a.n.kidsnextdoor112- LoL, earlier today I was wondering what people might say if I waited until like Thursday to update instead of Monday... but I try to stick to my schedule. :) Glad you like. And I'll try my best to make the 31st. No little trick-or-treaters can stop me! raven717- Well, she can teleport out of the tower... and taking Slade off guard with her powers would be really easy for her... but why? I mean, she still thinks her friends are galaxies away and not coming back (you find out where the Titans really are in this chapter), and Slade's got this army of robots that would defeat her before she defeats them, so she can't rid the tower of them. Really, what else is there for her to do? (Yes, pity Raven! LoL) And chapters... over 20. Yeah. And thanks for the review. :) gracefulraven- Thank you. :3 Actually, I'm just making everything up as I go along, so I have no clue how Slade and Raven will turn out. LoL. I did check out your story and I liiike it. :) Zelda/Boldprint56- Thanks for the review. ...what's the other reason you're excited about Halloween? LoL j/k. I've gone trick-or-treating only once in my life. I'm serious... I'm not a Halloween person. I just watch tv all night. XD; I checked out "Chicken Pox"... like I said in the review, cute. :3 However, I was expecting BB to be a chicken somewhere in there... LoL. LM22102- You're late! j/k Thankee for the review... I just hope the story turns out the way you're expecting. hehe. faLLen-dreamz- Yep, poor Raven. And even more so at the end of this chapter. I strive for cliffhangers! :D VampireSelene- Thank you... and yeah, a vote of confidence for the last ending! :3 And... one question: Why would Raven escape to look for the rest of the Titans when she thinks they're still galaxies away? Needless to say, she doesn't go out looking for them. Kendra Chetnova-o.O;; Wow. I'd say with 81 "update"s, you liked the last chapter. LoL. Ok, here's the next one (not as slow as the last one, IMO): psycicflower- "lolical"? Hehe, I like that word. X3; Midterms... fun. I'm finishing those up, too. x.x; Thank you for the review, and happy birthday. :) Hope you like this installment.
Chapter 12
The tea cup Raven had just taken out of a cupboard was swallowed by darkness and shattered. Other than that, it was impossible to decipher her feelings. The dark girl was expecting an answer like that, but when she heard it actually spoken, she couldn't help her reaction. Slowly, she picked another cup.
"Believe me, Raven, you're better off without them. You have great potential... and now that you have nothing to hinder you, you shall quickly aspire to greatness," Slade said carefully. He didn't want to set off her temper or drive her to attack him with something worse than a wet towel.
The dark girl just poured her herbal tea. She had nothing to say to Slade or anybody else, but she didn't want to be left alone to her thoughts. Raven knew she couldn't entirely trust the man, but on some level, she accepted his answer about her friends.
She took a sip of her tea and tried not to think about things too much. Finally Slade broke the long, tense silence.
"I have to go somewhere this morning. I'll be back in a couple of hours or so and we'll have another little practice session then." Raven gave an indifferent shrug but glared at the man's back as he walked away.
A little while later the dark girl began meditating in front of the empty window pane in the living room; the robot soldiers still hadn't replaced the large plate of glass Raven had broken. She didn't even notice when Slade slipped out, alone and suspiciously.
But he wasn't completely unnoticed. Someone did spot him and proceeded to follow him.
Slade frequently looked over his shoulder as he walked. He traveled to the grassy shore opposite Titans Tower, then to the farthest hill closest to a grove of towering trees. There, behind the hill, was Blackfire's ship.
Blackfire herself was lying on the grass next to her ship, basking in the early sunlight. As Slade approached, he made sure he blocked the sun as best he could. Only when Blackfire realized a shadow had fallen on her for awhile did she open her eyes.
"Cyclops, this is a surprise. What brings you to my neighborhood?" she asked in an almost pleasant manner.
"Are you aware of the fact that you can see this hiding place from mytower?" Slade hissed fiercely.
