Author's Note: Er. I still exist. Surprise! (Ducks as someone throws a virtual shoe.) I'm really sorry for disappearing. Unfortunately, my schedule's insane until summer, so I'll still be updating sporadically. I hope this fairly long and plot-heavy update makes up for it. I know Richard's a little OOC on the phone with Rachel, but it's intentional. He tends to say more than he means to with her. Otherwise, I think it's self-explanatory.

Reviews: Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, or followed this story! I don't have a lot of time right now, so I'm not going to reply to everyone, but you're all wonderful. Thank you. Especially thank you for catching typos. I try to find them all, but I don't always succeed. Also, I am going to take some of your suggestions, I just haven't done it yet.

Disclaimer: Yeah right. (By which, I mean of course that I don't own the Titans and I stole a fair bit of dialogue from the show.)

Messages in the Night

"Any luck finding it?" Richard asked Kori as she joined him, Victor, and Garfield in the Wayne Manor library.

"There is no mention of it entered on the net," Kori replied solemnly.

Richard bit back a growl of frustration. They were all trying to find any mention of the 'S' symbol, anywhere, any hint to what it might mean for Rachel, but they'd found nothing. Richard had hoped to discover its meaning, but he felt like time was running out. Rachel would be gone forever any second.

He strode off in an unnecessary direction, resuming his pacing. He would find the symbol before Rachel shared his fate.

"What about the security tapes?" Richard asked Garfield.

"There's still nothing there," Garfield replied. "Dude, the tape's the same as it was last time."

"Rewind," Richard ordered. "Play it again. There has to be something there."

"Masked man kicks butt take 304," Garfield yawned, obeying.

Richard didn't even watch it. He paused his pacing for a moment as if to watch, but quickly turned away again.

"Victor?" he asked. "Anything to report?"

"I've tried every site I could think of," Victor replied. "It isn't there."

Richard looked down, arms crossed as he fought to find optimism.

"This symbol is the key," he said. "We will find out what it means."

He turned away, unable to remain still, picked up his cell phone, and dialed Rachel's number.

"Dick?" a worried voice asked.

"Hey, Rae," he replied, voice intentionally light. "Have you found anything new about the symbol or the masked man?"

"Nothing new," she answered, grateful that she didn't have to lie. Rachel had found nothing new and neither would Richard.

There was a long silence as Richard resumed his pacing and Rachel waited.

"And you?" Rachel asked, as if she didn't already know. "Have you found anything new?"

Richard had forgotten he was still on the phone.

"I'm trying," he yelled in frustration, voicing his thoughts instead of his intended polite response.

"I know," Rachel sighed, her voice placating and gentle. She understood the situation better than he did. He could look for five more days and never find anything because she had hidden what little existed to be found.

Rachel shared his hopeless desperation as she too looked for some way to prevent what was coming. She also felt guilt. Richard was paler than usual lately, with dark smudges beneath his eyes and frenetic energy pulsing in his every movement. Whenever she was with him, she could feel the tension radiating from him and she wished she could make it stop. She wished she could disappear. Five days left.

If Richard survived, maybe then he'd be able to sleep. Rachel knew that she was lying to herself. Her friends wouldn't be allowed to live. She'd killed them all the day she first said hello.

"Thank you for trying, but it isn't your job to protect me," Rachel reassured him. It seemed like the least she could do.

"I can't save anyone," Richard mumbled as he turned away from his friends, the bridge of his nose pressed between his fingertips. "I never could. Everyone falls around me."

Then he refocused.

"Are you okay, Rachel?" he asked. "You've been a little, well, paler than usual lately."

"It's nothing," she lied.

Richard knew not to believe her. Rachel knew he was hiding too. She wished he'd either respect her secrets or reveal his.

"Look," he said. "I know the man scared you, but we will figure out why he was after you and we will stop him from ever trying again."

