Disclaimer: Nope, I don't own the Titans.

A/N: Alright, this is the first chapter fic that I have done in years and the first one with an actual real plot, so that I am proud of! I have spent years reading apprentice stories and have always wanted to write one of my own and I have finally done it! Yay me!

Just a couple quick things before we start. First, this will reference the first chapter to another story that I have written called "Dark Side of Night". It's not necessary to read this, but it will give you more clarity on the events that took place the night before this chapter. If you don't read this, I have included what happens later on in the story, so it's up to you if you want to know right off the bat exactly what happens. Second, please, if you catch any errors or plot holes throughout the story, let me know and I will fix them.

As all my stories go, this has not been through a beta reader. ENJOY!

Like Broken Mirrors

Chapter 1: Gaze Upon The Wreckage

Robin awoke to a knock on his door and warm light shining through his blinds, hitting his face. He rolled over and glanced at his alarm clock. 11 am. How had he managed to sleep so long? It wasn't often that he was able to sleep in past 7 am. There was too little time in a day to waste it by sleeping in.

A night full of bad dreams and thoughts of the night before rushed back to him. He had gone out alone on another patrol last night. It was nothing unusual, something he did now and again, but it hadn't gone as planned. It had been a quiet, peaceful night and so he had headed home. That was when things turned. There had been a murder and a hostage situation, but he hadn't seen the man hidden away at the other end of the alley and the hostage ended up dead. A woman and her husband, leaving a small child behind. He didn't want to think about it anymore. What he wanted was to go back to sleep and forget everything. Robin groaned and pulled the pillow over his head, trying to block out the lights and ignore the insistent knocking at his door.

"Rob? You in here?"

Robin peered out from under his pillow to see Cyborg standing in his door way, hesitant to enter his room.

"Man you never sleep this late! You feeling ok?" Cyborg asked as he stepped into his leader's room, more concerned now that he had found him still in bed.

"Yea" Robin flinched at the as his voice came out hoarse, coming out from under his pillow to sit up. He cleared his throat and let his feet hang over the edge of his bed as he looked up at his friend. "Just a rough night."

Cyborg looked at his friend, skeptical. He could tell that it was a little more than just another "rough night". After all, Robin was notorious for hiding things. Ever since the Red X incident and the whole apprentice fiasco, it was hard to take anything the boy said at face value. More than anything, he had wanted to believe him, drop the subject and turn away, hoping that if anything was wrong, Robin would fess up right away and seek help. But Cyborg knew better than that. If Robin were in trouble, he would deal with it himself until he was either forced to ask for help, or dug himself a hole he could not get out of.

He also noticed Robin's appearance. True he had just woken up, but the kid looked like Hell. Even with the mask still in place over his face, Cyborg could tell that he had dark circles under his eyes, as if he had barely slept at all. He looked exhausted and mentally drained. He made a mental note to ask Robin about it later. For now, he would let it go. He was here for other reasons.

"We were all about to head out. Star wants us all to spend the day together. Some sort of 'team bonding'. She's downstairs right now trying to convince Raven to go to the mall."

"I think I'm gonna stay behind, you know, get some work done. Tell Star that I said I was sorry."

Cyborg gave one last look at his friend before nodding, turning around and heading out. Robin sighed, flopping back onto his bed and burying his head under his pillow, allowing himself to drift back into unconsciousness.

††

Robin woke a few hours later, feeling much more rested that he had when Cyborg had woken him up. He threw on his uniform and ran some gel through his unkempt hair, hoping to get himself feeling at least a little bit better, more normal. One glance at the clock on his nightstand told him it was only around 4 o'clock so he assumed the others were still out. He knew that if they had made it to the mall like Starfire wanted, then they would still be gone for a few more hours. It would give him some time alone to think about the events of the night before and how to prevent it from happening again. It would also give him time to come up with a story to tell the others, should they ask about his 'rough night' and his reasons for not joining them on their outing.

He knew that, realistically, he would not be able to prevent all evil that occurred in the world. Last night he had failed to save someone and left a little girl orphaned. It was something that he knew he would have to live with for the rest of his life. It wasn't the first time he had failed, Red X was proof of that. Even if the mission itself was the wrong thing to do, his mission objective as Red X failed. He failed to trick Slade and failed to gain the information that he sought. He also knew that it would not be the last time that failure would find him and that knowledge didn't keep him from dwelling on it, nor did it keep him from blaming himself.

