a.n. How was everybody's Christmas? Was it merry? Mine was awesome... got to see all the family, got great gifts... my cousin, mom, aunt, and me all got to play this Mexican Train Domino Game... and since our grandma wasn't playing, no one was accused of cheating. :) LoL.

SabrinaRocks- Hey, welcome back. :) hehe. LoL, you bit your dentist? Right on! I don't like my new dentist, either. I've wanted to bite his hand just about every time I've had to visit him... but I don't 'cause I always go with my parents and the dentist would probably tell them and I'd get in trouble and stuff. :( Oh well. Hehe, anyway, thanks for the review and the vote. raven717- Haven't seen you for a couple of chapters, either. Well, I'm glad you like the story so much. :3 I must be doing something right... just don't really know what it is yet. X3; Cool, two votes for Raven. Hope you enjoy this chapter as well. Boldprint56- Another one I haven't seen in awhile. Hi. :) I'm assuming by that review, that you like it still? Hope so... you didn't give me much to work with. LoL. kidsnextdoor112- Thanks. I hope Gizmo is annoying and obnoxious as he is in the show. X3; VampireSelene- Cool, thanks for the review and vote. I kinda like Raven's plot the most out of 'em all, too. lolopixie- Hm, actually I just noticed Slade doesn't mention anything about Speedy. :( But X really reacts to that. hehe. More action in the next chapter. :3 Lai-Ku- ho ho holy cow... (ever seen Smallville? hehe) Are you making your own alternative ending before you've even seen the ending of this? LoL. Canadian? I thought you were Chinese... hehe fooled me. Well, since you're not entirely thrilled with the Hive, you should be happy to hear they're not in this chapter or the next. And if you want Slade to slap Raven around, read the next chapter. :3 And the story's kinda slow? I suppose so, but I have a theory about you (which I have arrived at in the last five minutes or so it's taken me to come up with this whole reply): You're used to the half hour show which, when not a season finale 2-parter or more, usually wraps stuff up real quickly. I'm not quite limited by a half-hour time limit... or commericals (yay)... so I develop stuff a lot slower. And about the sneak peek... be the 200th reviewer and we'll see. :p LoL. Kendra Chetnova- You... skim? -gasp- heh j/k. Well, there's only Raven and X's stuff in here, and there's more of X's plot stuff than Raven's... o.O; Happy Reading...LoL. Tritium- Glad you like it. And wow... high expectations for the big showdown... o.O;; Talk about no pressure for me... heh. Hopefully I won't disappoint you too much. LoL. psycicflower- I must admit, I'm not much into the music world. I don't play any instruments anymore, and I've never been in choir. I know soprano's pretty high, but when you get into first, second, fiftieth... that's where you lose me. o.O; Nollaig Shona... is that your name or an Irish statement? Anyway, glad you like and it's good that everything finally came up.

Chapter 20

"Slade wants me to return, now, does he?" repeated Blackfire in an unconvinced tone, a playfully suspicious gaze locked onto X. When he didn't make any move to respond, the woman continued, "Well. He can just tell me himself if it's so important. And in case he's wondering, I'm not sending him any... cargo of mine. Everything is staying on my ship." The finality of her voice and the sudden hardness of her expression left no room for argument.

X merely shrugged. "That you can relay to him when he calls you in a couple of minutes."

Hotspot's eyes widened. "What are you doing?" he cried in the loudest whisper he could manage.

"Slade just wanted me to make sure you were here. He didn't want to have to call an empty ship. That'd waste his time," the thief continued, ignoring the other boy completely.

He could see Blackfire arch a brow, the playful expression again dawning on her face.

"Yes, and I know how much Cyclops hates to have his time wasted. A couple of minutes, you say?" She paused, a devious look contorting her features so much that she didn't even resemble Starfire anymore. "A couple minutes would be just enough time... to leave."

"Leave?" X said quickly, sounding shocked.

"Of course," shrugged Blackfire. "Besides, it's happy hour at Club Casino. And everyone there adores my presence so. Tell Slade to call back some other time... after he already tries this time, of course. I've got a date with a rich Italian gambler." With that the link was terminated.

Laughing to himself, X leaned back in his chair and folded his hands behind his head. Hotspot had disbelief plastered all over his face.

"That... worked? How did you know...?"

"I saw how they interacted before." At his teammate's questioning look, the thief elaborated, "They hate each other's guts. I just had to play off of that." Leaning back over the monitor, X contacted Aqualad.

The long haired boy was again on the surface, but this time hiding behind a large group of rocks away from shore.

"Hey, what's going on? Blackfire surfaced; she's getting off the ship now. I barely got out of sight in time," Aqualad said quietly.

