"Nice to finally meet you, Robin," she intoned graciously, giving a tilt of her head in what could have been seen as a respectful gesture. Robin wasn't fooled for one instant. She was mocking him, just like Blackfire. "I've been watching you for a long time now. Studying you. Keeping an eye on my favorite young superhero. We have so much in common, you and I. See...?" she asked, tapping the 'R' on her uniform in an overly sensual manner. "We even dress alike."

He had little doubt she was trying to play games with his head. But that was just fine with him. He could play with the best. And besides, she may have been pretty, but he never had felt anything for bad girls. She was a criminal, she was going down. End of debate.

Besides, he was taken.

"I am the Ravager by the way," she added, striking a pose at once fearsome and sensual. Almost dominant. "I chose my name because it was the Titan's first enemy. Appropriate then, it would be your last as well."

The white-haired Ravager grinned, reaching behind her and with deliberate slowness and grace slid both her katana's from their sheaths, crossing them in front of her briefly before swinging them out to both sides, apparently leaving herself unprotected. It didn't fool Robin. He recognized her stance. Despite her seemingly relaxed posture, she could move like lightning from the particular stance she'd chosen. If she was anywhere near as good as he thought she was.

"So besides breaking and entering, should I add stalking to the reasons I'm taking you in?" he asked, holding up his bo-staff in defensive stance. He wanted to let her make the first move. Gauge her abilities for himself.

"Oh come now Robin, why stop there? You could easily arrest me for murder and a dozen other crimes too horrible to mention," she said with a smirk. "Or maybe you'd like to arrest me for the murder of a Tamaranian princess?" she asked lightly. "I hear in the Vegan system that's punishable by a most gruesome death sentence."

Robin's eyes narrowed.

"She is going to die you know. And you won't be able to save her," she added sweetly.

He shot forward like he'd been launched from a cannon, raising his bo-staff up to strike the Ravager in the head with his bo staff. Robin appeared angered by the Ravager's words. And in truth, maybe he was a little. But he was really using the attack as a feint, his primary attack was on her legs. After she blocked his attack, he'd sweep out his own and knock her flat on her ass.

But Robin had underestimated his opponent.

Ravager blocked both the strikes by crossing her swords in front of her, letting the bo staff come within an inch of smashing her pretty skull, and then, when Robin withdrew and lashed out with his leg, perfectly timed a leap over the limb, landing in a crouch as Robin regained his feet, stunned his feint hadn't succeeded. The Ravager bust forward and lashed out with both her blades. Robin parried one but the other slashed across his face when he failed to move his head fast enough. He leapt back, regarding his foe with newfound respect.

A thin trickle of blood ran across his cheek.

The Ravager stood back, deliberately not continuing her attack. Instead, she lifted up her blade, running the edge near her face as her tongue snaked out and lapped up the tiny amount of blood gracing the sharp surface. "Mmmm... delicious."

"You're sick," muttered Robin, just barely loud enough to hear.

"Thanks," she replied. Without hesitation she lunged forward, whirling her blades before her in a figure-eight pattern that crossed both sides of her body. Robin was forced onto the defensive and stepped back, parrying the attacks with his iron bo staff. A quick twist of the Ravager's body warned Robin just barely in time to block a double downwards slash aimed for his shoulders, but he wasn't nearly as fast bringing up his legs as the Ravager spun around and lashed out with her own, sweeping Robin's feet out from underneath him. He barely managed to roll out of the way before both blades slammed into the ground where he'd been lying seconds earlier.

Robin lashed out with his foot but the Ravager twirled out of the way with all the grace of a deadly ballerina, lashing out with her blades. Robin was forced to roll out of the way for the second time, but this time he slid to his feet and lashed out with his bo staff, using his first hand as a guider and his second for short, powerful strikes, not unlike the gesture used in a game of pool. But the Ravager ducked, dodged, and moved out of the way like a choreographed dancer, nimbly dodging every single strike. All the while having a merry grin on her face, as if she was having fun.

So he changed tactics and spun around, using his momentum to send his staff flying through the air at the Ravager's side. She nimbly leapt up and over the attack, landing in a crouch on the other end of the room. But Robin had been counting on that, and before he'd finished his spin he'd hurled three birdarangs he'd brought out from his utility belt seconds earlier. His hopes, however, fell to pieces around his feet as the Ravager's blades lashed out and unerringly sliced the birdarangs in half in mid-air, letting the discarded pieces come crashing down onto the ground.

