You know, I don’t think Slade hates Robin as much as some people might think. True, he wants Robin dead, because Robin tricked him and escaped him, and Robin’s an enemy once more. But I bet if Robin had come to Slade in “Betrayal” and honestly said, “Make me your apprentice,” Slade would have demoted Terra right away. Terra was just the runner-up. Robin was what he’d really wanted. I wonder what Slade will do next now that Terra is gone in the TV show, if they ever bring him back that is.

But, on with the fic.

CHAPTER FIVE

The End

“I’m not that bad!” Slade yelled through the darkness, trying to escape its murky depths. “I could be good if I wanted to be. I can change any time I want--I could better than those amateur Titans!”

And with these statements, our Slade tumbled out of bed, tangled in his sheets, on a floor that was no longer covered with presents. A moment later his manservant Wintergreen ran into the room, absolutely bewildered. He’d heard his master’s cries from down the hall. “Mister Slade, are you alright?” the man asked, astonished to see his normally-collected employer rolling around on the floor.

Slade’s helmeted head popped up out of the sheets, and he struggled to stand up. Relief flooded Slade as he saw his bedchambers around him, and Wintergreen in front of him. His beating heart was proof that he wasn’t dead; he was ALIVE.

But…for how long?

“What day is it?” Slade asked in an uncharacteristic rush.

“Why—December twenty-fifth, sir,” Wintergreen answered.

“It is Christmas Day?” Then it wasn’t too late! He didn’t have to die—no one had to die. “Have the HIVE students arrived yet?” Slade asked next.

Wintergreen looked at his master strangely. “Sir,” he began, “it’s only five-thirty a.m.—”

“HAVE THEY ARRIVED YET OR NOT?” Slade demanded.

“No, sir,” Wintergreen sighed.

“Good,” Slade said. He composed himself, his usual businesslike, no-nonsense persona taking over. “Call Brother Blood immediately and inform him that I will not need his services after all. Tell him that something came up.”

“You’re postponing your plan?” Wintergreen asked in amazement.

“In a manner of speaking,” Slade answered shortly. “Secondly, I want you to send a special card to Titans Tower.”

“I see…shall there be bomb or any hallucinatory drug accompanying this card?”

“No,” Slade told him. “Write something inside of it.”

It will probably be something cryptic and vaguely threatening, Wintergreen thought. “What shall I write, sir?” he asked aloud.

Slade thought for a moment, then a moment longer. Slowly, he asked, “What do cards normally say on Christmas time?”

Before Wintergreen could answer, however, Slade continued speaking: “Write whatever they say down, then send it to the Titans. I want it to reach them today.” Slade was suddenly struck with an idea. “And,” he added, “I want a feast sent to them as well, a large feast that even those teenagers couldn’t finish in one day. I want it sent with the card. Is that understood?”

Wintergreen was very befuddled by this, as are you, but he simply nodded after a moment. “Of course, sir,” he said, the same way you would agree with a crazy person to make them feel better.

“And contact everyone in the criminal community as well,” Slade continued. Ignoring Wintergreen’s tone. “No-one is allowed to so much as shoplift today, or there will be severe consequences. Is that understood?” And, as an afterthought …”Oh, and, after you’re done with that…why don’t you take the day off?”

Now Wintergreen was sure his master had gone insane. After all, who would run the lair if the manservant took the day off? Who would prepare Slade’s tea? Who would make his bed?

“Well?” Slade said after a moment. “Get moving!’

And so, the Titans received their little card wishing them a Merry Christmas, and a feast so large that they needed two tables to hold it all. After they checked the card for bombs or suspicious powders they put it with the other cards they had received for Christmas, and after they checked to make sure the food wasn’t poisoned they helped themselves to the feast. Though the Titans tried valiantly, they could not finish the enormous feast that day (although Starfire and Cyborg really packed a lot away). The left-overs languished in the refrigerator for some time, and they ate a lot of turkey sandwiches in the days to come. For every day until New Years the Titans also received gifts, from spending money to spy equipment, and this left them more delighted and confused than ever.

As for our protagonist, Slade, going from evil to good is a hard thing to do, especially when one is so good at being evil. This is what Slade found out. In fact, for the first few weeks all he did was wander about his lair, unsure of how to become a productive member of society. He had to do a lot of thinking on it, and was a difficult thing to think about.

But in the end, Slade did reform, although it took him long enough. He decided to do what everyone else was doing these days—fight crime. Since he’d been a criminal himself, he figured he would be good at it. He was Slade after all, and he was good at everything he did. And so he was with his new-found career.

Now, of course, the Teen Titans did not automatically believe that Slade had reformed. In fact, it took Robin a good year to accept his new career change. And even then, you don’t really think Slade and the Boy Wonder ever were on the best of terms, do you? No, of course not.

If I’m going to be truthful, and I am, Slade found being good a very hard thing to do in the beginning, not to mention stressful. He eventually hired a masseuse, a mild-mannered young lady who never went over the speed limit and had no criminal ties whatsoever. She only ended up working for Slade because she very much needed the money and room and board, but in the end it was a nice arrangement, and Slade grew to enjoy employing her very much indeed, but that is another story altogether and I won’t touch upon it here.

Eventually, Slade and the Teen Titans would start working together on several occasions, sharing information and teaming up from time to time. They even were invited to his lair occasionally, but it still remained so dark and gloomy that only Raven seemed to appreciate the decorum. With Slade’s resources they eventually found a cure to release Terra from her stone prison, and Terra became the sixth Titan again. Slade also eventually found an apprentice, one that actually stuck around, and the apprentice’s name was Red X. Though the relationship was difficult, it managed to work out in the end, and Red X was a good if annoying sidekick.

Of course, there were a few negative side-effects to Slade’s being visited by three ghosts all in one night, and one of them was that it was sometimes hard to sleep at night. Slade updated his security systems, but as we all know, security cameras, computers, and lock-down mechanisms aren’t good at combating ghosts, so Slade never felt truly safe from them.

But the three Ghosts of Christmas never did return to carry him away again. And in all the years to come, Slade never told anyone about them, because he’d rather come to enjoy the fact that no one called him a psycho anymore—at least, not to his face.

And although Slade kept his sinister trademark mask, rumor has it that one day a Titan did see the visage that was hidden beneath it; but if you ask the lovely Starfire about what she saw, she will only smile before taking flight.

THE END,

and

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!