Teen Titans Presents – Robin; Torn Legacy of a Prodigal Son –
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Chapter 27: A Child's Devotion
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This will be the meeting up of Rose with her dad and, it will not go well. Heck, warning for brainwashing, self-mutilation and so on. Rose did go bananas because of Slade in the comics after all.
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Dick was sure he'd felt a cool breeze against his skin.
He rose from a bed, not a cot. This, had to be a step up as Slade's chosen receiver of such an honor, he snorted and went to see…
The door was unlocked, so just stay?
Dick was beaten and bruised; yet, would he risk more scars for the sake of his freedom?
The answer was perhaps, as the hero waited and finally, a bot showed up.
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Rose steadily docked with her robot crew into the cove's one space by the water where even Aqualad stayed from. The scent of chemical fumed were an annoyance, yet not a problem as she and her father's tool took to the route of his other underground lair.
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Slade waited at his screens for her arrival, and so it came as he turned to see a dripping white-haired replica of a woman at his back.
To one knee.
"I've come back, sir." She didn't worry about what came after as he let her come up from her position.
Dick was there.
He could watch then, as he would see just what loyalty meant in this line of work.
"Rose, stay."
Dick gawked, was Slade….to his own daughter?
He turned to Dick with a much more composed eye on the boy.
"Glad you could be here to see this, Apprentice….it seems that Ravager did not complete her mission as expected."
No…Dick saw that flinch, a catch of sharp breath but…
Rose, didn't budge.
It terrified him.
Was this the life of –
" Rose, for your inability to control Terra, AND for allowing your brother to side with the Batman and Titans, you'll be punished severely, later for your transgressions."
"Yes, sir."
"Yes, sir…what?"
"Yes, Master Deathstroke."
Was this another trick?
"Slade…that's…. Rose…the building was –
"Quiet, Renegade. You're not to speak."
"I can though, and she should know what –
"Take him back to his room."
Dick flailed at the bots as they just shoved him to his knees in cuffs.
"No! Rose! Fight him! He's not –
"Rose. You were careless and took yourself from a fight without stopping or capturing either objective; your first punishment, is to watch my Apprentice. Take him under your wing."
Dick gasped. "No…that isn't –
"I'm willing to excel, Master." She rose as Slade expected of his brightest tool.
"See that he is ready to fight, for another day." Slade departed and left Rose to follow the bots.
She was not given a raise up, yet demoted to baby sitter.
Her fists clenched.
He was so perfect? What about her?
She'd show that mutt. She'd show them both…
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Dick was tossed unceremoniously into his room to stew, as Rose entered right behind, her knuckles cracking. Itching to act as the coach while the bots deserted them.
" Daddy said to keep you in line." She smirked with her canines poking out. Dick scooted backwards in his cuffs as she rushed out to drag him up by his collar to meet her face to face.
"He told me to keep you in line personally, so that's what I'm gonna do."
A fist came, and for a moment as Dick braced himself in the dim light, he saw Slade above him with his gauntlet ready to smash his protégé's teeth in.
Instead of a confused teenager, from the man's extensive world of good vs evil.
His lights were out before five minutes of the beat down had gone, Rose leaving the runny nosed idiot to his sulking.
She retreated down the hall, only to see Slade with his mask off.
"Dad."
"Ravager."
She paused before pulling off the mask from her face, a small smile there from too long ago.
"Call me, Rose." She tilted her blue eyes to him, both still plenty intact.
He nodded nudging the air to have her follow him.
"Debrief, sir?"
"Read my thoughts that quickly, my dear?"
"No, sir." She pushed a strand of her long hair from her ear.
"I just know you as well as you must, know me."
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Starfire paced in the air, comm unit sounding as she pulled out the device to see Cy's face…
"You have found the "getting away" vehicle –
~ We did, but it was destroyed, the tunnel that took it is…. blocked off. No leads but the direction it might'a gone is not that old. Bb just got another scent. Come by soon, Cyborg out. ~
Star bit her lip and looked up, the sun was already setting…
"Robin, be strong. We shall never give up on you too…"
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Raven took to her meditation as Bruce left her to a spot in the cave while her room was made up for the night.
