Teen Titans – ReBeL Yell- If I had Stayed a Renegade
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A Somber Song of Springtime
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Dick Grayson.
Formerly known as hero and former protégé to the Batman, the boy wonder known as Robin; turned enemy of the United States' forces and Interpol by his association with Deathstroke the Terminator, a.k.a. Slade Wilson. Unknown whereabouts of the two since the "Terra Nova" fiasco that leveled a quarter of Jump city before the Justice League and Titans put a stop to the overseas terror attacks of a girl going by the identity of Princess Tara Markov. Third in line of Markovia and a prime target for the Brotherhood of Evil. Sources say she was killed in a volcanic undoing by her powers of Geo – kinetic ability. After that event had nearly cleared, another invader known as Trigon the Terrible was said to have worked with Deathstroke and his hired hands to attack the city and our world. Raven of the Teen Titans defeated this criminal and we have only to thank them for acting on behalf of all if us. The Titans have only stated that "they believed she deserved a home, a real family and that those who had manipulated her acts were to be tried, as for Raven, she's sent out an S.O.S to anyone that can re–
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Slade wasn't here as Dick shut off the cable with a click. Slade was thinking of coming after him, the traitor that Renegade was for fleeing after Tara's demise at…their hands. After Trigon and his corrupted child had…. As Master and apprentice, this was his defeat as well as Slade's. Richard wouldn't be denying a thing for too long. He had meta-abilities like his master; whom would have him, not if he could hurt anyone that tried...
The Titans still had no idea who had stolen the probes' controller and reactivated it. He was the first to flee during her big end and try to do what he could to destroy the new one. Slade had bartered lives before, but this…. Slade was furious when he saw how Dick had acted, and for what?
He was only Slade's damned puppet with the strings now cut. He'd flown out and gotten a ticket somehow to get to Metropolis. Tomorrow, he'd go to Bruce and Clark. Get the heck out of these shackles and save his friends, to avenge Terra, Raven, and to redeem what he could of his honor as Robin might have.
He curled up into himself on the sofa of this forged hotel and checked the windows. The big ones made too likely Slade would sneak in, so he borrowed a bit of plastic as a pick pocket and took his chances with an economy style. It was fine, really. A few hundreds down the drain got him fed, in new clothes for his life on the run.
If it came down to that.
Dick curled up tighter as the guards on his entire frame were tossed someplace in the next room to rid forever. He didn't want to smell, feel or even look like Slade ever again.
"Stranger danger, right…?" Dick croaked with a weak snort. "Am I in trouble now, B?"
Off to sleep he was, seeing as the one thing he'd certainly missed upon collapsing was checking if there was a chance Slade had not bigger hid one item, he'd not attested having a chip in it.
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"Floor C5, please."
The man at the desk looked over the tall, white-haired male as he handed this suited brute his key. He didn't look at all welcome here before, yet this was a city where they had full protections if you screamed out of name.
The man thanked the front desk personnel as they wedged themselves further behind it.
Walking to the elevator, Slade listened to what could only be a few distracting conversations, trusts and the like. Not that one. So, UP he went.
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Dick was roused with impeccable timing. He looked at the clock and saw that his room was still lit. He got up groggily to turn a light off, only to hear footsteps out in the hall coming from the hall with an elevator. He should have done nothing in his mind, yet Slade was all he had to fear. Dick turned off the lights and swapped to the bag in his guest bedroom. The card from the big - wig in finance he'd snagged would get reimbursed by his bank just fine. He went to grab only what he needed, the sound of a knock to the frame had to be the oldest trick in the book as a voice called out.
"Room service?"
The boy intended to get out. Ten p.m. was no room service in any hotels he'd gone to as Robin or Dick Grayson on any missions.
He was being tracked, but…
Dock looked up as he saw a small little fleck on his ear that had not been there before.
Bug. Fuck, fuck,fuck!
A freckle sized one?? Was he –
"Coming in."
Dick grabbed his back as the key card ran through, his eyes on the window as he prayed that a way down was ever possible. Getting a hard look at the roof below, it wasn't steep enough to kill him. He took the back, the suit and decided to use the guards quickly as he got the knee and arm into place partly, clumsily.
"It's-
Dick rushed and shoved open the window pane, his body maneuvering to get through the one in the bedroom. Screw the larger one. At fifteen forever, he had to get….
"Robin?"
Dick gasped as he lost his concentration and toppled. Down below, a dumpster broke his fall while the guards thankfully left him mostly, undamaged as Kori always said after a fight. And, he was now layered in trash with the card somewhere in the duffle he'd stolen.
He groaned as the window and the light in his room went on.
He ducked into the trash as a white-haired head popped out, then shut the window.
Was…was he straying here for…
Dick grunted and dug his way out, peeking over to a street across the way; a bar.
He needed a shower now, and he'd just…
Biting his lip while trying not to swallow, Dick crawled out carefully and checked his line of exit. Damn it…
The thing had shorted so Slade couldn't track him now. But…he knew. Dick was here. He KNEW?!
