Our Time in Reverse- What It Takes –

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Chapter 12: Bumbling Fools We Be

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In the dark, after supper, Robin rested as the time ticked before Slade would talk to his apprentice. He knew. He'd seen them on every corner. Every wall of this city. Dick was trapped, and his loss was Dick's fumble of the ball.

He was going to beg if he had to, negotiate to stop and regroup. To….to do something to change the man's frame of thinking.

Yet, it was futile. Dick knew this better than any of Slade's previous clients or companions. He knew that Slade hated failures. That he was worse than any kid working fir someone out of the damned League of Shadows. Think was, Slade had once been recruited by the worst anarchist cult in all of history. Maybe he would send his apprentice there. Maybe he'd make him kill his first victim. Toughen him up…the heroes jeered and hollered like roommates. They were saving a city, weren't they? Why couldn't those kids put their heads together and figure out that he was a mole for their newest enemy, deep underground in a friking bunker…Dick missed that seat on the dais. He wanted it, needed to not screw up. Even…

He took another breath and went to gather the files on the drive in his sack by the makeshift futon. His body was feeling better now, enough to pick up his gear and let the screen's light was over his lacking confidence. No doubt Slade would drag out his lecture until it tore up the boy's remaining ego. He had to keep it as Robin, anyway.

He seeped in a breath and but his head down, the mattress below him was not enough as his eyes peered beyond no - longer sweaty bangs. The screen was showing easily the man and the dais he so longed for another chance to lounge in. Right as the steel and iron wrought gears churned high up in the rafters to tower, to make Dick feel so crushed by what he was about to subject himself into doing. Trying….

To ask for a break from the task, to get better at it. To learn the acts because…he had failed.

Slade's face was not a lot of good thing. Dick scrunched his eyes at the brightness on it and turned down the dimmer. "I was able to connect to the laptop…. I…they haven't demanded anything since I…."

~ I know. Being the one who infected you in the first place, seems strange that you happened to fall ill in only two days, but to them, it would not be a mystery. ~

In other words, don't blow this.

~It's all a part of keeping you on your toes, Robin. ~

"S…sir? I, but the other thing was –

~ What? They told you to sleep it off? Said you aren't officially on their timecard yet? ~ Snorted the masked enemy. ~ Dear child, you were supposed to paint me, that step father you've created as an enemy, because my apprentice…my real goal is to make you see me as the ominous enigma that your friends will soon be chasing after. One year, and this is easy access as it gets. All for you… you already sent me their construction of a T – ship. And… was the empath any trouble? ~

"She's worried, but kind and thoughtful. And, she looks, shy…so no, sir."

~ Anything else? ~

Dick chewed his lip and sat up. He could be judged by his posture. Slade wasn't shutting him down; he didn't have to. He had to tell the man the truth. No matter how much it hurt…

"I…sir, I think that…won't the Titans put together that you're a…. –

~Why would you need to care what they think. They won't know, they won't have to. They want you to trust them. So? ~

Slade leaned into his seat and smirked below his mask at the boy, as his one eye seemed to deem Richard as a diamond in the rough. A clueless one, but still. Willing to do more to please if pushed as far as he had to go.

~ Well? Are you giving me your usual, pouty debriefing look, or is there anything else you'd like to tell your master? ~

"No, no I'd never do that to you…I'm sorry." Dick swallowed, shaking his head nervously. "I just have to turn this around. Keep making you out to….be the bad guy? O…our, enemy?"

~ Robin's. ~ The older male replied. ~ Only, you'll need to see what they can make of a teenaged runaway who's supposedly wanting to become more, altruistic. Suicidal to your Renegade, but well… ~

"Y…then, I have a request sir. I'm sorry, but…I want to know if you can start calling me Robin from now on!" HE hugged his knees, seated on them and bowing his head a bit lower than his neck was capable. "I need to get into better character –

~ Stop. ~ Slade had the newly made hero compose himself in one word. A true mastermind, one that Robin would be forced to take to the highest order in Jump City.

Robin, he swallowed.

"Could –

~Your request is granted…As I assume naturally you will be filling Robin's shoes. ~ Slade languidly looked over to his left side, giving Robin a reason to catch up. ~ You should have some hold over your emotions. Do what I taught you to. Follow up on your friends' little lives and see if they can be bought over…BY your emotions. ~

Dick looked and the man with an incredulous gaze. "You…you want me t –

~ Stop. ~ Slade put up his palm. ~ Let me finish; you are already in bed, sick and on your way to thinking you'll be one of them. If you can dismantle their "lingering" skepticism, that should give you lee way. You were once a bright young performer. This time, there's no reason why you can't do it all again for me, for your future by my side… ~

"I will!" The beaming lad in Dick reemerged as he gripped the sides of his laptop. Bobbing his head, just like a boy getting too much praise. An overdose; provided and paid for by Deathstroke.

