comfort.
"Father." She spoke with a cautious tone, a slight inflection and a question blended in with the thoughts of this particular person.
"After all these years…"
He walked up to her with hands splayed. Positively enamored, knowing who SHE was.
"Rose, my daughter." He chuckled softly, even if the voice itself echoed among the black.
A white haired, goateed tall man in armor of two tones with a distinct black patch over his right eye was grinning at her return.
"Welcome home, my dear. You, had received my message?"
"I did." She raised her stone-cold eyes up to this, character's.
He was the same man from back then? The same person who'd taught her to fight?
Could he be so delusional?
"Rose, you look vexed." The man had noticed. It was one of the many qualities they had in common.
"I expected a few balloons, Will entering with a cake…. a key to the city." She said airily. "You've changed."
His foot jutted a bit back. Eye blinking.
"What is my mission; if we could skip the informalities."
"You never did enjoy the presence of the unknown factor; not even since you came to know your gifts from me."
"No. I have a purpose now, and a time table to uphold." She stood as any good soldier. Feet together, never apart.
"You've taken up a name, yet?"
"I heard over the note that his title was up for, discussion."
"Not really a true debate." Slade shrugged. "I'm giving it to you, because he failed me. He failed the mission I had in mind."
"So? I get the job, then?" She put a slender hand to her hip. A grin on her face as she pulled back on her cloth mask.
"I was hoping a partnership might be the best option. Should, your time here be the exception."
"And, the main objective." She cut him off. Rose never did care for not leaving out all the other details out.
She was very thorough, unlike her half-brother.
Sloppy, unworthy.
But, would she take the bait?
All of his kids wanted one thing; to keep their father under their thumb. As fighters to their own misinformed status, Slade had his reputation to protect, and that head on his shoulders to prevent from losing...
His child here was not immortal, yet her ability for precognition had her from coming down from first place at any event that involved a katana or spear. Guns were more Grant's style, yet she was fit to consider the option whenever it was needed to complete a contract.
As she had no qualms about following orders.
She was trained, lethal, and cold as ice in that stare she gave her doting papa.
"How is your family –
"We don't keep in touch."
"And what of, Joey."
She stiffened. "We don't talk about the traitor, sir."
Slade blinked. "How so?"
She gritted her fists and let out an exhale. "Sir; you are unaware, yet that son you claimed to have kept from disobeying a direct response to stand down, has taken a stand." She frowned up at her father. "And has decided to become a Teen Titan."
/
A dripping faucet was the first thing he heard upon waking.
The pounding in his head had dulled by each quickened breadth. The scent of antiseptic and metallic instruments of torture –
Dick awoke with a jolt onto the table, bolted down by his arms and legs, feelings leaden as his body couldn't adjust to get free of this even icier feeling…
"I see my father has been extra busy in procuring his legacy."
By the doorway, leaning against the side wall of it, was a masked mistress. She wore a suit not like Grant's at all, and a mask of cloth with Slade's colors, yet reversed. The right was red, the other was in black.
A mirror image of the original.
This, was the most terrifying revelation of all.
"I'll be your secondary guide through the retraining process." Her steps, her dictation, her every way she used her gestures to bring about some awareness. Some, presence of her appearance at all.
All of it, screamed Slade.
But it wasn't him. It was just a woman, a teenager that acted –
"Are you paying attention?" She raised her voice a bit, head tilted owlishly at the teen on the table.
Getting cold feet, she walked closer to his disturbed frame.
"What? Did you hit your head, too hard? He just pricked you. Weakling." She muttered and walked as a shark round his table. 'I'll only let you go once your entire attention is to me. My father gave me control of your situation until he returns. For now, nothing has changed." The long-haired woman stood with her feet a width apart, as Slade had upon the hours of Robin's untimely blackmail in the last haunt.
"You'll call me vice commander, ma'am, superior, or simply on the missions he'll have us assigned until you can learn to listen and take orders – Ravager. I've taken his title due to my brother's starkly drawn, incompetence."
Dick swallowed. "Yes, but…where is he –
"I didn't give you permission to address me yet, protégé." Stopped the young soldier. She was his age and dually as imposing as Slade.
Army brat.
"I'm still his appren-
She grabbed a fistful of Richard's hair in a single swipe and rammed* his head back as Dick felt the rattling ache return. The pounding was still there. The gears drowned out nothing as she slowly twisted to MAKE sure it hurt.
"You are below my rank, protégé. You and I won't get along if you keep trying to prove yourself without my say. I want you to say it. Apologize and for now, keep your beak shut until I give the order. Do you understand??"
Dick nodded; eyes squinted as she tugged once more to get her answer.
"Permission granted to address your superior, protégé!"
"Y- y -yes!"
"I can't hear you??! Yes, what , protégé?"
"Yes…ma'am, yes!" Richard gasped out as she only brought her face closer to his.
"Very good, protégé." She let go, his skull returning to an ebbing push of that pinching discomfort.
His spine no longer arching along for the free ride.
"We'll work on your response timing to address your superior's commands, but my job is to whip you into shape for the position my father and employer has in store for his current pick…you're that famously defamed hero, after all." Her mouth quirked up into an ugly smirk. "Yes, this will be a challenge…. but you don't have to worry about a thing, protégé." She stood back with her hand to a block shaped device.
"Because I'll be sure you make the cut, perfectly, and as expected of your role as my father's worthy right hand."
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In this fic, Rose is more robotic and colder as the stereotypical soldier than Grant, who still wants to get back at Slade for ruining his career. Rose is the new Ravager and even if her age is the same as Robin's, she outranks him! Slade was going to go off to Metropolis, so will Batman heal up in time to stop him? Find out – and Dick was bolted to an operating table? What is Slade up to? What is Red X going to help Grant plan? They made it pretty clear in the previous chapter….
Read on for more. Chapter 16: Bird Man of Alcatraz. Dick learns about why he was being kept down and bolts. Is Rose as good a hunter as her father or better??
Also; next chapter will stem into what the chip in Dick's neck actually means. Reworking puddles of mud into this. However, will show Dick more desperate to oppose Slade than in the rebel yell rendition "after" he comes to the conclusion that his case is dire.
Enjoy, and review if you feel the need, ask away!