Teen Titans Presents; Robin – Torn Legacy of a Prodigal Son –
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Chapter 4: Shifting Gears
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Slade's return ushered in some food for though alright, for his protégé. Robin was contemplating not on how he'd defeat Slade, but win him over, and with every bit of his pride that…
Stung, as much as he'd known it would to prostrate himself before the man; even to beg for his friends to live, or that his face had been left intact after the incident with the probes at the old base.
Old, base.
As in, they had tried to save him before.
And Slade…
And Slade had still carried an unconscious boy wonder to his current digs. Right outside of Jump city, still in a place with running water and a hot meal. Robin however, despite his hardships wanted to find Will. He had to ask him something that now made his gears go round and round inside that young skull, to the point that sleep that night had been an ordeal of the greatest effort, regardless of his own stubborn willpower.
Will was in the main room by Slade's throne, dusting and holding a cup of tea on a china saucer. The man would be getting out of his gym style routine in a moment and Robin had been let to stay asleep an hour later to catchup with his regular rhythms.
Courtesy of the man and his many tasks meant to break Robin's concentration ON finding a way outside of the haunt. Dick frowned and saw no Slade around, and for another moment now dressed in his extra change of uniform, he was puzzled by these sudden disappearances of the man who was so invested in him.
"Um, good morning…" Dick waved to Will, who bobbed his had with a brief nod in appreciation.
"Good day to you, young sir. Are you certain you're ready to begin the day, as well?"
Dick chuckled and nodded back. "Yeah. Ah, I have to talk to you, actually. I have a question that Slade won't be able to answer."
"Must he?" The cup was placed onto the man's seat to prevent it from falling off the arm like the first…break.
So many delicate pieces. What a waste. (First ep teen titans 2003, Will is shown serving Slade tea and his fist shatters it when the heroes win. Divide and conquer is actually the pilot. Final exam is ep 3. Don't be fooled by poor rep.)
"He can't, but you can…I think help me out."
"Why should I insist upon helping a man who won't help himself." Huffed the butler as he continued to dust.
"You…you think I can't ask –
"Are you worried he'll shut you out?" Snorted the man. "Of course, he does that on any occasion he gets, even with his acquaintances. You're certainly no real exception to this rule, even before he came across you and your comrades in battle."
"He's stubborn, is what you're trying to explain to me." Robin crossed his arms and knew that it was wit, and he missed Alfred very much because of this British male's same dynamic in their little broken family.
"How else would you describe it? Witty? Charming? Dedicated to his work…Maybe. But you'll just have to muster up that courage you cling to, and ask him what you want with your own words, I'm afraid. Breakfast is now brunch…the longer we stand and chat." Will looked at his watch with a smirk. "The master himself, will be joining us. What luck."
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Slade wasn't eating, he'd already had his fair share. His mask and uniform were pristine, and any shot at seeing a face had been dashed as Robin was ushered to seat himself at that man's table.
No peace offerings, involved.
He was here to converse with and to observe his apprentice from the head of the luncheon table.
The meal today was a quiche of a sorts, a basket of whole grain bread with seeds and a lovely bowl of fruit with some sort of picks inserted into each one bit of fleshy bits of nutrition topped with a square shaped chees to compliment the acidity.
It could have been just a sandwich, but it was too soon for midday tea. This looked fairy tale - esque to the teen, who felt just as Alice at the Mad Hatter and March Hare's tea party.
"I'll ask; you wanted to see if I could answer your peculiar question, is that it?"
"Yes." Dick looked down at his bare plate, then at Slade before shortly glancing over to Wintergreen who turned to the stove before the kid could cling to him for guidance by mistake.
"I, had a proposal, and a question. Actually." Dick started to respond, voice calm as it had to be to get what he was asking for.
"Hm." Slade nodded and laced his fingers together while leaning a breadth closer and listening intently from his end of the brunch spread.
"I'm listening."
