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

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Chapter 58: A Dash of Rouge; A Genius Among the Many; Allegiances and Promises of Being Found

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Dick was still waiting as Slade briefed his protégé on what they'd be doing next. There was a well-kept facility from the Cold War and before in the colder northern rural region where a rather interesting secret was being perfectly maintained to believe itself secluded. Now, Dick knew this had some sort of mad doctor military base vibe and he was aware that he and Raven were now in a mind – bound link. As soon as he had a moment to piss or breathe, he'd tell her. This all sounded like a bodyguard contract job, and other than Dr. Light being who they'd both be watching from a safe distance, nothing about this plan made Dick's hands quit quaking.

"Richard; Renegade?" Slade snapped his fingers as Dick was forced to leave his own thoughts awhile. "Sir, sorry. Didn't sleep last night very well." He didn't lie, he just embellished as to WHY. Raven, how he'd tried for a full hour to contact her while Slade got the most sleep out of all three of them. He looked massively uninterested is those same whys, as Dick just swallowed and bobbed his head at the hulk. "Yes, Sir. I'm here. Let's continue."

"Glad to have you with us, apprentice." Chuckled the merc to his pupil. "Now, Dr. Light's target can't be touched or attacked directly. It will be up to us to lure the objective into the clearest space to set another trap into effect. Like with Terra. I made sure to corner her, keep her from using her powers."

Dick froze. Slade saw and made a sigh with his nose that, didn't improve Renegade's mood. "She's in the past, she chose her own life and I wasn't hoping she'd fill the mold. You're better than that. Without the Titans to hold you back from reaching your fullest potential."

Dick nodded numbly, thinking of Terra's bruised face, comparing it to how many he'd healed from thereafter her freedom had been handled by Bruce and the others. "In any event, the heroes may show." Slade told the boy, his brows showing that he was listening loud and clear. "You won't believe me when I tell you, but the Tamaranean girl Stafire was reported to have landed. Her image was on the news a few days before our arrival and, she's taken up her previous role with your former teammates to stop the ones responsible for what we are about to partake in."

"Star – Ah, she's with them? In, Russia?"

"She'll be the worst to face." Slade rubbed his chin, the mask on and his eye as strapped to this conflict as he deemed it. "Dick. I want you to, no matter what, to be sure that you won't be swayed. She however…humm…" Slade paced a bit. The truck tall enough as it was a military vessel. "Sir?"

"Yes, you can do that I think." Slade returned to the boy's masked eyes. Turmoil in them yet to be exploited by what he was about to say. "You'll pull her away from the fight. As a distraction. Get her as far from the real target as I tell you to. Or, will the shocks be necessary, the probes." Slade layered on a hiss as Dick gulped back a breath. "Will it, apprentice?"

"No." Shaking his head, he'd have to do something to warn them. To let Kori….to let her know he was fighting in his own way. Raven must have spoken about it. There was no way –

" RENEGADE!"

Slade snapped. Dick was brought out of his head again. "Sorry, I…I will. I'll do it." He nodded back, Slade still looking his apprentice over skeptically.

"You'd better know; whatever happens on this mission, the rest is up to you to know where your loyalties are."

"Yes." Dick answered, clipped as Slade huffed in approval. Or so Dick thought as Slade brought out his sword from his back, the blade nearly "knighting" the boy wonder's shoulder as he just tightened his fists and waited for the madman to keep talking.

"Prove it. Kneel. State the very first oath if you even recall."

Dick tried to recall it, he was…not sure! The panic brewed as the boy's eyes flushed red. His heart rate up as….

"I…. I'm sorry. I don't remember –

"A new one then, this time." Slade twirled the blade slowly as Dick seethed, the man looking amused by the boy's reaction.

"Swear it. If you should think to betray your master from hereon in, you'll be not only punished, yet our contract will allow for the destruction of the Titans. You're going to be eighteen soon, boy. Your training wheels should be discarded right now but aren't. The bat is still making you feel that a few dead is a crime. Even if they are the enemy to you now."

