Our Time In Reverse – What It Takes
/
Chapter 14: Find Me As I Flounder
/
Not sure if I've used this title before ( papa roach song.) Find out! A few time/scene slips because my health isn't great today so the stress is pushing me to move along. Recall, thos is between scenes wkth Slade in his work area and Dick in the tower with the Titans. Slade thought of everything, so all Dick has to do is act the part of the victim for one year and gain their trust. Can he also overcome the guilt of being a part of a world where getting killed by a man like that should be a crime? Will he commit as the future son of Deathstroke? Find out!
/
"WIPE THE FLOOR WITH EM, STAR!!"
Bb went on hooting out as the round was more tame than his first try. Learning to cope with anger from Raven, to relax like Bb and to think like…well, a strategist like Cy, Robin had learned a great deal in only a month. His master had to be bobbing a yes, well done in the background. It was, enjoyable fir the second reason.
They didn't see him as a threat.
The heroes were more than welcoming to the brave and sudden timing of their roommate and newcomer; Robin, the boy wonder was up for grabs as everyone wanted to spar him in the gym today. "You must improve! If you cannot, you will not be permitted to go out "fielding" with your new friends." Starfire and Robin were in their very own dance. Kori knew a many different martial arts from the wise elders of Okaara. There, she had learned to fight, to plan and attack with the strength of a super human, super nova.
"You fight like a serpentine animal, it is….very strange. I am not going to hurt you –
"Anyone could, it's a reflex." Robin crouched like a tiger and spring forth on the balls of his feet like a leaping frog. The kick was more crane as Bb imitated the animal woth a shocked look on his face. "He knows some moves. Cool." Raven gave a small grin as Cy shouted encouragement to the two. "Come on! If he beats you fair and square today, Star, pizza's on this dude! Take um out!"
"No fair! I don't-
"We shall not put punishing games together. War is not so forgiving." Starfire looked to her friends and did not smile. "A mad man is always watching our dear friend. If he is afraid to fight, he will not stay with us for long. We must work together to assure that Robin is ready to embrace the true heroism he seeks!"
She hit and he barely blocked. "YOU…. held back for me?" Dick shakily watched her as she swapped poses, his own to block as she let him fall. He held himself though pretty well, bouncing back as his arm went out. "Viper strike." Grinned the hero. "One shot and you'd be fast asleep. Pressure point move the police can't use –
"Dude…" Bb grumbled. "We talked about killer moves. Ya can't use em. Like, ever –
"What?" Robin groaned and looked at Kori. Her eyes were sparkling with tears. "You.. promised that you would not…"
"I…I'm sorry. Do over, I won't practice ….what he showed me…"
"I'm starting to think this step dad had a few moves that he kept in his closet." Cy came over, worried for Robin more than Star as they understood the issue here. "Rob, come with me. We gotta talk about your fighting style."
/
"I didn't mean to –
"You never did. It's programed." Cy let the door shut as Raven came in behind them. Her eyes were impassive yet aware. "I know you have a past that made sense to you, logically. But morally, what your teacher was…he was a mercenary."
"Don't cops –
"No. Not that kinda move, Robin."
The sweat started to pour down. Act it out. Act it out!!
"OH…
God…." Robin threw a hand over his lips. "They both…"
"You came from a family of assassins. Your mama's work had to be all over the place so he was like your stand in body guard. That s all an act. You must have figured it out and ran away. I don't blame anybody for doing what you did. They were gonna change you into-
"So, I was used as a weapon my whole life?? And you just…. God….no….no…."
Dick stayed quiet. This role was perfect; head dropped. Dejected stance. Sorrow and doubt. A recipe for success on this mission.
His fans however, would not be any fellow Titans once he was out of the group. "Robin? Rob!"
The boy looked up, eyes searching back to better times that had never existed. An actor. He was, good at this. "Rob, we got our baggage too, but you gotta tell me now. How dangerous is this dude? He's not on the FBI's most wanted?"
"No idea. We traveled a lot…he took me around with my mom, running off on us to her work. Damn it…she was a criminal? I'm a –
"Not as long as the courts get your testimony."
/
~ Master, sir. They want me to testify. They want to catch the woman who was subjecting her son to being trained by an assassin. What do I do?? ~
"I've taken care of your case. The papers here; you have a lawyer, an actress and of course…. you'll be there to cement their concluding argument."
~ Sir…what about the Titans?~
Slade slipped from the room where the documents on a Mrs. Kane came to play. He hated asking Addie to send a bit of fodder for his enemies, be they useful or not. Ah, but she was the only inside source he needed right now. "You can worry more about your fighting form in front of those heroes. For now, play the fool and nothing will fall through. I promise. One year." He lied. The other file was on Tara as the call that came through gave him reason to stop the transmission. "Call only if you re in real danger. This transmission is over. See you in a few days, to debrief your experiences… apprentice."
Dick relaxed on the screen and bobbed his head. ~ Yes sir. I won't let you down. ~
His heart felt heavier though upon ending the whole call.
