a.n. Artemis- Thank you, but I don't update that early in the morning. LoL. Like... 8-ish, 9-ish... eastern time... hehe. raex18- Well, you gotta think that no matter what, X'll be right in the middle of all the ruckus. LoL. He'll definitely still be in the story. I'd probably offend him if I tried to write him out right before the battle. hehehe. faLLen-dreamz- Ah yes, you want Raven to be a good guy? Next story about the Titans I make, Raven'll be good (not a sequel to this). But this one, I want her to go with Slade. Compromise? LoL. Moon's Darkness- The battle... this chapter... wooo! Well, Raven won't really get to meet everyone... can't really go into introductions when everyone's fighting around them. LoL. lolopixie- Raven's gonna have a confrontation with just about everyone. XD; I hope I don't disappoint you. Sounds like you have high expectations... but I don't think my story will meet them. hehe. kidsnextdoor112- What do you mean 'finally'? I always tell you when I'll update. LoL. Kendra Chetnova- So you haven't abandoned me just yet! Good to know. :) heh... both of those movies I'll never see. oO; Anyway... glad you like the story thus far... and Raven'll start attacking at the end of this chapter. gracefulraven- Give the Titans a beating... or stay on Slade's side? Isn't that kinda the same thing? hehe. Well, it's awesome you're so into it. And I think most... or all, I dunno... of your questions will be answered this chapter. VampireSelene- You like Underworld, too? What is it about that movie? I dunno. Anyway, glad you like the story. I would've updated on Friday, but I have early classes and it just seems like a hassel. So only a 6-day wait. :) TGrahlv- It's a day sooner than my updates usually are! And out of everyone's thoughts about the battle, yours might be the only one I won't disappoint. XD; Boldprint56- 4 days isn't very long. At least you don't have to wait two weeks for every additional chapter. :p LoL. Glad you like it so much. Now we finally get to the battle in this update. (fanfare) j/k. LM22102- And after all this time, I still remember the numbers (without looking). LoL. Well, welcome back. :) When you hadn't replied for a couple of chapters, I checked your profile and you mentioned there you had computer problems... so I just waited for you to return. And I truly did miss you. XD; But you give me way too much writing credit. I'm not that great, seriously. o.O; LoL. glitz-and-glamour- I like how you think. ;D LoL. I like either Robin and Raven or Raven and Slade pairings... cuteness. X3; And I'm glad you like the story! Finally it gets to the battle chapter. wee. Tritium- Typos? Eh, I guess that's not a surprise... I never proofread my stuff. X3; Hopefully you'll be reading this chapter so fast you won't notice any typos. :) That's my plan, anyway. LoL.

Chapter 24

"Battle?" repeated Raven, wide-eyed.

"Yes, we can see you put your skills to practical use. Get your soldiers and assemble in front of the tower," Slade instructed as he finished typing. The girl arched a brow as she observed him.

"You sound... happy." At that he chuckled.

"There's nothing more exhilarating than battle," the man replied, turning and heading for the side doors. Once he reached them, he looked back. "Well, almost nothing. But go."

"Does this have anything to do with Blackfire?" questioned Raven.

"I can assure you: no."

"Are you lying?"

Slade paused, then walked back into the room, letting the doors close. "How am I to answer that? I assume you want to hear 'yes' to have something to argue about, so if I say 'no,' you will accuse me of lying. We don't have time for these little traps of yours, my dear. Get ready." Before she could reply, Slade spun around and exited the room in brisk strides. Pulling her hood over her head, Raven sank through the floor. She headed for where she suspected her robots might be congregated.

She found all twenty droids in the training room and proceeded to lead them outside through the front doors. Already a mass of soldiers had gathered in front of the tower, most of them sporting Cyborg-blue upgrades. Soon Slade exited the tower. He took his place at the front of the army and beckoned Raven to follow. Once she was in arms length, he put a firm hand on her shoulder.

"Go after only who you think you can easily defeat and let the soldiers protect you. Don't let anyone get past the ranks and into the tower. Got it?"

Raven stood at full height, her eyes gazing determinedly out from the shadows of her hood. "Obviously."

