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

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Chapter 48: Long Summer Storms – A Hard Midsummer Rain Cuts Like a Knife

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Lex's plan to use Deathstroke was all hush. However, Jade and Defiance did not like the be denied. Grant got whatever tools had could to blast through the Light's walls while in Gotham, Bruce Wayne had recovered from spell and with the promise of Cat Woman keeping her intel directly to his party.

"Last news I heard." Selina in her new suit slipped from the courtyard to the window as Bruce sat by his desk and puzzled over the lack of news, he'd had of Slade's new protégé. His son, and….

Defiance, finally getting every one of their team together.

"Was that Lex had some big parade to let loose in Metropolis during Independence Day.

"Right, and in a few more weeks that might be the one place we'll find his associates and even –

"Even, your boy?"

She raised her hand to his face from the side, another clawed and gloved hand to the man's chair as she left a knee to his lap and a kiss to his frustrated lips. Pulling away and frowning that he wasn't in the mood, she got that he was a doting daddy underneath the tough guy persona. What parent would leave their kids to a serial murderer and live that down months later?

"The kid has to be strong, I bet he's just doing what the Titans said. Playing on Slade's good end to end him in the process."

"He'll be outmatched if Slade has connections that would get rid of them, or him because of my influence. I've left him with no choice but to act the role…and he's not ready."

"Ready?" Selina batted a worrying set of green eyes. "Ready, to be a performer on stage, Bruce?"

"Ready, to act like the person he won't become but has no choice BUT to exemplify a true assassin and former crime lord's apprentice."

"You let the Titans –

"They can't face that criminal!" Bruce stood and let Selina pull away, his temper due to his own fears of what could happen to Dick if he folded. If that last card, his last excuse was exposed at a table of cutthroats and psychopaths.

"I have to find him, not then in July." Bruce gripped his scalp and scornfully rejected the thought of Dick giving up his heroic mantle for something that would be his ball and chain for life. Not like the Bat's cage, but worse. An iron maiden, Slade's torture hall if the man went through with truly recreating Dick in his image…

"I'm going out –

"This late? Bruce! Let me go along, I can scout him on ahead. You can't do this to youreself."

"Dick is in Clark's city, Selina." Bruce turned to her, his fire fading fast as he moved for the doorway. "Get your coat. I want to contact an old friend here this month….just got a message he'd be in town."

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(We usually use Constantine a lot in these arcs as you might know or not, but this time is a bit less adult. I swear, so don't call it anything less than a fan thing. I love the Matt Ryan take and enjoy it – so here! Yay!)

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The bar was not a place to bring your late dates, yet Selina wore a disguise while Batman came to his senses to not drag his alter into some late-night gossip. Better to play it safe as a scraggily looking blonde adult was one to many away from a kick out of the establishment. Before Bruce saw him go sober, with a wave of his finger. Selina had on a black set of leather everything to keep the one they were after under her spell. Bruce was less biker and more hair died red with a muscle shirt under her jacket and nothing too fancy as far as the beard he'd pulled off while recovering from him coma. Also made red to fool any one watching.

"I'll have another of your ale an' whiskey, love. You know I'm not one for pullin' pranks. Gotham has a clown or ten for that. Don't – waait…. are you lettin' me on? Hic! *"

He was drunk, regardless of a spell and was scented in booze as his number one cologne of the evening.

"HE'S our only shot? Bruce! He's…. a JLA antihero….and a dead-beat magician with an addiction to everything? Are you sure he's not just looking to poke fun at the cowl?"

"And Slade can't stand his guts. Selina." Bruce the intentional red head smirked her way with the wnk. "I'll just have to risk bending the rules a bit. Wait for me –

"No." She stopped him with a frown and her arms to her sides in front of the bat. " I'm your partner for now in this, and yes. I want that man to pay and to give Robin back his life that you promised yourself he'd get to keep. This, this is all us. So." Her eyes batted seductively before she shoved Bruce to give her some air. "Let me…"

She sauntered by the counter as her suit stayed on, but the hair and eyes were not seen the same. She decided to put on a pocketed set of shades to seem a bit mysterious yet was too close to not call this a cat call.

" Hello, gov…." The magi, wolf - whistled at her presence as the eyes didn't run short of spotting the incog thief. Bruce sat at the other side of the bar and ordered, getting the comm in his ears to buzz away to life as she kept the mic red hot on her suit.

"Fancy seeing a celebrity in this dangerous hell – hole. From this side of the slums, dearie?"

"Well, could be but you'll have to buy me a drink to find out."

"A new round for the miss!"

A hand shot up, and then ten more as Bruce ignored his head falling out of the irony of knowing HE cared for Selina, no matter how free her work tended to be at times….

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While Bruce and Selina Kyle did some naughty undercover work, Young Justice was in it to win on seeing if they could also do something about Cadmus and Lex with Amanda Waller's little science projects – after Conner had been liberated, Clark and Bruce had decided it best to inform the league and try for a covert scouring of the remains of the base. Charred at that, but still bought out for a remodeling after Conner had ruined the place for even Project Blockbuster to take place.