"I thought you'd left out something in your explanation about Ravager…. but I won't bring it up again! I just, felt you'd said something off about –
"About him perishing." Slade sat back, mulling over the boy's words a moment more as Robin readied himself to speak again with a forced exhale. "As your, protégé here, I have a right to know some things. He died; he was your kid…but why? If he died, doesn't that mean –
"He was brought back to life under, serious circumstances. A last-minute event that's scarred us for a very long time. Ravager came back, and yet still I advise you to use caution." Slade's voice dipped to a more serious tone. "He'll never be the same, mind or body. And due to this incidence, you'll be tasked with keeping him in line if any case or way, I should no longer be –
"I'm not his baby sitter. He's my –
"You wanted an answer, I gave it to you, despite all of the bickering and objections to my daily routines; yet you still manage defy me. It has to stop, or I will act."
Richard dipped his head and his eyes were sore enough from squinting far too much at his age. He'd get wrinkles before long. "Yes, sir. I'll drop it, and move on to my proposal."
"Humor me, then." Slade sniffed and tried to seem less toxic to the boy, less Sionas. More Lex accepting a shady deal to be made.
"Sure, ok. So…. you have my friends' l -My old team's lives in the palm of your hand. Ok, so…what If." Dick bit the inside of his cheek and thought carefully. "I gave in and still, to protect everyone I've ever known in MY life from you, or me, I become the heir you want. Do what I can to prolong our deal and to keep my "family" out of your hands. Only then? When I graduate, you have to swear you'll never touch them again. That if I go through the years and exceed the expectations that Ravager or anyone else never could, that you'll let me take the reigns. That I'll get control of the trigger, the probes and your base can be shut down. Everything, including your records, everything will come to me as your continuation and, end..."
"IF you do, and IF you are strong enough to want to keep our deal going. But…Oh, Robin…I'm sorely disappointed. This plan is bound to be SHOT full of holes." He got up, circling over to the doorway, and Dick had to rise.
"I'm serious! If I don't slack, if I decide that my pride means nothing and you let me in on being what you are? I can, at least try to save them. To stop you –
Slade shook his head with a wry chuckle. "This, boy? Is not new to me. You'll do it, regardless if it is to save them. You want me to pay, and that is the fire I've been keeping alive in you." Dick felt his heart pound.
"As alike as we are, that was…interesting. I'll see what we can come up with once your grades have improved a bit."
Dick gritted his fists, no…. Slade was doing this all wrong. Why wasn't he angry? Or, even…
It was too predictable to a man who knew his opponent's next moves.
Shut the front door, he'd monologue'd it….it was….
Dick slumped back into his seat, his eyes on the food he'd never gotten to consume. He had no appetite just then and Will was kind enough to bring a cup of tea around to keep the child from having another episode. Slade nodded to Will, and hell. Were they that twisted? Dick took the cup, sipping the hot drink slowly and not really thinking about why that speech had been so terrible. It was, just a child talking back to an adult, like Slade and Will and even Bruce saw him as…
Just a kid, not an equal.
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"You'll be an asset to me one day, so."
Slade had the kid with here in the dojo to see for himself why he needed to keep his cool.
"A bit of meditation I think was well over looked –
"I'm doing less than before." Dick slid off his slippers while Slade was allowed to be in full armor and shoes. Why?
"Will said that this place had spooked you. It's not real, though." He went to the wall and pressed a switch on it. The dojo vanished, leaving a room only of silver and tech, walls of segmented parts.
"Simulation? That real?" Dick gawked at the real dojo with a gasp.
"You fell for it, but that as you saw was its purpose."
"The bots, your copy…that had to be –
"A memory." Slade insisted.
"From you, Robin."
/
"This chamber was designed to take the brainwaves of athletes and read them clearly to find individual weaknesses in those who used the simulation chamber. To overcome fear, we have to strip away our want and many other characteristics to understand where that "fear" may arise from."
"You're not bad at acting like that " humble old man, sometimes." Dick shrugged, frowning and a bit disappointed that he'd not used his head back then.
"That was also an act, but I'm glad you thought so too." Slade might have taken that as a compliment from a slightly impressed ex – boy wonder.
