Chapter 3: Death Wish

It had all happened so fast, one minute she was there, the next she was missing, and then the alarm had went off. Earthquakes and vibrations shaking most of the city, by all accounts it should have been a natural disaster, but the city was still intact and one of its most dangerous and allusive criminals had been captured.

The only scare had been when they did finally find Raven, nearly destroyed and without memory of the incident.

The surprise was Terra with memory and with Raven in her arms.

The anticipation was what was going to happen to Slade and if Terra was going to stay with the Titans.

The irony was the same person who had killed Slade years ago was the same one to catch him.

Raven lay in Titans medical bay in what felt like a bizarre sense of déjà vu. This morning had been like any other, her going to school and preparing for tests, discussions and homework. Then Slade had attacked her…blindly, then attempted to kill her. She had met with Terra to discuss how to capture Slade, and somewhere along the way she had ended up right back in the medical bay.

She had never felt so defeated in her life, the lack of criminal activity these last few years had made her soft.

This time her team really had had to save her life, she had been in critical condition when they found her.

When she awoke she was in intense pain, knowing for sure she had a few broken bones, the headache of a concussion, her stomach burned and she could make out the spottiness of internal bleeding.

As her body finished healing itself, only one question kept repeating in her mind over and over…

What the hell happened?

The plan was to lure Slade to Terra, convince him that she wanted to be his apprentice again and then once his guard was down Raven would ambush him, alert the Titans from her communicator and the two of them would keep him busy until the rest of the Titans showed up.

They had considered using Raven as bait, Terra holding a hostage for Slade, one he wanted to kill, but the risk was too great since she had already nearly died once already that day.

So at what point had things gone bad? Somehow Raven had gotten nearly crushed to death during the battle and somehow Terra had managed to capture Slade on her own… something was not right, Raven could sense it, and yet her injuries had been so intense that her mind had completely blocked out more than half of the incident.

-A Few hours Ago-

It was reckless, naïve even to think they were finally going to be able to capture him, but Raven's better sense wasn't fueling her right now. The only thing fueling her was the anger, the frustration, and the curiosity. The man who helped deliver her to her father, the man who brought the end of the world with her, the man who went missing for years and suddenly appeared out of thin air.

Why had he come back and why was he trying to kill her…again?

It wasn't like Slade to do things without motive, it wasn't like Slade to be so impulsive with his actions, to just go after one of them and not get something out of it. What did he gain from her death this time around?

All of this and more she wanted to know, but mostly she just wanted to get back at him, slug him a few times across the jaw and finally put an end to this never ending cycle. He was an infection, a scar on their world. No one knew it better than her and Terra, and certainly Robin as well, they would all get their shot at him as soon as Slade arrived; which according to Terra would be any minute now.

Part of her worried this was a trap, what if Terra really did want to rejoin Slade and help him kill her? Terra and her had never been close, and Slade and Terra together could easily defeat her if they wanted to.

Raven stayed hidden in the shadows sensing his presence nearby, her heart started beating so hard she worried he might hear it. She started breathing more heavily than normal and realized she was getting nervous!

She wasn't scared of Slade, she stopped being scared of him a long time ago, but there was something new replaced by the fear, something she couldn't name as her fingers started to shake at the sound of his heavy footsteps approaching.

"Well isn't this familiar," his smooth baritone voice echoed off the cave walls. "The place where we both brought the city to its knees and the place where we both died."

Raven heard a shuffle across the room, and soon realized Terra was moving closer to him. "Yeah, good times," she said flatly.

"It's nice to see your abilities haven't completely vanished with your amnesia." Raven heard Terra scoff and could already imagine the snide smirk she was giving him.

"Well it's a little bit difficult to practice in private but I still remember how to get away with it." She heard a thoughtful sigh from Slade and was even surprised herself. Terra was even better now at being allusive, all these years and they had not once felt a rumble or disturbance her powers use to so easily cause, she really had gained more control.

"I taught you well," Slade remarked proudly.

"Don't get so full of yourself." There was an amusement in Terra's voice that made Raven uncomfortable. She had to remind herself that Terra had been alone with Slade for months. It wasn't so unusual that they were familiar to each other, but it did seem strange how convincing Terra made it seem when she had hated him so much in the end. She had after all been the one who killed him.

"Should I expect you to attack me?" Slade was moving closer to her. Raven summoned her black energy into her fists preparing to launch at him. "Or is this something else? Something more important than just mere revenge?"

Raven peeked out from her hiding spot and saw Terra still smirking. "Actually… I was hoping we could pick up where we left off."

From there everything was black. No memory of coming out behind the shadows, no memory of being crushed under the weight of heavy boulders, no recollection of the Titans bringing her back to the tower and her body automatically throwing itself into its healing unconsciousness.

She didn't like it. Not so much because she wanted to recall every single gritty detail, especially when it came to the pain, but the things that were now coming forth were troubling her most of all.

Somehow Slade had put Raven in the pathway of one of Terra's attacks which had nearly killed her. So at what point did Terra have time to capture him and save Raven at the same time? The fact of him being captured…was still not real to her.

Slade's identity wasn't so secretive anymore and Terra's information was more vast than any of them could imagine. Raven felt as though she had been played, even though Robin urged her that Terra had saved her life.