"Anything you want to say before the fight?"

A ghost of a smirk played on the edges of the girl's mouth. "Well... at least you've got clothes on this time."

-

Gizmo peered through his pair of high tech binoculars as his mechanical spider legs kept him in stride with the rest of the group.

"Ol' two-face is expecting us," he announced with a wicked grin. Suddenly the grin melted. "What's this? Something's different with the robots."

"What do you mean?" questioned Jinx, who was walking next to the boy inventor.

"I mean they look like Cyborg. I'm thinking this is what Slade's been up to in that cruddy tower," Gizmo growled, folding the binoculars and attaching them to his backpack. "We should've investigated more!"

"Hey, don't blame this on anyone else," retorted Jinx with a firm and dangers glance at her teammate. "You're the one who wanted to attack." The boy looked away, muttering under his breath.

-

Raven watched through squinted eyes as the Hive appeared on the opposite shoreline. She saw Gizmo fumbling with something and then a huge skiff-like thing grow on the water. It surprisingly held everyone, then began the journey across the bay.

Arching a questioning brow, the dark girl looked up at Slade. "Aren't you going to do something?" The man looked completely relaxed, standing with his arms folded across his chest.

"When they get here."

"I mean before that- before they even land."

Slade looked down and matched her gaze. "They came all this way for a fight. I'll give it to them. Patience, Raven. Why don't you meditate- stretch your powers before you use them?"

"Right before a fight?"

"Meditate," he ordered before looking back over the water. With a mutinous glint in her eye, she obeyed. The girl floated up, crossing her legs, and whispering her words.

-

"Why aren't they shooting at us?" Mammoth asked suspiciously, leaning to one side to see around Cinderblock. The largest of the group were in the front of the boat to be the first ones in the fray. Another advantage was that they would block the expected enemy fire from the rest of the team. Not surprisingly, the three Hivelings were in the very back.

"Maybe he's short on ammo, so he's having the robots save it," suggested Jinx with a careless shrug.

"That idiot's way too smart for that," Gizmo argued. He was working the skiff's motor with his goggles down over his eyes, making him resemble same large, grotesque bug.

Jinx shielded her eyes from the continuous spray from the water. "He's always up to something. Why are we never up to something? We need something to take Slade off guard!"

"Way ahead of ya, sister," cackled Gizmo, prodding his head toward Mog. "Why else do you think I brought him along?"

-

Slade shook Raven's shoulder when the Hive skiff had almost reached the island. The girl slowly set her feet on the ground, following his gaze.

"Ready, my dear?"

"It's not like I have a choice."

"How are you feeling?"

Raven paused. "Better," she finally admitted. A tense silence crashed over them as they watched the skiff sail closer. Finally it ran onto the bank and instantly Cinderblock and Plasmus were out and stomping for the tower. The Master of Games and Dr. Light followed, the latter heading straight for Raven.

Slade lifted a fist above his head, then brought it forward, pointing to the enemy. Next to him, a line of robots aimed their arm cannons and began firing. It slowed the two giants down, but it didn't stop them in their tracks. As they trudged forward, Slade gave another signal and a squadron of droids rushed down, surrounded the two figures, and began attacking. Those robots were the first to be destroyed.

Dr. Light darted up the rocky bank. Raven's handful of guards were around her, all aiming at the approaching enemy and waiting for the order to fire. The girl just waited and watched. "Why doesn't he just stay in jail?" she sighed to herself, shaking her head. With a wave of her hand, a large shadow barrier appeared right in front of Dr. Light, which he ran into face first. Raven smirked as he backed up a couple of paces. The man rubbed his nose and aimed his own weapons at the dark shield. With one shot, he broke through the defense, much to Raven's surprise.

"Your robots aren't the only ones with an upgrade!" called Dr. Light as he progressed further toward the girl.

Her soldiers took her gasp as permission to attack and began shooting Cyborg-like rays at him. He dodged some and the rest hit a circular light shield upon one arm and were absorbed. Upon seeing that, Raven began shooting dark beams at Light, but even the occasional shot that hit his shield didn't stop him.

