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

by INKblOt32

Dedicated to 1st fan, Lucia Chloris. The heroes lost, and Jump is overrun by Slade's eyes and ears on every block, bent on taking the city by storm. Overcome with the desire to remold his captured protégé, the test begins...but is Robin all for it, or is he living a big lie? When will an empty promise get to be too much, especially with the Titans' lives on the line? Find out!

56. Chapter 56

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

/

Chapter is title for Linkin Park , My December.

This chapter…. is angst. So. Slade and his kids tamed their beasts within, but now that Dick is a neo – serum subject? How will his going into madness post rebound syndrome of the stuff work out once it finally comes around? Is Slade 's plan NOT to make Dick into a killer worthy of stealing his crown? Find out!

Chapter 56: Cold Winter Winds; My December in Ruins

Snowfall in the cloud's forecast. Nearest of…. December the very first week. He was sure that Slade's cottage setting wanted to remain remote, high up in the mountains without anyway back on foot in the god-awful tundra it was to yet become. A hunting trail was set all around them as Dick sat quietly at the kitchen table and finished his eggs and toast, while Wintergreen tidied up the mess made prior to the boy's restless waking hour.

"Slade will not be returning until just after lunch." Will finally spoke, breaking the awkward silence between them. Dick shoved his plate for Wintergreen to take, his appetite changed by what he was slowly now becoming.

He'd felt the burn on his skin only a few days after his last removal of himself from the medical room to his own cozier setting. It seemed that behind his back, Will had pestered Slade not to treat the "boy" like a prison camp subject of experimentation and to let him not due of his own lack of sunlight or even sustenance. Slade of course had known, yet had waited to see for himself if like his serum had done of its dose, Dick would also succumb to what they whispered of it…

Pure animalistic madness.

First, came the headaches.

The boy's hatred of OJ was therefore mopped off of the linoleum and wooden floors of the lodge kitchen; Will had in fact been against this when it all dawned him that another Rose or Grant would be joining them soon after. Dick, being that vital a replacement to feel his body spasm once, then the hives came. And, well….it wasn't chicken pox. He screamed at the itch.

Boils. Fourth- eight hours back in bed with mood swings and a sedative to put him under…he'd not only turned seventeen, but this present wasn't worth it. He clawed at the skin his body harbored like a mad dog to its crated bedding. Then, the swings in temper lashed out at his first seated meal – earning his face a slap and his body to be tossed into another room to be sedated again, to be tampered with as Slade's perfect project gone horribly wrong.

That was a week ago, and still the rest was…he wasn't crazy, not yet but the roots of his hair one morning?

He'd cried like a weeping wretch and then he'd gone to Slade passing by Will's warning, to use a pen on the man. It failed and he ended up being knocked around and dragged by the scruff for another sedative treatment. Then, the hair thing just stayed like that until it became one side, not the whole head, he saw white and tried to steal a pair of kitchen shears to cut it shorter. So short that Slade actually approved!

Here he was now, eating and wanting to purge by the acid in his gut making things seem more bleak than they'd turned out to be. He was shooed off to let Will make a call and clean up, the locks secured enough that only a retina scanner could open them. Dick had no way of leaving a window open a crack either.

Data. He was just data, getting in the way. Will saw the kid looking fir something to do and frowned from the kitchen doorway. "Richard, Slade has instructed you to stay in top form while he's away." Dick sighed, his head floating back as he got up from the big chair Slade liked to sit in by the burning fire place in the den. "Kay." He called over his shoulder, not caring if the response was half hearted, because it meant he had something to jeep him from turning into Bb for now.

/

Lower down still, Slade had set up a private gym for Dick and he to use while they were taking things a little slower than normal. Dick rolled his shoulders and went to take to a folded pile of workout clothing in the side room locker rest room. Out he came a step later, ready to beat his frustrations out on the next piece of equipment that tested his new endurance. He took to the bench press and imagined Cy in the gym, turning up the power while he did the high bar in another area of the gym floor. Slade was training him all wrong, he grumbled. However, the serum made a person much stronger. Much, much. He was…curious, to say, what if he could bench like Cy? Or, dare he ask; his master?

