Hey, friends! this is my first full-length fanfic, so I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have enjoyed planning and writing it...

Please read and REVIEW if you've got time... I would really appreciate to get any feedback you have to offer me. :)

A discaimer: I do not own Teen Titans, or any of its wonderful characters. The only things I own are the plot and my main character, Sarah Miller. If you doubt my power, beware the Titan attack #567! (Wow, I just totally pulled that out of nothing...)

Enjoy!

Chapter One: Battle In the Dark

A dizzying swirl of color greeted her. Slowly, and with some difficulty, she managed to straighten the muddy images into something more recognizable, that evil face.

"Quite enough to be going on with," she muttered, and swung her hand up and out toward the tall, shadowed figure in front of her. What looked like a shaft of brilliant white light emerged from her outstretched palm, twisting and pulsing like a living thing. The man in front of her stiffened, though she knew he couldn't see the light; he could only feel its clutching power. Concentrating, she mentally tightened the shimmering band of light around the man, hoping to throw him off balance. For a moment, he was in her power, struggling in a glowing noose only she could see... And then, without warning, he had disengaged himself from the cloying light, leaped toward her, hands raised, poised to strike... Crap... She tried to retaliate, drawing her arm back toward herself, pulling the glowing light back toward her body. Images were beginning to spin in front of her eyes again, and the light in front of her blinked, then guttered out as a momentary blackness settled in front of her vision.

"At last!" the man near her exclaimed, and she cried out and crumpled as a crushing blow landed on the top of her head. She was up in a moment, though, hands raised; her vision was still blurred. Come on... why isn't this working? She tried to conjure the light again, barely getting out of the way of another blow she could hardly see. Nothing happened in her hand, and she began to back away, dancing around to avoid the man's fists and feet. Wow, since when can he move this fast? Shouldn't he be getting old pretty soon? Crap, come on... one more time... She reached out her hands, seeking her power, and again felt a resistance; something was draining her of her strength. Raising her head, her vision momentarily cleared enough for her to make out the shadowed man. He was holding something in his hand, holding it out toward her. She became aware of a distinct mental pull from the object; the thing, whatever it was, was preventing her from creating the glowing shields. Snarling, she swung her fist up, directing it at the thing the man was holding. He swung it away from her with ease, his movements as fast as lightening. Okay, this is it... last chance!

"I can't believe this..." Beast Boy groaned, rubbing his head where he had bumped it; the tunnel's roof was too low, even for the small green guy. And it was pitch black. Perfection itself. "Are you sure this is the right way?"

The caped girl in front of him whirled around, at least as well as someone can whirl when scrambling through a cramped tunnel. Her soft voice was annoyed: "For the last time, yes, we are on the right track! Robin said to meet him at the end of this stupid tunnel, and yes, it is low. Now, stop complaining!"

Cowed, BB sighed and slid after her, accidentally scraping his left ear on the wall. "Ow!" he groaned, pausing again, " I don't think this was on my contract when I signed up... Oh, wait, there wasn't any contract... my bad..."

Raven stopped again, her blue hair glowing ominously, "For the last time, will you be quiet?!!" Beast Boy subsided into silence once more, still nursing his scraped ear. Raven resumed her crawling, then paused once more. "Couldn't you... turn into a tiny animal, or something? Like a snake, or something?"

This relatively simple solution had not actually occurred to Beast Boy, and he stammered a bit before replying, "Hey! Great idea! Um... yeah..."

"So, it actually hadn't occurred to you?" Raven asked, though it seemed more like a statement. A kind of funny statement. How like Beast Boy to look past the obvious to the impossible. She actually almost smiled. Unfortunately, Beast Boy missed out on seeing this rare expression on her face, because the tunnel ended quite suddenly, leaving them crawling airily on... nothing. Which is a great experience, except one can't keep crawling like that forever because one has to hit hard rock sooner or later. Which is what Raven and Beast Boy did, after a moment.

"Ahhh..." BB groaned, " I think I dislocated something... something vital..." Raven suffered her own physical discomfort in silence, rising smoothly from the ground and straightening her cloak around her. There was light here, though it was dim, and she now could see that their little fall had an audience... a very entertained one. Robin, Cyborg, and Starfire were standing just a little ways away, trembling with silent laughter. Cyborg was actually having difficulty keeping his balance.

