A/N: This is really the first fan fic that I spent time working out the plot and planning way ahead, so this one will not flop. It sounded like such a good plot, but it had to have time to make it perfect. I think I'm finally ready for it! I can't wait to start! Just to tell you, this is before the Raven episodes. This has the apprentice theme with Robin and Slade. The fic is more about Red X, though. I do show my version of his true identity in this fic. I tried that once, but the fic flopped after the third or forth chapter. I go through a lot of bad fan fictions till I get to a really good one with an awesome plot and characters. I'm really taking off one fan fic to work full time on this one, so you better like this one! But please R&R! Thanks!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the Teen Titans. I only own the plot and a few OCs. Red X is not mine either. My version of his true identity is, though. Disclaimers are so boring and stupid! You guys are smart enough to know I don't own them!

Switched Lives

By: Pixiegirl13

Chapter 1 Another One Bites the Dust

"Steve walks warily down the street,

With the brim pulled way down low

Ain't no sound but the sound of his feet,

Machine guns ready to go

Are you ready, are you ready for this

Are you hanging on the edge of your seat

Out of the doorway the bullets rip

To the sound of the beat…"

Boy, did he love this song. It was playing at such a perfect time in the night. It seemed as if the three police officers enjoyed the catchy toon as much as he did because they turned up the volume. At around two in the morning the jewelry safe to the expensive watch making company in the heart of Jump City was not that heavily guarded. It was such a right time for the city's greatest thief to attack. Not even the famous Teen Titans would be there to see him leave. They would only get to see him wave good bye through a video tape recording.

Getting to the spot he was now was not an easy task, though. Only the best of the best could make it through a football stadium sized metal room filled with random moving lasers that would sound the alarm with only one tiny touch. That had been the fun part. To skip the laborious task of avoiding the many video cameras, he had to climb through the dusty air vent on his hands and knees in complete darkness. Now he was at a desk with three police guys behind it to guard a giant safe with thousands of rubies, diamonds, and emeralds. It was the loot of a thousand worlds to someone like Red X.

Red X expressed a smile under his mask while waiting for his Q in the music playing. Who said stealing could not be fun? His small and lithe figure flipped over the desk and landed gracefully on the other side where the policemen could see him clearly. They all paused with wide eyes at seeing him. He had been hiding this whole time.

Dun, dun, dun. "Another one bites the dust," the singer yelled into the tense air just as Red X struck. He did it right in time with the music. Dun, dun, dun. "Another one bites the dust." Red X did a hard roundhouse kick to one guy's head and knocked him out cold. When he hit the floor the right lyrics were sung. "And another one gone, and another one gone. Another one bites the dust."

X smiled again as he saw one guy reach for the radio on the desk. Just in time to the music again he said, "Hey, I'm gonna get you too!" He put his palm out at the man and sticky red goo shaped as an X flung out and trapped him there. "Another bites the dust."

Red X laughed out loud while looking around at his wonderful work. Two guys were knocked out cold while one guy was caught up into the goo and not moving because he knew it would not do anything to help him. Red X had won.

"I hope you guys have that all on tape," Red X said to them. He then kneeled down next to the safe while getting serious for a few seconds. He had on a new belt. He had not yet stolen the one Robin had taken away from him back. He did not have to have a gadget to make himself invisible. He was so silent and quick that it did not matter.

From this new belt, Red X took out a small cup. Sure, it was old fashioned, but it did the trick. No one had updated the old safe and most people thought that no one would get past all those lasers. Cracking into the thing was the easiest part of the whole night. In only a few silent seconds he heard the last click and the door opened.

"Sit tight, guys," Red X said to the three policemen. "You should be glad. You just made one guy very happy." One guy glared at him while struggling in the red goo covering his whole body except for his eyes, nose, and one leg. "Be glad I did not kill you and ate your liver," X said with a wicked smile forming under the mask. He saw the man's eyes widen in fright, and he laughed at how some people could be so gullible. (A/N: Did you know gullible is not in the dictionary? HA! I might have gotten a few people with that one.)

"Time for the best part," Red X said while walking into the safe. He took out a red silk bag from his belt as he stared at the many boxes of jewels all around the room. He was so close to picking one of the beautiful things up, but the alarm suddenly went off.

"Crap," Red X muttered to himself while looking around to see where he made the mistake. But it was not him who turned the alarm on. It was someone else. That person was standing next to the door of the safe with his hands behind his back as that one eye stared at the thief with evil amusement shining in it.