Kid Flash was sure that Miss M and Roy could try and find out things in separate locations around the country, yet Miss M was pulled by a force not unfamiliar on their latest mission.

Finding out about a shipment Bane was having delivered in the Gulf of Mexico.

"Standby. Alpha Squad, Beta. We have a lock on the objective. The League's not gonna go after this thing in time, so that's why they have us."

"Who made you the boss again?" Conner looked at the red headed male with a grunt. "I mean, we have to end up in the water to get to the island where Bane in pulling this crap off –

~Like a magic trick. ~ Miss M held her skull and telepathically commented. ~Don't give up on us, Con. We need your intimidation tactics well, in – tact, I guess? ~

"Thanks, I guess." Conner shrugged and deadpanned, moving through the water well after the drop had been something of a breath of fresh sea water on his suit. "Roy, what's up with Cheshire? You're still –

~Not a part of the mission, team. ~ Tempest commented through their link. (We're calling him that because Aqualad is already in the 03 universe so it's Kaldur and Garth is the tt 03's Aqualad the first.)

~Kid Flash, you'd better be careful riding those waves to shore. Don't draw any attention to this team. ~ He warned the cheeky new addition as his Titan days had left him with the desire of a real team to manage alongside of. All but Tim, who never stayed long enough to get into his work boots. Their boat was quiet since it was cloaked by Miss M's powers.

~ This had better not be a faint to lure in Superboy and take us with em. I almost got cloned….by a mad scientist hack! Cadmus is gone, right? ~ Wally wondered to the heroes. ~ I mean, who'd be stupid enough to buy the whole lot?? ~

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The construction was going very well, the lot that Wally had spoken of was none other than a single plot and a pinpointed dot amid the districts surrounding an entire block of labs, coffee shops, and hospital roads that stretched a mile long (using this from tt 03 comic where Robin vanishes because of Warp interfering with his past and so on. To this, there is a recap but you'll see.)

"Mr…. Wilson, is it? Hey –

The construction crew head tipped his hat up as he looked over the five-foot teenaged adult before him. "You're not th –

"I'm his associate and quite capable of overseeing to his projects. I'm his son." Dick lied, shoving down "Robin's" disgust as he'd nearly perfected this role since the current month. The last thing Slade had taught the kid was to be a walking enigma to push past those you could do with and without, and right now he could do with not being looked down on for his stature. The boots added inches, he was growing! Seventeen next year….

He, could drive too. Or was able to get here in a flash; this contractor was messing up his momentum, and Slade...Slade could only apply more pressure if he didn't hear some good news. "Your "associate" signed for the lot, and he sent a rich kid like you to organize the –

Dick clung to his anger, reeling it in. "Look. I have been through home after home away from the things I care about for this, project to be a success for the only person in my life right now. If HE doesn't see results, sir…. You're going to hate me even more when I'm right about the person buying out this place with cash. Capisco???"

Still, even in shades he had the glare, even if it wasn't a good at all feeling…. he still wasn't Slade's kid.

He was a bat, and Slade was going to love his gift even more now that he'd left the contractor bopping his head like a chimp.

Dick let the man go, signature in bold on the man's tablet as he walked off, hands to his black cargo pockets and back down to the car waiting in the next alley.

"Hi, long time no see."

The person in his way certainly had a lot to wonder.

"Super hearing picked up a heartbeat." Clark pointed at his enhanced alien lobe. "A very frightened one. Did you cause any disturbances in my city just before this?"

"Unc, move aside. I'm late to –

"Not until you come clean." Superman huffed in the boy's direction.

"Why, didn't Bruce come."

There was a pause as landing where he stood, cape barely flapping from the low gusts in this easy-going summertime retreat, never had Dick's face seemed so…. lost. "I know you don't want to do any of this; we're all doing our part to put Slade on trial. Deathstroke –

"He has me, and I can't go back." Dick moved backwards, feet shuffling before his walking old uncle pried. He was too willing to do what B had been afraid to all these months. His birthday had passed and he'd refused to celebrate it. Slade allowed him to train; the first thing about knowing how to interrogate in a mercenary's line of work, slaughter.

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" We'll move on to a lesson you might find to be, useful in this future I've got planned, apprentice."

Dick remembered the Slade bots and the gagged victim, the man screaming past within their haunt underground. How his heart ached to swap sides to save….but, no. It was after their Lex – I – sode in Metropolis. After the Defiance gang had laid off a bit, and well before Dick's nausea from the Fakir's death had officially vanished in a poof. Since, it hadn't all.

"Am I….is, is this not too…. too early? I'm, not –

"It's just a lecture, like all the others." Slade's silky yet persuasive song made sense and Dick wasn't allowed to turn down this lesson. "M…master, Slade?" Dick swallowed and had himself right before the scene of the Sladebots and Slade himself holding tightly to their new test dummy.

"Yes, this is a similar lesson to the one on torture, but not at all what my goal is with your training." Slade ignored the question prior as Dick bit his lip and waited for the rest to come out. What this was, had to be bad.

"This man is fresh fodder. His only purpose…" The man motioned to the Sladebots as a table rose from the floor. Manacles on four ends. Dick's masked eyes went wide. "Renegade, it's time to learn your part. The same as Rose, and of Grant who will never know enough to succeed me. I know you're ready to take this man apart with your own two hands."

