Sladin or Bust – Explicit One Shots from the Vault of Sladin-

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BEFORE I GO, TAKE ME WITH YOU TO THAT DISTANT FUTURE

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EXCERPT CHAPTER ONE SHOT FROM WORST CASE SCENARIOS THE END OF THE BEGINNING. DICK IS UP IN HIS MASTER'S BED WITH THE FLASHBACK OF BUMPING INTO RAVEN IN EUROPE WHERE SLADE HAS DECIDED TO KEEP A CLOSE EYE ON HIS DEFLOWERED LITTLE APPRENTICE. THIS IS AFTER FORTH IF JULY CHAPTER SO IF YOU DIDN'T READ IT, REMEMBER THAT DICK WOKE UP LATER TOED UP AND SHIPPED OFF SO THIS IS BEFORE THAT WHEN HE FALLS ASLEEP AFTER SLADE FUCKS HIM TO RELEASE ANY PENT UP TENSIONS. THIS IS ALAO BEFORE HE COMES TO RELIVE THE FACT THAT RAGEN AND THE BAT STILL REMEMBER ROBIN . THAT THE EFFECYS OF SLADE'S TACTIC WORE OFF AND DICK CPULD ALWAYS RETURN, BUT WON'T. THIS TELLS PARTLY WHY.

NOTED, DARK AND THERE ARE UNDERAGE THEMES IN THIS SO NOT FOR YOUNG EARS OR EYES.

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~ Robin…Robin, why can't I find you….~

Dick lay dreaming in the bed of another. His mind, sharply dredged up from a dark place that never should have existed. His friends, all having forgotten his face his voice. All but knew. It was as if he needed to get up and search the globe. That his hope wasn't dead.

Yet, Dick Grayson knew that wasn't so. Slade was seated up and resting hos eyes, but there no escape as the boy let his eyes drift shut. A hand carded through damn locks, longer from not wishing to be mistaken as the boy wonder any longer. He felt less like his master's right hand. More like a pound puppy in search of their forever home. Fostered off. Bruce had done it, never claimed Dick as his son. Too busy, too…

Disappointed.

"Go back to sleep, apprentice."

He did, he didn't even have to be told as these thoughts, feelings. All of them were valid as Dick recalled a girl in those dreams. She had violet eyes and hair and her blue cloaked covered only a portion. He'd seen her, body and soul. Just as she'd saved their reality with his help.

That was all forgotten, yet she kept waving as the vision blurred. She kept trying to find him, and every time she didn't get too close, Bruce showed. His face was distraught, messy and fearful. The most Dick has seen since he was a kid, the man had been that way. Slade was at times unforgiving if he ever hurt himself purposely. It didn't hurt, he thought it could fix things but being numb. Having Slade's gift of immortality. He hated every square inch that he'd never get to die alongside them. With his team having forgotten his face, why did he care?

~ He's gotta be someplace out of the public eye. Knowing Slade-

~ Yet, he was not as you saw…weak? He was empty, Raven?~

~ Hurt does that to others. Makes them hard to read. I think we can save him, he just has to remember….~

Dick scrunched his eyes as they talked to each other. He didn't call out as a whip tugged him back in. Down lower as he was soon face to face in a blink with a red ogre. ~ Inside this mind, therein lies the consequences of its loss. You shall suffer. If even once they forget, you are forgotten. Who are you, human? What is your name? ~

The whip came down again as Dick immediately spoke. His body burning by the cinders below his toes. "Rene-

~ Ang!~ Dick pulled back his hand as the whip sliced up his shoulder. ~ Pay attention. Your name. ~ The voice egged him to say…something. A loud voice, not his master's. Not Slade's.

~ R…ICH –

~ GAAJ !!~ He bowed his head, this one aiming for his heart. Smaller than the first, a second whip joined a third as he was made to look up at the cloven hooved red giant. ~ Only a few answers you have left, dear human. If you fail…your soul is finished. They will never call you what you were. Only, what you must become. ~ It cackled, the question again leaving Dick wide open for the next assault. ~ Once again, what is your name? ~

" R…rob –

He blacked out to dozens of bees sinking their stingers into his chest and back. He screamed in his dream, while rising up. He saw Raven again. He saw her lip sync something that had the boy groggily come back to life.

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That night of his punishment, just before he had returned to the hostel, the boy had made a chance to encounter someone who looked very similar. Hair as violets yet she wore no cloak. She was not here to simply talk.

"Do you remember who I am, Dick?"

She was not tricking him on a whim. Slade had told the boy not to stop fir anyone, yet she held him with her eyes. Her aura, making him weak go her questioning. "I know the truth, but he's keeping that from both of us. You have to come back. There is no curse-

"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm late, it's late " He cleaned his throat and walked on. "Wait –

"What?" The boy grunted at the Goth girl. "What do you want from me? Money? A good time? I have no idea what y –

She came to him and as if they were a distance no longer apart, she embraced him, taking his stunned eyes as a reason to plant a kiss onto his lips. Nothing but a chaste goodbye as he didn't have the stamina from a lack of sleep, to pry her away. "Now, you'll remember." She did instead, going back down the alleyway as if she'd never made contact. A finger to his lips, he set off for the hide out. Slade wouldn't want to know why the boy had been off using his money on things to numb the incessant noises in his head.

The door came into view as Richard remembered to act the part of his future roll. He'd not stolen this. He'd purchased it, in a bag. Slade was in the room, his eyes didn't seem to pity what it tore at from such a short distance away.

"Renegade."

His name, yet the red ogre had told him it wasn't….

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Dick drifted back into another flashback. He'd seen how it all was. Why He'd wake to remember again and again, as years later in Blud, his heart cried out for more.

"I'm still…. not sure." He swallowed as Nightwing. His new name, searching the evening sky as if he had a choice.

~ COME IN. DICKIE BIRD. COME IN, NIGH-

"What." Groaned the eldest. "Jace, don't harass Timmy - what's –

~ No, way. I got fucking relocated cause a bat villain is in your city. I'm not gonna sit on my ass, and I know you're not just daydreaming. ~ Red hood reprimanded the other vigilante. ~ We've got work to do. You'd better not have lost touch. ~

"Never, Jay." Dick slowly shook his head, wondering if Bruce had Rose doing her homework and being sent off to bed by now. ~ I'll you're still upset about Rose having to stay with B, she asked to see you soon. So…. it's not all hopeless. One mission, then you can stay the week. ~

Tim made his day as Dick smiled a small smirk to the wind. Perched as a bird in its roost, he could see for miles without even trying.

"No sweat. I can't wait to see how she's gotten along with Dami –

~ Yeah, about that…~

The acrobat didn't listen. He already knew that she was being tested and rejected by the bat's youngest blood son. Damian was going to get a firm talking to eventually. At least he remembered it. His true name as the man set of a grappler unto the air towards the next rooftop.

"Set out a plate, and I'll be there not a day earlier. Yell Alf to make up only the best for your golden boy –

~ No talking nonsense here, mission comes first.~ Tim reminded them. Red joined up later as Tim took the easy way to get to Blud. They had a bird to best in those skies, only they weren't the only ones.

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That would leave to dead or alive part one arc hunter and the hunted. Thanks again for taking a trip down memory lane with me!