a.n. Happy New Year this weekend!
Moon's Darkness- Aw, so I'm really all there is out there updating? Cool for me. :) LoL. Thanks for the review. Kendra Chetnova- Will Raven hook up? Meh. I don't want to make an overly-obvious romantic story... but there may be subtle things... maybe. And my Xmas present to everyone is this chapter so soon! Yes, the story will be ending soon. But not like in the next chapter or two. In like... 5 or 6. Sorry. :( gothic kid 13- Fresh meat:D j/k Well, I'm glad you're so enthusiastic about my story. :) LoL. Hope I can keep you interested. faLLen-dreamz- Yep. It took them, wow, how many chapters? But they finally found the Titans. X3; Tritium- Glad you like X. I like his entire team. I'm trying to make them as weird and quirky as possible. LoL. I kinda think Slade's more evil when he's acting nice than when he's kicking people around... so that's why I wrote him the way I did. At least he's believeable. :) Thanks for the review and hope you like this chapter as well. psycicflower- Wow, Irish sounds like a very strange language to learn. And do people really say "top 'o the morning to ya"? LoL. When I think of Irish, I think of that sentence. X3; (I'm probably really uncultured, tho. hehe) Have fun with the relatives. :) And glad you still like the story after 20 chapters. Yay! ...is "slan" bye? kidsnextdoor112- Updating a lot sooner than before. Here you go. :) Happy reading. glitz-and-glamour- More new people, huzzah:D I like good RobxRae fics, too... I wonder why there's nothing like that in here. / Hm. Anyway, I'm glad you like this story even though it's got none of that in here. :3 You're feeding my ego. LoL. lolopixie- Yes, and we all know how fun Blackfire is to be around when she's angry about something. X3; Bwaha. I'm glad you like the story so much. angelwolf6547- Hey, thanks. Glad people are interested in the story. And here's what happens: zelda- Am I really one for long chapters? I don't think they're super short, but I don't make one-chapter novels. ...or at least I try not to. Mebbe this'll be a decent length, I dunno. You'll still like it if it's short-ish, right? LoL. gracefulraven-Thanks! Well, you know if it took X and them so long to find the Titans, it'll take forever for the Titans to get out. XD; Sadly, though, no Hive until next chapter. :( Hopefully this chapter will be okay without them. LoL.

Chapter 21

Everyone's eyes widened at the simplicity and obviousness of the answer.

"Say that again?" X said, his hand slowly falling from his face.

"What if Aqualad flies the ship back here? Then we can all try to figure out how to get the Titans off of there. Then, if there is some kind of an alarm, it won't matter 'cause we'd be here and Blackfire'd be way back... wherever that is," the archer explained. By the end of all that, a smug smile had found its way onto Speedy's face and he reclined in his seat looking very proud of himself. Hotspot glanced at X, waiting for the determining vote,

"Okay," X said at last. "Can you fly that thing, Aqualad?"

Aqualad traveled into the cockpit and quickly checked around. Luckily, the controls did not look as alien as the rest of the ship. In fact, they resembled things his buddy Tram worked with.

"It's possible," he decided after a long pause. "Give me a minute, though."

The three boys waited patiently, watching through the communicator as Aqualad inspected all the controls, then hesitantly began pushing buttons.

Turning to X, Hotspot asked, "How long will it take him to fly here? A few hours?"

"At least," sighed the thief, leaning on his elbows, "but that might not be fast enough." At that, Speedy looked to him.

"You always talk like it's a life or death thing. Lighten up, man, we've got the team."

"It is life or death for the Titan that's still here," X snapped with a hard stare at the archer. "Every moment counts. Remember that."

"Okay, okay, sorry. Didn't realize I was disrespecting your girlfriend." Simultaneously, both boys stood up on either side of Hotspot as if they were going to fight. However, their imminent scuffle was disrupted when the top of Hotspot's head flared with large, wild flames. Reluctantly, the two sat down, arms folded across their chests, and a sour expression contorting their faces.

Their argument was instantly forgotten when a mechanical roar came from Aqualad's side. The noise quickly subsided, but shouts of "I got it! I got it!" filled the room. The ship was noticeably brighter as the boy slid into the captain's chair.

"Okay," he said distractedly, searching the panels for the right buttons and switches, "hopefully I'll be back in the city soon... if I don't crash first. Where should I land?"

