Our Time In Reverse – What It Takes –

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Chapter 24: Banished Thoughts of a True Happiness

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This is where the torment recovers itself. Also, the ep Nevermore is being moved earlier and Forces of nature and Switched with Aqua lad will come sooner than you think…and Blackfire became a space pirate. Kidding! Or, am I?

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Slade had been there. He had saved Richard from losing his stamina and the boy craved to craft it in new ways. To repurpose what his parents had wanted. A happy, healthy boy with a loving guardian to keep him. Kept.

The rattle to his teeth tasted like nickel and rust.

The man swept back with a new uppercut to his apprentice's jaw. The taste was torn between being safe and sane. This wasn't his life anymore.

He still didn't know what that was supposed to look like. Renegade after all, only had one master to look forward to displeasing him. He, them. If he failed again, he'd have no one. Not even the Bat would want him back after all of his shortcomings.

Slade had a sock to the gut follow the first few fists. Slade gripped roughly at his hairline as the boy seethed up into the masked steely, eye in pain. "You won't do it again. Will you, my apprentice." The man barely hissed in kind as the boy dropped his head and spoke with a bruise forming under his eye. A beat down for making a mess of his master's plans to see the alien in cuffs. "No, sir…" He slurred over his torn teeth. He'd just made it sloppy. Despite Slade using the probes that the ship's aliens had not seen coming, they had. They had worked in tandem to catch Blackfire and had saved her.

She even reported back that night before Robin had been thrown go his knees and had said that the ship was now hers. She'd thrown the crew out when she was done into the reaches of a cold, deep space and was still a wanted felon for her crimes against the embassy. In all, Slade still rewarded her with some supposed "Centauri moon diamonds" that she had asked for to keep up the ruse.

Even if the boy had not done as he'd done, it still would have happened. This was just a taste of his master's anger. Of what Robin should fear. And Renegade, was to anticipate every drop when they took over the city.

"I have the injection prepped in the medical room, go a hallway down." Slade let go of the boy's attention to say, nudging his masked chin at a sliding door as it electronically remained his safe haven for now.

To finish up here, and return elsewhere, Richard swallowed thickly. "Wintergreen will administer the dose, and you'll be much better by morning. They don't need to see you weeping. You had promised you'd stop. Robin did, didn't he."

"I…yes, sir. I'm sorry for taking action like I had. It won't happen –

"See that it doesn't, boy." Slade was colder to him than normal, but it was their two roles that defined these masks that they wore. He couldn't be anything less than the enigma that the mad man had planted inside the Titans' pubescent minds.

"Yes, master. May I go get to my treatment now?"

"You may. Be quick, then return to the tower." The man walked off and went to monitor the heroes as they slept on through the boy's punishments. "Lest, your friends find out you've been tricking them all along."

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Robin was careful to sneak back in before the first alarm clock could go off. Unfortunately, he didn't remember Raven and her upstairs rooftop sessions. She only saw a red blur yet didn't stay away from focusing on herself. By breakfast, Starfire was hesitant to go to Robin's room and ask for him to join them for the Titans' patented "all you can eat breakfast pancake and waffle – explosion" in the kitchen. "Star, what's up? You look super not ok with yourself."

"I…." Starfire turned to see Cy with a plate of waffles out and a glass of O.J in the teen's other metal set of fingers. "Is…that for friend Robin?" She motioned her eyes at the glass.

"Raven told me he musta' had no sleep, said she saw him outside earlier, coming back in. He's pretty down about things too; you should see if he wants this." Cy motioned to the plate and then the shut door in front of them. "I'll tell the others you'll both catch up later. Good luck –

"WAIT! Friend Cyborg? -

He zipped off with a happy tune as she was left with the untouched, hot to the touch, breakfast fare. Was he also regretting what Blackfire had put them all through? It was Robin's second time getting to know the Titans' crime fighting lives. That Cyborg trusted her to bring the "boy of many wonders" out if his cocoon.

She took a heavy breath, and opened the door to let a flood of light catch at the appearance of bruises.

All over his body.

Slade had said to be careful, not to let anyone see him for the next four hours after he'd returned. It was only two. Starfire rushed over to lift up the hero who couldn't even keep his swollen eyes shut all the way through another REM cycle.

She left the plate to the side. The glass, not drunken, as acid to a wounded set of teeth right now, might not have been the wisest choice for anyone's consumption.

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Raven was there as soon as Starfire used her COMM to pull out the word "emergency" to her teammates.

They came, and right two hours before. The serum wouldn't do its job now. They knew. Robin dropped his head into his hands as Raven led her fingers to grip at his upper arm.

"I'M FINE." The boy suddenly snapped.

