Starting Over: Olden&Anew

A/N: This story is a sequel to both "A Black Rose and Two Pink Carnations!" and "Stormy Friendship and Sunny Love". This fanfiction was only supposed to be one chapter in length. However, the first part of this story turned out to be a bit longer than the entire length of its predecessor (14 pages). Therefore I decided to split this story in half. This first chapter is the set up to the 2nd one, which will feature my very first Teen Titans fight scene. P.S I own none of the characters in this story, although, one or two concepts may belong to me.

The figure moved stealthily, as though it were a shadow on the wall and not a living being. The being now looked around the area it was in for intruders or spies. It had done this several times before on this particular night. Finding nothing it let out a tiny, almost silent sigh, as though it hoped would catch something spying on its activities. If so, it could always come back later and again delay its venture into the human-made hole it was about to enter.

The territory surrounding this structure was pure swamp land. However it was not unspoiled as a trash bag or other sign of human presence occasionally floated by. These objects of civilization were drawn on its course by a current as was often case where there was far more water then land. In any case, the humanoid shape (it was devoid of all features, save for an eye), looked at the entrance it was about to reenter for the first time in many months.

The structure was a huge gray pipe (it's a sewer pipe*) that was so large it looked as though an elephant quite easily go through it. The top and bottom of it was covered in bright green moss and dirt. The pipe had been built into the side of an old unfinished road, no one but this being knew of this area. It was impossible to see beyond the opening, the hole was in shadow as though the figure was about to enter a black hole.

But it was not the terrain or the atmosphere that gave the figure apprehension and perhaps a tiny amount of fear, an emotion the figure was definitely not used to.

No, it was something else, not what the figure saw as it looked into the pitch black opening but what it had already seen and what it feared waited inside.

Still the figure thought it had nowhere else to go, thus with the slightest hint of reluctance the figure entered the black abyss that was the shadowy sewer-pipe.

Once inside, the being look around to make certain that it was not being followed once more, and then continued on. After making its way through 2 miles worth of pipes figure finally exited the sewer system through a carefully hidden ladder. This could only be accessed from by opening a trap door made out of solid rock. The shadowy form then climbed down the ladder, and finally it got off, now its feet were on solid rocky ground.

The being was now in a series of tunnels that had originally been built by mobsters at the very beginning of the Prohibition era. There were several different exits; all of them were built in strategic locations. Most led to warehouses, others led to abandoned buildings, deserted churches, unusual shops, vacant theaters, one even led to what could only be assumed a giant factory. As it filled with all sorts of gears, pulleys, and levers, the huge room resembled nothing as much as the inside of Big Ben.

However, what the figure was descending to now was not an exit but an entrance. The dark form climbed down one more latter and when it was pulled away a ladder went to a wall that had a curving entrance, directly opposite from it. The as yet unknown person pushed in a small stone.

Afterwards, a miniature panel slid open, containing only a button and a beam that was fired from a camera eye. The being carefully moved its own eye into the proper position, and as seconds later, a cold mechanical voice seemed to come from the camera, it said "retina scan finished, subject confirmed. Voice identification and vocal password required"

The figure spoke, its voice without a touch of emotion, "the scorpion that strikes with overconfidence may cause the silencing of its own young."

After a moment, the voice said "subject confirmed, Mr. W, you may now enter."

Elevator doors appeared as a small portion of the rock wall moved away, the figure entered the elevator doors and pushed one of four buttons. The button that the unknown humanoid pushed was labeled "Headquarters".

When the elevator stopped, the doors opened and the being stepped out and said "voice command input: lights on." As the room became brighter, it paused, for a moment. The figure remarked "ah yes… my home away from home. In spite of my fears, it's good to back here again."

The person once draped in shadow now stood revealed: the figure was clad almost completely in black with the exception of pieces of silver armor it had on its gloves, knees, feet, shoulders, arms, legs, and neckline. There was a belt which pouches attached to it they were made of a similar looking material. Its elbows and stomach had a silvery appearance to them. The left side of its armored mask was completely blank except for or integrating orange grating holes. The right side of its face was orange and featured its one eye. It had the same gratings, but they were black in color.

The person holding the blade and now turning his eye to look around the room had been given many monikers in the past but now he was known by one only to his enemies: Slade!

On his back there was a large bright red double-sided battle axe that had another (detachable) blade on the other side of its handle. The weapon also had a red Aura and flames occasionally sprang up from it.

