A/N Wow, a quick update from me? and it's the longest by far! Hooray! Thanks for the follows, favourites and reviews and on with the story.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Dick Grayson- Titans Tower- Jump city

Dick reached the tower in record time, running full out without pause and he hadn't even broken a sweat. Nor was he panting for breath. He put it down to adrenaline fuelling his escape. He refused to accept the fact that Slade had injected him with any serum. The cut healing was just his imagination in his delirious state. Nothing more.

He was about to enter the tower through the front door when he realised he was a mess. His hair was dishevelled and his clothes were slightly tattered. The main problem was the absence of his mask.

It wasn't that he didn't trust the Titans with his identity-he did. It wasn't his secret to tell though. Bruce's identity was directly linked to Dick's and the man would be furious if he told anyone. Hell, the guy was paranoid. He knew every justice leaguer by first names, yet he refused to give up his own.

Still...Slade knew who he was now. He probably knew who Batman was too. He didn't seem to care though. He didn't make any threats with his identity. He simply used it as an alternative to Robin. He didn't know why though. Slade knew the fearless boy wonder, not the little orphan who buried his grief under a mask.

When Dick left Bruce, he gave up the identity of Richard Grayson. He hadn't thought of himself as that person for a long time, but Slade calling him by his name-It brought Richard back. Richard was like an open book. You could see his whole life story in his blue orbs. He was weak. He couldn't control his emotions, whether they were anger, fear or sorrow. Robin on the other hand was strong. He was brave and determined. He didn't let emotions overwhelm him.

The mask provided Dick with a safety net. A sense of security. It was his lifeline. Without it, he was just Dick Grayson. Orphan, Charity case, Gypsy; the list went on. He wasn't ready for his friends to see Dick Grayson. He wasn't sure if he ever would be.

He doubled back so he could enter through the garage, hacking into the mainframe to let himself in without being noticed. He became aware of how easy it would be for an intruder to break into the tower. He'd definitely talk to cyborg about a possible security update later.

He silently made his way into his room, locking the door behind him. He looked at his clock and realised it was 3 AM. It would be hours until the Titans woke up. He had plenty of time to make himself presentable. Suddenly he felt incredibly dizzy.

The boy staggered into his conjoining bathroom, practically collapsing in a heap in front of the toilet. He sat there panting for a while as he tried to control himself. His head was spinning and his vision was becoming wasn't long before he was hit by a wave of nausea. This time he wasn't able to fight it back. It must have been the running from earlier that started him off again.

He breathed heavily for a moment before vomiting violently into the toilet. He shook vigorously for a few moments before throwing up again. The cycle repeated for about half an hour before Dick finally started to feel slightly better.

He waited by the toilet for another half an hour after he had stopped vomiting before he pushed himself to his feet. He figured he'd feel better after a shower so he slowly undressed and slipped into the shower.

The hot spray of water didn't do much to make him feel better, but at least he was he was clean now. He stepped out of the shower and wrapped a fluffy towel around his waist before returning to his room. He dried himself off before walking to his closet and pulling a new uniform out.

Once dressed he placed a mask on his face, becoming Robin once more.

Looking at the clock he saw it was only 4:30, he decided he could take a small nap.

He woke up a few hours later feeling a lot better. He felt more energetic for a start. He decided it was time to go find his friends.

They were all sitting in the main room, seemingly depressed. He coughed slightly to alert them to his presence.

"Friend Robin!" Starfire exclaimed, flying over to him. She pulled Robin into a bone crushing hug. Normally Robin would have smiled despite the lack of oxygen but this time he didn't. He felt angry. He didn't know why but he didn't want anyone touching him. For some reason this comforting gesture was doing nothing more than irritating him and it took all his self control to remain calm.

When she released him, he gave a small smile.

"Hey guys."

Cyborg walked over, furious. He pushed Robin hard, sending the boy staggering back slightly. Robin's face heated up slightly and his shoulders shook slightly in anger.

"Hey guys?" Cyborg shouted. "That's it? You disappear for a whole week and that's all you say? Where the hell have you been man? We've been worried sick."

Dread hit the boy like a ton of bricks. A week? He had been gone that long? Surely not. He couldn't remember Slade even capturing him, let alone holding him captive for a week. His face paled slightly. That meant he had been unconscious the whole time. He must have been out for a whole week.