"Damn," Red X now said as he spotted Slade there.

"So that is the first word I hear from your mouth?" Slade asked him calmly. He gave a small chuckle that made a shiver go down Red X's spine from the cold tone of it. "Not what I was expecting from you."

"So what were you expecting?" Red X asked him to stall time for himself. It was clear to him that Slade had followed him to the safe just to tie the thief up and take everything for himself before the Titans came. Red X would go to jail instead of Slade. That man could be so cold!

"Something more along the lines of cockiness," Slade said with an easy-going shrug. He always had a calm and relaxed about him. He never really seemed to express much emotion but anger at some rare times. It spooked Red X out. "But that is not why I'm hear."

"I'm not going down without a fight, old man," Red X said while getting into a fighting stance. "When the Titans get here they will see two of their enemies and not just one like you plan."

"You're smart, X," Slade said while walking towards him with much confidence in each step. "But that is not why I planned to meet you here." Red X stood his ground to show that he was not afraid of the man. He stiffened up as Slade came up to him so they were only a foot away from each other. This had to be one of Slade's tricks, or he really wanted to talk.

"What do you want?" Red X spat the words out. He did not like Slade from what he knew about the villain. They guy was clearly insane. It had been him that drove Robin into making the suit that Red X now wore. Red X had reasons to steal. Slade did not. "I'm not interested unless it pays more than what I can fit into this bag." He held the bag up to show the villain.

"Oh, trust me, X," Slade said smoothly while leaning down so they were face to face. Red X swallowed what little fear he had. "It will be worth ten times more than what can fit into this room. It is just a job I want you to do. It is only open for one person. You." He let the words sink into the young man's head before saying, "If you want to take me up on this offer then come to the old warehouse near the docks at five o clock sharp this morning. I'll give you some good advice. Come."

With that said, Slade took out three black balls from his belt and threw them down between him and Red X. A giant dust cloud sprung into the air and quickly swarmed around the confused thief. He coughed a few times and waited till the dust was gone. But when it cleared he was faced with a bigger problem. The Teen Titans.

"Pretty bad attempt to run away, Red X," Robin said from where he stood at the door to the safe. His four other members either stood or hovered next to him with different expressions on their faces.

"Dude," Beast Boy said while putting up a goofy smile. "You're supposed to run when you throw dust all around."

Red X was furious. He wanted to scream. Slade did this to him! His whole night was ruined because of that evil man! He would not get any money and he had to fight the Teen Titans. Then he realized that Slade knew this was going to happen. If Red X had no money because of the Teen Titans he would go to Slade for it. But the young man would never go begging for it from such a ruthless person. He believed you had to earn it. Maybe stealing was the wrong way to go, but he earned it by plotting break-ins every night and practicing each day to get better at different skills. He was also juggling different identities all the time, and he had a loved one to take care of.

"Ready to get your butts kicked, kiddies?" Red X asked them while taking up a fighting stance. He took out two X's and held one in each hand. He was ready to toss them at any time. He had studied the Titans before becoming the thief he was today. He knew how they worked. He could get free, but it would not be easy.

"It will be us doing the butt kicking, X," Robin said while taking out his Bo Staff and twirling it around a few times to get the weapon to its full length. "You're nights of stealing are over." With that said, the fight started by the two simple words. "Titans! Go!"

With a small flick of his wrist, the first X was flying into the air at bullet speed. He quickly did the same to the other one in his hand. Raven stopped the first one from making any damage with her chant and dark powers. It fell to the floor of the safe as if dead. The other one came at Starfire. She gave a small scream of surprise while dodging to the side only to be smashed against the wall with red goo.

"One down," Red X said with a smile under his mask. "Four more to go." He dodged to the side quickly as a blast from Cyborg's sonic cannon flew by him. He did a few back flips to get away from more attacks from the half robot guy.

With a loud battle cry, Robin came down at Red X with his staff. Red X reacted quickly by putting up his arm while making the X's on his gloves into sharp spikes. He cut Robin off and snapped his wrist to the side in an attempt to disarm Robin of the weapon, but the boy was just too fast and pulled the staff away before anything could happen. He came back with a hard hitting smash to Red X's side and sent him flying into boxes labeled emeralds.

