Alas... here we go. It's not too much further... I hope you enjoy!

Dushu: Yeah, especially since you'll have two chapters with songs in them. A song fic! her first ever! Amazing:Applause:

Death will come for you Dushu... it will come for you yet.

Dushu: o0 yipe... anyway...we still don't own it.

I heard her screaming for what seemed like hours. Slade came back, unhooking me from the crate. I stood up, watching him for a moment, he just beckoned me forward, and I felt a rock hit my stomach right next to my heart. I followed, quietly. This man was insane. He was worse than any of the bang babies that we went up against, combined, and multiplied tenfold. He fought better than any of us, his mind was twisted and dark. No one could figure out what he was doing or why.

"Get her out of the way. Stay out from under my feet, and I may let you both see the morning." Slade growled.

Reiko was in a heap on the floor, her hair was like a black puddle on the floor. She wasn't moving.

"What the hell did you do to her?" I screamed, running at him and throwing a punch. He caught my fist, twisting.

"Maybe your not so scrawny after all, boy. She's still alive, so you have nothing to be upset about. It took more coercing on my behalf to get the information from her. Now unless you want me to actually kill her, and you for that matter, get her out of the middle of the floor." Slade growled.

He threw me to the floor, and I held my hand close, it felt like every bone had been crushed. I crawled over to Reiko, lifting her head in my hands. Blood trickled from her nose, and her cheek was bruised. There was something on her head, I slipped it off, and her head fell forward onto my shoulder. She was moving, but only slightly. I picked her up, putting her arms around my shoulders, and an arm under her knees. I picked a spot as far away from Slade as possible. A few hours later her eyes fluttered open slowly. She was still in pain, and upset. She wrapped her arms around my neck, sobbing.

"I failed them Richie. I failed them." She whispered.

"You haven't. You're still alive, and able to fight. You can still do something about all this. And I know you'll succeed." I said.

She smiled slightly, and I wished that she would believe me. She fell asleep, her head resting on my shoulder. I didn't know how long it would take us to get where he wanted to go, her home world, but I knew that when we got there, our chances were going to be pretty limited. I hoped that Static and the Titans had gotten my message before I was knocked out. Maybe they were following us as we traveled, but I didn't want to add that into my equations since I wasn't sure if they were behind us or not.

We shuddered to a stop suddenly, throwing Reiko and I across the floor. Slade was cursing as he stalked towards us and grabbed Reiko. I tried to keep a hold of her, and she struggled, but it was to no avail. He was shouting at someone, I couldn't see very well, he was in the way, and I was trying to keep an eye on Reiko. Apparently he got what he wanted, since he let go of Reiko, and she sat down next to me again.

"They were asking him for a pass to the planet. No one is allowed without reason. He told them if they wished to have their princess back, they would have to allow him passage to the planet surface. They agreed after they verified I was really their princess." She whispered.

I didn't know what to say, so I just wrapped my arms around her. She laid her head on my shoulder, silent. I was going through all the possibilities of how we could save her people from Slade. But it was hard since I didn't know too much about them. I knew from her brief story that the royal family apparently all had the same powers as she did, and the others on the planet had other elemental power. That would be helpful, since they undoubtedly were able to control them in a way that would leave Virgil drooling. I knew that Reiko probably wasn't going to be up to much fighting really soon.

Slade put me back in the crate as soon as he had landed, and kept Reiko next to him as he exited. I knew that he had his finger on some trigger, and that was all that was stopping Reiko from going all out and beating the crap out of him. At least that was what I hoped was the reason she wasn't attempting to escape. I knew she would want to do her best to keep me safe, but I had told her that it was a super hero's fate to die at the hands of an enemy, and that it had been an honor to work as one. I liked living as much as the next guy, but I couldn't let her people fall under his rule just because I wanted to tell her how much I loved her. I hadn't told her that I loved her, because lets face it, I was only in high school, and I doubt I even knew what love was. There were so many chemical compounds that made a person compatible with another, and I was only making excuses for not telling her, but I was trying to make it easy on her.

Being shackled actually wasn't a problem for me, because I kept a small lock pick that operated on its own. Slade didn't seem to know who I really was, since he hadn't taken Backpack or any of my other apparently harmless gadgets. I put the lock pick to work while trying to figure out what exactly I could do after I had freed myself. I needed to make sure that Reiko was safe, and then fight Slade. Fighting him on my own was futile, I knew that, but it would at least give Reiko time to rally her people to fight him. She wouldn't be happy with me, but at least I would make sure that her people weren't under the rule of a sadistic bastard. Finally the cuffs opened, and I sat there, rubbing my wrists as I listened to what was happening around me. I was hearing a strange sound, and had no idea what it was, until I grabbed it out of Backpack's little storage compartment.