Dick paled, his hands not about to let his legs weaken anymore as his eyes fell to the metal plated floor for the vehicle they were taking out into the winds of Russia's countryside. "You'll swear it. They're done if you so much as raise a finger. Breathe one word to those heroes and it all ends."

Dick nodded, seeping in a breath, thinking Slade had figured out his plan. "Also, Alexikov didn't sound so similar on that recorded entry."

"I can expla –

"SHUT. UP." Slade rose his blade, his eyes as hellish as Dick recalled from his time in the haunt. "You failed to hide it, Dick. What did that imposter tell you? Did they promise to free you from your guilded cage?" Mocked the man as he circled the broken ex – hero. "I know that voice better than you. Wires in your skin, flesh boiled to rot. That man hates what I am, so why would he spare a copy?"

"I'm not you!"

"YOU may as WELL be." Slade back handed the boy with a swift slap. "You'll be revoked of any time off. I'm keeping your future on lock. This job will test if I don't need to go along with my threats. They're there to put you to work, to see to it that you don't end up dead because of your worthless heroes!"

"Sir…" Dick rubbed his sore face. He could not taste that much blood, yet that wasn't Slade's intent. He'd held back. For the mission.

"No." Slade shook his head and turned back. "We can't turn back, Renegade." Slade warned the teen. "You're bound to my logic and luck, so put it to some better use. Survive."

" Da…." Dick hugged his arms to his chest. "I swear it, sir…. I won't…. fail you…"

"Clean up your face, then we'll be arriving in the next forty-five minutes." Slade simply stated, replying with as much sympathy as a Komodo dragon. "I'll need you to be in your gear by the time we've stopped."

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When Slade had removed himself from the one room in the large vehicle, Dick made sure to look like he was just bowing. When in reality, he did have a job to do.

~ Raven…. Raven…. bad news, please! I need you to answer me…Slade, he found out and…. he knows that someone else is starting this movement. Look for Alexikov in Moscow. I am being sent with Slade to the tundra. We have to hurry…. please…get us out…...please…. I'm sick of hurting you…. ~

To make the act look genuine, he even shed a few tears for good measure. Slade would think it a shut down, but to any trained actor, it was only show - business.

The performer in Dick would make Slade praise him….and then….

Then, he'd get himself to her. To tell Kori that…. that he was still alive.

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Jason was on his own. His angle was to locate Grant since this all made too little sense as to why just as any, he'd found no clues whatsoever. Since Tim had come out to tell them that he'd been a simple mole all along, the right thing to do now was to find his head in the worst possible motive; finding an old frenemy in the middle east for a few close calls and secrets untouched by time.

The time he'd spent in the dojo was something one would never come by to alone, not on their own without back up. Jason was stupid and in love This was the most he could do since no one knew how smitten. The doors of the great temple opened for him as he walked down a hall of red and gold inlay. Shimmering glass mosaic told of his story through each as he recalled the past through each facet. Todd was once dead; they'd come to him. Made him work for the life he now had regained. All to have Bruce look her way…always.

The fires burned on as the coos of a young child had Jason move around to locate the sound of such innocence among the guilt driven cult of Ra's.

"Ah, another visit?"

"Another. When was my last reunion, Talia." Jason lowered his eyes to what it was the beautiful woman held with a claiming set of fingers. The swaddled bundle was pulled to her chest as her soft green eyes and sweet coos back to the one she cradled did not last. "He is precious. I intend to tell the great Detective and my father soon, what however brings you to me?"

"A favor, a missing person." Jason took from his coat a picture of the boy behind the mask. "Grant Wilson. Eighteen. Dirty blonde, green eyes. Five foot six." He wondered if that data was smudged. (I am Using the details based around age and his environment. Besides the mental breakdowns Grant has had.)

"He was on trial and was stolen from his cell in Blackgate. Innocent, sort of. I need to see if your people can locate where he's been taken to. He…. he's a partner of my crew." Jason was sure Talia was eying him curiously, tentatively not as abstract as to drop the "G" bomb in his face.

"Is he close? You came all of this way despite the fact you are…. not always a face to want hovering abound."

