A/N: This story is a commission by u/3972614/.

Chapter One

"Terra… Tell me, you seem to me such a melancholy child. Would you like a playmate your own age?" Slade asked casually, the mask over his face keeping Terra from reading any emotions that he may have been showing. Was he testing her? Was he really offering her a friend? Slade was a lot of things to Terra. He was a mentor, he was, in some ways, her savior. He saved her from herself, from her own powers. She had no control before he came along and trained her.

All he demanded from her was her obedience, and it seemed a small price to pay… Until the Teen Titans showed her true friendship with no strings attached… Or so she thought. They knew that she needed Slade to teach her to control her powers. But they rejected her. Beast Boy rejected her. She was sure that she could have fallen in love with Beast Boy. As silly as he was sometimes, she cared about him more than she could say.

And if Beast Boy had been willing to forgive her the last time they saw each other, she knew that she could have found the strength to leave Slade, to betray him. But what was the point if there was nobody to go to?

"It isn't a trick question, Terra. Perhaps you could use more congenial company than my own."

"Wh-who did you have in mind, Sir?" Terra asked. She was sure that Slade was smirking behind his mask.

"Well, consider it killing two birds with one stone, but I was thinking of your old friend, Robin."

"I don't think I could pay him to be my friend. He hates me if you remember, and call me paranoid, but I think he hates you even more." Terra said with a sardonic laugh. Slade laughed as well, though, causing a chill to go down Terra's spine.

"Give someone the right incentive, and anyone will work for you, for the greater good." Slade answered.

"Do not worry about getting him here. Let me worry about that. That's why I'm here. The big picture." Slade said, sending Terra away.

Robin's head cracked as it turned toward the giant screen that was usually reserved for warning messages used to call on the Titans.

"Hello, Titans. I trust you've been well?" Slade asked, his voice filling the entire room. The Titans looked up angrily. Beast Boy seemed especially affronted by Slade calling them.

"Where's Terra, you bastard!" Beast Boy demanded. Slade's one eye narrowed.

"Terra? When you rejected her, you crushed her heart, Garfield. She came back to the only other place she had ever been welcome. Me. I understand. I was quite fickle as a teenager, myself. But she was in a precarious place emotionally back then.

"I think that your forgiveness would have been all she needed to stabilize her, to give her the strength to stand up for herself against me. You couldn't even give her that, though, could you? Well, bygones are bygones, and I don't think she's angry, anymore. But now, I speak directly to Robin. The rest of you will leave the room.

"If you do not comply, I have rigged a hospital with explosives. I won't tell you which one. If I press the red button, the wires will fry, and the bombs will become just so much plastic and gun powder. If I press the green button, however, they will detonate. Hundreds, if not thousands of lives will be lost, and it will be all your faults."

The rest of the Titans could practically hear Robin's teeth grinding.

"Fine… The rest of you, get out… Now!" Robin demanded. The others nodded, and hurried out of the room.

"Good decision. Now, soundproof the room so they cannot listen in. The same threat applies."

Robin growled, but pushed the soundproofing button.

"Good. Now, I have a business proposal for you. Not here, though. You will meet me under the bridge where you believe I rigged bombs that one time at midnight tonight. If you do not, I will implement my plan, and the people of this city will be in great danger. Do you understand?"

"I understand."

"Good. If I see any of the other Titans, or the authorities there, I will set the plan in motion prematurely, and everyone will die. The entire city."

"Fine…" Robin growled. If Slade didn't have his mask on, he surely would have been smirking.

"I'm here, Slade! What do you want!"

"No hello? No how are you doing? It's the least you could do after you turned on me like you did, Robin." Came a distinctly feminine voice.

"Terra? Slade didn't even have the decency to come out himself? Coward!"

"On the contrary, Robin. I merely brought Terra with me so she could get better acquainted with her new playmate. I would never have Terra come to issue my demands for me. Now, since we seem to want to get straight to the point, here, I have poisoned the water supply of Jump City. There's no need to worry… Yet. The poison only activates when a catalyst is added. The catalyst is in this tube.

"This tiny amount added to approximately one cup full of the initial poison is enough to kill everyone in Jump City. If you don't want their deaths to be on your head, then you will do exactly as I say. The poison is slow to leave the water system, and tends to seep into the soil and sand in the bottom, contaminating it for months or years to come. So, you cannot simply wait me out.

"I want what I wanted last time. You will become my apprentice. In addition, you will act as a companion for Terra. You would not want to be responsible for the last dregs of her humanity leaving her? She needs companionship, just like most humans, and you will provide that companionship."

"How do I know you're not lying to force my cooperation?" Robin demanded. Terra smirked, and Slade stepped forward, laughing softly.