/
Robin bit his lip as Slade; one eye shut, cross legged, with Robin opening one of his own to see this side of the man…
As, unthinkably ordinary…
As if he had human skin and wasn't a burly beat who could.
Dick played his role carefully. He had a plan after thinking about what he could do to fix an earlier faux pas.
He let out a puff. A sigh, and Slade's eye staying shut.
Dick didn't give up.
He cleared his throat, nothing.
Biting down hard on his lip, he finally couldn't hold it in.
"I want to rap with you, Slade!" He said a bit louder than he'd meant to.
Slade just stayed meditating, yet he did talk to the boy. He had no reason to stay away. Not when he'd expected the kid to rebound at him.
Easy does it…
"You have me. Then?" He rolled his shoulders, pausing a moment as Dick finally took the position seriously. He took a dee breath, hands as Raven hadn't taught him, but as Slade. Palms down, not up in a position that was to a basic yoga move.
They breathed, and Dick nodded slowly. "I want to make a new, oath…not from the blackmail or the probes. But, if it's my own free will to…join you –
"How can I be sure?" Slade sounded way too much like Will had by the throne. Dick bit back a sigh. "I'd be doing it to get the upper hand, but you'd have to really break me to stop the same "kid" who was trained by the world's greatest detective." He said, quite assured of his victory.
"Will you do it now? Or should I expect a ceremony, some sort of promise that you won't try to run from this agreement you're devising in that skull of yours…"
"I've thought it over, plenty." Dick told the man, hoping he'd be less paranoid for once. Here, Dick was GIVING up his freedom for free! Why was he so…
He was, though. Dick wanted revenge more than anything, and Slade could sense it all. He wasn't fooling the man, but Slade loved a challenge.
Dick would try to one up the master, best he could.
"No backtalk, no running from a fight, no upsetting you or Will around…guests."
"And, what about what I'm already allowed to have?" Slade egged the boy, to know. "The Titans are under my power and you shouldn't have the right to take that away. You can't even hold a laser gun without tossing it. How can I trust you to be ready for a real war? One that needs a warrior, not a hero with the glorified ideals built into him since he was up on the high bar of a circus tent; the Bat couldn't tame you, but I've promise to try."
"Why try at all, Master?"
Slade opened his eye and was baffled by how easily that had spilled out. Dick was smirking at his enemy cockily, as the old boy wonder had as a Titan.
"You didn't expect me to say that, huh. Not so easy, is it?"
"Making predictions."
"Guessing people." Dick corrected. "Knowing how they tick."
/~This is it. ~ Dick took a deep breath as he stood, once again in the spotlight of some other fans.
~This is your last way into his little social club. You can do it, but whatever happens…the Titans and Batman are not up for grabs. ~
Slade was standing on the steps of his throne, he walked up them to seat himself before the boy wonder who was standing below, mask less and without his utility belt. He'd not done this yet, so Slade must have had a plan for some allegiance to be spoken. That Dick was now a double agent if he got to say anything under Slade's hand.
His fist, as the man crooked his large hand out to beckon the kid to come a step closer, and one more as he now stood before the stairs.
And climbed them, one, two…
Three, and four.
Five would be Robin; the boy wonder and former leader of the Teen Titans. Each step was as if he were crushing a soul – Raven, Beast boy and Cy…Starfire…
Starfire. He'd have to tell someone, have his plan made clear, one day. Soon.
But for now? The squire had a job to do.
Delivering his soul to a devil, and having him keep it in its claws for a long time…
"Richard Grayson ; A.K.A, Robin. The boy Wonder and very first "former" protégé to the Dark Knight." Slade announced the title as the kid finally made it to his last step. The kid was not shaking, so this was progress Slade could dive right in to.
"You've done things to fool your very friends, driven yourself to the edge to solve an unbeatable puzzle and are now on the verge of undergoing an important and life - long, transformation. With this." The butler arrived and hurried to bring a shiny black utility belt and a mask that his master's apprentice wouldn't just recognize, but learn to live by.