What the hell did Slade do to me?

Robin quickly composed himself, running a hand through his hair. As he though of a story.

"I'm sorry, I was on a mission with Batman. Top secret. I had to go off the grid. I should have told you, I know." He lied easily.

"After what happened last time? Don't you remember Red X?! We thought you were dead, Robin!"

Robin frowned as he looked around at his team. Disappointment and betrayal was etched on their faces.

Robin had never been so happy to hear the alarm in his life.

"Titans Go!" He shouted as he quickly left the building. He ran to the location of the crime. It was, by the look of it, a simple bank robbery, nothing the team couldn't handle. He scouted the building. Hostages.

"Raven, create a shield to protect the hostages while Starfire takes them to safety. Cyborg and Beastboy, you guys are with me. Now, move out!" He says through his communicator.

Once Raven had created the shield, he made his move. There was one thing he hadn't anticipated though. A small girl was standing with the robbers. She was crying for her parents. He saw one of the Robbers, most likely the leader, bark orders at his men before grinning greedily at the girl. He picked her up and threw her over his shoulder before leaving.

"Titans, finish up here. I have a kidnapping to stop." He ordered before following the man. He had faith his team would cope.

He followed the man to an apartment complex in the bad part of jump. It wasn't a nice looking place to live, but then again, things generally went unnoticed in places like that.

He saw the girl be placed on the bed and the man started to unzip his trousers. He snapped. He broke down the door and pounced on the man, pounding his face relentlessly. He saw nothing but red, as he continued to deliver strike after strike to the piece of scum below him. He didn't hear the girl scream in fear. He didn't hear his friends enter and scream at him to stop. It wasn't until he was pulled back by strong robotic arms that he snapped out of it.

The first thing he noticed was the blood dripping off his gloves. He slowly looked down to see what was left of the man. He was breathing, but barely. His face was unrecognisable. Robin suddenly felt very sick.

What...have I done? Oh...oh my God...

He turned to his team, noticing Starfire was gone. She must have taken the girl to safety. Raven took a step forward, placing a hand on the injured man before disappearing with him. That just left Cyborg and Beastboy.

"What the hell Robin!?" He shouted. Beastboy stood quietly behind him. "You could have killed him!"

Robin did feel bad, but he wasn't going to have Cyborg lecturing him. He was in charge after all. He took a step forward.

"Unless you hadn't notice...he was...he was going to-"

"I know what he was going to do, Robin but what you did was unacceptable!"

Robin froze for a moment before he felt his temper rise. He glared at Cyborg.

"I did what needed to be done!"

"Listen to yourself! You are exactly like Slade! You need help Robin! You can't lead a team like this! Your obsession is making you sick. It's for the best if we remove you from your position as leader and call Batman. He can find you the help you need."

Robin couldn't believe what he was hearing. Cyborg was kicking him off the team. Sure he made a mistake, but it wasn't as if he had hurt an innocent, and to make things worse he was calling Batman. He was suggesting that Batman lock him up in some kind of mental asylum.

"You have no right..." He all but growled, pointing a finger at his friend.

"I'm sorry Robin...you're sick. Look at you...You're shaking." He didn't take in the concern in his friend's voice. If he had been thinking straight he would have listened. He would have realised they were only trying to help him.

But of course, he didn't.

He ran.

He paid no mind to where his feet were taking him, he just ran blindly. He needed to get out of the city. He needed somewhere where he could be alone. Just for a while at least. Subconsciously he knew the perfect place.

His feet hit the pavement in an even rhythm. Left foot. Right foot. Left again. He didn't hear the shouts of passers-by telling him to watch where he was going, or slow down. He didn't hear the drivers pamp their horns as he almost collided with their vehicles. His mind was elsewhere. Stuck in slow motion, replaying the scene over in his head.

Right foot.

The was deafening as the man begged him to stop. As he begged for Robin to mercifull. His pleading fell on deaf ears. Robin was too far gone to hear anything other the sound of his own heart pounding.

Left foot.

The blood. It was everywhere. Over his hands, his clothes, his face. It was everywhere. It would stay there too. No matter how many times Robin scrubbed every inch of his body, the blood would still remain as a reminder of what he had almost done-he knew that.