/

In the end, he was sore all over and moaned at the walk up those steps, holding his arms and wincing as if he'd never keep them intact. As he reached for the handle to the doorway, it moved.

He flinched, quickly wishing he'd not done something so stupid. It was afternoon…..he'd be face to face with –

Slade stood there, his gaze determined to see to Richard's luckless streak by how he just….he smiled and bit. "You thought it would be easy, didn't you."

Dick bit his lip, holding his arm and looking off to the side, afraid to tell Slade he knew too much. That it bothered him.

Instead of a mask, Slade had an eye patch and that dopey goatee, looking as if he'd been told off by an employee at a retail chain. Not manager material. Two faces, two masks as Slade ran a hand to clench at his neck and seemed a bit, out of character.

Grossly, to say as much of his very hunter – domestic appearance. He'd been out; his grey tee shirt and cargos with big heavy boots told Dick it was a job or…. or some survival training. He didn't want to ask.

"I was curious to see what I can do, sure. But I'm fine."

"If you damage yourself, that guilt falls onto me to fix your bad attitude."

Dick looked at the man, his eyes widened with his lip curved. "I'm just sore. I'm used to –

"Cameras don't lie, apprentice." The man crossed his arms, stiff as a brock wall until he let Dick by, still eyeing him down the hallway before Richard had power walked his way evenly to the den.

/

Surveillance in the gym, now?? Did his paranoia have no end? Sure, being a bat kid was similar….but the gym??

Dick grunted as his arms got harder and then reddened fill of hear while the serum did its good work to avoid the muscle strain Slade was expecting would die by this week. This was like….a hot stone massage, just not as pleasant as Dick slouched over the sofa and looked over the arm as Will, who was putting on an apron and the effort to make a sit down supper earlier than planned for tonight. He watched the man, not seeing Slade as this made him worry even more. The man was suspecting him to run, to do something. Should he test that then?

Dick's arms were sore yet his heart thrilled for a run. Anything to get his mind whirring away less than it was.

There was an intercom set up within Will's ear as he let his head bob, then turned to Dick. "Master Wilson has instructed you remain here. I'll also be in charge so if you need anything –

"Just ask. Yes, sir." Dick sighed; his anxiety numbed by how much of an Alfred Slade's toadie wasn't.

"This will be a f –

A cluck of his tongue later, a bit of the lip, Richard's eyesore slowly back to the sounds of distress coming from Slade's man servant's mouth.

"Blasted …out of eggs e in; Slade?"

The item at his ear made static. Slade was too far out of range. The comm link was currently, dead.

Still, with this noted, Dick had a shot. The pain would ebb. He could handle a bit of exercise of a different nature.

/

He was already showing how good an addition this serum was to its era of improvements. Dick waited and tried to pay no attention, instead swapping to a one – handed push up despite the turmoil in Wintergreen's mind about leaving the kid home alone.

Then, Dick moved like a shark. Will was muttering his self-loathing like a tv sitcom trope. His mind on the roast and the milk they'd run out of for stew in these next few days. Dick didn't care as his arms grew closer.

Closer.

Wintergreen was too busy with his grocery list to see, as Renegade came up from behind.

"Richard?" The man blinked, looking surprised even with his eyes fully alert already.

"WH –

/

Dick had secured a reel of kitchen twine that the man was planning to use for a roast that week, he also took the man – servant's cook's apron and shoved that as well as a gag into the elder's jaws. A fat hen in the freezer, yet a squirming, disbelieving old man servant dragged from the kitchen to the door with the retina scanner. "I'm really sorry about this, Will. Slade has to get it by now so, open the door. Please. I don't want to hurt you."

When anyone with a weapon said that in plain, bold letters, it was never a good thing. Will sighed as Dick handled him carefully enough to have the door open with a click as he shoved it away. Bolting into the frost-bitten ground while the day was turning even colder, snow was coming…. yet Dick flew and saw his escape work into motion before Will could whine another "no" from his gagged lips.

/

A jeep appeared by a shed from his peripheral. Dick would have leaped for joy, had his feet not been so very cold by now. The heat in his body was only lasting so long than he didn't stop… it was one model of land vehicle, snow tires included that he could ride and hot wire to any nearby station, to a town to stay out of this life of the criminal mastermind's.

To, go home…like he had promised the Titans.