X's eyes widened. He hadn't thought of that at all. "Uh... we'll scout around and call you back in an hour or so." Aqualad closed his communicator and the screen went dark.

The thief stood up, looking expectantly at the other two. "All right, then, let's go. Split up, find something easy to get to, yet not so easy to see."

"You mean you don't have that planned?" criticized Speedy as he and Hotspot stood, too. "Just like you didn't have a headquarters?" he added in the same tone. X, however, was completely ignoring him as the thief led the way to the stairs.

Speedy grabbed his bow as he followed. "I can't believe you don't have anything!"

"Let it go, man, let it go," Hotspot groaned, an annoyed expression on his face that intimidated Speedy from arguing.

-

That evening, the three boys met back at the Mega Arcade after hours of searching.

"You find anything?" Hotspot asked Speedy as he sunk into a chair. The archer gave a limp shrug.

"Everything around here is in range of the Tower. There's nowhere to hide it." He directed a blame-filled glare at X. The thief vented a harsh sigh.

"Fine. I screwed up. I didn't think of everything. You happy?"

Speedy said nothing, but a smirk played on the corner of his mouth as he leaned against the side of a video game machine. Hotspot looked from one teammate to the other.

"What if... we could stop the Titans computer from detecting the ship? Couldn't you do something like that from here?"

X shrugged tiredly. "I don't know. I could try," he said. "We don't have anything else."

Speedy caught up his bow again. "We'll need a backup plan, though."

"Like?" snapped the thief, thoroughly fed up with the archer by now. His cold gaze followed Speedy as the boy headed up the stairs.

"Keep Slade from the computer no matter what."

"And just how are you going to do that? Ask him?"

The archer stopped at the bottom of the staircase and looked over his shoulder, a knowing grin on his face. "Something like that." He darted up the stairs then, leaving the other two boys to exchange uncertain glances.

-

Raven sat slumped against a wall in the training room, tossing one of Cyborg's heaviest weight slabs around in the air with her powers. Her twenty robot guards were nearby, completing their upgrade installments.

Raven paused to watch them with a proud eye. They looked much more menacing now with Cyborg's implants and armoring. If she had ever thought something pretty, it was her small squadron of droids. She was so happy with these robots that she was even coming up with names for them, but the dark girl figured it would be best not to tell that to Slade.

To Raven's surprise, that was exactly who came through the training room doors. The man walked to the wall opposite her, fetched a couple of bo staffs, and motioned for the twenty droids to leave. They looked to the girl, however, for the real instruction. Only when she gave a nod did they troop out in single file. Once they had all left, Raven tilted her chin up, her head resting against the wall.

"Come to check and see if I had learned anything new?" she questioned cynically, raising an eyebrow.

"You hold grudges, don't you?" asked Slade as he tossed one of the staffs her way. It was quickly swallowed in shadow and hovered near the weight slab.

"Isn't it a little late to be training?"

The man spun his staff around his body in a practiced routine, much faster than Raven had seen him move with his wounded shoulder. "Not training. Tonight, a game."

"A game?" repeated the dark girl incredulously. She tried to keep an indiscernible expression, but somehow a skeptical look took over. "You play games?" Slade gave a shrug, though it was weak on his bad shoulder.

"What do you call most of those meetings with your team?" At that Raven gave a faint chuckle. With a wave of her hand, the large weight slab returned to the rack on the other side of the room.

"Not that," she said, climbing to her feet. "I meant fun games. Playing games. Not those evil, twisted things you're used to." The dark floating staff zoomed into her hand. She spun it into the air and caught it with her other hand, but kept it slowly spinning. "What kind of game are you talking about?"

"I expect it should be fun for you, since you have such a curious nature." One of Raven's eyebrows arched, but she kept her eyes on the continuously spinning rod.

"It's just a friendly duel. If you get past my defenses and tag me, you get to ask a question. And vice versa," the man explained.

The dark girl's eyes flashed over to Slade. "Any question?" she asked in a slow manner, as if she had been hypnotized by her spinning staff.

"Any question." Upon further thought, the man added, "But let's keep it decent, my dear." Raven smirked and tossed the stick into the air and caught it with her first hand.

"You have a sick mind, Slade."

"And on that wonderful note, shall we begin?"

