At Titans' Tower, Wally was currently getting yelled at for allowing Richard to escape.

"How could you let him get away, we told you not to take your eyes off him" Jinx scolded him.

"I didn't take my eyes off him, I blinked for one brief second and then he was gone" Wally defended himself. "Give me a break, I mean he was trained by Batman"

"Give you a break? We all know how far Dick is willing to go to bring back Starfire. He could be out there killing himself trying to find her!" Said Cyborg.

Just then, Nightwing walked through the doors casually.

"Hey guys" Nightwing greeted.

"Dick, thank god you're alright." Wally gasped.

"You seem remarkably calm for someone who just lost the love of his life for a second time" Raven said.

"That's because I know where to find her" Richard replied cheerfully.

"You do? Where is she?!" Beast Boy asked, excitedly.

"Slade has an underground lair where's he's holding Starfire under a grave marked Grant Wilson" Richard explained. "I came here because I can't fight Slade on my own"

"You can count on us" Wally said. "Now in which cemetary is this grave located?"

"I don't know, all I know is that it's in Bludhaven" Richard admitted. "Probably should've asked Ernie before I killed him."

"One more question, what's with the new costume?" Asked Jinx.

"I'm not rescuing Starfire as Renegade. I'm rescuing her as the true hero she deserves, Nightwing."

"So you're giving up the Renegade identity" Beast Boy asked.

Nightwing nodded.

"Cyborg, you have a locator built in, use it to locate Grant's grave" Nightwing ordered.

"I'm on it" Cyborg said, typing in the name and searching every cemetary in Bludhaven.

"Come on, hurry up!" Nightwing rushed him.

"Dude, calm down; it's going to take a few-" Cyborg said before the locator dinged. "I've found it"

"Then what are we waiting for?!" Nightwing asked excitedly. "Titans, go!"

Meanwhile.

"I hoped you enjoyed your little vacation" Slade said.

Starfire stood complete still at position of attention like a soldier awaiting her next orders. Her eyes were blank and devoid of any personality like she was another one of Slade's mindless robots.

"It's only a matter of time before your friends arrive" Slade continued. "When they do, I expect you to annihilate them. You shall show no remorse, no regrets, no mercy; understand?"

"Understood" Starfire said in a deadpan monotone voice that could've put Raven to shame.

"Good" Slade said. "Until then, I want you to continue training."

It only took a few minutes for Titans to find the cemetary. After searching for a few minutes, the team finally stumbled upon Grant Wilson's grave.

"Alright, here it is" Cyborg said as the Titans stood at the marked gravestone.

"Yeah, but how do we get in?" Jinx asked.

"There has to be a secret lever, or a button; something" Beast Boy reasoned, inspecting the grave, looking for a trigger.

"We don't have time for this!" Nightwing said, tossing a grenade on the ground.

The grenade exploded, revealing a staircase that lead underground.

"So much for stealth" Raven quipped.

"Screw stealth!" Nightwing shouted, practically jumping into the entrance.

The pathway seemed to go on forever until finally the Titans found Slade's lair.

"I'm disappointed in you, Robin" Slade said, sitting with his back turned to the Titans. "It took you longer than I expected for you to find me"

"I'm not here to play games!" Nightwing barked. "Where's Starfire?!"

Slade snapped his fingers and said "Starfire, you've got some friends here to see you"

Out of the darkness, Starfire lunged at Nightwing with a chop. Nightwing managed to throw up his arm to block the blow at the last minute. Starfire tried to punch him in the gut, but Nightwing managed to side step the blow.

"Whoa! Starfire, it's me, remember?" Nightwing asked, trying to reach out to her.

"I have no friends, only enemies and targets," Starfire replied, taking Nightwing down with a legsweep only for him to kip up.

"Starfire, this isn't you; Slade's controlling you" Nightwing tried to convince her.

The other titans on the other hand were prevented from interfering in the fight by Slade's androids. These androids were different from Slade's standard Slade-bots. They seemed more durable, more impervious to damage, and rather than mindlessly fighting actually used strategy to keep the Titans on their toes. They were destroyed, yes, but they did a superb job at keeping the Titans busy and from helping Nightwing.

Nightwing wasn't throwing any punches or give any attempts at offense. He just stood and dodged the blows, hoping Starfire would come to her senses. He'd let her kill him before he tried to hurt her. Slade was the only one who could snap her out of it, but he couldn't get anywhere near Slade with Starfire attacking him so viciously. There had to be some way he could distract Starfire long enough to get to Slade.

Stepping out of the way of another punch, Nightwing felt inside his belt. What he was looking for wasn't there so he dug into his pocket. Wasn't there either. Nightwing searched his other pocket only to not find it there either.

"Crap!" Nightwing thought. "Of all the days to forget my Solid Vision hologram projecter"

He was going to have to keep Starfire busy another way. Nightwing jumped in the middle of the army of Sladebots. Starfire quickly followed, just as Nightwing hoped. Keeping his head down, Nightwing eluded Starfire by getting her lost in the army of robots. The tricky part was avoiding attacks from the androids as well as not attacking them as doing so could give away his position.

Nightwing emerged from the android army and went right after Slade.

"Alright, you're going to tell me how to get Starfire back to normal or I'm going to break you like a kit kat bar!" Nightwing roared grabbed Slade by his throat.

