Apparently Slade was a big deal to the Titans. Cyborg woke up Starfire and Beast Boy, instructing them all to come downstairs. It seems that heroes don't need sleep. I was especially impressed because they came downstairs in record time, perfectly groomed and wearing their uniforms. Certainly this ability was a superpower all in its own.

"Tell us everything about your encounter with Slade," Robin demanded as soon as everyone was in the room, not the least bit polite about it. The others shuffled to sit around the table with me.

I shrugged. "Well, I had been wandering on the outskirts of town when I ran into him. He said he had just made a large dinner and invited me to eat with him."

"And you did?" Beast Boy exclaimed, his eyes bugging out of his head. "How could you just go and have dinner with someone who looked like that?"

I couldn't help but smirk. "This coming from a green-skinned changeling who is sitting at the table with a half-human/half-robot, an orange-skinned alien, and a boy with an identity complex?"

Beast Boy's expression became a little sheepish. "Yeah, but we're the good guys."

"Then you need to wear signs," I grumbled. "Or at least go back to the white and black hats, because the rest of us don't get the memos."

"What happened at dinner?" Robin asked, bringing the subject back.

"Nothing," I said. "We ate stew and bread and talked about books and the weather. I didn't ask about his weird mask and he didn't ask about my time on the streets. After I had eaten, he sent me on my way with some leftovers and a standing offer for me to return if I ever needed help again."

"I do not believe that Slade was acting this way because his heart felt kind," Starfire commented. The others nodded in agreement.

"Where did he take you?" Cyborg asked. "An abandoned factory? An underground lair?"

I blinked a few times. Did I really seem that dense? "No…just a house."

"Do you have any powers?" Beast Boy asked.

"No," I said, shaking my head.

"That doesn't mean anything," Cyborg interjected. "Robin doesn't have any powers, either, and Slade was interested in him."

Right. Like Robin and I were on the same level. "But I don't know karate or lethal basket weaving," I protested. "I'm not even that smart—I got a C in algebra. I'm just a normal girl."

"I don't buy it," Robin said. "Slade's got an angle here."

"But dude, he couldn't be back," Beast Boy said. "He got swallowed up in that whole volcano thing."

"I'm not sure if he's back," Robin started, "but he's left more than one trick behind and I refuse to let this one catch me off-guard."

"I don't get what the big deal is," I admitted. "He was just a guy who gave me dinner. Why are you guys so uptight about it?"

"Slade is one of our worst enemies," Starfire explained. "He's tried to destroy the city several times."

That was a bit more evil than I had been anticipating. Bank robber I could have handled. Mad scientist? Possibly. But the destroy-the-city-and-then-the-world type? I never would have guessed that from him. It kind of creeped me out to know that I had been sitting at the same table with someone like that.

Starfire continued, "Do you not recall when his evil robots overtook the city?"

I stared again. Certainly I would remember something like that. "No…I must have been out of town that day."

"It's not just the city," Cyborg added. "He has tried to destroy us several times. And he's got some Darth Vader syndrome that makes him want to make people his apprentices and do his dirty work."

"Yes," Starfire said with a nod. "He did this to Robin."

Robin shot her a glance that told her to say no more about it.

Well, that was interesting. Robin had ended up being the apprentice to their "worst enemy"? He was back with the Titans, so something had made him return from the Dark Side. Still, it must have left scars. No wonder Robin short-circuited when it came to this guy. I wondered what Slade had done to him.

"Robin wasn't the only one," Beast Boy spoke softly. "He did it to Terra, too."

"Who's Terra?" I asked.

"She was killed in an attempt to stop Slade," Starfire said in a hushed tone.

Everyone's eyes fell to the floor for a moment. Okay, so Terra was a bit of a sore spot. Best not to ask about that any time soon.

Robin stood up and leaned on the table. "This is why it's very, very important that you tell us everything you know."

"I did!" I said, exasperated. I wished that I hadn't said a damn thing about recognizing the face. Why had I opened my mouth? Certainly seeing someone that you knew on the Teen Titan's giant screen couldn't ever be a good thing.

"You said that he invited you to come back," Cyborg spoke, interrupting my thoughts. He subtly pushed Robin back into his chair. "Did you ever go?"

I shook my head. "No."

"Why not?"

Geez, first they wanted to know why I had gone and now they wanted to know why I hadn't gone. I was getting a headache. Still, this question had an easy answer.

