Three Way Mirror

Written By: Teno Hikari

Summary: Takes place in the 'Aftershock' episodes. Slade has taken over the city, and all the Teen Titans, except Robin, has fallen. Can the boy wonder stop Slade alone? Or will Terra clip his wings? (Slade/Robin) (Robin/Terra)

Disclaimer: If I owned "Teen Titans" the animated series... I would have brought Slade back.

Warning: Spoilers for the show - at least for the 2 seasons. Slash, Yaoi, M/M pairings. Adult situations. Mature readers only.

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Chapter Ten

As a crime fighter, the Boy Wonder had often depended on his instincts and reflexes in any type of stressful situation. They could all go to hell right about now. Robin couldn't really explain what was going on in his head when he pulled Terra close. It was like a knee jerk reaction. She had hit a nerve, and he kicked out.

Or at least he wished he had.

Instead of pushing the blonde away, he had shut her up effectively by placing his mouth over hers. Such an assault on one's lips, he knew, was called a kiss. Robin had never kissed anyone in such a manner (The closest had actually been on the prom date with Kitten - Killer Moth's spawn of evil - and he was STILL repressing those memories). Not just anyone, Terra of all people. Why, in the name of all that was reasonable, did he choose to lip lock with her?

The fall, Robin wanted to believe, had to have been the cause. At some point he must have hit his head. Weird... because he didn't feel concussed. The Titan didn't know what he felt except the confusion for his own actions. Finally, he broke away for air and released the girl who staggered backwards.

'He kissed me.'

Terra instantly slapped a hand over her lips as if his mouth had scalded them. Her features were unreadable... but there was definitely shock there. Or maybe it was from the fear that boy would kiss her again. Hmm... would that be a bad thing?

"W-W-What?" she managed to utter behind her fingers.

He honestly didn't know if he could answer; for Robin didn't know it himself. What he did know, was that it wasn't a sign of affection. Of course not, this was the girl who betrayed his team and helped their enemy annihilate them.

She was everything he could have been; had he not made the right choice back then. Robin knew that if he had persisted in the path Terra was treading, it would have led him to the same conclusion. Being Slade's Apprentice would have carved anyone's soul out, leaving them bitter and empty.

Instead of responding to her question, the young man just turned and sat back down while she just continued to stare at him. "Listen Terra," he said at last, breaking the silence. "Just listen to what I have to say. After that, you can do whatever the hell you want."

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"I don't know which one of us has the most screws loose," Gizmo muttered under his breath while staring at his team mates walking ahead of him. "Jinx for coming up with these crazy ideas, Mammoth for always falling for everything she says, or me for actually going through with your scatter brain plan."

Mammoth rolled his eyes while holding one of those fancy speed boats - which surely weighed more than a small truck - over his shoulders. Anchor included. This was not at all considered unusual among his peers.

Both the giant and the sorceress just chose to tune their team mate out, knowing full well that if Gizmo really didn't want to go through with this, he would have ditched them by now. They were mercenaries after all. Once a job was done they moved on with no strings attached to their previous commitment.

But Gizmo was weird like that. Maybe that was why he had been at that 'Tournament of Heros' event that Robin mentioned. Glancing over at the midget who had finally stopped complaining, Jinx couldn't help but grin. The foul mouth little boy just couldn't admit that he was a nice guy.

Beady little black eyes quickly locked onto her own and Gizmo blinked in confusion.

"What're you looking at?"

Normally the sorceress would have looked away as a response but her smirk widened like a Cheshire cat's. "You have a leech hanging on the back of your head."

At that, the boy's eyes widened in terror and began to smack himself to get the invisible blood sucking pest off. She did her best to stifle some giggles at her comrade's antics. Back in the HIVE Academy, people would get annoyed with Gizmo and his bragging. So she simply told him how certain bugs could crawl into a person's ear and eat their brains out. Gizmo skeptical at first, but with a couple of pranks here and there - he freaked out and ran screaming trying to swat the non-existent critters off him. His reactions never ceased to amuse her as he past in past them, slapping the back of his bald head.