Slade smiled underneath his mask and explained "There is no way to get her back to normal. She only obeys my orders and my orders alone. If your want to stop her, you're going to have to kill her"

"You're a sick man!" Nightwing said.

"Oh really? Tell me, how many people have you killed in the past five years?" Slade asked in response. "How many people have you tortured, mutilated, or disfigured in your attempt to find me?"

Nightwing scowled, having nothing to say in response.

"Back when you were my apprentice, I told you that you and I were alike in more ways than you can imagine" Slade continued. "And now you've proven my statements to be true"

Slade punched Nightwing in the gut, initiating their final fight. Nightwing promised that he would either kill Slade in this fight or die trying. One more kill wouldn't hurt, especially considering who the victim was.

Nightwing responded to the punch with a headbutt. He followed with a side kick, that was caught by Slade. Slade tried to twist his ankle, but Nightwing brought his other leg up and kicked him in the side of the head. Slade stumbled back and Nightwing threw two punches. The first was dodged and the second was caught by Slade who wrenched Nightwing's arm and flipped him over.

Nightwing was back to his feet in an instant and caught Slade by surprise with a quick dropkick. When Slade got up, Nightwing hit him with a hurricarana. Slade noticed a fierce intensity in Nightwing he had never seen in his previous fights with him. He took Nightwing by surprise by kicking his knee out from underneath him, sending Nightwing crashing to the ground.

Slade tried to punch a grounded Nightwing in the face, only for Nightwing to roll out of the way. Nightwing got back to his feet and kicked Slade in the gut. Slade uppercut Nightwing and then put him in a choke.

"You've improved," Slade noticed. "Before, you could barely lay a finger on me. Here, you're fighting like a man posessed. See how much stronger you are when you do things my way and stop pulling punches?"

"This has nothing to do how I fight," Nightwing replied. "The difference is I have someone to fight for, you wouldn't know what that's like"

Nightwing elbowed Slade in the chest and headbutted him again to get out of the hold. With a newfound intensity, he went on the attack. Punch after punch at lightspeed. Although Slade managed to dodge a some, more than a few hit their mark. One punch managed to crack half of Slade's mask, revealing an empty eye socket and gray hair.

Slade wasn't going to go down to easy. He fought back with vicious blows to the side of Nightwing's head. Nightwing was dizzy and disoriented and now vulnerable to more offense from the mercenary. Slade picked Nightwing up and tossed him hard onto the ground. Nightwing let out a gasp as he had the wind knocked out of him from the impact, but fought on.

Standing to his feet, he tricked Slade by raising his fist for a punch. When Slade instinctively raised his arm to deflect the blow, Nightwing swept his leg out from underneath him. He savagely stomped on Slade's face, causing the merc to start bleeding.

Nightwing lifted Slade up and tossed him into his computer screens. The computers toppled over, burying Slade beneath the electronics. Nightwing stopped, wondering if Slade was dead. Not to his surprise, Slade emerged from underneath and unsheathed his sword. Nightwing was prepared and pulled out his own sword.

The two mortal enemies ran up to each other and their weapons clashed. The two hacked and slashed at each other. Neither managed to do any significant damage to the other. Nightwing soon started to get the advantage. Just when he seemingly had Slade on the ropes and at his mercy, a star bolt knocked him down, flat on his back.

In her attempt to get to Nightwing, Starfire had destroyed every single Slade-bot, unintentionally helping her friends. Starfire walked over to where Nightwing lied flat on his back, defeated.

"Very well, apprentice" Slade commended Starfire, handing her his sword. "Now finish him off"

Nightwing wouldn't let it end like this, at least not without putting up a fight. He decided to make one last attempt to get to Starfire. Nightwing pulled off his domino mask. Starfire raised the sword, prepared to stab Nightwing through the chest while the Titans watched in shock.

"Starfire, look at me; it's me, Richard Grayson, you're k'norfka" Nightwing said, trying to appeal to her emotions. "Remember how we fought together side by side. Our date? How I knocked out that guy or how you wrestled that girl for flirting with me?"

Starfire lowered the sword as she listened to Nightwing's words.

"Starfire, what are you doing? What did I tell you about letting your emotions get in the way of my orders?!" Slade said.

"Starfire, if you're in there; I just want you to know that I love you" Nightwing declared.

Starfire seemed confused about what to do. She started to remember, but her orders were to kill Nightwing.

"Starfire, I gave you an order now kill him!" Slade ordered.

Starfire raised the blade and with a single slice, cut Slade's head clean off. Slade's body fell to the ground with a loud thud as Starfire, let the blade drop the ground She dropped to her knees into Nightwing's tight embrace and began sobbing.

"There, there; it's all going to be alright" Nightwing tried to comfort her, holding her tight as her broken sobs racked her body so hard she shook and trembled.

Nightwing wanted to cry to. He didn't know whether it was out of joy because the man responsible for all of their suffering was dead, or because he had nearly lost Starfire forever. But he did know one thing, this nightmare was finally over.

Sorry about how long it took to update this story. I had a bad case of writer's block. Not so much lack of creativity, but rather I had no idea how to put my ideas into words. It's not over yet, there's still one last chapter before we wrap things up.

On another note, today's a very tragic day. Rest in Peace to the victims and the best of wishes to the people still suffering from the aftermath of the attacks.