(Hi you all! Just to let you know, I have been a member of Fanfiction for a while. Been a Teen Titan fan for as long, and to contribute to a good show, here is my story. Right now it is rated T, to be safe, and it will change. And to warn you, this story will get very bad as the story goes, if you don't like bad stories (and I don't mean crappy) you don't have to read it.

So, here is my first story in years, the plot may seem to be going fast. If I get any characters wrong, please let me know. I don't own the Teen Titans or any of the characters, but mine. Enjoy)

Vale of Tears: part 1- the Vale falls

Slade was absolutely sick of his life. After the charade with the Titans, he thought of retiring from all the villain business and get a real hobby. Yeah right, Slade thought sadly. I can see myself making as a hired clown. Go to little two-year olds birthday party! He walked down a long dark corridor, his hand holding a bottle of vodka. He was in one of his hidden lairs, one of many that spread throughout the country. Slade had plenty of money, enough to live off of comfortably. He wasn't always a super-villain. Back then, scams and plain robbery over the years made him rich.

What did he have to show for it? Not a whole lot. Being beaten by a bunch of teenagers was bad enough, but not as stupid as selling his soul to a back stabbing demon or dealing with a treacherous blond. What really would embarrass Slade, if he saw his fall. Slade shivered at the very thought.

In his past, Slade had trained many apprentices before he even meet the boy wonder and the blonde, as he mentally referred them. But one of them was very different. Him. Probably the only thing Slade ever regretted was just noticing the kid. That's why he had the vodka, to drown out those memories.

At the end of the clammy corridor, the ex-villain entered a lavish interior room. Unlike all other hide-outs, this one was for relaxation, as well as hiding. Walls were painted white, exotic plants in expensive vases littered the room, a nice white tile floor with expensive furniture placed before a massive bookcase full of reading material that was beyond any one's imagination. Slade would rather read than waste his life watching TV as the Titans have done. He was going to finish up John Milton's Paradise Lost and drink his vodka till he pukes! That sounded much more fun than planning some stupid plan that was doom to fail against the Titans.

Slade put the bottle on a glass table where the Milton work was, next to his black leather-ed recliner. He sat down, gave a huge sigh. Now this is heaven! He thought for a moment lying their. It took him a second to take off his helmet. He rubbed his head till curly graying hair stook out, underneath his right was long gash that stretched till his square chin. Slade was blind in that eye, but it never slowed him down.

Relaxed, without looking Slade reached over to the table for the vodka, he couldn't feel it till. Must be out of reach he thought. He turned to see the bottle was gone, as well as the Paradise Lost. Slade leaped out of the chair, his blue eye scanned the room. Then strangely, he felt a cold shiver down his spine. The room wasn't cold by all means. He only got that shiver when ever he was…

Oh crap, Slade thought and he immediately knew he was begin watched. He looked around the room. For a moment he thought he was losing his mind. When Slade muttered that out loud-

"You're not mad, Wilson." A soft voice whispered, echoing through out the huge room. Then it was followed by a small chuckle. "Well, not yet."

Only one person ever called by his real name, who had the balls and Slade wasn't foolish enough to excuse the idea that his worst apprentice was in the room. "What do you want, brat?" Slade asked out loud in his rolling low voice.

Slade could fell the man's cruel smile fall upon him. You didn't need to see the guy to feel there was something wrong about him. At least that what Slade felt.

After a long moment of silence, Slade said, "Well? What do you want from me?"

"Your assistance of course," the voice said, this time rather close. Slade turned around to see his recliner occupied, and he didn't notice that the lights had deemed, so he couldn't see the man's face, but vaguely see the outline of a worn out boots and a light blue uniform he wore.

Slade didn't move. He knew he was quicker than his old apprentice, but the man was very, very unpredictable. He stared at him and the man was staring at him. "What do you want?" Slade repeated.

"Your assistance, you old fool." The man said coldly.

"And what kind of assistance?" Slade asked cautiously.

"Oh, just help me with one little thing."

"And that is?"

"Tell me, what is like to be beaten by a bunch of tight wearing, acne scarred teen brats?" the voice Slade could tell it was full of bitter sweet joy. "A man of your talents lost to a bunch of kids, how humiliating."

"I underestimated them." Slade said truthfully, but it came out as a an excuse for failing.

"Underestimate? Oh no, Wilson, you got your ass kicked. It is I who you underestimated." Immediately Slade's hand went up to his blind eye and scare, he was doing all that he could from going over there and strangling the intruder.

Then a thought crossed Slade's mind, he smiled a little as he expressed, "Well, you got yourself a beauty mark too."

Slade couldn't tell if he made him mad, of course if he was mad, he wouldn't express that till the last second. He seen his apprentice kill because of a small prank, the prankster found to be nothing more than a bloody mess, it was gruesome.

"Touché, Wilson." The man said evenly. There's something, guess he really does need me. He won't kill me, yet. Slade thought trying to figure out what he wanted. "Anyway, back to business. Tell me Wilson, what would you give to beat the Titans?"

"Everything," Slade said without thinking, oh how he wish to get back at them.

"That's what I wanted to here." The man said cheerfully. "I can promise you absolute victory over them and more. But,"

"There is always a 'but', so what do you want in return for my service?" Slade asked, trying not to sound interested in the apprentice's offer.

"Nothing much, just help me obtain some dangerous material and bring here." The man said shrugging in the dark, watching his former master with upmost interest. Like a wolf watching the weak and old elk, about to strike.

Slade blinked, "That's it? You'll help me defeat the Titan and you want in return for me to be a delivery boy?" He shook his head in disbelief. "You're not that easy, you never were, what's the catch?"

"Catch?" The man asked almost innocently, "Oh right the 'catch'. The catch is I need to test a new theory of mine, probably give the Titans a taste on what I want to dish out. It'll be a test of wills. Of mine, yours, and of the Titans. So you're in?"

The man pulled out of the shadows the bottle of vodka and held it Slade. Slade looked at the man, then the bottle. It didn't take him a second to grab the bottle, that's all the man need to bring Slade aboard. Of course, Slade didn't know what he just agreed to do. The man won't tell of course.

"Just answer me this question," Slade asked.

"What?"

"What is your plan?"

The man smiled in the dark, and then he said in an icy voice, "To make 'heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n.'"*

*-means it's a quote, in this case, John Milton's Paradise Lost, 1:254-255

(Hope you like it. If you're wondering, the stranger is my own character and trust me, as the story goes on you'll see why Slade hate/fears him and by the end of the story I can grantee you'll hate him too.

Please review I accept good, bad or ugly critisism. And just to for your info, if there is no reviews I won't post.

Next chapter soon, teen titans surely will be in it next.-N2Darkness)