Summary: AU. A world where Robin never belonged to the heroes community but stood among the villains. A world where Robin never got adopted by Batman but fell into the clutch of a sadistic villain - Deathstroke. How would it play out when Robin, determined to bring destruction to the team, crossed path with the Titans?

A/N: First and foremost, I need to notice you that there will be some slight alternations to the team's members. The original five would be Raven, Starfire, Cyborg, Beast Boy and Terra, with Cyborg being the leader.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans. This one is written out of pure entertainment, no profit intended.

I wanna heal, I wanna feel

What I thought was never real

I wanna let go of the pain I felt so long

(Erase all the pain 'til it's gone)

I wanna heal, I wanna feel

Like I'm close to something real

I wanna find something I wanted all along

Somewhere I belong

(Likin Park, Somewhere I belong)

It was the anniversary marking the one - year milestone in the foundation of the Teen Titans. Jump City had finally been at peace after such a long time dwelling in crimes and darkness. The city was particularly wiped clean of villains and offenders. It would be quite an understatement to say that the Titans had done a splendid job. As a matter of fact, they had fulfilled their roles so satisfactorily that in order to show their immense gratitude, the City Mayor and its citizens had decided to throw a thank – you sort of party for the Titans. They even came to an agreement that they would make the day when the Titans were formed to be a Teen Titans day.

"...There would be no appropriate words to describe our appreciation for your efforts in protecting this city. Had it not been for you, this city would be bound to sinking deeper and deeper in darkness. A tragic ending of becoming like Gotham would be then, quite unavoidable and irrefutable. We dare say..."

Up in the front seat, along with his fellow Titans, Beast Boy had to try his best not to yawn and nod off. The celebration so far had been quite dull and boring, with the lengthy speech and all. He was expecting a crazy party in which everybody would be dancing, singing and eating 'til they went sick, not this boring type of celebration. It was too formal for his taste. However, as Raven had put it, he was in no position to pick and choose, that this was more than they could ever hope for.

Cyborg, clearly noticing his teammate's dampened enthusiasm, elbowed Beast Boy slightly in the hip and whispered.

"It's gonna be over before you even realize this, just you wait. Then, you and I, we can indulge ourselves in all the best dishes ever."

"All you can eat?" Beast Boy whispered back, his eyes slightly widened in expectations.

"All you can eat." Cyborg confirmed, offering the younger one with a reassuring smile.

Another painful hours had gone by and there was still no sign of the speech's coming to an end. It took every ounce of the team not to fall asleep out of sheer boredom. Their patience was gradually wearing thin. To everyone's great relief, the Mayor seemed to notice this for he quickly finished his dreary speech, skipped a few unnecessary ceremonies and announced it was time for celebration. Soon after, all the guests were present in the dining hall where every delicate and sophisticated food had been prepared. The meal was giving off an inviting smell, which made everyone almost drool.

Beast Boy eyes brightened with excitement.

"Wow, they actually prepared veggie food for me. And I only mentioned it once. I guess I'm such a Mr. Important that they couldn't possibly afford to fail."

He lunged himself towards the table.

"Or maybe they can't afford to let you get a taste of their delicious meats." Teased Cyborg jokingly, loading some spaghetti on his own plate.

Raven eyed Beast Boy's irrational excitement over all the food while having a go with some strange - looking dishes herself. Meanwhile, Terra had been far lost in stuffing as much food as possible in her mouth, spilling some dressing on her dress in the process. Lean and thin as she appeared to be, she was one hell of an eater. It went the same for the Tamaranian princess, who was also cleaning the plates with a godlike speed.

"And I was expecting that some of you would actually have some table manner." Came a cold, monotonous and to some extent, creepy voice from behind the Titans' backs.

They all wiped around to see the owner of the voice and to their astonishment, he turned out to be quite a young boy, barely older than fourteen, though the look on his face belonged to an old man, one that had been through too much to see the bright side of life. The raven crown boy was eyeing them with a mildly disgusted expression. Other than that, his face betrayed no emotions. He was tucking his hands in his pocket, eyeing them with his intelligent, sharp, but at the same time, cold, empty grey eyes and a slight scowl.

