A/N: Well, here it is guys, all the stuff that as been happening is all leading towards this one moment. One battle, multiple answers, even more new questions.

Alright people, there are going to be serious issues in this one, so if any of you guys don't like that in an action chapter, or if any of you get offended by what those issues are, I apologize ahead of time. But don't start fretting, they'll be plenty of action in here of all y'all!

I have nothing else to really say, I hope you guys like it.

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Chapter 9: Through the Eyes of a Snake and a Bird:

…………………………………………but Ahren w-…………………………

………… I know Li-………… but what if…………………………………………….

" That doesn't matter! You saw it, I think we need to-"

" Do what? We promised not to meddle, besides, what if it's not true?"

" Yeah okay, When have they ever been wrong? It's your curse Ahren, they are never wrong."

" So, you truly think we need to help them now? This was a lot sooner than anticipated Lily. What if they're not ready to hear what we have to say, should we survive this battle?"

" The cost of not helping them will be much higher, you know that. That team, as strong as they may be, can't survive without him. He's their glue of sorts. Besides, I think they'll have to grant us the benefit of the doubt on our advice. After all, we will be saving that kid's life if-"

" It could have meant something else. What if it wasn't meant to be taken figuratively, but literally instead?"
" For some reason, I don't think it was concerning something that would be on the Discovery channel. We have to go. We've waited in the shadows far to long."

" Uhmm, I guess you're right. Well first, we need to find-"

" Ahren! You left the recorder on! Don't shake your head, the red light is blinking, that means it's on! Do you know how fast these things go through batteries! I mean….look, there it goes."

" You're worried about batteries when someone could be dead in a few hours? I'll never understa-"

………………………………..static…………………………………………….

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Twister was incredibly excited today.

After all of his pain-staking studying, routines, practicals, tranings, and just about anything else you can think of, he had finally been promoted with in the Hive to a watch post, one of the most respected jobs in the entire Academy! He had always known his power to contort his body in weird shapes, henceforth being good at a game that gave him his name, would be of use to someone someday.

He was not the coolest kid in school, okay that was the biggest understatement of the century, he was probably the biggest loser in his entire class!

At least, that was what he was told all his life.

In grade school, a little boy by the name of Donavan Mitchell, Donny to his friends, discovered in gym class that he could twist his arm all the way around itself at least three times! As he tested those limits, he found it was not just his arm that could twist into odd shapes, it was his entire body. From his neck, to his ankles, Donny found that he had been born 'special' and decided to show all of his friends at school his cool, new talent. He did it during a game of Twister, and much to his astonishment, all of his friends did not show enthusiasm at his marvelous gift.

They showed repulsion.

They degraded him, calling him horrible names that won't be repeated here, beating him to see how much it would take to make him cry, and even abusing him in an even worse fashion. The teachers throughout grade and middle school did not help either. While they did not treat him with the maliciousness of his peers, those instructors treated little Donny with something that could prove to be far worse in the long run.

Indifference.

So, Donny's school life was not such a happy one, but the misery of it all was neither was his home life. For you see, Donny's father did not believe that having a metahuman for a son was that great of a thing. He despised it, adding onto poor Donny's troubles with enough verbal scorn and mockery to drive any other child into suicide, and with an alcoholic mother who was never sober enough to remember her own name, he didn't have any one to go to.

But Donny was not any kind of child, a point that a mysterious school called the Hive Academy made sure to make. An elderly woman had approached him one day during the first month of his freshmen year, in a place called high school where a person is punished for not having flawless skin, perfect hair, and a body to make the opposite sex go wild with desire. With his scrawny frame, greasy black hair, and splotched skin, Donny did not meet any of the expectations for anyone to even give him the time of day, so he was surprised to find out the woman was interested in him. She offered him a home, a school, and a place where he would be protected, and respected by his peers and teachers. She offered him a sanctuary, and he readily accepted.

On that day, Donny Mitchell ceased to exist, and Twister came into being.

