Nightwing sat there rubbing his knuckles and rapping the window pane. There had not been a thing wrong in the city for weeks and it had been causing him unease. He couldn't sleep often. He hated to think it but he wanted someone to get hurt just so he cold sink his bare hands into a criminal's weak flesh. His punching bag was becoming soft. His mind had been clouded recently. He had been dreaming about Slade again and they were bringing back memories he had desperately tried to shut out. He shuffled down to the common room, sat down, stood up, sat down, and stood up again confused as if he had just woken up from dream.

"God damn, it am I going insane!" He called out to the empty room. It echoed, he shuttered.

"That can happen to a guy who doesn't sleep for days on end," a female voice said passively. It was Raven. She was sipping her tea.

"I haven't been tired."

"Not enough action! You punched your bag off the hook yesterday and it hit Starfire, I didn't think you noticed. You've been preoccupied I take it?"

"Heh... Yeah, maybe, just bad dreams."

"Well, I'm here to talk and all that crap."

He smiled, but then he remembered what she was asking about. "I've been dreaming about Slade." He shut his jaw, "You don't care, who am I kidding. You've just had a grudge on me ever since I pissed you off about Skyton."

"Why don't you just shut the hell up. I was trying to be nice, not something I do regularly, and you blow me off. This is why I hate you!"

"Don't turn this around," Nightwing snapped.

"Well are you gonna tell me or what?"

"Nothing," he said changing his mind about telling her, "just… forget it."

He could tell she was staring at the back of his head. It was wearing big holes straight into his brain. God, he hated that. He whirled around.

"What?"

"Nothing," she said, "You're not talking and you want to get it off your chest."

"Don't try to map out my mind Raven. As much as I like you there are things I don't want you to know," he snarled sarcasticly.

Raven glared at him with both pity and disgust.

Skyton walked past Raven into the room and paused. The tension in the room was killing him. He could sense it. Nightwing was hiding something from Raven and she was giving him that expecting look that made him feel like there were holes being bored into the back of his head.

"You always up this early?" he asked yawning and stretching his stiff arms.

They didn't answer. Raven continued to stare calmly.

Nightwing became angry, "Raven, I DON'T want to talk about it."

She stopped and looked down shifting her hands around her tea cup. Skyton started some coffee. It was pouring outside. It was only about one in the morning. Nightwing couldn't stop thinking about Slade. It was driving him insane.

"Raven..?" The former Boy Wonder asked timidly.

She smirked, "What happened?"

"Should I leave?" Skyton wondered out loud.

"Stay as long as you don't mind disturbing moments."

Skyton smiled, "You know every time I open my eyes I see my worst nightmares. I can handle your story."

"I… uhhh… I never told you what happened when I was Slade's apprentice…" he said slouching in his chair and brushing his hair back. "I… Slade had… he had a knack for seeking and exploiting weaknesses. Hey.. You know what, let me start from the beginning.

Slade looked me in the eye. He said I'd been making progress. He wanted me to remember why I was doing this so he showed me his little button. He said he wanted to show me and then he wanted me to feel what would happen to my friends if I disobeyed him. He bent my arm behind me and threw me around a bit. That wasn't the worst of it though. He drugged me, a lot. He made me think I was the scum of the earth and I believed him. The drugs made me see things. I actually saw and felt the hallucinations. The drugs made me see al the awful things he could do to me. One time it made me see him flip me around and undo his zipper. I couldn't fight back, he said if I did he would push the button. After it was over, he told me he just wanted me to remember something for the rest of my life. I just lay there in shock, I guess. The thing was, when I woke up the next morning, he said that yesterday what had happened was an effect of the drugs, after I screamed at him for doing it. I wanted—

Nightwing was gripping a mug of coffee so hard it shattered in his hand. He threw the bits onto the table and stormed out silently fuming, his palm scraped with bits of porcelain. Skyton was quiet. Raven was quiet also but she looked furious. She hated Slade maybe second to Nightwing. Skyton couldn't tell what this would lead to but he didn't want it to escalate. Not that it cold get any worse. Later that day when they were all training, Nightwing destroyed his punching bag.

