So this is the guy that makes Robin upset whenever even his name is mentioned. Wolf Woman shivered; the sound of his voice was enough to give anyone chills.

Raven moved closer to the communicator, “There is no antidote for ebola.”

“Raven, have you ever known me to be stupid?” Slade asked, “There is an antidote, and I am the only one who has it; the only one who will survive this epidemic. Unless I get something in return.”

“What do you want, Slade?” Robin asked.

“The one you stole from me, Robin. My old apprentice, Monster.” He paused for half a second, “Oh, that’s right, you two were close. I guess you know her better as Lynette.”

Wolf Woman got a strange feeling when that name was mentioned; all of the five original Titans were suddenly hushed, as if Slade had just asked them to kill two hundred people each. Who was this Lynette? I hate not knowing anything.

Slade chuckled, “I’ll give you two days to bring her back to me. Then you can have your antidote.”

One the communicator was silenced Erika and all three of the Wolves asked, “Who’s Lynette?”

Robin sighed, “Lynette was Slade’s old apprentice; I met her seven or eight months ago when I was captured by him. She had amazing, but dangerous, powers, which were connected to her emotions. So whenever she felt something strongly enough her powers would be unleashed, and it was extremely hard for her to control it.

“While Slade is all bad, Lynette didn’t seem to be, so I tried to get to know her. Once I got her to trust me I found out that the only reasons she stayed with Slade were that she felt he was the only one who could ‘love’ her and she was scared of what he might do if she tried to run away. I also found out that Slade had been abusing her, and that she was pregnant as a result.

“When the rest of the Titans came to rescue me I convinced Lynette to come with us. We hid her for about a month and a half, but then she ran away. And it was my fault,” he whispered the last sentence so quietly that only one person in the room caught it. “We haven’t heard from her since then.”

____________________

Grey Wolf had heard Robin’s whispered sentence with his enhanced hearing and he felt a tugging to talk to Robin about it. He walked over to Robin, “Hey man, I need to talk with you alone for a second,” he whispered. “Can you give the others something to do while we talk?”

Robin nodded and turned to the others, “Grey Wolf and I need to talk for a second; we’ll be right back. Meanwhile, you guys all get to know each other; I have a feeling we’ll be working together closely for the next few days. We need to get that antidote, but we’re not giving Lynette back to Slade; she’s a free woman now.” With that, Robin and Grey Wolf walked out of the room.

They walked down the hall to Robin’s room and the two of them sat on the bed. “I heard the sentence you whispered, Dick. I felt like I needed to talk to you about it. Why did you say that it was your fault?”

Robin sighed, “William, when we saved Lynette from Slade she was so scared. She couldn’t sleep at night for fear of him coming for her in the middle of the night.” He paused for a few seconds. “So I slept next to her; we didn’t do anything, but we slept together. This all happened right before I became a Christian, so I kind of knew it was wrong, but I didn’t really care. Then I became a Christian and I knew that it was wrong, but I still did it anyways.

“Then, after about a week, God started convicting me of the wrong I was doing. Bible verses popped up out of nowhere, our Youth Group had a lesson on purity, until I gave up fighting. I told her that I couldn’t sleep next to her anymore. I tried to do it as gently as possible, I tried to show her that I still cared about her, that I wasn’t leaving her, but she didn’t understand. She took it as another rejection from someone she had trusted. And so she ran away.”

Grey Wolf thought for a second. “Dick, you did the right thing. You can’t blame yourself for that!”

“No. But I knew that what I was doing was wrong, but I did it anyways. That’s what makes it my fault. If I had listened to my conscience the first time, and hadn’t even started sleeping next to her, she wouldn’t have felt rejected. And now she’s out there alone, scared, and dejected; and I can’t help her this time.”

Grey Wolf was silent for a moment. He knew that nothing he said could convince his friend that it hadn’t been his fault. Perhaps all he could do for Dick right now was to encourage him. “No, you can help her right now. By making sure that she doesn’t go back to Slade. Let’s get that antidote!”

Robin gave a small smile to his friend and the two of them headed back to the other room.



~Wolf Woman