/

Will struggled a bit more until the back door slammed back with an insidious, bang. Slade stormed over and helped Will up off if the ground, his eyes on the gag as he grabbed his friend from the low scale mugging incident to talk.

"Your apprentice sir, he took off and left me here."

"Bring the extra defenses up. Make sure we're secure for tonight. He got past you? Really."

"He jumped me, sir."

"That he did." Slade smirked at the handiwork as Will's wrists we're freed, Slade's hands to a set of keys for his other addition to the small homestead. "The, ATV?" Will gawked. "HOW will you damn well find him going downhill at the rate he's after?"

"With luck." Slade took with him a rifle, nothing fancy. "He's running scared. Running blind, Will. I know this terrain better than the rangers, and he won't get far at that speed."

"Should I wait for you to return or –

"Do what you must. I'm thinking stew for tonight. How about it, save on the prep?"

Will nodded, dusting off his suit as he returned to the kitchen list and Slade, to his manhunt before it could begin to snow.

"Be back as soon as you must, yet this particular stew won't take an exact hour to prepare."

"I'll take plenty." Slade loaded the cartridge as he stomped out and grabbed his coat from the rack. "That boy would freeze out here if he tried to run farther than into town, I won't let that happen tonight. Three plates. Save his for later."

/

The jeep had glass, it had a way to keep him from the elements, but….

In his mirror, he saw something that his eyes popping sideways.

Slade, on an ATV, with –

A bullet whizzed by as Dick skidded off to careen on the slope, hid feet still sure they could work while another shot through his concentration off by a mile wide.

"He's shooting it?? No, no I-

The last shot had Dick jumping from the vehicle as the engine burned. He'd blown it up, and Dick had nearly been put to death. What was wrong with this psychopath???

Dick moved, the cold now setting a scene for flakes to start falling. He felt the wind at his back and it all made his body hobble. Slade kept driving, Dick had no weapons and no utility belt as the man shot yet again!

Dick put his hands over his head, he wasn't a damned dear. Why was Slade –

Dick sprinted now, his fight or flight making him fear for his life as he kept running back towards the forest pines on the hill. Slade's stupid land vehicle had his heart fluttering wildly, his vision fogging thanks to an early December freeze. He was no more than thirty minutes and to an open clear free when his legs gave out, Slade; being there to walk over as snow bit at their shoulders like needles burns. Dick crawled, his legs so weak from the run, the fear.

The weight lifting that he'd fucked up.

Damn it…

"You can give up any time, so come back and let's make this right between us. Renegade."

Slade held the rifle but it was useless, Dick was too weak to flee, but… to fight….?

Fighting, while that never needed air in the first place always.

"I don't know why I'm here…. why?" Dick groaned and crouched low to his knees. His body curled into a protective ball as his eyes grew red and moist. His nose had started to run, lips chattering without the proper gear to be outside before an onset of early snowfall in the Rockies.

"You're my apprentice. Things had to be this way." Slade answered, his voice firm but…softer, somehow. Was he, he…really not as, mad?...

~ This is my December; this is my snow covered home… ~

"I'm not an a- apprentice…. I'm your sh- s- show and t-t- tell side – p- project." Dick stuttered, the cold bleeding into him as falling rain could drench an unwanted puppy on the street. "Y- y- ruined me. A-all of it…" He shivered. His head hurting by the sky's transformation and his own stupidity for thinking this was a good enough plan. Was Slade even cold? They had the same structure now, so why was this bit of ice chilling his heart and not –

~ And I….

"Your temperature is dropping rapidly, don't deny it. I can help you through this, Dick. Let me –

"N- not only-on y- y- our life!!" Something in him snapped. It was a single lunge at the man's throat, at the gun as it ended up in the now accumulated piles of white. But his hands, his teenaged fingers were round the merc's meaty throat.

~ Give it all away…. just to have somewhere to go to. ~

Everything the Batman had said, had taught of his philosophy was dying inside of Dick. Right now, survival only. That was justified, right? Self-defense? He could put Slade in stasis if it wouldn't kill him. Steal the AT –

" Can…. you…. Ren…. Agade?"

~ To have someone to come home to. ~

Slade's twisted smirk wasn't there, instead…. Dick saw….