He had to run, but a hunter was what Slade was. Not Dick Grayson. Dick checked for the controller as he found it mostly intact. He sighed softly, keeping his voice lower than low before slipping away through a small crowd of people still enjoying the night after ten p.m.
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Slade checked the sofa. The scent was there, a kid who hasn't bathed in three days, approximately. And the television was set to the news from the history. Not to mention…
Slade checked the floor. On it, was a discarded mask his apprentice had worn out of the haunt.
"Bad boy, Renegade." Slade tilted his head as he examined the accessory in his palm. "This goes on you like a glove. We can't have you sharing any false information… now, can we?"
~ How is the boy, Slade.~
A comm went off in his ear as Slade touched it, still holding Dick's discarded gift. "He was closer than we pictured on that map. I afraid he's on the run again. This time, I can smell the brat's guilt from a mile away. Get the high-powered hose ready before I return." Slade gripped the mask and tucked it onto his person carefully. "Our dear apprentice thinks that his actions are brave I think he needs his mouth, washed out. Thoroughly."
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The last place he could think to go to was a pier. Superman was only one yell away, yet Dick had a fear that if he made even a tiny sound, they'd find him. The wrong enemy.
He paced and saw the cool waters of the shallow end of one shoreline. Perfect for covering his scent up, maybe.
Dick dove in and let his body get used to the February chill if the Midwest before he used his apprentice suit to dry off. In an instant, he was rubbing his arms and shivering. He looked up and saw a high moon over the water peeking out from clouds, once barred from such a night he was driven to tears without knowing why. "Why…I should just call him." Dick sighed and then got his lungs filled. He had to, had to try. Had to do this. For Terra, for Raven and Beastboy and Kori…Cy and even –
The motor of a vehicle stopped by the road above his view. Out of the black sedan stood a man, a man that also should have backed the hell off.
He knew now that he'd have to swim until he couldn't move a muscle. Until Slade drowned him for doing what he'd set out to avoid.
Or of course, the whirr of a copter wasn't enough- the face of a man above his head was by the sand as Slade ran to claim the kid first. Brave as a bold night's ray, Bruce in only his civilian attire leaped out to throw himself at Slade's form.
"Stay away, Wilson!"
"How….persistent, Wayne….that you knew where to look." Slade scoffed as he body had the strength to treat Bruce like some unruly underling. He dared not as Dick stared back at them.
"No…no…you…you aren't helping! Stop fighting!!"
Slade pulled out his wrist as Bruce grabbed it, the shock hitting the target as Slade and Bruce both fell from the taser shock in the madman's arm.
"Idiot! Let go…" Growled the disgruntled mastermind. "The moment he gave up on you, I had him. You can't turn back to what isn't there –
"I….Slade, stop." Shaking his head, Dick couldn't run. He heard those words and wanted to slap the merc right in the jaw. "I'm no one's! You both never thought so, and all I ever wanted…"
"Dick –
"You've fallen too far. It's time to give up on a normal living, apprentice. You can't ever have that. Being what you are." He reminded Dick of what the boy had been forced to participate in. Terra's capture and containment was his crux. His friends still had probes under their flesh and all life; Slade wouldn't take them one, not until Dick was fully his Renegade.
Bruce was, sorry? Could he really right this as the dark knight this time? Dick had fled, he'd done nothing of the bat's teachings – he'd rejected all of it, all of it…
Because, he wasn't a hero right now. He was a kid that they both had wanted to in their own twisted way…call their ward, charge. Whatever.
But, never a son.
Not that, not Slade. He'd lost one, then Terra was his worst mistake.
And Robin, his very best.
Batman had issues with bonding over BEING the one to hold them together. There would be no more Titans or Robin if he said yes to his first guess. His second, was no savior in the dark since….
He needed to be fee of them, but for how long could he flee his fate?
"You have a purpose, Robin. You don't need to feel like he has too much power. This man is just as human as either of us –
"I wish that were true, Batman." Slade chuckled with a little glee in his tone. "Robin, doesn't. And I'd assume he might agree with the very person to grant him that great a denial." ( This takes place in Our Time in Reverse. It is the epilogue chapter so I won't give anything away. This is actually going to change!)
"It can't be changed, fixed." Dick gripped his arms round himself and turned to the wide waters. "I know –
"Yes, but…Dick? I'm here. You, don't need to keep searching."
Dick felt his arms drop as his weighted body was fed from the hotel, yet never felt truly full. He stunk of freshwater waves and endlessly unshed tears, so much as he tugged back his pained gaze to look both men in the eyes.