"Because I died," I snapped irritably.

"You died?" Cyborg echoed. "How long before…your passing…did this meeting with Slade happen?"

If only I'd known that there would be a quiz. I searched my memories, but I didn't have to search very long. The blood drained from my face when I reached my answer. "Three days," I murmured. "But that's just a coincidence, right?" I searched each Titan's face for the answer.

Robin's expression was grim. "I really, really doubt it."

"So all this happened about two years ago?" Cyborg asked. I nodded and he continued, "So it was all before Terra took Slade down in the volcano, which means that whatever Slade was planning probably died with him."

"I'm not taking that chance," Robin snapped. "The fact that we have a ghost in our midst who became a ghost three days after meeting Slade is reason enough for me to want to check this out. I want to make sure I'm on top of everything that Slade planned—even if he is gone."

"Do you remember where his place was?" Beast Boy asked.

I hesitated, then nodded.

"Good," Robin said. "Tell us where it is."

"No," I snapped. Everyone turned to look at me—some with confused looks, some with angry ones. "I get to go with you," I clarified.

"I don't think so," Robin replied. "We don't know what we'll run into. You almost got yourself killed the last time we took you outside."

"Don't exaggerate. Everything worked out fine," I returned.

"You're not coming with us," he repeated. "Just tell us the location."

"Over my dead body," I retorted, truly appreciating the corny phrase at that moment. "If there's something to see there, then I intend to be right there seeing it."

"You're a liability!" he snapped.

"And you're not going to get anywhere without me, so you might as well get used to the idea."

"Uh, I hate to break this up," Cyborg interjected, "but we may need her once we get out there."

I didn't know exactly why they'd need me, but I wasn't going to argue since he was apparently on my side.

It was obvious that Robin was gritting his teeth. "Fine." He jumped to his feet and everyone else followed suit. "Titans!" he shouted. "Let's go!"

They all dashed and flew for the door, but I remained where I was. They seemed to notice this at the same moment, and stopped and turned toward me.

"Are you going to join us?" Robin asked irritably.

"Yes." I held up my handcuffed wrists. "After these things disappear for good."

He stormed over to me, quickly unlocking the cuffs. "Is that better?"

I massaged my wrists, giving him a smile so sweet that it would have made Shirley Temple throw up. "Yes."

"Titans!" he shouted again. "Let's go!"

We all ran for the door. This time I followed.

We had to take the T-Car again, much to Robin's chagrin. I guess they don't use it that much, but were at a slight disadvantage because I couldn't fly. Beast Boy offered to change into a pterodactyl and carry me, but I politely declined.

Everyone was pretty quiet on the way over. The tension in the car was thick. The roads were empty due to the early hour, illuminated by the overhead streetlights. The sky was still dark—the sun would probably be coming up within an hour.

I pulled up the sleeve of my shirt, glancing at the finger-shaped bruises that had been left on my arm by Robin's insistent questioning. They were dark enough that I didn't even need a lot of light to see them.

I thought that I'd been making a connection with the Boy Wonder. He was supposed to be one of the good guys—the leader of this team of white hats. And yet he wasn't any better off than my step-dad. He hadn't hit me, but if Cyborg hadn't walked in when he did…

I pulled my sleeve back down.

Screw them all. I'd tried to do the right thing, and this is what fate had dished out to me. Raving lunatics. I was done with it. First chance I got, I was gone.

I led the Titans to some old suburbs on the outskirts of town. The neighborhood pretty much had been the origin of Jump City. The houses were extremely similar, but not quite as cookie-cuttered as the ones that are built these days. Back in their day, the homes probably made up a beautiful area, showing off their beautiful paint jobs and well-landscaped front yards. But time had passed and now the homes were run down, their paint faded and chipped and the yards nothing but dirt and weeds.

There were more streets than I remembered, and Cyborg had to drive down several of them before I found the right one. The darkness didn't help, and the sky was just beginning to lighten by the time I recognized anything.

The house had changed dramatically in the past two years. Every window was broken and now boarded up; even the door was boarded up. Weeds overran the yard, standing as high as my knees in some places. A large red "X" had been spray painted next to the front door, signaling that the house was on the list to demolitioned. Fortunately, I had remembered the house number—17—my age when I had visited it.

"Are you sure this is it?" Robin asked after we all climbed out of the T-Car.

"Yes," I said with a nod. I glanced down the street, wondering how far I could get before the Titans caught up with me.

