Thanks for all the reviews I've gotten so far on the story, I really appreciate that. I'm updating so soon because I want to get one more chapter in before spring break, so here we go.

-T-

Jericho blinked hard and took a small step backward on the thin red carpet. Had he just heard correctly? It probably was true, but it surprised him in the way that made him just freeze in silence. He heard Robin talking faintly in the background, and he had to strain through his shock to understand what he was saying.

"We've been after Slade for a long time." The Titans' leader slammed a fist into his open palm. "Hopefully we can finally take care of him."

"Yeah, that'd be the day," Cyborg said. "We've never beaten him before."

"But we must try," said Starfire, a look of determination in her green eyes. "Someone will defeat him once and for all."

"Starfire's right," Robin said. "Titans, go!"

Jericho wanted to ask exactly how long they had been after Slade, but they were all running out the door, and suddenly he thought that if Slade had been a villain to the Titans for that long, it was better not to mention that their arch enemy was his father. If they asked, he would tell them, but that was unlikely so he decided that it was best to just keep it a secret for now.

He realized that he was standing in the quiet living room in front of the door alone, and now he was unsure of what to do next. Barging out there with the rest of those superheroes to go battle with his father was to Jericho like walking in on his own funeral. Raven suddenly materialized through the door and looked at him uncertainly.

"Uh, are you going to come with us or just stand here?" she said, pulling the hood of her blue cloak over her head, the shadows now hiding all of her face except for her mouth.

Embarrassed at the delay he had caused, he flushed slightly and nodded. And he just hoped that he came back to this tower in one piece.

-T-

Robin kicked down the metal door of the abandoned warehouse and waited for the thick dust to clear. The Titans were poised in offensive mode, Starfire's green starbolts charged on her hands, Cyborg's sonic cannon in his mechanical arm aimed through the door, Raven ready to hit anything that moved with her telekinesis, Beast Boy prepared to shape shift, and Robin holding a retractable bo staff in his fingers.

"Get ready," the latter said, twirling the staff a few times and moving forward into the dark building. Jericho swallowed hard. There was never any getting ready for this.

The Titans moved inside at a quick pace. Jericho was on edge, but he didn't let it show on his face, not wanting the others to think he had any relation to Slade, or that he was afraid to fight. So he hid his uneasiness behind a no-nonsense expression to show that he was all business; at least that part was true. He was more nervous than he had ever been, but deep down ready to take on his own father.

Robin made a motion with his hand for silence, and everyone froze. Jericho squinted in the dark and took in the surroundings of the warehouse around him. So this was what his father had been doing when he had said he was "away on business", hassling teenage superheroes? Addie would have shot out his other eye if she would have known. This was crazy.

Robin pointed to the left, and they all moved silently down a dark hallway that opened up into a large room, which was lit by only one lightbulb in the ceiling and showed book cases sitting parallel to each other in a row, as a library would look. A terribly familiar deep voice echoed through the room, sending a chill through Jericho.

"I was wondering when you would decide to show up." Slade stepped slightly into the light, standing straight and rigid with his hands clasped behind his back. He was clad in silver and black armor and he wore a metal black and orange mask that hid his entire face, except his one eye. "You don't usually have a delay before you can come and meet me." His gaze swept across the Titans, then landed on Jericho and bore deep into him. They stood staring at each other briefly before Robin let out a yell and threw a few explosive discs in Slade's direction, who dodged without effort. Starfire flew forward, her eyes glowing green, and threw starbolts like mad. They landed dangerously all around Slade, but every one of them missed the target. Cyborg blasted off a shot of his sonic cannon, but Slade side-flipped out of the way and landed hard beside Beast Boy, who tried quickly to shape shift, but was grabbed and hurled across the room. Raven moved a chunk of rock out of the wall with her mind powers and threw it at Slade, but he came forward and punched it to pieces when it got close.

"Have you gotten weak since the last time we talked?" Slade calmly teased. "Or am I just undefeated, Titans?"

"We're gonna take you down!" Robin yelled savagely.

Slade laughed slightly. "Robin, I'm sure you would only like to try."

Both yelling, they ran forward and met head-on, throwing and blocking punches and kicks like crazy until Robin whipped out his bo staff again and whacked Slade hard enough to break bones, but the man just got back up after he was down briefly. Robin came in with a few more swings that only hit air until Slade reached out and grabbed the staff in one hand. His eye narrowed as Robin's grew wider, and hurled the masked teen into a nearby wall while never letting go of pole, then pulled it out of Robin's hands and threw it backward.

Jericho had seen enough. He knew how well his father could fight; he had seen it all of his life, had it taught to him and saw it taught to Grant for years. Slade was already whipping these other kids and they had barely begun to fight. Jericho made his first move and caught Robin's bo staff before it could hit the ground, gave it a twirl to get the feel of it in his hands, and rushed forward in a mid-air somersault that gave him enough momentum to slam the staff across the back of Slade's shoulders and send him skidding across the floor in surprise.

Robin stood up from the floor and was surprised at how well Jericho handled the bo staff- he was almost as good as himself, and that was saying a lot, especially for a boy Jericho's size. But Robin saw a boiling rage in the boy's green eyes that clearly showed he had had past experiences with Slade, and there was something that had driven him to the end of his rope, and this was probably his revenge and what motivated him for it.

Little did Robin know, this motivation was Grant. Jericho still couldn't say for sure if his brother was alive or not, but Slade had said that he wasn't, and if that was true, Jericho blamed his father for Grant's death. He was still angry about the lies his father had told, and the way he had deceived Addie in the past. So it looked like here was the best place to take out all the anger and show what he really thought of his father.