They had barely sunken into their stances before darting for each other. The room was filled with sounds of staffs repeatedly colliding and echoes of sounds. Slade, mainly using his good arm, fought efficiently, blocking or diverting all of the dark girl's attacks. Raven completely abandoned defensive fighting and for that, the man quickly tagged her by whacking her in the back of the knee. The girl faltered with a cry of surprised pain, clutching her stinging leg.

"Well, I never said I'd go easy on you, now did I?"

Raven grumbled in response. "Fine, what's your question? Let's just get it over with."

"Do you want a father figure?" asked Slade. When the dark girl appeared alarmed at the question, he elaborated. "I don't mean do you want a father or your real father back, but just a fatherly figure."

Raven seriously pondered that as she rubbed her knee. "I... can't say I know what a real father should be like. I don't know what it would feel like to have a father. Maybe there would be too much emotion for my powers to suppress." She swung her rod around, adding in a quicker voice, "But I've lived this long without a dad, why start now?" Raven shrugged, sinking into a defensive position.

They fought on and the girl was much more careful to fight defensively as well; she had questions of her own, and she didn't want to answer Slade's.

A couple of minutes later, when neither of them had tagged the other, Raven came up with a strategic move. She faked that she was going to hit Slade's left side, and when he put up a block she skillfully swung the staff around and slashed at his right arm- the wounded arm. The man gave a shout of great pain, then grabbed his arm with a sharp intake of breath.

"I know what I said," he began slowly, "but that was just low, Raven." The dark girl seemed to ignore that.

"How did you lose your eye?"

"Didn't I tell you before?" he said while hissing with pain.

"No, you just said it was because you were slow. So why were you so slow that you lost your eye?"

Slade hesitated. "It was a family dispute," he said at last. "And my ex-wife happened to have a gun with her at the time." Raven's eyes bulged.

"Your wife did that to you?"

"Now you can see why we're not married anymore," he replied, somewhat sarcastically. When he continued to hiss in pain, Raven drew close and put her hand on his arm. Almost immediately after that, Slade's head shot up.

"The pain's gone," he announced, surprised. The man swung his arms around, testing his shoulder, then gave another unexpected painful hiss.

"Well, I can't heal it," Raven said defensively. "I can just lessen the pain. I thought you knew all of my abilities."

She took a few steps backward and they continued fighting. Slade, too, wanted to ask questions more than answer them and he fought harder. Soon, he hit her side when he found a hole in her defense. Raven acknowledged the tag begrudgingly.

"That attack you did yesterday, was that some random thing or could you actually control it?" the man asked, leaning on his staff.

"To some degree, I think. It all happened so fast," replied Raven.

"Well then, I would appreciate it if next time you decide to use that, that you would not include me as one of your victims," the man said, getting ready for another attack.

Raven followed. "I can't promise anything."

Not even a minute later, Slade had tagged her again. For a second the girl wondered if he could be cheating.

"What do you fear?"

The dark girl was taken aback at the bluntness of the question. "I... I fear... myself, I guess. Losing control of my powers and hurting someone or something. I've had countless nightmares about that..." Raven was about to continue, but she suddenly remembered her audience and stopped there.

The fighting continued and to Raven's satisfaction, she tagged Slade next. She already had the question prepared and rattled it off immediately after she struck him.

"Why did you get married?"

The man nodded, as if he had been expecting a question like that, and leaned on his staff again. "A silly little excuse called love. That's really all we had, and in retrospect, I see it wasn't enough. It was nice while it lasted, I guess, but if I ever had a chance to go back, I wouldn't have made that mistake."

Raven felt like flinching at his brusqueness. She couldn't see how he could talk about his wife, even an ex-wife, like that. To her surprise, Slade continued. "Those years seem like wasted years to me now. Maybe I'll never really know what made me want to marry. Companionship... stability... just having someone to protect and look after..." His voice trailed off and Raven patiently waited for him to return from his thoughts.

The dark girl was beginning to grasp how powerful those memories were to him. She had never experienced something so life changing in her short years. But if it was enough to make Slade so overwhelmed and lost in thought, would those experiences be too much for her powers to handle?

When the man continued to stare at the floor, Raven sighed and set the bo staff on the ground. Besides, she realized how tired she was and she also wanted to put ice on her knee; an ugly bruise was appearing where Slade had first tagged her.

