Author: Here's a short little drabble of what it would be like for Robin to submit to the greater force.. if a bit coldly. Slade has won.. and Robin hates knowing that. Just a lengthy one-shot. Enjoy. c:

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans nor anything that revolves in the world and universe of DC Comics. That'd be cool if I did. :P

The haunt spread out before him, a trap, a hole, a cage, a morgue. It was HIS home, HIS place of solace and comfort, HIS place of planning and hiding.. and they all knew that.. Just as the tower was theirs.

Yes, the large letter-shaped tower that stood tall and proud in the bay on an island, overlooking the city like a protector and guardian.. like an angel. For years they called it home, a base to work and sleep at, to communicate and hide their secrets. A place to call their own.

Yet even against all odds that tower faced as much damage as they did and many times over they had to take time to give it tender care. Sometimes they all returned home.. others only a few.. and rarely none.

Their job required late nights out in the streets and evenings spent fighting villains and cleaning up messing they made. The people respected them.. yet hated them. Just like Batman in Gotham. Like Superman in Metropolis.

They were heroes. Super heroes. They were the Teen Titans.

They had a lot of enemies. Blackfire, Brother Blood, Kitten, Kyd Wykkyd, H.I.V.E. Five, Red X, Trigon, Mad Mod, See-More, Malchior, Killer Moth, Billy Numerous, Atlas, Adonis, Cheshire, Madame Rouge, Mammoth, Monsieur Mallah, The Brain, Control Freak, Cinderblock, Plasmus, Mumbo, Doctor Light, Warp, Puppet King, Johnny Rancid.. and the worst of them all.. Slade.

The reason Robin pushed so hard was because of that vile, clever man.

He recalled sharply how Slade had tricked the Titans, separating them from their leader. He went after Slade while they went after the machine that actually placed nanoscopic probes into his team mates. He was forced to become the man's apprentice, something he had been searching for and had stalked Robin when he saw potential in him, and was made to fight his own team, who thought him a traitor. After days of being under the man's control he had finally broken free when he put probes into himself, via the beam, and Slade would not kill him, he was too valuable. They fought and later the probes were removed once they had all gotten away.

He hated that memory.. of the power Slade had held over him for that short period. He hated it. Things began to look up from then, after much apologizing and time healed the team.. until Terra came along. Finding out the woman was in league with Slade shattered Beast Boy, who had fallen for her, and eventually she, too, broke away from the man's grasp. He thought that was the end of him, that the volcanic liquid had killed him.

He was wrong. He came back as Trigon's servant and manipulated Raven into the end of the world, freeing her father. It took time but he was also defeated. Slade got away.

Robin thought he'd never see the man again.. but, oh, how he was wrong again. He sent a video message to Robin telling him to come to the Haunt, he had something to show him. Robin thought his friends were back home so he figured he'd go take down Slade.

What a treat he found.

The door brushed open beneath his fingertips, obviously left unlocked and partially open for the teen. He stepped inside, closing the door quietly and gently. He reached to his belt for his Bo-staff and walked down into the main 'lobby' of the building. The screens were dark, the room repaired. An older man in a suit was setting a tray of tea onto a table by the tall single chair and he spared Robin a glance before turning and leaving.

He turned to look at the screens as white flickering light filled the room from them. Slade stood at the base, a controller in his gloved hand. He was in his full armored outfit, his one eyed mask as two-toned as it was when he last saw it. That cool blue-grey eye focused on him and he glared with his masked eyes.

"Robin." The man's deep, yet soft voice echoed with a false warmth. "How nice to see you again. I was thinking we'd never have the chance to.. talk with all that's been happening lately."

Clearly he was talking about all the fights lately. Things were rather busy lately.

"Would you like some tea?"

He brushed aside the man's words and said in his own civil, cold and demanding voice. "Slade. I thought you'd learn to stay dead."

The man chuckled lightly. "You should be aware by now how difficult I am to kill." Robin got the impression the man was smiling underneath the mask. "I have something you will be very interested to see. Hm.. shall I show you?"

Robin's eyes narrowed and suspicion grew inside of him, his chest tensing and aching. "What?" Robin snapped.