Robin headed down to his work room, where he could hide away for the rest of the night, even after the other four titans returned home. For now, he just wanted to be left alone with his thoughts. He knew Starfire would come looking for him once they got home to tell of their adventures and show off all the little things she had found at the mall. There was no way around it. Starfire was the kind of person that felt the need for everyone she knew and cared about to share in her joy. Especially him. He knew exactly what would happen. He would play along and indulge her, at least for a little while. Then he would tell her that he was extremely busy, even if he wasn't, just to get her to leave the room. After that he would watch her spirits drop as she claimed to "understand" with a worried expression settled on her face before leaving him alone once again, feeling guilty for turning her away.

As he approach his destination, the door swooshed open automatically. He walked in and walked over to his work desk, door swooshing closed behind him. He looked down at the many news clippings and pieces of various gadgets he had been working on littering the table top before him when something caught his eye. Among the objects lying on the table was a sharp, metal looking "S". What unnerved him about this was it was easily recognizable as Slade's insignia. In fact it looked to be just like the one from his apprentice uniform, the badge that had sat in place if the "R" over his heart. The one that he had thrown away. Made sure to get rid of. Wanted absolutely no reminder of as it resembled one of the worst times he had yet to come to face. The madman had threatened the lives of his friends and forced him to become his apprentice against his will. He reached down and picked up the vile object, inspecting it carefully.

"Quite a collection you have here."

The calm, familiar voice made shivers run down his spine and his blood run cold. The metal "S" in his hand fell to the floor, landing just beneath the table, forgotten. Robin didn't need to turn around to know who that voice belonged to. Of course that didn't keep him from doing so. His heart pounded and he could feel the chill running up his spine as he slowly turned his head, body following the motion until he was fully turned around, face to face with the man he had never wanted to see again.

Standing in front of him, as if it were no big deal for him to be there, was Slade, casually flipping through one of his many books filled with more clippings and research. Robin couldn't believe his eyes. There, right in front of him, standing in Titan's Tower was one of the his most detested rivals. The root to many of his problems.

"W-what are you doing here? How did you bypass the security system?" He question, his voice sounding more surprised than he had wanted.

Remaining silent, the man stopped, setting the book down on a nearby shelf, folding his arms and looking down on the boy. In response, Robin pulled out his bo staff, getting into a defense position, ready for the fight he knew would come. Slade's eye gleamed beneath his mask and Robin could swear he heard the man chuckle as he stepped toward him.

†Titans Tower†

"Oh, what a glorious day!" Starfire burst into the common room, hovering a few feet off the ground. In her arms, she carried numerous bags of different sizes and colors which contained many things that she had collected throughout the day.

"Man! I can't wait to get this thing into action so I can kick your sorry butt!"

"Dude! What makes you think you have the skills?"

Cyborg and Beast Boy argued back and forth, excitedly debating over who would conquer their newest gaming system first as they entered the room. Raven followed silently behind them, making her way over to the couch, already digesting her newest book.

Starfire stopped, setting all of her new stuff onto the table, watching her fellow Titans gather around the common room, feeling as though something was missing.

"Perhaps I should go see what Friend Robin is up to. Oh, he will be so excited to see all of the new stuff I got today!"

Cyborg looked up from where he was currently trying to hook up their new system to the television, Beast Boy bouncing beside him impatiently.

"Yea and tell him to get his butt up here! I need to talk to him!"

Starfire nodded, once again taking hold of her bags and flying out of the room excitedly, towards the work room where she knew her friend would most likely be. Just as before, the door to the work room opened with a swoosh, revealing an unexpected scene. Before her was not the cluttered work room that she was familiar with, containing news clippings for wallpaper and neatly stacked books of research. What she saw now set her on alert. The work room was trashed, the majority of the clippings falling off the walls, lying on the floor. The work desk that was once in the middle of the room now sat on its side near one of the far walls. She noticed splashed of red on the edge of the desk, as well as on the floor below and a nearby wall, making her flee the room.

Quickly, Starfire flew down the halls of Titan's Tower, towards Robin's bedroom, the medical bay, the evidence room, the gym...any place that should could imagine her friend could have been to. She knew she would not find him, but a small part of her could not help but carry hope that she was wrong. That there was some sort of explanation for the condition she had found Robin's work room. As feared, she found no hide nor hair of her best friend.

