Teen Titans; ReBeL Yell – If I Had Stayed a Renegade –
/
NEW RULES
/
THE OUTCOME OF THE APPRENTICE PART TWO ENDED DIFFERENTLY; SLADE DID NOT HAVE TO DESTROY THE HEROES, YET DICK DID HAVE TO ATTACK. WHILE WOUNDING THEIR PRIDE, HE SIMPLY STROKED HIS MASTER'S EGO – ENOUGH TO CONSIDER HIS MASTER'S CLAIM IN A WAY BOTH HUMILIATING AND INHUMANE BUT ASSURED OF THEIR VICTORY AS TEAHER AND BLACKMAILED STUDENT…SLADE ALSO LETS DICK LEARN ABOUT HIS MOTIVES AS A CRIME LORD, NOT DISCLOSING DEATHSTROKE THOUGH HINTING HIS ASSOCIATION WITH OTHER BIG TIME BADDIES IN OTHER CITIES THEY MAY SEE OTHER KEY PLAYERS IN A PART TWO LATER DURING ROBIN'S TRAINING PERIOD. NOTED THIS IS NOT SLASH!! THIS IS PROOF OF OWNERSHIP AND DARK. BUT NO SLADIN AS THIS REMAINS "T RATING" ONLY!!
/
The gears still turned above him, the whining of machines and crackling of the probes' control mechanism had shown their true colors from behind these four walls underground, where no light could find the suffering five. The lit screens behind the blackmailed boy wonder held no pity, as he readied to explode by Starfire's red tear streaks, all due to the maddening tactic of his master's control over the boy's dear friend.
Slade however, the mastermind behind the curtain, was offering them a way to live; if Robin attacked, the Titans then might also go free as Dick Grayson and former protégé to the Batman searched the two-toned mastermind over for that conclusion.
As if Slade could read his every thought, the trigger came up to the boy's eye level. Dick's eyes narrowed a bit, bags hidden as best he could as he turned on his heel. Quickly, he stalked towards the burning heroes on the ground, moaning and in so much pain as he landed the first kick to Beastboy, speaking that there was nothing he could do. That they had to leave and let him stay here, all but forgotten as a hero.
" Duude …. no!... we wanna h –
"You can't!" Snarled the crime lord's newest apprentice, Robin's fingers bent around the other kid's neck as he tossed the teen, before seeing himself in those no longer green eyes. He did his worst, knocking out the youngest as Slade pressed a button, setting Beast boy free now that the youth couldn't fight back. Dick sniffled, rage shaking in a pain he'd seen in those orbs of his own creation; his chaos to throw about as he was commanded to harm his only allies left. Dick shook his head, sweat from the strain looking like tears as he refused to let Slade see him so weak. He went up to Raven and butted her with his knee, her bruised temple enough to keep her from standing back up.
One more Titan now incapacitated; Dick moved onto Cyborg. One by one, they stayed down until he came finally to Starfire, her fight in her large eyes not yet lost as her body toppled into his chest, shuddering and whining loudly, tears barley withheld as Dick seethed and knew he'd be able to spare her, somehow. He hugged her the hardest he had anyone in a month, finding a pressure point as Batman had shown during a session in his days as a boy wonder. "Be safe…" He rasped so that Slade would have his word, so that none of them would fall the way the man had triuly wished. She smiled softly, weakly at him. She saw it all, and he couldn't stop the tears as his hands moved too close.
Slade watched from the sidelines with anticipated ears and his one eye flashing back to the control device at his wrist.
"Go, back…without me." Dick finally whispered into her hair as his fingers expertly found the final point, gripping it to see her eyes shut slowly, her frame rag doll limp as she collapsed while he gently and finally left her for a few Slade bots to dispose of outside of the haunt. By the time the Titans did come to and return to recall the coordinates…he'd be someone to curse, not celebrate nor question harshly. His hands felt bloodstained even while clean. As if this were a mock battle, a performance of Romeo and Juliet where death had taken her off someplace even while the sword was not real. The poison, just a few soft words in her ear.
"They won't find this place again, I promise." Slade came to the protégé's side as his rage simmered; he had no true reason to find a way again to save them, Slade was in fact a man of his word, which…seemed twisted to the kid.
Now that Dick had shown his most ruthless side to his only friends, his only family…Slade stared down and placed a hand atop the boy's shoulder, squeezing it with some foreign form of encouragement. "I also have another gift, for all of your hard work. What do you say then. Apprentice?"
