(A/N: WARNING! For those of you that have not seen the movie 'Batman Beyond, Return of the Joker' this story contains MAJOR spoilers. This story links Robin's obsession with Slade as well as his reasons for leaving Batman and Batgirl to join the Teen Titans.)

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

"ROBIN'S OBSESSION"

They were after him again. Slade. He was planning something. What? Did it really matter? It couldn't be anything good. They would have to stop him before his plan went through. Anything this man, this psychopath could do anything but harm innocents. After all, he was just like him.

"No!" Robin scolded himself. "Don't even think about that psychotic clown. He was a madman and a murderer. He's the one who- NO! Focus!"

Slade was on the move. He must have decided to flee. Slade was no coward, he would fight, but when the odds were against him, he knew when to cut his loses and run.

Robin looked back at his friends. They were fighting the Slade-bots. And winning. Slade obviously saw that his mission would be a success and made a run for it.

"Not this time." Robin thought as he gave chase.

Slade was fast, but Robin was determine. He wouldn't let Slade get away again. Not again. He would catch and unmask him once and for all. Then he would send him where he belonged, jail.

They were on the rooftops again. What was it with villains like Slade always going up on rooftops? Not that it mattered. Robin had fought Slade aboveground, underground, even in Hell.

Suddenly Slade turned to face him, throwing a punch. Robin jumped over him and landed several feet away, puling out his metal pole and taking a defensive posture.

"Well Robin, here we are again, just the two of us." Said Slade. "Funny how the leaders always seem to be the ones who go head to head."

Robin wouldn't let Slade intimidate him. "This time you're going down."

Slade didn't even flinch. That mask he wore made it impossible to read his emotions. "Now, now Robin. How many times have you told yourself that?"

Robin struck out with his pole. Slade grabbed it and pulled Robin forward. He jumped over the Boy Wonder's head and held him in place, using the metal pole to choke him.

"Probably every time you and I have met. Yet you never seem to be able to catch me." Slade mocked.

Robin kicked upward, bringing his leg high enough to hit Slade in the face. But Slade had anticipated the attack and jumped away.

"But perhaps you don't want to catch me." He said. "Maybe you want to do something…" His eye narrowed. "…more!"

"Shut up!" Robin cried.

He swung at Slade again. Slade simply dodged the swings. He was toying with him, and Robin knew it.

"You don't just want me caught. You want me dead."

"I said, shut up!"

Slade caught the metal pole again. "I notice you're not denying it."

Robin did a back flip, breaking away from his enemy. "I'm not like that. I'm nothing like that."

"But you are Robin. You know it, I know it. You're old master knows it."

That sent Robin over the edge. He began attacking wildly, not landing a single blow.

"Don't you ever, ever even breath his name!"

"My, my. Do I hear hatred in your voice?" asked Slade. "I know he was your master, your friend, the father you never had, you told me so yourself, but there's still a part of you that hates him."

He punched Robin in the gut, then spun around and kicked him in the chest, sending him flying.

"I know why you left him Robin." He continued, walking towards the fallen hero. "He tried to hold you back. He wanted to keep you from your destiny. He was too caring. You needed a master that let you be all you could be. Someone like me."

Robin jumped to his feet and threw some of his bird-berangs. Slade easily dodged them.

"We've been through this before!" Robin yelled, talking about his days as Slade's apprentice. "I'm nothing like you! And you could never take his place!"

"Maybe not at first, but after the little incident, regarding the Joker, Batman could no longer help you."

Robin attacked again. He aimed a kick for Slade's head, but missed. He tried hitting him with his metal pole, but Slade grabbed it, again. A powerful kick threw him back, making him lose his grip on his metal pole, leaving it in Slade's hands.

Slade simply tossed the pole aside and began calmly walking towards him. "I know what happened to you Robin. The darkness that's still inside you. The part of him that's still inside you. You can feel it, can't you?"

Robin jumped up and tried to punch him, but Slade grabbed his arm and twisted it back, holding him in place.

"You can feel it growing, trying to take control of you. You may be able to fight it now, but how long can you? It will eventually break through and take over you again. You know it will. I can help you. I can teach you to live with it. Become one with it. When you were working with me, you felt it growing again, trying to break free from your control. And part of you, that part of you, enjoyed the stealing, enjoyed hurting your friends. It's a gift Robin. Use it. I can help you. I helped Terra for awhile, but she was too weak. But not you Robin. Come back to me Robin, and you and Junior can reach your full potential."