"I will, sir. Slade. You won't lose your faith in me, I promi –

~ One last bit of advice, my dear apprentice… ~ Slade again stepped in, ~ NEVER promise something that you aren't willing to keep. This transmission is through. Stay bold, my little mole…burrow deep into their circle, and…Stay. Put. ~

/

After he was laying down again, Robin sat and stared blankly at the wall, the other moving back only when he gave the ok for it to open. In waltzed a princess from the stars, the stars in his eyes widening a bit as Robin whipped away, rehearsed...well, he had to cry… so he thought about his mom. About what could make him a star again to a bunch of teen metas and freaks. He felt like in order to be in, he had to be a freak…too.

"Hey, what's up. Star, right?" He was ridged but casual enough to seem his alter self. Cool headed, careful, but kind…and…. cocky. Robin was a typical child star in his mind.

"On this planet perhaps, yet on my home planet of Tamaran…I was openly called… Koriand'r. It in your language translates to "Starfire."

"Wow, that's really cool." He sat up and smiled to her story. "I've only got the nick name my mom gave me…but, did everyone have other family once too?" If Robin were a bird, his wings would have curled into his body at the intrusive gesture.

Star pushed a strand of striking red hair behind her ear and smiled not as…cheerfully, despite the origin of the question. "We have had many " gnorfka" in our lives and some of us are hoping that in this wide cosmos, that they will someday look back to be proud of us."

Her words sounded sad, homesick even. "If, if I stay and become a Titan, will I ever get to meet any of them. Your family, sometime?"

She eyed him with eyes so wide and expressive. His own false brown touched her own as they met, colliding by one sentence. "Y –YES!" She floated over and clasped her hands in his. His body nearly jerked away, her gaze even brighter while the sun had fallen out his window, the moon being all that stood between them. "You indeed must meet my dear gnorfka, Galfore has raised me since I was very small."

"Is he, your father…" Dick could ask, Robin on the other hand he thought rather darkly, could interrogate her. "He is, likely not." She rubbed her arm, seeing that he was becoming fixed on her past too soon. She had the heightened sense of danger of a young warrior. Wait –

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"This lesson will include knowing your enemies from past, to present. Pay attention, apprentice." Slade used a large monitor and his own staff pointed at the girl on it currently. "Princess Koriand'r of the planet Tamaran. The second eldest of the group known as the Teen Titans. She is currently hiding out on earth after the defeat of the crown by her only sole surviving family member – yet there is rumor of a brother who has yet to be found. Too young to hold a scepter in office. She has kept her identity clsassified to even her teammates; your job in this case will be to expose her as she is. Weak, in need of returning to take back the crown from the ones responsible. She has a sister who is ruthless and rather envious of Kori's rank. Kommand'r, eldest child and someone you should watch your back around if her sights are ever set on Koriand'r."

"She has a long name, and a seat at the throne of another planet, sir?"

"She's likely just using her cover to run away, but my mind has me to wonder if there is another reason for her escape to our planet." Slade moved the screen with a flick as Raven showed up. "Next; Raven or Rachel. Roth. Cambion; half demon by birth to an Arella or Angela Roth and the Demon conqueror Lord Trigon. Has been fleeing her father's threats against she and her family ever since she nearly destroyed the world of Azarath where the monks there had her learn to control her inherited demon hood and magic. You're to be clearly useless in her advances to "check" on you. Under no circumstances is she allowed to use her abilities to unmask our Renegade."

"Yes, sir. She's a threat, but maybe useful."

"Tear her up, or make her see you as an ally. Your pain must match her own, Richard." Slade said softly before swapping the screens. "Third on our list is Victor Stone – A.K.A, Cyborg. His father is a prominent scientist at S.T.A.R labs. When the teen was in a car accident only a few months ago before forming his little team of heroes, the boy's father had he and his wife use their lab to save Victor's life…but at a cost that took the life of that child's own mother. His own father fought over her loss, yet they still talk from time to time as family, will do. He was left in the care unofficially under watch of the JLA. Cyborg can keep you informed yet his strength is something not to fret over. If you can put a bear back into its cave with its tail tucked, your new leader's pride will be nothing once you have their full adoration in your grasp." Slade nodded, Dick doing the same. "Of course, sir. Winning him over won't be that hard. He's a teddy bear to me. Not a grizzly –

"Which, brings us to your very final, adversary…. dear boy. He is the most unpredictable of this pack of misfits." The screen changed again to a teen with green skin, hair and eyes in a purple and black uniform. "Meet lastly, Garfield Logan; X– member of the legendary crime fighting team, the Doom Patrol. Adopted son of Rita Farr and Steve Dayton. Before then he was in the hands of the abusive Nicholas Galtry. Right now, unimportant. His powers came purely by his first life lived. As the only son of two scientists; Mark and Marie Logan, the family went on traveling to Africa to understand their field, or to some to advance on their coveted theory of "reverse evolution."