He was hooking it up and punched it for the first time. It felt hard and cold. He hit it harder. He hated the bag. No, he hated Slade. The bag was Slade. Nightwing saw the bag as Slade in everyway. He hit it with fury and he hit it again so that it ripped in two. Skyton called for him to stop but got no response. He put a restraining hand on Nightwing's shoulder. Nightwing turned around and punched him with the same anger he had bestowed upon the bag. Skyton's jaw cracked and he fell over and rolled across the room. His jaw bled but he stood up. Nightwing escaped through the door and headed for his room, his fist bleeding. Skyton followed him out.

"Yo, Night. You need another outlet."

"Slade is dead."

"You think what I did killed him? No, hurting Karma got rid of the bad things on earth, but Slade is backed by the underworld gods."

"Where is he then?"

"Still in Arcane."

Nightwing shrugged and started to leave for his room again. Skyton headed back for the training room. They all stared at him expectantly.

"He's fine." Skyton sat down in the opposite corner of the room from Raven.

"Is he really ok?" She asked through her mind.

"Maybe, I think he's going to go out and kill Slade." Skyton returned.

"Are you ok?"

"Don't worry about me. I can take a punch."

They stopped talking. Skyton stood up and went to the roof. He sat down on the edge looked over towards the ground. Raven came up a bit.

"What are you doing?"

"Thinking about where everything went wrong."

They sat in the sun for a bit.

"Tell me, why am I attracted to you?"

"Love happens. It's my fault or yours," He paused. "But it might be my dashing good looks."

Raven imagined he was laughing under the full face mask he hid behind. She laughed.

"What good looks? I can't see anything but you left hand. Why don't you open your eyes. I mean the visions aren't real."

He shook his head, "You'd need more of an argument to get me to take this thing off. Give me on reason why I should take this off."

"Because you probably won't have them anymore now that Karma is finished with you."

He hesitated before taking his mask off. He opened his eyes slowly peaking out. A flash of red enveloped his eyes and he scrambled backwards. On his back he arched over his heart beat speeding up, right before he let out the scream. Once he shut his eyes he calmed down and scuttled away into the tower whispering to himself.

Raven pursued him inside and grabbed his shoulder whipping him around, "Nightwing is going after Slade," Skyton said after he sat down.

"Shouldn't we stop him?"

"He has to fight his battles."

"Should we help him?"

"He has to deal with this himself or he will feel that nothing will come of his…"

"Revenge," she finished.

Skyton rubbed his jaw thoughtfully.

"We shouldn't interfere."

They looked at each other and passed along the massage.

"He's gonna kill himself alone," Raven said.

"Lets go."

"Should we tell the others?"

"No. It's bad enough that we're interfering. Moreover, I bet Nightwing has made good time on us. We need to head out and we don't have time to wait for them to gather up. Meet me in front of the tower. He swooped off the edge of the tower and opened up a hatch in the ground that led to the garage. It was stocked. The city had offered the heroes whatever they needed and that meant a vehicle for every one of them.

He had to choose between his or Raven's. Hers was a bit more inconspicuous but his was more agile and that was what he needed. He jumped in and the engine purred to life he pulled it around smoothly to the front and Raven got in.

"Any idea where he could headed?" he asked.

"Arcane Asylem, step on it."

Skyton put on his mask. He loved it when someone gave him an opportunity to drive really fast.

"My pleasure," he smirked.

Raven hated it when he drove. She remembered that too late.

"Wait Sky--" She said eyes widening.

She was pressed back into the seat painfully as Skyton floored it. It should have been a three day trip across the USA but minus the fact that they were looking for Nightwing and he was not yet to Arcane and the fact that Skyton was driving like a lunatic it took them ten hours to catch up to Nightwing. But Nightwing didn't slow down when he saw them, in fact he sped up. Skyton pursued him through the busy rush hour traffic.