"You were beaten up." BB defended Raven as Dick clicked his tongue at the intrusion. "That's not fine, dude. I can smell how much distress you're in from the kitchen. You're-

"I'M. FINE." Robin snipped again to them. "I got into scraps like this when I was…. being trained to fight like my life depended on it. I can handle a beating up by some uncoordinated thugs."

"You went outside the tower. Without MY permission." Cy reprimanded as any family member's head of household would. They cared, Slade...was, only being firm. That he had disobeyed, that was Robin's fault for not listening. He had taken pity on the enemy…

"Dude! Say something! What went after you –

"Or did you find it ." Raven's question made Robin's skin crawl. No. She didn't look that far into his mind. Fuck…he'd be ruined forever then!...

"DON'T TOUCH ME!" He pushed her hands off roughly this time. The scratch by his eye was surface - made. Like a set of fingers had made him a target of whatever sadistic treatment he'd been put through. "I know, about a special way to heal faster, from my step dad. He used to be in a military special ops program. Did some research. Took his stash and found a special serum that heals you in up to four hours. Tops. You, would have ruined that."

"Military secrets?" Cy wasn't liking this. He actually looked ready to dissect the kid himself. "You went after military secrets?? Are you crazy, spike! You don't know what that could do -

Bb huffed in. "Come ON. You're not gonna have us have to press you. What else are you gonna say, that we thought wrong about who you ate behind the dumb mask? That you wanna go and face the creep who did this to you?"

"He…. found me. One of the guys he hired, he tracked me down. I only went to check out the site where we fought Fixit. Then, there was a ping on my device, and... I thought it was a distress call and I was still up." Robin winced as he sat up. "I never told you about the serum because it's top secret." Robin rolled his eyes groggily at the heroes did the same. "I can't reveal –

"That the same bad man who caused you to suffer so, is still at the large….in this city? Our home??" Starfire threw a hand over her lips as Robin nodded.

"He was the one, the man who left the insignia that Cy found. It was…." Robin felt his blood pump through his veins as he put out a palm to get them to not look. To see what this vial was capable of.

"That –

"Stop…. let it…. work… gah !" Robin spat up bile onto his bed as the wounds began to reshape, working closed as the Titans witnessed this with high gasps. It was no miracle as Robin looked ready to vomit. "Fine….in…"

Bb held a hand over his face, looking quite green. With an ugly hedge – tint. "Get a bucket! -

NO….no, have…to learn!"

"You are not a soldier, Robin. You were brainwashed... you can feel pain. Let me –

"Don't…." Gritting his teeth, nails clawing the sheets, the wounds soundly looked far too well dosed. Better. As if he had not been beaten by the man he still respected and hated. As the heroes looked on and grieved a metaphorical loss, Robin collapsed into the sheets again. Winded, coughing and sleepy.

"Give em some room. Rob."

"Cy…don't…. hate me…I'm sorry…." Robin wheezed weakly.

"Your pulse and blood pressure are going back to normal. Just, rest up." Cy checked with his arm's monitor as he scanned the boy wonder. "We'll be back in an hour." He paused, looking to Raven who knew that this wasn't natural. Whatever the serum was, it worked far better than any of them had ever seen of any drug on the US market place. Not a pain killer, but eraser. "Just, don't do anything crazy while we're debating this."

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Cy was sure something had gone off as Bb came back. His claws retracted as a kitten; despite his disgust carried traces of Robin's blood, Raven did her best to divide the two specimens as the Titans got to work finding out more about what Robin had shot into his veins.

"No….no way…"

"Cy pulled back from the microscope. "It's incredible." Raven saw the same as an image was placed up on the screen. The conditions were changed. As the man they knew Robin would have hated to see, had to be stopped.

"That's him." Raven showed the group the data and the image of a man from his military days on the main screen. The identification was however, not a DNA match.

"Stepdad?" Bb eyed the man and squinted at the man's eye most of all. "I don't like em. Feels weird but my senses are saying he's dangerous."

"That sense is the common." Starfire frowned. "This man is quite cruel if he was allowed inches near our new friend. I believe steps must be taken to –

"Robin went looking for him. Maybe for an explanation." Cy explained to the princess.

Raven rubbed her chin. "Or, for revenge."

"Dude, he is such a liar. He promised not to go one man army on us! Can you tell him ta cut it out or not, Cy? You're the leader."

"Hey, they could a threatened him or anything else mighta' happened. We'll check the street cameras and the ones by the docks. He said it was a distress call, but this to me…he got this from a dude's blood. He's not human. It's possible this guy Robin is afraid of maybe has more to tell us." Cy tapped the glass and took the blood specimen to a special freezer. "None of you. Don't tell Rob about this. If he sees us taking samples without his permission, he could run back out there and we won't get a chance to help where we can. This guy has something on our boy, and I wanna know what."

