Yay. Thanks for all the reviews guys. Wow, I'm really sucking on the whole updating thing. Terribly sorry. Exams are getting closer (next week!) and me mother has been nagging at me to get my bloody grades up. But, once exams are over, summer! Yay. So then I'll be able to update more. Unless I'm too lazy. Remember the factors people.

Yeah...so this was supposed to be a filler, then it got long. So maybe the next one will be shorter.

Only two more chapters to go people!

Disclaimer: Up here for those that are clearly oblivious

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A Time Again

Chapter Ten: Scattered Contact

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When Raven had finally collapsed into an uneasy sleep from exhaustion and despair, she had not been able to come up with a sufficient plan on how she was going to escape.

Or be rescued.

Still unable to fully give up on her ability to use her powers, Raven tried several more tries to untie the binds by way of magic and manual handling.

Neither had worked.

Raven realized minutes before she fell asleep that she grew weaker with every attempt to escape. The ropes, (silly useless ropes!) and the power entrusted to them seemed to be absorbingall the power she used to break the bindings. And then turned and used on to prevent her from escaping. So with a silent cry of anguish she ceased her escape attempts.

x

When Raven reawakened, the room was still completely devoid of light and hope. She wondered miserably what Slade would do with her now, utterly surprising herself at her lack of optimism.

Raven was being stupid, and she knew it too.

When she was with the Titans, they had been in far worse situations and had still overcome the obstacles.

But she had her powers then.

Raven sighed and looked around, trying to discern anything in the silent stillness. The smallest amount of light possible shone in from under the door. From the tiny sliver she could barely detect what looked like a small plate or bowl.

Food.

Raven snorted softly and couldn't possibly begin to wonder how Slade expected her to eat it.

Probably just with her mouth. Like a dog.

How demeaning.

Well, she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of lowering her to that level. And she could only imagine what sort of drugs he had pumped the food with.

No, she wouldn't eat. Or drink.

She would wait. And plan.

But what? Without her powers, there wasn't even the slimmest of chances that she could escape without Nightwing's help, and even that would be difficult and far fetched. He would somehow have to find her before that.

A plan…

Ropes. All that bound her was ropes. And she hoped that the spell blocking her powers wouldn't block the ropes from being cut or destroyed. Then maybe, just maybe she could get her powers back and contact Nightwing

It was a slim chance, but it was worth trying out.

Slowly, Raven rolled over on her side so she could stand up and even more slowly climbed to her knees. Her head swam nauseatingly but she ignored it and pushed herself to her feet with a quiet grunt.

Her legs, so used to being cut off from proper circulation didn't function correctly. Raven managed to take about two wobbly steps to her right before her legs gave out and she fell to the floor and was knocked unconscious.

x

Raven reawakened to the muffled sounds of Slade coming into the room. Groaning, she rolled off her hands and heard the scraping sound of glass on concrete. Scrambling upright despite her body's protests, Raven quickly snatched up the glass shard in her hands just as Slade stepped though the door.

His boot kicked the metal plate and it skittered a little ways across the dusty floor.

"Taking a hunger strike, are we?" Raven said nothing, just stared at him with all the loathing in the world and struggled with her natural instinct to throw him across the room with her powers.

"Not talking either? Well, at least you haven't killed yourself. You're no good to me dead." He added and walked out the door.

Raven let loose the breath she hadn't realized she was holding and concentrated on the shard clasped in her bound hands.

Gripping in tightly, Raven slowly began to drag the sharpest edge along the coarse rope. The glass bit into her skin and by now her hands were dripping warm blood, but she ignored the pain and continued on.

As the sharp edge slowly began to cut though the many strands that made up the rope, Raven could feel the spell restraining her powers grow weaker and more confused, its hold over her powers weakening as each strand was severed. Even though its hold was diluted and confused by this turn of events, it still bit and stabbed at Raven's mind as she tried desperately to free herself, though its attempts were significantly less menacing than before.

Mental communication was the simplest thing Raven could do with her powers and the single thing that took the least amount of power to accomplish. By now her strength was waning due to her lack of food and constant but weak attacks on her mind so she'd have to act quickly with the least amount of power possible.

With a sigh of relief she stopped sawing at the rope, the cuts on her hands becoming more evident as the pain she had been blocking rushed back.

Raven didn't bother to focus her communication link to Nightwing, she no longer cared. He'd receive her message and that's all that mattered. She only sent out three words; the only three words that mattered.

Night...wing...Tower...help...

