Disclaimer: Many thanks for the reviews for the previous chapter. As stated before, I don't own Teen Titans or any characters from DC Comics-the only thing I own is this story, matter-of-fact. I also don't own the song that is simply known as Deadly Game…


Teen Titans: The Return of Red X

Chapter I-The Deadly Game


"From now on, this is your playground." –John Crichton, Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars


Whatever Beast Boy was going to say was cut short as, only a second later, a cut was revealed right across his side! Raven gasped lightly while Cyborg stood there in shock.

"Dude…" Beast Boy managed to say while holding onto his stomach as tightly as possible. "…what just happened?"

Raven was close enough to catch the falling body of her comrade as Beast Boy lost consciousness. Shock turning into anger, Cyborg looked upward to see someone clad entirely in black, holding onto two curved katana swords, one with a shred of clothing on the tip.

"WHO ARE YOU, YOU JERK?!" Cyborg yelled loudly while preparing his Sonic Cannon for attack.

Leaping from his position, Cyborg and Raven caught a glimpse of his mask before he vanished! A few seconds later, Cyborg felt a katana pressed against the right side of his neck.

At that moment, only two words were uttered from the voice of Beast Boy's attacker: "The Carver…!"


(Yeah…Shhh…)

(Uh-huh…Let's do this…)

Roll the dice, play your cards…Break the rules; that's who you are…

Whoever said play it safe never played the game…(Never played the game…!)

So many players, but too many pawns…Too many judges say it's right or wrong…

…but then jump into the fire if they want to play…oh! (Want to play…Want to play…!)


As for Robin and Starfire, they were now only two hours away from returning home, mostly in part due to Robin's decision to change the car into a plane, which really had shaved off a lot of time from their trip. While Robin was busy looking at files of the villains they had faced and defeated, Starfire was looking over his shoulder, a look of curiosity on her face.

"Whatever happened to Dr. Light ever since Raven sent him into the never-ending abyss of darkness?"

Pondering over that for a few moments, Robin looked down at a section in the file, then replied, "He was sent to Arkham for special treatment. No one in Jump City was qualified to help him in the condition Raven had left him in."

Pleased with Robin's answer, Starfire nodded before looking around at the darkened skies, which were covered by nimbus clouds.

"The clouds seem to be gathering together for something, Robin."

Looking at the clouds himself for a few moments, Robin nodded in agreement. "Looks like it's about to rain. We'd better steer clear so the lightning doesn't hit us."

Turning off the autopilot, Robin quickened their pace a bit, hoping to avoid being hit by lightning at any cost.

"Robin, what do you think the other Titans are doing now?"

Attempting to read the minds of his fellow Titans had never been one of Robin's specialties, since that was usually Raven's technique, but he could make very accurate guesses.

"Well, Star, I'd say right about now, Beast Boy and Cyborg are attempting to beat my high score-and failing miserably, though Cyborg's probably getting close-and Raven's irritated with them because they keep interrupting her meditation."

Little did Robin know that he was right on one particular issue…


Chorus: 'Cause it's a deadly game that we play as we live our lives…! (Deadly games!)

When we say what is on our minds…(Deadly games!)

Play it now before the game is over…!


"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!"

Dark energy suddenly enveloped the katana that was pressed against Cyborg's neck, and within seconds, Raven's hand was holding onto the weapon that The Carver had used against Beast Boy.

Her eyes glowing a dark whitish color while gently placing Beast Boy down, Raven announced coldly, "Let's find out if you really are a cut above the rest."

For a response, two sai daggers were launched directly at the young girl's face! Raven barely had enough time to pull the katana up and block them both before noticing that their adversary had vanished.

"Cyborg, did you see where he went?" Raven asked while looking around cautiously, making sure she wasn't caught off guard.

"Nope. I was too busy scanning B.B. to see if his injury is fatal."

Taking one last glance around to be certain there wasn't anyone else around, Raven kneeled down towards the unconscious Beast Boy, replying, "Within a few minutes, he'll be hopping around, wanting revenge on this assassin-for-hire-"

Before Raven could heal Beast Boy's wound, or even finish what she was saying, a shuriken ended up embedded deep in her left shoulder! Gasping loudly in pain, she retracted her hand and went to remove the weapon from her shoulder.

"Raven-hold on!" Cyborg exclaimed, only seconds before a hail of shurikens kept him separated from his teammates.

"Where does this guy get his hardware-Assassins R' Us?!" Cyborg ranted loudly as he tried to figure out a way to get past the shurikens and to his friends.

Before Raven could think of a response, she cried out as the shuriken in her shoulder was abruptly yanked out, leaving a tear in her cloak and blood running down her arm.

"You could never appreciate the fine art of weaponry, robot."

Turning around in surprise, both Cyborg and Raven were amazed to see The Carver with the shuriken in his hand, but not that amazed to realize the hail of shurikens had stopped.

"Let me give you a few rules I go by before I take you out, heroes-make sure your mistakes are few and far between, because in life, there are no second chances. And, when you stand up and attempt to play this deadly game of life, someone who's more powerful than you, or more focused than you, will always be there to ensure you fall in defeat."

