A slow rhythm of water dripping into a shallow puddle echoed throughout the abandoned sewer which had not been in use for quite a few years. A lone lantern hanging from the ceiling illuminated the surroundings, casting tall shadows and then disappearing into the thick darkness. A subway passed closely somewhere below-ground, rocking the pipe and temporarily drowning out the noise of the barely flowing water.

Beside the lantern, Ravager leaned against the slanted wall and slowly unmasked herself, tossing her long white hair over her shoulder and cringing slightly on the painful bruise at her ribs. The Titans had put up a good of enough fight, but Robin was the only one who had really gotten a solid hit on her. She smiled to herself. Not only was he cute, but he could handle himself almost as well as she could with a bo staff.

Slade stepped in from the shadows, his hands clasped behind his back and his face expressionless. Though he was wearing an iron mask, Ravager could usually tell just by his one visible eye what he was thinking or feeling. Right now he seemed to be plotting something.

"Ravager," he said. His voice, on its usual dull note, echoed down the length of the pipe and back. "I'm beginning to lose patience with the situation at hand."

Ravager glanced up at him. "Meaning what, exactly?"

Slade turned his head to look back at her. "Jericho's being evasive. He thinks he's protected with the Titans; that they're his friends."

"Well, technically, they are protecting him," she replied, running a finger down the length of the bruise at her side. "What do you have in mind for him, anyway?"

Slade turned away from her again and stared into the dark shadows a few moments before answering. Then he said, "He has a tremendous gift. Only, he's using it for the Titans' side of the line. And I want him on ours. Anyone can see that he's too gentle to harness the powers he has, but I want to change that. I can make it to where he has no limits to what he can do."

"How do you plan on bringing him to fight alongside you?" Ravager said, her voice rising a little with jealousy. The truth was, she didn't want anyone else pairing up with Slade, even if it was her brother. Especially not her brother. But her father's orders must be carried out.

"How do you think, Ravager? I'm not just going to ask him."

"I should hope not, you'll never get anywhere that way. He has it in his mind that what we're doing is wrong."

"Let him think what he wants," Slade said, a hint of an evil smile in his voice. "It won't matter as long as I have him in my clutches."

"The Titans have him sheltered in their circle, so it's going to be even harder to get to him. What's your plan once we do?"

Slade put a hand to his chin. "We take him by force. Once I get a hold of him, he will have no choice but to obey my every command. When you get him in your sights again, use whatever means possible to bring him to me."

Ravager pulled her mask back on. "I understand."

"And the next time you see him," Slade said slowly, "I want you to make sure he doesn't return to the Titans again."

-T-

After a few minutes of awkward silence, Raven pulled her hood down from her face and looked at Jericho. "There's something you wanted to say?"

"Well, yeah," he signed in reply. "It's kinda about what happened earlier."

Raven stared at him silently, waiting for him to continue without prodding him. He ran a hand through his hair and seemed like he didn't know where to start. Raven raised an eyebrow to encourage him to continue, but just as he raised his hands, Cyborg and Robin walked into the room. Raven scowled, but Jericho just smiled sympathetically at the interruption.

"Jericho, we just wanted to make sure you were okay," Robin said. "I saw you take a few hard hits in the fight with Slade. Nothing feels broken or anything, does it?"

Jericho shook his head. "I'm just a little bruised, but I'll be okay."

Cyborg spoke up. "Man, Slade's not somebody you want to mess around with. He's bad news."

I know, Jericho thought, but he just smiled again and signed, "How often do have to put up with him?"

"Too often," Robin said, his expression hardening.

"Well, on a ligher note," Cyborg said quickly, "who wants to go out for pizza? I'm starving." He held his metal stomach to prove it.

Jericho looked at Raven to get her opinion, but when she just shrugged, he turned to Cyborg and nodded.

-T-

The Titans later sat at a circular table at the pizza place and argued over which toppings went where and who got what. Jericho, who was placed between Raven and Robin, smiled pleasantly as he listened to the friendly fight ensue, not being able to help feeling a little out of place with the five around him. They had probably known each other for a long time and were used to everyone else's company, but Jericho felt like the stranger of the group as he glanced at each one of his friend's faces. It wasn't like they hadn't tried to make him feel comfortable, but they seemed more like siblings than a team. They were rough with each other, especially the boys, and Jericho found himself struggling to fit in with them.