Right foot.

The disappointed faces of his team-mates. The utter disgust and shock marring their expressions. He was their leader...and to see him like that? It must have been horrific. If the boy wonder could fall that far, what hope did the rest of them have?

Left foot.

The shouting. His friend's voice echoed in his head over and over again. The anger in his words. He meant them. He couldn't go back. Not after that. They wouldn't accept him.

"You are exactly like Slade! You need help Robin! You can't lead a team like this!"

A scream of pure agony tore from his throat and his legs buckled beneath him and he landed on his knees in the forest clearing. He often went there when he needed to think, but in all honesty, he didn't remember arriving, but then again, he wasn't in his best frame of mind.

Maybe Cy is right...Maybe I do need help.

He broke down into tears at that thought, wrapping his arms tightly around himself. He was a monster. He would have killed that man if the Titans hadn't stopped him-there was no doubt about it. He had just been so angry. He didn't even realise what he had been doing until it was almost too late.

He didn't bother trying to fight back the tears, it was pointless. He allowed them to freely flow down his tinged cheek. He didn't see the man approach until he voiced his presence.

"Well, aren't you a sorry sight?"

He whipped his head around to see the Slade crouching down beside him. Robin instantly went to move away but Slade was quicker. He clamped a hand around Robin's wrist and pulled him back slightly. He reached for Robin's mask and his instincts kicked in. He threw a powerful punch at the man.

Slade caught the incoming fist, leaving Robin low on options to attack. He caught it so easily. It was as if he wasn't even trying. He had always hated that about Slade. The fact that Robin trained hard. So incredibly hard to take the man down yet Slade was able to take him down without even was what had created tension between him and his friends in the first place. Robin was so determined to take down Slade he even took up the identity of Red X. He lied to his friends. He stole and fought against them, all to get to Slade. Everything bad about his life in jump city came down to Slade.

Even now. The recent events were because of him. He wasn't exactly sure what the man had done to him, but he was sure that it had caused his outburst from earlier. He would never lose control like that without something messing with him. It must have been what Slade had done.

Once again fuelled by anger, he lunged forward trying to push the man away from him. At that moment, he wanted nothing more than to hurt the man. To make him pay for what he had done but he wasn't thinking straight. He was fighting with anger and that was never a good way to fight.

Slade took advantage of that, spinning him around and pinning his arms behind his back with one hand. He then pushed him down so his cheek was on the ground. He held him there with his free hand on the back of his head.

"Slade! Let. !" He screamed at the top of his voice, thrashing about in the man's unyielding, Iron grip. His squirming only seemed to make the man tighten his grip.

"No. Not until you calm down." The man spoke darkly into his hear. Robin could feel the warmth of the man's breath through the slits of his mask.

Robin's breathing quickened. He became very much aware of how helpless he was against the man. The images of the man he had almost killed were still flashing in his mind. The shouts, the blood, the screaming. It was all too much for him.

He screamed for the second time that night.

Slade Wilson- Forest- Jump City.

Slade Wilson was not a man who was easily startled. He had seen too much in both his military days, and his days as an assassin. There was very little that caught him off guard.

The violent howl of absolute despair tearing itself out of the boy's throat however, startled him. He shifted his weight slightly and looked down at the boy in his grip. He had stopped struggling but now he was shaking uncontrollably, his sobs racking his body.

Slade Wilson was also not a man who felt pity, but looking at the wreck of a boy beside him, he couldn't help but feel bad. After all, he was the prime factor of the boy's state. He sighed, releasing the boy from his grip in hopes of calming him.

It did nothing.

"Calm yourself down, Richard. Deep breaths." He said as softly as he could manage, before gently pulling the boy into a sitting position. The boy didn't respond to his command, doing the exact opposite as he looked at his blood covered gloves. Slade slowly reached forward and removed the boys gloves, hiding them from view.

The boy's eyes remained glued to his hands as if he didn't notice the gloves were gone. His shaking hadn't died down either. Slade wasn't very good at this. It had been a long time since he had needed to comfort a distraught child. That's what Richard was- a child. As strong as he was, he was still only a child and Slade had to keep reminding himself of that. He needed guidance and if Slade was going to take him on as an apprentice, he needed to act like a mentor, not a master. The first step was calming him down enough to talk.

