a.n. raex18- Dang, how do you reply so fast? Glad you like it. "Love really hurts"... hehe, loved that. X3; Hope the action in this chapter is just as good. gracefulraven- Yay... I'm so happy you like it. And when are you gonna update your story? I miss it. :( Lai-Ku- I was wondering where you had gone. hehe. And Benny... LoL, I wanted a normal name, but I was also thinking of Benny from the Mummy. He was so quirky. I loved him. LoL. Moon's Darkness- Glad she turned on them? Hehe. At least I pleased someone. The Morrow- 25 chapters at once? o.O;; Daaang... I know some of the reviewers here read it at once when there was only 12 or 13 chapters, but... crap, all you people with a longer attention span than me. / LoL. I guess you like it, then. :) Boldprint56- Mwaha, I love making pain and suffering! -evil, maniacal laughter- ...j/k Glad you like it! lolopixie- Woohoo, you like it! You really like it:D ...does it seem I'm more enthusiastic about your reviews than you are of my story? LoL. XD; j/k Well, hope you like this chapter as well. Tritium- Eh... long chapters and me just don't mix very well. o.O; So was Mog stronger than you expected? Anyway, this was gonna be the mega battle and I was gonna end the story in the next chapter, but my friends didn't like how I left it... so now I'm working on chapter 28. / heh. And I really dunno where it's gonna end now. XD; And I dunno if there'll be more battles or what. But my plan worked- you didn't notice any typos in the last chapter, right? And since you wanted more Mog v. Slade, here it is. psycicflower- FF is turning evil. :( That's just all there is to it. Meh. Well, even though you didn't read the previous chapter when you reviewed, glad you liked the chapter anyway. hehe. TGrahlv- Pixie stix... as in... you're on the sugar high or Slade is? 'Cause I can't see him cheering for anything. XD;
Chapter 25
The Master of Games first looked down at his arms, which were back to normal, then around at the battlefield. Finally, his sights landed on Raven.
"You..." he muttered in a low voice. In the deathly silence that engulfed the area, the dark girl heard him clearly. Slowly, she turned her head to look at the approaching creature. He had his large hand extended as if he would absorb her into his pendent as well.
As much as Raven tried, she couldn't work up enough strength to do anything. Just as Mog reached her, Slade jumped on his back, wrapping an arm tightly around the creature's neck. The Master staggered backward and finally managed to throw Slade over his head and to the ground. The man landed on his feet and darted forward instantly. He tackled Mog as the creature neared Raven again, but he again threw Slade off of him and jumped to his feet seemingly uninjured. Slade clutched his right arm for a moment.
"You will never be able to defeat me," growled the Master, hunching his back like a cat.
"We'll see." The man assumed a fighting stance and beckoned his enemy to attack.
Raven remained flat on her back, trying to watch the fight out of the corners of her eyes. She wanted to help, but she figured there was nothing she could do in this weak state. Then an idea hit her. She had been practicing before how to suppress her emotions with the least amount of power to have more power for other things, such as fighting. It hadn't worked too well before, but there was always a first time for everything. Closing her eyes, Raven began to meditate.
The Master of Games lunged forward at the man's signals, claws out and pointed right at the masked man. Slade dodged Mog's swipes, grabbed his arms, and tossed him over his head. The man wasn't surprised to see him land on his feet.
Without a glance in Slade's direction, the Master once again stalked toward Raven, his arm outstretched. Slade raced over, grabbed handfuls of Mog's back fur and yanked it as hard as he could. The creature balked and roared. He turned with surprising speed and pounded a fist against Slade's wounded shoulder. The man gave his own shout of agony, doubling over.
"Human, you cannot win," Mog scoffed. He again turned his attention to Raven and stalked toward her.
"Then shouldn't you have beaten me by now?" Slade growled back with a hate-filled glare. The man reached into his belt and threw a handful of smoke bombs right in Mog's path. They exploded simultaneously and thick, black smoke poured forth, choking the surroundings. It squelched the sun as it rose.
Mog pushed forward at a much slower pace, an arm covering his face, until he finally cleared it. He looked around for Raven, but to his complete surprise, she was gone. The creature's head darted back and forth, scanning the battlefield. The dark girl was no where to be seen. Mog snarled.
"I'll find her, human," said the creature, bearing his claws.
Slade shot through the smoke behind him, brandishing his fighting staff. He struck the Master across the back of the knees, then whacked him in the back of the head when he staggered.
"Just try," the man hissed threateningly. While Mog struggled to his feet, Slade grabbed the cord which the pendent hung on, wrenched it from his neck and flung it far across the field. Again Slade struck the Master across the head; each time the creature staggered to get up even slower.