Mammoth shot her a weary glance, a Gizmo with a screw loose was the last thing they needed. Jinx just shrugged a little and grinned.

"I needed that."

By the time they arrived at the harbor, the hysterical little evil genius had managed to calm down. Now all Mammoth had to do was lower the boat into the water and prevent Gizmo from drowning Jinx in the process. Easy as cake... wait that didn't sound right.

"Down you go," he grunted and dropping the boat into the water. A loud splash followed, soaking both the teenage witch and their mad midget companion. It had easily extinguished their little squabble. Before Gizmo could scream at his incompetence after coughing up sea water, a figure surfaced before them.

"What's the big idea? Who carelessly tosses a boat like that?"

The three HIVE mercenaries just stared in confusion as the young man, accompanied by two dolphins carefully approached them. He stared at each of them until his pupil-less gaze settled on the shortest member of their team. Gizmo snorted, recognizing the newcomer immediately, and stepped forward.

"Long time no see, Lilypad."

In annoyance, the sub-mariner splashed him with a small wave.

"It's Aqualad."

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From a short distance, Slade watched the fight between the two teenagers with interest. Perched up on a telephone pole, the masked man could see them clearly from where they fought a couple yards from shore. They both seemed unconcerned with the crashing waves around their ankles along with the remaining debris that didn't sink into the ocean.

Momentarily turning his attention away from the dueling children, he settled his gaze to where the bridge had once stood. Indeed it was a set back, but only a minor one. It was an unpleasant and unwelcome surprise. He had underestimated his opponent again. Believing he had the Boy Wonder where he wanted him. Slade never expected that the youth would actually team up with former enemies. Nor did he expect Robin to risk his life to help them.

Slade turned his glare back onto the masked boy. He was going to have to break his past apprentice of such selfless habits. Even if he had to break Robin in the process.

The sudden cry of pain wrenched from his apprentice, caused Slade to turn his attention back to the death match that was coming to an end.

Terra groaned as she was forced to her knees on ground, arms yanked painfully behind her back and held there. She leaned forward a little bit, and let drenched blonde hair fall around her face like a curtain. From the corner of her eye, she was able to have small peak over to her left and absently wiggled her fingers before trying once again to break free.

She curled her hands into tightly clenched fists and felt the familiar surge of her powers flooding back. An amber glow began to form between them, only to be shortly extinguished as she felt something sharp was held to her throat. Somehow he had managed to pick up a piece of one of his broken boomerangs, ready to use it to take her life if needed. Terra's blue eyes widened in fear as tears began to fall from them. She panicked and began to struggle again.

Standing behind the blonde, Robin eyed her futile attempts and released her. Just in time he was able to dodge a blow to his head and retaliated with a round house kick to the person behind him. The blow collided with a defending arm and the masked martial artist gritted his teeth in frustration when he heard that chuckle.

With one eye Slade watched with amusement as the Titan regained his balance and drop into a fighting stance. Lowering his raised arm, he decided to humor the boy a bit and did the same. They circled for a moment, staffs drawn and ready.

Terra scrambled backwards from the two, knowing it would be suicide to be caught in the middle of their battle. Neither of them bothered to look her way, and she was thankful. Their attention was only locked on to each other.

The earth mover briefly wondered if they were able to see through each other's mask. See each other's expression. From where she sat, Terra was unable to see the only visible part of her master's face. For all she knew it could have been another robotic imitation. But Robin had bared his teeth and sneered. The tension was so thick she felt like she were choking on it.

Unlike their previous battles, no words were exchanged between them as they fought. No taunts or promises of absolution. Robin didn't want to simply stop this man and bring him to justice. He wanted this monster in human form - dead.

Robin ignored the cries of pain coming from his joints, and savored the adrenaline rush pumping through his entire body. The faces of his friends also urged him on. No, they were more than just his team mates. To Robin who had lost both his mother and father, the Titans had of course been his family. Now, after all the events that had led to this point, the pain had finally hit home and he was breaking all over again.