Elsewhere, battle and chaos were in full swing. The Hive found it much tougher to defeat the upgraded robots and received some wounds of their own. Cinderblock and Plasmus had been finally halted and were busy trying to smash all the attacking soldiers in their vicinity. Mog was swimming through droids at a surprising speed on his path for Slade. He either slashed or knocked all the guards out of his way while dodging all weapons fire.

Slade watched the approaching creature carefully, studying him. He readied his fighting staff and stood waiting amongst a crowd of soldiers. When Mog finally reached the man, he ordered his drones to scatter, leaving the two alone to fight. Slade didn't give his opponent the chance to attack at first; he bombarded the creature with all kinds of strikes and slashes. The Master eventually got a break when he caught Slade's staff instead of blocking it. He yanked it out of the man's clutches and threw it far off into another patch of skirmishes. Hand to hand, Slade was still formidable, much to Mog's surprise.

Near the two warring men, Raven was still trying to beat Dr. Light. Her attacks, her guards' attacks, and even some random attack gone astray from another patch of fighting did not stop the beady-eyed man. He plowed forward at a steady pace. Finally, Raven decided to stop attacking. She waited until he began climbing over a small boulder in his path, then picked the rock up with her powers and chucked it back toward the water. It was all Dr. Light could do to hold on for dear life. The dark girl pointed to the boulder when it landed and looked back to her guards.

"Keep him busy if he comes back," she ordered. After the lead soldier nodded, Raven searched the battlefield for Jinx, then took off.

The Hive was still busy fighting the multitudes of upgraded guards and didn't even notice the dark girl land next to Jinx. Raven hit her away from her teammates with a black ray and the pink haired girl landed in a small clearing. She quickly got to her feet while brushing herself off.

"So I can finally get retribution for the last time we met," Jinx said, sinking into a fighting stance. Looking past Raven, she saw Dr. Light inching closer; somehow he had snuck past the guards. Jinx smiled. "If you're fighting fair this time, I won't be so easy to beat."

Orbs of shadow enveloped Raven's fists. "And since when have you fought fair?"

Simultaneously, Jinx and Dr. Light lunged for her, and only at the last second did she notice the man behind her. Having already gotten ready for Jinx's attack, there was nothing she could do to stop Light.

Suddenly, the shout of "Do not touch my friend!" rang through the area, followed by glowing green orbs pelting Dr. Light. Both girls stopped in their tracks to look up. There in the sky was Starfire and a green pterodactyl, which morphed into an elephant and came crashing down on a group of soldiers. The rest of the Titans and honorary Titans were running up the bank, shooting at robot and Hive member alike. Wide-eyed, Raven looked to Slade, but he was still too preoccupied with the Master of Games to notice.

Starfire landed next to Raven and glared at the Hive girl. "You will leave friend Raven alone," ordered the Tamaranian, eyes glowing green. When it appeared Jinx would still attack, Starfire shot her with eye beams, knocking her into a patch of robot soldiers who instantly ganged up on her.

"I am overjoyed to see you are safe!" cried the Tamaranian, practically strangling Raven in an unexpected hug. The dark girl quickly withdrew, though, and stared at Starfire as if she was seeing a ghost.

Her attention was caught when Cyborg shouted, "My programming? They've got my programming?" Raven spun around to see the boy aiming his cannon at a few of her guards that were running toward her.

"No, don't!" shouted the girl, but a moment later the three soldiers fell to the ground, their backs smoking. Looking around, she saw the Titans barely fighting the Hive; both groups seemed to be busy fighting the robots. Both her friends and enemies were trying to bring down Raven's side.

"Raven?" Starfire questioned, touching Raven's shoulder. "Is everything all right?" The dark girl looked back to her three broken guards.

"Keep it up," she heard Robin say, "I'm going after Slade!" Her head snapped up and she saw the Titan leader running up toward the tower. Another group of Raven's soldiers began crossing the field to get to her, assuming Starfire was a threat, and they stepped right in Robin's path. He whipped out his fighting staff and began attacking the first drone.

"No! Stop!" Raven cried, eyes glowing white. Her powers forced Starfire to the ground while the dark girl flew toward her guards. When she reached the skirmish, the first guard had already been defeated and two more had been brought down by Speedy's arrows. The archer had joined Robin in fighting the robot squadron.