So, now we focus back on the present where Twister is on patrol of the mysterious Slade's base. He had never felt so happy in all his short life, for he had been chosen to protect his school from anyone who would try to invade his sanctuary's benefactor's base.

As he was patrolling the West bay wall, in the middle of the afternoon mind you, he noticed something move in the alleyway shadows. You see, he wasn't assigned to this area at all, it was a waste site where it was unheard of any attacks would come from, but he had wandered there during his musings. So now he was very surprised to see six young, strangely clad teens sneaking up onto the base from this area. He knew it was those meddlesome Teen Titans, and he promised himself right there that he would sound the alarm and warn everyone of this assault as he raised a com-link to his mouth, eager to become the hero who had saved the base from Jump City's loyal defenders.

Unfortunately, he never got the message out. He was slashed through the throat from behind, feeling his own death come gurgling up his esophagus as his vision faded, and his legs buckled under him causing him to fall to the ground. He never got to say what he had wanted to say to all the people he was planning to kill for making his life miserable, so he died in an angry bitterness as someone no one would miss. And only one defiant thought went through his mind as his light was snuffed out from the world,

" Fuck you!"

And while poor Donny " Twister" Mitchell died in a pool of his own blood, with his throat open in a bloody pulp for all to see, a petite girl calmly wiped her blade clean of the dark stain as she looked out at the group moving ever so stealthy towards the base. She slid her sword back in her scabbard, and grinned a sadistic grin while she turned her back towards the invaders and the person she had just killed in order to ensure that the base would in fact fall to the Titans. For you see, if the base failed, then it was one step closer Viper was to sending Gotham's most famous vigilante a long, deserved gift.

A songbird's heart with a mask.

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To say the Hive was surprised at the sudden attack from the West Bay waste site would be an understatement. They were all bewildered beyond belief, causing the whole lot of them to stand frozen in place at the assault of starbolts, mini-bombs, and energy encased objects flew at them and completely took out the North bay wall. Some members recovered their wits long enough to try and put up a counter defense, but that was crushed as a blue beam shot at them, along with the same green starbolts earlier used to destroy the aforementioned wall. The two students in charge of defense, Gizmo and Mammoth, were stunned to see the Titans attacking in such an unconventional plan, not to mention the fact that it was 4 in the afternoon!

A few unknown students rushed forward to meet the onslaught, only to be met with a huge Gorilla where the green bolts had been coming from, and then to realize that those green bolts were again bombing the entire expanse of the base. Gizmo ordered their force cannons to be directed at the alien girl who was taking out the Hive defense/offense lines, only to find those orders revoked by the dark Titan, who had blown the cannons up from where the Gorilla had been with her dark energy.

As Mammoth attempted to lead Hive students against the two Titans stationed on the ground, his force was met with a rather large Tyrannosaurus Rex, who seemed to appear from the ground itself.

'He he,' Beastboy thought to himself as he wailed on the terrified pupils. ' Didn't even see me coming! To busy with Star's bolts to notice a green cat slink into your little party! Now, Raven should be switching with me right about…NOW!'

And, true to his word, the green dinosaur turned into an eagle, while the gothic girl dove towards the ground, warping into a dark bird and enveloping anyone near her into her suffocating depths. And, to top it all of, Cyborg and Starfire switched their positions with each other at that time as well; him by fighting his way through by sheer force, and her by a skillful weave move that caused the defending party to actually fire on themselves.

As Gizmo and Mammoth looked on helplessly at the carnage the Titans were causing, they were lost as to what they should next. They couldn't get a straight target on any of the teens, due to the fact they were switching every other minute! Their faces contorted into a fearful gaze as they saw Raven and Cyborg make a switch that caused him to be near enough to destroy the East bay wall with a sonic blast. It was official, the Hive was losing and the base would fall in a matter of hours. But, they both knew that if they turned and ran, Slade would hunt them down and personally flay them alive. So, they both just stood there and gaped at the destruction, hoping that when it was over they wouldn't be sent to jail for to long of a period.