/
He kept saying it. He deliberately made himself depend on the man's encouragement as each session dropped. Until the day of the trial put a big smile on his face once they'd LEFT the courtroom. Their faces looked innocent enough. His was anything but a shining example of victim mentality in the room. Richard held his ground. The verdict was passed all less than one full hour. He sighed and bowed his head while jutting his knee and bouncing it in rehearsal to his nervous character.
Outside, the sun in Cali looked even brighter than the first day he and Slade had landed. The Titans stuck by him every inch of that one way. Cy put a hand onto his smaller shoulder, while Raven acted as a guard dog against the press.
"You." Raven and Cy stood together as they left the civilian to his new company. The courthouse date was done. They had won custody of their new shining star.
Speaking… Star and Bb were the only heroes not allowed inside; they instead waited out in the T car with celebratory words and a gift bag…. their mutant and alien natures must have meant that Cy and Raven were hybrid. Beastboy was still treated as a mad dog off his leash. That felt wrong. Beast boy was a kid. Younger than Raven if not her same age…
Richard had butterflies without his hoodie in his stomach. He could have asked to have some peace and quiet, yet that would make him look pathetic. The woman who had been put away wasn't his real mom. She was hired by Slade to make the story a reality to that judge who was also bought out by the man through another source. All so that Dick could be a Titan. One year, and there would BE no more "teen titans."
"You have all done very well in the house of the court orderliness –
"Yeah, but he just raised a finger. Right?"
Dick raised his pointer and they all chuckled at the jest. "You sure you got every idea to do this, Rob?"
"I do, Cyborg." Dick's back was pushed over to his new….
"Then, we also have a thank - you for you too."
Star and Bb pulled out a few items that had the awestruck teen brunette near in tears. Wa….
Why…. had they made it look so lifelike?
"An, R…. for?" Bb raised a brow to the letter on the bright red top. The boots in Kori's hands. Black. The red was accompanied by a brown black set of short sleeves, a yellow utility belt and of course. Tights. Dark to cover and…. very fitting. ( More like the young justice and batman animated series Tim Drake versions.)
"You…this is-
/
He saw the future, and it looked just like his childhood. Dick didn't say anything as the faces blurred over. His stress made his lip sweat.
~ Our little Robin….are you going to join us, soon? ~
~ Robin….~
That woman…her voice was so far away, and yet he knew her.
His mother-
/
" No !" Dick slapped away the materials as he ran off in the direction of the street. Bb went after as a jaguar. His strong body put a roadblock of a bull moose as he morphed, in-between their runaway and the next block. "Dude! You so got freaked at that gift we made? Cy worked really hard to make it like you wanted."
"It's too soon, that uniform…it means a lot. I never…I can't!"
"And we cannot allow for you to go. You made a promise." Starfire rushed to pick up on his cues, how the trauma there was something she'd not though yet reasonable to have. They had won, he was, happier this way. She had to let him see that too.
She hovered over to her companion. "Robin. You did not tell us that name meant something special to you. Is it wrong to call you that any longer?"
"M…" He bit his lip and growled. "I need space –
"You aren't permitted a few hundred meters, lil man." Cy shook his head at the frightened doe in the road. "Come back to the tower. We can talk about this."
"You don't know me, you don't know what happened to us… please…I just need some more time to myself." Dick looked at the team from a few feet out. They wouldn't hurt him for no reason. He was just so, confused. Why was his conscience getting in the way of his job? His master would throw him out for good. He had no one anymore. He was a coward, an idiot. And yet….
"I…just want to get over her…please? Isn't there someplace I can just, go? Not leave here? Just…anywhere?"
In the end of Robin's mini shut down, Cy proposed the shore of the bay and Dick took that as an OK. Raven watched him from a safe few feet and he just stared into the bay. Alone. She knew he had something to talk about. His memory of a mother was never going to ever be fixed to what he'd wanted. That woman was in jail now, she sighed. Unlike her father, her mother was no longer with her. Only in memory.
"I had a father who first hurt my mother; he tricked her at her lowest…state. She was a runaway, just like you." Raven rubbed her arms as the breeze was bitterly meant to chill. Rather, the reminder if his loneliness dragged the empath to tell her story.
"You remind me a lot of how I was. Upset, afraid of anyone that tried to help me find my way. I escaped my father's…. eyes, many times. He can see a lot of what's happened and it truly fills me with dread…to think of him ever finding where I live. Where my friends have been helping me to stay safe."
"Same. My step dad is good at his job. He worked in multiple world governments' circles and professionally I think he actually got paid to make the world a scarier place to live but, my mom?" The lie soon made Raven blink. Robin nearly laughed out of disbelief at his own thoughts. Robin's, not Dick Wilson's.
He stepped back and sat on a boulder overlooking the shore. He eyed a bunch of smooth river rocks. One toss and that was it, huh. She could find out something and lose her cool. He had to do better. Dig deeper at that emotion as Robin existed to please everyone else. A
"What was she like." Raven levitated next to the youth in cross legged position, he jumped a bit and hunched his shoulders, having no place left to go.