"I'll take care of these, go after Slade," he said with a nod of his head toward the masked man. Robin put away his weapon and dashed off while Speedy fitted another arrow. Just as he pulled back on the string, both the arrow and the bow were consumed in darkness. The arrow snapped in half and the bow cracked and splintered in several places, but did not break entirely.

The archer turned and stared fiercely at Raven. "Why'd you do that? What's wrong with you?" Suddenly a large shadow hand grabbed him around the neck and hoisted him up to her level, Speedy choking the whole way.

"Why did you destroy my robots?" she hissed with white eyes. The archer's expression instantly lost all hardness. Raven didn't wait to hear any excuses; she dropped him and let him fall a dozen feet or so to the ground.

Turning her attention back to Robin, she saw he was much closer to Slade. Plasmus and Mammoth had joined Mog, finally getting past countless soldiers, but the creature immediately grabbed their heads and sucked them both into the large pendent around his neck. After that, one of Master's arms looked like Mammoth's while the other was like Plasmus'. Slade backed up a couple of steps.

"Get offa me, you little creep!" Aqualad shouted nearby. Raven saw Gizmo sitting on his shoulders, pulling his long hair and cackling.

"Where do all of these robots come from?" Beast Boy's high-pitched whine came from another part of the field. He was next to Cyborg, who was busy fighting a drone hand-to-hand.

"I dunno, but I can tell you where they're going. I'm gonna dismantle each and every one of these parts-stealing freaks if it's the last thing I do."

Upon hearing a scream, Raven looked back in Mog's direction. Hotspot had come to help Robin but had gotten too close to the Master and was collected as well. The Titan leader looked from the creature to Slade, trying to determine the bigger threat.

"So they're back," a mechanical voice grunted close to her. Raven looked down to see X fighting off a robot guard. Quickly, a shadow wrapped around the upgraded soldier and took him to a slower, less intense patch of fighting.

"Thanks," said X, leaning on his knees.

"It was so you wouldn't hurt the robot," Raven replied in an unfriendly growl. "Why did you bring them back?" The thief looked up, surprised. Before he could reply, an explosion came from nearby. Starfire was attacking a group of soldiers, some of whom were Raven's.

Everywhere around the field, Hivelings and Titans alike were fighting the drones, not each other. They almost appeared to be working together. And even though Robin was helping Slade fight the Master, she knew once he was defeated, Robin would turn on Slade. Why were the Titans back, anyway? She didn't want them back. Things were fine before... now they were all messed up again. And they were destroying her robots.

With red eyes, Raven turned to Starfire and shot her with a shadowed ray. "That's for Melkzen!" Pointing her fists at Beast Boy and Cyborg, she attacked them as well. "For Tazath and Numak and-" Raven turned to X and had a large fists appear and bash him into the ground- "Benny!"

She rose higher into the air and all fighting ceased. Her cape flapped wildly as she surveyed the battlefield. "I want you all out of here!" Raven shouted in a demonic voice. When everyone continued to stare at her, wide-eyed and openmouthed, she cried in a fiercer voice, "GET OUT!" There was a sonic boom as a huge shadow barrier emitted from her, traveling in every direction. Raven bit her bottom lip as she tried to make the attack as powerful as possible.

Starfire screamed again, covering her head with her arms; Jinx attempted to shield herself with a dome of her pink powers. Others, like Cinderblock, Gizmo, and Cyborg and Beast Boy, just stood where they were, watching the new attack with awe. No one made any attempt to flee.

The expanding barrier knocked out human and droid alike, each one collapsing immediately after the wave passed over him. Again, the tower shuddered as well from the pressure. The darkness dissipated when it reached the edges of the island, leaving Raven to drop to the ground; she was on the brink of unconsciousness. Those who Mog had absorbed were out and lying on the ground. Mog himself, however, was up and wide awake.

--
Next Update: Thursday, Jan. 26th. And a Happy Jan. 26th to you all. :)

When my one friend was reading this, she said Raven's last "Get out" reminded her of the Beast. LoL.