The man could have been part serpent as Dick's illusion shattered for want of a way out. A way to tempt him, to tear him apart with its dripping fangs…. yet, he only had to speak up to be saved.
"Thank you, master…." His teeth clattered at that loathsome title, the boy being led away from the spot where they'd found the heroes and back to where the dias was elevated, the screens all around as Slade showed this "deactivated lesson" to the kid crime fighter. Walking over to his workspace where the thermal blaster had been brought to blessed life and assembled at will, Slade opened a drawer inside the narrowed table to pulled forth a black, flat necklace box. Reinforced to look very sturdy and important, Dick didn't trust his eyes or his own thoughts as Slade seemed to hold it with great care in both hands. Was it a badge? A dedicated war metal for keeping the Titans away? Some form of –
Dick's stomach dropped as the lid pulled up and in that center was a choker adorned with the same silver S as the one, he had thrown at the man during their fight... Dick's eyes looked at it from under his mask; his gloved hands going to his metal neck plate that was already encapsulating his flesh round his throat, while the older man wagged a finger. "There's no need to have that, this one is much more advanced. Take it off, apprentice." Slade skulked in closer, the kid's fingers shaking as he forced himself to do as he was told. All for them, not a big deal, but jewelry? It…it looked like a collar – for some lowly watchdog!
Guard dog.
Dick let the click of the plate's clasps come undone, Slade humming his appreciation as he moved fluid, right behind the boy wonder with this impressive yet horrifying gift. He started to seek out the kid's bared neck, the clasp not present yet a lock that was touch protected with only his print to match. The ring went round and found its home, the tug a bit heavier than an actual choker as Dick made a forced gargle at how the man was taking his time to show that it worked the way he'd intended.
"How does it feel." The man released his hands as the tag, that cool jagged S had some reinforced material in it made custom to prevent from scratching the kid's throat. Dick put a hand to the slim black band and felt sick as he touched it. Locked on, no way out… It wasn't a normal fabric or leather, there was a strong band inside it and he felt his mouth lurch with bile before swallowing his questions back down. Richard answered brokenly, scratchily. "Tight." He said in a croak, his hands still trying to see if it was a mistake in the sizing. "That's how it's supposed to be, and it has a very interesting extra feature…only the best to keep my prized protégé in line."
Mine, mine…. what a greedy -
"You're not thanking me for the gift, Robin?" The man had the boy look up, bewildered that he'd needed to be that sincere when being choked by a toy. "Sorry, no sir. I –
"It looks as if this was well worth the wait." Slade took out the box again and turned it upside down, a small chip popping out as he took the item and placed it somewhere on his gauntlet. A control chip, Dick tensed and readied to fight, had he a second before his knees bowed completely. His breath stolen from his lungs as both hands flew up to stop the collar from doing its worst. "The band inside as you felt it, can bend as an arm from one of my robots, reinforced and very sturdy work…only this time, it constricts you if you disobey me. Now. Kneel, Robin." The man commanded, the kid doing as he was told before his hair was wrenched up to stare into that cold dead glare again. " Thank me, for your present." Slade said with a chilly air to those words, Dick's lips were already shaking as he let his hands both drop in defeat. Doing as Slade wanted, head looking up this time, his lips moved with a hoarse promise that he would remove the "gift" as long as it took to plan a move. He'd contact Bruce, warn the heroes….do…. what he could…. what he couldn't.
The band got suddenly tighter as the words were wrenched from his lungs.
" Th…a… nk …. you….ma… master…… thank y -
"Better." Slade dropped him, the boy catching himself with his gloved palms as the evil toy soon reduced its tug at his windpipe. "Now, I'd like to brief you on our next order of business, which requires leaving Jump city for a while."
Dick's head shot up as his mouth fell, open. "I already stopped them, sir…I thought we'd be –
" Never interrupt, apprentice." The man clenched his fists, the screens showing how alive the boy's friends still were as Dick hunched over in shame at his minor victory. He'd saved them, only to be taunted by another possible attack on their lives.
Though, it felt to him an even greater loss.
"I have work in other cities to complete, and I have other bases where I'll gladly train you to hone your abilities properly, as long as you'll continue to keep to our contract."