A human man with white hair and a patch, expecting him to go ahead. To finish the job.

Dick froze. His hands... They felt so cold, yet the blood beneath this man's skin. He was still alive…while…

Dick slumped over, letting go as he was forced to retreat to his world and contemplate what he was becoming. "It also happened to me too, Richard." Slade scratching cleared his throat, sitting down in the snow as he obtained a flake in his gloved palm. "It isn't California. This also won't be forever, just until we can see to who you are destined to be in my care. The bat can't touch that, Dick." The boy didn't listen. The words made his frozen skin crawl, red and speckled with bumps, lips chapped, not yet the color of death.

~ This in my December…. ~

"If you freeze here now, you won't see that end result for yourself. The serum is a way to, adapt. Nothing more. We should go back, debate your carelessness later. You're cold as death out –

Sniffling, Dick just sat until Slade rose to scoop him up. "I have you, apprentice."

~ This is my December; this is my time of the year. ~

THIS IS MY DECEMBER…. ~

Dick's body and the hypothermia he was able to delay thanks to the serum's quick acting over effects, had them make it to the door before supper. Slade didn't wait for Will to stop hanging his mouth open at the scene of two frozen characters, dusted with a thousand now melting flakes of winter's welcome.

~ GIVE IT ALL AWAY…~

Noises, head spinning.

"Slade –

"Get him some heat, Will. We've got to bring his fever down. This is a good thing, actually." Slade left Dick in a bundle on the sofa as Will stopped what he was doing to strip the lad clean and to keep him from freezing into a puddle all over the good furniture.

~ To have someone to come home to…~

/

An hour later, he was resting, the two men had put away a cream stew that Will had promptly made in advance as Slade had wanted. In Japan, he'd seen it there, then had badgered Will upon their return to make the recipe a tad heartier for an ever-warming treat. Dick hadn't had his portion yet, as Slade had predicted to serum would bring the boy from the gates of his limbo, as Slade knew this step was vital.

He'd be perfect, almost and only then.

"I faintly recall your dying and then healing up in hours with the formula taking its time. Is that why the child is now in a deep enough sleep?"

"Yes, and the viral response to what he's now endured will solidify our determination." Slade brought a bare hand to his throat, the kid not yet moved to his room. Slade would be up awhile longer. The retina scanner would be locked. He wasn't going out there in the state his apprentice had risked.

"Are you certain that there will not be any…. rebound periods as your eldest suffered?" Will asked, as he made sure to pop the air out of the containers for his remaining stew portion. Richard would be if not one thing upon waking. Ravenous as a boar.

"Grant was given the Hive's crappy duplicate. They didn't know how to replicate the original. He was only spared because back then…. I didn't kill him to save a life."

"Your son is still bent on destroying Richard, regardless of that boy's vendetta." Will reminded his old friend. "Grant is one to fuss, yet whatever does he want with your empire, anyway?"

"Anything. Almost anything he can bring to ruin to spite me, he will. Even a life like Grayson's is just another pawn to topple. I trained him too well, Billy." Slade rubbed his goatee as he sat at the table, wondering if their location and the blast he'd gone back to check on would be any real problem. What if a ranger found any evidence that was snowbound with his car? Oh, no wait, that was…totaled.

"The boy will have to be on high alert like the rest of us." Will shook his head, looking up at the time as he didn't bother to hide his fatigue. "For you maybe the night is young, yet my bones start to creak in this damnable weather."

"I'll finish up in here, Billy." Slade chuckled and went to the counter to take the last meal from Will's withering fingers. "Go rest, I'll be sure not to wake you if he doesn't come too….in a better mood."

/

Gathering his conscience again at four am was a wary test of skill; under the blankets, he was afraid to come out and see Wintergreen or dare he say it, his master at the kitchen table. Sniffles were withheld until he was somewhere safe. His body felt better, but the comforter he'd been given was not the reason. The vulnerable state he'd been under had been an opportunity. Or so his ears by far must have fixed for some reason on channeling in. Slade said before that dying activated the serum – kick starting the healing to max.

Well, he'd lived. Through hypothermia. Through becoming a damsel up to the doorstep. Batman….it was never easy –

He somehow, through it all, winced as he squinted his eyes shut. The pressure in his skull for just a moment had him biting his lip as he held it…. until then. Then, hope had shattered the boy's illusion of losing control.