She went on with her request. "Your mom, before she changed into someone you couldn't recognize."
Dick read back through to his earliest memories and tried to formulate a few false images. Mentally, it would have the empath driving blind. He hoped to get more advanced with his psychic blocking techniques. "She was smart; a literal genius." He smiled. "She could have done anything differently, but she was all I had in my life. It didn't matter, didn't all last…She never went out and left me all alone. I always went with her. Wasn't until we lost dad to his gambling addictions. Before when I was born, they spilt and I was in her custody for…. until I was ten or nine, I think? She said she had someone coming to stay with us. To be on my best behavior. I tried to ask her who it was, but she just told me…just, a friend." Dick looked back on a time he'd read some article with a similar angle to it. Fabricate it. Fall into the role. His master's words were his only guide right now.
"Mom hated cooking before, but our new " friend" always made us a meal and I was invited to eat with them. Like a family. It wasn't until I was twelve and they were becoming closer, a lot more…that I went into his suitcase one time. I saw something that I never told mom about…"
Raven listened and was surely looking to find a loophole in the story. A flaw, Dick decided, lowering his eyes. "A gun, a pistol. Eagle. I thought it was weird because spies never carried those before. Mom made sure none of her department's were in reach when I was a baby. Even now, but he….he saw how I looked at it and I was caught red handed. So, he made me a deal. I was only a kid. He said he'd teach me how to hold it one day if I let him train me how to fight. It was weird. Ex - military man and boy going out to fish at 5am. A…and mom, never said….no. He just was always right about what we needed and pushed to get his way. He got so obsessed…and I went with him when she was on a mission or at work. All the time. He even homeschooled me and was a genius like her. I never had friends that long. We moved around too much." Similarly to the Grayson doing just that in the big top.
"I came home with a black eye one time and she asked if I went to the park to play catch. He told her yes, but I was told to wash up and stay in my room. Every time. I knew she was talking to him about me. He took me camping once, more than once." Robin's breathing hitched a bit as he continued. "She let us and I tried to tell her to come with us. She just said "have a good time."
Dick wasn't imagining his own mother falling to her death. He was imagining resting in her lap on a warm day while she sung him to sleep. "Mom, and that monster…they were going to train me on my very first kill." Robin gripped his skull, the distress in his frown lines as he shut his eyes. The lapping waves brought him back while he opened them to keep weaving his web of lies.
"So, I ran away."
"I think you were more fortunate than I was." Raven huffed..
"Beastboy has people who care. He detests why they let him leave but he'll never fight their generosity and amount of love when he was still only a newly made mutant…Starfire still stays in touch with her nurse maids. She says that she wants to take us to her home planet when the fighting quiets down…Cyborg, is at odds with the fact his father won't talk to anyone. That he wants to force his son to live like everyone else. I was forced to flee my home. The monks of a world known as Azarath took care of my mother and I. They made sure my father had no way of knowing where we were being sheltered. Robin nodded. Raven's voice had started to shake, yet she didn't quit.
"They…helped to solve our problem. That my father needed my mother to relinquish the child…." She stopped, her cloak flashing softly in different shades. "I…I have to go. I'll send for Cyborg." She vanished inside a raven shaped shadow she had summoned out of concern for her timing. She could not speak about that demon. He would only find his way faster to where she was. The better they knew nothing, the safer they all were.
Robin looked out on the bay's lapping. He saw the flattest skipping stone and picked up the shiny coin shaped pebble. With his finger to the sky to check for the wind index, Robin tossed the stone and found for the first time ever….he was bad at it.
/
A screen in Slade's lair saw the boy's own eyes and he frowned up from his robotics' project. A suit for his newest weapon. She was going to be so pleased to know that another her age was looking out for her. "Dick. You're playing too far into your role. Don't disappoint my new addition when it's time…apprentice." He tightened a notch in the sleek design . A neuro interface suit to keep the ball rolling into the mastermind's court. He sighed and looked back at Dick who was busy trying to throw the first stone. He wasn't allowed to call it quits. Either that, or the Titans put him in the doghouse without a single parent to tuck the brat in at night. Richard was a tool also, but he wanted to be so much more. Slade had to ponder that; for a while, he had also agreed to be the same comfort, but the boy was growing cocky. Lazy in his stance and his role as Deathstroke's apprentice. Slade had taken care of him, weaned him on vengeance that was most significant to thrive in today's society. But he'd never kill. Slade was sure. Maybe, or maybe the boy just needed to find out what being a hero was really all about.
If he did, Slade wondered if that would crush his spirit, or ignite a new sense of desire to live. Either way, promises would be kept between them. Richard was Slade's second apprentice. He would not However, be his failure to bury as he almost had with his eldest son, Grant.
Slade continued with his device and watched it light up. Electrical functions purred away as Slade didn't bat a lash.
All while one alien princess walked over to step into the shadow of his creation.
"None of that now." Slade chided as he let the device warm up. "You have a very important job to complete."
A job, that would include straining the relationships of the current teen titans.
/