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Raven looked down the hall at Robin's door. He was resting and the blood was from an enhanced meta sample. That scared her to think that Robin's mind thought that a do or die option was best for his health. He was only tough on his own. He didn't show his darker side to anyone. Raven envied how in control he was while her darkness was not so kind.

She walked off to the next hall as she thought... The man, would they be seeing him soon too? And if Star had never seen the boy wonder in his room as he was…what would have happened? Was that his old life and he just couldn't escape…It had to be. Raven made no more fuss over the topic as by her doorway, it was left opened.

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Raven flew through the door and on the floor, her priceless hand mirror lay. Tampered with. Not just any mirror, one that took her to the center of every part of her "selves." All untouched by hands that had now…. taken a step into her room without regret or contempt. She had plenty, for having let down her guard. "I can't…." Sigh groaned and watched the door. "I can't tell my teammates…Not yet." She turned to see if anyone had followed, one last time. Closing her door quietly, she whisked herself by her power right into the mirror's swirling reflection. This had to be a trap. How else would someone has done this against their better judgment?

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Bb walked on as he sniffed down the hall, Cy going in an opposite direction to Raven's door. "Did Rae look kinda more gloomy to you than usual?" Cy bumped into Bb as they saw the doorway and gawked inside. Swirling magic had since dissipated as mortals couldn't see her craft. Bb noticed the mirror lying there, untouched as the room didn't look to be in too bad a shape. Raven was very tidy with her things. She was from a world that balanced on the ideals of minimalist living, yet as a witch in their world, she tended to understand a good book or a nice bit of Gothic décor. As long as she didn't grow too attached to her things.

"We'll go in and out. No touching –

"BB??!" Cy ran over to the younger as he prodded his face while looking into a creepy horned hand mirror that was suited to an evil fairytale queen. Not his friend as he pretended to poke at an invisible blemish.

"Ah! This thing gave me a zit?? What gives!"

"Put that down and let's go look in another spot. She ain't here –

"NO. I smelled her distress and she's here." He pointed at the floor.

Cy scrunched up his nose at the titan. "Did you hit your head on the way up? Raven isn't in the room! Put down that magic mirror and –

The swirls however, had other plans. Wisps of dark blue and grey smoke pulled THEM in. Cy screamed on the way into the portal that was RAVEN'S mind. He didn't know, but Bb had been almost correct. They fell far, far down as Slade saw the two's blundering simps fall into Raven's version of a Nevermore Paradox. He sighed, swapping to Robin's room as he sent a message to the boy's comm. He however didn't know that Kori was the one to pick it up. She messaged back, seeing that her response would give her away.

~ You are up? ~

~I am. Did you heal up, I'm sorry if you had to feel that much from me. It was necessary. Next time. I'll give a better warning. ~

~I'd rather you didn't come here. Or stay in this city. ~

Slade quicker a brow. That…he checked to see that she had it, and that brought a smile to his face. Time to rip into her ego once and for all. What was left of it.

~ Oh, sorry. Should I have called first? You know what you did. You stole something from me. You and the serum will come home or I will not rest until this is settled between us. ~

~I'm not going to go. Stay away. ~

~ Why? Is the alien that sweet on you, Dick? ~

~Dick…. that is…I'm Robin. I want to know what it is you want. ~

~You mean, she wants to know. They aren't even in the tower. Go look for yourself. Princess. ~

Starfire looked up with a gasp while clutching the device. She has a clue now.

~ I'm not blind to what you are doing wkth my son. It's disgusting. I thing like you should be locked away. You'll only get him killed while you both play pretend. He's a killer too. But you kept him away, and I want what's been my claim for the longest time. ~

She bit her lip and continued to type, furious as her hands were shaking.

~ We will protect Robin at all costs of our very lives. The Titans will not fail to do so. We promised him a real family. You, are no "knorfka. ~

~Yet you, are just a stupid troq, troubling my son. My responsibility. And he will make the right choice. In due time, my dear. Take care, while I'll still allow it. ~

Racial slurs were an intimidation tactic, yet it left an acrid taste in Slade's mouth. The role had changed him in more ways than one. He would put that behind him once the enemy was vanquished, his apprentice back where he belonged. Starfire on the cameras was shaking, crying, as she started weeping profusely over the boy's limp firm in the bed. She then flew off to her own room, not recalling Slade's warning about the other Titans being in peril.

Oh well. Good friends, young love. It never truly lasted most of the time, anyways.

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Slade. Is a Monday dick and Starfire does not know the name Dick. She may start acting submissive but see where it goes after Nevermore!