Disclaimer: I own nothing in this story and have no money with which to pay for a lawsuit.

Chapter 1: It wasn't a hallucination

For the first few nights after his experience with Slade's chemical reagent Robin slept well, which he hadn't for a long time. For he could finally know, or at least make himself believe, that Slade was gone forever.

One early morning the alarm sounded, disrupting everyone's sleep. The Titans, as usual (as was their duty) hurried to the scene, which was a bank robbery downtown. When they reached the bank they saw a familiar figure in gray armor with a half-orange mask and one eye.

The other Titans were confused. "I thought you said there was no Slade!" shouted Robin angrily. He drew his bowstaff, twirling it around himself rapidly as he charged towards Slade. Slade drew his own bowstaff and they traded blows.

"Have we all gotten a dose of that chemical reagent?" wondered Beast Boy aloud. The Titans used Cyborg's radar to check their eyesight. "I'm picking up Slade on my radar. He's real!" said Cyborg, surprised. The other Titans charged in. Beast Boy transformed into a rhinoceros, while Starfire came up behind Slade and fired a starbolt. Slade dropped to the ground unconscious. Robin retracted his bowstaff and advanced to Slade's fallen form, removing its mask. Slade's voice sounded from his robotic head. "See, I was real, wasn't I?" he taunted. "You'll never catch me, Robin. I will haunt you forever!" The screen on his head displayed a 5-second countdown. The Titans scrambled for cover as Slade's robot body exploded.

The rest of the day went by without any trouble. Having returned to the tower, the Titans were going to bed, except for Robin. Robin was again consigned to sleepless nights searching for Slade.

The door to Robin's room opened and Cyborg entered. "Robin, you really should rest now. We can look for Slade tomorrow—"

"I can't sleep. Slade is haunting me again. Until I find him I can't rest!" complained Robin. At this point Cyborg thought of the apparently insignificant radio signal he had picked up when Slade's body exploded earlier that day. "I think I have something that might help us to find Slade. Earlier today when we fought Slade, I picked up a radio signal from Slade's body at the moment he exploded." Robin was attentive immediately. "How does that help us?" he asked. Cyborg continued, "Judging by the strength of the signal, I'd estimate it was about 7 miles away from the place where we saw Slade." He moved over to the desk and took a sheet of paper and a pencil from the stationeries on the desk, then drew a rough map of the city. "If we start at the place where we fought Slade, then we know that the signal came from somewhere 7 miles away. So, we could search all the areas of the city that are 7 miles from the place we fought Slade. That would be the area next to this circle." He drew a circle centered on the bank where they had seen Slade. "It isn't much but it's the only lead we've got, so why don't you rest now. Tomorrow we'll start looking."

The next day, after their breakfast, Cyborg taught his plan to the other Titans. They set off for the downtown bank where they had defeated Slade. Near the front door of the bank Cyborg placed a transponder. A single red light on the transponder blinked to indicate that it was operational.

The Titans split up, each starting at a different point on the circle. Robin went due south, Cyborg southeast, Raven northeast, Starfire northwest, Beast Boy southwest. The city terminated about four miles south of the transponder they had placed at the bank, melting into open country. Robin continued walking for another three miles, then began to trace the path of the circle.

Before long the other Titans' communicators beeped. "Get to my location immediately," ordered Robin. "I think I've spotted something."

A few minutes later Beast Boy and Cyborg arrived from different directions, Beast Boy in the form of a green gazelle. Robin pointed out to them two small holes in the ground, each about four inches across. Starfire and Raven both arrived and were also shown the small holes. They noticed that the holes had been lined with metal—indicating that they were not natural. They decided to have a better look inside; Beast Boy transformed into a spider and entered one of the holes. It was initially dark but soon became light inside.

When Beast Boy reached the end of the narrow tunnel he found a ventilation grill. On the other side was a large chamber. A table held the familiar black-and-orange mask known to be Slade's. Slade himself was seen sitting at a computer switchboard. Some droids were further beyond, and then the spider form of Gizmo.

