Teen Titans X Reader (Male) | 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐥

Ch.25 - Longing

The screams of the changeling never subsided as Y/N fled the horrors of the cave.

As Y/N surfaced to the dry heat of planet Earth, he flew to a neighboring rock wall that overlooked Gotham. The flaming hellscape in his heart was reflected by Gotham's destruction, which was ultimately his fault.

The Titans were all gone. Lost to his eternal memory.

Y/N fell to his knees.

He held his head in his hands, and screamed a primal scream, as the Earth shook.

2 weeks later...

Y/N roamed aimlessly across Gotham City in solitude, while the fires of anger burned his surroundings to a crisp.

He'd occasionally see a few demons fly by. But Y/N knew that most demons had horrible eyesight, which their senses of hearing and smell made up for, with the exception of some species, of course.

The aroma of burning concrete and rock, on the other hand, was strong enough to distill Y/N's trace.

"Well, darkness, we meet again..."

These fleeting thoughts passed through Y/N's silent mind as he wandered the Earth.

His current living arrangements reminded him of his life before meeting the Titans: a damned spirit cluelessly wandering the universe, waiting for a death that would never come.

He had completely ruined everything. All the friends he had ever made—all five of them—were dead. Now, there was no turning back.

"Hello, Y/N."

"AHH!!" Y/N spun around, drawing his eyes from the blank space ahead of him. "Stop doing that!"

He was still wearing the same body armor he had always worn, with the same physical cadence he always adorned.

"Apologises, Y/N. You know how much I'd hate to startle an individual as troubled as you."

"Don't kid yourself, Darth Vader. You don't know what love is." Y/N accused.

"Don't I?'

"Loving the suffering of innocent civilians doesn't count."

Slade let out a quiet, sinister chuckle. "Y/N, believe it or not, I do indeed know a thing or two about being part of a family."

"Did you skin a single mother and kids, and glue their flesh onto a couple of old mannequins?"

Under his mask, Slade smirked at Y/N's ignorance.

"No. I was married once. I had two beautiful children who changed my entire view on everything I'd ever valued in life..."

"What happened? You finally took your schizophrenia meds?"

"You really think outside the box, don't you? But not quite. Unfortunately, my beloved wife didn't exactly care for the 'errands' I ran to provide for her..."

"You were an assassin?"

"Among other crafts, yes. I do wish that my dear Adeline would have accepted my role on this planet. I still sometimes long for that taste of what it may have been like to father children of my own..."

Y/N sighed, "I'm not a therapist, Slade. And something tells me you didn't just come here to take your mid-life crisis out on me. Let's cut the crap here; What do you want?"

"I'm simply here to tell you that you really are not alone in this world. You and I are very similar - We both missed our chance at a life filled with joy, and are always desperate for an escape, no matter how impossible it may be." Slade's tone was anything but comforting.