"I know we had, a rough patch after my release."

"Escape." Talia corrected as the baby cooed on her arms. Dark hair, green eyes. More so that chin was a…

"Who's kid."

She seemed to purse her lip to question. "You should know. The detective was your teacher…was he, not?"

Todd leaned over and his eyes bulged at the same shape of the jaw, the images Alfred had fawned over in the manor. "Talia…..no. Don't tell me…." He backed away, confused. Flustered. "He's not –

"He is, and the demon head's new hope." She smiled as the baby looked completely unaware of Todd's shock. This stranger was just that, not where he belonged.

"I…. I won't tell him, I swear."

"You'll not be leaving if you do." Talia spoke airily. "Bruce Wayne courted me against his better judgment and hid his time of our, coupling from your family." She smiled with a laced edge of mockery to her words. "You'd be best to wait. I fear my father's association with the new world order's leaders…oh, you do know them."

"In a nutshell, you're not opposed to it." Todd crossed his arms, his sense of justice reestablished by her change of the topic. "Nor are you in getting the information you've requested." Talia moved up to put a soft gloved hand to Todd's cheek as her body leaned in, the baby in good hands as Jason sucked in a breath. "You owe us for your life, Jason. I could tell that this Grant is not someone only important to you, but he is…. close. You would have been a terrible spy." She smiled and patted his face with a light chuckle. "I will help you find your significant other."

Jason gritted his fists. "That…"

"It was easy to read your face. Does it kill you however that the boy you pine for is the eldest displaced child of my father's second pupil? Deathstroke?"

Jason stood and with a jaw left partly slack, they talked terms. "I want his memory wiped. If Slade wants Ravager or Jackel dead to help out his legacy, he won't get either."

"Done, and for the rest?"

"I want….to help Defiance to grow away from the bubble we're trying to pop. Save him, and I swear to you…" Jason kneeled. "I'll have us, his team, swear allegiance to your order of The Demon's Head sect."

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That was his even reason as Alexikov shut the door behind him to his office; that his staff had looked blue in the face that afternoon too. There were only mere moments away before Deathstroke would have his prize hand delivered. Though…. although.

"I'm not expecting anyone to meet in secret, you might as well come out."

She let out a lofty cackle that was never meant to seem amusing to the naked eye. She had a red (changing it) cat suit with a black bob and red lips so lush they might leave a suitor breathless. A hand to her hip, her French was well rehearsed as she greeted the darling General in his office that day.

"Yet you still struggle to collective evaluate your minor efforts in joining the Light, instead of us. What a foolish endeavor. Even for you, Alexi." She smirked as he just eyed over her past. Their present. "You exist because of me, Madame. In a way, the war birthed us up from the ashes. Your leader will not join, then?"

"Non, our glorious leader is too proud to be handled by others. He is, complex in this way." The Madame was no lady, her shadow curved as she did. Alexikov knew her however, and like her slinking show off mannerisms, they were as intermingled abound as a wind sweeping the coast of France.

"You had a better set of morals in your golden years. I wonder why….''

He stiffened as her towering advantage had always been how slender and narrowly, she could dodge an attacker. ''Rouge…I'm not that way. You're as….as it stands. This is only a business venture fo -

''Alexi, darling…. Lexi…'' She moved, her arm becoming the blade as her fattened little insect of avarice was pinned to the wall. Her dark gaze was and always had been since the experiment on her, twisted.

''Tell me, Rouge…'' Alexikov coughed. ''Did you mean to stab my motherland in the back…..with that…..brilliant leader of yours…..''

She held her arm down, her orders to only send this gutless traitor out into the streets. Cold, which came her next idea.

Smiling still, she snapped her fingers on the free hand she had out. Three armed characters from the same organization were there with a gun, and a laser it was – pointed and starting to warm up.

''As always, Moscow is so pretty during this time of the year. Do you not think so, mon ami?''

''C- cold….'' Sputtered the sane mogul. '' Do you think I would use HIM to show off to my bosses?? I am anything but HAPPY….to see your lying face…. red witch -

"Cool him down." Rouge commanded as the gun cocked and the man's last breath was a frozen plea.