"He doesn't concern me," Rachel replied, for once telling the truth. She wished she knew how Richard knew the masked man, but she wasn't afraid of the messenger. The message and its sender were a far greater concern.

Richard wanted to know what did concern her and Rachel wanted to tell him that whatever she did, she wouldn't fall, but neither had the courage to act. They also lacked the opportunity.

"Friends, the man with the 'S' is outside the window!" Kori screamed.

Why then, Rachel wondered dully, did all of her friends run outside?

Rachel swore softly to herself in whispering thoughts as she ran outside, running to Wayne Manor to go after them. Tonight wasn't the night, so she didn't know why the messenger had returned. She only hoped that the message he would deliver was for her. She remembered the fear she'd seen in Richard's eyes when he saw the masked man and she hoped that he wouldn't look at her that way when he learned the truth, but she feared that all of her friends would before the night ended.

Richard ran out into the night with confidence. He might be hurt, but the masked man wanted him alive. Richard was a fun toy, not to be broken lightly. If the masked man had been anyone else, maybe Richard would have reached the logical conclusion: he and his friends were walking into a trap.

"Why did you come back? What do you want?" Richard demanded, brashly, fearlessly.

"You want to know about this, don't you?" the man asked, gesturing to the 'S' on his mask.

The masked man laughed a sinister purr of a chuckle.

"I'm here to deliver a message," he said, answering only the original questions.

"Talk and we can all leave," Richard said. "You're not welcome here and I don't want to keep my friends out in the cold."

Even with the mask, Richard could feel the man's amusement.

"Oh Richard," the man said. "You were always brave to the point of foolish recklessness and you're still so naïve, despite everything. You don't understand. None of you are leaving here tonight. Not alive, anyways."

The teens' eyes widened, but none of them moved.

"This isn't about them," Richard challenged. "This has always been between you and me, Slade. Let them leave and we can finish this."

Victor, Garfield, and Kori exchanged a confused and concerned glance. Slade? They loved Richard and Rachel, but they would never understand how their friends lived in the shadows of their secrets.

"That's sweet, Richard," the masked man, Slade, said. "You still seem to have the wrong impression. 'This' isn't what you think it is. I enjoyed our time together, but that's over. The message isn't for you. You are the message for your pretty little dark friend, or at least your burning corpses are. Nothing else says 'daddy's back' with that much flair. She killed all of you the day she walked into your lives."

Rachel leaned her face into the rough, mossy bark of the tree that hid her from sight. It was over.

"Rachel's daddy?" Kori whispered. "Is this not the male person who cares for a child? I do not understand."

"Neither do I," Garfield muttered. "Does this mean she's known what we were up against the entire time?"

"So you've been investigating?" Slade asked. "Playing detective. How many sleepless nights have you had, Richard, trying to uncover answers? How does it feel knowing that between you and Rachel, you knew everything all along? I'll admit I was surprised when I found out. I knew she had to be less drab than she seems – I do credit you with some taste – but I never imagined her secret was something of this magnitude. It's always the quiet ones. Now, the white knight's golden boy is keeping company with Trigon's daughter."

"Trigon!" Victor exclaimed. "He's that psycho who tried to blow up the entire city right before the police caught him. There were over a hundred casualties!"

"She isn't her father," Richard said, his voice soft, but firm, as if his resolve came from a great distance. "Besides, Trigon's in jail."

The masked man shrugged, nonchalantly. This conversation was entertaining, but it meant very little to him.

"Not for long," he replied. "Rachel's going to break him out soon whether or not she wants to. She can't help it. She's spent her entire life training."

Slade looked at each teen disinterestedly.

"Well, I digress," he said. "My employer sent me to kill you, not tell you scary bedtime stories."

"You'll have to go through me," Richard snarled, stepping forward.

Slade shook his head with an air of amusement.

"You'll always be too slow, Richard," he said. "Besides, it's easier if you don't struggle and you know how I hate to see you suffer. This won't hurt a bit."