Slade half turned, aiming the device at the screens, pressing a button. They flashed from white to a wide room that had a grey ceiling, floors and walls, clearly concrete. His eyes narrowed further as they honed in on the four shapes spaced out in the farthest wall, seated with their backs against it. He noticed the chains.. and then just who the people were.

Anger bristled in him, a deep throbbing feeling that caused his body to quiver. Slade had come back, whisked away his friends to a lair he knew not of and trapped them, his friends powerless.

"You monster! Where are they?" He fought back the urge to rush forward and ring the man's neck until he gave up his secret.

Slade turned, a low chuckle following as he folded his hands behind his back in that eerie, I'm-studying-you manner that Robin disliked. "Now, now. You don't really expect me to answer that, do you?" His single eyes thinned. "Why would I go through all the trouble of capturing them just to tell you where they are? Besides, even if I did you'd never find them."

His laugh became louder, echoing and Robin hated every second of it. "You.. Why do you have my team, Slade?" Robin clenched his teeth and grit the words out. He already knew. Slade was still wanting an apprentice.. and he might just get one. Robin didn't think he'd have it in him to fight back this time, not as feverishly as last time, but he wasn't going to tell Slade that. No, the man would use that to his advantage.

He could hear the smile in Slade's voice and his cheery tone. "Why, Robin! I thought you'd have figured it out. My, you're slipping. I want you, Robin. I've always wanted you."

Robin peered down at his feet, fist clenched, the Bo-staff ready for use if the need arose. "Why are you so insistent on having me?"

"We've been over this before. You're what I'm looking for, have been searching for years to obtain. You have so much potential, misguided perhaps, yet such talent, but under my teaching you'd become someone that people would respect and fear. You'd be able to save more lives, if you saw fit to continue such a futile choice-"

Robin cut him off, snarling. "And at a very high price. You demand full submission, you'd make me a thief, a murderer.. and by the time your 'training' got done people would no longer see me as a hero.. no, they'd see me as a killer, a villain.. and then it'd be too late. I'd be in too deep to stop.. I'd lose myself.. and THAT is why I reject your 'offer'. Your wanting me to be your apprentice would change me and that I cannot allow." He slashed a hand through the air, his free one, before clenching it, shaking it at Slade. "I will not become a monster like you, one who seeks only to further his own end, without a care for those around him." He lowered his arm to his side, his knuckles whitening from the grip of which he held them.

One could almost say the expression Robin showed was of utter hatred, a look that should have never made a home on his face and yet there it was, free and visible for all to see- Slade, specifically, since he was the only other person in the room.

"Robin.. Robin.. you act like you have a choice.. this time.. will be different." The masked villain gestured his unused hand up toward the screen behind him. "For each time you disobey me.. disrespect me.. ignore me.. THEY are the ones who will suffer.. not you. You see Robin.. you don't have a choice. Your friends lives hang in the balance.. as does your conscious." Another low chuckle rumbled from the man as he lowered the hand to interlock it with the other at his back, tilting his head slightly to the right.

The hatred suddenly evaporated from Robin as his blood ran cold, his skin paling. Even the hold on his staff loosened and his arms hung slack against his side. He felt numb. Slade was going to.. hurt them to break him? Slade had him.. and he knew it. Robin hung his head as a deep sigh slithered from his parted lips. He felt his left eye twitch as he grumbled a curse (not particularly a foul word, just one of those childish curses that teenagers seem to mutter) before he inhaled sharply, raising his head back up to meet Slade's singular gaze, which was locked on him.

"Well, Robin? What's it going to be?"

Robin considered his options. Even if he got away, defeated Slade.. how would he find his friends? WHERE were they? Nothing Slade said gave any indication about their location.. he was outsmarted.. and outdone, just as last time, though that time he had found a way to counter it against Slade. This was different as the man said. There was no nanoscopic probes, no body controlling suit like Terra had. This was simple submission to save his friends from being starved.. or beaten, wherever they were. He glanced to the side, deep in thought about the matter.

