Raventhedarkgoddess: Finally. I hate writer's block. This is going to be short too............... Sorry in advance.

Chapter Five: Never

"We'll get him back without any help from you, Slade," Robin practicly spat at the screen. "Whatever you did, we'll find a way to reverse it." He turned to Raven, put a hand on her shoulder, a hand meant to reassure her, to comfort and calm her, but to also pass a message as not only a friend but as a team leader: Even as her breathing slowed, he transfered a silent message: Don't do anything stupid, it whispered to her.

"You can never reclaim him without me," Slade said, and his smirk passed from face to face, from Titan to Titan. The simplistic joy of baiting, he thought to himself. For it's not in the prize but the hunt that I'll win them over. "The Teen Titans are finished. Soon you'll be my apprintice, Robin, and the rest of you will be as your friend is now: Dead."

The word, dead, used so freely, so lightly to describe what Cyborg was, was enough to set Raven's temper into full swing. Robin felt her shrug off his hand in an angry fashion, and reached for her but managed to grab only air, finger tips taking the edge of her cloak but not enough to actually restrain her.

"He's alive," she hissed through clenched teeth, eyes glowing red, and the Titans exchanged worried glances: Raven had fully lost it. There was no one that understood how to bring her back under control.

But Cyborg is............... Beast Boy refused to let himself finish the thought. Alive. Cyborg is alive, and we will get him back. Like Raven, everyone was trapped in denial.

"Your friend is as good as dead. You all know that. So why is there so much denial in this room? It would be much, much easier just to give up." He looked around once more. Her powers might be easily harnessed.................. He watched the girl, Raven, standing there, bold in anger. She's just as Terra was, rough around the edges. But Terra is gone now, and I could use another apprintice.....

"He...is.....not!" Raven was breathing heavily, eyes focused ahead, fixed on him. "Take it back!" Robin tried to grip her wrists, pull her back, but a blast of energy almost knocked him clean off his feet, back away from her. He looked from side to side: The others had taken a step back: There was nothing they could do.

"Tisk, tisk. Raven, how many times has that temper of yours gotten in your way?" Slade was mocking, taunting, cruel once more.

"Don't start," she hissed. "Don't you dare start with me." The venom held it's edge firmly, her eyes glowing warmer than ever, the red an inner fire, her inner demon. "You take that back, take that back right now. He's alive, do you hear me?!"

"You say what you want to belive," Slade said softly. "I know that this is the end of it." His smirk was cold, too cold. "You seem angry, Raven dear. Musnt' get angry, now, we all know how you are when you're angry........" This is working very well to my advantage.

"Take it back! Take it back!" Raven's cloak billowed around her in an unseen wind, her hair flying loosely around her head.

"If this is how you handle anger," Slade said with a smirk, staring her down through his one seeable eye, "How do you handle love? You can't really love that bucket of bolts, now can you?" He smirked at her. "Love is a powerful feeling, after all. You can't have feelings: You can't control them. The pair of you would have died by now if you had loved him, you would be insane without him. Love is thicker than anger, and we all see now that you.........."

"SHUT UP!" Raven roared. Black energy moved itself around her, consumed her, rolled around her like electricity. "JUST SHUT UP!" The others stepped back, beyond help, beyond everything but keeping themselves out of the way, away from this strange girl: She was no longer their friend, Raven.

A crack was heard and glass shards flew, one landing at Starfire's feet: She pulled up to Robin as Slade's face was blown into oblivion, into those hundrads of tiny peices. Raven backed away quickly, fear taking her face, fear at what she'd done, the anger subsiding. She breathed hard, her face contorted in a mask of emotions, things blowing up every few feet: But at least she was now reconizable as Raven.

"I........." She could find no words as the first tear fell. She ran, turning on her heels, the thudding of her feet the only sound. It echoed in the tower, in the depression and dispair. Robin moved to Starfire's side and she let herself relax in his arms, let his hand stroke her hair: She knew why Raven must be feeling so pained.

"Dude.......... Raven was crying............" Beast Boy could not quite comprehend what he had just seen. He kept hearing her words, that one stuttered I, seeing her violet eyes cloud over with water, and the one long tear, running in a path past her nose, splattering the front of her body.........

"We have to do something, Star," Robin said, using her rather to bounce the words back to his own numb brain.

"Let us begin our search," Starfire whispered to him. "We must find who is working with Slade and why." Her emrald eyes looked out the window. "Things must get better."

"We'll get him back, Starfire." He looked at the ceiling above him slowly. "Don't worry Raven," Robin whispered. "We'll get him back."

The books moved themselves, things making random crashes into the floating objects flying from their shelves, onto the floor. A paper fluttered down like an unseen ghost. "Cyborg......." Tears had never soaked her pillow before: Now the pillow was saturated and still they fell. "I love him. I do love you, Cyborg," she wept.

(HL)

"Did they fall for it, Slade?" The gray-haired woman of only thirty looked over at Slade, her electric blue eyes staring in worship at him, warm and clear, so unlike the gaze that they had turned to Cyborg last night.

"Yes, my dear, dear Marissina." And as soon as I have Robin and possibly Raven, since she's trainable, I will have no need to be around you. "And soon you shall see the partual rulership I promised as my queen."

"Wonderful." She let out her villionus laugh and gazed at his mask in wit, wondering if someday he would show her his face. Soon I will be the envy of the world.

I will be someone. She let this thought roll around in her mind.

She will be no one when I finish her. Slade's laugh, with this thought, became just a tiny bit louder.