Richard cringed as if the words had struck a physical blow. He struggled as Slade raised a knife to his throat, but his fight lacked his usual spark. His light sputtered and died inside even as Slade approached.

Suddenly he was flying back, enveloped in the faint scent of vanilla.

"Want to bet?" Rachel growled.

She threw Slade to the ground. He stood quickly back up, but Rachel flung him into the tree beside her. She pressed his body into the cold bark. His knife was in her hand now.
So was his life.

"Tell daddy he can stay in jail," Rachel hissed. "If you harm my friends, you'll envy his life sentence. The sentence in Hell is eternity."

Rachel stood in the spotlight of the moon and the stars, the healing cuts from her last encounter with Slade almost glowing on her arms.

"Well? What are you waiting for?" Rachel taunted. "Aren't you going to attack? Or did your master forbid you from hurting me? Did he order you to keep his precious Raven safe? Well, this time I have a message for you."

She let him up for a moment, then shoved his head back with military precision, scraping it against the bark.

"You tell him that he'll have to destroy me before I'll help him."

"You can tell him yourself," Slade replied. "The hour is near."

Rachel smiled a feral and wild smile as she traced the blade of the knife along his sleeve.

"I'm not afraid of you anymore," she said, deadly rage barely concealed in her quiet voice.

To her astonishment, Slade laughed.

"No," he said. "Perhaps you don't fear me, but look who's afraid of you."

Rachel turned to follow his line of sight. Her icy gaze landed on her friends. They hadn't left, but their eyes were horrified and they stood close together like frightened children. Rachel let the knife drop from her hands.

"No," she whispered.

Slade slunk away into the darkness from which he came.

A short while later, Rachel sat safely between Kori and Victor on a couch at Wayne Manor. Garfield was draped across an armchair and Richard sat attentively on the couch opposite. Rachel blinked slowly before beginning her story.

"By now," she sighed, "you know that Trigon Roth is my father. He was arrested shortly before my birth after he tried to destroy the city. He should be locked up for life. However, with his resources and the right outside help, he could easily escape. The only reason he hasn't is a promise he made to my mother. She refused to help him in the last days before he was caught. She was afraid of him and afraid for me. He said that he understood and he promised her seventeen years before I was his. After New Years when I was seventeen, I would help him escape."

"I don't get it," Garfield interrupted. "You would never do something like that."

"He seems to believe I would," Rachel replied. "I don't know why, but I'm sure he has a better reason than familial obligation. When the time comes, I'll have no choice."

"Can you do it?" Richard asked, ever practical. "Regardless of whether or not you will, do you have the ability to get through that much security?"

"I think so," Rachel admitted. "That kind of job requires someone who can hack, act, plan, fight, and looks relatively innocent. Thanks to some lessons I didn't even know I was being taught at the time, I meet those requirements."

Richard nodded thoughtfully and leaned against the back of his chair.

"We'll focus on keeping him from taking you, then," he promised.

Rachel was grateful beyond words, but the sharing part of the evening wasn't over yet.

"We don't know what his plan is yet," she said. "It might help if we knew who and what he had to work with. What do you know about Slade, Dick?"

Richard slipped imperceptibly lower on the chair, but Rachel saw.

"He's usually an assassin by the name of Deathstroke, but he'll work odd jobs," Richard replied blithely, as if it was nothing to do with him. "Bruce has run up against him with some of his work in Wayne Industries. He's a logical choice for Trigon to work with."

"Okay," Rachel said, accepting his answer. It wasn't the whole truth, she knew, but she also heard the words "your father" whispering in the shadows of the name "Trigon". She had no right to question.

"Well," Kori said, "at least we have someplace with which to start."

"Too late," whispered the wraiths that lurked within Rachel's mind. "Too late."

A/N: Reviews make me feel guilty about not updating so - (ducks another virtual shoe).