"You don't. Terra… Bring the demonstration model." Slade said. Terra grunted slightly, a rather unfeminine sound, and pushed a large fish tank into the light. Slade took an eye dropper of silvery liquid and dropped a single drop into the fish tank. For five minutes, he waited, and Robin watched the fish continue to swim around.

He then took an eye dropper of yellowish liquid and dropped a similar amount into the fish tank. There was a slight disturbance in the water, clearly the effects of the chemical catalyzing, and ten fish suddenly rose to the surface of the water, obviously dead. Robin gasped as Slade took a large cup of the silvery liquid and poured it into the stream. Robin knew that the stream was one of the tributaries to the Jump City water supply.

"The chemical is toxic in doses a tenth what I just poured in. It's… A little pet project that I've been working on. I'm rather proud of it. It won't poison you if introduced to the bloodstream, or by breathing it in… Unless of course you breathe in the catalyst and the poison simultaneously. I could control the entire government of Jump City with this. But for now, I'm satisfied with just controlling you, Robin."

"Fine… I'll become your assistant. But let me tell you this… if you ever slip up, ever show me any hint that there's an opening, I won't hesitate to take you out!" Robin snarled furiously. Slade merely nodded.

"I would expect nothing less. You know, I believe the source of our connection is that we are in fact very much alike."

"You and I are nothing alike!"

"No? We're both ambitious, to the point of perfectionism, even. We're both leaders. And I've seen the darkness inside of you, Robin. Even if you won't admit it. You can lie to yourself if it pleases you. But you cannot lie to me. You are on the opposite side of the coin but for circumstances. Had your life been different, had you not been taken under the Dark Knight's wing, so to speak, you may very well have been in Terra's place.

"I know what you wanted when your parents first were killed. It wasn't justice. It was revenge, and now, you would like nothing more than to kill me. Given half a chance, you would deny me my very life, wouldn't you?"

"Without a second's hesitation."

"That's what I like to hear. You really are so very similar to me. Well, regardless, I will give you forty-eight hours to prepare. Thereafter, you will leave the Titans, and never return to them. Do we understand each other?"

"Yes…" Robin snarled through gritted teeth. Slade nodded once, and beckoned for Terra to follow him.

Robin stormed through the tower, throwing his things haphazardly into a suitcase, occasionally growling or sneering. The rest of the Titans stared helplessly as he grabbed a boomerang and threw it in the suitcase, and let out an enraged growl. Raven sighed. It looked like she was going to have to be the one to talk to Robin, since nobody else seemed to want to.

"Robin… What's wrong?"

"Nothing! I'm leaving! I'm not coming back!" Robin yelled. Even Raven recoiled at his sudden vitriol.

"What? Why? Why are you doing the leaving?" Starfire asked, floating over to Robin, hugging him tightly, hoping to make him stay.

"None of your business!" Robin snapped." Robin yelled, swatting at Starfire, who pulled away, yelping as she did, to startled and angry exclamations from the rest of the group.

"I can't deal with you anymore! You hold me back! I still can't master half my combat maneuvers, and I need to go out on my own to manage that!" Robin yelled, storming to the door, and leaving, leaving Starfire in tears, and the rest of the Titans in shock. Even Raven seemed shocked by Robin's sudden exclamation that he didn't need them anymore. She was frankly hurt. She had always considered Robin the Titan who understood her best, whom she liked the most, maybe even loved.

So why couldn't she understand why he was doing this? She wouldn't use her psychic empathy on him. She refused to violate his privacy like that. But she did want to know.

"Robin…" Raven said quietly, walking over to him and putting a hand on his shoulder.

"I consider you one of my best friends. I can usually understand you pretty well, even when you're not making any sense. But I don't understand this.

"Why are you abandoning us like this? You know we need you. You're a good leader. Intense as you are, none of us can lead like you can. Please, don't go…" Raven said, blushing slightly. Robin scowled at her.

"I have no choice. I have to do this." Robin muttered, looking as miserable as she felt.

"If there's one thing you taught me, Robin, it's that you always have a choice. Back when my father was about to destroy the world, you kept stressing that, and you empowered me to make my own choices. Without your encouragement, the world would have been destroyed. You always have a choice, so long as you don't give up hope.

"Please, Robin… Don't go…" Raven said quietly, reaching up to Robin, and kissing him. The rest of the team gasped as she did this, especially Starfire, who felt she had a monopoly on him.

"Please… I love you."

"I have no choice. When next we meet, we'll be enemies. Don't hesitate to stop me… By any means necessary." Robin said sadly, still blushing slightly, throwing a smoke bomb and disappearing.