Robin had enough. Fighting against the pain, he managed to throw Slade off him. Slade landed several feet away. He was barely on his feet before Robin was upon him. This time, Robin landed his blows. This wasn't the kind hearted superhero Robin, this was the deranged merciless Robin. He showed Slade no mercy. Slade wasn't fighting back anymore. He wasn't even defending himself. Robin knew he should stop, but he couldn't. And the thing that scared him the most was that part of him, that part of him, was enjoying causing Slade this pain.

"Don't you ever bring that up again!" he cried. "He will never take control of me! Never! And neither will you! You will never get me to turn to your evil ways! And he will never come back!"

A final punch sent Slade falling backwards. Robin quickly retrieved his metal pole and threw it at Slade with all his might. The pole crashed into Slade's face and went straight through, bursting halfway through the back of his head. Wires and circuits stuck out of the broken part. It wasn't Slade at all, just another robot copy.

The robot Slade collapsed. The fight was over, but Slade couldn't resist having the last word.

"You know you can't stop it." Came Slade's disfigured voice as he spoke from his lair. "One day, one day it will take over you. And you won't be able to stop it again."

That was it. The Slade robot lost all power. Robin just stood there quietly as he tried to fight against his anger that didn't seem to be his.

"Robin?"

He turned and found his friends standing behind him, staring at the busted Slade robot. Robin winced when he saw them. They looked like they were at a loss for words. Robin didn't know what to tell them. He wasn't even fully aware of what had happened. It was just like the time he had yelled at Starfire for letting Slade get away that time in the rain. He hadn't been himself. He had been him.

Slowly Robin bowed his head and quietly walked away.

(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)-(-)

It wasn't uncommon for Robin to spend long periods of time in his room after a failed attempt to capture Slade. But this time was different. He had been in his room for days and hadn't come out for anything, not even for a bite to eat. None of the other Titans could get him to come out. Not even when Control Freak tried another one of his world famous attempts to get on the Titan's top villain list did Robin come out.

"Dude, doesn't he have to go to the bathroom!" Beast Boy cried.

"Beast Boy, this is serious." Said Raven, sounding emotionless as always. "Something Slade said really got to him. I can sense his emotions. Right now he's battling a great sorrow that he's been trying to cover up for a long time now."

"The guy did seem pretty out of it." Said Cyborg. "Even more so then usual."

"But he always gets like this after Slade gets away." Said Beast Boy.

"Robin does get the depression when Slade gets away." Said Starfire. "But this time he seems more, as Cyborg said, out of it. I am worried for our friend."

Cyborg nodded. "Yeah, me too. The way he attacked Slade was just creepy."

Beast Boy shrugged. "So, it was just a stupid robot." Cyborg glared at him. "Uh, I didn't mean anything by that."

"It doesn't matter if it was a robot." Said Raven. "Robin didn't know it was a robot. What if that was the real Slade? Robin could have killed him."

"No!" Starfire cried. "Robin would never deliberately take another's life. Robin is good. He is nothing like Slade. There must have been a reason for him to go crazy."

"Maybe it wasn't even Robin." Said Raven. Everyone turned to her, looking confused. "I mean it was Robin, but not the Robin we know."

Beast Boy scratched his head. "So, you're saying that there's two Robin's."

Raven was beginning to lose her patience with the green changeling. "No, I mean it was like another part of him took over for a moment."

"You mean like you and you're anger?" asked Cyborg carefully. Talking about Raven's emotions was walking on thin ice.

"Exactly." Raven replied. "I can't explain it, but I did sense something creep up in Robin's mind for a brief moment."

"Do you guys always talk about me like this?"

The Titans turned around. Robin was leaning against the wall. Who knows how long he had been there. Three of the Titans looked guilty, but Starfire was overjoyed.

"Robin! You have come out!" she cried happily. "Does this mean you are undepressed?"

Robin slowly walked over to them. "I'm sorry to worry you. I just had to face some past demons."

He sat down on the sofa. The other Titans looked at him as if they expected him to go crazy on them.

"I'm ok now." He assured them.

"Are you really?" asked Raven.

"Of course I am!" he snapped. "Why wouldn't I be?"

His friends coward away from him. Robin quickly realized his mistake and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. Maybe I'm not as ok as I thought."

Starfire was the first to recover. "Would you like to talk about it?" she asked, wanting to help.

Robin didn't answer right away. He seemed to be debating something. "It's difficult to explain." He finally said.

"It's ok, you don't have to talk about it if you're not ready." Said Cyborg.

"Of course he does!" cried Beast Boy. "He can't just leave us hanging now." Everyone except Robin gave him a silencing death glare. Beast Boy's ears fell. "Uh… just kidding."