And through all of this, they didn't notice a former member and a masked teen sneak into the recently decimated North wall bay, while the other four now worked on making the East wall bay just as pretty.

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" Let's see," Viper said to herself as she added another drop of her poison to one of her test tubes of her Ebola virus. " If I add anymore of my venom, will it make the recipient experience more pain. I just don't know. Why don't we test it out?" she asked her test subject, a terrified looking civilian who was tied to a chair. Viper had gone through quite a lot of testers, this man being her eleventh, and each new variation didn't seem to have the potency she was looking for.

" I really am sorry about this Mr. Morrie," Viper said, her voice missing any kind of pity. " But, you really shouldn't have decided to support your Teen Titans. Now," she said as she injected the poor man with her new virus, and the poor man started to bleed from the eyes and mouth. " Tell me how you feel."

" I think he is unable to answer your question Viper," a cold voice said from behind her.

" Well Slade," Viper said, not taking her attention away from her subject, for he had started to convulse with pain. " I wasn't counting in him to answer. If he did, that would've disproved this concoction's effectiveness. However, I believe I've finally found the right amount of my venom I need. Four point three drops exactly, fascinating really."

Slade was silent as he watched, with sick amusement, the unfortunate man die in excruciating pain. He then heard his communicator beep, looked at the message, and cursed aloud. He then picked up a microscope and threw it against the wall, shattering a good amount of expensive research equipment.

Viper turned around and gave Slade a cruel smile saying, " Whatever can be the matter master? Is your base under attack from those meddling little teenagers? Oh, whatever shall you do?"

" What the hell have you done?" Slade snarled as he grabbed Viper's collar and rammed her into the wall.

" I did what I needed to do Slade," Viper spat right back at the criminal. " I made sure that I would have the chance to do what I've been meaning to do for three years."

Slade calmed himself, and lowered his apprentice to the floor. He shook his head at her, and started to walk out the door. When he noticed she wasn't following, he turned back around and asked, " What are you doing? You need to fix what you have helped obliterate."

Shaking her head in disgust, Viper turned back to her vials and started to make notes on her final toxin. She pointed to the door and said, " If you want to punish the Titans for what they are currently doing to your base, go right ahead. I'm not going. I need to finish up on the final version of the Ebola virus. I have no time for some trivial pursuit, especially one you yourself know we'll lose."

" You are part of this too you know," Slade replied. " There will be no escape for you if this base fails."

" I really couldn't give a shit Slade," Viper snapped back. " It'll be enough time for me to pay back the Bat for what he did," she then turned her head and gave Slade a wicked smile. " Oh, and don't worry about your precious ex-apprentice. I'll make sure he's taken care of properly, you just take care if his little alien whore."

Slade gave her a silent nod of approval, exited the room, and headed out towards the East wall to take care of business. Viper simply turned back to her notes and continued to write down her data. And she waited.

She waited.

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" BOOOYYAAAHHHH!" Cyborg let out as he continued to batter down the Hive security around Slade's base. He turned to look around his area, and saw that all of his team was kicking the living crap out of their enemy. It was a good day in his opinion.

" All right!" Beastboy yelled as he came up besides the robotic teen. " Do you see this? We're so kicking their butts! I knew my plan would work!"

The two were joined by Starfire and Raven as all the Hive members, thoroughly sick of getting their asses' kicked, all started to retreat away from the headquarters and head back towards their academy.

" We are victorious yes?" Starfire asked happily.

" Yeah," Raven answered back. " I think it's safe to say that. Good job Beastboy, you came up with a plan that actually worked."

" Yea," Cyborg added on, knocking a beaming Beastboy playfully on the shoulder. " It was bound to happen one of these days!"

As the four friends all basked in the light of their achievement, they didn't notice a man walk in silently behind them.

" Do not be so quick to celebrate Titans," a calm voice said from behind them. " You still have someone here willing to put you in your place."
Any mirth the Titans felt was suddenly evaporated as they turned to face one of their familiar foes. Each one put on their game face, and got into a fighting stance, ready to face Slade once and for all.