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"What are you going to tell him?" Dick looked up at Clark as the man went silent. "I, I know you're not like him. You never were, so don't let him take you apart –

"I already did what he wanted, Uncle Kent." Dick sheepishly laughed, his eyes a bit watery from the sleep he'd missed.

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~ MM!! ~

"The throat may be the slowest way to induce death, the heart won't lose precious oxygen unless you find…" Slade moved Dick's hand as if this were a Ouija board, Slade guiding the ex – hero further into a doomed space of no return.

The man started to bleed, but Dick couldn't look away. And with a jolt, a gasp, his hand kept moving until the cut was clear and deep against the man's windpipe.

"Very good, you're concentrating this time…." Slade praised him, Dick's skin prickled, the nausea turned down a tad in the background. The gurgling of their victim's traumatized trachea would never leave Dick's mind as Slade's hand had the drops again fall, before Dick took his scalpel and continued for the man's chest. "Unlike this poor soul, I'd feel nothing." Slade's chuckle left scars so deep that Deathstroke's threat lessened the pain of having to watch the Slade bots drag the carcass to burn.

"Never bury it, never drown it. It should be to ashes. The man won't be found." Slade left Dick to finish it. Fire in the kiln, charred flesh blistering hot amid dark coals, Dick's eyes running red as every part of himself shook. Even if Slade expected a rebellion, he was just trying to save them…. this, was only the start before…

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"You ran into the Man of Steel. Where was your communicator?"

The teen's now pounding headache couldn't get any worse as Dick reached for the cabinet in their safe house for some aspirin. Slade walked up from behind, mask off and slammed a hand into the door of the cabinet, the other to the countertop of the kitchenette. "You're not going to ignore me, apprentice. Why didn't you contact me at first contact? ANSWER ME. NOW !"

Dick only numbed himself as the vibrations rattled his skull something dire. He dropped his hands to his sides and muttered out a rather rasped response. "I, didn't have it on me."

Slade by then had heard his share as Dick expected the man to toss something ir drag his skull down into the countertop. Or the rug…. if they had any to name.

Tight lipped, he pulled away. "Get something to eat, then it's quiz time. I want to see if your biology and chemistry knowledge is left untampered…. you'll join me once you've gotten settled in. No pills." He swiped up the ones Dick could dumb himself with. Tear at his organic lining in the stomach, the same as that poor man he had slaughtered to death in that cold dark hall…

He was a murderer; Bruce would never take him back.

"He was wrong, sir." Dick waited until the man was feet from him to open his trap again. "Superman can't read humans; he can't read me and neither can they…"

"They knew where to look, but I doubt they would have tried to cross that same line for the likes of anyone, child."

Dick sniffed and nodded. "Sir, I'm staying."

"That you are, lessons begin after you've had lunch." Slade shut the door and didn't slam it. Dick grabbing the counter and falling into it, tapping his forehead into the granite as he bawled out. The truth was, he had tears to shed and Slade would let him until one day, when there were no more feelings to express for the dead and dying.

Superman was wrong. He was a criminal now, whether he wanted this or not. He was an accomplice; he didn't fight back. He didn't try to defend them, only himself….

Because, Slade was the one who knew. He didn't want to feel for the same reasons as before. He had to disconnect, and then…

"Then, then you'll all be safe…. I'm staying…. I'm sorry…. I …. have to stay…"

His next written test began in less than an hour. Dick pulled himself up slowly and rubbed his face, harried by what was to come. Now, now it was time to connect with an old friend….

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"Clark."

Bruce looked up from his view of a ragged drunk keeling ove, with Selina avoiding baited breath as long as she had to. "You can't be o –

~ Dick was in Metropolis, and Wilson might be keeping his base close. I met Richard…~

Selina's eyes moved after Bruce; he hadn't seen a shifty John's doing the same.

"Why was he –

~ It doesn't matter, Bruce…. Dick is committed to their deal. He can't get away, because Slade already did the worst on his part. He made your ward…into a murdere –

"That wasn't his entire fault in India –

~ No. ~ Clark interrupted over Bruce's retorts. ~ No, not that time. He vaguely mentioned Slade's real trade as a mercenary. He even threatened a contractor on the lot and he signed it for Slade in his place. He was afraid, his heart –

"I'm coming back with a secret weapon, I didn't forget." Bruce quietly as he could move; the bar was noisy by midnight, and Selina had to drag John C out if this perpetual ring of fire. "Dick isn't there to learn a trade, he's there to defend himself as long as he can while Atom works on a way to reprogram the nanobots from a safe distance."

~ How? No one knows where –

"I had anticipated Defiance's plan to come after my team and family. Two of my "younger" allies volunteered to get data from Slade's computer. Make that three." A call was coming through, not via the line either…

"Will talk soon. Monitor what you can until we're back in your city, and Clark?"

Superman's cape fluttered on behind as he waited.

"Your friendship means the world and as a team, I know we have the means to stop whoever is behind the curtain. Remember to stay vigilant."

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