Robin shook his head. "No, he's right. It's about time I told you guys about myself. And why I'm so obsessed with Slade. I've never told you before because I didn't want you to think badly of me."

"Robin, we are your friends, and we could never think badly of you." Starfire assured him.

Robin couldn't tell her how much that meant to him. He walked over to the window and looked out at the city. He couldn't face them as he spoke.

"I never told you why I left my old team." He said. "Why I left Batman and Batgirl. Well, here it goes. I'm sure you've all heard of the Joker."

Raven, Cyborg, and Beast Boy nodded, but Starfire, being from another planet, looked confused.

"Please, I do not understand?" she said. "You speak of someone who plays pranks on others, yes?"

"No, Star." Said Cyborg. "The Joker was Robin, Batman, and Batgirl's worst enemy. He was a psychotic dude with green hair and white skin."

"He was a madman." Robin growled. "A psychopath. A murderer. He was just like Slade, only much more psychotic. He lived for causing people pain. He was a monster."

"He sounds terrible." Said Starfire.

"The dude was bad news." Said Cyborg. "He was wanted for probably every crime that can be committed."

Raven had the feeling that she was beginning to understand Robin's obsession with Slade. "So you're so obsessed with Slade because he's so much like Joker."

Robin visibly flinched. Now came the real difficult part. "That's only part of the reason. It was actually the Joker that broke up my team. I will never forget that night. I remember it as if it were yesterday.

"I was out patrolling the city alone, like I had several times, when it happened. I fell into Joker's trap. His girlfriend Harley pretended to be a civilian in trouble. I went to save her and she captured me. I had been careless, and I paid dearly for it.

"I woke up in Joker's lair. He had long since unmasked me and discovered my identity. But I wasn't really the one he wanted. He wanted information. He wanted Batman. And he got him. I was tortured for hours, for days without rest. I don't know how long it was, but I eventually cracked. He used torture, drugs, mind tricks and eventually got everything he needed about me and my team."

His friends hung onto every word he said. None of them knew what Robin had gone through. Everyone, except Starfire who had not been on Earth at the time, had known of the Boy Wonder's disappearance for several months back when he was still teamed up with Batman and Batgirl, but they had not known what had happened.

Robin went on with his story. "After he had all the information he needed, there was no more use for me. He could have killed me, but he didn't. Instead he spent months brainwashing me, taking control of my mind. He did experiments on me. He injected me with so many things. He… I don't even remember what else he did, but he managed to pull off his goal. He turned me into a miniature version of him. He somehow put his mind in mine, and it took over. I was the Joker. I had become… Joker Junior."

His friends all gasped. Had Robin looked at their reflections in the window, he would have seen their stunned faces, but he couldn't bare to look at him.

"I was no longer myself. Joker Jr. had possessed me. All the drugs he gave me also mutated me. I took on Joker's appearance to. I was practically a clone. I tried to fight it, but I couldn't. Everything that was happening, I saw, heard, and felt it all, but was unable to do anything about it. Junior had completely taken over. I was trapped in my own body."

He shivered at the memory. He could still remember the feeling. Looking out of his eyes that were no longer his eyes. Watching helplessly as a body that was no longer his do things he had fought to stop.

"Then Joker decided to gloat. He lured Batman and Batgirl to us. He wanted them to see that he knew who they were. He wanted them to see his evil plan. He wanted them to meet his son.

"Junior fought them. He fought them with my body. I tried to stop it, I really did, but I couldn't. Junior was too strong. Then it happened. Joker had Batman. He ordered me to kill him. I was going to do it too. I had the gun. I knew Junior was going to do it. But I wouldn't let him. I don't know how, but I somehow broke his control and through him into the very back off my mind. I had control of my body again. And I used it to attack Joker. And I… I… I killed him."

He had to stop there. He waited for some reaction from his friends. He heard nothing, and he still couldn't bare to look at them. The only thing he could do was keep talking.

"Batman and Batgirl helped me. They cured me. My body turned back to my own and I recovered from Junior's control. He was lost within my mind, but not gone. I had become a schizophrenic. One side was me, the other was Junior. And his mind was that of the Joker's. It took a long time, but Junior eventually vanished. Not completely, but enough so he could no longer do anything.

"It seemed like it was over. Junior was lost, Joker was dead, and Harley, well, she was never seen again. But it wasn't over. Things between my old team were never the same. Batman became so protective of me that it drove me crazy, and Batgirl kept looking at me like she thought she would see Junior looking at her behind my eyes. I just wanted things to go back to normal, but they couldn't. Batman refused to let me be Robin again. He wouldn't let me fight crime anymore. I wanted to. I had just as much right as him. But he wouldn't let me. He locked away the Robin suit and wouldn't give it back.

