A/N: Standard Disclaimers Apply

A/N: To quote Gandalf, "The table is set. The pieces are moving…"

ACT Five, Scene Five

Kim slowly opened her eyes to make sure it was safe. Her face was scrunched up in the expectation of oblivion, but it soon relaxed and her green eyes widened. The remnants of the fake, explosive, Kimmunicator were suspended in a sphere of black energy. She looked around to see Raven, her eyes glowing white and darkly focused, containing the blast with all her power. Starfire floated nearby, her arms folded across her chest, and wore a fierce, determined expression.

"Th-thank you?" Kim said shakily before getting to her feet. "I thought we were dead."

"We would have been, but for Raven," Starfire said.

"D-don't thank me yet," Raven said. "I'm only c-containing the b-blast's energy. If I let go…"

"Then don't!" Kim said.

"Easier s-said than done," Raven growled, sweat beginning to bead on her forehead.

Star landed and thrust her hands into the dark energy ball. Her eyes narrowed and glowed brightly. The alien bared her teeth as she absorbed the bomb's power. The pain was terrible, but Starfire endured. Her eyes glowed brighter and brighter.

"Get back," Starfire ordered.

Kim gathered her family, huddled them behind the wreckage of their house, and watched as Starfire let out a horrific shriek. The alien's eyes erupted in green energy, blasting skyward. As her eyebeams dissipated, Star took her smoldering fingertips from the magic sphere and nodded. Raven relaxed and fell to one knee. The young witch looked up at her fellow Titan's hands and took them in hers. Raven took Star's pain and healed her friend.

"Thank you," Starfire said softly. She looked at the burns now on Raven's hands and watched them slowly vanish.

"It's all right," Raven shuddered, hiding her hands under her cloak. "You said you had a fix on Slade's location?"

"Yes."

"Good," Raven snarled, "let's find him and make sure that this time he stays dead."

…..

Shego tore through the green, oozing creatures, her powers literally cutting them in half. Dementor and Motor Ed stood with her, blasting away with their weapons and fighting their way to the locked steel doors of the motor pool. The lights sparked and flickered casting the room in strobe like effects.

"Slade has changed the access codes!" Senior Senior complained.

"Seriously, we need to get the hell out of here," Ed shouted.

"Out of the way old man!" Shego barked. She summoned her powers and literally blasted the door open. D.N.Amy, the Seniors, and the others fled, but Shego stayed.

"Miss Go?" Dementor asked.

"I'm gonna have a little talk with my ex-boyfriend," Shego growled.

The green woman turned back and, using her near superhuman agility, easily dodged the slow, hulking creatures that were once her army of Syntho-Drones. She bounced off the floor and the walls, using her powerful legs to propel her across the room, gracefully flipping over her opponents. Two of the creatures now blocked the doorway as Shego landed. The two attacked as if they were two hands connected to the same body. The green villainess blocked, but the creatures' heightened strength nearly broke her arms. Her eyes widened as the coalesced into a familiar shape: hers! Wordlessly one flipped over Shego, and the memory of wearing the motion capture suit flooded her mind. Incredible strength. Mastery of Wu Shu. The only thing they didn't have was… but she snarled as the green ooze around her dopplegangers' hands suddenly ignited.

"Well, this is interesting," she groaned.

…..

Slade watched the Council of Evil's escape from his control monitor, his hand hovering over the firing button for the automated perimeter cannons. He paused. His hand closed into a fist, and his attention turned back to the ancient book in his lap. There were other preparations to make, and there would be plenty of time to finish the so-called Council of Evil should they be so foolish to cross paths with him again.

…..

"Cy, are you sure these coordinates are right?" BB said looking out of the jump door of the airplane.

"They're what Star sent." Cyborg patted the pilot on the shoulder. "Hey, thanks for the lift!"

"No problem, any friend of Kim's is a friend of mine. Oh, and listen, you may not know it, but you really helped me out of a jam back in Jump City when Dr. Light tried to take over the airport."

"Hey, no problem," Beast Boy said. "What's a pitched battle with a raving loony while fifteen jet airliners and small planes were flying blind?"

"Come on, Beast Boy. This is where we get off."

Cyborg made one last check of his parachute and took a deep breath. The light went green, and he leapt. His chute opened immediately and he glided downward. Beast Boy reveled in the free fall. He, surprisingly, delighted in the rushing air around his human face, through his fingertips. Yes, he could fly as any animal he could dream of, but to fly, really fall, in his normal form was a rare treat. The elfin Titan tucked his legs under him and he became a condor, soaring over the Colorado mountainside.

"Star? Raven?" Cy called on his built in T-Com. "BB and I are in position."

Cyborg's ears suddenly filled with feedback, and he winced in pain.

"Did you really think it would be that easy?"

"Dammit! It's Slade!" Cy cursed. "BB! Get the hell out of here! It's a trap!"

The auto-gun emplacements opened fire.

Beast Boy instantly turned into a wasp and flew to the ground as quickly as his insect wings would take him. He looked back to watch as his best friend was a sitting duck. Cyborg covered his human parts as best he could, his metal frame taking horrible damage, but he endured. Unfortunately, his parachute did not.

"This is gonna suck," Cyborg admitted as the ground was rushing toward him.

Beast Boy transformed again into a peregrine falcon and flew back to his friend.

"BB, you idiot! Don't do it!"

Beast Boy couldn't respond in animal form, but he wouldn't have anyway. He grasped Cy's shoulders and transformed into a Quetzlacoatlus: the largest flying reptile, and now a living parachute. Bullets tore through Beast Boy's leathery wings, but he did not let his friend go. Cyborg cursed, swung at his friend, twisted, trying to get BB to drop him, but the green Titan would not.

Suddenly, the guns stopped.

