Disclaimer: None of these characters in the story belong to me. Be glad that they don't.

Author's Note: So I finally decided to write my first Teen Titans fic ever! I've never written for the series before now, so sorry if the characterization is a little rusty. I'll keep practicing until it gets better though. The reason for making this fic is not only because I love Sladin to DEATH but also because I've been watching Teen Titans again lately. The idea just came to me after watching a couple eps so I kept writing until it was done. Hope you all enjoyed it!

Even after he was rescued from Slade by his teammates, Robin still did not feel like he was completely out of Slade's grasp. He could still feel the mercenary's eyes watching his every moments. That horrible man had a way of getting into his head without having to be there. As the days passed, Robin continued to grow more and more uneasy. It added to the difficulty of putting the past behind him when he had a permanent reminder that he couldn't remove. That mark that Slade left on his skin seemed to be impossible to remove.

No matter what he had tried, it only became all the more evident that the insignia was there to stay. The "S" emblazoned on his chest was now a symbol of how he would always belong to Slade. The boy wonder hated belonging to someone, as if he were a thing instead of a person. That had been one of the primary reasons that had caused him to stop working for his previous mentor, Batman. Everyone knew that Robin had once been the sidekick of the famous dark knight when he was younger.

Robin couldn't remember what had ever made him idolize Batman so much. The man might look like a righteous vigilant to the public, but there was a lot more to him that was not revealed very often. Robin felt he was always trapped in the man's shadow, that as long as he was working for Batman he would never be known for who he really was. He was more than just an associate of the mysterious bat. Unfortunately, Batman didn't really seem to understand or accept this either.

Thus that was what directed him to the path that he took now, as leader of his very own team: The Teen Titans.

For once, he finally had started something all on his own that would not only make people notice him but would still help others. It was everything that he'd ever really wanted. Their teamwork was so polished, so skilled that it seemed as if nothing could challenge them. Or so they thought. That was where Slade had come into the picture. The mercenary had simply waltzed into their life, threatened them countless times and truly proved himself to be a serious menace.

Then he had dared to put the lives of Robin's friends in danger, which is when the situation instantly became personal for the boy wonder. No one gets to threaten what he holds dear to him and lives to tell the tale about it. Robin was determined to put this sick freak in his place once and for all. But he had horribly miscalculated when he'd assumed that this new villain would be easy to defeat like the others. Slade made it known that he was a new kind of danger all together when he had unexpectedly taken the boy under his wing. At first, Robin had been very confused by this strange turn of events.

But he soon started to understand the motives behind the older man's reason for training him as an apprentice. It was all a test to determine exactly where the boy's loyalties lied. He'd also wanted to see how far Robin had to be pushed before he finally snapped. Robin had basically been treated like nothing more than a test subject. If there was anything that he hated more in the whole world, it was being treated like he wasn't human. Being treated in such ways brought back old unpleasant memories he preferred to forget.

Then there was still the lingering question that still made Slade such a puzzling mystery that he couldn't put together. Why, out of all the people in the world, did he specifically go after Robin? There were many more aspiring heroes out there that had a lot more potential. Slade could've picked anyone else, yet he chose to ignore the vast selection of budding apprentices in favor of one unique little bird. Even now, Robin was positive that the mercenary was out there somewhere, plotting another way to get him back. Robin would always be on Slade's mind and ironically, Slade would always be on Robin's.

It was as if the very cosmos themselves had decided join their fates so that their lives revolved around each other. They were enemies, but in the end nothing and no one else mattered more to them. Robin would continue to be perplexed by Slade to the point of staying up all night without sleep trying to figure out who the villain really was. Slade would continue to be determined to get Robin back to the point of planning everything he could think of how to make this happen.

Whether either would accept it did not matter, the truth remained they would always be tied together by the ominous red string of fate.