~ HELLO?? HELLO?? CAN ANYONE HEAR ME??~

The echoes, the voices had him curling and, unfurling. His eyes, blue with streaks of red, he didn't speak back.

Yet, telepathically, somehow, he could answer.

~ R…. raven???~

/

He stayed there until the sheet came off, his eyes bleary as the shades at the large window remained pulled shut. The room forever, blessedly silent. ~ Thank Azar. Dick…. what…. I'm sensing you, buy where are you? We can help. You have –

~ It's cold here, Raven…I…. I don't know where. From the scenery it has to be far north. Can't say since…. what's going on? I, I told Jason –

~ Jericho sensed a problem, he was there, he saw you crying. ~

At first, Dick let that go. Right. Jericho…. he'd used…. For when? Was he that impossible to spot?

~ Fine. But Slade has this placed locked up tight. I, tried to escape. He tracked me, the serum kicked in, got ill. But I'm alive…the cold. He saved me, from –

~ You have to hold on. Check the window. Any image and I can look, I can try to help. ~

Dick bounced up but quietly as he peeked through the blinds, blinking in dismay with his head shaking as the blinds were yanked away.

White, all of it, and too unclear as he couldn't see any roads or buildings. It was impossible until the snow stopped.

~ Dick? Concentrate. What do you see? ~

~ I'm not…. getting out…. I'm sorry, snow…. too much of it. Look for someplace experiencing its first winter, we have to be in the States –

Dick's enhanced ears stopped, his eyes not faltering as he heard it.

Feet walking upstairs. Someone was up.

He carefully placed the blinds back down, gingerly returning to the couch as he put the cover back, over his head.

~ RICHARD? I'm here. What's going on. Your aura –

~ We'll talk later. For now, I need to appease him to make through tomorrow. I'm sorry, Raven. Look north, that's all that I can say. ~

He bit his lip, masking weariness as he readied to perform for the king of the hour.

Slade moved briskly in his slippers and robe like a human, a soldier off duty. The kitchen light was flicked on, coffee being brewed as Dick remained still. Silent from beneath the covers. The man walked over to the window and let out a small, long sigh. Was, was the snow a problem?

"God, look at it. Been a while."

Guess not, just the reminiscing of an old fool. That's all.

Slate in moments took to what looked to be a tablet in hand and some connection did exist then. Good info, but right now. Slade raised a brow, just as his coffee was delivered to his lips. He pulled it back. Cup to the table with a single tap.

"Up yet, Dick?"

Dick didn't move, not as he'd done before. Pretend, fake it.

He groaned, removing the sheets while rubbing his sore red eyes and then let out an almost kittenish yawn. "Humph. Not feeling ill, Grayson? How is your fever?"

"Better, sir." Dick tried to stay this way, outside of his own thoughts to hack into a character that didn't fear the man but, respected him. A false Renegade. "Are you thirsty, hungry maybe?"

"Don't think so, not yet –

"Too bad. Will made an amazing cream stew and left you a few servings last night." Slade paused, his hand back to his cup. "Will you be able to work on hacking today, if it's blueprints instead?"

Dick groaned a bit, his head pretending to hurt as he'd hoped Raven couldn't hear him through their connection. "Still weak, but your mind needs to stay strong."

Sir, where…. where are we. It's cold, why not anywhere else? I almost –

"You were afraid of your new abilities. The rebound period should be over soon, I checked your vitals."

When? While…. Dick looked at his clothing, muttering at the swap. "You…you should have-

"You're more than just a side project to anyone, kid." Slade took a sip of his coffee and interrupted the boy's mourning period of his lost title. "You are doing everything right, you even tried to strangle me last night. Or, is your memory still a bit fuzzy from that time?"

Dick blinked, no. He did. He remembered and, in a way, it's would have failed while he'd been this close to a firm death by the elements.

"YOU don't need to know much, just that we're here in this snowy place to drop things for a bit until we're called to act. I thought training you and getting away for a bit would be a bit, romantic in a sense. For Will, anyway." Slade shrugged. "Too rustic for you, city boy?" Slade chuckled and his tablet turned on, the glow dimmer than Richard cared to guess.

