a.n. LM22102- I had fun writing about Blackfire. Poor Slade, he has to put up with so much... LoL. Yes, Raven fights quite a bit, but slowly she'll realize power is addicting... :3 And I love your description of X. hehe. gracefulraven- Thank you, glad you like it. :) Boldprint56- Yes, X shall be in the story a lot from here on out. I was a little disappointed in the show when he was with all the villains... he's one of the good guys, I tell you! :/ hehe. anyway... VampireSelene- Wow, thanks. :D But unfortunately, it'll have to end sometime. If it doesn't, it'll just get... repetitive. o.O; Kendra Chetnova- LoL wow. Well, tell voices #15, 26, and 49-63 that I am continuing. And I'm not that filthy... I try to bathe everyday. heh... Anyway, thank you for the review and I hope you and all your voices like this next chapter, too. :) psycicflower- I was wondering what happened to you. Bwaha, cookies... nice. :33 I actually thought with a one-word title, it'd be easier to remember. ^^; heh, anyway, glad you like it so far... and you'll just have to decide for yourself what side X's on. He's tricksy. Okay, I think it's pretty clear to see, but you'll just have to read and find out. LoL.

Chapter 10

"A change of management, yet the same bad food?" X said, leaning against the counter. Slade made his way to the center of the room, all the while keeping his eye on the intruder.

"You certainly are a talented young man, sneaking around undetected, locating me multiple times... but why are you here?" the man asked with a tilt of his head. He stared hard and searchingly at the boy, trying both to intimidate him and read his thoughts. X shrugged nonchalantly.

"I just wanted to stop by and see the Titans' legendary arch nemesis."

"Charming," Slade replied tonelessly, his eye narrowing. "But now that you've come, I suggest you leave. I'm a busy man. I don't have time to entertain children." With that he turned his back to X and walked over to the windows on the far side of the room. The thief shrugged and headed for the large doors, after checking the refrigerator one last time. As he reached the top of the steps, the doors slid open.

X stopped in the doorway, looked back, and asked, "Just out of curiosity, what are you going to do to the Titan?" Slade turned his head to stare at the young man from the corner of his eye. X was quickly becoming a nuisance.

"Not that it's any concern of yours, but I have great things planned for my new apprentice." He kept staring over his shoulder at the thief, trying to intimidate him into leaving. X immediately took the hint, but sauntered down the hall at a slow pace. Just as the doors closed behind him, Blackfire appeared on the screen.

"I'm here. I was expecting some sort of welcoming party or something," she announced, an eyebrow arched and a cynical expression plastered on her face.

"Welcoming parties, as I recall, are used only for those one wishes to welcome. Therefore I don't see where your confusion lies," replied Slade briskly. Blackfire shot him a deadly glare.

"Well, Sparky, I'm coming over anyway. And don't even try to lock me out. I've been to the Titan's tower before; I know how to get in." Before Slade could protest, the link terminated. Since nothing was in his immediate reach to punch, he just vented a growl, imagining himself choking Blackfire. His hands reflected his thoughts as he clenched and released his fists, sometimes shaking them as if to snap the invisible neck.

That scene was what Raven found when she entered the room a moment later, two guards at her heels. Slade immediately regained his cool air, straightening his shoulders.

"Don't let me interrupt your seizure," the girl said almost in a mumble, walking into the kitchen area.

"What are you doing out of your room?" demanded Slade, critically looking at her. As Raven reached the fridge, her head snapped back to stare at him. Her expression was something between disbelief and hatred.

"I thought I wasn't a prisoner here."

"You aren't."

"I can go around the tower as I please. Go into whatever rooms I want. It's still my house, isn't it?"

"For the most part, yes." The girl gave a half nod at that, wondering what kind of trap was in Slade's words. Absently, she opened the refrigerator and rummaged around the shelves in search of food.

"So, " she continued after a pause, "I should be able to walk around my house unquestioned, unhindered, and without being followed." At that she directed her gaze to the two robot soldiers behind her. "After all... that's only how a prisoner is treated." Slade clasped his hands behind his back and slowly made his way over to Raven.

"My dear, this works both ways. If you don't want to be treated like a prisoner, don't act like one. To give you complete freedom, I need to be able to trust you."

Raven sat at the counter, food in hand, and listened as the man continued. She was just relieved he had a calmer tone than before.

"Why do you wish to run? We made a bet Raven, I won. If you keep your end of the wager, you will regain your freedom. Can you do that, my dear?" His voice sounded almost hypnotic, and as he held her gaze, she felt pressured to answer,

"Y...yes." Her eyes quickly fell down and she stared diligently at her food.