"The hiding place, but not the ship," corrected the woman, lazily raising a hand and giving a dismissive wave. "If that's all you've come to say..." Slade didn't budge.
"I want to see the Titans."
"They're still there. Believe me."
"I want to see them," Slade repeated, stressing every word. Blackfire gave an annoyed sigh, then slowly, delicately got to her feet.
"Fine, if you're going to be like that about it," she replied snobbishly, tossing her hair.
Blackfire led him into the rear of the ship, the cargo area. It was cluttered with a few crates, most of which were packed with food, the rest probably clothing. She stopped in the middle of the room and stepped on a smaller floor plate. In front of them, a large section of floor slowly began to rise, smoke hissing out of the gaps. When it stopped, it was level with the top of Slade's head. The plate was on top of four large, cylindrical tanks, each holding a Titan. The Titans were encases in an odd-colored substance, something between a liquid and a solid, however the team looked completely frozen.
"How long will they stay like that?" Slade asked finally, after carefully inspecting each one.
"Forever, if nobody brings them out of it," replied Blackfire with a nonchalant shrug.
"Can you destroy them without waking the inhabitants, or giving them a chance to escape? The Titans have a pesky knack of finding ways to get out of seemingly impossible situations," the man said with a hint of bitter remembrance.
"It's possible. But I won't do it."
"Why not?" Slade barked, spinning around to face her, a look to kill in his eye.
"Well, you see, I've grown fond of having my sister so close. And her little friends keep her company," explained Blackfire, twirling a lock of dark hair. Slade's eye narrowed.
"You must be kidding," he said flatly.
"There's the funny one," she went on, pointing at Beast Boy, "the strong one," pointing to Cyborg, "my sister the deliriously happy one, and the cute one." After acknowledging Robin, Blackfire turned back to Slade. "All I need is the grumpy one and I'll have the whole set."
"You come near her or Titans Tower and I'll have you shot on sight," the man threatened immediately.
"What a gentleman."
"Look, the deal was you get those four out of the way and I get Raven. And when we made that agreement, I expected you to stay a couple of galaxies away!" Slade shouted, first pointing a finger in Blackfire's face, then making wild, angry gestures.
"Plans change, calm down," replied Blackfire in a strong tone. "Keep your kid from finding me and everything will be fine. See? Problem solved." Slade thought now more than ever the woman truly was stupid for not grasping the seriousness of the situation.
"Plans change because someone screws them up," he replied sharply. "This time, it's you. So I am not going to go out of my way to cover up for your mistakes. So either you take your ship and your little Titan collection and leave, or I will make you leave. And I will make sure you land in the most desolate, unbearable place possible, with no way to escape." As he talked, he crept closer to Blackfire. Now he was looming threateningly over her, though she showed no signs of intimidation.
"Listen, Cyclops," the woman said, speaking in a tone of one striking a deal, "I wanna stay and watch you train that little Titan like a show dog, and if you do it well enough, she'd never wander away from the tower and stumble across my ship." Blackfire pressed her fingertips against the man's chest and pushed him away from herself.
"You do know that just about any computer in the tower can detect and locate the Titan's communicators, don't you? You do realize that all the Titans have their communicators with them, don't you?" Slade snapped. When he saw Blackfire thinking about how to overcome this obstacle, he added, "And even if you can think of a way to de-thaw them all without waking them up so you can take the communicators, I should inform you: Cyborg's is built right into his machinery. The only way to take it out would be to destroy him. And you've already stated how you do so adore your wonderful collection."
Blackfire folded her arms across her chest and glared at Slade. She detected the unmistakable tone of gloating in his voice and it only made her angry.
"And just where do you suggest I go?" she asked, slowly and deliberately.
"Antarctica's the first thing that comes to mind, but if that doesn't suit you, how about any major city on any other continent of your choice? I know it's too much to ask you leave this planet entirely, but my only suggestion is you keep a low profile for awhile. Stay out of the news at least until Raven's completely under my control," Slade said, clasping his hands behind his back.