Dick bit his, lip, gripping the comforter as his warmed hands and a crackling fireplace made it seem far away from civilization to the lonely boy wonder. "How, how did you want me to train, originally?"

"Originally, the serum wasn't needed but you almost were hurt too much to pass up that option. Think back to July." He did, and the blast would have left him charred. He was what Grant had wanted to be and what Robin the boy wonder, had loathed at becoming, "You, kept me alive. I'm not the same…I could never…" Wrapping his arms round himself, he had to keep selling it. His friends would come. They'd find a way to Slade's cabin in the woods.

"It's too late to regret what's already been done, and I told you this before. I can help you to overcome this trial, Dick. Because quite frankly, what other choice do you have in the matter?" Slade sipped at his coffee and set down the tablet to move towards the blinds, good, he didn't see a change as Dick made sure to still his racing heartbeat. His voice, everything about this man screamed dangerous. He was lying. There was a reason for them to be here and it wasn't to train him to hunt down any wolves.

The man pulled open the blinds as the day soon become greyer by design. The snow was still not stopping, piled up to the steps and blanketing the whole world in its cocoon of discordant and utterly white perfection. . "Good thing we have food and meals to last us all winter. Brace yourself, Renegade. " Slade took one more sip of his brew before turning one step to look Dick in the eye. A knowing there that that supposed to intimidate his prisoner on the sofa. The fire crackled, air getting thicker between this mindless silence and their staring match.

"It is going to be a very, long, cold winter for the two of us."

Dick's gulp became the icing on the cake, the acting lesson that kept his façade going.

ONLY, it wasn't. In that long range of a time, he was truly starting to see things as impossibly unclear.

As impassable as that snowstorm, blocking his view of any signs of other human life. Or of hope of ever being found until the sky was clear and no longer this dreary. Dick's stomach broke the silence with a loud growl, his cheeks flushed hotly as Slade smiled cockily at his apprentice's condition. "Is oatmeal, alright?"

Wait, Slade…was he asking?

Dick muttered a word, just one as his whole act built up steam. Have Slade trust him, try harder to get the enemy to let down his guard, be…good.

"Sure."

Slade moved from point A to B while Will took the morning off to recoop. The stove top was lit as Slade made Dick a bowl of a rather hearty mush he'd not been fond of in his youth. Topped with cinnamon, bananas and crushed walnuts, Slade presented his easy concoction to his apprentice, his eyes a bit softer as Dick was coaxed to take the tray and bowl and spoon from this hunter's extended claws.

"Thank you." Dick said in a small voice, Slade hummed and simply bobbed his heading approval before returning to his breakfast of one baked potato, two links of turkey sausage and scrambled eggs with spinach and cheddar from Will's own supply. Aged, the good stuff. And 9range was squeezed by hand, lastly. Moments later, Dick was handed something that did confuse him just a bit. "Go ahead. Might make you relax. My kids always loved the stuff."

A cup, of Dutch cacao. Hot, chocolate.

He sipped it, just a bit as the foamy cream on top made his mouth sing in praise of such little moments he didn't deserve. "It's good, thanks."

"You're welcome to rest up, for now." Slade sat back down, then pulled up an article from his device and changed the subject as Dick gripped his warm mug. His, training. He was expecting Dick's loyalty in a single cup of now ruined bliss. How stupid could he be??

He needed to contact Raven, but not now. Not in the daytime.

"If you feel up to it in an hour, I'll set up a device to help you study the steps. We can also go over some languages. Russian isn't my strong suit, yet we'll need it in the next month or so."

Dick stopped sipping, by near sputtering his drink all over his comforter at the breaking news. "We're not in Russia, are we…. sir??"

/

Long, but this is Dick becoming hardcore in the next chapter. We're also going to reintroduce Starfire and Red Star as well. I could not pass that up. Raven has to Google snowfall in the States, but Joey may tell her to bypass Alaska and talk to its neighbor (dumb, I know.) Next is Moscow Reprieve. Basing it on Slade's job in New 52 first issue. Renegade can heal, but can he deal with his new Terra first? And what about Grant? He is out to destroy Slade, but will he drag Richard down below with his master? Find out!