" I see you all are ready to fight a battle you know you'll lose," Slade said with a mocking tone to his voice. " But, I must congratulate you on defeating my Hive protection. That is a feat unto itself. But, where might be your famous leader? A pity, I was looking forward to teaching him a lesson for quitting my apprenticeship."

" You will not harm Robin!" Starfire said angrily, her eyes glowing green and her fists becoming encased with green energy. " I will not allow you to!"

" My dear child," Slade said with a laugh, happy to have gotten a rise out of the girl. " What made you think I wanted to harm him? I merely wished to speak with him. However, that does not mean that no one wants to harm him."

" What are you getting at?" Raven asked coldly. She could tell that Slade was implying something, and she didn't like what it sounded like.

" If you all must know," Slade answered back calmly. " Your beloved leader is heading towards a fight that he will most likely lose. For my apprentice seems very intent on killing the poor boy. After all, she betrayed my base on order to make sure he and the traitorous witch got into the lab. So you see, your dear Robin will be dead with in the hour."

The Titans all stood frozen, shocked with dread that they had fallen into such a devious trap. Starfire, in particular, looked as if she wanted to die right there. But then, her sadness turned into anger, her fear into power, and her dread into determination as she turned back to face Slade.

" He will not lose," she said, her voice unquavering in her belief in their leader. " Robin will beat that foul khlorbag and will come out alive."

" And then what my darling girl," Slade answered back angrily, for she was proving to be annoying to him in her trust in Robin. " Then he will have to deal with me, and that is a fight he most definitely can't win."

Starfire glared back at the villain, and retorted back angrily, " Then I will make sure you are not there to damage him anymore!"

With that, she flew up, and launched herself at a very surprised Slade and hit him with a powerful starbolt that knocked him into the wall. After his initial surprise, Slade flipped up, pulled out his bo-staff, and ran at Starfire. The two hit each other with a good amount of force, one that sent the other three Titans sprawling to the ground to avoid the blast. Slade broke away from the confrontation, and hit Starfire with a blow that sent her flying into a different wall. He followed his attack, and pinned her to the wall with his staff.

" What do you really expect to accomplish girl?" Slade asked the alien princess, taunting her with his attitude. " Do you think that after this was over, he would suddenly feel the need to sweep you up into his arms, and tell you he loves you? If you thought that, then you are clearly deluded girl. He will never say those things to you, never! You will live your life knowing that he doesn't lo-"

He never got to finish his little speech, owing to the fact that Starfire had blasted him off with a strange green shield that none of the Titans had ever seen before. She then walked over to Slade, calmly mind you, her entire being encompassed in a bright emerald flame. She then lifted her hand, and formed a beautiful sword out of the flames, and lowered it to Slade's eye level.

" You lie Slade," the alien said, her voice in a resounding unearthly pitch, that captivated her other three team members, as well as their adversary. " I know what you say is not truthful. Perhaps Robin will not say what I want him to say, but that does not have anything to do with him not loving me. I know that he does, as I love him. I see that now, I was meant to help him, for he does not know how to tell me what he feels. He is lost, and I am meant to show him the way back to being human. Only you stand in the way, you and the Viper, and I will make sure that will not be the instance for much.

" So, what do you have to say now Slade? Tell me, are you frightened to perish? I have decided that you have plagued us for far to long, and I mean to end it now!"

Cyborg, Beastboy, and Raven watched in a stunned, stillness as they saw the usually positive alien raise the flaming emerald sword, transform into a fuming warrior, and swing down onto Slade.

Lesson learned here, never piss of a Tameranean.

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" I think the lab is down this way," Jinx said quietly as she and Robin made their way through the immense complex. They had been every which way, stuck in dead-ends twice, and almost caught by robots or sentries numerous times. In short, they were starting to get anxious, and it was evident in Robin's skeptical look towards the pink- haired girl as they started down a new passageway.

" You sure?" he asked bitterly. " Cause I feel as if we've been here before, oh wait, we probably have."