So far Raven had learned the bare minimum.

Slade was not some cover name like she had hoped for. Slade was Slade Wilson…Wilson…he actually had a last name, he was actually human.

Slade had been living within the public for years; he wouldn't have trouble hiding because as far as anyone was concerned he was just another rich anonymous business man. Money meant freedom and he didn't even have to steal it the way most criminals did. He knew how to properly invest and stabilize his money. Naturally most of his money came from his work as a mercenary; all that money was untraceable of course.

The most surprising part was Slade use to be in the army, he had been a respected solider. Once again he naturally had a good reputation and spotless crime record. Slade Wilson was not Slade the villain to anyone in the public.

In fact, Slade had never even been dead when Terra defeated him years ago. Slade had colleagues of some kind that had kept all his finances, investments and contracts circulating for the entire year Slade had been among the dead.

Whoever his friend was had gone missing the second Slade had been captured, no coincidence of course. Slade had everything thought out, he was two steps ahead of everyone on all possibilities, which was what scared Raven even more. Whatever sentence he was going to receive he would be prepared for. At this point whatever sentence he received could be minimal to what he would have gotten four years ago.

Whatever happened now would be her fault inadvertently. There were thoughts running through her mind like locusts. Slade was just another guy in real life, Slade had been a soldier, Slade had a spotless record, Slade the man who helped her destroy the world was also the man who helped try to destroy Trigon.

Her father, his master, all until the very end when she regained her strength and when he regained his body, things could not be more complicated and she had no way of foreseeing the future.

She started to breathe easier as her ribs fully mended and her headache subsided, now all she could feel was a buzzing haze that always left her worn out from her healing abilities.

As she started to regain full consciousness she heard the swoosh of the medical bay doors opening.

Not now please…

She knew Robin had a bone to pick with her. She left the tower wounded, to secretly meet with a former Titan to try a defeat one of their most dangerous enemies.

She readied herself for a stern lecture and was surprised to see Beastboy standing in front of her.

"Raven," by the tone in his voice she could tell he was going to say something serious and deep. He rarely got like this, especially with her considering how odd and different they were around each other.

"What is it Garfield?" again she used his name to let him know that he had her full attention.

He stood awkwardly before her trying to find his words. "Why did you do this?" It was an elaborate and complicated question, with no simple answers. She didn't know how to answer so Beastboy continued on with an explanation.

"I know you think you have to do things alone, but I've already told you you're never alone. We already lost Terra once because of Slade, and today we almost lost you."

She finally realized that she had scared Beastboy with her near death incident, not as though it had never happened before, but usually her teammates were there to save her. This time she had been reckless and the worst part was all because she had wanted to capture Slade.

She could lie and say it was to protect her teammates, but it wasn't all together true. She had wanted revenge, and it was obvious that Beastboy knew that and wanted to know why she had acted on that instinct.

"I'm sorry Beastboy," she finally answered. "I wasn't thinking I suppose."

He gave her a small smile that didn't reach his eyes. "It really hurt when we lost Terra, and I know you've never been fond of her…"

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes, as if it truly mattered that her and Terra got along, but it did to Beastboy.

"I'm just glad she's back and I'm glad you're still here, you're my best friend you know." The lightness and sincerity in his voce made her feel a bit guilty. She knew in some strange sense he did regard her as his best friend.

She wished she could say the same, but it was still hard for her to fully be herself in front of him. What it was that Beastboy felt towards her was a need for closeness which he would never receive. He had to put effort and energy into being someone to her, and that was why he regarded her so highly.

She wished she could put in one half of the energy that he did, but she didn't have it in her. She cared for him very deeply, but not nearly in the same way he did for her.

"We're going to be a different team now," she said passively. He looked at her confused and she only exhaled wearily. "Terra is back, Slade is captured…and we don't even know what kind of sentence he's going to receive. We haven't even had time to process the fact that he's returned."

He exhaled just as tiredly as her and grabbed a stool to sit next to her bed. He had similar thoughts swimming through his head as well. "I know… I still can't believe you guys managed to capture him."

She scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Technically Terra did most of the work, I feel as though we've gone soft in our approach to fighting."

"Well we haven't done any serious fighting in a while," he said as though he actually missed the old days.

"So how did Terra manage to do it by herself?" Raven asked suspiciously.

The question made Beastboy uncomfortable. "Maybe she has more control than we realized, maybe she remembers something about Slade that we don't, she was his apprentice for a while."

So was Robin, and yet he had never been able to bring Slade down. What kind of weakness would Terra know about them that none of them did?

"I don't want to think about it right now," Raven admitted out loud. "I just want to see Slade's ass put in prison," she added with a loud groan stretching out her muscles.

Beastboy chuckled beside her, not use to her being so crass and crude. She smirked back lightly realizing that although she still wasn't one hundred percent comfortable around him, it had gotten easier through out the years.

His face suddenly got serious again. "Raven…what if they don't send him to prison? What if they give him a lighter sentence?"

She swallowed thickly and took in a shaky breath before replying with heavy sarcasm, "Then kill me now."

A/N: I know this seems like I'm leaving out a huge chunk of the story trying to rush to the whole Slade and Raven thing, but this chapter will come back in a very important way, the details will be revelaed in due time…(Evil Laugh)… Review!