Dick's head bobbed, interested in where this was all going. "They had the boy with them and in that rare an instance….Young Garfield fell ill with an illness known as Sakutia. The transmission was from the West African green monkey. Seeing the connection, boy?"

"I do, sir. Please, continue."

"As you wish; his father used an untested method that would turn the boy into the VERY thing that had infected his son, but only to kill the virus off and for twenty – four hours. In that time, it took, the serum his father had used to save his child changed the boy into what you see before you. The virus was eradicated, yet the result…a few weeks later, the parents lost both of their lives in a boating accident."

Dick's mouth fell open as he thought about the irony. Karma wasn't real! How…

"They were amateurs and young Garfield was then left to the earlier embezzling idiot who abused his rights as the boy's guardian. Nicholas was cruel, yet when the child was to come of age and inherit his parents' estate, Galtry was in need of some hired hands to take the boy out. That was where the Doom patrol saved the day and Garfield was later known as Beastboy. The press says that their leader Mento drove the boy away and I think that's correct. Beastboy is a seeker of attention like no other. Yet as you see him in this new niche, he's prone to being like the animal that bit him. Territorial, and gorillas can swing hard when provoked. Remember that."

"It's not my place to interrupt sir, but Raven, one question; how did her mom fall in love with an all-powerful… demon?"

/

So, as Slade's little lecture in the beginning had gone:

Raven or Rachel Roth was a product of the rape of Angela Roth by the cult of Blood's god, Trigon the terrible, and her association with the demon had led to Raven being brought into the world to bring abut its destruction. She had been running from that fate and ended up here. Even the JLA had their eye on her powers. Dick hugged his knees to his chest, ironing out the next events for today he'd have to make into his new personal stepping stones.

Koriand'r or Starfire and Princess' currently second if not first in line to the throne of Tamanran. Starfire's older sister Komand'r or Blackfire had struck a deal with the Gordanians and had gotten rid of both her parents whom were…. killed, and had Starfire sold as a slave – they experimented on her powers and she and Blackfire were made as the only two to be able to shook "starbolts" due to the incident. Her energy was from the sun, so the moon only made a mild difference since its glow was from the same ball of gas. The Citadel was a place she was headed to upon her capture, and even Blackfire was double crossed while the Tamaran council had the planet up in arms for years after. It was no wonder she seemed to find joy in everything else – because the Citadel was a place where she'd have been made to fight in a ring for some upper-class aliens and passed around like an object to the highest bidder….

A cold guilt flooded Dick's senses as she only filled them till he had to stop gagging on the…what was it? He wasn't going to need to care, right?

Oh, ok. Next was Victor Stone, Cyborg. The leader, huh? "I wonder if they hold elections one in…." Robin wondered about how Cy viewed himself. He had to be with some loose spots to unscrew. He was smart, but Robin could be clever. Even if he wasn't a bat clone or a spoiled rich brat all the time.

Garfield and the Doom Patrol. They were wild from their bio, he chuckled. Bb sure fit in fine, he bet. What would win over a hulking ape like that…

The clock read nine and Robin stretched out his arms with a wide yawn. He was hungry, and Slade told him that he'd be feeling better in no time. He grinned and then remembered that he was supposed to be…a hero…

He groaned and looked at the red hoodie. Today, he could look into the past for one more lesson. In how to wow a crowd, with style and poise. "I guess you being dead is, kind of the push I did need to get what I wanted….Thanks." He got up and wondered if his mom was anywhere in the astral plane – tutting his logic as she drifted endlessly into nothing.

He for sure didn't feel like nothing so Robin had a plan. His old costume in his mind needed a makeover. Even so, he'd always be a perfect star. The last, flying Grayson.

With a list made up, he took his time and went to find Cy. He could ask the man a few things after he'd just touched on a topic Star would find at awkward. He'd let her cool off. Then? Today?

Robin, would be born and not have to go back into hiding. He was here to stay.

One year, the clock ticked. The calendar said.

Just one year, and he'd be called Wilson, from this time onward.