With the skies tinted red from the fires below, the sea dyed from the spilled blood, and the iconic T-shaped tower bended and crooked, but there was no doubt where he was. Smell of rot lingered in the air, and beneath his very feet were the shattered bones and burned flesh of the dead. All of these were too surreal to be real, it could only be a dream, he realised.

"What are you doing here?" asked the clear voice that came from amongst the erratic noise of madness that drowned the world.

Recognising the voice, Slade greeted the girl, "Terra."

…

Slade's lone eye shot open, darting from left and right while remaining perfectly still, trying to find the source of the voice, realising that it was just a dream, he calmed himself down. Tilting his head slightly, he looked at the girl who was still asleep, and her hand still holding onto his.

"Damn girl," came to him naturally though he couldn't remember why, and whom he was cursing. "Stupid dream."

The remaining night remained peaceful, Slade rested but couldn't sleep now because of the dream he could hardly remember. The slightest movement on the bed woke him up in an instance. Eye opened halfway behind the mask, he faked slumber and watched the girl carefully removing her fingers from his hand. She returned to lay down on the bed, probably to think back to what happened last night, or why he was still with her. Some time passed before she sneaked off the bed, back on her feet, she examined her blood-stained shirt, and after a brief look to the man by the bed, she exited through the automated door as if nothing happened.

Slade gave her a few seconds head start once her quiet steps went out of his earshot before standing up quietly, did a quick stretch, and followed after the girl. For a girl as quiet as she was, Slade was surprised to know how easy it was to follow her without being noticed, though that was quickly replaced by the irritable annoyance upon realising where they were going. For the past few turns around the corners of his lair, she had been leading him in a straight path to the closer of the two exits to the surface.

"Damn girl. Damn telepath. Damn fucking telepath."

Slade had always been good with keeping, or at least hiding his emotions, but been mind-read just pissed him more than possibly being killed by a traitor. Dead was one thing, but having every secrets reviewed was on his book – the worst possibly scenario he could imagine.

Where he ended up was as he expected, the garage of the hideout, capable of holding up to three vehicles of choice, but most of the times emptied except for his various choices of motorcycles and occasionally Wintergreen's limo, it also had a secured stairway leading to another secured room on the surface inside the factory he owned.

What was presented before him was the keypad to unlock the door, neither was the keypad appeared to be used, nor the door opened judging by the amount of dust around them. Slade paused there for a second, wondering how to straggle someone who could walk through wall. Eventually, Slade keyed in the code, and took the stairs up.

Raven didn't go far, and Slade found her standing idly just outside the factory building, looking up at the twilight skies transitioning from night to dawn. He saw that she was now back in the same cloak, dress and knee-high boots he personally threw away, and under the pending dawn, the colour of her attire didn't look like the same grey he knew.

"Beautiful," Raven said.

Thinking that she was merely talking to herself, Slade ignored it and quietly stayed behind by garage door.

"Isn't it, Slade Wilson?" Raven asked, this time tilting her head a little to look at the terminator in the eye with a smile.

"Raven," he greeted smoothly and grimly. He was annoyed that he didn't know when and how Raven found out that he was following her, but he hid his emotions well.

The smile on her face disappeared as sudden as it came, replaced with a pair of widened eyes, and the smile melted into an unpleasant frown.

"Slade…," the girl greeted again, softer this time. Slowly bringing up her hands to pull the grey hood back down to cover her eyes.

The girl smiled again, but this time in resign, and started walking back to the entrance of his underground lair. As the girl walked passed Slade, he asked, "What was that?"

Without stopping, the girl answered in her old monotonous tone, "Just a nightmare."

Slade waited for a brief second to see if anything would be said, and then said, "I saw another girl."

The demoness halted abruptly in her steps, turning around, showing surprised on her face, as if what he saw was something he couldn't have.

While it was true that Trigon himself was crucial to everything that was happening now, he realised that he should have started off understanding who was this Raven first. Trigon had told him to protect his 'daughter', but the existence of a second Raven demanded him to understand more. Why must she be protected, and from whom?

"Raven," Slade insisted on with a firmer tone.

Without turning to face him, she answered back softly, "Please stop calling me that, I'm not the 'Raven' Trigon asked you to protect, I never will be."

"What do you mean?" Slade asked without missing a beat. Moving forward, he grasped hold of her wrist, and forcefully spun her around to face him.

Though initially she tried to separate herself from the stronger man, she eventually submitted to his hold. The pair remained like that for a while, both waiting for each other to say something. Slade could feel the girl trembling under his hold, and was surprised when it was she who spoke first, " 'Raven' is the name given by Trigon to his daughter, I was never given one."

Unfazed about it, Slade instead pressed for more, "What is the significant of your birthday? What will happen on that day?"

"Trigon will come through this body, to rule or destroy the world – your world. You sold your soul to him, and didn't even know about this?" 'Raven' cried, this time louder, almost to the point of being a shout.

Slade could detect the irritation and frustration in her tone, and she appeared to be forcefully trying to hide it, no, more accurately, she was trying to bury her emotion and kill it. Slade wasn't offended by her vent, neither was he surprised by the revelation, he was just annoyed, more so at Trigon than Raven, but continued to calmly pressure her for answers, "How can I stop this?"

"Kill me," she bluntly said with a straight face.

The slap that followed surprised even Slade himself, which he almost felt regretfully for doing so. "I was hired to protect you, and that I will do, no matter who that girl is, her background, or from whom. I'm not going to let you die. Tell me, how can this be stopped?"

The anger in the girl melted along with the pretence of being calm and rational, in their place was the sincere look of being surprised with wide eyes and one hand on the cheek Slade slapped. After absorbing what was told to her, and finally understood his intention, the solution she had believed in all along came out easier than she thought, "Trigon will come to Earth, nothing can stop that. But once he's here, he will be momentarily weakened, that is the only chance he can be defeated."

Slade could already see the difficulty in doing that, Trigon gave him his body, Trigon practically already owned the body he was using, who knew what would happen the moment Slade turned against Trigon. The nameless girl said nothing, but Slade could already see the disappointment on her face much like how she managed to see the doubt on his. Brushing his hand aside, the girl turned to walk again once more, this time Slade didn't try to stop her, but Slade did called out to her again, "Raven, Trigon looked for a villain to help him, we just need to find heroes to fight him."

"Heroes…?" the girl muttered as she slowed down in her pace.

"The Titans defeated me once, and as much as I hate to seek their help, they will have a better chance than I do, Raven."

The girl stopped entirely, possibly weighting his words against the chance they had against Trigon, but nevertheless cringed the moment the name was used. Seeing that, Slade said all of the sudden, "Rav- chel. You'll be called Rachel from now on." Though still holding onto his doubt, if it was to make her gain his trust, a name she would have.

There was a long pause before she could answer, but even with her eyes hidden by the hood, it was clear what was going on in her with her mouth left opened in awe over the name. " 'Rachel' ," she repeated. "Rachel… I like it…"

The girl suddenly brought up one hand to clasp her forehead as if in pain, and staggered a step back.

"Raven, what's wrong?!" Slade instantly called out, stumbling forward to catch the girl who looked like she was about to faint.

The same hand then smoothly pushed the hood back, with the other raised to motion Slade not to come near.

"I'm alright, just need some rest, I'll be going back first." The demoness started heading back into the opened hatch, but before taking the first step down the stairs, she turned one last time, asking, "Slade Wilson, can you truly protect me?"

"I will, I promise," Slade said, this time without hesitation.

With that, she left the adult alone in the abandoned factory to his thoughts, while carrying a fresh smile of her own.