Jinx ignored her partner's rude attitude, understanding his impatience. They had not seen Slade at all during their time in the complex, which implied that he was somewhere outside, probably fighting the other four Titans. That thought was troubling to Robin, Jinx knew, so she forgave any of his caustic remarks that he made towards their situation.

The pair continued to meander down the corridor, when suddenly, they saw a secure door that conveniently said LAB on the panel. Robin, using his superb computer hacking skills, unlocked the door, and carefully pushed it open, drawing out his bo-staff as the two sneaked into the room. As the two entered, they saw thousands of vials secured to one of the walls, while all the other walls and desktops were covered with scientific paraphernalia.

Robin and Jinx walked further into the room and spotted the machine they needed to neutralize the virus, a device that would inject powerful antibodies into each test tube, and render the virus into the common cold. As they headed towards the machine, they both stopped dead in their tracks by the sight that met them across the room. It took all of their will power to keep from vomiting.

It was Mr. Morrie's dead, bloated, bleeding corpse. And, the small black-haired girl standing over him.

" Intriguing isn't it?" Viper asked as she turned to face the revolted two teens. " I finally found the perfect mix of my poison and the original Ebola virus to create my perfect disease. It causes quite a lot of pain…yes quite a lot…and as you can see, it is not a very lovely death. But, I really don't give a fuck about this anymore." She drew out her jade katana and started to advance towards the Titans.

Robin leaned over and whispered to Jinx, " Go and get rid of the virus, I'll take care of her."

" But Robin, I-"

" Go now!" he yelled as he shoved Jinx into the area with the neutralizer, and blocked a blow that Viper had swung at the two with his staff.

" Go ahead and get rid of it," Viper hissed out as she circled the Boy-Wonder. " I really couldn't give a shit what happened to it now!"

She launched herself again at Robin, who parried another deadly attack with his staff, but this time, he had his balance, and he countered with a round-house kick and a swing of his own.

The dance had begun.

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' Okay,' Jinx thought to herself quickly as her hands flew over the keyboard to initiate the defusing sequence. ' I need to do this quick, I don't know how much time Robin can give me. Wait, here is what I want!'

She found her solution, and started to rapidly fill the injectors with the antibodies via a tubing system. As the tubes started to diffuse the antibodies into the enhanced Ebola strain, Jinx turned her attention back towards the deadly dance happening all over the laboratory.

"Oh my…"

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The fight was beautiful, in a macabre sort of sense. The way the two rivals could block, strike, dodge, and leap against the other was truly exciting to watch. The sheer talent these two teenagers had was remarkable, mainly due to the fact that most grown fighters didn't have these sort of skills. However, that was not the most intriguing part of this battle.

" Why the hell do you hate me so much?" Robin asked angrily as he parried a vicious slash from the jade sword. " I never even knew who you were until you came here to Jump City."

" I don't hate you," she answered. " I hate what you stand for. You claim to be making some huge difference, you claim to be helping society. But tell me, do you help society when your actions against the 'bad-guys' create things like me! You killed him! People, things, like you killed the only father, the only family, I ever had. So, I intend to show all of you how I feel about you!"

" I never killed anyone," Robin answered angrily. " Maybe I wanted to, but I never did. Don't think you are the only one who has ever lost someone important, because you aren't! And that makes you weak, you are weak because you couldn't overcome your vengeful feelings over your loss."

" That's right," Viper said spitefully as she dodged one of his slashes. " You're fighting to avenge your poor family. The tragic 'Flying Graysons'. The poor heroes martyred to serve as a message to not forget paying your fees! And they left you, pitiable Richard Grayson, only nine years old, the poor little orphan taken in by the charitable Bruce Wayne. Or, should I say Batman?"
Robin's masked eyes went wide as he asked, " How did you-"

" I made a point of finding out everything about the Bat," she spat back. " For you see, everything that happened that night ties into me. The crime lord I lived with, Jimmy Roth, he was part of the scheme that killed your parents, therefore creating Robin. And what do you think the Bat did when he found out what happened? He set Jimmy up, and killed him! All because of you! It's your fault I don't have a family anymore! But, I really don't want to punish you for killing Jimmy, no, I want to punish Batman. And I'll do that by killing you!"