Slade blocked Jericho's savage blow for a few minutes, but suddenly whipped out a fist and slammed it square into his son's jaw, who dropped the bo staff and slid across the hard floor. Jericho felt the pain of the blow clear up to his hair, and he struggled to get up. And he had thought Jared's punches hurt!

Slade walked towards Jericho with a look that showed he was going to end the fight now, but he suddenly froze and turned black from the chest down, and was thrown hard into a wall by Raven's powers. She landed on the ground and helped Jericho to his feet, looking at him almost sympathetically. And that was probably very rare, for her.

Slade seemed to be up as soon as he was down, and, ignoring the starbots that rained down around him, had grabbed Raven's arm and thrown her across the room almost before anyone could blink. Jericho stared briefly up at his father's face, and noticed that the man was reluctant to look him in the eye. He knew what his son could do and obviously was not in the mood to be possessed. And what made the situation the worst was that as he looked down at his son, there was no mercy in his eyes.

The next punch Jericho received sent him clear through the cement wall and onto the deserted street outside. After a few seconds of catching his breath, the pain of breaking through the wall suddenly hit him in a hard wave, to where he would cry out if he could. He sucked in a few more breaths and heard the battle raging on inside, and by the way things were looking there wasn't going to be much left of the warehouse when it was over. He could see blue light from Cyborg's sonic cannon dancing on the wall, and a few starbolts flew by the hole, and then Starfire screeched inside. There was a growl from Beast Boy followed by a loud thud, and the sound of Robin's battle cries showed that he was in the heat of the battle.

Jericho pushed himself up onto his eblows, still panting, but he froze when he saw the outline of a masked girl standing in front of him. It looked like she was wearing a tight black bodysuit, but since the moon was behind her he couldn't really tell. She was still for a moment, then abruptly reached down and grabbed Jericho by the shirt with one hand and smashed him hard, face-first into the wall before he could even do anything about it. He felt the blood in his mouth as he hit the ground again, then quickly moved out of the way as the girl threw a hard punch at him that missed and put a hole in the pavement.

Jericho was now in a position to where the light was hitting the girl. Every bit of her was covered except for her mouth and chin, though the bodysuit she wore was tight enough to see every outline and curve of her body. He shoved himself up and practically had to dance to avoid a sweeping kick, then literally bent over backwards to dodge a massive punch that stuck the girl's fist into the wall. She was nearly straddling him at this point, and he made contact with her eyes as his started to glow. She realized what was happening too late, and as she took a step back he went into her and possessed her body.

Something was weird about the feel of the mind connection- it felt to Jericho almost like he couldn't hold his focus. But he could see her thoughts and read her mind briefly, and he got a glimpse of Slade, Addie, himself, and then Grant's college. She was Rose; no surprise there. He struggled hard to keep control of her, but there was something in her mind that was like a negative energy to his powers, and he was suddenly forced out of her body and hard down to the ground.

In control of her own self now, she held her face for a second, then pulled out something from her belt and held it over her head briefly. Jericho wanted to plead with her, to tell her to stop, but there was no time to sign those things to her. And even if there was, she more than likely wouldn't listen. She had been crazy from the first day he had met her, and what was even worse was that she seemed completely loyal to her father, and that meant she would do anything to please him.

In the split second that he had to think, Jericho suddenly realized the seriousness of the situation. What if he wasn't the one to go back home to tell Addie about Grant? And what if she merely got a letter that informed her she had lost both sons? He wasn't sure if Slade wanted him dead, but neither him or Rose seemed to be showing much mercy. Family ties obviously didn't matter in the world of crime. It only made it worse.

Jericho looked quickly at Rose's hand as it dawned on him that his sister was holding an explosive disc. She was in the position to throw it right at him, and he tried to move, but she was so fast it was impossible to dodge it. Just as she was about to let go, he figured that his last thought was going to be wishing he had never come on this trip, and then the disc flew as she backflipped into the shadows.

At such a close range, there was no possible way she could have missed. Yet as Jericho ducked down, the bomb hit the building behind him, and there was a massive explosion that knocked him to the ground and sent him sliding spread-eagle across the street as he covered his head. Debris, shrapnel, and ashes rained down from the building, which was mostly was just the interior structure now. He shielded his face until everything was still, except for the licking flames behind him, then moved his arms and saw that the Titans had emerged from the building and were standing beside him.

Robin put out a hand and helped Jericho up. "You okay?"

He nodded, leaving out the fact that his back felt like it had been snapped. "Where's Slade?"

"Gone."

"And the girl?" He wasn't just going to out-and-out say she was his half sister. It was better to just not let on for now.

"What girl? There was no girl."

"Our friend would not lie," Starfire said. "Would you, Jericho?"

"Of course not. There was a girl here, and she tried to off me with that bomb."

"We'll find them," Robin said flatly. "But right now you don't look so good. We need to get back to the tower."

Jericho didn't object.

-T-

"You could not even do it," Slade said in the shadows of an underground lair. "I give you one small task, and you can't even take out the half brother you don't even know."

"I'm sorry, Daddy," Rose replied. "I'll do it next time. I won't let you down again."

"What makes you think there's going to be a next time, Ravager?"

Rose looked down at the dark floor. "Just give me one more chance."

"You failed. I was looking for a partner, an apprentice, and you failed. You are nothing like me."

Rose's eyes snapped up to Slade's masked face. "Yes I am." She slowly pulled out a dagger from her belt. "I'm just like you. Just like you."