"Madame." One of the fighters made sure to relay their message as Rouge nodded and began to shift her body's appearance. Molecule by ugly molecule. "As far as the boss will know." In her place, stood a false Alexikov as his face grinned back to the other helpers. As she, while in this guise as her platonic once -crush in another era. "There was no such meeting in this room between any unrequited lovers and enemies. Understand? Now. Go." She directed. "Take this traitor to our leader and leave me to my mission. That is yours now. See that he is aware of his broken oath to The Brain"

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Richard held his own for this long, but it wasn't until a shrill halt of the truck had Dick's face jut up. Slade was there, his guns at his hips while Dick kept to the other weapons Slade had been forced to leave the boy with. Including a few smoke pellets. A big mistake.

"You'll have back your other toys once you've proven yourself to me. Remember; distract the princess. Let your master handle the others until you are needed." Slade went to open the hatch as the doors croaked back. There was a calm, the wind was easy and no storms had approached just yet.

"Apprentice." Slade moved as Dick didn't retaliate in time. His chin wrenched up to look at the man. "Prove me wrong, and we can discuss the next step in your journey. If, if and only you disobey." Slade pulled his arm up, the info not on a trigger. Too old fashioned, but…. a screen. In his armor.

"This is your last chance to keep them alive, including Todd and Grant, can you?"

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Red Star waited with his comrades. While Starfire and Raven had successfully stopped the creature and on their way back (screw snowblind) Insight, Terra and Red Star were left to fend off a coming storm in the form of man's folly. The sound of tires in the snow and a rumble had Terra rise from her seat. "Is it time, Red Star?" She asked anxiously. The red headed hero however, shook his head. Insight put a hand over the man's shoulders, however it was futile.

"Don't touch me –

~ WE HAVE YOU SURROUNDED. COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP! ~

Red Star gasped and rushed to his equipment to see who was in front of his door. His lab and home. "I cannot do it…they will use my powers."

~ We have to stall, then. ~ Joey moved as his body vanished, Terra gawking as he could do that but…. would he come back all at once?? Where was Raven or Starfire??

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They heard the rolling devastation, just as a winter wind had become unbearable. Star called over to her comrade, Raven's mood any less icy, more ridged as she pushed past the glaring light…. light?

As in, doctor….

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"Sir! A storm, we can't afford to –

"What?" Slade scoffed as Dick moved through drifts to a lit building and a bunch of military tanks. "We can make it, but we'll freeze! Sir –

"WE won't, but they will." Slade moved to Dick and touched his suit on the side. Immediately, a warm embodiment of energy filled his joints and made him mobile again. "The suit wasn't for show. It is a high-density material not from this planet. Think of it as an early Christmas present." Dick looked at his hands, then the tank in front of him that had…. was he…it was an investment that could be so expensive so, why?

"Why?" Slade could answer that whisper if he'd heard it. Yet they trekked to the battleground, none frozen stiff as Joey's tactic was easily spotted by those that knew him. "We have company." Slade got out his staff, the one with shocking ends and a spear to blow away the competition. "Light should be close –

"Greetings, comrades!!" He came along, but not alone.

Two unconscious heroines in his orbs of energy, and the battle had already hit its tipping point. "He's going to redirect us, don't be fooled." Slade whispered to the teen. "There is still need for you, to fight and to create that diversion."

Dick looked and saw Kori not moving. Breathing, but for how long?

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Suspense! So, Ra's family is iffy with the Bat's kid ditching him, and Jason is only joining to gain protection from any other enemies…or is it to save Grant? Dick is as stuck in the mud as they come! Kori is his target and that's eating away at him all too much. Red Star is the envy of all of his country, and as well as the struggle. What is this talk of a new key set of players and a French operative from another organization connected to the now indisposed Alexikov? Raven did not reply back to Richard, so now they are in a serious spot. With a new criminal organization in the shadows, plotting, what will become of this mission? Will Grant's abductors shed some light on the whole plan for the next chapter?? Find out!

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