He cupped the boy's chin in one hand and slowly peeled the mask off with the other. The boy didn't even protest.

"Richard, look at me."

The boy made no move to do so and it Slade felt his temper rising. The brat wasn't even trying to help himself. Slade knew that the serum could make one's emotions haywire for a time afterwards, but Slade was pretty sure he hadn't behaved like this. He had been overly angry, taking out everyone that had anything to do with the creation of the formula. He had carried that anger with him throughout life. The boy had also been showing signs of anger. That was evident in his sloppy attack earlier. He'd have to teach him to control that anger.

He was pulled from his thoughts as he heard the boy choking back a sob. His anger quickly faded as he took in the broken boy. He gently turned his head to the side forcing Dick to look at him.

His bright blue eyes were bloodshot and dull. He'd thought the boy would have been able to last longer away from him than he did, but no matter, it would work out better for him if the boy came home quicker. The sooner he could begin his training, the better.

"Are you ready to tell me what happened?" He said in an even tone, not really expecting the boy to answer.

There was a long pause before, to his surprise the boy started talking. Slade was patient throughout Richard's story. At one point the boy had seemed unable to continue but after a hand on his shoulder and some coaxing, he finished the story.

No wonder the boy was such a mess, his team had practically abandoned him, and mental help? that wouldn't help the boy in the least. Only Slade could help him. The boy would come to realise that in time.

"You realise your only option is to come with me, correct?" He asked nonchalantly.

The boy's eyes widened for a moment before he shook his head. Clearly he had other ideas. He would have to crush those ideas quickly. It would be pointless to drag the boy home with him against his will. The boy had to believe it was his own choice.

"You have another idea, hmm? Go back to the Titans? Go back to daddy? both of those would end the same way. With you in a straight jacket."

Not that it would be able to hold him. The boy was still very much in the dark about his new abilities. Once the boy had calmed down and had a decent rest, he would talk to him about that. Just by looking at him, he could tell the boy was ill. He would have preferred it if the boy had remained with him for at least a few days before escaping so he could monitor his recovery.

"No...I'll..." The boy seemed to be conflicted. He didn't want to admit Slade was right. "I'll go solo."

Slade smirked under his mask at the boy's uncertainty. He truly was easy to manipulate.

"Until you lose control again. What happens if there is no one there to stop you? What if you go too far?"

Richard's answer was silence.

Good. He's letting that sink in. He knows I'm right.

"I can help you, Dick." He used the boy's nickname in hopes of seeming more familiar and less intimidating. "I can teach you how to control your new abilities. Harness them."

He looked the boy in the eyes before standing up offering the shaking boy his hand.

"All you have to do is let me."

He could see Dick's resolve weakening. At that moment he didn't see the fearless boy wonder. He saw a scared child who was desperate for security. A young boy who had been dealt a cruel fate. Once Slade broke him down and rebuilt him, the boy that would be the perfect apprentice.

"They won't take you back, Dick. Things will never be the same again. They'll have you locked up. I see your potential in a way they never did. I'm giving you the opportunity to become great, Richard. Let me help you." He urged.

The boy was conflicted. That was clear from just looking at his facial features. Just as Slade was about to withdraw his hand, he felt Dick grasp it. Smiling under his mask, Slade pulled the boy up.

"Come now, it's getting cold and dark, lets get you inside." He placed a hand on Richard's shoulder and led him towards the car he had arrived in.

He opened the door allowing the boy to get in the back seat before he slid in next to him. He nodded at Will, signalling him to start the car.

Mission accomplished.

A/N

Thank you for all the reviews, they really keep me going. I'm sorry if this chapter was a bit dark but I needed something that would make Robin snap.

So yes, Robin is back with Slade. It all happened quickly right? I'll admit that I had planned on him staying with the Titans for longer, but I suck at writing them. That and I wanted to get back into the Slade and Robin interaction scenes because...well, who doesn't love the angst that's bound to happen when those two are in a room together.

Just a heads up, This story will NOT be slash. It can either be purely mentor and student or I can even have Slade soften up and take on a fatherly role. That is up to you guys.