"Doesn't exactly look like his normal base of operations, does it?" Cyborg commented.

Starfire flew up to the front door, grabbing the wood paneling and ripping it off—nails and all—with her bare hands. I had to admit that I was impressed.

Beast Boy transformed into a barn owl and immediately flew into the dark house. Robin and Starfire quickly followed, with Robin brandishing a flashlight and Starfire using her powers to illuminate her hand.

"Take this, Morgan," Cyborg said, turning and placing a flashlight in my hand. "Stay close, okay?"

He waited for me to go inside, then followed close behind. I turned on the flashlight, sending the beam across the room.

When I had last been there, the living room had been mildly decorated in ugly furniture that looked like it belonged to an old lady. Now the only thing left behind was the green-and-gold shag carpeting, which had been ripped up in several places. Graffiti splattered across the walls, and I wondered what kind of things had been happening in this house.

I continued into the kitchen, running the flashlight around the room. This had been the place where I had eaten soup with an alleged madman. Again, I remembered it having an old-lady flair, but now all of that was gone. The fridge was toppled over; the stove looked like something inside of it had exploded and blown the oven door away. Chunks of the ceiling now lay crumbled on the floor, ensuring that we would all die of asbestos poisoning. More graffiti decorated the walls. A half-eaten mouse rested in a trap in the corner.

Creepy, yes. But not exactly what I would picture for an evil guy with delusions of grandeur.

I heard a noise, and I pointed my flashlight into an open doorway just to see two large owl eyes shining back at me. The owl flapped his wings overhead, stirring up cobwebs and dust.

I sneezed.

The owl changed back into Beast Boy and he landed on the ground. "I checked the basement," he said as Starfire and Robin also appeared from various rooms. "There's nothing there."

"I also did not find anything in the bedrooms," Starfire said.

"If Slade was ever here," Robin started grimly, "it doesn't look like he left anything behind. This place is empty."

"Wait," Cyborg said, staring back at the doorway that Beast Boy had just flown through. "My eye is picking up some kind of low-level heat signature down there." He checked the display on his forearm. "Very low-level."

"Let's check it out," Robin said. The others fell in behind him and they headed down stairway.

I glanced behind me. Now was my chance to leave. No one was paying attention to me. I'd have a few minutes' head start. I probably could even steal the T-Car.

Run! I told myself.

My legs didn't move.

I glanced back down the stairwell. Something seemed to be pulling me in that direction. I needed to know what was down there.

Aiming my flashlight in front of me, I quickly descended the old wooden stairs, stopping on the last step. Something down here was making the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

The Titans stood along the far wall, discussing amongst themselves.

"It's coming from here," Cyborg was saying. "From this wall."

Robin held up his flashlight and ran his gloved fingers across the brick. "This isn't the same stuff the rest of the house is made of. It's newer—a lot newer. But it's made to look just as old as everything else." He exchanged glances with Cyborg. "Let's see what's behind it."

Cyborg stepped forward, suddenly raising his arm and slamming his fist into the brick wall. The wall gave way under his strength, leaving a small hole. A cool wave of air rushed out of the hole and brushed past me as it escaped up the stairs. He gripped the edges, prying the brick out toward him, where it crashed to the floor and crumbled into rubble.

It was dark, but I knew that there was something back there.

Robin and I aimed our flashlights into the hole. I could see machinery and computers, but nothing that I recognized. It looked like the room went back a good 15 feet and was still as wide as the basement.

Beast Boy changed back into his owl form, perching on some jagged remnants of the brick wall as he scanned inside the room. Robin clambered in through the gap; I quickly rushed over to follow him. Beast Boy flew overhead into the room.

It felt like entering a meat locker. I pulled my arms against me, only letting my flashlight peek out to scan the room. Now I could see a glistening sheen of frost on everything—even on the floor, which pretty much ensured that I would end up slipping and breaking my neck.

"You detected heat in this?" I questioned incredulously, repressing a shiver.

"I still am," Cyborg responded.

Robin stood by one of the large machines, looking it over with his light. "This one's a generator," he said. "Pretty state-of-the-art. I can barely tell it's running. It's probably what you're picking up."

Cyborg joined Robin, looking over the control panel and typing a few codes into it.

I meandered past the pair, keeping my flashlight on the ground to avoid falling.

