Clipped Wings

Apprentice

Robins P.O.V
   I woke up, feeling surprisingly refreshed. I looked around, trying to place where I was. I had been moved. It looked like I was now in a training center. A brutal training center. Chills washed over me as I remembered what had happened before I lost consciousness. "How long I have been out?" I wondered to myself. I struggled to my feet, examining the room. My thought were cut short when a door swung open, revealing Deathstroke.

"Ready to train, my apprentice?" I wanted to tell him no, I wanted to hurt him, try to make him feel a fraction of the pain I had experienced because of him, but it was like I was co-pilot in my own body. My body bowed towards him, took a sword from one of the weapons racks, and poised in a ready position.
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No ones P.O.V
   The team sat in the mountain, void of what used to be their normal chatter. It didn't seem right to have words where their friend should be walking.

"Team. Report to the mission room." Batman's voice came over the comms. They gathered in the large room, awaiting whatever it was Batman wanted this time. He looked over the solemn teens, his gaze holding a weight of understanding. "We have reports of Sportsmaster and Cheshire being spotted along with many other assassins from the Shadows in Hong Kong." At the name Sportsmaster, the team tensed up. "I want you to go and find out what they are doing. Observe and report. Nothing else." A flurry of outbursts came from the teens.

"What!? We have to catch my Dad!"

"Batman, after what happened in -"

"Are you kidding me?" Wally's voice rose above all the rest. "After what he did, you're just going to make us observe and report?" Batman glared at the boy in warning, but Wally had had enough. "Don't you even care? It's only been two months! How could you be so heartless? He took my best friend! Your son! It's because of him that Di- Robin is gone! It's his fault that we will never see Robin again! Never-" he had became so worked up that sobs cut off his words. Artemis put her arms around his waist, trying to comfort him. Wally stared Batman in the eyes now. "And, if you're not going to let us catch him, then the blame falls to you. It's your fault now, Bruce." Batman, the unshakable Batman, visibly flinched when those words came out of Wally's mouth. He didn't even reprimand the teen. He just turned around and left. Wally and Artemis simply sat on the floor, with the team surrounding them. Black Canary watched them huddle together from a distance. This was going to take a lot of sessions. Even then, she suspected nothing would ever even begin to repair the emotional damage done.
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Robins P.O.V
   Sweat mingled with small rivulets of blood flowing down my skin. Deathstroke had been training me for three weeks now, every day, for hours upon hours. I still was unable to fully control my body. I needed to buy time. This drug couldn't stay in the hand of these psycho criminals! If they got their hands on more people, the team, the League, they could literally take over the world. I had to find a way to stop it. They hadn't tried to inject more of the stuff in me, so I decided to fake being controlled, fake working for them. At least until I could get this collar off and contact the team. So the training continued.
    
Day after day, week after week, until I had been training for three months with Slade. With each day of training, came another day where I had more control over myself. But I couldn't let them know. Even if I made it past my "master" there would be too many guards to get out of the compound.  One of the more lax days of training, Slade and I were summoned by Luthor.

      "Congratulations, Boy Wonder." He told me. "Oh, excuse me, I heard you go by Talon, now. Isn't that correct?" I fought every urge I had to sneer back at him, to give minute some remark about him not being whelemed, but I was a soldier. A machine. Machines do not back talk their masters. I did my best to hide my internal struggle and stared straight ahead. "I'm sure you're curious as to why you've been summoned here, Talon." He smirked, staring me in the face when he put emphasis on my new name. "We have a mission for you."