"No. I'm…I'm gone, done. I need my freedom, from the both of you." His eyes narrowed on Slade mostly. Bruce. He was just a sad person, Dick had enough fried to settle. "I can't be your anything "perfectly" anymore, and I don't want to look back and feel sorry for you. Not you, or…" He swallowed when mentioning Bruce's name. "Or you. Take care of Jason. He's their Robin now, and way better at it since I never really had a shot..." Dick walked as Slade moved quickly to set off something in his mask with a flicker. "I wouldn't take one more step. You made a vow, broke it plenty of times with the both of us." He reminded rather cruelly, poking the kid to stand and face them again. "Did you think he'd let you walk away? You're not trustworthy, boy. I taught you to do as you could for the sake of the mission. You never led. You followed fir your own protection out if cowardice, because that is what you are. Fir some semblance of pride in yourself that you lack, going soul searching will leave you emptier than taking a shot at one of us meant to raise your sorry ass from the ground."
"Slade." Bruce got out the meta cuffs as Slade never budged. "These would never hold me, but you?" The merc scoffed at the teen. "I'd rather hold onto your condition a bit longer than you need me to. There is only suffering left to find if you go down your own path, Grayson. Bleak, as you'd never wish it to be."
"He's wrong, Dick. We can set up a separate location-
"I'll still be on the grid, he's not wrong about a lot of things lately, Bruce." Dick rubbed his eyes as it made sense. "What am I now? I'm not a hero, not a student and I can't grow up…what AM I to them? To you? Slade, he'd use me to hurt anyone he could. I can't go back, and you can…"
"Tread carefully, child." Slade forwarded as the kid's body felt a bit warmer. Wait…
Batman grabbed the Merc's wrist to see that Dick was also on his radar. The probes though had never been taken out of him, only the Titans.
That
…..
Dick coughed, thinking he had to live after this but it wasn't him.
The infection wasn't in him as he saw the mercenary's smirk. "Took some time to find the right place for a clear shot. The nanobots are not forever. Just to get away from this interrogation you're planning."
Slade snapped the cuffs as Dick took off into a sandy sprint. Slade went full circle into the brat and pinned him on his chest to the earth.
"No! I'm done!"
"And Waller isn't. Once they find us, you know what comes after. I might consider giving you your own safe house if you can ever defeat me. He's got about ten hours." The man nudged his neck to point down the suffering bat as the probes made his illness less red, more pale under the cowl.
"Don't…he's not-
"Going to cage you up like I was? I'm willing to not be afraid of you, Renegade-
"Not who I am." Snapped the boy, earning himself a face full of sand.
"You are talking to the wrong masterminds, kid. You're on the run after nearly trying to backstab the person you vowed to backstab the Titans by. I was the catalyst, the trigger. And you pulled it on the right person." Slade grinned at the fact that Dick had shot him in Jump after Raven had saved the day. He'd fled as if they didn't know each other.
That was untrue. The Titans had sent the S.O.S, for HIM.
"Will Jason end up washed ashore as your replacement? He might. The kid likes a good brawl, and who knows? You might even have more to teach him as a nemesis. You can't be anything else. No one else will want a ruined thing like you."
"Wrong….you…did that to Terra –
"Both of you now have the truth . No one else was going to stop from sugar coating it, why not here? You can't fight me off, not even if I gave you a handicap. Not by my powers, which you're going to need to know how to use properly before I send you off gutting clients for me."
"Won't kill…"
"Bruce will die." Growled the mad man. "If he goes, then you may as well have done nothing. Like a coward. How can you ever fly free now, little bird?"
"Escaping you was…my way out!"
"Not anymore, kid." Slade got out a tool that he'd have used in the hotel sooner. It was an air gun to inject a strong sedative into the kid's exposed neck. "Hold still, this will sting a bit."
Dick winced, kicking as the needle poured in a burning solution instead.
~ That….why did it hurt?? ~ Slade instantly read the kid's body language and chuckled, patting the kid's side.
"You've been without any medication for a while, so it's no better than an adjustment to this special dose that I use on myself. You're given the ability to heal and you run amuck and covers elf in rotten garbage. That is why it hurts more than you're used to, boy.."
Bruce was there on the ground in fetal position as the probes were not slowing down. "Leave him alone…please." The kid coughed out sand as Slade hummed, the kid's reaction to the drug was remarkable, even if he claimed to be in so much pain.
"You take the pain very well, and no. I'll let him be once he stops trying to look. Or, until we're back in the new safe house, I have our passports all set up. Yours can wait, until you've earned that privilege to take my orders. Talking back now, docks your points on good behavior."
"Why won't you let it go…?" Dick's eyes ran, softly sniffling while Slade just placed a second dose below his skin "It's too important. I'm invested in getting you back on track." Was what Slade said before the kid was lifted bridal style with his head lolled back at the air.
The sea….it looked. So , pretty…
"There, there, Wayne." Slade shook his head at how the bat growled and glared his way, even when being defeated by a level of mad science which stolen from Star labs.
"I'll take good care of him, always…"
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So, this will be a part of the Our Time Reverse as long as it goes well with the Trigon arc retelling. Find out!
So, yup. I'm adding that into my arc later. What say you?