"Guys, we need to talk!" Beast Boy said behind me. I turned, seeing him in human form again, standing by the others. Then he turned toward me, giving a somewhat sheepish look. "Morgan, would you mind letting us have a minute?"

My anger flared up again. Now they wanted to have an exclusive little club meeting. I was getting tired of this.

Robin pointed his flashlight toward me, aiming it right into my eyes. I squinted, trying futilely to see around it.

"Sure," I grumbled.

"Hey," Cyborg chimed in, "I think I found the controls for the lights."

"Wait!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "Don't!"

It was too late. Cyborg activated the controls, flooding the little room with sterile fluorescent lighting.

It only took a second for my eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness. Then I saw the shocked looks on Robin's and Starfire's faces—and the concerned look on Beast Boy's.

I spun around. Standing against the wall in the back left corner were seven frost-laced tubes running from the floor to the ceiling. Each one held some sort of pale blue liquid, which was now illuminated like giant fish tanks. And inside of each tube, floating inside liquid space, was a body.

Some part of me knew what I was going to see. And yet I still felt completely unprepared when I gazed into the nearest tube and saw my body suspended in the tube right in front of me.

I gasped, my hand flying to my mouth. My flashlight fell to the floor and rolled away.

"I didn't want you to see," Beast Boy spoke quietly.

I was suddenly oblivious to everything around me. I stepped up to the tubes cautiously, my eyes locked on the figure inside. I wore a flowing white dress that began to spaghetti straps and ended just above my knees. My appearance had actually improved; I had gained weight and now looked svelte and healthy instead of narcotically emaciated. My eyes were closed and it almost appeared that I was sleeping—except that I was deathly still.

It was me, but it wasn't. More accurately, it used to be me.

I had not given a second thought to the whereabouts of my body since I had left it in the alleyway two years ago. But suddenly, I was bombarded with questions in my head. How had my body ended up here? Why was it here in the first place? What was this place?

My eyes drifted across the other cylinders, taking in the other residents. Five boys. One girl. All appearing as eerie as my body.

"What are those things they're in?" Cyborg asked, leaving the computer and joining us in the corner. "I've never seen anything that looked like that."

"I have," Robin said dourly. "It's a cryogenic chamber designed to keep the person inside in perfect stasis."

Stasis? So I was like one of those little fetus babies in a jar of formaldehyde? Had my body been donated to science?

No…it was too much of a coincidence that my body had ended up here—the same place that I had visited just days before I died. And legit places don't brick in their experiments in the basement of old houses.

The whole place suddenly reeked of death, even though I hadn't been aware of it before. A wave of nausea washed over me.

"Hey," Robin said, setting his hand on my shoulder. "Are you okay?"

I turned around to face him, putting the macabre sight to my back as I brushed his hand away. "I don't know," I murmured. It was as if I could still feel the bodies watching me. I suddenly felt very lightheaded; bile rose in my throat. Little black dots began to swim in my field of vision.

I was going to faint.

I stumbled back toward the gap in the wall, leaning on the bricks to steady myself while the blood flow returned to my head. Starfire stepped up next to me to help, but I waved her away. I began to climb back through the opening.

"I just need some air," I mumbled to anyone that was paying attention.

I staggered over the brick debris, and then ran up the staircase back into the kitchen. I couldn't see anything without my flashlight. I held my hands out blindly and moved as quickly as I could, stumbling across the floor. Then I dashed out the front door. My legs gave out at that point. I sat down on the front step, folded my arms across my knees, and buried my face.

I didn't understand anything that I had just seen—my mind couldn't comprehend any of it. All I knew was that it was wrong. My body was supposed to be in the ground, in a landfill, or in a fiery furnace. It wasn't supposed to be in a cryowhatzit in a hidden room of an abandoned house.

And my death hadn't been natural—I was sure of that now. The fabric of my life had been messed with. That thought left me with a dirty feeling. Why were people always tampering with my life? Why couldn't they just leave me alone?

"Morgan?" I didn't need to turn around to know that it was Beast Boy standing behind me. I also didn't say anything in return. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

"I don't really feel like talking right now," I said, speaking into my folded arms.

For a moment, I didn't hear anything. Maybe he'd left as quietly as he had come. Then I felt something brush up against my elbow. I peeked out of the corner of my eye, seeing a large, green sheepdog sitting next to me.

Something about that was extremely sweet—him being there but not pressuring me to talk or anything like that.

Then I leaned my weight on the dog, buried my face in his fur, and began to cry.