Slade could see the gears turning in the boy's head and knew he was thinking over the situation he had been forced into. Slade knew he would win.. it was just a question of when. He could see the boy's resolve weakening, his will thinning, his self preservation dwindling.. the need to save his friends heightening. He wouldn't break.. no, not this early.. but he would see that he had been beaten.

With a final aggravated sigh Robin turned his head back to face Slade, his expression as blank as he could muster. He was hiding the complete and utter anger he felt, the pain radiating in his chest in an agonizing burn.

"You win." He whispered softly, feeling all the emotions leave him as he muttered that single sentence. He cast his gaze down, all the while a simple emotion crushed his chest; defeat.. It wounded his pride and shattered him like glittering glass.

"What? You have to speak up Robin. I can't hear you." Of course it was like Slade to rub it in his face by making him repeat it.. That feeling of defeat turned to a dull numbness that filled his entire being, all the way to the core.

"You win." He said louder, his voice echoing barely. "Are you happy?"

Slade smiled beneath his mask, satisfaction blossoming in his chest. Yes, of course he had won, but hearing the boy say it made him feel like he had accomplished a great feat; indeed he had. "Good, Robin. Acceptance is the first step to your new future." Slade said in a soft purr.

Robin hung his head again in shame. He'd given Slade exactly what he wanted.. so much for being as defiant as he could. He really was weak, to just.. give in. The Titans would be disappointed in him, severely. Would Slade ever let them go.. or were they also prisoners of this vile man? He was so entranced by his thoughts that he didn't realize Slade had closed the distance between them and was tipping his chin up with a gloved hand, forcing him to look at him.

His eyes focused on that single eye and he put as much anger into his glare as he could.. but it felt pointless. The man knew he hated him with every fiber of his person. "Robin.. from now on we're going to try something different from last time. Instead of master.. you shall call me father."

Robin's eyes widened and he felt a cold wave of surprise flood him. Father? Why? He vocalized this, his chin shifting on the finger that held it up. "Why should I call you a title reserved for an actual parent? You are not my father.." He hissed the words, but there was no anger in them.. just confusion.

"Mmm, that's right.. your father died.. in a trapeze accident, along with your mother." At this Robin's eyes widened further. How did.. he know this? "Oh, yes.. I'm aware of your history.. how the crime-lord Tony Zucco cut the wire that sent your parents falling to their death. They were murdered.. and you never gave them the honor of being revenged.. what a lovely son.. Richard Grayson." His blood froze over.

A deep snarl ripped from Robin's throat and he glared harder at the man. "I do not sink to the level of scum like him. He got what was coming to him. We put him behind bars, where he belongs." He answered in a relatively low voice. "And where YOU belong."

Slade snorted. "Yet I'm here, free to do as I wish. Glad of you to do your job, Wonder Boy." Robin clenched his fists before anger took hold; he found himself pulling away from the hand, one of his own flying forth to punch that stupid mask off the man's face. A dream it was, merely a delusion as the hand was caught in mid-air and he was spun, the arm pressed against his back, another hand clutching the opposite shoulder, squeezing, holding him in place. A whisper in his ear made him stop struggling, no matter the amount of pain. "Temper, Robin.. you're becoming too much like me with such ferocious tactics. I'm proud."

This gave pause to the boy, who was still trying to figure out how to escape this nightmare he was in.

Slade pushed him away and he nursed his throbbing wrist with his other hand, his shoulder pulsing from that stone grip.

"You don't deserve to be called father. That's a title that's earned, not forced." Robin spat bitterly, causing the older man to laugh.

"You'll warm up in time, my boy. Now! Let's get you out of those clothes and into your uniform- don't give me that scowl. It doesn't suit you." Slade scolded in a soft voice that strangely tickled Robin's stomach in an uneasy way, obviously one of discomfort.

He was trapped.. like a mouse in a cage.. and he had the sinking feeling that with time he would indeed warm up.. and that thought scared him more than threats, bruises, broken bones and violence. It was the dread of full submission.

Author's Note: Hope you liked it, it was swimming in my head all day and most of the prior night so I finally decided to get it out. Thanks for reading. I might do other one-shots of the pair in the future.