"One day we had a fight. A bad one. We both said things we didn't mean and that we would never say if we were thinking clearly. I stormed out and left him and Batgirl behind. I came here and got a new Robin suit, leaving my civilian self behind and becoming Robin around the clock. Then I met you guys and we became the Teen Titans."

He paused for a moment to mentally recover. It was very hard to talk about this, but it felt very good too, like he was getting something off his back.

"Batman and I never made up. Neither off us can bare to face the other. We're both too stubborn, too ashamed. Even in death Joker managed to torment us. I didn't just lose a teammate, I lost a friend, a teacher, and a father.

"Then Slade showed up. His twisted mind reminds me so much of Joker's. He keeps saying we're so alike. He knows about Junior, and he's trying to bring that part back. By making me his apprentice and forcing me to do crime, he was allowing Junior to grow stronger, and maybe, eventually take over again. That's why I try so hard to stop Slade, because he's trying to bring back that dark side of me, and because he's so much like the madman that did this to me."

Robin hung his head as his tale finally came to an end. Behind his mask, tears formed in his eyes. His friends must surely hate him now. He was pretty sure they wouldn't turn into the over protective fatherly figure like Batman had, but they might become the type of person Batgirl had, constantly expecting Junior to show his ugly face.

A hand on his shoulder made him look up. Starfire was standing beside him. She wasn't looking at him like she was scared, she only looked full of sorrow and compassion. Glancing at his friends, he saw that all of them did.

"Robin, I never knew." The young Tameranian said sadly.

Cyborg nodded. "Yeah man, I never knew what you went through. Now I understand why Slade drives you crazy."

Robin looked hopeful. "You mean, you don't think any differently of me?"

"Of course not!" cried Starfire. "You are still friend Robin. Nothing has changed."

"But, aren't you afraid?"

"Dude, why would we be afraid of you?" asked Beast Boy. "So there's some evil psychotic clown in your brain, big deal. Raven's got her evil angry side in her." Raven sent him a death glare. Beast Boy decided to try something else. "And let's not forget the crazy monster beast creature that I became."

"He's right man." Said Cyborg. "You're still the same person."

"That's right!" Starfire exclaimed. "You're Robin. It is your body, not the Junior's. You are in control. Slade is wrong. You are good. You always have been. Any wrong doings that you have done have not been by your hand, but by the Junior's, and he is gone now. You have nothing to fear from him."

Robin looked at her and his other friends. He saw that they really didn't think any differently of him. They were right. He was the one in control. It was his body, not Junior's. They were standing by him no matter what. He couldn't ask for better friends. If only Batman and Batgirl…

No! That was in the past. This was his team now. His former teammates would always be his friends and would always hold a special place in his heart, but things just weren't the same around them anymore.

"Thanks guys." He said. "This really means a lot to me."

"Anytime man." Said Cyborg, giving his friend a smile. "Now come on, you haven't eaten in four days. I'm making us a big dinner."

"I know what I want!" cried Beast Boy.

"Not tofu."

"Of course tofu!"

"Nobody likes tofu!

"I like tofu!"

"Nobody else likes tofu!"

"They do too!"

Raven cut her eyes as her two friends left the room arguing. "Yippee. Everything is back to normal."

Starfire was bouncing up and down. "Oh good. Robin, won't you join us in the getting of the stomach aches?"

Robin smirked. "Sure, just give me a moment alone."

"But you have been alone for the past four days!"

Raven understood that Robin needed a minute alone. "Come on, Starfire. Just give him a minute. In the mean time we can, uh… talk about going to the mall."

Stafire beamed. "Oh glorious!" she cried.

Raven followed the ecstatic alien girl out of the room, giving Robin a look that clearly said, 'you owe me'.

Robin nodded his thanks and turned away, staring at his reflection. He saw two. One was his own, the other was Joker Jr.'s. Slowly Junior's reflection vanished until only Robin's remained.

"Goodbye Joker." Robin muttered as he turned his back on reflection to rejoin his friends. He thought he heard the laughter of a sinister clown for a moment, but it was only in his mind.

(A/N: Well there it is. The reason behind Robin's obsession. Just so you know, nothing I wrote about Robin's past was made up, it was all in 'Batman Beyond, Return of the Joker'. I suggest seeing it if you haven't, and sorry for ruining the ending, but I did warn you about spoilers. Please tell me what you thought of my story, and thanks for reading.)