"Feeling outmatched, Boy Blunder?" she asked, allowing him a few moments to recover, regarding her warily. She was amazingly fast. "Tell you what, why don't we make this fair?" she asked, tossing her blades aside forcefully. They both slammed hard into the steel far, slicing through it to sheath themselves into the inches thick steel. Robin's eyes opened wide in disbelief. Fast and strong, he thought. Starfire would've been hard pressed to duplicate a feat like that, throwing a blade with enough force to penetrate steel. Okay, so she was tough, he thought, retracting his bo-staff and sliding it into the back of his belt for safekeeping. Big deal. He'd faced worse. Besides, she'd just thrown down the gauntlet, and he was going to make her regret it. She may've been good but he was one of the few people in the world who had trained with the elusive True Master. And nobody was a better martial artist than her.

The Ravager swept her arms into a crane stance, one leg upraised, arms ready to strike. Robin countered, crouching low with one hand before him and the other behind. He beckoned her onward.

She gave a smirk as she launched herself forward in a flurry of blows that, in an instance, shattered Robin's defenses. He went stumbling backwards, trying desperately to block or dodge. More often than not, she knew exactly what he was going to do and had prepared a countermove far in advance. It was like she was reading his movements.

Or, more chilling thought, reading his mind.

His mouth opened but she beat him to it before he could voice aloud his theory, slamming her fist into his gut... hard. Robin doubled over, all the breath knocked out of his lungs.

"I'll bet you're wondering...," she whispered into his ear, her voice still sweet. "... you're wondering how I can see your every move... before you make it."

Robin grunted but managed to lash out a hand, hoping to slap her away. She caught his wrist and twisted his arm, knocking him to the ground in a most painful pose, his arm behind his back. She gave another painful twist, and he bit back a cry of pain.

"... well I'll tell you Boy Blunder. A little side effect of my birth... daddy's DNA gave me a little unforeseen ability to predict the future. I can tell exactly what you're going to do... before you do it. Most of the time, at least," she remarked, as Robin shifted position and broke the hold, lashing out blindly upwards with a kick that send the Ravager to the other end of the room. It hadn't hurt much, but it had allowed him to break her hold and regain his feet. It was a start. She continued as if the hold hadn't been broken. "... and the rest, well, I don't need it. Because I'm better than you, Robin."

"Who are you?" he asked darkly, cradling his hand against his chest. He could still fight, but he was going to be seriously hurting later.

Curiously, unlike most masked villains Robin had fought (Slade and Red X among them) the Ravager actually responded to his question without an explosion or a violent shock to his system. She smirked, reaching up behind her head, and untied the back of her mask, allowing it to slip from her face. Holding it in one hand, she brushed back her ivory locks with the other, revealing her identity.

Robin was, understandably, shocked.

"Rose! Rose Madison!"

>

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

>

Seven Years Ago.

The Titans had received an anonymous report. A young girl named Rose Madison was about to be assassinated by a professional marksman. Naturally, Robin gave out their battle cry, and the Titans were off, all six of them. Terra having joined but a few short days earlier.

They'd arrived too late to save the Madison adults. Both had been slain. Execution type shots from a rifle at long range. The work of a professional assassin.

One which Beastboy had personally enjoyed tossing from the roof, letting Starfire catch him. And of course by catch, we meant with her fist. The assassin, a professional, had gone down almost immediately. But that hadn't been able to bring back Rose's parents. Robin had been the one to find the traumatized little white-haired girl, still holding her mother's hand. He'd tried to comfort her, but what comfort could you really offer a child that had lost their parents at such a young age? That sort of thing could alter someone's life forever.

It had certainly changed Robin's life.

Robin gently placed a hand on the girl's shoulder, easing her grip off of her dead mother's, and started to say something. To offer some words of comfort. The moment was frozen in his mind. Because she'd lifted her head, and he could see her eyes...

... and then suddenly a silver sphere smashed through the window and let loose a cloud of poisonous vapors, flooding the room. In instance, all the Titans were down for the count, unconscious from the knockout gas. And when they'd awoken, Rose had been gone. They had combed every inch of the city that day, searched everywhere. Robin had been as determined in his search for Rose as he had been to bring down Slade. He knew what she'd gone through, and he wanted to help. But alas, their search was in vain, and they'd forced to call it off. It had been a dark time.

It had nearly been forgotten when Terra betrayed them, but some things you could never forget.