"Take the wheel," Skyton told Raven.

He lowered his window and climbed out onto the hood of the car. He jumped from car to car until he landed behind Nightwing. He jumped on behind him and got Nightwing to stop for a second but it was a lost cause. Nightwing sped up again and knocked Skyton off the bike. Skyton tumbled along the road way narrowly missing a car.

Raven skidded to a stop at Skyton and he climbed in.

"That hurt pretty bad," he said half-joking, half-hoping he wasn't bleeding anywhere.

They continued to follow him to Arcane but kept their distance. When they reached it Nightwing gave them a look and ran inside. They followed and Skyton told Raven tat he would not interfere unless someone was in danger. They saw Nightwing flip out a card, scan it, and enter the building. Raven and Skyton could not so this and so they waited anxiously. Next to them only a mere ten minuets later Nightwing and Slade came tumbling out of a first floor window. But they were not fighting, they were escaping. Guards poured out over the street. One of them looked at Raven and Skyton and asked them what they were doing.

"Call off the men we'll take it from here," Skyton said not moving.

"I can't do that. What are you bounty hunters!"

"No, just after a friend."

"I'll need to see some I.D."

"Not enough time for that," Skyton said jumping and flipping into the air and over at least eight people. Raven flew over right behind Skyton and they boarded their car. The Arcane Interpol vehicles shot out from under ground after them. Nightwing and Slade were down the road already. The Arcane cars flew around the corner after them.

"Nightwing won't stop until he has lost the Interpol," Raven reminded.

"I'll see what I can do."

Skyton steered the car hard let and ran one car into a drop box. He braked and the car that was headed for his now landed in a pacifists club. The third vehicle was a little harder to lose. Skyton eventually managed to outrun it with Nightwing and Slade. When Nightwing reached a deserted area he threw Slade off the bike and onto the pavement.

"I need this Slade. I want you to remember something for the rest of your life," He said maniacally, "But I'm not as sick as you, oh no. I just want to give you a little piece of my foot! You fuckin' sick asshole!"

He kicked him in the side and sent him sprawling. Slade stood up, he had ,more dignity than the king's scribe.

"Now, Robin, what is this going to solve?"

"A lot, if you come with me and become my personal punching bag. If you don't I'll take out my needs on you now."

"You might hurt me but you could never beat me."

"Oh, I'm gonna beat you. I'm gonna drug you and show you things I could do to."

"Not very original…"

"It came from the biggest and best of the bastards."

Nightwing pulled back his fist and hurled it forward Slade grabbed it but Nightwing kneed him in the groin. Skyton cringed from inside the car.

"Ok that's enough torture for one day," Skyton said to himself, stepping out of the car.

"Night, that's enough!"

Nightwing stopped and spit on the ground by Slade who was curled into a ball.

"I'll get rid of him."

"You do that," Skyton enforced.

Skyton entered the car again and looked at Raven.

"He's gonna dump him in the bushes. Let's go."

"No we should wait until he's actually done it. I don't trust him as far as I could throw him right now."

Nightwing disposed of Slade and climbed on his bike. A little while later they were on the thruway. Nightwing cruised to the left of Skyton who was behind the wheel. Quickly a white sedan with a mother and two children veered left and switched lanes cutting Skyton off. Skyton swerved the car right before deciding to turn the other way, right into Nightwing. Nightwing was hit and he pressed on his nitros oxide tank. Blue lights burst forward and Nightwing's bike flew under a semi-truck. Skyton saw as his face as torn off by the back or the truck. The smoke rose and Nightwing's motorcycle exploded off and he smashed straight into the sedan, instantly killing the woman and children. Skyton jumped out and tried to find Nightwing. When the carnage ended no one had found a body.

