so sorry that i havent uploaded a new chapter in what, like 4 months...my computers were being moved or sorted out or something so i wasnt actually able to access alot of my documents and folders, this being one of them...but now i have managed to!...this isnt one of my greatest chapters as i feel that its abit 'choppy' but none the less, its kinda vital in the story...anyhu...id like to thank all the reviews ive recieved and hope there are stil;l many more kind ones to come :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans, if i did i would be the happiest person in the world! yippee!

"Iwish I hadn't seen all of the realness
And all the real people are really not real at all
The more I learn, the more I learn
The more I cry, the more I cry
As I say goodbye to the way of life
I thought I had designed for me"

Nelly Furtardo - "Try"

Chapter 4: First Encounter

The rest of the underground team, containing the mis-match of superheroes and villains, had rejoiced when Cyborg had joined them, especially one of his best friends of old, Beast Boy.

Since then, the organisation had been able to start working on their plans for bringing down Slade. Raven hadn't told anyone of the mark which Slade had had burned into his mask when he and her father had seeked after her in her teen years. She didn't want to worry them and felt that it wasn't the right time to tell them about it. Plus Raven had never been one to tell everything, she had always kept things hidden and bottled up.

"Sources tell us that Slade is having a shipping of certain things such as Xinotheum to one of the abandoned factories down at the docks." Starfire informed the assembled large team. "A team of six will head out tonight to investigate it."

"So who's going?" Cyborg asked.

"Well, based on past experiences, I thought it best if the six people were Raven, Terra, Beast Boy, Robin, Cyborg and Red X." She said folding her arms across her chest and leaning against the desk behind her.

"I can understand why Raven, Cyborg, Beast Boy, Terra and myself are going; we've all had past experience with handling Slade in the flesh, but why X?" Robin asked, rather shocked and dumbfounded at why Starfire had put X forward and not her.

"Simply because he has had the most experience with Xinotheum and can safely transport it, using his transporting device on his belt, to here where it will be safe and not mis-used like Slade intends on doing." She said matter-of-factly.

Robin nodded and turned to walk out of the room. Raven rolled her eyes, knowing perfectly well that Robin's jealousy of Red X had never left from when they were teenagers. She turned and followed him. She rested her hand on his shoulder and he turned around to face her. "Why do you hate him so much?" She asked.

"I don't hate him. I just don't trust him." Robin said folding his arms across his chest.

"No one completely trusts him but Starfire obviously trusts him enough and he has obviously proved himself enough to be on our side." She said with reassuring eyes.

He heaved a sigh and looked into those large violet orbs. "I suppose you're right." He said.

"Of course I am…" Her voice trailed off. Her eyes widened as she looked upon a most peculiar sight that appeared behind Robin. "What? What is it…?" Robin said turning around, his eyes widening just as Raven's had. The house, which they had been standing in, had vanished. They were now, somehow standing in the middle of a forest, yet it was still in the same structure as the house had been; the path they were standing on being the exact same width and length of the hallway in the underground hideout, the trees only going so high as the walls had been. Robin pulled out his old communicator, which still had a tracking device. "According to this, we're still in the house." He said turning back around to Raven.

"Are you sure your communicator isn't broken?" She asked.

"I replaced the battery only yesterday." He said.

"Then where the hell are we?" Raven asked, panic and frustration at the thought of not being in control hinting in her voice.

"I dunno. Maybe we've gone back in time or something?" Robin said.

Raven looked at him with utter embarrassment and looked at him like he was an idiot. "Sure Robin. You just carry on thinking that." She said before turning around to look at what was behind her, trying to figure out some sense in between all this nonsense.

"Yo! Raven! Robin!" Cyborg walked up to the couple who were looking around confused. "Helloooo…" He said walking up to him, thinking that maybe they just hadn't heard him even though he had called pretty loudly. He reached out to poke Robin into noticing him standing there but his finger seemed to have fazed right through them. Thinking it was just his head, he shook it and reached out to poke again, neither Robin nor Raven having taken any notice of him still. Yet again it fazed right through them. They started to walk off somewhere, looking around and almost searching for something. They were walking and back through the walls yet they seemed to be so real. The thought of them or himself being dead swam across the half robot's head but he dismissed it knowing that someone could easily be messing with them with the amount of stuff that villains were able to use at the moment. Especially with Slade back and being their main target, who knew what kind of technology he had picked up and was using on them.

Switching his communicator on his arm on, he hailed Starfire. "Star, something weird's going on. I'm seeing Robin and Raven, picking up their life readings yet its as if they're not here."

"What do you mean Cyborg?" She asked quite confused by the description.

"I tried to talk to them but they didn't hear be so I tried to poke them to get they're attention but my finger just went straight through them."

"I'll be up in a minute." Well it was less than a minute to be precise but nether the less; Starfire appeared at Cyborg's side, just as Raven and Robin's forms walked out of one of the rooms through the wall and into the corridor, still looking around and mouthing things, insults and angry words from Raven, at each other.

Starfire flew over to them and they just walked straight through her but seemed to stop just as they did. It was as if they were sensing her or something.

"Robin; did you feel that?" Raven said, suddenly stopping in her tracks.

"Feel what?" He said, looking at her with that puzzled expression he quite usually held.

"It was like…I don't know; like walking through someone. It was like I felt some kind of aura."

"Maybe there's someone else here…with us." Robin said moving forward to stand in front of Raven.

"That would seem to be the case." A smarm voice from behind said. Raven gasped and Robin scowled. "Slade." He hissed.

Robin whirled around ready to hit the man whom he loathed so much but instead was met with thin air. He stood up straight, confused. He knew he had just heard Slade's voice, Raven surely had heard it too from the small gasp that came from her mouth. He wasn't crazy and all the small microbes that had been in Robin's head from before had been removed, plus it wasn't dark. He turned around and was greeted with that split coloured mask peering over his wife's head, while the metal gloved hand grasped her chin and the other arm pressing her waist against him, securing her arms and crushing her ribs. "I wouldn't try anything my dear boy or I'm afraid an accident may just happen to your dear little wife here."

"Don't you DARE touch her." Robin growled at him.

"There's a problem with that; you see I already am touching her."

"Don't hurt her!"

"What; you mean like this?" Slade cut open part of Raven's top on her stomach and touched the bare, pale flesh. Raven's face twisted in pain as burns began to appear on her body much like they had on her 18th birthday. This was impossible though; Trigon was dead, everyone had watched him disappear as Raven defeated him. "Well yes, he is dead but I managed to secure a few of his powers before attacking him."

Robin sprung forward and attempted to attack Slade and beat him back into the earth where he belonged, but Slade dodged the messy attack with ease. Robin surged forward again, but again, missed and fell to the ground on the spot where he had hoped to hit Slade.

"Tut tut tut Robin. No need for violence. Not unless you want our little Raven here," he bent his neck down and pressed his cold, masked face against her cheek, "to get hurt. You wouldn't want that now would you my boy?"

Robin heaved with frustration, his energy having disappeared from his frustration and angered, and sloppy attacks. He stood tall before slumping in defeat. "What do you want Slade?"

Sorry for the poor quality and shortness of this chapter, now that my computer is sorted, the next chapter will be much much better.

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CrimsonCape

xx