"That should take awhile, since you give her free reign. You really ought to discipline her more. You know, show her who's boss," announced Blackfire, clenching a fist and wagging it in Slade's masked face. He pushed her hand away. Next to his, her hand looked like a child's.
"Don't talk about what you don't know," Slade said gravely. He was trying his best to kill Blackfire with his death glare, but, to his disappointment, it hadn't worked yet. The woman gave a fake, lighthearted laugh.
"Of course I know what I'm talking about. I saw it all on the Titans' security camera! All I had to do was hack into the mainframe, get past a new password or two, and download the footage to my ship." When Slade didn't seem to have a comeback, the woman continued.
"You know, she's at that age where she's testing her limits- like all kids do- and you just gotta put your foot down!" -she added a stomp onto the steel plated floor- "And like I said, show her who's boss. Already she's walking all over you." Blackfire grinned. Although Slade felt like strangling the woman, he kept a calm tone.
"I am not about to accept advice, if you could even call it that, from you. You talk about her like she's a child, yet she's just about your age. She certainly is more powerful than you. So far, all these speeches you've given me were just wasted breath. I know you don't take my endeavor seriously; you're just poking fun at it. And it's grown old. So, my final warning: if you are not gone within the hour, I will send my army of robots to... help you," he said in a sinister tone. Scowling, Blackfire stepped on another floor plate and, with many hissing sounds, the four tanks containing the frozen Titans slowly lowered beneath the floor. When the plate on the top of the tanks was once more level with the metal ground, Slade turned and left.
As he stepped out of the back of the ship, the man thought he heard something at the forest edge, which was quite close, but saw nothing. He did not linger to investigate, however, figuring he had spent enough time away from the tower. He just hoped Raven hadn't tried to escape again or anything else foolish like that.
To Slade's satisfaction, the girl was right where she had been before he left.
"How was your stroll?" Raven asked as he walked into the room. He stopped and leaned against the counter in the kitchen area, determined not to lose his cool. Slade noticed the girl still facing the wall of windows, right in front of the missing pane. A breeze was blowing in, carrying the smell of the sea, and lightly whipping Raven's cape around.
"You were watching me?" he asked back. The girl's hands slowly dropped onto her knees and she spun around in mid air to face him.
"You sound defensive for just having a morning outing. Or maybe that's just you. But there's nothing to worry about. I opened my eyes once and saw you walking along the bank way over there." Slade couldn't stop his eye from widening.
"What else did you see?" he demanded instantly, not taking time to plan out his interrogation. The man then figured he should've once he noticed Raven's brow furrowed in a suspicious look.
"Nothing. I don't know what it is I shouldn't have seen, so I guess your secret outing is safe."
Slade breathed out an amused snort. "Yes, my stroll was fine," he said at last with a tilt of his head. Raven's eyes narrowed, observing him, but finally didn't object to the change in subject. Instead, she steered it in a new direction.
"It must be nice, walking around outside in the morning. I sometimes did that. It was... enjoyable." The dark girl heard a snicker vent from Slade's mask. He obviously had caught on that she was hinting at her house arrest. However, he didn't fall into the pending argument over his rules.
The man just said instead, "Isn't it, though?" Raven scowled that he had avoided her trap. She turned back to the windowless pane.
"I'm hungry. What's gonna be for lunch?"
"You just had breakfast," Slade replied. "But lunch won't be until after practice. Go get ready." Raven's eyes flashed open, glowing white, while her clenched fists were covered in shadow. An instant later, her whole body was engulfed in a giant, black bird, which flew up and dived right through the floor. The moment she was gone, Slade turned to one of the robots in the room.
"At the end of the hour, go pay a visit to Blackfire's ship. If it's still there, send it to the middle of Antarctica. Do not attempt to destroy it, however. Those tanks could survive the explosion. And someone fix that window." He rattled off the orders extremely fast, and if the listener hadn't have been robotic, it wouldn't have caught all Slade had said. The guard merely nodded and continued its work of fiddling with the computer.
