I don't own Teen Titans. I own Mary and Mary only. If I owned Teen Titans Raven would be ruler of the world.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mary shuffled her feet cautiously, watching her father beat the stuffing out of a dummy, literally. She peered through the crack of the door, quietly. Her mind watching and memorizing every move, copying her fathers ability and motions. She watched hesitantly as he turned around to the door, knowing that she was there.

"What do you want Mary?" he asked coldly.

The girl knew that she was in trouble because he never normally called her by her first name. She always went by 'daughter' and nothing more or less. She only got her name out of him if he was really happy or if he was in a really, really bad mood.

"What's up father?" Mary asked slowly. She stepped through the door and smiled slowly.

"What's up?" he asked cruelly.

Mary stepped closer to the weight stack. "I asked you first. Why didn't you come to breakfast?" Mary asked smartly.

"What's up?" he asked again, ignoring her second question.

Mary held her ground. "Why weren't you at breakfast this morning?"

"I'm your father. I don't have to answer your childish questions…" Slade said childishly. He walked over to Mary, his face; Mary noted was covered in sweat. He grabbed her shoulders. "I don't care what you think that you can get out of me…" Slade smirked. "You're just like I was when I was your age."

Mary smirked back at him. "I like that then…" she said.

Slade smiled. He patted her head, suddenly in a good mood. Mary grinned. She watched him leave the room, apparently going to get some grub.

"Tell me that I'm like him when he was my age-" Mary mocked. She punched the bag that was already spewing stuffing from the side. She kicked the bag over and over again, forcing the piles of stuffing on the floor to become heavier and thicker.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After half of a day of training, Mary had skipped lunch and was feeling dehydrated, tired and hungry. She moved slowly to the kitchen, starving for supper. Her feet seemed to walk themselves, into the kitchen and to the refrigerator.

She walked past her father, covered in sweat and water. Her face and brim of her t-shirt saturated. Slade decided to follow her through the kitchen, walking behind her. She didn't seem to notice him because she was so tired. He stopped following her as she reached into the fridge. She pulled out a piece of lunch that Wintergreen had reserved for her and stuffed it into her mouth greedily. She chomped down on her food. Her mind waned from eating to training until midnight.

She regained strength, noticing that somebody was watching her. She closed her eyes and charged. Slade's head fell to the floor. He placed his arm below him to strain his fall. His head never touched the ground considering the fact that his daughter caught his shoulder with half of her regained strength melting away again.

"Father? What were you doing?" she asked, huffing a deep breath. She dropped him to the ground so that he landed softly. Slade barely touched the ground before he was back on his feet again.

"I was watching you. You know that I sometimes worry…" Slade said putting emphasis into 'sometimes'.

"That's nice to know…" Mary yawned. "I'm going to go practice again." Mary walked out of the kitchen, sandwich still in hand. Slade followed her again. "Stop it!" Mary shouted.

"Stop what?" Slade asked coldly.

"You're following me!"

"So?"

"It's creepy!"

"Your point?"

"Hmm, never thought about that," Mary whispered. "Can you teach me something?"

Slade was taken aback by her request. "What do you want me to teach you?" he asked.

"When I was watching you this morning, I want to know how to fight like that…" Mary whispered.

Slade raised his gray eyebrows. "All right."

Mary smiled so big that it could barely fit her face. Slade waved his hand. "I want you to get some rest before you start to learn from me though. I think that you shouldn't train for the next two days at least," Slade said.

Mary opened her mouth to protest that she was fine but decided to close it when she looked down at herself. "Of course father."

Slade patted Mary on the head again. Mary felt overcome with joy and triumph. Her heart raced when her father touched her. She didn't have a sick, tormented/twisted crush on her father, she was just really excited to be shone affection.

Slade walked off into the hallway as Mary traveled behind, inches away. Slade looked behind himself as he walked into the doors that led to the living room. "What are you doing?" Slade asked.

Mary smiled with the thought of the conversation that had taken place minutes before. "Following you…" Mary smiled.

Slade rolled his eyes, trying to be a good father. He rubbed her head this time, signaling that he wanted her to follow him again, to spend time with him. They walked into Slade's computer room and plugged in the neural suit to test it.

After Slade connected the wires to himself, Mary pressed a few buttons on the nearby computer to start the machine. A pattern of numbers and letters formed on the computer screen. Mary recalculated all of the settings quickly and pressed a few more keys and italics. Mary smiled as the neural suit's left eye lit up.

"It's alive!" Mary shouted, imitating a mad scientist.

"Great, how do you work it?" Slade asked.