Seconds later, Starfire burst into the common room, where her unknowing friends were doing exactly what they had been when she had left. In a way it irked her how she could go from a scene so disturbing and in shambles, to a scene that was so familiar to her.

"Friends! Robin is gone!" The alien girl exclaimed, now standing in the middle of all three of her friends.

"Whoa, calm down Star, he probably just went out. Did you check his room?" Cyborg tried to reason.

"Yea," Raven agreed, "You know how he is, he probably just took off or has buried himself in his work somewhere."

"No! You don't understand! Something horrible has happened to Robin. I've checked all of his usual places. Please! His work room is destroyed, we must find out what happened to him."

"Star, if something went wrong while we were gone, then my security system would have alerted us." Cyborg told her, confident in his own technology.

"Please! Come see for yourselves!" She pleaded with them.

"Alright, alright! I'll come with you. BB, don't touch that game until I get back. Rae, I'm trusting you to make sure he stays put."

Raven looked up from her book, eyebrow raised as Cyborg followed Starfire out of the room. "I don't dobabysitting."

Within minutes the two came to the work room, the door swooshing open as they headed inside. Cyborg stopped, taking in the sight of the wrecked room. The room was much worse than he had anticipated. Honestly, he was expecting the room to be messed up due to Robin having another one of his tantrums that he often had when he got too caught up in his work and couldn't figure something out. Even in a fit of rage or frustration, Robin would never purposely destroy all of the books of evidence that he had spent so much time gathering. It wouldn't make sense. It was obvious that something happened. The bits of blood that splattered the wall and the news clippings that lied on the floor were proof of that. Bringing himself back to reality, Cyborg lifted his arm up to his face, enabling the communicator that was built in there, calling out the two titans up in the common room.

"Guys, maybe you should get up here. Starfire's right, it's pretty bad."

Cyborg lowered his arm back to his side as he walked further into the room, taking in his surroundings. Once in the middle of the room he knelt down, shifting around through the bits of paper.

"Who could've done this? Who could've gotten through both my system and Robin?"

"I have a pretty good guess." Raven answered as she entered the room. Beast Boy followed closely behind her, not believing the wreckage that he saw around him. He hadn't even noticed when she stopped, causing him to bump right into the back of her. She paid him no mind, staying focused on what she had spotted.

Cyborg looked at her as she stood next to him, seemingly staring down at her feet. Cyborg followed her gaze to see what had caught her attention. He couldn't believe what he saw. He picked up the object, staring at it disbelievingly. Suddenly he knew who had been in the tower. Who had attacked their leader. There was no doubt about it. The metal "S" that he held in his hand could only belong to one person.

"Dude, no way...is that..." Beast boy said, leaning over his friend's shoulder to get a better look at the object he held in his had.

"I think so," Cyborg answered.

"But you don't think..." Starfire asked.

"Who else could've." Raven chimed in.

"How can we be sure..." Beast Boy questioned.

"There's one way to find out." Cyborg said, getting up and heading out of the room.

Once again the Titans gathered around the common room, the security footage pulled up on the large monitor in the room.

"But how do we know that it truly was Slade that broke into the tower? How do we not know if this thing was not some part of Robin's research?"

"Remember when Robin returned after the whole apprentice thing? Remember how adamant he was to put it behind him? First thing he did was get rid of the uniform, which included this thing." Cyborg explained, holding the small insignia badge in his hand.

Starfire had many questions, thinking of any reason why metal insignia would have been in the work room. Truly, there really could have a million reasons for it to be in there and it could have been anyone, she hoped it was anyone. Anyone but Slade. They knew the dangers of Slade, but only Robin knew what the man was truly capable of. Only he fully understood what horrors Slade possessed. Horrors that to this day, Robin would refuse to go into detail about, claiming that "it no longer matters" or that he's "moved on" whenever he was asked something specific.

"That is exactly what we are going to find out. We will find out who did it, how they did it, and when." Cyborg responded, typing his password into the computer system that was now displayed in the common.

"Sounds like we are playing clue. At least we already know where it took place! Now, we just have to figure out who done it and with what."

"Now is NOT the time!" Raven growled at Beast Boy, who could only put his hands up in defense and give a sheepish grin.