"The most likely story is that he was burned. The bike he had was using nitrox and that would interfere with the DNA patterns if we wanted to check the ashes," an officer said.

Raven would have liked to cry but she was tougher than that. Skyton just shook his head. When they reached home the others had been looking for them. Raven told them the story. Skyton was solemn. He cracked his knuckles.

The others left and spread out among the tower. Raven turned to Starfire.

"'I need to tell you something. I don't feel that Nightwing is dead. Something is wrong I can feel him. I'm going after him but I don't want Skyton or anyone else to come. The only way to do that is to go where Skyton can't follow. I'm going to leave my body here and find Nightwing with my mind and it will seem I'm dead. Don't tell anyone."

Starfire nodded expressing no emotion. Raven left to her room. She sat on the bed and meditated…

"Azerath Metrion Zinthos… Azerath Metrion Zinthos… Azerath Metrion Zinthos…" She chanted rubbing her temples with her middle and ring finger. She did this for a few moments and the she fell from her floating position and hit the floor and her soul left her body. It hovered for a moment and took off to find Nightwing.

Cyborg had finished making breakfast and Raven wasn't there. He went up to her room to find her. When he heard no answer he figured he could go in to take a peek and check for her. She lay there somewhere between spread eagled and curled into a ball.

"Oh god," he said stepping forward and picking up her wrist to take a pulse. Nothing and she was cold as the winter sky, "Help! Someone get up here!"

Down at the breakfast table Starfire stood up hearing the cries for help. Skyton followed her lead. Skyton reached Raven's room first and dashed in. He looked at Cyborg who shook his head. Skyton thought he felt his eyes blur over and his mask get wet. He fell to his knees involuntarily. Starfire placed a firm hand on his shoulder.

It was raining outside and Skyton left to stand in it. It made him feel calm sometimes. He stood there until his Jedi-like suit was soaked. Suicide was such a selfish thing to do. He clenched his teeth and landed a fist into the ground. He was ok now so he went back inside. He stood there dripping for a while. When he was semi dry he found the punching bag in the training room and landed a few punches on it. Nothing seemed to relieve his stress. He punched it faster and harder until he accidentally stuck his hand through the bag. A bone in his hand snapped.

"Ahh, fuck," he said pulling his hand back. He stepped downstairs and passed Raven's room. Something wasn't right he could feel Raven. As if she was there lurking in the shadows watching him. He turned around. The light over head flickered and went out. He turned around again and kept walking. The next light went out in front of him he broke into a run and reached the common room. He could hear him self breathing. He turned and faced the door and the light went out above him. He couldn't see anything. He backed into someone who knocked him aside. A green light burned in front off his face. It was Starfire.

"What's going on?" Skyton demanded.

She grabbed his wrist and jerked him up.

"I don't know the light just quit on me."

They backed up against each other and Skyton felt a flash of wind behind him. Starfire screamed in agony and collapsed to the floor. Skyton flipped out his lightsaber. Someone laughed behind him. He turned around. A glimmer of a red shape flashed passed the glow of his saber. Skyton danced around a bit something was moving at him. As it would have been about to hit Skyton shut off his saber and twirled to the side and swung his hand to the back of the enemy. He hit something but realized he had penetrated his hand on a spike. His warm blood dripped down his open wound. He yanked his hand back. He needed to get away. He ran to the door and swung it open. It was snowing outside. He took no time running outside. He turned around and faced the open door. Inside the lights flickered. His heart beat faster and faster. Starfire was in there and Cyborg as well. He had to go back in.

A shadow pulled around the building and landed in the garage. Skyton was stunned, Nightwing was alive. Nightwing pulled a large bag off the back of a large car and heaved it inside. Skyton followed. When Skyton found Nightwing inside he looked nervous.

"The crash? Uh… I was knocked off the bridge and I was knocked unconscious."

Skyton nodded unbelievingly.

"There's something in the tower. I think it might have killed Starfire."

