Author's Notes

To bloodshark, regarding Plasmus and how he separated from Ternion - remember Haunted (which took place after Aftershock when he, Cinderblock, and Overload were fused) and Cinderblock was fighting the Titans on his own? It's pretty safe to assume that the Titans found a way to ultimately separate the three bodies. Raven probably isn't going to go crazy after she leaves the kids she is escorting - it may prove more beneficial actually. And Slade's plan is not going to involve the end of the world, but you'll see what exactly it is by the end of this chapter.

To the guest, I take it you were surprised about what happened but the died comment still confuses me. Well, then again, I haven't been writing for too long and I still am trying to figure out all the terms.

Now, let's continue the story.

Raven has been driving the three metahumans in her rented Zastava Florida, trying to keep ahead of Brother Blood and his Church of Blood henchmen. Raven knew that the Church had some power in these regions, but she was fortunate that she was not near Zandia, which was roughly nine hundred miles north.

If she was in Zandia, then Brother Blood would have much more influence since even though Slade had dethroned Blood, the Church of Blood still had a considerable influence in the government and with the people. If Blood wanted, he could reconquer the country and have no opposition.

In order to keep track of how far away Blood was, she activated a scanner that allowed her to pinpoint Blood and a radio that enabled her to listen in on his conversations - courtesy of Cyborg. While Blood was no longer part-robot, there were still some bits of machinery that remained lodged in his brain because of the procedure. Cyborg could hack into it and enable Raven to know what Blood was doing.

Melvin requested, "Can you tell us a story?"

Timmy then cried out, "Story! Story! Story!"

Raven then said, "Alright then." Raven had read a lot of books so she knew a lot of stories, and as a Titan, she had experienced a lot, so she ultimately decided to tell the story of Malchior.

Raven talked about the human Malchior was before his monstrous transformation into a dragon, his fight with Rorek, his banishment into the book that Raven later acquired, how he seduced her and tricked her before she sent him back, and his eventual death after Claw freed him.

It was obvious Raven had never told a story to kids before - as all three were obviously shaken by what Raven had told them - it was the truth and Raven refused to sugar-coat. Though Raven began to think that maybe in hindsight, she could have left some things out. Socializing was always hard for her, especially telling stories about her life.

Suddenly, Raven was getting a transmission from her scanner/radio. Raven turned it up to listen before telling the kids to be quiet for a moment.

She heard, "Where are the children?" from Brother Blood. He was speaking to one of his lieutenants, Kaloff.

Kaloff replied, "Raven still has them. She is probably on the train to Belgrade with them. We must intercept that train."

However, Blood responded, "No, they are not. Raven is not aboard that train. She knew we could go after it. Find her or I will kill you."

Kaloff said, "Yes, master."

The transmission ended and Raven checked to see that Brother Blood was currently in Belgrade, roughly one hundred five miles away from Raven. She had to keep moving if she was to get the kids safely to the monastery. If she could get them inside, Blood would be unable to reach them, since that monastery repels Trigon's influence. Unfortunately, Raven would be unable to enter as well. The perks of being the Gem of Skaath.

Melvin looked outside of her window and said, "Yes, Bobby. Follow us."

Raven asked, "Who the heck is Bobby?"

Melvin said, "My giant teddy bear. He is following us. He has to stay with us at all times."

Raven however looked outside of her window and there was no giant teddy bear behind. Raven's response was, "You must be imagining things, Melvin."

"No I'm not. Bobby has been with me for three years now. I had him save you from that evil old man on the train."

Raven had to think about this statement - that was the invisible force that attacked Blood. It must have been Melvin's powers and she must be able to use them by imagining things doing them. Materialization was an impressive and rare power. Hopefully the monastery had good teachers.

Argent returned from Mexico back to the Tower, where Beast Boy and Terra were. Cyborg, Starfire, and Bushido all had pressing matters that kept them from returning, so for now it would just be the three of them.