"He is not answering his communicator. Perhaps he had chased out the stranger who entered our home. Perhaps it was damaged in the processed." Starfire said hopefully, coming up with another excuse, as she had been doing since leaving the work room and returning to the common room of the tower. She held her communicator up as she tried to reach Robin again. The three other teens looked at her, wanting to share in her hopefulness. They knew her ideas were plausible, but they also knew that just how highly unlikely they were.

The four teens looked up at the screen that had the footage pulled up. Several video feeds filled the screen, each one showing a different part of the tower. Cyborg located the surveillance files from earlier that day, beginning from the time that they had left. It was also the last time that he knew Robin to be safe within the tower, still in his bed. He began to fast forward through them, carefully searching specific feeds for anything suspicious. It didn't take long before every screen went black, cutting off before Robin was even seen leaving his room. Cyborg slowed the feeds down so that they were playing normally, the black screen steadily playing.

"Looks like someone had managed to hack into the security system."

Cyborg was about to fast forward again when activity began on the screen in the form of static and lines. Suddenly they found what they were looking for. Answers. The remaining Titans stared at Slade, and he stared back at them, in full uniform. His cold, grey eye somehow looking both down and through each one of them. It was obviously a pre-recored message, but that didn't make him seem any less threatening than if he were standing right in front of them.

"Sorry to cut you off, I'll make this really short. I'm here to finish what I started, so if you don't mind, this is just between the two of us. Don't worry, you won't be able to find us, though you are welcome to try. Not that you could stop me if you did. "

And with that the screen went black, leaving the Titans with some of the answers that they so desperately wanted to know, yet leaving them with so many more questions. The four sat in silence for a moment before Beast Boy dared to speak up again.

"So what do we do now?"

"Now, we find Robin." Cyborg answered, stepping into leader position.

†Slade's Hideout†

The moment Robin began to open his eyes, he regretted it. He wasn't sure where he was but his head was killing him. He could tell that he was lying in a bed, which definitely was not his. For one it was smaller than the full that he was used to and the firm pillow that cradled his throbbing head, certainly was not his. His hand slowly lifted to his eyes, covering them, blocking out any extra light that threatened to get through.

As he lied there he tried to recall where he was or how he had gotten there. He could remember the alley, a dead body and a woman's scream. He had been out on patrol...had something happened while he was out? What happened after than? Images of Cyborg waking him up flashed through his head, a good sign. He at least knew he had made it home that night.

So what happened?

Robin tried to retrace his steps after being woken up, but his head felt clouded and his memories weren't clear. He moved his hand from his eyes to his forehead, trying to console the pounding running through his head. A bandage wrapped around his head made him pause for a moment, before feeling around his head, trying to locate the injury the bandage was trying to conceal. On the back right side of his skull, he felt a large gauze being held on by the bandage, most likely concealing a large gash of some sort, as if felt tender, even a bit wet.

It was obvious he had been in a fight of some sort, but with who? And where did he meet them? Memories began to rise and he could remember that the team had left...gone to the mall...he hadn't of gone...he could remember waking up and going to his work room...

Robin's eyes shot open, a single image coming to the forefront of his memories. Slade. Slade had been in the tower and he was attacked. And he had obviously lost. A bit panicked, Robin looked around the room, trying to figure out where he was. The light that he had so determinedly tried to keep out, wasn't as bright as he first had thought. Actually it seemed pretty dim now that his eyes were fully opened. In an attempt to get a better idea of his surroundings, he rolled over onto his side and instantly felt the need to empty the small contents of his stomach, which he did, right into a trashcan that had been placed at the side of his bed, apparently for this very reason.

When was the last time I ate?

It had been awhile if the small amount of bile in the bucket was any indication. He knew he ate not too long before going out on patrol the night before Slade showed up at the tower. How long ago that was, however, was unknown. For all he knew, it could have been earlier that day, or it could have been days ago.

Wiping his mouth and sitting upright, letting his legs hang over the side of the bed, right next to the small trashcan, Robin continued on, taking in the small room. The walls were a plain white and a single light in the middle of the ceiling. His bed was a small twin bed with gray sheets and a white pillow. Next to it, a small grey night stand with a glass of water that he dare not touch, no matter how dry his mouth was. His guess was that he had been drugged and he would not risk it happening again. Down by the foot of the bed, on the left wall was a doorway, leading into a tiny bathroom with a sink, small shower and a toilet. No door. A small white and grey desk, with a black chair sat on the left hand side of the room, against the wall opposite his bed, on the right a door. The room itself was small, only about 10 feet by 10 feet. From what he could tell, he could not see any cameras around the room and doubted that there were any. If there had been, he would have expected someone to have been in here by now, giving him some sort of explanation or instructions.