Slade thanked the gent as he was handed the two parcels of the boy's costume. "In truth, I would have considered the mask ideal, but for today….You'll be granted not only that, yet a brand new identity, as my candidate for success. You'll be giving up the life you had almost entirely, the name you carried and your entire will shall be as I'll see it. The name; the one you'll now be handed, will be…"
Dick gulped, not before Slade bade his student kneel to one knee. He was a knight's squire. He was learning to kill for a king. Damn it!
"Renegade; for you have betrayed the Titans, your mentor's trust, and your very principals as a hero. Now, you'll be given the proper education in how to do as I have, how to perfect your aim and to strive for that utmost perfection that I believe you alone, are capable of. As my apprentice, and later, my final heir to the name….Deathstroke. Slade, and the mastermind who will always be there to catch you."
Dick's world toppled as he gasped with his head lowered.
Deathstroke…Super….healing??
~He, perished…~
Back to life…as in….
Dick didn't know what to do when he was called, the tongue of this monster let the title roll right off. A snap at the boy, and he looked up, blue eyes shot with strain at what he'd just done.
"Renegade! Are you committed to this? You can't back away now that you've bothered to kneel; I can take back what I said, just as you can leave and be punished even as my protégé. As nothing but a hostage here. Having little to no repect for my ideals is no better than attacking your former mentor, you know…" He snidely hissed to the child, who didn't growl back. Yet, Robin tried to bite back that snarl in the back of his throat.
~For them, not my pride…suck it up…You can't lose. He knows too much…so far, you guessed it. He's unable to…..really die. But he has to have a weakness. ~ Dick bobbed his head, trying to tell the man that it was fine. He'd be in this or die trying to live again. ~ This can't be the end...~
Slade must have done something, he was responsible for more deaths as….a mercenary Deathstroke…of all people?? Slade? As in…Wilson? Slade, Wilson?? Not only had Batman forbade Robin from fighting the man when he was in town for a contract, but he was told to stay out of the way. Locked up, with some of the hours not even spent worrying as much as he should have been about the dark knight's fist fights…even when he'd given Bruce trouble before about being benched and...!
That, was why.
Slade wanted things, items. And he'd take them by force. He was a greedy…and Dick had to stop him, before this all got way out of hand for his friends.
Raven had to know, that he wasn't the enemy, not really.
"Continue." Dick said to the crime lord. Slade nodded and the ceremony was to let to on. His belt, this deadly piece of clothing. His mask; and a new name, Renegade….Renegade. A traitor, a turncoat and a liar.
Like he was being with himself, all to catch a thief.
To become a thief, and a murderer of some future empire.
"Then, it's done. Wintergreen? Whip up something fresh for tonight's desert. We have been keeping things bland for a reason, but tonight I think…Renegade should have his cake and eat it too."
Dick was ushered by the man with a hand on his shoulder to look up. "You made the right choice." The crime lord whispered his praise, barely sounding like a good job at all. Dick's mask was polished up nicely, too nice as Slade handled this well, as if Dick wasn't just some thing to beat up and berate any longer.
It felt, oddly relieving, if only in the back of the boy's mind.
Dick weakly smiled back, or tried not to let any lines upon his brow show up. "Happy to be…of service to you, Master Slade." He would have to gag into the toilet later with how much it burned his gut to speak like a drone. He was Robin. He'd still be, until…
Until, what?
Even Robin, didn't have the answer to that one question as he was taken to the kitchen to enjoy a meal with the two worst people on the planet.
And he'd literally, just joined their ranks for the grub.
Honestly…
His voice in a croak, the big bad tiger had ripped his tongue it seemed, clean off as he was bound to this horrible new fate without saying a word of protest to his captor's face.
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Dick is changing sides to keep Slade in line, but for how long will Renegade's hold last? Will the Titans sniff out his lie, or will another decide that the former boy wonder isn't suited to play a bad boy in future films?
Read on! Chapter 5 is part way into season 2 for this, and Terra will be next as the year finally comes to a close…