"Good," replied Slade, a relieved tone slipping into his statement. Noticing it, he quickly added in his normal, dark voice, "Eat up. Our training today will be long." He almost sounded like he was gloating.

Raven didn't take her eyes off her food until she heard him leave the room, followed by the two guards. Silently she picked at the bread in her hand. The girl felt too sick to eat a full meal. It was a mentally induced sickness, caused by the realization that Slade had finally won and her friends weren't there to help her. Raven couldn't bear the horrible thought, yet she couldn't stop thinking of it. As she pinched off a piece of bread, the plate beside her was shrouded in darkness and shattered. A table across the room was similarly turned black and thrown all the way into the opposite wall. That wall, where the main entrance to the room was, was X, leaning in the doorway.

"I can see shy you had to lose a bet to work for that guy," he spoke up. Raven gasped and her head snapped to face him.

"It took you awhile to figure all that out," she growled, glaring at him. She was hoping she could shoot lasers out of her eyes like Starfire and kill that annoying invader before he could say anything else stupid. X casually made his way down to the kitchen area.

"He's a dangerous guy. What I wouldn't give to see the whole, wide-screen picture. But what I've seen so far isn't bad, either." Again he checked the refrigerator, as if it could have been replenished since the last time he looked. With a disappointed sigh he closed the door.

"If you're here to warn me about him, you're completely too late. If you're here to congratulate him, go find him. He's obviously not here," said Raven coldly, picking at her food again. The girl was annoyed that it was impossible to tell what side he was on- and was even more annoyed that X also seemed to not know.

"No thanks. I've already talked to him. I can see now why you needed my help finding him," X added, leaning his elbows on the counter. He was directly across from her, but hardly looked at her when he spoke. Instead, he kept searching the room, constantly expecting some robot guard to enter. "I tell ya, his plan, at least the parts of it I've heard, is great. Flawlessly executed. Except, I don't think he considered everything and it looks like it's unraveling. This'll be interesting to watch."

"What do you know?" Raven demanded, her tone suddenly deep and harsh. X shrugged a shoulder.

"Not all that much more than you. You'll know soon, too. Now that's where it'll get interesting," he replied, a laughing tone in his voice. Immediately Raven's eyes glowed a bright white, and a clawed, shadowed hand appeared out of nowhere, grabbed X around the chest, and forced him against the wall. The girl seemed to grow and loom over the thief and her voice had a strange, demonic hiss to it. Her eyes changed to red.

"It would be wise not to gloat in front of me. Now if you don't want to be sent to a dimension of extreme pain and torture, you will tell me everything you know! What do you know?"

Before the terrified X could answer, Slade walked back into the room, three robots following. The man stopped short and his eye widened in surprise. It was a moment before he spoke, but in that time Raven's eyes and height had returned to normal. The shadow hand released X and he fell to the ground.

"I see you've captured our intruder. Well done," the man remarked, finally finding his voice. Just as he motioned for his soldiers to surround X, the boy disappeared from sight.

"Search the tower. If you can't capture him, kill him. I don't want him sneaking around my tower!" Slade ordered. Quickly the small group turned and ran out of the room. When his attention finally returned to his apprentice, he saw her sitting on the floor, bent over and fiercely clutching her head. Her eyes were wide with disbelief and horror at how she had acted. Slade silently walked over to her and stopped next to her. A few moments passed before he said anything.

"You should meditate, Raven." His tone was more condescending than suggestive. Even though she heard him, she couldn't acknowledge him. She was far too busy trying to suppress all the emotions raging inside of her. Anger, revenge, worry, fear... all fighting to break loose. If she stopped to reply, she was sure her powers would destroy something else in the room.

Slade knew how dangerous the dark girl was, especially in her unstable condition. He wasn't about to personally take Raven back to her room, so instead he had the next robot who entered take her. Two more soldiers entered moments later.

"I want all the locks in this tower changed. New passwords, new codes, and nothing left unchanged. And if by some cursed chance a woman with black hair bypasses the security systems and gets in, I want her captured and brought to me immediately," he told them. They nodded and hurried out of the room in their normal zombie-like hunch.

Suddenly, alarms went off in the tower.

"Now what?" Slade shouted, his fingers tensely hooked like sharp talons. He spun around to see a street map of the city flash onto the screen. In the top right hand corner was an inset picture of Killer Moth. Slade meandered over to the screen, inspecting the information carefully. He folded his arms across his chest.