Upon having eye contact with him, Raven crouched over and clutched her abdomen. An overwhelming feeling was overtaking her, drowning her with it. Her senses were screaming at her to blow the boy into trillion pieces. She was sweating all over and slightly trembling. No one seemed to notice her though, since they were straining their eyes on the new comer.

"Who gives you the rights to scold us like that, oh Mr. Perfect?" Protested Beast Boy with his mouth still full.

"As a citizen of this city, I have the very rights to fully expect to have a proper, up - to - standards guardians, not a bunch of teenagers who barely have the faintest idea about table manners running around the city like some goons they are."

Terra's eyes twitched uncontrollably, she curled her hands into fists, hardly able to control her annoyance.

"You are supposed to have some respect towards us, kid. Don't bite the hands that feed you. We protect this city, you including."

"Don't let all the praises go to your heads. Being self-important is the first step to inevitable failure. Mark my words Blondie. Or else, you will face your downfall in no time."

The boy rolled his eyes before turning on his heels and left, heading towards a white - haired man with a ridiculous goatee. His interaction with the Titans, brief as it was, made their blood boil with rage.

"What a party pooper. I have completely lost my appetite because of this annoying shrimp." Terra complained, glancing at the raven - haired boy. She made so little efforts hiding her dislike for the boy that one my think see may eat the boy alive if she had been allowed to.

"Forget it. He doesn't seem to have appropriate manners himself, seeing that he just had to throw rude things at our faces. Couldn't come up with a nice thank - you." Cyborg shrugged, popping a piece of beef in his mouth. "Just get the midget out of your head."

Little did he know that their paths would soon cross more than one time. For now, all he could do was to savoir the taste of the delicate dishes from all walks of life and the compliments from those who attended showered upon them.

"Well?" The white crowned man with the goatee asked, raising an eyebrow in pure amusement.

"I can't believe you would have such great an interest in them that you when through all the troubles to be here yourself, dragging me all along. They are disgusting, they eat like a hog and they even hold a stupid belief that everyone in this stinky city owe them a favor. " Mumbled the grey - eyed boy. He was playing with his mobile phone, a somber expression on his face. He didn't like these people at all, they had no table manners, they thought too highly of themselves, and they called him a kid, a midget, a shrimp.

"Now now Robin, you don't want to have such a rude attitude towards your new found toys. Don't you? You know that you will be having a lot to do with them in the future."

Robin's scowl deepened, he decided it would be best to completely ignore his Master's question.

"Master Slade, wouldn't it be much faster if we just finish them up?".

Slade gave a halfhearted laugh.

"It would be just too easy on them. Don't you think so dear apprentice? It would be much more funny and entertaining if we play with their minds a little bit before sending them to the hand of Death, ne? Moreover, we have to make the best use of them before they become utterly useless. Don't be so eager to draw blood. You will have a good many of opportunities to do so."

Robin kept his scowl in its place, not giving any particular answer other than a defeated sigh and turned his attention back on his phone.

"Besides, you need practice. Last time you almost blew up. Your skills are a far cry from perfect." Slade added after a few moments of silence.

Robin remained quiet. It was an ugly event, with him almost blowing up their covers. If Master Slade hadn't stepped in the scene and given a helping hand, he would have kicked the bucket for sure. Or worse, he could have been captured by the Justice League - he couldn't allow such luxury of being caught. The event was still very fresh in his mind, haunting him every night, reminding him how much of a loser he had been. Slade even had the 'decency' to remind this to him every single day, plus a near death beating. No, the man wouldn't be kind enough to actually kill him, to end his sufferings, he was too valuable an apprentice to be lost. What Slade would do was to 'educate' him further by beating him hours on end, playing mind games with him and brainwashing him until he finally lost his sanity. And lose his sanity Robin did.

Closing his lenses - covered eyes, Robin tried to inhale and exhale slowly, forcing his mind to stop thinking about the haunting images of the deaths of his former "toys" and how defeated he had been. 'Get your mind off things, Robin, you have been thinking too much, give it a rest already.'