It echoed, reverberated throughout the city, touching every sleeping or awake mind. All heard Raven's plea for help and sympathized with the agony and fear in her voice. A select few remembered a name long buried or forgotten but paid no heed to it; the coincidence was far too large to ever been considered.

But one did not sympathize. One enjoyed the pain lurking in the depths of that cry for aid, but was not at all pleased with it.

Slade briskly, angrily, strode towards where Raven was being held, his anger nearly radiating off him in waves of stark red. He was nevertheless surprised at her persistence. Again, Slade had clearly underestimated her and that was a chance he was not willing to take again. More difficult measures would have to be taken to make sure she would not be able to send another one of her SOS messages via thoughts again.

When he burst through the door Raven was kneeling on the floor clutching what looked to be a shard of glass in her hands. She looked up at him, the utter loathing still present, but now accompanied by weariness and pain. He strode over to her and hauled her to her feet by the neck and slammed her mercilessly against the wall. To his satisfaction she cried out in pain and dropped the glass shard, but still stared defiantly at him.

"Your little message, however important you think it may be, was for nothing. I would have led your little boyfriend here eventually and then destroyed him with you to watch. Now you've only sped up the inevitable and altered my plans."

Raven's heart thudded loudly in her chest as dread dawned on her. Slade could see her added suffering and smiled behind his mask.

"But you will not interrupt again." He added menacingly, flipping her around so her face was knocked against the wall.

The damage to the ropes was minimal and not enough to worry about. He strengthened the spell again and again in his mind, making sure that there was no possible way for Raven to escape. Even if she did manage to claim hold of a sharp object to try and cut through her bindings again, the spell was strong enough now to stab at her mind with a ferocity that hadn't been felt by her before.

Losing your touch...?

Raven's cynical voice popped into his mind. Though weak and broken, the comment did its task and irked Slade more than he expected. He looked back at her face and she was staring back at him, a knowing smile playing on her lips. Slade knew the comment had pained her terribly by the look in her eyes, but it had evidentially been worth it. Bitch...

Slade pulled her away from the wall and nearly dragged her the entire way down the stairs and finally into the basement.

He could have taken the elevator, considering it actually still worked, but that would have been too...easy.

Letting Raven drop to the floor on account to her own weariness, Slade pulled a shiny pair of handcuffs from one of the many pockets on his belt and cuffed Raven to the stairwell.

Taking one last look at her drooping and exhausted form, Slade retreated back up the stairs to fast forward his plans.

X

The one day that Raven had been gone, Richard had taken extreme measures to make sure that no one suspected anything out of the ordinary. He had personally gone to her shop and talked to a man named David, saying that Raven was down with strep throat and couldn't talk, so she had stayed home.

There had been no questions asked and no concerns or alerts raised. It was as if no one cared. Richard knew that this was of course not true, it was just that, truth be told, the situation unnerved him and it felt like Raven had been completely erased from the earth.

The only person he really had to worry about was Shannon, who always seemed to find excuses to come into his office and constantly ask if he had found Raven or had learned anything new about her whereabouts. He repeated reassured her that if he did, she would be the first to know.

But he had learned nothing. Absolutely and frighteningly nothing. And that was what scared him the most. He was supposed to learn something from Slade the other night, but had been interrupted by the police. Unless Slade had planned that somehow.

If that were true, this was all another one of his mind games. This was one of his plans to get into Richard's head and mess around in there until he cracked.

He had never cracked before, but then again, he had never had anyone he loved in danger this great.

x

The day after Raven's urgent message had been sent out; Richard was getting more frantic by the hour. Minute, even. He was on edge, and everyone around him stayed well out of his way. If the unfortunate mail clerk or secretary happened across his path, they were either glowered or yelled at and then unanimously ignored by most everyone.

Of course, everyone was a little out of sorts today. Raven's plea had been heard by everyone, remembered by few, and had all altered their dreams significantly.

It wasn't until Richard was just finishing up some things at work and the sun was sinking lower in the sky when he remembered his dream.

And the significance of it.

The message echoed back in his mind.

Nigh...Nightwi...Nightwing...Tower...help...

Richard paused in horror. She was…at Titan's Tower. He didn't fail to see the incredible irony in this.

Without a second though, he sprung up from his seat and ran to his car, paying no attention to the people gawking at him as he went.

She was at the Tower...

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I'm no longer going to place a final message here. Well, unless needed. I think it takes away from everything. (of course, I might forget I ever said this the next time I post a chapter)