Nightwing chuckled and the cleared his throat, "Holy crap, right, let's find it." He pulled out his staff slowly. They made their way to the common room in the dark. Nightwing fired a fuse in the box and the lights went back on. The Red X was standing in one corned of the room. Starfire was bleeding from the ankle. Nightwing twirled his staff and knocked X over. X slashed at Nightwing with a sharp disk. Nightwing dodged it and fell X and placed his staff at his throat. Nightwing jammed it into X's neck until it went straight through him. Blood seeped from the dead villain's neck.

"Shit, Night! What have you done!"

"He was working for Slade," answered Nightwing with a look of satisfaction.

"That doesn't mean you can kill him!"

"Too late," said Nightwing observing the dead corpse with a look that one gives to a new creation.

Skyton backed away from Nightwing with a look of horror.

"Raven is dead too."

Nightwing changed his expression from malicious to greedily sad. He said nothing. He left not saying anything. He walked back into the room ten minuets later. Cyborg walked in also.

"What the hell!"

Skyton said what had happened with a tone of unease.

Days passed and Nightwing became even more crazed with revenge for Slade. Starfire became progressively worse from a poison that had been on the blade that cut her. Cyborg was even more cautious lately than he ever had been. He locked his doors every time he entered and locked it when he left. It was at least four or five days after Raven's death when Skyton stumbled upon the room that the titans had built for Raven when her father had come. He swung open the door and found Slade, more or less, inside gropping at the door.

"Get me out before he comes back!"

Slade was missing an eye and a couple of fingers his arm bone was sticking out of the arm that hung loosely at his side. Skyton stepped inside the room and dragged Slade with him. He looked him over.

"What happened to you?"

"He's going to come back! We need to go now!"

"Who-"

Nightwing stood in the door way. He shut the door with one arm and stared at Skyton half evil, half crazed.

Skyton stepped back and pulled out his saber. Nightwing laughed.

"Night, don't make me hurt you. You need to come back to your senses."

"Hahaha heh. Funny Skyton but no. You don't know what he did to me. I'm just returning the favor to him."

"This is illegal."

"Shut up," Nightwing snapped, "just move out of my way it's time for his attention."

Skyton ignited his saber and held it at and arms length, "sorry Night I can't let this go on."

"Don't get involved in what you don't know anything about."

"No!"

Nightwing swung his staff at Skyton. Skyton blocked it with his saber. Nightwing hit again and again. Skyton did not want to return the attacks. He decided to fight back too late. Nightwing stuck his staff through Skyton's shoulder. Skyton collapsed. Nightwing smacked Slade's head against the wall and left. Nightwing locked the door and whistled a little bit.

Raven's soul rushed back to her body. It passed through and into her. She sat up with a cold sweat on her forehead. A searing pain shot through her shoulder. She fell over onto her bed. The pain passed and she knocked the covers off. Something was wrong. She knew someone had been hurt. Skyton. That was it. Her bond with him had carried the pain from him to her. She looked out her door. Nightwing was whistling. He was walking down the hall with a bloody staff. She stepped out.

"Nightwing!"

He turned around and she knew she had made a mistake. He looked at her coldly, his long black hair falling in front of his eyes. He had attacked Skyton.

"Oh god," she said taking off the other way. He followed her braking into a run when she did. She turned a corner and ran up against her security room. Someone was inside clawing at the door. Nightwing rounded the corner and slowed down and faced her. He ran at her with his staff. He pointed it at her and charged. She leaped up onto his extended staff twirled around it and knocked him off his feet.

"You won't win Night."

"Starfire will be dead, Beast boy has been dead, Skyton is near death, Cyborg will be killed. I am going to end your misery."

She stepped back and he threw a bird-a-rang at her. It passed her by inches snipping of a piece of her hair. She swiped at his with a bolt of energy and he was cut across the chest painfully. He staggered back and fell down against the door. She passed his and swung open the door. Slade fell out looking like he had been ripped to pieces. Skyton was up against the wall dazed from loss of blood. Slade was crawling away. Raven ran to Skyton and raised his head.