Like the girl Robin hadn't been able to save.

>

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

>

"Rose Wilson," she replied darkly, a frown crossing her features for the first time. "That's my true name. The one I was born with. My birthright," she added enigmatically. "But I suppose you Titans never knew what you were doing, did you? Oh no, just doing your job, and all those other innate things you prattle on about like you know what you're doing. The right thing," she added darkly.

"What're you talking about?" asked Robin, his own eyes narrowing behind his mask. This couldn't have been the same girl. Yet it was. Her hair, her eyes, her features. It was Rose, alright.

The Ravager's hands clenched, then relaxed. It was brief, but Robin saw it. He'd unknowingly struck a sensitive spot in the Ravager's armor. He might need that later. She continued on as if nothing had happened. "I was never a Madison," she said darkly, venom creeping into her voice. "They took me in, raised me as their own, but they are not my parents. My blood is that of a warrior. Of a killer. Just like my father," she hissed. "My father... was Slade."

"Slade?"

Well, that explained the choice wardrobe.

"And you killed him. You killed my father," she said darkly, and without warning lashed out with another first, striking Robin full in the face, totally unprepared. He was sent flying across the room to slam against the far wall hard enough to dent it. He collapsed in a heap, clutching his side. A sharp pain shot through it. He'd broken a rib, he realized.

"Slade..." he murmured.

>

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

>

Six years ago.

The former church of St. Sebastian's and currently Slade's underground fortress.

Five Teen Titans.

One psychopathic criminal.

Terra... and a fateful decision.

Terra's power has escalated beyond control, and she had been unable to stop herself as she'd attacked Slade, breaking away from the control of his suit had required a great burst of power. Power that she had then been unable to control. It had triggered a volcanic eruption. The ground had shaken, the earth had split. Jump City would had been destroyed. But a sacrifice had been made.

Terra... had finally made the right choice.

And Slade had vanished into the molten lava that had formed in the cracks of the Earth, swallowed whole. The last any of the Titan's had seen of him had been his mask, sinking into the river of fire, and finally vanishing.

Slade had finally been defeated, at long last.

>

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

>

Robin pushed himself up to his feet, and just barely managed to block a vicious knee attack from the Ravager that would've hit him in a very sensitive region of his anatomy. He wasn't, however, able to block her second strike, which split open his lip and send him reeling to the ground.

"Even when he came back he was more dead than alive," she cried out, slamming a vicious uppercut that sent Robin reeling. "That wasn't my father! That was some monster Trigon made... because of you Titans!" she roared, whirling around and giving Robin a circle kick that sent him flying through the air to slam hard against the wall.

At once, all her rage and anger seemed to vanish, and she was completely in control again.

"Oh I do hope that isn't all you've got," she remarked lightly, slipping her mask back on and tying it behind the back of her head. "I've been waiting to avenge daddy's death for years now... please, feel free to put up a better fight."

Robin drew back his fist and lashed out, but the Ravager saw his move coming and ducked underneath, slamming him in the chest with her own fist, sending him rolling to the ground. He spat up blood, feeling it coat his lips, and another sharp pain s hot up from his side. His injured rib felt worse now, and he wondered if perhaps two or three more had decided to join it in breaking.

"Mmmm, feel that do you?" she asked lightly, cracking her knuckles. "A gift of daddy's. His serum was most effective."

Robin had read up on the serum in question. Slade, when he'd been an officer in the military, had been experimented on. It was those experiments that made him stronger, tougher, and more agile than the average fighter. It was no wonder Robin had never been able to best him in physical combat. But the serum, according to official documents, drove the experimented soldiers to the brink of madness. Slade among them.

So insanity didn't run in the family. But Rose had inherited it none-the-less.

"Rose..." he started, weakly trying to protest her attack. To get her see reason as he pushed himself up with his uninjured hand. She rewarded him with a spiked boot to the back, slamming him back down... hard.

"Ravager," she corrected. Then, she leaned in, very close, until her white locks brushed against the back of his head. "Remember it, Robin... it was your first opponent... it'll be your last. The days of the Titans... are coming to an end."

The Ravager gave one hard shove with her foot, driving the tip into Robin's back, then with a playful smirk lifted it off of him and strolled casually over to her swords, exaggerating the sway of her hips as she did so. She drew them out of the wall and gracefully slipped them into the sheaths on her back, tapping a communicator hidden in her wrist.