The man wasn't exactly sure where so much energy was coming from, but he found he was attacking harder and dodging his opponent's weakening retaliations quicker.
It took several more fierce, accurate blows to the head for Mog to finally collapse. Slade wondered how the creature's skull hadn't cracked from all of that and poke him repeatedly with the staff to make sure he was out.
With a relieved breath, Slade dropped his weapon and returned to the place he had hidden Raven. She was behind a pile of soldiers, some destroyed, some short-circuited by the girl's attack.
The man crouched next to her. He was unable to tell if she was unconscious or just completely exhausted from fighting. Her breathing was normal and a look of concentration was etched onto her features. When Slade was about to move her again, a voice shattered the silence.
"Where is my ship?"
The man spun around to see Blackfire floating several feet behind him.
"How'd you get here?" he asked quickly.
"I flew. All night, in fact, because my ship was stolen! And I want it back!" cried the woman, setting her feet on the ground.
"I'm not the one who took it. Ask X, that thief." Slade pointed to a crumbled black figure several yards away. "For once, I had nothing to do with the plan." As he turned back to Raven, Blackfire's eyes shone purple, as did her fists.
"I don't believe you."
Just as she shot at Slade's back, Raven's glowing white eyes flashed open and a dark barrier surrounded the two. Blackfire's attack hit the shield with no effect. The woman backed up a few paces as she watched Raven float off the ground.
"You have a choice, Blackfire," the dark girl said slowly, quietly. But in the silence that engulfed the field, the Tamaranian heard her perfectly. "You can leave here and go wherever you want in search of your ship... or you can stay here, fight me, and eventually be deported from the planet. Without your ship. Up to you." Next to her, Slade snickered as he stood up.
There was a moment where Blackfire seemed to be considering the offer, but then the purple orbs enveloping her fists grew.
"You don't scare me. You're just a child. I bet it took you forever to learn how to levitate," scoffed the woman in a tone dripping with arrogance. Raven didn't reply. She put her fists together and sent a thick shadow ray darting right toward her opponent. Blackfire swiftly imitated, sending a purple beam to collide with the dark one. They met with an explosion. A struggle followed; the point of connection was pushed back and forth as both girls strengthened their attacks. In one final burst of power, Raven broke through Blackfire's purple beam and hit the woman with the shadow ray. Darkness completely enshrouded the woman and she gave a shrill scream. When the blackness faded, she collapsed.
Raven, too, fell to her knees, but she was much more alert than before. She was still exhausted, though. All she felt like doing now was curling up and having a nice, long nap.
Slade took her and propped her up against the pile of soldiers.
"Is that another new attack?" he asked, sitting down near her.
"Might've been. I just really wanted her to go away," replied Raven in a sleepy manner. Slade glanced around the field at all the motionless figures, then looked back to the dark girl.
"I see your attack missed me. So you can control it?"
"Somewhat. But I didn't think that huge monkey would survive. I thought I hit him..."
"You did, just not hard enough," Slade said quickly. He again checked the field as if expecting to see people waking up. "Well, it looks like your little family's back." Raven followed his gaze to Robin, who was closer to the tower. The rest of the Titans were on the other side of the robot pile, out of sight.
Raven pulled her hood off her head. "They don't seen like a family to me anymore." The man looked back at her.
"They might not be glad to hear that," he replied slowly, watching the girl's head snap around.
"What do you mean?" demanded Raven. Slade repositioned his wounded arm, which was bleeding again, so it fell limply into his lap. Then he spoke.
"As you can probably see, most everything has gone wrong. Blackfire, the Titans, the Hive bunch-"
"Which I warned you about," Raven cut in quickly. "I told you they were up to something and that we should've investigated all those prison breaks. But you didn't listen." She finished with a self-important nod that made Slade vent an amused snort.
"Yes, you did. And if you ever give me advice again, I'll listen to you. But that might not be anytime soon."
An alarmed expression crossed Raven's face. "What do you mean?"
"I mean I probably won't see you for awhile."
"You're just going to leave?" accused the dark girl.
"What else can I do? If you leave, too, your friends won't stop until they've found you again. And I don't want the entire Titan team swarming around any headquarters of mine," Slade replied, moving his injured arm again. Raven nodded with a hard expression.
"I see. You're just looking out for yourself. As usual. It was the same with Robin and Terra- you sacrificed them to save yourself."
Slade tilted his head. "What are you so upset about?" he asked in a drawling voice.
"You made it sound like my friends had disowned me."
"I lied. They'd go to the ends of the earth for you."
"I liked the first version better," sighed the girl with a faint pout. "I don't want them here." She could hear Slade smirk.
"Then I guess I really did rub off on you."