Beast Boy scuttled back up the tunnel and popped out. "What did you see Beast Boy?" demanded Robin anxiously. "The tunnel led into a ventilation shaft which led into a room, and there was Slade, he was sitting at some kind of control panel, and there were some droids, and Gizmo was in the room too," said Beast Boy. "Well, we know where Slade is now, but how are we going to get down that shaft?" asked Robin, before he remembered Raven's teleportation ability. "Can you get us down there?" he asked Raven. Soon they were encased in a 2-D black raven and diving into the earth.

Meanwhile, Slade went back to his project of assembling another robot of himself. His previous robot had been destroyed the day before, so he would have to build another one to haunt Robin. Suddenly a black raven dived out of the roof and the Titans landed on their feet in the chamber. Slade leaped out of his chair and drew his bowstaff. Gizmo and the droids shot lasers at the Titans from across the room, but the Titans dodged five separate ways. Robin went straight for Slade again. Beast Boy transformed into a falcon and zigzagged through the laser fire towards Gizmo. Some of the robots broke apart under a black halo; others were destroyed by starbolts or sonic cannon beams. Beast Boy's claws dug into Gizmo's backpack, breaking the sensitive electronic equipment and disabling Gizmo.

Robin found this Slade to be far more skilled than the previous ones. Robin brought his staff over his head down at Slade but Slade held his up in defense; Robin hit with such force that Slade's staff broke right in half. However, Slade simply extended each half back to full length and now twirled two bowstaffs at Robin. Robin tried bringing his staff around in a horizontal sweep but Slade blocked with one staff while swinging the other one upward, catching Robin in the groin. Robin staggered in pain. At this moment Slade jumped up and flying-kicked Robin in the stomach, sending him across the room.

The other Titans, having finished with Gizmo and the droids, approached Slade. Slade used his two bowstaffs to deflect the starbolts, black-haloed droid parts, and sonic cannon and jumped over Beast Boy, who was charging as a rhinoceros. Then, using a miracle maneuver impossible to replicate with remote control (which was how Slade controlled his robots), Slade jumped on the green rhinoceros and leaped from its back into the air towards Raven. Still in midair, he threw one of his bowstaffs at Raven, turned around and threw the other behind him towards Beast Boy, then—still in midair—drew an explosive disk and tossed it at Starfire just as his foot planted firmly on the biological half of Cyborg's face. At the same moment Beast Boy transformed into an armadillo and rolled out of the way of the second of Slade's bowstaffs, which planted itself in the ground. Raven formed a black shield and stopped the first bowstaff, which bounced off the shield and landed on the floor. Cyborg cried out in pain as half of his face received the impact of Slade's boot. Starfire almost rolled out of the way but Slade's explosive disk blew up too close and ignited her hair. Slade was rushing for the door when Robin's bird-a-rang clipped off his mask. The mask clattered to the floor, revealing his spiky brown hair as he turned away and escaped through the door.

Robin, seeing that this was the real Slade and not a robot, ran furiously for the door but found Slade hiding behind several hundred robots, Plasmus, Cinderblock, Jinx, Mammoth, and Overload. They chased him back out of that room and into the main chamber with the other Titans. It was obvious that the Titans were going to be overwhelmed. "Titans, fall back!" shouted Robin, while throwing several smoke bombs. A 2-D black raven took the Titans through the roof to safety.

That night none of the Titans slept well. Aside from the reemergence of Slade there was the unusual and dangerous concentration of villains in Slade's headquarters.

The next morning, Cyborg was by far the first one up, since he didn't need that much sleep. By degrees other Titans emerged from their rooms. Cyborg noticed that Robin was still asleep.

Beast Boy and Cyborg continued their regular fight over what to eat for breakfast. The arguing delayed breakfast for a while, but eventually two breakfasts were set out on the table, one of them ordinary and the other made out of pure crushed soybeans.

"Robin! Get up, it's time for breakfast!"

No answer.

Starfire knocked on the door to Robin's room. "Robin, are you there?"

A faint sound was heard, but the Titans couldn't make out the words.

Cyborg smashed through the door with one punch. A bruised, cut, black-eyed Robin fell out into the hallway. Shocked expressions instantly appeared on all the Titans' faces. Starfire leaped to his side. "Robin, what has happened to you?" she asked anxiously.

"Slade…" was all she could make out before Robin blacked out.