Argent did not know that Raven had told Beast Boy about Terra, nor did Terra know about Raven informing Beast Boy the truth. Beast Boy had to be on his guard, knowing that Terra could wind up betraying them just like last time.

At the tower, Terra was currently making sure her communicator to Slade was working while Beast Boy was doing some leg exercises in the gym.

After making sure the communicator was on, Terra began to speak with Slade. She opened with, "I'm in, Slade. What's the objective?"

Slade responded, "Destabilize them. Open a rift between them and suck them into it. I need time to complete my plan. Any status on Material C?"

Terra's reply was, "None in the city. There is, however, a healthy supply in Central City. Flash and Jinx's territory."

"Good. I'll send someone to steal it and bring it back. You need to maintain your cover. Over and out."

The feed was cut and Terra hid the communicator away, trying to prevent the Titans from figuring out she was working for Slade. However, Terra did not know what exactly Slade was planning. The man always was a mystery to her, but she knew whatever it was, it was going to be big.

In Central City, Kid Flash and Jinx were on patrol, having acquired the detail from the original Flash, who was now part of the Justice League and stationed on board the Watchtower.

They were in a steady relationship, something that both of them ultimately found surprising, given Kid's flirtatious ways and Jinx's aggressiveness (to put it kindly). Criminal activity had plummeted since the two began their patrol two months earlier.

Just when it seemed crime had gotten soft, there was suddenly a break-in at one of the warehouses in the heart of the city. Kid Flash quickly grabbed Jinx's hand and the two zipped over the warehouse.

They discovered that the warehouse's security had been hacked and the guards were overpowered by some form of robotic technology. Jinx could only think of a couple of people that could be responsible for this.

And it turns out that the top suspect on her list was the thief - she looked around the warehouse and she saw a bald midget with a green jumpsuit, goggles, and a backpack. Gizmo.

Jinx opened up with, "Hey Giz, long time, no see."

Gizmo responded, "Jinx, so the rumors are true. You ditched us for the speedster."

Kid Flash zipped up to his partner and said, "Yep. And would you be so kind as to surrender."

Gizmo gave his answer in the form of lasers aimed at the duo and they quickly rushed to avoid them. Jinx fired off some hexes at Gizmo, but he was able to dodge most of them, which only caused ceiling damage, and the one that did impact had no effect.

Gizmo replied, "You muzz-scruncher, my stuff is hardened against magic, including your hexes."

Kid Flash, realizing his partner's peril, rushed up to Gizmo and climbed onto Gizmo's spider legs, trying to cause a vibration that would take him down. Before he could, however, Gizmo kicked Kid Flash off of his legs and returned fire on the two.

Kid Flash and Jinx were officially trapped behind cover as neither of their abilities could do much good against Gizmo, which enabled the genius to steal a metal carton labeled C.

With that, Gizmo's spider legs retracted and a jet pack soon formed on Gizmo's back. Gizmo jetted off, leaving the two in the dust, trying to figure out where the heck Gizmo was going and what the heck he was doing with Material C.

Gizmo brought the carton to his employer, who was located at a base in...Perth, Australia. Gizmo entered a hidden port roughly two miles away from the base and flew the remaining distance through the tunnel into the base.

Gizmo landed and pulled out the carton to give to Slade. Slade said, "Gizmo, there you are with the contents I requested."

Gizmo replied, "Yeah, Slade. I got it. Now, I want my money."

Slade asked, "You want money? How about I double it for another task?"

Gizmo firmly stated, "I am not stealing any more shit! That never works for me."

Slade replied, "No stealing. How about some computer work."

"Sure." With that statement, Gizmo went to work on a computer Slade had put out. Gizmo's assignment was to ultimately finish some programming. This programming would be able to allow several devices to spin - the tanks, and achieve provosional blank.

This was just the programming, so when Slade had finished the device, he could activate the device and quickly achieve his plans, his world-changing yet mysterious plans.

