Disclaimer: The Teen Titans belong to DC Comics… and since I own no part of DC Comics, I obviously don't own the Teen Titans.

A/N: This does take place almost right after the series ended, however (since Things Change really didn't cover this), I'm going to have it that all the new Titans are temporarily staying at the Tower until they're trained fully.

Disaster

I live to hide, I'm weak and shrewd
I don't suppose you'd know
I've hidden behind these frigid eyes
They filter what I know
Save Me, Alter Bridge

The plan was too simply brilliant. Something the Brotherhood of Evil would have laughed at. But, then, they were the ones permanently frozen in their own headquarters and Slade was the one walking around freely.

And, at the end of it all, who had faced the Titans more times than he had and survived? All he had to do was thin the ranks a little. While he could easily deal with the new, amateur Titans, there was just no sport it in. It was kind of like shooting fish in a barrel.

The plan had been in the works since Terra. She'd been essential really, in getting the antibodies into the Titans. After all, Slade knew that if they trusted her that easily, it would only be a matter of time until they got enough dead weight on the time. And then, well, only a matter of time until they were temporarily weakened by some battle or another. Even if he had to orchestrate that battle.

As it was, the time had come sooner rather than later. The team was weighed down with enough Titans to hamper their effectiveness against him. And, he was lucky enough that it happened to coincide with the Brotherhood of Evil battle. Or rather, it was because of that battle.

Not that he much cared how or why the two events had occurred. All he cared about was the fact that it was the perfect time to attack the Titans. To poison the excess, to all attack them when they were at their weakest.

And it didn't hurt that Beast Boy was not at his top fighting form because of the little Terra incident. Not that Beast Boy had been much of a threat to start with… but he did distract the real threats when they were trying to protect him.

Poisoning the Titans had been almost too easy. They were teenagers, in the long run, all Slade had to do was hit them where it hurt most: the pizza they ate almost daily. He'd found it almost depressingly simple to sneak into the pizza parlor and poison their order.

As long as it didn't hurt the regular Titan, they were too vital for the continuation of his legacy. They were trained, they were easy to persuade, and they had dark sides to rival his own. At least, it would all work out if morals didn't get in the way.

And it wasn't like he had any morals to start with. So that problem was solved.

Of course, there was the small problem of the Titans figuring out what he was up to. As far as he knew, Beast Boy was the only one who even knew that he was around – and he was in no condition to talk. But Slade had no idea how long he could keep it a secret.

And that other small problem of poisoning his own son. Not that he'd ever claim to be a perfect father – or even a half-way decent father. But he didn't know if he could possibly poison Jericho. Whether or not the boy had decided to denounce his assassin heritage.

Those were just two hurdles he would have to deal with when it came to it. After all, it would still be a while off before the poison really started taking hold. And then there was mobilizing the androids. He had time to deal with it.

Even after those problems, the plan was still almost fool-proof. Slade had the only antidote to the poison. And despite the fact that it was slow-acting, there wouldn't be enough time for the Titans to identify the poison and figure out how to counteract it.

Not to mention, he still had one more thing to hold over their heads: Terra. Her amnesia would easily fall apart with the right trigger, and he had triggers by the handfuls. There was no doubt they wanted her back, if only for Beast Boy's sake.

Slade considered it a fair trade, at least: Terra and her memories or the antidote for the ever-lasting loyalty of the original Titans. Their lives, their souls would be his in a matter of months. And after five years, that time would fly by.

Really, if it wasn't for the fact that the majority of the villains worth a damn had gotten themselves frozen, Slade would have attempted to sell off everyone but Robin. But only Brother Blood was left. And he had no desire to ally himself with a man who couldn't even hold on to his own students, who were much less willful to than the Titans.

That was just the way things went. And it wasn't like Slade couldn't use five apprentices; it would just be more difficult to make sure they were all obeying him. Maybe he needed to put just a tad more research into this, ferret out their weaknesses.

Not that he already didn't know most of their weaknesses. Each other. Batman. Himself. Trigon. Blackfire. Terra. Brother Blood. The want to be normal. Themselves. It followed all the information he had on them, all their battles, their families… They left a paper trail that made it way too easy.

But, well, they would learn soon enough: how not to let their weakness show. It would just take a little conditioning. Time he was willing to put into them in order to have actual apprentices, ones that took little time in training.

It was thrilling, almost as exhilarating as a fight: all this planning and plotting. Not to mention the art of the slow, painful death; exploiting every weakness… Even the agonizing slow pace of time couldn't take away from that twisted ecstasy.

All of this was, in fact, what Slade lived for. A perfectly controlled chaos, a completely contained mess, a disaster planned to perfection… This time there would be no allowance for failure, no way for the Titans to thwart him. It was all or nothing. And he was going to crush their spirits like bugs.