Originally, the weapon had looked like it was made of ordinary metal, although the fact that it could slice off Trigon's horns proved that it was not. The axe had also shaped differently, it was double-bladed but one side had a smaller, though longer blade. The bottom of the weapon had a smaller more manageable blade now. Slade now held the blade is hand and look at it, he half suspected that the weapon was now made out of solid ruby or some unknown mystical red metal.

Now as his eye completed its journey across his headquarters Slade was enveloped by anger and fear.

Then Slade did something that most would have expected someone else to do in this situation, but not him. The man shouted as loud as possible "when I find out who is responsible for this… I'll skin them alive and burn their remains in front of their family before mutilating them as well!"

After a moment Slade stopped and sighed, he knew that being angry would solve nothing, besides he still had the blade in his favor.

This whole mess had started only a week after Trigon's defeat. Slade had gone to his nearest Hideaway after spending the last seven days recuperating from his recent ordeal. If Slade's healing power was still working it would have taken him only a day to recover from his wounds. Only a few years after his organization had become a powerful force in Jump City his healing abilities and enhanced strength and speed. The power that had served Slade well in his previous career ceased to work.

At first, he had thought that his enhanced abilities had been merely nullified by something, but after working for three years, he found nothing out of the ordinary and could only conclude that his government granted powers were beginning to wear off. Normally Slade would have been consoled by the fact that his daughter "Ravager" would take over for him if he was indeed killed. However, she was his secret weapon, her whole purpose was to hunt down and kill anyone who succeeded in murdering him. So she was out of the question.

Then Slade realized that he could turn Robin's obsession with him and his passion for justice to his advantage. Thus he had concocted a plan in order to turn a superhero into his apprentice, but that had failed. So he set his sights on the uncertain, insecure, and quite venerable Terra. This however had been his last mistake. She had turned on him, and in her rage she did something Slade had once considered to be impossible as far as superheroes were concerned: she killed him!

Even at his previous job. He had never even considered the possibility that a superhero could commit murder. But then, as far as the world was concerned, Terra was dead as well. Of course he knew that she was now likely hiding somewhere, and when the time came he would go after her and likely commit quite a bloody murder. But in the meantime Slade had to think about the events that had occurred earlier that day.

After Slade had entered the nearest one of his warehouse hideouts, which doubled as the storage place for his robot army, and was shocked to find it almost completely empty. The only thing he found was the left arm of one of his robots. Then Slade went to his hideout in an abandoned office building. All of the files, machinery, tools, weapons, loot, and maps were taken or destroyed. The video screen built into the wall that he used to communicate with both his minions and his other hideouts was smashed and its innards were slashed, bashed, disconnected, and set on fire.

He went to his other robot storage facilities (mostly warehouses) and found them empty or completely destroyed. One of these hideouts in a garage looked like it had stepped on by a giant foot. The area underground had been trashed and flooded with acid. By now it was apparent to Slade that someone was trying or had tried to destroy his criminal organization.

For the first time in a long time the criminal mastermind was worried, thus Slade checked his various bank accounts. They were all either empty or erased. The villain now checked his various overseas electronic bank accounts, they had been emptied out, and all the other accounts used by criminals or connected with them were either hacked into, just like his, or erased. He then looked at all of his other overseas (non-electronic) accounts, the money had either been withdrawn. In some banks, physical cash had been destroyed and the banks could or would not make reparations for the amount lost.

After he learned that his land holdings had been sold to either various charities or small nations in need of cash, Slade realized that the time that the land was sold was roughly the same as the time as the money disappeared.

Now that he knew what to look for the former crime lord and then proceeded to check the time each of his hideouts had been destroyed. Slade found that the damage and destruction began when the hallucinogenic in his mask was activated and ended two weeks before his return from the dead. This was a period of seven months. Slade now begin taking a look at everything related to his organization as well.

At his other hideouts, it was the same story everywhere. Damage, destruction, accessibility to objects or places, things simply disappearing, stuff being sold, or key people arrested. Slade's organization now known as "Deathblow" had been completely destroyed! In hindsight that had been relatively easy to do since most of his minions were robots and his organization wasn't that large or powerful to begin with.