"Get out of here. He's gone mad. He's crazed with revenge. Get Cyborg and leave," Skyton urged weakly.

Raven stood up and looked at him one last time.

"Try not to die."

"Go."

She ran out and head around the corner. Slade was gone by now. Nightwing stood up and looked around. He saw Skyton and picked up his staff.

He mumbled something about finishing him off. He raised his staff and stuck it through Skyton's neck.

"Goodbye old friend. You should not have interfered with my affairs. More importantly than Slade was Raven. She was mine before you even came to earth but she fell for you so I tried to kill her. You deserve to die. Can't you see you're in the wrong here? Damn you! Once your dead Raven will come too me with her sorrows and cry into my shoulder and I will rule my life again."

"You forgot," said Skyton his neck closing up and the wound dissipating, "three things. One, she would know that you killed me. Two, I heal from physical wound rather fast. And three, I kick your ass every time."

"What! Hell no! I just killed you!"

Skyton stood up and rolled his shoulders. He stood in a casual fighting stance. Nightwing tossed his staff aside and laughed. They clashed their way through the building and Nightwing was looking bad sooner than he would have liked. Skyton hadn't a scratch on him. Nightwing had one more trick up his sleeve. He blew up a smoke grenade right on himself and made his way behind Skyton. He pulled out a dagger and slit Skyton's throat. Skyton fell down dead. A few miles away Raven died. Cyborg grabbed her body and ran. Inside Nightwing laughed with glee at his kill. He walked up to the infirmary where Starfire was. She was sweating coldly. He stepped closer to her and wiped the sweat off her face with a caring hand. He looked lovingly into her closed eyes but his expression changed to hideous disgust. He unsheathed his knife and jammed it into her heart.

Nightwing's face flickered different emotions. It landed on frightened.

"What have I done?" he fell up against the wall and sunk to the ground with his hands around his knees, "No I needed to do it. They would have killed me. They wouldn't understand that I needed to kill Skyton. Damn them all!"

Cyborg kept running to an unknown destination. He was completely horrified. He was the only one left. Nightwing had killed the rest. His hate for Slade had driven him to murder them all. He knew he would be the next target. He needed help.

Skyton's POV:

Skyton had a very vague idea of where he was. Large golden gates stood at the bottom of a large pyramid that seemed to extend forever. He was in the middle of a line of about five hundred people. Up at the front of the line was a man with a book he was chanting a little song over each person that stepped up to the gates. The young man stopped all of a sudden and flipped a few pages into his book and scanned it slowly.

"Skyton Elengo, Starfire, and Rachel Roth please step forward."

Skyton did and saw that two others stepped forward also. The character at the front of the line looked them over. He pointed at Skyton and Rachel Roth,

"Step aside please," he looked at Starfire. Then he looked at Skyton and Rachel, "You two have a bond. One of you dies the other does as well. This is not approved of but it was not your decision to create it. You two had been sold to Karma but you defied him. You are the most powerful being I have ever laid eyes on yet you are dead. How could this happen?"

Skyton responded, "We are only mortal."

He thumbed through his book, "It was not meant to happen this way. I must send you back. You have saved too many lives to deserve death. Goodbye."

Skyton was rocketed back to earth. Starfire and Raven were on his right. The earth grew and they landed as if they had not been shooting down to earth at one million miles a minuet. Skyton looked around, they were in titans tower. Skyton's body was on the floor with red X's. Skyton's Jedi-like costume was covered in blood. Nightwing could be heard whistling upstairs. Skyton clenched his fist. Starfire's eyes flickered green and Raven breathed deeply.

"He killed me because he loved you," Skyton said without making any eye contact.

"I know," Starfire responded.

"No Star. I'm sorry I was talking to Raven."

"What!" Raven said disturbed.

"I'm not joking."

"It would be pretty sick if you were."