Narrowing her eyes while raising the katana upward-and engulfing it with dark energy-Raven replied, "If Beast Boy were conscious, he'd say something along these words: 'blah, blah, blah. We've heard those words said by different nutcases, and they're all locked away.'"

Chi-chik! Chi-chik!

With a broad grin on his face as his Sonic Cannon was charged up, Cyborg asked, "You wanna do this the easy way, or the hard way?"

"The hard way." came the response as, once Cyborg took aim and prepared to fire, the assassin seemed to vanish while he was running!

"What the-?! Where'd he go?" Cyborg stammered in surprise, scanning on all frequencies while heading over to his unconscious friend.

"I'm right here."

"Huh? AHHHHHHHH!!!"


Two simple rules the devil hands us…

Make your mistakes, but no second chances…!

Every time that you stand up… (stand up…) … is another chance to fall…! Hey…!

Chorus: 'Cause it's a deadly game that we play as we live our lives…! (Deadly games!)

When we say what is on our minds… (Deadly games!)

Play it now before the game is over…! Ohh…!

Ha, ha, ha!

(Various singing is heard for 26 seconds)


"Alright! We're nearly home, Star-soon, you'll get to ask Raven if she wants to hang out at the mall or at her favorite café." Robin announced calmly, a light grin on his face.

Starfire nodded in agreement, yet her curiosity was peaked on an issue that she had never asked about before.

"Robin, who is this person, and why have we never encountered this particular villain in battle?"

Taking a glance at the file, Robin's eyes narrowed to slits behind his mask once he saw the name on it.

"That's Aaron Mitchell-known by his alias, which could've used a bit more work before he went public-The Carver. He had this weird, twisted, psychotic habit of cutting up the pets of girls who broke up with him before he decided to learn all he could about martial arts, information about every weapon ever made...any other information about him is locked inside his own mind."

Starfire gasped lightly, nearly stunned into silence by what Robin had explained to her.

"He's got a pretty devious mind, doesn't he, Star?"

"Ooh…very devious indeed! Why would he wish to cause harm to those cute, furry little animals? They did absolutely nothing wrong to deserve such treatment!"

Raising an eyebrow in slight surprise, Robin thought about what his response should be, then simply nodded.

"Then, let's just say it's a good thing we haven't come up against him yet-otherwise, he'd have one angry Tamaranian to deal with." Robin muttered under his breath, homing in on the Titans' location. After finding them, the Teen Wonder blinked in amazement.

"That's where Raven's at…and Cyborg…and Beast Boy. But, it looks like Raven's the only one who's moving. What's wrong with this picture?"

After thinking it over for a few minutes, Robin felt a chill run down his back-a chill that told him trouble had chosen to rear it's ugly head while he had been gone.

"Starfire…hang on tight!"

Seconds after Robin had said that, a chibified Starfire screamed loudly as the Redbird suddenly plummeted downward, leaving her to clutch the top of the vehicle as tightly as possible!


Judgment Day…causing all markers…

Hounds of Hell…it's getting darker…!

As they carry you away, you wonder what went wrong…! Ohh! (What went wrong, what went wrong, what went wrong…!)

Chorus: 'Cause it's a deadly game that we play as we live our lives…! (Deadly games!)

When we say what is on our minds…(Deadly games!)

Play it now before the game is over…! Ohh…!

(Deadly game!)

Oh! It's a deadly game that we play with our lives…!

(Deadly game!)

Hey…! See what's on our mind…!

(Deadly game!)

Play it now before the game is over…! Ohh…!

(song continues on for 22 seconds until fade out)


Cyborg hadn't even turned around before a katana was stabbed right into his back, damaging his power cell and temporarily shutting him down! Raven watched in shock as her teammate dropped to the ground in a similar way like he had when the team had first taken on the annoying Mumbo-or, as he preferred to call himself-the Amazing Mumbo.

"Two down…two to go."

Her eyes changing from a dark white to a blood-red color, Raven suddenly ignored the pain in her shoulder and wielded the katana like she had been born to do so.

Within seconds, The Carver soon found himself on the defensive as Raven's katana nearly cleaved his hands off! As Raven forced him backward with every move she made, her adversary closed his eyes and focused before, to her slight surprise, he pulled the katana apart, and was holding two blades once more.

"Impressive. Will your body be able to do that same trick?"

For a response, and before she could move forward once more, Raven watched as he leaped above cutting range and attempted to attack from behind; she immediately turned around and was able to parry both weapons with her own.

"You're powerful for your age, witch-but, I know these weapons forward and backward. You're not going to defeat me with one."

As he spoke, he quickly did a 180-degree turn and tossed a second hail of shurikens directly in Raven's path!

Not moving at all, Raven simply raised her hands upward in the air and enveloped the shurikens with dark energy before sending them right back toward The Carver!

With speed and agility, he was able to avoid most of his own weapons-but, not all of them. He stopped for one second…and, he had become a target; the skilled assassin roared in pain as one of his own shurikens ended up embedded in his leg with a pop!