He had managed to survive when his parents had been murdered. After all he had his mentor. Sure, it had been unbearable at first, forcing himself to attempt interact with his busy guardian or living in absolute solitude. Accompanied by emotions that did nothing to help him; feelings of guilt, shame, abandonment, and disbelief. This was why Robin never feared death. To him, life without those you love, was demise in its truest form.

"You've already lost, Robin," Slade says mockingly as they circle again. "Why don't you just give up?"

Much to his surprise, the youth did not bark back a retort. Nor did he launch himself forward to attack as he normally did. Instead, the Boy Wonder slowly reached for his mask. Both Slade and his current apprentice were momentarily shocked as uncovered ice blue eyes narrowed in cold anger.

"Because... I have nothing left to lose."

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Leaning against the side of the boat, Jinx absently dipped her hand into murky sea water and gazed up at the sky that was covered in thick with dark gray clouds. Soon it wouldn't be gray, but dark, or pitched black. She knew the rain would come soon as the temperature rapidly started to drop. If Robin was still alive, how much longer would he be able to last under these conditions? Was he injured at all? Would they have to travel all this way just to bury him alongside his friends?

Shivering at the thought, she sat back up and glanced over to her teammates who were seated next to her. Their companions - or escorts - were swimming quietly outside of the boat while slowly pulling it along. Much to Gizmo's protest about letting the motor rip, Aqualad had argued that the noise would draw unwanted attention. Grudgingly, the shorter boy had agreed and was now trying to fight off his boredom by trying to repair some of damaged gadgets.

She scooted up closer, getting a good look at the teen super hero Aqualad. Gizmo apparently had met him at the "Tournament of Heroes" where all of the contenders were made honorary Teen Titans. Well except for Gizmo, at the last minute Cyborg had taken his badge away; but what surprised her was that he had been offered one in the first place.

"Keep it up, maybe you'll make him spontaneously combust."

"Huh?"

Blinking, she tear her gaze away from the sub-mariner and focused on Gizmo who was frowning. Was he still upset about the whole brain-eating-leach thing? After yanking immaturely at her hair, she figured that couldn't be the reason.

"You're staring," he told her.

"So?"

Gizmo opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted when Aqualad raised his head above the waves to speak to them.

"We should be arriving at the mainland soon," the honorary Titan spoke calmly. "Are you sure we can locate Robin?"

Nodding, Gizmo proudly pat the radio he had kept in his breast pocket, "Yeah no problem. I'll be able to track down bird boy as long as he keeps his communicator on him."

"And what if it's not on him?"

"Then we go with Plan B."

Aqualad only stared back at him for a moment before diving back deep underwater. Quietly, recovering from his slight sea-sickness, Mammoth glanced over his shoulder to his other two teammates.

"So what's Plan B?"

Gizmo rolled his eyes.

"The hell if I know."

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It only took Slade a moment to recover from his shock. Just a couple seconds too late as he went flying backwards when the unmasked boy struck him with one powerful swing. Hitting the ground with a thud, the masked man quickly attempted to get back up until a light and solid weight moved to pin him down. Slade could have easily tossed him off if he wanted to, but his single eye narrowed in amusement as it met Robin's ice cold stare. He let out a barely audible purr from under his mask that surprisingly did not startle the boy straddling him. Before Slade could comment on the position, Robin was now leaning over him, holding down both his arms.

The Boy Wonder - who's face was now completely exposed - leaned closer until his own face was mere inches away from Slade's mask.

"What would you give me in return?" he asked, his voice was low and almost seductive. The tone prevented the criminal mastermind from kicking Robin off as he continued. "What would you offer me," he repeated again, "if I become your apprentice once more?"

A cold gauntlet reached up and brushed the side of his face, and Robin allowed the touch from his predator. He knew Slade would not attack him, not when the bird he had been wanting to cage was now perched on his finger.

"I would give you the world," he said arrogantly, "Everything I dominate in my path, I would share with you, Robin."

"What if I don't care for the world? What else would you offer?"

