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

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Chapter 61: A Desperate Hope

Terra's first thought was to keep digging. There were bodies, yet she mourned no one. Not even since now, her real allies had a chance to escape. Starfire was safe, yet a groaning husk of stone she wasn't…Terra dug with her scraped fists and pulled up stone, spackled bits and metal. A new power over the element she'd been cursed to know. " I'm coming! Han…..o….."

He heard it so loudly; squinting as all hope fizzled out with sirens and even more falling boulders atop his leader's rotten guard. He was here, here to get away and….too fuzzy. All of it. "Hang o……don…….ha…."

What? What was that voice trying to say….So, tired. So, the victim just shut its eyes until…

Until he couldn't hide from anyone, any longer.

"Got you, please….don't go to sleep. We have to go." She swung an arm round him to stay upright as they leaned towards the exit. Blood and the Brain's plan had failed. He was sure there was something he'd forgotten to do. "Grant, please." The desperate voice called out. "Keep up with me, don't fall. We're getting out of here. The Titans…" She looked down. No unit, but she could try connecting another way. She just had to find it.

Outside was paradise as the world crumbled away. The two set off without being noticed, or so they had believed. Yet, Sebastian Blood was a very petty man. He hated to let things as they were. With his psychic powers, he was able to lift the rock, only a few soldiers of the brain remained limbless for him to interrogate. "Send word to our fellow "scouts" that a student and possession to the HIVE Academy has defected. We are to track him down and instill in them both, CORPORAL punishment." Blood crossly ordered his lackeys to send out a signal, yet they weren't the only few who had an inside ear to the message.

Kori may have not stayed behind, yet the Renegade was loose. Slade also, had a plane to catch to carry on with his new mission.

Stopping his apprentice from trying to find a single soul that could help him. There was no one, because as far as they had seen inside…

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Raven and Slade with Jericho made sure to locate a hole where they could climb up to the next level of the Brain's base. The walls were steep, yet they didn't stop. Raven and Joey fought to keep the line moving, while the got into contact with the others back home, but not –

"A shockwave??"

Slade got his feet to land as the others followed his lead. "That has to be Terra. She's creating a diversion. She's going to –

~ What about Starfire? ~ Joey signed, worried that they were both in a bad place. ~ Can't one of us check –

"Losing you would be a bother. Take it from your teammates."

Raven didn't respond to that. "Joey, you don't have enough strength to come back. I can't stop the mission."

~I know, and we will find them. ~ Slade was the last to see his boy this upset in a way that was, not unlike his naive self. ~ Father, you need to lead us up. The base is a trap if we don't know the way out. You must have something memorized. ~

"Only as much as being dragged here by –

"Oh, look at you…."

"Shit." Slade seethed as that voice made his hackles rise up. "Are you at the end of your rope, already? Your apprentice got into a little fight with our high leader so he is being moved to a transfer –

"You can't. It's not what you –

~She's not here for us. ~ Joey frowned. ~ She's my father's enemy, for sure. ~

"Perceptive, little hero." She smiled sweetly to Insight as he stepped back. "My congratulations for staying one step closer to your goal, yet the Brain and I are certain you shall –

"Why does he need to speak for you, Rouge?"

The woman blinked, her lips sticking out in a firm line angrily. "I do this so –

"You took a chance and made your mark on the world, but even the old grow weary. How can you not accept that this old fashioned work is so dated, that we COULD bypass every entrance! Your Brain is birthed of a senior mind. He's nothing special."

"Stop!" She stamped her foot at the other. "You're not going to mock him, he's wanted all but control over what you call a perfect paradise…I call it complete garbage. A waste of talent. You gave up on the League of Assassins, why would I trust a double source for punishing my team – or in fact, did you want to switch sides?" Her grin widened as her expression matched her widened gaze, her haughtiness to a degree that far from sending Slade after his newest kill. " Ah, so you do for them for yourself, but do you even do for the ones you should have held close?? He could be continuing the experiment meant for a soldier like you! You've just done what Deathstroke's code never would." She laughed as Slade gritted his jaw. "You killed another of your doting pupils! Well, good –

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The explosion wasn't from anything like a few drums of gasoline. Coughing up soot, the far from perfect protégé trudged and recalled what he had done. Brain was cracked in the face, Mallah was enraged and he…Dick was…

Tired. But still fighting on being afraid. He walked gingerly around the broken structure as sirens from fire trucks in Paris came wafting in from a few miles away. He could think of nothing but calling Bruce, killing his friends once Slade –

Rocks moved, moved twice and he somehow was compelled into helping the person trapped underneath. The boy wonder in him ran, not skidding a slight as he tried to call out in a cracked voice from the smoke. He'd beat the clock, but this person…

"Hold on, I'll get –

"Do no such thing…"

She was once pretty, ruthless was a plus as her arms demonstrated that with that voice, she was no damsel. "You…. you are the cause! I will –

Still in his alternative self, Richard was sure it wasn't his call, he dodged her limbs and saw as she had one broken. Still healing as his lungs did the same. She had the ability to stay young and strong, but he was an exception. "I won't hurt you. Just give up on us and the plan, and I can leave you. Just like you want, to go back to him."

"My leader…." Rouge coughed and held her gaze suddenly away. "He, does not want others who are too weak to stand beside him. I…. have failed, and will be terminated, should I beg for forgiveness." She looked up; having never lost her targets before, this was the final task and…. he saw her shame right as her lips trembled. "Do it, I want you to. No one else…."

"No, I don't kill –

"Yes, you do!" She spat, her body falling apart as Dick knew she was old enough to reject any help. A warrior, beaten. "I'd rather no enemy that knows me take my life. My body is dying on the inside for years…I'm not the only one. That project…" She seethed. "He also…. yet, he perfected you…"

"I….I don't know who you're talking about." This wasn't right. He knew the serum had come out of a war, one that Slade had fought in. So, was Rouge a part of that project??

