Hello fellow DC fanatics.
I'm just going straight to the point. So basically, this is just an experimental fanfiction. It's just a change of plot twists of our favorite trying-their-best-to-be-suitable-for-kids Teen Titans episode of Apprentice (I) and Apprentice (II).
And I have also posted this on Fanfiction.Net under my other alias Dr.Watsabella. I first started there and my very close friend suggests I should also posts my works here. So for the heck of it, I'll be posting this one.
Well I think I have said enough so I hope you enjoy this :)
...
"This is messed up.", Cyborg finally said to break the silence. They were all sitting on the couch with stressed stern faces. Beast boy's pointed ears perked up and scowled at the statement. Cyborg was underestimating the whole situation they were in. First, their team leader left them behind during a mission for a whole day. Secondly, he made them worried sick for his well-being because no friend should ever leave their friends in dangerous situations no matter the possible circumstances. Finally, it was because he turned into a traitor. He went against the law rebelliously. He went against them. For Slade.
What Cyborg said was an understatement. And Beast boy hates it when people hold back.
"Dude! This is not 'messed up!'", Beast boy exclaimed and hit his fist on the coffee table, "this is fucked up!"
"Language!", Raven scolded him and her eyes darted to Starfire whom was looking down at the floor with a gloomy expression on her face. The youngest member understood her message and tried his best to calm himself.
Yet, in her mind and heart, Raven agreed with Beast boy for once. Because it didn't make sense. The puzzles never fit. There's a big hole in the picture. All those missions to search for Slade. Robin's determination to defeat him. His obsession to put the psychotic criminal behind bars. All that to lead them here, where Robin turned against the law and served Slade?
Raven shook her thoughts off.
Cyborg cleared his throat, "What's on your mind, Rae?"
Cyborg must have noticed her furrowed brows and deep frown. Raven finally looked up to see not only one but all three curiously concerned faces staring back at her. Starfire, though still in her gloomy state, managed to have the courage to put her hand over Raven's for comfort. Although Raven would very much want to have her personal space and no human touch, she decided against pushing Starfire's gesture away. For her friend's sake.
"I don't want to believe it though.", Raven answered.
"We can tell.", Beast boy said and pointed to the shattered glass. Raven sighed deeply and her eyes turned to the floor. Raven cursed in her language silently.
"Robin will never do this unless there's a motive", Raven said, "we have to figure out that motive. He's completely sane, like he knows what he's doing, from what I had sensed in his aura. Maybe Slade had offered him a proposal which had left him to choose to be his apprentice."
"How would you know if he wasn't thinking hard enough that he couldn't find an exit option?", Cyborg asked.
Raven had a small smile on her face in amusement. Obviously, this moment would be listed as one of the rare moments when Raven actually smiled but the moment was inappropriate. She couldn't help herself, Cyborg was basically indirectly saying that the Boy Wonder could be a Boy Blunder at times. At least someone agreed that with her. But she thought hard again about what Cyborg asked. It silenced her long enough as it made her worry.
"I... Don't", Raven finally said, "but I doubt he chose this because he wants to."
She believed in that very much. Starfire sighed and managed to give her a weak smile.
"I believed that as well. Perhaps we should consider of what we want to do?", Starfire suggested.
"We want him back.", Cyborg answered immediately for everyone. It was definitely a silent agreement between them.
"How are we going to do that, though?", Beast boy asked.
"Anything we could think of. We just need our leader back."
...
Raven started to think about what she had said earlier.
''I... Don't. But I doubt he chose this because he want to." Not so confident with believing that now, huh?'
They were all fighting. At least, Robin was but they tried to defend themselves.
"Come on man, don't make do this!", Cyborg begged, "I don't want to do this!"
But Robin kept fighting and he disarmed Cyborg by backfiring his sonic cannon on him. He grabbed this opportunity to run off. Raven wanted to stop him but his bomb-infused boomerang was too much for her sight.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos.", she groaned out her mantra.
She felt her powers soothe her sight until they were completely healed. She shook her head to straighten herself out and looked up to see Starfire blocking his way.