However up until now, Slade had thought that his organization's headquarters had been untouched and untainted by his enemy's destructive hand. Now, however Slade, despite his angry outburst and release of said anger had not yet started to feel the full psychological toll of the destruction that had been wrought. This critically praised* but largely unknown organization that had taken years to build was gone. The villain was near the breaking point, as far as he was concerned. He had nothing left, nothing left except…

However unknown to Slade as he was reminiscing about recent events, a figure shrouded in shadow was moving stealthily and carefully moving from one empty and disregarded crate to another*. Slade was sitting on one such crate in a pose which made him resemble Michelangelo's the "Thinker" (only meaner looking).

Finally the figure reached its destination, and as it did so it grabbed the mystical weapon that Slade had left lying on the ground. Normally, this would have never happened, except that Slade had developed a long-standing and quite secretive habit of rechecking large calculations on his fingertips. Because of this he had to reluctantly put his weapon on the ground, although he kept glancing back at it every other minute or so.

The villain stopped doing this when he realized there was a particular pattern of damage done to his organization. He was excited as he slowly began to realize who was likely responsible for his criminal empire's destruction. Now he realized there was only one thing to do: summon a demon, and give it the hellfire weapon he had stolen, in exchange for his organization being restored with powerful reality altering magic.

He then looked at where the object in question lay. He stared in absolute horror: it was gone! And with it is only chance of rebuilding his criminal empire was gone to! Out of the corner of his good eye Slade could've sworn he saw an unknown cloaked figure.

However at the moment he did not care, for this was the trigger for a fit of temporary insanity for Slade. In short, Slade had snapped!

The former mastermind shouted "it's all gone! It's all gone! First my army of robots, then my equipment, then my hideouts and safe houses ransacked, and now this! The ingrate even had the audacity to steal my prized set of Silver-handled golf clubs! This isn't some mere hideaway. This is my house, my sanctuary, the one place I can go to plot and plan anew, study and examine my enemies, find peace from my troubled family life, and calm down when all else fails me!

Only his butler, Wintergreen would've grasped the significance of the situation his Master was in. The long years of running his organization and having little to show for it, while having his son disappear in the same time period, had taken their toll.

The fact that only later that year, he had lost his soul and what had turned out to be his last remaining Slade-bot (to the unfunny changeling no less) only made his feelings of despair and helplessness more obvious.

After several minutes of woe and the occasional sobbing, Slade heard the phone rang. After several rings depicted up and said in an extremely tired and uncaring voice "hello is this?"

The voice on the phone had a faint British accent and was laced with concern "Master Wilson, you're alive…"

With at least two layers* of irony Slade sarcastically replied "yes, isn't it lovely."

His butler and confidant seem not to notice his tone and said "when the papers announced your death I knew they were wrong. You're not the kind of person who dies just because of a little lava… Oh I'm so glad your back sir."

Slade coughed politely, but his intent was misinterpreted "you sound horrible sir; I will be down to your "special quarters" momentarily to check in on you."

Behind his mask Slade had to smile at his best friend's somewhat overwhelming concern. Still, even the fact his only friend coming to see him was not an enough to change Slade's mood.

When Wintergreen emerged from the elevator, he seems shocked by the state of his master's criminal headquarters. However, when he saw his friend, with his eye and head lowered Wintergreen's expression became one of horror.

The butler ran over to his master had asked "Mr. Wilson, are you alright? I have never seen you in such a state before."

Slave looked at him and said "Wintergreen… it's all gone."

The only person Slade could confide in looked at him and said "what's gone, sir?"

Slade sighed and said" Deathblow is."

Slade's friend asked "is there anything left sir."

The villain said "nothing… it's either been destroyed or stolen."

Wintergreen thought for a moment and asked "what about the things not connected to your organization?"

Slade leapt up to the floor, and in a rare bit of extreme self-disgust, he slapped himself on the black side of his mask. This caused his Butler to chuckle as his master was embarrassed according to his body posture. The two friends then began coming up with a written list of equipment, resources and money you had from his former occupation. A few hours later the two believed they had written down everything they remembered. Then suddenly, Wintergreen snapped his fingers and looked at Slade. Wintergreen spoke while as he looked his master in his eye" that reminds me, I have a very late birthday gift for you sir."

Slade's one eye had its brow raised in surprise as his friend got up and entered the elevator. 30 minutes later, Wintergreen returned carrying a large and somewhat heavy looking (the butler was sweating and groaning a bit) cardboard box in his arms. Wintergreen put the box on an empty crate and said to his master "this present was supposed to be given to you on your last birthday, but when you did not return I saved it for you."