"You can give me your blood. Just a sample, please…then, then I may not have to die. That is what you want? For me to live? To get "help" as you called it."

"I can, but how can I trust you or the Brain."

"I don't belong to him, child." She smirked sweetly. "I….can live with the pain of leaving them to crumble, yet I will not end my own life, while there is a solution."

"I'm not a miracle cure, S –

Dick moved away. Panic bit at his heels as the thought Slade had instilled in the ex hero had him want to leave her. While his humanity, was uncertain. Could she be saying that too? Slade's blood had healed him through a transfusion. There was no lab, what if she were cruel enough to skin him alive? What is she and Slade were enemies!

"You have to promise…"

"Promise." Rouge laughed a small cackle as her body walked in a limp. "I don't have to ask for anything…Deathstroke has owed me this –

"No."

She struck, her eyes with fire and a lust to remain standing. His body soon pinned to broken concrete as it dug into his back to form one ugly gash. She moved her working arm to weave in a rope shape. Gloves coated in his blood as Dick wriggled under her strength. "Get…of…..you don't know….how it works!"

"I do." She sneered and took the liquid up to her blood red stained lips. "I know because that first batch was our creation, it destroyed my body and made me…" She spat at the images of her unfortunate past. "Your blood is better than his, more than he wanted, and it shall give me –

"Get…..off!"

The force round her throat was bare fingers, her head not twisting in time as she was tossed into the dust. "I told you to wait."

"I needed out." Dick snorted at the man as his eyes were back to Rouge to soon. Slade dragged out a piece of sharp metal and chucked it to the boy before the witch had him entangled. "What –

Slade grunted as he forced her back. Trying to ruin her other arm, he only got a pinky. She howled out, yet was not easy to subdue as he tried to get her arms far from his face. "Now!"

"What? I..I can –

"Yes, you can." Slade growled. "I'm teaching you to defend your life. Hers should mean nothing."

"She needs help. I….knock her out!"

"No time, she's made it clear."

Rouge was starting to come together as Slade gripped al four of her limbs and swung her in the direction of Dick's weapon. The boy had used it before, but on a target that moved?

He panicked as she screamed, a spray of red coating her neckline in scarlet. Slade let her drop, coughing as she refused to go. "Good boy." Slade moved and with a single grab of the blade, he made sure his work and Richard's was done.

/

Dick didn't move. Normally, she could heal from anything, why then? Why did she not get up?

"Dick."

The boy didn't move, gawking at the lifeless body of his master's enemy.

"Dick!"

His arm was on fire as Richard was dragged away, blinking to life all of those pages, the training he'd received not making him flee this time.

But fight back.

/

Starfire called out to her compatriots from the air, to her device that was certainly not shattered. She saw a face down below and another next to it hovering low. Joey finally gave as Raven caught him. "He helped me get to the surface, Starfire!" Raven looked to the princess as both dreaded what could come next. "We have to stop Slade. He's gone after Renegade."

/

Cheshire and the others were onto this project on the floor of a seedy reunion between intelligent minds. The first die was to be cast, until a global broadcast flickered up on the cell screen of one of the younger members. Ollie and Artemis both stayed mum with masks on at this party of shallow individuals. "The Light will be cross with them. Their luck just ran out."

There was a man there who didn't look to be unfamiliar. Vandal Savage, side burns and all. Artie gaped as Ollie stayed in better character. Jade bit her lip as she spied from outside at the gathering.

"Luthor; there was a drawback. How can we attest that these soldiers still have some fight left in them?"

"I saw that before the rest of you. The Brain might be a legend to those that enjoy the classics, yet the real face of their demise partly, was Deathstroke's boy."

Artie looked to the group, the rest whispering as satellite images picked up Rouge's death. Nothing else. "What blood thirst in his fists is this?" Black Manta stood up. "I know we're not expecting the project for super – soldiers to fly by Slade's nose. He'd never allow it."

"Incentive." Luthor smiled and closed the screen down. "What we get, we give. If he wants a seat at our table, the boy's loyalty to him will include a few, ingredients be listed. This is for domination. For his legacy if he wants it."

~ This is not good, what else can you dig up, sis? ~

Ollie moved in the background, the audio coming in red hot. "The protégé of Deathstroke is a bit young to kill the second in command of the Brotherhood." Savage rubbed his chin. "What if they won't comply."

"No deal, and we go along with the newest Lex Corp solution." The slide then showed a can of energy drink, one that looked more like a bit too much caffeine for kids. "We'll test every dose and that will tell us where the meta – gene can become useful. We'll make it easier to control the people with an iron fist if need be. No one will question a can of sugar and diabetes."

"That, is quite bold of you Lex." Savage nodded. "And what of our newest addition after dismissing the Brain? Who will take his title."

"Ra's Al Ghul has decided that he will join."

Ollie sucked in a breath. Bruce was going to flip at the news…

"He even has an inside person for the job. Another boy wonder who's sworn loyal to the Demon's head for protection."

~ What? How –

Artie shook her head, a whisper coming out hushed. "Can…it couldn't be…."

"Will he be able to grace us with his presence in the future, this operative of the Shadows?" Black Manta didn't need to ask, there would be a time as the screen showed a few faces. Rose, Tim…. Even….it was –

"Jason."

"The second, the one they salvaged has come to his senses! Wonderful." Savage laughed aloud. "The Batman will be immobilized by another loss in the family. How ever did he agree to the training?"

"Once a Shadow." Lex smiled a toothy smile at the others.

~ Always a shadow. ~ Jade finished, knowing the oath and hating it more than her new predicament; swinging upside down.

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