"Don't move.", Starfire yelled. Her starbolt ready in front of Robin. Raven didn't stop her. She wouldn't choose to prevent her in any other way. She understood that it was their confrontation. And out of four of them, Starfire was the strongest to represent them at the moment.
Raven watched their quiet exhange. Starfire lowered her armed hand and Robin lowered his. Then her vision failed her again. Her body started to feel painful to use. Her chest was the first and she could feel her heart having difficulty to pump blood into her system. The more it pumped, the more pain she felt. It was everywhere. Especially in her head and she could feel Nevermore crumbling as if an earthquake was occuring there. She clutched on her head hard and her posture was weakened. She moaned in pain and she realised that she wasn't the only one. Starfire's screams, Beast boy's groans and Cyborg's moans. She could hear them and it weakened her even more.
"No!", Robin shouted desperately, "PLEASE STOP!"
She prayed to Azar that she wasn't hearing disembodied voices. She hoped it was really Robin. She would have feel the slightest bit of relief. She needed that feeling so much at the moment. Yet, she couldn't confirm it as her body was failing her and it was affecting her conscious. Knowing she didn't have enough joules of energy to stay awake, she let herself be dissolved in the darkness.
The last thing she heard were sirens.
...
Cyborg was the only one awake when the police and paramedics arrived at their location. His head was still spinning but he was conscious enough to be aware of his surroundings.
"Sir? Sir can you hear me?", a paramedic asked loudly. Cyborg faced him, trying to give a confident firm face.
"Yeah, I'm awake just feeling dizzy and a little weak. It's fine, man.", Cyborg responded and answered all the paramedic's unspoken question.
"Alright sir, I'll need you to be in your most comfortable sitting position. I'll get you some water. Stay here."
"Like I can go anywhere.", Cyborg grunted as the paramedic left.
As soon as he could think clearer, he checked his surroundings. Two paramedics were climbing up the last gigantic letter of the building's sign which made him start to worry as he could see no one from his team there. On his left was Beast boy lying unconsciously on a stretcher with one paramedic attending to treat him. And on his right was Raven, sitting against the sign with a mask on her face and a paramedic kneeling in front of her to check her vital signals and the gas tank beside them. He watched for a bit as the paramedic wrapped a blanket around her which was completely redundant by her cloak.
"Your friends are going to be fine."
Cyborg was startled by the deep voice and turned to look at the man the voice belonged to. He had a built-body figure and a look of a businessman. Just without the suit and fancy accessories Cyborg would love to try on. He was wearing a casual pair of jeans and a wrinkled buttoned-up shirt, it was as if he rushed to the scene as soon as he was awared it happened while he was in vicinity for a nice fine dinner.
Cyborg wondered what on earth had gotten him to be there at the very moment. As if reading his thoughts, the man introduced himself,
"Bruce Wayne. Owner of this company's building."
'Oh dear heaven above, save my granny's soul.', Cyborg thought to himself and wondered about Beast boy's filthy language earlier. As much as Cyborg hated to admit it, his friend was right. This was way worst than messed up. Not only did they cause trouble but Robin, the well-known leader of the teenage heroes called Titans, managaed to steal from a big name company. And not just any big name company, it had to be the world's top billionaire playboy, Bruce Wayne. He heaved a stressed sigh and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
"I'm sorry about this, sir.", was all he could manage to say.
Bruce only nodded in understanding, "I understand. Especially in a city that needs protection every week, this bounds to happen to any company."
Cyborg nodded in agreement and looked away from the billionaire. He didn't want anyone to feel pity for the team especially if they were smart enough to deduce the basic things like oh dude, the Titan's leader was rebelling against the law. He especially didn't want the police to be involved unless they put the criminals behind bars. Sirens are basically alarm clock for paparazzi and other forms of media. This was definitely the only thing he didn't want the world to wake up and know yet.
"Don't worry about the paparazzi, I talked with the police to handle it.", Jesus, was this man a secret mind reader?, "I also made sure the security footage were taken down, the security officer of the building will hand it to you."
Bruce then turned around to walk away from him but stopped after a step forward.
"Bring him back."