Although was difficult to tell, Slade's body language indicated he was pleased and grateful to his friend for his present, regardless of its contents. Using the strength enhancing armor he wore Slade tore open the box. Upon doing so reached into his one of the various pockets, on his belt. From there he retrieved a small hand-held flashlight so he could see the box's contents.

For a moment Slade stared into the box in stone silence, and then he carefully reached inside and pulled out one of the objects in the box… it was a mask, his original one!

Unlike the one he currently wore this mask was made of cloth, not metal and blue instead of black on the right side. It was form fitting but would be revealed nothing of his features save for his eye. Slowly he put the mask down and put his hand back in the box.

He pulled out a weapon that looked like a cross between a sai and a sword; this was the blade he had used in hand-to-hand combat for years until he founded his criminal organization. It took the other identical looking weapon out of the box and then started to take out the entire costume within it.

Also in the box, with several grenades, a loaded sniper rifle, two slips of paper with all of the account numbers not directly related with the organization, a razor-sharp Javelin Slade occasionally used, a thin coil of steel rope that was used for silent kills, a small case filled with listening devices slightly more than a dime in size), smoke bombs with various purposes and effects, and a photo of his family.

The original five were now three. The younger of his two sons (Grant) had died when he had attempted to duplicate his father's abilities. The serum worked for a few days but had then unexpectedly stopped working, because Grant's version of the formula was incomplete. Slade's wife had died years ago in an alcohol related suicide (that was what the official report said anyway). The whereabouts of Slade's younger son were unknown but there were reliable reports that he was alive and well.

In one corner of the box, there was an object Slade had noticed before. It was a small vial of blue-green liquid; the villain recognized what it was almost immediately. With slightly shaky hands Slade took vial out of the box and stared at it in disbelief. The man turned to Wintergreen and asked "old friend, could you please tell me what this is doing here?"

Wintergreen smiled widely and said "the liquid in the vial is exactly what you think it is sir. I got the complete version of the 'formerly' incomplete formula from the son of a 'former' high school friend of mine. The young lad is a hacker of impressive skill and his father owes me $20,000. Half of this money comes from a long series of high school poker games he lost to me. The other half comes from the money he needed for his last high school prom (limo, a very nice tux, 5 bribes, some good wine made in 1864). Incidentally he was the one who tried to have me killed off in the military. "

Slade took off his mask as he fondly remembered that particular incident. He had literally had to pull his Army buddy by the seat of his pants out of the line of fire during that rescue.

As the criminal started to take off the rest of his uniform he spoke to Wintergreen. "As I told you before, if you would simply hire me to "take care of him" I would be more than happy to do so for free. Consider it something of a payment for your years of faithful service."

With his back turned to the now nearly naked Slade, Wintergreen replied "sir, there is no need for that, you have saved my life. Thus I have vowed to spend the rest of my days helping you in any way I can as your faithful servant."

Slade was half expecting this reply and said "very well then out of curiosity do any of the pockets in this uniform now contain something to inject to this liquid into my bloodstream"?

After a few minutes, Wintergreen replied "the largest pocket on the right side of your old costume has that particular instrument. I suspected that you would need it sir."

Slade was now wearing the bottom part of his costume and a sleeveless white T-shirt. He reached into the pocket his friend had into it indicated and pulled out the syringe, he carefully removed the plunger and poured the liquid into the device. After doing this he momentarily searched his left arm for a vein big enough to suit his purposes, when he finally found one he ejected the liquid into it.

A few seconds afterword Slade looked like he had trouble standing and then collapsed onto the floor, his butler ran towards is to form with a look of horror on his face.

However, as Wintergreen found out Slade had a steady pulse and after five minutes he got up again, his body still shivering slightly. After waiting a few more minutes Slade went to an area of the room where the broken remains of the surveillance monitor lay on the and picked up a piece of glass. He used the start of glass to stab himself in the right arm, after a minute he removed the glass and watched as the wound healed itself within 2 seconds.

Slade now got the rest of his costume on and after adding the costumes accessories to it. He stepped into the light for his friend to see.

His upper body, shoulders, upper arms, upper legs, and hips were black. The lower arms were covered in bright blue armor that resembled fish scales. At this point on his body there was a ring of grenades around his arm which were attached by yet another belt. Slade had on leather gloves that were a darker orange then his face. On his back when the two are looking weapons mentioned earlier and their scabbards were attached to his back in a way that resembled an X. His abs and lower back were covered by the same blue armor from before.