"Gear! Are you there?" Robin whispered. It was like a shock vox.

"Yeah. Where are you?" I asked. I had forgotten all about the communicator.

"We're going to be landing in about ten minutes. It took us a bit longer to get clearance than you guys. What is going on?" Robin asked.

"Well, we got clearance right away because Slade has the planet's high Princess. He intends to take over. He's probably going to kill us." I said.

"Where's Reiko?"

"She's the princess." I said.

There was silence on the other end, and I sighed. I began to explain to them what I knew, as quietly as possible. Then Robin began to explain to me what they were going to do when they landed, and they were going to attack Slade. All I had to do was get Reiko and any others that couldn't fight, out of the way of the attack. I explained to them her potential for fighting, but they didn't want her in the fight if at all possible, it wasn't a good idea to get an alien princess involved. If she were to get hurt, we'd be in some pretty big trouble. I sighed, and waited for the diversion they were going to create. Suddenly the crate was dropped, but it hadn't splintered open like it should have. I cursed, having bruised my elbow. Virgil was shouting something outside, and Slade seemed to be surrounded.

"Gear, we've got Slade's attention, get out of there, and give us a hand." Static said.

I didn't need to be told twice. I burst from the crate, in costume, and zoomed up to the brewing. Reiko was wrestling to get free of Slade's grip on her arm. The thing he had put on her head before was in his hand, and I was determined to make sure he didn't use it to hurt her again. I threw a zap cap at him, but it hit Reiko instead. I cursed, she looked like she was in pain, but then she turned the energy from the cap on Slade, earning a collective gasp from the gathered people. They hadn't seen this kind of energy from a princess in many years. Luckily, the sudden violent energy attack caused Slade to loosen his grip, and Reiko performed the most graceful combination of martial arts attacks that I had ever seen. Robin and a few of the others just stood there with their mouths open like some strange cartoon characters. Slade was able to block them pretty much, and moved as fast as lightning to hit her. She flipped out of the way and leapt into the air. I took my cue, and zoomed in, catching her around the waist.

"Richie, I am glad you are here." She said, wrapping her arms around my neck.

I lifted up my visor, kissing her softly. She pressed herself against my chest, and I was surprised to feel heat radiating from her. I wondered if it was from the sudden burst of energy. I made sure that she was far enough away from Slade that he wouldn't think about coming after her until he got through all of us, which I was sure would be a difficult task. She wrapped her arms around me tightly after I set her down. She kissed me then, making me want to stay there with her forever. She watched me fly away from the roof I had placed her on, and I felt horrible for leaving her there, when it was her people we were fighting for. But Robin was right; we had to make sure that their princess was safe. She had this look on her face that I couldn't get rid of. She looked so sad, and I could see all the things that had happened to her, all the lies that she had thought truth, the betrayal, in her eyes. I didn't want to do that to her. I wasn't going to let her die, and I wasn't going to let Slade do what he wanted with her.

The fight seemed to be a blur. The people had mostly disappeared when we began battling I wish I could have said that the fight was over in a blur, but it wasn't that easy even for a bunch of us superheroes only going up against one bad guy. One or two strangely dressed people joined the fray, they must have been warriors of some sort, the outfits they wore leaving no doubt in my mind, perfect for fighting. One used fire to fight; the other used a whip that seemed to be glowing with a strange poisonous looking light. I had the idea that was probably what it was. They had interesting weapons here, as soon as it seemed the whip would miss capturing Slade, the glow went out so if it hit someone on our side, it wouldn't hurt them. Not that this woman missed anything. She missed Slade every once in a while, but any time he dodged out of the way, she almost stopped the whip in mid crack and changed its direction. It was amazing.

Slade was holding his arm, and breathing heavily. Most of us were in similar shape. He glared at us, and with a press of a button, a sort of window opened up. I saw behind him a city. It looked much like the city that Robin and the Titans called home. He stepped through with a laugh that seemed to stay behind for a while. I stood there for a moment, staring at him in disbelief.

"Oh come on! You couldn't use that to get here you stupid bastard?" I shouted.

Hehe... I had to do it