Gizmo was finishing up the first set of programming when Slade had him begin subset programming which would enable him to copy the original programming onto multiple sets of the device. This would be key to his device, to his plan. Whatever it was, which only Slade knew. In this case, the fewer people that know, the better.

After finishing the programming, Slade inserted a USB drive into Gizmo's backpack before removing it, saying "I have inserted your deposit into your backpack. I do hope it will be satisfactory."

Gizmo replied, "It better be." With that statement, Gizmo went off, heading back towards Jump City. He was thinking of trying to find Mammoth, See-More, and Kyd Wykkyd to reform the HIVE Five, since Jinx defected and Billy was in prison.

Raven had been driving for six hours now, and had driven two hundred seventy eight miles. Less than a hundred miles to go before the kids could be safe.

During the long car ride, Melvin had been talking about her past with Timmy and Teether. She said that her father was a police officer in Chicago, and a highly-recognized one at that. However, back at home, her father was nothing short of a monster. Her father, Captain Decker Stephis, was abusive to his wife, Elaine, and to his daughter, Melvin.

In fact, Decker demanded that Elaine's child be named Melvin, even though she wound up a girl. Anyway, Decker regularly beat up and raped Elaine when she refused to meet his demands, and often ignored Melvin, forcing her to fend for herself most days, even though she was only one or two.

One day, Decker had a very bad day at work after four criminals he arrested were released on a technicality. In his rage, he attacked Elaine but she tried to fight back, trying to end the monster that was her husband, since if she tried to divorce him, he would take Melvin. Elaine pulled a Smith & Wesson Model 27 on Decker.

However, Decker pulled out his issue sidearm - a SIG-Sauer P226, and shot Elaine repeatedly in the chest until he ran out of bullets. Elaine was dead on the ground and he removed the gun from her hands, intending on killing Melvin and claiming he killed his wife after she killed his daughter.

Melvin hid in the closet of her room, hearing the gunshots that executed her mother, to try to hide from her father. However, he found her without trouble and prepared to execute her when suddenly an invisible force attacked him. It was Bobby, Melvin's invisible teddy bear.

Decker was confused as to what happened and tried to open fire on the bear, which was then visible, but it did no damage as Bobby wound up smashing Decker out of a second-story window and broke his neck.

After the incident, Melvin was put into Social Services and the Stephis last name removed from her record, not wanting to associate her with the murderer that was her father.

Two years later, after further discovery into Melvin's abilities, she was grouped with Timmy Tantrum and Teether. She learned that Timmy's father died when he was one and that his prostitute mother was bankrupt and constantly faced with eviction unless she prostituted herself to her landlords. One such landlord impregnated Timmy's mother with Teether and after giving birth, Social Services found Timmy and Teether from one of Timmy's screams in an abandoned apartment building.

Timmy and Teether were brought there to avoid their life with their lazy prostitute mother and later grouped up with Melvin and constantly moved around to help experiment with their abilities until Blood abducted them a few days earlier.

After what Melvin told her, Raven knew that her life didn't look so bad anymore - there were people whose lives sucked infinitely more than hers, and for a six-year old to know all of that pain, it's wrong on so many levels.

Raven continued to drive until she began to hear another transmission from the scanner/radio. It was Brother Blood speaking.

He said, "I know you can hear me, Raven. Anyway though, I want to let you know that you will not be getting to the monastery. The kids you are escorting will never be safe. You think you've got a lead on me, but we'll see how much of a lead I've got right about now."

Silence followed on the scanner/radio as suddenly a helicopter appeared right behind them. Raven said, "Melvin, I hope Bobby is ready. We could sure use him right about now."

Slade watched from his lair as the programming Gizmo completed was working like a charm. His plans would be complete, and all he had to do was finish the device. He also watched as Gizmo's jetpack caused him to crash into a forest ten miles outside of Jump City.

Slade said to himself, "One more step has been completed. Soon, the universal reset button will be ready to activate, and I will undo the mistakes of the past."