Raven lingered as long as she could in her room. She had discarded her cape; against Slade, it was only a hindrance. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail so it would stay out of her face. The dark girl had earned a couple of bruises the last practice because her hair kept veiling her eyes. Raven brushed her bangs aside. They were too short to reach the hair band, but as long as they didn't interfere, she didn't mind.
Just as she changed her shoes on her bed, she heard a soft tapping on her door. Her eyebrows were folded in annoyed curiosity. Why would robots- or even Slade himself- be knocking on her door? And why so lightly? Suddenly the door opened and X flew in, breathing heavily. His panting sounded almost grotesque as it passed through his mask.
"You again?" Raven demanded, standing up.
"Nice to see you too, kid," he replied as he leaned on his knees. "It's getting harder to evade detection around here."
"What are you doing here?" asked the girl, stalking over to X, her fists shrouded in darkness. X stood up and took a step backward, his hands up in a slightly defensive fashion.
"Just here to deliver a message-"
"From?" she cut in, her tone threatening.
"Well, me..." said X slowly, "but then it just sounds stupid. I was trying to make it look cool, y'know-"
"The message?" demanded Raven. The boy jumped at the sharpness of her tone.
"Just that you really should be back out by that window at the beginning of the next hour. You might be interested-" The dark girl grabbed the front of X's suit, swung him around, and slammed him into the door.
"STOP BEING SO CRYPTIC!" she shouted into his ear. A few moments later, X was still shuddering, but after that he quickly recovered.
"And I'm sure that any second now, guards will be swarming in here to see what all the noise is about," he said in an annoyed tone. Even as he spoke, Raven could hear numerous footsteps trampling around the end of the corridor.
"Well, why can't you just talk normally?" growled Raven, quickly and sharply. The footsteps were growing louder.
"Hey, you're the Titan. You need to figure stuff out- I shouldn't have to tell you everythi-" Tired of his lame excuses, the dark girl had hoisted X higher against the door, with the help of her powers. The noise of the nearing guards stopped right outside the room.
"You're not really gonna hand me over, are you?" X asked quickly, almost nervously. A robot soldier pounded on the door.
"Or are you really on Slade's side?" the young man added. With a scowl Raven covered X in shadow and shoved him through the floor. Just then the door opened to reveal the hallway crowded with guards.
"Training practice already?" the dark girl spoke up with an indiscernible expression. The soldier in front took a quick scan of her room, found nothing out of place, and let Raven pass.
On the way to the practice room, her thoughts dwelled on X's message. Why was he trying to help her, anyway? When the team first met him, he was somewhat of an enemy. Now he sounded as if he didn't want her to join Slade. In Raven's opinion, now that her friends were gone, there were no sides anymore. However, even though his cryptic style annoyed her, his message intrigued her.
A minute later the dark girl trudged into the training room.
"What took you?" demanded Slade, his tone dangerous.
"Nothing. You're just impatient," Raven replied coolly. The man was standing in the middle of the floor, his arms folded across his chest.
"I'm busy. I have a right to be impatient."
"Busy?" Raven repeated, almost in a mocking sort of voice. "Busy doing what, staying around the tower all day?" She heard him sneer.
"You have no idea what I do, my dear. Now let's not waste any more time," replied Slade, sinking into a fighting stance. "And no powers," he added when he noticed the slightest flicker of shadow around her fists.
"How do you think I'll develop my powers if I can't use them?" the girl snapped.
"Temper," retorted Slade. "You would do well to watch your tone around me." Raven's eyes narrowed. First he acted defensive and evasive, now he was talking to her like she was a child, and on top of it all, X said she should be watching out the window in about half an hour. The dark girl was tired of being bossed around.
"Don't," she hissed, "talk to me like... like a..."