The eye narrowed in confusion. "What else is there?"

The now mask less boy smirked, reaching up he wrapped his gloved fingers over Slade's own.

"I want you."

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"Why are they stopping?" Mammoth asked as saw the two dolphins surface again. He was trying to not think about how hungry he was. Especially since he now had a craving for tuna. Some how sensing this, the dolphins swam further away from the boat out of reach from the human and squeaky like noises only Aqualad could understand.

The boy nodded and motioned them off. "They say there's too much floating debris for your boat to navigate through up ahead. We'll need to go around."

"Um, little mermaid, if we stay out here too long, whatever is left of Slade's goon patrol will find us."

Aqualad shot Gizmo another glare and tried to remind himself that he was a hero, an honorary Titan. It would not look good on his record if he were to drown the little snot and feed his body to the sharks.

"Couldn't you ask more of your friends to help us out?" Jinx asked, gesturing to the dolphins.

"That would take more time actually, and…" the sub-mariner turned his attention to his non-human companions who were chirping rather loudly all of a sudden.

"Hey!" Gizmo hissed, "Are they trying to tell everything in Jump that we're here? Would you tell them to shut up!?"

Frowning, Aqualad swam over the two while place a hand on both of their heads and began to communicate with them telepathically. The chirping ceased but they seemed obviously spooked.

"They say there's something lurking in the waters up ahead," Aqualad said as he moved back over to their boat. "Something inhuman and totally unrecognizable to this ocean."

The HIVE mercenaries grew silent, remembering the hulking inhuman foot soldiers they encountered on the bridge. Gizmo sat back and muttered something incoherent. Not even his two teammates actually understand all of it except for 'brdbrane' which probably referred to Robin.

"Well, we don't have much of a choice then, do we?" he finally said out loud. "Let's go around."

Once they were moving again, Jinx broke the silence, sitting down beside the boy scientist who was messing around with his tracker.

"Hey, Giz... think Robin will be pissed that we came back?"

"Pfft. Who cares how he feels? Besides, we're mercenaries - not heroes. So we're not saving that bird brain's ass for free."

"I call dibbs on the R-Cycle!" Mammoth spoke up suddenly.

"No way, I want it!"

"Too late, he called dibbs."

"Iheightufudgers!"

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Terra watched in horrified silence as the boy who had just kissed her earlier, make such a bold statement. 'I want you', the words made the blonde shiver as she couldn't help but watch them. Or watch Robin, tilted his head over to the side allowing those fingers touching him, brush over his parted lips.

Slade sat up slowly but allowed Robin to straddle his waist, and Terra could have swear she heard him purr when the teen began to nibble almost playfully an his index finger. She watched, transfixed, as those digits slid into boy's mouth, out and back in again, until they were coated with saliva. It disturbed her as Robin began to suck on those appendages like a child would a popsicle on a hot summer day, while making lewd noises in the back of his throat.

Her lips were tingling again, and she couldn't fathom why watching them was exciting her. She should have felt disgusted by such an act. She should have been shouting at Slade for wanting to replace her. Robin had been right after all, and she briefly recalled his proposal once again before stepping finally forward.

'All right, Robin. I'll play your game for awhile,' she thought to herself while kneeling beside the former Titan Leader. 'But you're going to have to make it up to me with more than a kiss.'

Robin sensing the newer apprentice's presence next to him, leaned back against her unwounded side. She allowed him to rest his head against her shoulder while fingers that could command the earth, began to work open the zippers and buckles of his suit. He turned his head, as Slade's fingers withdrew and began to nibble the blonde's ear, smirking as he felt the girl shiver in pleasure.

Narrowed blue eyes of both warm and cool shades, turned seductively over to Slade, to their master who was sitting motionless. He did not move, did not even seem to be breathing under his armor. For once, Slade, was ensnared by his own reflections.

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End of Three Way Mirror - Part 1

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Author's Notes: Rushed ending, but I promised I would eventually come back to continue this, sorry it just took me a couple years to actually do it ::sigh::