"Well, you better get on that ship before it sinks again, 'cause that bimbo's gonna be gone a looong time," advised X with a sharp nod. The long haired boy took a quick look around the end rock.

"Okay. I've got a shot now. I'll call you when I'm in." The screen went dark and both boys heaved a sigh of relief. They could feel the tension in the room, stuffed in so tightly they could feel the pressure against their lungs, stifling their breath. So close. Only a few more things had to go right and they would be home free.

After a long silence, Hotspot suddenly asked, "What about Speedy?" X gave a groan and brought up the window that tracked Titans communicators. He saw Speedy was heading back to the Mega Arcade. He called the boy's communicator, an annoyed look in his eyes. Hotspot cringed at the thought of what was inevitably coming.

When the archer's face appeared on the monitor, the thief immediately snapped, "Hey. Idiot. What was possibly going through your mind that possessed you to-" He was pushed off the screen and out of the chair by Hotspot, and when he protested, the other boy's head flared with tall flames. X quickly took a liking to the next chair and sat patiently.

"Man, why'd you go?" Hotspot asked, sitting down in the newly claimed seat.

"I told you guys- Raven might trust us better if we helped. She needed help, too," Speedy said fervently, checking Hotspot's background for X. When the archer never found the thief, he maintained a pleasant tone.

"Okay, but just don't do that again. Aqualad's almost got the the Titans- we'll get Raven soon enough. Now c'mon back before you're spotted," the fiery boy said. Suddenly X poked his head back into view and Speedy reacted by a sour expression gripping his face. X merely said, "Oh, hey, and on your way, stop for some tacos."

-

Raven entered the living room, pulling her hood off of her head. She saw Slade near the computer, observing the large screen. With a firm expression, the dark girl marched over to him, snatching the communicator out of her ear. When she reached the man, she slammed the bud on top of the control panel in front of him. He slowly looked down at it, then over to her.

"You have something to say?" he prompted.

"I don't get you," Raven growled in a defeated sort of way, eyeing him as if he would suddenly offer some new insight. "You train me like we're going to war, you act almost nice to me most of the time, and you act like you're doing me a favor taking me under you wing. Then I get out in a real fight and you're screaming your head off at me! You're ordering me around like I don't know what to do myself. So what are you really after? Please, tell me now so you can stop faking kindness," she finished coldly.

Slade tilted his head. "'Faking kindness'? You make me sound like a two-faced liar." At that Raven arched an eyebrow.

"Check a mirror lately?" the dark girl shot back, folding her arms across her chest. Slade's head bent downward as he gave a small chuckle.

"Don't confuse me with the stereotype your teammates planted in your brain, Raven," he said, looking up and straight into her eyes. "There are no sides anymore, no right and wrong. We're not enemies... are we?"

Raven had pondered that question for the longest time after Slade had moved into the tower. She had resolved it in her mind, but saying it out loud was something else. Admitting it to him would be like a binding contract- a word she could never go back on. She fidgeted under his unblinking gaze.

"No..." she said at last, sounding slightly insincere. When Slade continued to stare at her, she realized he was expecting a better answer.

"No, we're not enemies. We're somehow on the same side that isn't 'good,' but it's not 'evil,' either. If there is such a plane, we've managed to land on it, but we're not enemies," Raven stated with a slight enthusiastic tone uncharacteristic of her. The man gave another amused note.

"So if I'm not your enemy, why are you so bent on knowing my motives? What brought on this spark of interest?" Slade questioned. The girl was silent for a moment, collecting her thoughts while staring out over the bay.

Looking back, she said, "It's like you're two totally different people. Around the tower, you act... teacherly. Yet when you send me off, you act like a dictator that thinks I'm doing everything wrong. Either you're teaching me and trusting me to use this knowledge when it counts, or you're trying to control my every move. One of those is the real you. Which is it?"

"I do admit I get... impatient watching a battle from a computer screen, and a worse side might emerge, but it's not my whole character. Everyone has several sides to them, Raven, including yourself. Is it fair to ask which side is them? No."

"Then is it fair to ask you to tone down some of your sides?"

"Yes, I guess so," the man nodded. After a pause, he added, "Anything else?"

A vacant look spread across her eyes, like she was retreating into her mind to shield herself from the expected answer. "Why did you send me out to fight Cinderblock? He wasn't crafty or too threatening. Why couldn't your soldiers handle it?"

"I thought it was time to see how you fought on your own."

The vacancy had entered her voice, too, making her sound distant; hollow. "You wanted to see if I would use that attack again, did you? That's why you sent me." Slade was silent for awhile.

"Yes."

Raven closed her eyes, looking as betrayed as she felt. She gave a sigh and her voice returned to normal, which made it all the more convicting. "You used me." It had much more impact in the quiet way that she said it rather than if she had screamed it.