Knowing the door would be lock, Robin got up off the bed and headed for it anyway. Just as expected, the door handle would not turn, locked from the outside. The door itself was steel, so there was no breaking through it and no matter how hard he tried, the door would not budge...as expected. Without his utility belt, which he noticed had been removed, along with the lock picks in his gloves, there was no hope of him leaving this room anytime soon. At this point there was nothing that he could do but wait. Robin walked back over to his bed, lying down, trying to rid himself of both his headache and his nauseous stomach.

†.†

At some point Robin must have fallen back asleep because before he knew it he was being woken up by someone opening the door. With the pounding in his head not so intense, he was able to slowly roll over and see who it was that had entered the room.

Robin recognized the old man that had come into his room, a tray in his hands. Though he did not really get to speak to him during his previous time with Slade, he did get to observe him and the way that the two men interacted with one another. This man was known as William Wintergreen. It seemed like Wintergreen was sorta like Slade's servant and reminded Robin a lot of Alfred. He didn't know how the man knew Slade or how he had come to work for him, but he knew that the man wouldn't be much help to him in his escape. For some reason he was dedicated to Slade and the two seemed to share some sort of strange respect for one another.

Wintergreen set the tray on the table, next to a pile of neatly folded clothes which had not been there the first time he had been awake, meaning that Wintergreen had been in the room already.

"Good to see your finally awake. I was starting to think that maybe Slade gave you too much of an overdose." Wintergreen turned around to face Robin, who was now sitting up in the bed, watching the old man.

"Overdose? With what? How long have I been out? Is he insane!" Robin stopped himself for a second, "Wait, don't answer that. What does he want this time?"

"It is not my place to tell you these things. My advice to you would be to eat, your going to need the strength. You'll feel better once you do. Then I suggest you change your clothes. I will be back in 30 minutes to change your bandages and take you to Slade. He has many things he'd like to discuss with you." Wintergreen turned to leave.

"Yea right, how do I know there isn't anything funny in that stuff?"

"There would be no sense in bringing you all the way here just to poison you, nor would there be any sense in waiting all this time for you to wake up just to drug you again. Its safe."

"Where is 'here' anyway?"

"Again, that is not my place to tell you." Wintergreen turned once more to leave, this time, giving Robin one last knowing look before shutting the heavy door and locking it behind him.

Robin stared at the bowl of soup that sat on the desk. Somehow, he knew that if Wintergreen said it was safe to eat, that it would be. He didn't know how long he had been out, but he knew it must have been awhile. His stomach rumbled loudly as if to prove a point.

Robin got up and walked over to the desk, sitting down and staring at the bowl before him. It looked harmless enough. Lifting the spoon up and scooping some of the red substance out of the bowl, he brought it up to his lips, giving it a small taste. Tomato soup. Giving into his hunger and the temptation presented to him, he let himself finish the bowl of soup within minutes before grabbing the glass of water and gulping it down. Finishing his small meal did make him feel a little better. Already he felt like he had a bit more energy than he did a few minutes ago and the tomato soup even helped to sooth his still nauseous stomach.

He looked over at the clothes that sat on the table, picking them up piece by piece to inspect each item. The items were very plain, not that he expected a suit and tie, but he had expected some type of uniform as last time. On top of the pile was a fresh pair of grey underwear and a pair of white socks. Next a plain white t-shirt, then a pair of black pants.

"At least I'll match the room. Camouflage!" Robin declared sarcastically.

Grabbing the pile of clothes, Robin walked back over to his bed, setting them down. Reluctantly, he began to shed his Robin uniform. In a small way he was happy to have clean clothes, as his uniform was pretty dirty, covered in blood from his head and sweat either from the fight or the drugs in his system. While he would have preferred another one of his own uniforms, he was just happy that Slade was not making him wear his former apprentice clothes.

Once dressed in his new outfit, Robin folded up his discarded uniform and placed it on the table before climbing back into the bed and lying down, waiting for Wintergreen to come back. Once that happened, he would hopefully be able to get a better idea of where he was and start to figure out an escape plan. He would also then be able to come face to face with Slade and hopefully figure out just what kind big of trouble he was in.

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