BB finally dropped Cyborg at thirty feet and fell right behind him. He reflexively transformed back into his human form, blood flowing from his wounds. Cy landed and caught his best friend.

"Did… did I do okay?" BB said through the pain.

"You did great, Gar. But hang on. Rae will 'port over here and fix you up just as good as new. I'm going to do some first aid on you until then. Got that?"

"Why did they stop shooting?" Garfield Logan, Beast Boy, said weakly.

"I don't know, but I ain't gonna worry about that now."

…..

"What?" Slade shouted in disbelief. His auto-guns stopped. He looked to his computer controls. System override?

He typed the reboot command, but the screen flashed in red letters, "Access Denied."

"SLADE!"

He turned and dodged just as a glowing green hand swooped by. Shego punched through a control panel, sending sparks shooting through the room. Slade leapt to his feet and on guard.

"Is this because I forgot your birthday?" he taunted.

Shego roared like a she-tiger and lunged at Slade. The large, dark man sidestepped and, using Shego's momentum, slammed her, face first, into the wall. Still holding on, Slade pulled her away and threw her roughly to the ground. Stars instantly clouded the green-skinned villainess' peripheral vision, but she kicked out, striking Slade in the side of the knee. The orange masked man growled ignoring the pain. The woman jumped to her feet and drove her knee into Slade's midsection.

"Why!" Shego bellowed as she hammered her fists between Slade's shoulder blades.

Slade chopped at Shego's hamstrings and landed a fierce uppercut. "Why?" he growled. "Why? I've told you already." The villain grasped Shego by her hair and her belt and picked her up, throwing her onto the control panel. "Your shadow operation." He still had Shego by the belt and crashed her into the wall. Again. And again. Then he threw her out of the control room. "You had everything at your fingertips: technology, money, soldiers." Slade stalked after Shego who was crawling away, trying to catch her breath. He put his foot on the small of Shego's back and pinned her to the ground.

"I knew your 'Council of Evil' would fail and your associates would turn on each other like a pack of jackals. I just needed to bide my time," Slade growled. "And then everything here would be mine for the taking."

Shego roared and used her remaining strength to throw Slade off. She stumbled down the hall and onto a catwalk suspended over the large, cavernous entry. Old, abandoned mine shafts descended into the earth and were covered by metal grates. The green-skinned villainess knew Slade was on her heels. Her breath came in shuddering pants, and the metallic taste of blood filled her mouth. At least three of her ribs were broken, and Shego feared her hamstring was torn.

Shego could not escape. She looked around for any kind of advantage but snarled. The creatures were gathering under her. Even the ones she thought she destroyed seemed to taunt her.

Only one option left: Make a stand.

She turned, only to find Slade right on top of her. Slade narrowed his eye and his hand, quick as a cobra, wrapped around her throat, lifting her up. Shego hacked and sputtered, but she managed to spit a wad of mucus and blood on Slade's mask.

Suddenly the doors exploded from their hinges. The Teen Titans and Kim Possible rushed into the room. Slade did not take his eyes off the battered Shego.

"I'll be with you in a minute," he said casually.

Shego closed her eyes and hated that her enemy saw her like this. She reached for Slade's face with the remaining wisps of her powers. Her claws burned the dark man's mask, and Slade groaned in pain. He threw Shego off the gantry, and she plummeted. Shego's limp body crashed through the protective grating and disappeared down a mineshaft.

"Ohmigod," Kim gasped, "Shego!"

"Dude!" Beast Boy exclaimed. "It's like a bazillion PLASMUSES!"

"Deal with these things," Raven snarled. "I'm going after Slade."

Star, Cy, and BB leapt into the fray while Raven took to the air. Beast Boy turned into a triceratops and rumbled through the Snytho-Drones. Starfire rained down starbolts, while Cyborg fired his sonic cannon. Kim stepped back and looked around.

"I'm going to find Ron!" she called.

….

Slade grinned under his mask as Raven zoomed down the hall. The battle between his Drone Plasmuses and the Titans echoed throughout the mine complex.

"Why Raven, so good to see you whole."

"Shut up and die, you sonofabitch! I've nothing to say to you!" Raven yelled. She reached out with her powers and attacked.

Slade jumped back, locking his eye on the young witch. "Oh, but I have something to tell you, my dear." He landed drew to his full height and formed a triangle with his hands.

"Avernus. Maelstrom. Zaradath."

Fire suddenly erupted from Slade's hands and enveloped the young witch. Raven fought desperately as the fire wrapped around her wrists, her ankles, her neck, trapping her in a magic sphere. Raven panicked. Her demonic blood now betrayed her, and her eyes glowed blood red. Her teeth sharpened and her canines grew into definite fangs. Worst of all, a second set of blood red, glowing eyes opened on Raven's forehead.

Slade had discovered a Binding charm, and Raven walked right into it.

"Slade!" Raven roared in an unsettling voice. She felt her control slipping from her, and her darker, wilder emotions taking over.

Slade continued to chant. Raven curled into a ball and covered her ears, trying desperately to maintain her last bit of identity.

"I'm not a demon. I'm not a demon," she cried over and over again.

"Avernus, Maelstron, Zarada…urrrrk!"

Raven opened her eyes and watched as Slade crashed into the wall. The fiery ball exploded, and the young witch fell in a heap. The war between her natures was still undecided, and she coiled up under her cloak again. She could hear Slade fighting someone, even over the shouts and the battle in the other cavern. Her lungs struggled for air, and she slowly, shakily, began to get up.

"Another time," Slade growled. The hallway filled with smoke. Raven hacked out several coughs but still shook uncontrollably.

She didn't look up, but heard the sound of footsteps approaching. The pale girl was too weak to do anything but await her fate.

"Raven?"