Cyborg wished the day would end fast.
...
"Easy.", Cyborg said gently as he guided Starfire to sit on the couch. Her stomach was bandaged due to the blaster shot by Robin. Every now and then, she would whimpered when her movements became too harsh for the wound. Cyborg grabbed the nearest pillow for Starfire to lean on comfortably. The female alien smiled at him gratefully and felt even more relieved when he sat down with her.
"How is friend Beast boy?", she asked.
"He's doing okay. His vital signs are stabilized. Raven is watching over him in the clinic room.", Cyborg answered specifically. Starfire nodded, feeling relaxed than she had ever been for the past many hours. Her friends were safe and that was all that mattered then. She tried to distract herself with the petty things such as playing with her hair, watching the television and picking on her nails. She didn't want to think of Robin at the moment. Her heart bore enough heavy emotions for the day.
She felt a hand being placed on her shoulder and turned to look at her friend who was smiling sadly at her.
"I miss him too. We'll get him back, I swear.", he assured her.
Starfire nodded slightly. She then remembered the moments happened before she was shot, when her vision became blurry and her body was hurting.
"Robin."
"I'm sorry."
Just as she decided to inform Cyborg of it, the doors swooshed opened and Raven flew towards them with two blood-filled vials in her hand.
"Here, I got it while I was soothing him to sleep.", Raven explained. Cyborg took the vials and opened the digital scanner on his arm.
"This better lead us to something.", Cyborg muttered.
...
"Slade poisoned us which will make it a perfect threat for Robin to join him."
"Okay yeah that seems pretty obvious by now but dude! I have bomb-infused blood! Cancer! Malaria! Dengue!", Beast boy was running around dramatically with tears rolling down his face. Raven pinched the bridge of her nose and prayed that she'd have the strength to refrain herself from knocking him out dead. (un)Fortunately for her, Cyborg beat her to calm the changeling.
"BB calm your butt!", Cyborg scolded him, "it's curable. I can invent nanoscopic device cells to kill the probes in our blood."
Raven smacked him up at the head as soon as his stopped running, "Not a lot of people have the same privilege as you. So please, shut up."
She was satisfied but not satisfied enough for doing that. Starfire maintained herself from giggling at her friends. It was funny how even at the darkest of times, there would still be a hole of light.
"Rae, do you think you can trek Robin down by sensing the most possible direction he could run off from the building?"
"Easy."
"Friends?"
All three heads turned to give their individual attention.
"Should we not cure ourselves first before we find friend Robin?", she asked. Raven stepped in to answer, "Yes. But we don't have time now. We have to get him before-"
"But he is all doing this for the our safety. Should he not stopped if he sees us the O of K?"
"Star, you're a genius!", Cyborg praised her and earned a blush from her.
"Great thinking, Starfire.", Raven managed to smile for her friend. She felt glad that Starfire was recovering from everything. Though, she didn't show appreciation for her friend's bubbly personality. She didn't want her to lose it. To lose herself.
And so, Cyborg quickly went to his bedroom to create the cure.
...
"HEY! FACELESS!", Beast boy called out. He felt really good for yelling that as he changed his form into a Tiger. They had just arrived at the moment when Slade was holding onto Robin's collar, threatening him.
The sadist let out an amused chuckle and let his apprentice dropped to the ground, ignoring his moans of pain. As usual, he straightened his posture and put his two hands behind him like a business man waiting for an excellent proposal.
"Well, what brings you here?"
"Isn't it obvious?", Raven growled and readied herself with her powers.
"Ah yes", Slade clicked his tongue, "but I'm afraid what you want won't be negotiable."
He walked towards them so they could talk and listen clearly to one another. Cyborg didn't want to wait anymore and has his sonic cannon pointing at the criminal.
"It doesn't need to.", Cyborg remarked.
A laughed was earned for his saying, "Ah. Ah. Ah. I don't think you would want to that."
"Try me."
"And let you see your beloved former leader die?"
Slade revealed a button-pusher in his hand and raised his high enough for all of them to see. And they watched his finger pressed onto it.
Robin's screams echoed through the whole room and they were all horrified.
...