Had a smaller Robin not been oggling her seated position.
"Amazing…. Telekinesis, or is it –
"Do you mind?"
"Tim, let Raven concentrate, please."
"Aww, B. You gave away my secret identity." The boy pouted and sighed, before putting his hands up and returning to his homework up in the den.
Raven waited until he was out of hindsight before finding her feet on the ground.
"How is she."
"Terra is with an old friend who works with heroes like Robin and your team. She's, a family ally." Batman removed the hood as Raven said nothing.
"I looked into his mind, once or twice. Your face showed up."
"I can't imagine that staying a secret for very long. Now the Deathstroke has changed drastically in his methods, we'll have to stay one step ahead at all times."
Raven nodded and got back to what she did best.
"Right, let's find our family…. Azarath…. Metrion…. Zinthos…."
It was interesting to watch, Tim was right.
However, Raven was an eagle eye that he needed to nip this into the bud quickly, before the training Slade intended for his son to learn was forced down too deeply into the boy's psyche.
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Aqualad was the only hero in Steel for the time being, that was on their intel as Rose scoped out the place under her father's orders. "Find the main baddie here and form a …that is… -
~The risk will be far greater if the hero spots any of my operatives outside of the haunt. ~ Slade leaned over his computer and spoke to Rose as he would any of his Team 7 allies.
Even the ones he had slaughtered.
(Comic new 52. Actually happened!)
Rose was quick, yet the only other enemy here was in HIVE territory.
As much as Slade despised Blood for taking the helm, he had to do it.
Use those cultish pricks as human shields against the world's finest.
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Rose tip toed to a wall that looked different from the ones she'd passed.
She pulled back one part and saw a switch. A really well hidden one, as she flicked it, a zeta – beam there as she boarded.
This, was going to be a bumpy ride…
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Aqualad was sure she'd not looked unfamiliar from the sea bird's words. The fish in the cove had said she was talking to herself.
While holding her one ear.
Immediately, he swung out his unit.
"Calling Titans West; we have a situation in my city, Steel. Approximate time is now…eleven forty, eastern standard time. Need you to come down, right away…Aqualad, signing off." Aqualad put away the device as he took in a gulp to return to his undersea allies of the deep.
~Where secrets are kept away from others, there are answers to a many question that eludes all of mankind.~
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Bb felt a vibration in his pocket as he fished out what looked to be an SOS.
It wasn't exactly, as Kori was told to meet them back at the tower.
"Aqualad sounded really weird on the call." Cy tried to ask himself…but from the evidence that they had already gathered, he contacted Batman in the cave and Raven was the first to pick up.
"Cyborg?"
Bruce pulled back up his cowl as Tim joined them in his Robin get up.
~We think Aqualad might have a lead on where Slade's gonna be hidin' out. In Steel city. ~
She looked to Bruce, who was as well to verify that if you went the right direction that Cy had mapped out to a T, then Steel was on those list of cities to investigate.
"Should one of us stay with Terra?"
"Tim." Batman turned to the kid as his son nodded, looking too much like Richard had once upon a time.
"You got it, she's safe with Dr. Kyle an' me."
"Good, then we can't wait until morning… Raven?"
"I'll be happy to follow, to where my leader is being held." She nodded back, acknowledging that the Bat, though of few words at best, had Dick's best interests at heart for a long time. And his team's, as the two crime fighters headed off to the Batwing to see about a trip across the states.
Steel was more a Detroit, a city of iron and heavy industrialization where there were always corrupt leaders to take advantage of the many remaining resources it had to offer.
Slade was possibly one of those few, who'd use the base he had there to throw everyone else off his trail.
Well, no more.
Batman swapped modes and had a thought. Get to Ravager number two first, find the man hiding beneath those city streets in a heartbeat.
Raven stayed on top of having a link to anyone she'd be able to find. Their minds not far gone.
In fact, the one that did intrigue her the most was Ravager, number two. (noted, ravager was also Slade's half brother before grant so taken as is in this universe.)
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