As Raven walked toward the door, slightly limping, the man suddenly spoke up. "Why are you so fascinated with the fact of my being married?" She stopped in the doorway and looked back. Slade was still gazing fixatedly at the floor.

"Because it was... shocking to discover. And it seemed uncharacteristic of you to have a wife... or even to love someone," replied Raven.

"I told you that was a part of my life that has been dead for awhile now."

"I know." The dark girl couldn't help but feel a little bit of pity for the man. In this state, he seemed almost helpless- and that was such a contrast from the side of him she and the rest of the TItans were used to that it was almost unbelievable.

"You know, you said you thought love wasn't enough... I might've just done it for the stability and companionship." At that, Slade finally looked up, but Raven was already gone and the doors were sliding shut.

The dark girl limped all the way to her room and was surprised when cold air gust out upon her door's opening. It was freezing inside and her window was halfway open. Carefully Raven looked around, making sure she was alone, then closed her window with a wave of her hand. Turning, she was surprised to see an arrow sticking out of her wall, pinning a note at eye level.

"Keep Slade away from the computers at all costs," the girl read. She pulled the arrow out of the wall and tossed it on the ground, letting the paper float down.

After a moment lost in thought, Raven sunk through the floor and found her way to the living room. She rose up through the floor in the middle of the room and quickly dismissed the few guards that were there. The girl floated over to the large computer and contacted a few of her soldiers, instructing them to come stand guard at the two living room doors.

Then Raven checked to see if any Titans communicators were near. Maybe Speedy was still around. If he was, the girl would track him down and demand answers for all this interference from so many allies.

-

"Okay, Aqualad, how's it going so far?" asked Hotspot when the pilot had called the team again.

"I'll be there within the hour. Do you have a landing place for me?"

X, leaning on the back of his chair next to Hotspot, nodded. "Yep. Right on top of this arcade." Checking the alien ship on another monitor, the thief noticed only four Titan communicator signals.

"Hey, fishboy... did you lose your 'talkie or something?" X asked slowly, rescanning the ship to make sure the report was right. Aqualad gave a questioning look.

"Noo... how else would I be talking to you now? I have no clue how to work the ship's communications."

"Well, then one of the Titans doesn't have theirs..." X's and Hotspot's eyes widened at the same time and they look at each other, alarm consuming both their faces.

"Blackfire!"

-

Slade was in the garage pouring over a couple of newly-drawn designs when Blackfire appeared on the small screen next to the door.

"There you are!" she cried in a voice that made the man cringe. Slowly he looked over at her.

"I never expected to hear from you so soon. And I had such hope..." At her perturbed expression, Slade said, "What's wrong, run out of money?"

"You stole my ship!" she accused instantly in a screech that made him cringe even more. Once his head stopped pounding, Slade protested.

"I assure you, I did no such thing." He eyed her suspiciously. "Are you sure you can handle these earth drinks?"

"I didn't mean you personally, but your messengers did! I can't believe you! I wasn't coming back anyway. And you knew how much I liked my collection!"

"I beg your pardon," said Slade, nearing the screen with an uncertain look in his eye. "My what? I don't have any messengers."

"That guy with the skull mask and the red mark on his forehead. And then there's the guy who actually stole my ship-" Slade, however, wasn't listening, for he had already darted out of the garage.

-

Raven watched one Titan communicator hover on the bank of the bay, a little distance away from the Tower. She wondered if anyone would notice if she slipped out for ten minutes or so.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Slade's voice.

"What are you doing? Get out of my way!" he shouted from the hallway. Wide eyed, Raven quickly deleted the window and let the screen go blank. Just as it shut down, Slade burst past the girl's robots and into the room.

"I need that computer. Now," he said, practically out of breath. Raven arched a brow. Had he been running? To get to the computer? Speedy's message flashed through her mind as she stood in Slade's way.

"This sounds urgent," she said slowly.

"It is. I need to look up something very important and you happen to be standing right in front of the control panel."

Raven hesitated, observing him carefully. Finally she gave a shrug. "It's your house, too," said the girl, stepping to the side and letting him pass.

--
Next Update: Friday, Jan. 6th. (Yep, not a Monday. That'd be three in eight days... I'm not that generous.)