Just then their attention was captured when the Master of Games crawled into sight. Slade uttered a curse.
"Isn't he ever just beaten?" As he quickly searched for his fighting staff, Raven sat up straighter with glowing white eyes. She sent a strong shadow beam at him and it hit him hard in the chest. From a corner of the battlefield, a boulder shrouded in darkness flew over and dropped onto the creature's body. It rolled off, leaving an unconscious Mog.
Slade looked from the Master to Raven. "Weren't you also knocked out when I moved you over here? Now you've attacked and beaten two people."
"I took your advice," Raven said in an impersonal tone, "and reduced the amount of power needed for suppressing my emotions." An exhausted expression grabbed hold of her features, the familiar look Slade had seen her wear after numerous training sessions.
The girl's gaze swept over the field. "So I guess you'll be leaving before anyone else gets up, right? So you'll have enough time to escape?"
"Don't be like that, Raven," he chided unexpectedly sharply. "You're better than that." The dark girl glared at him coldly.
"I thought I could trust you before and you lied to me; I thought I could trust you again and you abandon me- you throw me back to the Titans," she growled.
"If things had gone according to my plans, everything would be much, much different. And I am not abandoning you. If you want me to come back for you, I will."
"Come back? I don't want to be left here in the first place! And if you don't consider it abandonment, what do you call it? Some kind of strategic move?" Raven's argument increasingly grew weaker as her expression grew more tired. The man figured she would either fall asleep or unconscious pretty soon.
"Yes, actually. A strategic move. And you'll just have to live with it." Raven was about to protest when she tasted blood and almost choked. She ran the back of her hand across her lips and found it became stained with streaks of blood.
"Ugh, that's sick," moaned the dark girl as Slade again checked the battlefield.
"Take care of yourself, Raven," he said, looking back to her. "At least for awhile." The girl finally glanced away from her hand.
"You too. Because if I find you in some dark alley while I'm still a Titan, you won't even believe how unmercifully I'll attack you," hissed Raven. With her sleep tone, however, she did not sound as threatening as she would've liked. Slade chuckled under his breath.
"Then I shall look forward to that, my dear."
"What about my robots? I know they'll be destroyed if they stay," said Raven abruptly. "How are you going to take them all away?" Slade hesitated and Raven's hard expression reappeared. "You weren't going to save them, either, were you?"
"For one, it's impossible. Two, they're just robots," he quickly replied. When it looked like he was about to say more, Raven tiredly waved her hand to silence him. She then sat forward with a meditative expression, away from the robots, and raised her arms. Slowly, droids all over the battlefield were being engulfed by darkness and lifted up. By the time they were all in the air, the sky was incredibly darker from all the black shapes. Suddenly all the drones bolted south with amazing speed.
Slade watched them fly off into the distance, then noticed Raven still holding her meditative appearance. Many minutes later her eyes finally opened and she fell back. The man caught her before she hit the ground.
"See how much power you have when I teach you?" he said, his tone bordering humorous.
"The robots are back by the sewer hideout," said Raven in a weak voice, ignoring his statement. She looked as if she would faint again.
"You are most certainly my best apprentice."
"If you're going to leave, leave," the dark girl hissed with narrowed eyes. Slade wiped more blood off her mouth.
"All right, then," he said after looking around the battlefield. It had the appearance and feel of a graveyard; not even the Master twitched.
Slade carefully lowered the girl onto the ground. "See you soon, Raven." She didn't hear; she was slowly blacking out.
The dark girl barely noticed or remembered it, but she felt something thin and heavy suddenly weigh down her hand. Then she completely fell unconscious.
It seemed mere seconds before she heard someone far off call her name in a quiet voice. Slowly, gradually, the voice strengthened until she could clearly hear Starfire's voice saying "Raven... Raven, wake up, please."
The girl did as she was told and opened her eyes to see... everyone. Raven was in a bed in the tower infirmary, hooked up to several machines. Closest around her bed were the Titans. Standing a distance behind them were the honorary Titans, and behind them was X, leaning against the wall.
"Oh, Raven, you are finally awake! We were so worried!" exclaimed Starfire. She looked as if she was restraining herself from giving the dark girl a bone-cracking hug. Her concerned expression, though, was reflected on every other visible face in the room.
"How long was I out?" questioned Raven weakly as she slowly tried to push herself into a sitting position.
"Since we woke up and found you, it's been a few hours. But we don't know how long we were out for," said Robin.
"And Slade?"
"Gone," Cyborg replied bitterly, shaking his head. "Along with all his drones."
"But he left you a souvenir. We found this in your hand," Robin spoke up, revealing Slade's mask from under his cape.
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Next
Update: Thursday, Feb. 2nd... ha... 2/2... Nice.