Around his waist were a series of bright orange pockets that were held up by a gray belt that it originally been blue to match the armor on some parts of his body. The color had been changed when Slade had found that the belt was difficult to see for both he and his enemies.

From Slade's right shoulder to under his right arm and back again there was a decorative series of gun cartridges. This was obviously for the pistol he had attached to his left leg. The holster like much of the costume had originally been light orange, but was now a darker shade.

On Slade's other leg was a small pocket (a pocket split in two) attached to his leg by a belt that had originally contain only a thermal detonator. Now the pocket was slightly larger and contained both a thermal detonator and his steel encased Blackberry with which he occasionally did his illegal business with. This particular device was among the most heavily encrypted examples of said device on the planet. It had purchased from a Chinese factory that knew what it was doing. In his right hand he carried a large semi automatic shotgun.

His legs were covered in blue with other with an inner layer of cotton for comfort. Like quite a few superheroes, he wore orange shorts over his blue leather leggings. His feet and part of his legs were encased in very dark orange leather boots. Attached to these, by a belt, was a knife with an orange-black holster. The last thing that was noticeable was that the two streaming bits of cloth that slaves mask was tied with had been cut to more than half the length. Likely, this was because he thought they looked stupid and that they were potentially dangerous to him as someone might try to grab them.

Wintergreen had finished is examination of his master's new costume and smiled and nodded his head in approval. However after a moment he had a question and therefore he asked his master" sir, before you go back to your former occupation will you be dealing with your enemies: the Teen Titans?"

Slade took his head "no Wintergreen. I think it's safe to say that I do not wish to be with them for a long time to come. At the very least, I want to get back into practice as a mercenary for a few months before I would consider dealing with them and only if it was part of my assignment. Besides I suspect that one of them may be responsible for the destruction of my organization, and when I do confront them and they have done this crime. I wish to be able to destroy them without mercy."

Wintergreen nodded and asked" will that be all sir?"

Slade thought for a moment and replied "yes Wintergreen. You can go back to the house and take the 6 hours off; I will meet you there in a few hours… after I go interview some of my old contacts to see if they have any "job openings" for me."

Over the next few months Slade went on a wide variety of jobs as a mercenary, with many of those jobs being assassinations. This was something he had been particularly famous for in the past and now he was becoming well-known for these skills once more.

However, in spite of his earlier announcement that he would not see the Titans for some time Slade would nevertheless meet the Titans once again, sooner than he expected…

End of Part One

A/N: something seemingly insignificant in this story will have certain consequences later on. Remember, that there is more than one person who wears this particular item of clothing, and even then, not everything is as it seems. For example, half of Slade's robots were not taken or sold by the person who has been causing all this trouble. Instead, this being or beings, merely tipped off Professor Chang as to their location. At this point, they're probably be used as workers in places where no human could exist.

Anyway one of the things I wanted to do was highlight the relationship between Slade and Wintergreen. Each person is probably the only good thing. In each other's lives. Slade is a tragic figure, largely because of his chosen career. As far as villains are concerned, in the series Slade will not be a major archenemy. The real bad guys are in the shadows, carefully hidden by various layers of lesser villains that comprise the majority of their forces on earth. However, you will be able to feel their presence. I also think that unless you're very familiar with comic book history you won't recognize them but I assure you they are all incredibly dangerous.

Slade however, will return after this story two or three times. Each time he comes back he'll get a little more brutal in both his fighting style and what he's willing to do it order to achieve his goals. Each time he encounters the Titans. It will be for a very different reason. For example, in his next appearance, an event that takes place in the 28th issue of the Titans Go comic book will be a contributor to his battle with the Titans that take place in that story.

By the last time he encounters the Titans. He will you will be even more ruthless than the surprise villain at the end of the second chapter of this story. I'm pretty certain you'll be surprised by who that is. By telling you the general and not the specifics I can give my audience information without giving away too much.

*It was built as part of a waste disposal scheme that was not carried through, it was also the source of the trash in the swamp.

*By other super-villains of course.

*"Or at least as carefully as one could move while imitating a "Loony-Toon's" exaggerated style of tiptoeing. But such was the nature of this being sometimes." I was going put this in there but I realized it didn't fit.

*Slade was brought back to life as a living skeleton but now that he's fully human again he doesn't care about life in the slightest.