"Father?" finished Slade. He knew what Raven's relationship with her real father- if he could even be called that- was like.
"I don't have a father," the girl muttered. A mockingly sympathetic noise issued from the vents in Slade's mask.
"No father and no friends? My dear, how can you stand it? What keeps you from utter depression... or worse?" His tone was quite serious, but Raven still thought there was a hint of mocking in his voice.
She lunched forward, trying to punch Slade, shouting, "You don't have to make fun of me!"
"Believe me, Raven, I wasn't," he replied, knocking her fist out of the way before it reached his face. "But, to answer your first question, this will greatly help with your powers. You need to be a skilled fighter without your powers, because what would happen if you were to lose them? As you physically grow stronger, quicker, tougher, then your powers will serve to amplify your new, hard-earned skills."
Raven jumped for his head, foot first, but Slade sidestepped her attack, grabbed her ankle, swung her around, and let her soar back the way she had come. Without her powers to slow her down, the dark girl landed hard on the mat.
"For as formidable as Robin was," the man said as Raven stumbled to her feet, "he must've kept all his training secrets to himself. How selfish of him."
"We all had our own different training to do," the dark girl spoke up quickly, between breaths.
"Come now, there's no need to defend him. What's done is done. You're just going to have a different training now."
Their fighting continued for awhile and, although Raven still couldn't beat the man without her powers, she thought she was doing better compared to yesterday. Slade seemed to think so, too.
"You learn quickly," he said as she picked herself up from the floor again. She had tried to attack, but the man had thrown her back to where she was before. "That's a good quality to have. You're actually doing better than I thought." Raven stood slightly hunched, clutching her side; it hurt too much to stand up straight.
"So what happens when I'm strong enough to defeat you on my own?" she asked, not budging from her spot to either attack or defend herself. The dark girl figured if she didn't move, neither would Slade. For the moment, at least.
"What do you mean 'what happens'?" he asked back, tilting his head in consideration.
"Will you let me go? Because I could easily hurt you whenever you would do something I didn't like. Or... would I be in charge?"
"By the time you're as strong as I am, you will have a much different attitude and outlook on things. For instance, you won't be thinking so much about yourself then." Raven arched an eyebrow, still breathing hard.
"Oh really? And who exactly will I be thinking of?"
"Not who- what. Your focus will be on your duties, mainly," Slade replied. "And you will be much more disciplined." Just then the dark girl glanced at the only clock in the room. It was five till eleven. She should be back in the living room if she was going to find out what X was talking about.
"I'm tired," Raven announced in more of a desperate tone than exhausted.
"Well, we're not going to be stopping training just for that. You'll build endurance this way," retorted Slade, jumping for her. It took all her mental strength to keep herself standing there, because her whole body was screaming for protection.
The man kicked her down and it was a few moments before Raven started to move again. Her body was either stinging or pounding and the dark girl was surprised she wasn't bleeding. However, she was sure she was bruised all over.
Slowly she lifted herself into a sitting position, looking helpless.
"Fine," Slade said, venting a sigh, "you can have a break. But not for very long." Without waiting for him to change his mind, Raven was shrouded in shadow and jumped up through the ceiling.
Soon she arrived in the living room, where she was surprised to find no soldiers. The dark girl stood at the windows and looked out over the water and then the land. Raven pressed her forehead against the glass; the missing window had finally been replaced.
A couple of minutes later, just as the girl was losing interest, something caught her eye. A black and crimson ship shot into the air from near the forest and headed east.
Raven raced to the computer screen at the head of the room to track it. When she locked onto it, she also received a familiar signal- the rest of the Titans' communicators.
..
You guys are probably gonna hate me for that cliff-hanger. X3;
Next Update- When I feel like it... i.e. Nov. 7th. :)
Has anyone seen "I Dream of Jeannie"? (I adored that show when I caught the reruns.) For some reason, Blackfire reminds me of the evil genie cousin/sister whatever she is. The brunette one. But maybe that's just me... hehe