"Okay, show's over..." Raven muttered, stepping around a still-prone Beast Boy, who was shaking his head slowly as if to make sure it was still attached to his neck properly. "Let's go," the blue-haired girl sighed, striding past her shaking companions.

Robin, ever the leader, managed to regain most of his dignity, and dragged his scanner from a hidden pocket. Flipping it over, he examined it briefly, "All right, we need to go that way... Slade's last location was somewhere down those stairs..." Pointing into the dimness, he began to walk carefully toward the dimly outlined staircase. Behind him, Beast Boy gathered himself up from the ground. Starfire and Cyborg moved to follow their leader, and Raven, realizing that she had been about to go the wrong way, quickly corrected her steps. Together, the five Titans moved slowly down the spiraling staircase, ready to take on whatever might appear at the bottom.

How can this be happening? For the first time, she felt fear. I've gotta make it... She stumbled backward from another blow; her vision seemed somewhat clearer, though still shaky. She still couldn't seem to get out of the way of the tall man's blows, though... They seemed to be coming from everywhere at once. In a matter of seconds, she took one punch to the stomach, quickly managed to evade having her nose broken, and got another glancing blow to the side of the head. Her vision wavered. Didn't his mother ever teach him not to hit girls? But then she thought that this evil man surely never had a mother; he probably just appeared out of the ground one day. Or arose out of someplace really low...

The Titans could hear scuffling sounds up ahead; there were random flashes of light, shouts. Then a girl screamed.

"Come on!" Robin was on a mission, leaping forward into the huge cavern at the foot of the stairs. His companions were right behind, primed for a fight. With a roar, Beast Boy turned himself into a huge, charging elephant. Glowing, green orbs appeared in Starfire's hands; her sweet face held an anger in it that seemed uncharacteristic of the young alien, but for this enemy there would be no mercy.

Robin and Raven were the first to come into sight of the battle ahead, and stopped short. A strange sight greeted them; two figures were locked in mortal combat. One was a tall, overpowering man whose face seemed shadowed or masked; the other was a girl, even smaller than Starfire, and her hands waved in front of her as she blocked and parried the tall man's fists. Her face was set, her eyes darting here and there, is though searching for a way out of a maze.

Robin leaped forward, raising his hands in a challenge: "Slade! Leave her alone!" The man stopped raining his blows on the girl, turning his face slightly toward the five Titans. Taking the opportunity, the small girl leaped up, almost into the man's face, landing a blow near his left eye. The man seized the girl by one slim arm, slinging her away from himself as if she weighed nothing. The girl landed very hard, tried to rise again at once, but fell back with a faint moan. Her head sunk to the floor of the cavern.

The masked man turned to the Titans, "Ah... Robin... So glad you could... join us." His voice was silky smooth, oily, and Robin curled his hands into fists, gritting his teeth to keep from retorting back; he didn't need to give his worst enemy any ammunition. "Why did you have to interrupt our little fight?" Slade continued, raising a hand, "Sarah and I were simply getting... acquainted."

"You're gonna get what you deserve, Slade," Robin replied, glancing quickly beyond the masked man at the girl; she was still lying on the ground, quite still. Robin was worried about her. He came forward, raising his hands.

"Try if you can, Robin," Slade murmured, nodding slowly, "Come on... try it." Something inside Robin seemed to snap, and he leaped forward. But before he could reach Slade, the taller man stepped aside, moving with surprising speed. Jumping up onto a nearly platform, he pulled something from a hidden pocket. There was a split second of pure silence, then the world seemed to explode; shards of shattered rock rained down on the Titans, and Raven quickly raised a force field over the others to protect them from being cut to pieces. After one heart-stopping moment, the rubble stilled, though dust still billowed around the five of them. Robin, blinking, looking around.

"Hey! Where'd he go?" Cyborg cried, lifting aside some larger pieces of rock that had landed dangerously close to Starfire. Robin couldn't see or hear Slade anywhere nearby, and his scanner didn't show his life sign at all... He had completely disappeared. Spinning around, the spiky-haired teen took in the chaotic scene, then stopped dead at the sight of a small pile of rubble nearby.

Oh God... Much of the rubble had landed right on top of an unconscious, small, teenage girl.