Slade could find nothing to say in his defense. "I'm sorry, Raven. I just wanted to know." The girl took a step forward, a cold, harsh look in her eyes.

"Then why didn't you just ask me?"

Slade looked away. He didn't feel like arguing his case with Raven, so instead skipped right to the part she wanted to hear. "All right, my dear. I'll ask you next time," said Slade, looking back at her.

Raven gave a hardly noticeable pout; she had run out of reasons to yell at the man. "I'm going to check on my robots," she said at last. The dark girl began walking off when Slade quickly spoke up.

"Lonely?"

"I've been lonely for a long time," she replied over her shoulder without slowing her pace.

"I haven't been here that long, you know."

"A longer time than that."

Slade turned to look at her, but she wa already in the hallway with the doors closing behind her. Turning his attention back to the computer screen, he brought up a window he had hidden upon Raven's entering. It was an enhanced view of all the jail escapee's destinations and Cinderblock's origination. It was a cluster of warehouses on the water, and on the roof of one was the Hivelings.

"Something is certainly afoot."

-

Aqualad's face appeared on one of the wall screens again. This time, his background was dark and there were no other noises for him to have to talk over.

"Hey, okay- I'm in," he said quietly. It seemed to the three boys in the Mega Arcade that the only light in the ship was coming from Aqualad's communicator.

"How'd you do it?" questioned Hotspot, leaning closer to the monitor.

"Very quickly." The long haired boy looked around, searching expectantly for security devices. "Blackfire surfaced near the shore and I had to sneak in the way she left before she closed it and without her seeing me. But I did. Once she was out, the ship submerged again." Aqualad took another look around the small cargo bay. "Are you sure the Titans are here?"

"Yeah. They're in the floor," X replied, then held the other boy's questioning gaze. "I'm serious. I saw Blackfire show Slade. There's some kind of control on the floor. She stepped on something. Just walk around- you'll find it."

Even though a skeptical expression dominated his face, Aqualad did as he was told. He began marching around, firmly stomping a foot on all the tiles he came across.

"I feel like an idiot," he mumbled, mostly to himself.

"Well, when you finally find the Titans, you'll feel like an important idiot," Speedy replied with with half a grin. Aqualad merely grumbled.

As the minutes wore on, the other boys began doubting the reliability of X's information. None of them said anything out loud, but it was easily seen on their expressions. Hotspot and Speedy were frequently exchanging glances, one of them giving an occasional shrug.

Finally X noticed them and caught on. "They're there. Believe me," he said firmly, but partly to reassure himself. "She couldn't have moved them. She'd have no where to move them to-"

A shout from Aqualad brought everyone's attention back to the screen.

"What? What happened?" X asked quickly.

"I think I found something," choked the long haired boy, waving a hand in front of his face to clear the fumes. There was a drawn-out hissing sound as the room brightened considerably.

The three boys, who could only see Aqualad's expression, were dying of anticipation. It also didn't help when Aqualad's eyes widened and breath caught.

"What is it? What'd you find?" Hotspot practically screamed, leaning over to one side of the monitor as if it could help him to see under the opposite edge and catch a glimpse of what Aqualad was seeing.

"You were right," he said slowly, almost mesmerized. "They were under the floor."

"The Titans?" questioned Speedy. "You found them?"

In answer, Aqualad turned the communicator to face the newly risen tanks. There, frozen in some alien substance, was the Titans. Their faces bore expressions of surprise while their bodies appeared to be ready to fight.

"I wonder what was going on before they were... captured," Hotspot mused as he carefully studied the four teammates.

"Ask 'em when they're out," X said quickly. "Okay, laddyboy, are there any controls around that could possibly dethaw them?"

"No," Aqualad said after a brief pause as the communicator screen turned back to him.

"Okay, any buttons on the tanks? Or on/off switches?"

"C'mon, this is alien technology- is it gonna be that simple?" the long haired boy asked back. "Besides, if I do find a way to open them, what if an alarm goes off and Blackfire shows up? The Titans might not be up to fight."

There was a pause as everyone tried to figure out a solution. X leaned back in his chair, his fist against his mask and his elbow propped up against his other arm. He was bent on coming up with a solution. However, Speedy was the first to speak up.

"Why not just hijack the ship and fly it back here?"

--
Next Update: Friday, December 30th. Merry Christmas. :) Yes, two in one week. Huzzah.

Ha, for some reason I just like it when X talks to Speedy. "Hey. Idiot." X3; So fun writing all these characters... LoL.

From the little survey I asked last chapter... out of 9 voters (and many had multiple choices), Raven's was the favorite with 8 votes, then it was X with 4 and the Hive with 2.