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

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DARING TO DREAM OF A MEMORY

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Cut scene I found from Pandora Arc series I'm still doing. This was never used I think, unless this isn't so let me know!!

Takes place after Dick would have returned to the haunt, but instead he's dreaming that he went back on his own and wasn't carried to the manor to heal by Bruce. This is a dream, not a reality to him.

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Dick sneaked back into the warehouse that was above one entrance to Slade's supposed base, underground. He was looking like shit. Eyes red from fighting back sniffles, reeking of weed and worst of all. He had indulged on something not cooked by Slade or Wintergreen.

Dick was so close to being thrown in solitary as he felt his hands to his face, wondering if he wasn't even done. What if Slade had wanted some physical memento of the boy's work? What if this were a test and he'd lost his chance to redo his exam –

A rolling set if gears had the boy look as steam poured in, while the floor dropped to reveal a set of Slade bots with Dick's supposed butler.

"Come, boy. Your master is most displeased in your tardiness to show up on time." He looked at the wall instead of facing the child, turning his head as if to view an invisible clock on that plate of metal underneath the city.

"I, got lost."

Wintergreen di not discuss anything as they made their way to the main platform. Beside the mucus and pot smell, he was afraid. So terribly hurt that Roy did care and he'd lose his trust by not fighting back.

Slade was up by the screens, viewing his little tryst and sighing to himself. " My apprentice, you've made me very displeased. And, quite concerned as well."

" Sir, he's not a real threat –

" Teenagers grow up to surpass their mentorship eventually. He made his choice to fall behind. I won't let the same become of MY protégé." Slade slipped to turn and face the boy with his legs in a pose of power, arms behind his back as he viewed Dick as nothing maybe, something smaller than his greatest gift of all.

" He was….not afraid of me."

" Of course not. You're still to be pitied. Will, might you give us a second to reconvene?"

" Of course, sir. As usual, the bandages and supplies you'll require will be at the ready."

" Very good."

This was his punishment as Dick tensed up for a fight.

Will left the two in the room of beeping gadgets and grinding gears. Their hollow echoed made his head ache, that and the steam.

" Now, then. Come. I think it high time you understand your part in what wasn't completed tonight –

" I had –

Slade turned his head as Dick shut his jaw.

" Better, come."

Dick was shaking a bit as his feverish nerves had a point. Just one. Like Slade doing what he had to the boy already. Making it ache. Doing….that. Maybe there was a weapon in the room his brain could latch to. Or, or…the pot would numb the pain if Slade grew too upset over this outcome.

It wasn't a true opiate, so this was indeed a conundrum as the boy traveled through the haunt towards a door that looked brand new to his eyes. " In."

Dick reluctantly stepped closer as Slade was behind, keeping their movements as hurried as his desire to tear into the kid's already mangled ego.

In the room, it was….

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"Master Bruce. Master Richard's vitals have taken a toll due to his condition…"

His brows knit shut as Bruce wanted to head over, yet he was still seeing if they were safe to proceed from the bat cave. " Keep him steady for me, Alfred-

~ I insist you put your mind elsewhere and reclaim your son as he needs it. Not for only yourself, Master Bruce.~

Bruce tightened his jaw as he looked to see that Jason was right outside the cave entrance. He let the latch open, seeing the kid needed a bit of time with the only other orphan helices Dick in the manor this late at night. " Couldn't sleep, B."

"Jason." In his large cowl, he looked more a druidic knight than a shaman all in his steady face and name. " Would you, like to monitor the computer for a bit, if that would help?"

It was a bad idea, automatic drones would see to it if he fell asleep, yet Jason leaped at the chance to make a change. " S – sure! When can I start, boss?"

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Dreams are such fragile things. By their nature, they are fleeting; having one stoke the fire of human consciousness to even exist on the plane of imagination and the nearly possible, could it be an improbable factor to return one's childhood through dreams and through one's memory? Is the pattern of life not all just fleeting yet evolving in how we may process time, the illusion of aging and our perception of all things great. Some, not so.

Dick remembered a memory that fleeting. In fact, he wanted to cling to it and not let go.

It was his mother, a time when he was young and cheerful but also naïve to the world of good, evil and in between.

Hos mom had said to not wander far out into the water on a hot summer day by the shore. This was from what he recalled, Australia and an international setting that Dick at age seven, would always remember.

He had dealt with death in many ways as an aerialist. His father was a tough but fair teacher as Dick grew to love the air as much as they did. But…

Under water, it was simply too thick to see. The pull of the tide beckoned as he was dragged further out, longer and longer from the shore. He didn't hear them calling, only that the sun was further off. If he could build and learn to paddle back –

He turned then to find himself stranded with his stupid flotation vest and yelling, he called to his mother.

" Mommy!! Help!! I can't see you…!"

" Dick??~

She was so far, he tried to go back, yet the waves were so strong. What he remembered was a boat heading his way and a scare when someone shot off a flare to scare something at his foot.

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Slade in his dreams was like that current. Pulling him, down.

Down further as his friends and family kept calling out. Who was that, who was calling to him in his dreams?...

……..

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" He's alright, again. Thank God of that…." Alfred wiped his brow as Dick's hand grasped in his sleep the one person by his bedside. " Master Bruce, should I stay or leave you both?"

" For a bit, just…be close enough. Jason needs a reminder that he's on watch today." Bruce stuffed as he put a hand to Dick's temple. " His fever is gone. Just the rain I wonder…"

" Very good, then I shall be in the kitchen preparing tea for this evening. It is well needed, even for yourself, sir?"

" I'll take a spot." Bruce tried to smile up at the man, yet his son was at peace for a small while. He was afraid to look away and lose him again.

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When Dick rose in the real world after the episode of vomiting in front of Slade's smug face, he had to not cry about it. He was quiet. Stupidly, he just did what it took to keep them breathing as per his usual commands.

Slade liked to tear him down, but right now was a quiet time to stand away as the boy lived with an I.V tucked neatly and taped under the skin, pulling blood from a vein that was always at the ready. Always for the master, always for Mr. Slade….

He'd had a chair to the side of the medical room. Dick was holding his all to stay conscious. " Rest. It's too soon to get up. You're being fed the proper nutrients; recover and then give me your whole story."

The boy's eyes fell shut as he bearing let them. The shuffle of a seat moving along the metal and stone, a man's boots in his wake as a gloved hand…

No.

Un…

No gloves?

" Rest, you'll be fine, my apprentice."

He pushed hair from his eyes as Dick bit back his sobs for later.

~ You…raped me, you bastard. You took my life away. My dreams. Why would this hand be anything but another chain to me? Why anyone else but you?~

It's what he believed. How he fought in his own mind, yet in that mind outside of it, the key hummed to itself. Knowing. Watching and waiting.

~ I can help you break your chains, if you wish to spill his blood. Make it so I may freely have your word that we are bonded. Then, only then…~

Death, Slade….by some alternate way , he could die. Was that why it was taunting him with a carrot so fat?

~ Rest…~

All of the voices in his head, his memories and his dreams, all aligned to make the boy sleep. For another day, that would dawn with the outcome of another life lost to a Renegade.

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This was….not really R rated, but the Pandora arc is, cause Slade assaulted Richard to show his power over him. So….next up will be less crappy. It involves a late pagan Ostara thing. Find out!