"Get the point yet?"

Glaring at Raven, who now had a wicked smirk on her face, he responded, "That was good, witch. You nicked the femoral artery without severing it. If I pull it out, I bleed to death in minutes; I keep it in, and I keep on fighting. You made a costly mistake, though. Wanna know what it was?"

Quickly dropping his katana blades to the ground, The Carver pulled out a pair of daggers and rushed Raven, yelling loudly, "You should've aimed for my head!"

"Yaaaaaah!"

WHAP!! Robin's staff collided with the back of his head, spoiling his aim and causing the villain to drop his daggers and fall to his knees in pain.

"You mean like that, right?" Robin asked with a light grin on his face as the Redbird landed onto the ground and changed back into its car mode; Starfire floated beside him, her eyes glowing a deep green, as were her charged up Starbolts.

"You are the one known as The Carver, are you not?"

Looking up at the anger-fueled Tamaranian, a light smirk crossed his face as he realized that Starfire was his final target, but specifically remembered what Slade had mentioned-to not harm Robin in anyway.

"What's it to you?"

SHREEEEE!!

The Carver was abruptly, and without warning, knocked out as Starfire hit him directly with a concentrated blast of green heat vision!

"That…was for the cute, furry little animals you caused irreparable harm to!"

Robin rose an eyebrow once more due to Starfire's response, but a loud groan diverted his attention over to the assassin, who apparently hadn't been knocked out.

"Alright-I'm gonna start asking some questions, and you're gonna answer them!" Robin demanded while pointing his staff directly at his chest, to ensure that he didn't try to escape.

"Why would I want to do that?"

Narrowing his eyes behind his mask once again, Robin replied in a hardened voice, "You're bleeding to death, for one thing. For another, you're exhausted due to your battle with the other Titans, especially with Raven. Plus, Starfire and I haven't even broken a sweat, and we've only been back for 3 minutes. You're gonna go to jail, but you'll be making a detour to the hospital first. You wanna do that unconscious, or not?"

Feeling one of his sai daggers underneath his back, The Carver hid an evil grin while pretending to attempt to stand up. "Okay-I know when I'm licked…"

Yelling loudly, he revealed the dagger while tossing it directly towards Starfire! Seconds before it would've connected, however, it was encased in dark energy. The attention of Robin, Starfire and the assassin were directed over to Raven-whose eyes were glowing, but in their usual whitish color.

"Sounds to me like he chose 'unconscious,' Robin."

The Carver gasped lightly while quickly turning back around. The last thing he saw before blacking out was one end of a staff heading straight for his head…!


"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos…Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos…Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos…"

Beast Boy, his wound now healed from the encounter the team had endured against The Carver, had ventured to the top of Titans Tower despite knowing the dangers of interrupting Raven during her meditating.

"Hey, Raven-how's it going?"

Without even opening her eyes, Raven's response was quick and to the point.

"Not easy, and you being up here isn't making it any better. If you have something to say, be quick about it."

Nodding quickly, Beast Boy cleared his throat before staring across at the floating Raven. "Uh…look. I just wanted to say thanks for, you know, looking out for me while I was hurt-and knocked out-by a sword-wielding nutcase. And, to say thanks for healing me when it was all over-even if you weren't able to do so during the battle and accidentally got yourself injured while trying to heal me to begin with-"

Having opened her eyes sometime during Beast Boy's explanation, Raven held up one hand-motioning for him to stop-and nodded, a faint smile crossing her face for a second.

"Just do me a favor-keep both eyes and ears open for trouble."

"You got it!" Beast Boy beamed while hugging Raven tightly-something he should've thought about before doing.

"Beast Boy…let go before I'm forced to injure you again."


The Carver, otherwise known as Aaron Mitchell, was fuming in one of the police caravans he had been thrown into-by Raven, and not in a good way-after receiving medical attention for his leg. He had, of course, been chained to the far wall.

"Teen Titans…make no mistake-you should've let me die! Damn Slade's orders-you're all going down…one by one, you're all gonna fall…and, it starts with their leader…!"

The caravan abruptly came to a stop, sending Mitchell forward a few feet, then slamming him back hard against the wall! Seconds later, he heard screams, screams that were ended as quickly as they'd began. Confused, he heard the sounds of boots outside, then finally saw daylight as the doors were opened by someone…someone clad in yellow and brown, with a hood-like mask covering most of his face, blades protruding from miniature sheaths-that he was holding with both hands-and a sword on his back!

"Who are…you?" Mitchell asked in surprise, and-to his astonishment, fear.

"Who am I?" The individual had a light smirk on his face as he dropped his blades and went to pull out his sword. "I'm the guy who's gonna take all your problems away…"

Seconds later, he sent his sword directly through Mitchell's chest! The individual's smirk grew a bit while watching the chained assassin die slowly and he searched him until he found what he was looking for.

"…and the guy who's gonna collect Slade's money after I take out the Teen Titans! After you and your little team come up against me Boy Wonder, you're gonna regret ever having crossed…Shrike!"