The two's fight increased in intensity quite a bit after that, both feeling nothing but extreme anger for the other. One's was righteous, while the other's was vengeful.

" That's why you did all this?" Robin asked furiously. " To get some revenge? You killed all these people, and joined Slade to chastise my mentor! What the fuck is the matter with you!"

" No Robin," the femme-fatale replied. " What the fuck is the matter with the world? It's lacking compassion of any kind, it creates people like me. It is the reason all this is happening, so I'm going to get rid of the beings who are protecting this false world, the beings like you!"

" You can't play God Viper!"

" Umph, there is no such thing! What God? If there was a God, I would've had a home when I was five years old, instead of being left at an orphanage. I wouldn't have been abused, and raped in my foster homes by stupid drunks who were keeping me for some extra drinking money. My would-be father wouldn't have been killed in a devious revenge plot to avenge something he was sorry for! There is no fucking God!"

" I feel sorry for you Viper," Robin said has he leapt out of a slash, and lowered his staff. " I really do. You have so little faith in humanity that it's left you an empty shell of a person. I understand your pain, I really do, but I have no respect with how you decided to deal with those pains."

" Just shut the fuck up," Viper said angrily.

So the dance continued.

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" Just a little more," Jinx said to herself. " Come on, come on… YES! Robin, the virus is neutralized! Oh crap…"

She turned around to see that both Robin and Viper looked pretty worse for wear. She then destroyed all the equipment with her purple hex, so no one could create the virus again. Then, she turned back towards the fighting teens, and rushed over to try to help out Robin.

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Robin, hearing Jinx yell that the virus was harmless now, feigned a right tuck, and flipped over Viper to hit her from behind, sending her sprawling towards the ground. He then lowered his staff, and walked towards her, for she looked defeated on the floor, to tired by now to counter any attack.

" Do you hear that Viper?" he asked gently. " It's over. Your virus can't kill anymore than a common cold can kill. This whole mission you were on to punish humanity and Batman is over." He thought he saw something like sadness pass through her eyes, so he dropped his staff and held out his hands. " I'm defenseless now Viper. And I know the pain you are in, probably better than anyone else. We, the Titans can help you get through that pain. We can help you heal Viper."

She looked up at him, and slowly raised herself to eye level with him.

" Thank you," she said softly. She then moved almost to fast to be human, and jabbed Robin in the abdomen, her nails turning into knives and going straight through his body. " But, I don't need your help. I just need your heart."

She watched in glee as she saw Robin's shocked face become laced with pain, and she fell down over him as his legs buckled under him, not able to hold up his body anymore.

She pulled her hand out of his body, and stroked the side of his face saying, " You're dying Dick Grayson. You are. And as a good-bye present, I'll give you something to make the pain even better."

She then leaned down and kissed him, shoving her tongue into his mouth hungrily, and he to weak to stop her. The last thing he remembered before he succumbed to the darkness, was how sorry he was for Starfire, and how he hoped she would forgive him. Then, he knew no more.

Jinx, who had been frozen in fear, saw Viper pull out a knife, and lower it towards Robin's chest. She knew what was going to happen, but she couldn't stop it. She only felt grief, for Robin was almost dead.

" Sorry bird-boy," Viper said maliciously. " But, it's time for the Bat to get his present."

But she never did get to send that gift, for help decided to come at last.

And, what I leave you with, is a dying Robin, an astonished Jinx, and a terrified Viper as Jinx looked up from Robin and saw two figures in the doorway.

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A/N: Omigosh! Holy Moly, that took forever! I think at least half a day if you combine all the days it took me to write this! But, I think it turned out well. I liked it.

Wasn't Star so bad-ass! I thought so! Remember, review, review, review!

I gotta go, my mom wants the computer!

Osco