Our Time in Reverse – What it Takes

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Chapter 52: Banished Senses

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Working on a torture here since Robin has to go to his lowered sense of self to open up, but how low are we talking? And what about the Bat's probes with the Titans? Find out!

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Dick was good, right? He'd done everything up to this point. Even his seat. If He'd just said yes –

"STUPID…. STUPID!" He hit his now bruised skull to the solid wall as a groan popped out, and with it, a screen in the wall appeared. He shuffled back, dirty. Having relieved himself in a bucket in the corner of the room. He didn't have the luxury of sleep while the pain had driven him to crawl into a ball on the cold back wall of this metal freezer. It was cold, but he had his clothing. Slade was trying to get him to say yes, he shifted.

To killing, no hesitating to kill…. children, like himself.

He put his hands over his ears as Slade's face cane on. Masked, making the boy stare up bleary and bloodshot.

~ This is for your disobedience, Richard. Renegade would have handled their deaths much better, yet when will you finally understand what I expect, I your law. My expectations of you should not be thrown aside. ~

The boy did look past the tears as Slade eyed his precariously. He was not to be understood , only ordered around. Doing what this man said. He'd made that clear by asking the flipping psycho to be…

His own father, was never like that. Bruce…Bruce was….

NOT. Dick rose and his lips moved while he felt so out of his own body, put of his mind as Renegade could handle anything with a grin.

"Master…your work isn't finished. I'm sorry, truly. If you'd allow for me to make it up to you. To go along with making me more like you…. sir?"

Slade almost jumped as Will right beside him im the main room had nothing to hide. "Demented…what…"

~ I'M going to make well on my promises, Renegade. You, your acts of insolent behavior have made me wonder if you are telling the truth. I saw her, the alien girl. Starfire. She's pretty, yet inferior to us. You know that, my boy. That she has to perish for our ideal conquest to happen. ~

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The kid did twitch right in the shoulder, until Slade tried something. "Robin, are you still her hero?"

Dick moved as if possessed before shaking his head, eyes changing to something with a rage. A fire. It was…. true, then.

Split personalities.

"What are you now? Renegade or –

~I'm not a killer or your puppet, Slade. The titans will figure out that I'm not yours. ~ The boy snarled back; fists pumped as if he could fight the screen one on one.

"Richard, I care deeply about your wellbeing…why don't you say something, hum?"

Will gave the man a look of disbelief, yet not until a small voice crept up onto the screens, confirming Slade's suspicions all along.

~ Master, I'm…. I'm sorry! I still want our promise to happen…please, you like me too, right? I can try to…but it hurts…why does it hurt??~

"The serum did this, Slade!"

Slade was calm though, even overjoyed that hd was still going to go through with splitting away from Robin even further. ~ We'll set up the medical bay to prep you for the last and final dose. It is going to hurt, dear child. Yet, I'm right here.~

The kid relaxed, sighing as tears filled his eyes as he shook those away on the cold ground. "M…aster…you, you do care about me, right? I'll stop hurting again? For you? For, us?"

Slade nodded, not trying to say he'd survive if this was only a fluke. Not meant to be, science would somehow determine the outcome. ~ This conditioning is needed beforehand. You were too upset, so you were put in a time out. If you were unhappy during the process, you might not have lasted. Be good and don't cry anymore, Richard. I'm not going anywhere, like I said. I will come to collect you, once a task has been performed."

"Task…what kind, sir? The Tita –

Dick gripped his skull as he shouted out. Robin's fire was there and Slade squinted back at this challenge he was faced with. Taming three wild lions on his own.

"Don…don't hurt them! You psychopath! I'll come and set them loose, I know the codes! Watch your –

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Starfire knew she'd done badly. Beastboy was curled up onto her lap while Cy was with a mentally broken down construct of Terra; Raven healed up any marks Starfire may have earned when Slade had captured her, yet emotional wounds were deeper than she knee to fight toolbars erasing in the alien. They were left, as Starfire's heart was unable to decide for itself, her mind told her with heart that Robin was not all bad. Beastboy was not so sure, yet Raven believed her. "He was trained to never think of people like us, as better. Only the enemy. Slade –

"A Rutha, man." Starfire growled. "He, he enslaved our friend even before we had met – he will do something terrible if we cannot remove them in the time!"

The…

Raven put a hand to her own neck as Bb got up, fur standing upright. "He's gonna go and kill us all??" Gar gasped, heart beating out of his chest, dramatically. "You…you shouldn't have made him want to –

"He said "if we were in their way, he and our Robin."

~ NOT A ROBIN.~

The screen behind them in the common room lit up to show Jason tending to his recovering ally, Batgirl. ~ Yo, these are the Titans. Sweet! I'm -

~ Not talking before I do.~ Jason cut her off. ~ Listen. That serum Slade wants to use isn't going to leave your "Robin" whole if he says ok to the last injection. The readings showed eighty percent of his body was effectively swapped, including his brain. Don't ask. The computer is magic. ~

~ That serum us dangerous; Dick could end up mentally unstable, suicidal. ~ Bruce added as his arm was swung to his ribs. ~ Back from Penguin's head-butting sessions, B?~ Batgirl wondered. ~ That was fast, here. Al is making supper. I'll handle the gauze. ~

~ We're stuck here because of some pact that Slade over there made to keep us grounded. Apparently, all of Gotham's underworld is in on it; they even put up defenses that shut down emps.~

"That's why we can't call you guys. Star! You know, you saw Slade –

~ You, what??~ Bruce threw himself over the dashboard. ~ Tell me what exactly it was that you saw. No pauses. ~

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Starfire explained his face, the eye patch and how he didn't hide that he had wanted the heroes to discover Richard's ruse to have him, try to kill them as a testimony to the boy's master. How Slade had threatened and belittled the princess, staying she was so many vile things before letting her go. She'd been injected to go unconscious, then dropped off where Raven had located her right away. ~ Did he, I dunno…leave any messages? Hints? ~ Jason asked as Bruce was still thinking.