"Blackfire. Deathfang. We're leaving," she stated, deactivating the hidden security features. The steel walls slid open, and the Ravager waited until her cohorts had returned. Neither Starfire or Beastboy were in sight, and Robin's eyes opened wide. No... they couldn't have.

"No troubles?" asked the Ravager.

"Sister dearest will be feeling that last one," remarked Blackfire, rubbing her knuckles. "I think I sent her into orbit."

Deathfang, unable to speak in his current form, simply gave an evil-looking wolf's grin. All the Ravager needed to know about Beastboy's fate. It was fortunate she'd given orders for none of the Titans to be slain. And Deathfang, while enthusiastic, would've obeyed her orders. She'd promised him so much more when the time came for him to blow it now on simple revenge.

"Good," replied the Ravager. "Deathfang... " she ordered, pointing out some equipment. "Gather that. We've got what we came for. Now it's time to go."

Deathfang hoisted up the gear as Blackfire zipped out the still-broken doors of the lab. Deathfang and the Ravager ran out alongside her, passing by Robin. As they did, Robin managed, with his uninjured arm, to reach down to his belt and grab one of his tracking device and, as delicately as possible, slap it onto the back of the Ravager's high-heeled boot. Thankfully, it stuck and she didn't appear to notice. Then, Robin collapsed, unable to support himself any longer. As he started to drift into the blackness, he heard one final word from far, far away.

"Robin!" shouted Starfire.

>

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

>

Author's Notes:

The recent comic Ravager was capable of precog abilities that flickered on and off at times, as well as enhanced strength and healing, the same as Slade. Her secret identity was indeed Rose Wilson, and she was Slade's daughter, with a similar history and back story as described above. The final moments of Slade (at least, his first death) are seen in 'Aftershock part II.' The origins of Slade's abilities are comically accurate, as they are for Rose, though in the comics Slade gave them to Rose himself, she did not concoct them on her own. Next time: Brother Blood makes his move, and yet more Titans feel the sting of their enemies.

Todd fan: Poor Titans. Oh how I will delight in tormenting each and every one of them.

Scathac's Warrior: Random? In what way? I might've missed it, it's rather easy to do, since I know what's coming and how everything works before you all do. If you can be more specific maybe I can explain/fix it.

Yomiori-Wolfdemon: I thought you'd enjoy it. I'm a sucker for romance so I tend to bring up couples in most any story I write. It's innate. Glad you're enjoying the story. As for nerds, well, at least you're no Control Freak, yes?

Ray1: I do not read the comics either, but I do check on-line information about the characters in my stories. I find it easier to write stories about them. Some are harder to research than others, but the Titans are surprisingly good.

Ultimate R-Man: It's tough to fill a mere half-hour with so many one-on-one fights in Teen Titans, so it's understandable. Thus, the worst group of supervillains are the HIVE trio. I feel sympathy for your plight, my brothers feel much the same way, and as in your case, only seem to drop by and comment during the worst episodes or worst moments of a good episode.

ViciousAssassin: Glad you're enjoying the fluff and couple-ness, that will fill much of the story to come. The bonds between friends as well. It seems you figured out my clever ploy, but maybe not all of Tartarus' plans. Keep at it, however. You may surprise yourself with what you know.

Comet-hime: It was sad, yes. And regretfully, Terra's fate will continue to grow sadder as the story progresses. Apologies for not being able to make you smile.

TDG3RD: Terra fans seem to be greatly mixed, much like Shayera fans post-Starcrossed. I, for one, feel sympathy for her, and wanted to give her some time in my fanfiction. I'm glad you appreciated it as well. As for the plans of Tartarus, well, let's just say they're thinking big.

Blackbird: Interesting. Great minds do think alike, it seems. Hope you enjoyed the first Ravager/Robin duel. Expect many more conflicts between those two to come.

Seth Turtle: Really? I rather liked it. I was purposefully trying to make things seem coincidental, so they had no definite proof she was still alive. Besides, it's based on a very silly cartoon, I'll have you know. You and I would never be able to get away with what we write were it to be animated. Only two points!

Elrohirthewriter: No! Review faster and I update faster! More reviews makes for a happy Rurouni! I'm glad you enjoyed Terra's semi-alive-moments (see, Seth! Hehe) and feel more than free to use them. No! More suspense! Much more!

Pnaixrose: Great grammar, that's it? Nothing about my award winning (...) plot and character interaction!