X cleared his vision by shaking his spinning head. Boy, did that hurt! His eyes went wide for a few seconds as he saw a green rhino coming at him at break neck speed. He jumped into the air with much grace and did a flip at the end to land on top of the many boxes and still being able to see the rest of the Titans. He braced himself just in time as Beast Boy slammed into the boxes headfirst. X winced under his mask as the green teen stumbled off to the side of the battle while holding onto his dizzy head and moaning in pain.

Cyborg and Robin were running toward the boxes Red X was standing on. X thought quickly and shot three big X's at them. The weapons quickly tangled the two teens up and sent them falling to the hard floor. They tried their hardest to get out. Robin could not reach his bird-a-rangs while Cyborg could not use his sonic cannon. They were down for the rest of the fight.

Whack! Red X fell off the tower of boxes with a small yell as a black levitating box slammed into the side of his head. He gained his balance while falling and landed on his two feet. He slid backwards from the hard impact and stopped when his back bumped into the wall.

X glared at Raven. She only smiled wickedly at him and made other boxes close to her fly at him. He took to the air and jumped to different boxes coming at him while heading towards Raven who was levitating in the air. He came at her with a flying kick. She quickly blocked him with a black force field.

Red X grabbed Raven's long cloak as he fell, which made her lose concentration and fall with him. Once they were on the ground, X stuck another one of his X's on her mouth and headed for the door. She screamed into it and tried hard to get it off. At the door he was faced with Starfire and Beast who had jumped back into the fight.

"I don't have time for this, kids," Red X muttered to them. He faked to the left and Beast Boy, as a tiger, lunged that way along with help of Starfire's many green starbolts. He duck rolled past them and started to shoot the rest of his red goo at the safe's door. It was quickly covered with the thick, pasty stuff.

The thief took off with little hesitation. Sooner than later the Titans would get out of there and search all night for his hind. But he had a safe place to stay. He would go back to his other life and pretend like this had never happened. He would slip into another world. He always had different lives to live.

-Slade-

Five o one. Foolish boy! He was late. Slade could handle the boy being late, but he would get punished for it. But he had a feeling that the boy was not coming. When it was ten minutes past the set time Slade was ticked off. Red X was not coming. He did not want to come. Stubborn fool!

With a frustrated yell, Slade pound the wall with a hard fist. The resting birds in the rafters all awoke and flew off from the disturbance. One abandoned warehouse was not a big enough home for a crazy guy like Slade and dozens of birds. It used to be quiet till this dude came to the city once again.

"He does not fear my power!" Slade muttered to himself as he looked over the information about Red X the hundredth time that early morning. He knew the boy from top to bottom. He knew him more than anyone else. How could he not see this coming?

Simple mistake. He must have under estimated the boy. He was as stubborn as Robin. (A good thing for his plan.) He never noticed that about him. Now he knew. He would just have to go to plan B, which he secretly wanted to do all along. But putting it as plan B would make it more fun. He would have to get Red X to come by force. Of course he could beat the tar out of the young man and demand for him to work for him, but there was a better way. This way he could see the boy suffer deeply. This way he could be very sure Red X would not betray him.

He would break this boy down just like all the others. Just like he was going to do with Robin. You just had to find their weak spot. And this guy's weak spot was so obvious it was almost funny. Slade spotted a cell phone on his desk and smiled under his mask while dialing up a number.

"You don't fear me at the moment, Red X," he said to himself as he heard the phone ring. "But you soon will."

A/N: So how was it? Man, I have that song stuck in my head! I wanted to start out with something different. And the song does not belong to me…duh. It was by Queen. But I thought that it would be fun to start out with one of my favorite songs. But how did you like it? It gets good fast. Next chapter should be up soon, but I'm trying to finish up my Island Hunting fic, so sorry if next chapter takes more time than I thought it would.

Oh, and another thing before I forget! I don't like swearing in my fics! It is one of the Ten Commandments that I try to obey. Do not take the Lord's name in vain. So I don't swear. But in my writing I do it to make it realistic or to build character. I just wanted to get that out of my system because I have friends and family reading my stuff and I wanted to explain it all to them. My dad too because he is strict on that kind of thing. So Daddy! If your reading this I have a reason for some swear words in my writing! I still call him daddy. I never call him Dad. I'm such a daddy's girl and I'm proud of it!

Please give a review! Thanks! And tell me how you like it. If I need to work on a few things then tell me. I'll take advice. But be nice when telling me. Don't sound mean or I will not like you. Nah! I'm kidding. Just review!