He swore he had tried his best in finishing his job. He never wanted Slade to interfere with his missions, despite the irrefutable fact that it was Slade that appointed him the missions. Slade, that man, had taken Robin in after his parents' brutal deaths, bestowing upon him a privilege of being his apprentice. He had forced into Robin's young, impressionable mind countless methods of how to fight like a true warrior, how to deceive, how to inflict pain on others, how to manipulate. Slade was also the one who had taught him how to never reveal his feelings, for he was such an open book, far too easy to read. It was a tough job for Robin at first, having an abundant of emotion himself, being forced to witness grisly death of many while his mind still had yet to recover from the passing of his parents. It was so agonizing to see all kinds of torture human kind can ever think of. He could hardly manage to conceal his feelings, his horror, his disapproval to Slade's ways of thinking back then. It was way too much for a six years old child to handle. Robin still remembered vividly how he would scream at the top of his lungs, begging his Master to go easy on his victim, or better yet, to let them go, even if it would ultimately result in his very own savage beatings. As the years slowly went by, things started to become considerably easy for him to manage. Now, no one could really tell what exactly was on his mind, not even Slade himself. Robin, having spent years on end to master this particular technique, put his "success" down to the fact that her barely feel anymore, that he was as good as an empty shell, left with nothing but numbness. All of his pains, from Robin's perspective, were of his own makings, his very own fault. There was no one to blame but himself. In his childhood years, Robin was scared, terrified of the pain, of the piercing feeling crawling at his own chest, so he willed himself to learn how to stop feeling, to turn a blind eye to everything. It wasn't too long when he eventually came to the harsh realization that the place where his heart once lay nothing but an empty hole.

It was bitter at first to realize that he was truly, undeniably like his Master – both were ruthless, brutal, serious, cocky, and heartless. At one point of his life, he had despised, detested being compared to the man. Just the mere mention of their being alike could have made him go blind with boiling , he had come to terms with it, lived with that fact and sometimes, actually felt glad about it. There was no point in going back now, he had gone too far to ever be saved, had stopped praying for the Saving Grace to come. The similarities between them now would function as a bond to help him understand his Master better. Robin was ready more than ever to claim his rightful position of being the heir to Deathstroke the Terminator.

To prove that, he would have to play the Great Game, make himself a piece of the Game, manipulate everyone in it. It meant that he would play with the Titans' hearts and minds until they could no longer tell right from wrong, friends from enemy, heroes from evils. To do that, at first, he had to work himself to the line of the angels, the saints, the goody good heroes he tried best to avoid.

"Let's go apprentice. Looks like our business here is done for the time being. Now you have to prepare yourself mentally and physically for the upcoming task." Slade shot him a meaningful glare "Make sure you don't fail and make me clean up your mess like last time." He left without any further word.

Robin winced, Slade's words had brought back the image of his former toys' deaths to his ill – shaped mind. They were horrifyingly brutal. Though the incident had happened for a few months, he couldn't quite shake himself off of the vivid vision of a blood - soaked girl, who was looking at him in desperation, begging for his help, trusting him even in her very own death, not knowing that she was looking right at Death himself, that Robin was the one that had indirectly inflicted the pain upon her and her teammates.

Now to him, those honey eyes were demanding answers, answers as to why he had betrayed their trust, had let them down when they needed him the most. Those eyes were accusing him of his unforgivable betrayal, accusing him of stabbing their owner in the back.

The the nth time in one day, Robin heaved a heavy sigh. His Master was a good distance ahead of him, still not slowing down to wait for his precious of an apprentice. He knew his boy so well he was sure that the boy would never dare to ever have the idea of running away. Not when he had broken utterly and completely, not when Slade himself had been the one to bend the boy's mind to his liking, not when Slade had brought him to his knees - to his very own submission. He had made sure that Robin's mind was deteriorated to such an extent that there was no going back, no psychiatrist, not even the best one in this entire universe, could ever save him from what he had become. Years of torture, both physically and mentally, had seen through that.

Stuffing the phone back in his pocket, Robin ran after his Master. As he glanced back at the Titans once more, a rigid message echoed in his head, one his Master had taught him long ago.

"Trust takes time to built, but easy to destroy."

So build trust with them he would.

Even if it meant, once again, he would hurt others beyond repair.

A/N: Please spare some of your precious time to let me know what you think and whether this is worth continuing or not. Review :)