~He showed you his face, with and without the mask to strike fear. If you saw him with his other guise when he came to that city, you should know he's no stranger to espionage tactics. Slade Wilson's serum makes him definitely harder to face one on one, yet what about the detonator? The probes, he threatened to use them if you got in the way of his plans.~

"To change your son, Richard Grayson into him, basically." Raven put her hood down and furrowed her brows a bit. "I saw a dream vision where Slade was holding the hand of a boy, who looked just like Richard as a young child. He was giving his soul up to a demon, and for that, I wonder –

~ Not important this second, yet if Slade had some sort of mission for Richard, the heist was to finish his project. The devices stolen are for the detonation device. He had to add something, maybe create a reverse effect with the power sources Richard stole. ~

"Dick, is being a real jealous right now, but why?"

~ He was trapped this way since I lost him…~ Bruce said with a frown under the cowl. Without it, he was simply a tired man looking for his first adopted son to come home. "Slade took Richard out of your protection, then he was made to think Slade has any desire to be that same figure you, never had the chance to be…" Raven read as Bruce weakly smiled at her. ~ Pretty good deduction, Raven. Yes. Yet Slade orchestrated everything from the shot fired, to Tony Zucco, the man who had killed Dick's real parents – he pulled him out of hiding, and I fell for it as well. Dick hates me because, I was too busy making things easier to nab Zucco for his crimes.~ The bat told the Titans. ~ He wanted me, and I had to push away every instance he wanted to bond – you see, I also lost my parents to a shooting event. That's how this cane to become my calling, yet at that thought I didn't want Dick to seek vengeance as I almost had. I knew, that if he were safe and out of the gunfire for just a while longer…~

~B, I think we get it. ~ Babs sighed and wrapped the wound a bit tighter to snap Bruce out of his guilt trip down memory lane. ~ We were all affected in some way or another so that's why we chose to, well, my dad us still around. Jason's is in rehab. ~

"Sheesh…" Bb rubbed his neck as Raven drank in this information to archive if they needed it. "You're really the good guys, huh?"

~ No, duh. But my brother is about to kill you if you don't stop the prep for his last shot. We got a lock after B fell; he put a tracker on one bot and it led him to a manhole cover –

"SEWERS? AGAIN??"

~ Flipping listen, toad! Batman deactivated his probes; we know how to do that for you. Is Cy still building the sweeper? ~

"It needs to go through testing –

~ Raven, you need to try. Even one person saved is enough to get into that lab and stop what Deathstroke wants for my ward. If you can shut off the disruption devices, I can help with anything else. Green Lantern can be there with The Flash to aid your teammates in stopping the time freeze that Slade wants. He'd have not only a cleaner getaway, but no one to stop him from taking over all of Jump City. ~

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"Will." Slade pulled up his china cup to his lips, smashing his thoughts instead of it, as Slade had Wintergreen attend to him while the boy was tied down, the device for the probes at one touch of the wrist. "Send out scouts to throw them off our trail when they've gotten too close. The bat was quicker." He put down his cup and saucer to chuckle. "I have to hand it to that hypocritical rodent. It's been a long time since I've been outdone by his antics. Good times, then. The boy's going to need my attention, right?"

"Sir, the child is raving that you are not being…. you, and it worries me dearly, Slade." The old ally struggled to find the words. "The boy's lesson might be, harsh….he's structured to fall to pieces with one more –

"I will tell you both how it ends, Will. He's so close! I'm glad to reveal also that I fixed what drove many mad during the process." Grinned the feral mad mercenary. "Took years while that little circus brat was clinging to my arm. All tested, years since he decided to work for me officially. Do you remember that time at the lodge? He went upstairs from a belly ache? Another dose."

Will recalled it. The kid was green as a woodland deity shrouded in moss. "Then, the second and third, how many?"

"Eight." Slade held up his fingers to say. "Once at twelve. Two times at thirteen. Two more times at fourteen, and three this year, from the tomes he was sent back. This, will be the last and final time. Number lucky nine."

"You took dozens!" Will exclaimed, highly paranoid by the subjective wording that Slade chose to throw the codger's way. "That is a double dose of everything in one go! How is that alright in the least? That boy is suffering from an overdose that even YOU were well aware of –

"Side effects." Slade said. "The manoa, the depression, even the split personalities are perfect for his cover. If we can keep the suicide down to a –

"WILSON." Will stood back. "You're going too far!"

"I'evenly gone so far as to almost lose to the dark knight, which you aided me in doing yo defeat hum! Will, you are as guilty if not worse." Sneered the merc. "I saved your ass then, I can do it again if you'd only shut up. And stand, in attention."

"No." Will moved away, his stance as any soldier speaking against a superior. "I've had just about enough of this…this, false diagnosis of yours. Slade Wilson? Consider my services –

"Terminated."

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Slade waited for his body to quit shaking. He…he set the boys to kill….

Sitting up, then lumbering over to his dead friend, the pool of blood was a shot to the temple. Will had been the one to say he never wanted to have the serum. That if he died…

"Burn it, dispose of it." Slade snarled to the robots as they took their verbal commands well enough.

This time was over. Whatever was happening now, he had to end it. Soon.

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So, everyone is mad as hatters in this. Noted, only the Titans are innocent. Minus Bb trying to play nice. The next part will revolve around a plan after the signal in the city us pushed down by some teamwork, and unlike Torn Legacy, Terra is a mess and possibly as bad as in the comics, and the probes are going to have another action. Find out!