"Who is this baffoon?" he said at last. Then, the doors to the side entrance slid open and a mob of robot guards rushed in. Slade thought it would be interesting to see how Raven would fare against an overgrown insect, but figured it was still too early to trust her completely. Instead he looked to the soldiers and, indicating the screen with a subtle jerk of his head, said, "Take care of that."

Most of the group immediately left, and the rest remained in the room to work on changing tower codes. Slade watched the screen a few more moments before turning and walking out of the room, hands clasped behind his back. He was headed for the training room to make preparations for his practice with Raven.

The dark girl, meanwhile, was in her own room, sitting on her bed, and running through various mental exercises to calm her emotions. She was slowly succeeding. Raven vented a sign, closed her eyes, assumed her meditating pose, and began to drift into the air. She whispered her magical words, relieved to finally be meditating again.

It seemed far too soon when two soldiers barged into her room. Instinctively, Raven flew higher into the air and into a fighting stance, fists shrouded in darkness. Quickly she thought better of it and slowly sank to the floor. They led her down a couple of corridors to the training room. There Slade was waiting in the middle of the fighting mat for her. Suddenly, Raven was acutely aware of her bruises acquired during her last match with the man.

The two robots took up their posts on either side of the doorway and kept their watchful eyes on the dark girl as she slowly stepped onto the mat. She noticed all the other training equipment had been crowded against the far walls, leaving the floor bare except for the blue mat.

"The first round will be sans powers," Slade announced crisply, once she had finally reached him. Raven already felt exhausted when he said "round". Then she realized why all the other equipment was so far away- the man still didn't trust her. Even though she wasn't supposed to use her powers, he figured she would anyway and try to throw something large at him. Raven clenched her fists.

"So what will we use for weapons?" she asked in a forced tone.

"No weapons," replied Slade. He sunk into a martial arts stance, arms out, one hand in front of the other, waiting for an attack. Raven hesitated, then assumed her own stance slowly, almost awkwardly. They stood motionless for a minute or so, waiting for the other to move.

Slave was the first to grow impatient and he bolted for Raven. It appeared he was going to punch her, and that was what the dark girl anticipated, but at the last second he balked, spun his body around, and, with extra momentum, sent her a powerful kick. His boot had caught her right in the crook where her neck and shoulder met and forced her to the floor. Her neck stung terribly as she staggered to her feet. Slade had retreated a couple of steps and waited for the girl to attack. With her face twisted into a hateful glare, Raven leapt forward, arms swinging wildly. When she drew closer, the man put up a block and that's when she jumped over him. Without her powers, her leap wasn't very high. In fact, if she hadn't twisted to the side, she would've never cleared the top of his head.

The moment Raven landed, she dropped to the floor and gave a spinning kick to the back of Slade's legs. He stumbled backward and would've fallen if he didn't do a back spring. He landed on his feet.

The fighting continued, and soon it seemed their attacks became repetitious. Since the girl couldn't use her powers, Slade was clearly stronger and finally won the fight by grabbing Raven's arm and flipping her over so she landed on her back. His opponent was far too exhausted by then to get up. She just laid there, gasping for air while Slade leaned on his knees. Raven couldn't believe that although he was probably ten times older than she was, the man was in better shape. It wasn't fair.

Just as she struggled to sit up, more alarms echoed in the tower, and a red light began flashing in the training room.

"Now what?" moaned Slade, who was too tired to say it any louder.

"That's the intruder alarm," Raven said between breaths. Instantly the man found his strength and bounded for the door. He noticed his apprentice get up and start to follow him and he spun around.

"Stay here!" he ordered quickly, and in his rush and urgency, his tone sounded hard and cruel. The two guards on either side of the door heard Slade, too, and after the man flew out of the room, they both took a step closer together. It was clear Raven was trapped, and this time the girl didn't challenge it. Instead, she sat down and began to meditate.

When Slade reached the main hallway leading to the living room, he found Blackfire between two guards. A few robots and pieces of robots laid scattered near the end of the corridor. The woman had her arms folded across her chest and an expression that was something between bored and annoyed.

"I get the feeling I wasn't expected," she said once she saw Slade.

"No, you were expected," he replied slowly, "just not welcome."

..

Anyone ever watch Jackie Chan Adventures? If you did, there was a couple of episodes where Valmont was turned into a kid, and the way he said "baffoons" was just so funny... it's stuck with me ever since. Really, it was supposed to be this joke for my friends... they liked it. LoL.

Next Update: Oct. 24th