Why a contract? Was he really a demon from some new dimension, or was this a way to use his words to cage in the boy wonder's confidence? "S…Master, leaving?" Robin stuttered to think this was the end. "For…how long?" He couldn't even find the words to ask it, as Slade rubbed his chin and knew full well that solid answer. "I couldn't give you an exact time; however long it will take to remove the Bat's mantra, and when you'll learn to finally accept my proposal all on your own."
"That could be…"
"We've already discussed that part of your future, Robin." Slade reprimanded the boy in the corner, his guard dog to train into becoming a serious threat. "The rest, will be up to you to decide how long this chain of events will drag on for. I can be firm as I have been. Strict as I need to, all for you to stand at my side." The man paused, checking his wrist where the time must have been in digital. "We'll be gone before daybreak. It's late." Slade had his back to the boy wonder. "The collar can stay with me for now, come."
He'd even called it a collar, being leashed into his role officially as a handler of mutts like Grayson.
He was glad to know it was just a whip and rod during their sessions as Dick allowed Slade to unlock the device from his throat, horrified through the glint of the man's armor as it showed back through it an indentation from the squeezing ring round Robin's fifteen-year-old throat. Soon to become a lifelong mark of his decision to stay, as the man patted the kid's shoulder and had his bots return the former boy wonder to his small quarters for that evening. There was no clear concept of time, yet Dick estimated it to be a few hours to early morning by how he was left alone for, hours…. until his door slid back and he was ordered to move in a single file line behind his master.
The collar was returned to his throat no sooner as Dick lost his spark; partly from the lack of shut eye or the messy regimen, or his growing depression. Either way, he had it now and the only way out was….
Dick fought back any desire to end his life without giving it his all. A soldier didn't quit. Neither could a hero.
As they went up to the dias where Slade was busy looking about for a notch in the ironworks, Dick waited off to the side and soon found himself feeling too restless, besides also yawning into his palm at the rude wake up.
"Any last words before we part from this city for some time, Apprentice?" The man was bent over, kneeling to adjust a strange glowing dial at the side of the wall as Dick looked up, seeing crumbling debris starting to crack and rumble. Knowing full well, that he felt used. Was this the way Slade treated…those things that outlived their purpose? He didn't have time to worry more than he had to, as he shook his head, afraid to tell the man what he really thought of this escape plan. "You're an accomplice now, learn to deal with the struggle later. Come, this place isn't long for its own destruction…I think we've seen enough of this city; don't you agree?" Dick just moved quickly over the catwalk and didn't want to say yes, though he did, to shut the man up. "There are many places I wish to take you, as my right hand." The man played with the dial until it seemed to work as he was expecting it to. "Now, at my command."
Dick didn't speak; this time he just nodded and stayed close to the man as he was clutched round his torso, a grapple in the man's hand to bring them to the upper level. Dick looked over his shoulder just as the way in was blocked by a falling, large gear. Time was moving, and he couldn't reverse what had been done in this catacomb of old rules broken. And of promises lost as they drifted away into the hours just before the first sun was to rise over Jump City and the whole world.
His whole world was gone, branded as a thing meant to keep its solemn word. This rule, this new rule was his to manage as he sat beside the man in their military style copter, eyes going foggy as if he'd never felt a syringe gun pierce him in his unaware state. "You'll be fine…just rest. Can't reveal the surprise I'm afraid….and yet, I'm very proud to call you…" The man was so calm, so very different as Dick moaned with his head swaying to stay awake. Tongue like cotton and a slur of "nos" being lost to their ride into another sky line, to another city for the duo to decimate and torment.
"My one success…so, please rest, we'll be arriving home shortly…"
Richard drifted away into the hour, not caring that a hand was to his temple, nor that the man behind the mask wasn't Robin anymore. What Slade believed he'd done was for anyone's benefit but his own… Whoever he was going to become eventually, eventually…. yet, Dick would have to learn to like it all, just to live with the guilt.
The guilt of abandoning the Titans for decades on…. on, into his future.
As a renegade. As an apprentice to a mastermind from somewhere else, anywhere as they kept flying and Robin kept drifting off into a sea of endless possibilities.
/
Similar to previous one shot but this does show Dick voluntarily beating up his friends to get them to leave, while Slade corrects this by showing Robin that he should leave. should lose the dead weight for a time until he's ready to do more than simply incapacitate the heroes face to face. So? What did you think? Woke up and thought, huh. How about something with a collar that is T for teens but still traumatic enough to fit? Got that and…. next will be humor, have to mix it up.