"Which of the toppings do you wish for, Jericho?" Starfire asked, looking at him with her pretty green eyes.

Jericho folded one arm over the other on the table and smiled shyly. "I like just about anything."

The Titans stared at him quizically, as if they weren't used to such compromise. Robin raised an eyebrow. "I guess that's not too hard to decide, then."

"Just order something, I'm withering over here!" Beast Boy said. "And just as long as it's not meat, I don't care."

Jericho cocked his head. "Are you a vegetarian?"

Beast Boy nodded. "Yep. I mean, if you really think about it, why would I want to eat something that I've been?"

So Cyborg was a meat-o-holic, Beast Boy didn't like meat, and Starfire preferred strange things like mustard and mint frosting as a topping. Jericho would have to keep all of this in mind.

After the order was finally placed, Starfire grinned broadly and enterlaced her fingers in front of her. "After this, I suggest we go home and watch a movie of choice. Who here agrees?"

"Sure, as long as it's sci-fi," Cyborg said, drumming his fingers on the table impatiently.

"Let's not get into this again, or we'll never pick anything," Robin said. "Let Jericho decide."

Jericho flushed slightly as everyone turned to look at him expectantly. He rubbed the back of his neck and grinned. "Whatever you guys like."

The five were silent, then Robin said, "That's why we want you to pick something. None of us can agree on anything."

Jericho signed, "Well-" and then a stack of four pizzas was placed on the table and movies were long forgotten as everyone scrounged for a piece. Jericho sat back out of the way and watched while everything was beginning to be picked cleaned, but Raven managed to pull a whole box away from the chaos and slide it in front of him.

"I figured you might want some too," she said flatly.

Jericho smiled and opened the box. "Thank you. Want to share?"

She shrugged, and they were lucky enough to have a box to themselves while the others argued over what was left.

After everything was paid for and done, the six of them started their walk home. Jericho noticed that bystanders would ocasionally stare or point, and he figured that the Titans were more famous than he thought; of course, he had heard about them in Tibet, so it was no wonder people here in Jump City knew who they were. He felt shy at all the attention, and he hurried to catch up with Raven, who didn't seem bothered at all by civilians.

Beast Boy suddenly said that he had to go, so they stopped at a public restroom and Jericho thought about going in with Beast Boy, but the latter was in and out practically before Jericho had taken two steps into the bathroom.

"No rush, dude, we'll wait for you," Beast Boy said as he breezed past.

Jericho stopped at the sink and teased his hair with his fingers. He didn't want to let on to the others, but he wouldn't doubt it if he had a fractured rib or two. He had struggled the whole day to keep his walk under control without limping, but now he didn't know if he could take it any longer. If his mother were here, she would make him lie down and rest for about a week and fret over him until he was well. Jericho suddenly felt a little homesick. He needed to write Adeline a letter telling her that he hadn't found anything about Grant so far and that he wasn't coming home just yet.

After splashing water on his face a few times, Jericho headed to the door but stopped when he heard his friend's voices outside. He knew it was rude to eavesdrop, but he thought he had heard his name being said. And it turned out he did.

Cyborg's muffled voice said, "Well, I don't think there's anything dangerous about Jericho. He's a nice guy."

"Isn't it a little..." Robin said, but Jericho couldn't hear the rest of that sentence. Then, "I don't know how trustworthy he really is. I'm not going to treat him bad or anything, but... have to be careful."

Jericho leaned against the wall and strained to hear better, but he couldn't. He heard Raven say something inaudible, followed by Starfire, "Agreed. We should not judge him when we do not know."

"I'm not judging him, I'm just being careful," Robin repeated. "You know what happened... on our side unless he proves otherwise."

Jericho figured that this was a good time to go outside, and everyone was silent when he opened the door, but he just smiled as if he hadn't been listening to them. The group moved on again to the direction of the tower in silence, and on a deserted road, Robin suddenly stopped and held up a hand to signal for complete silence. Jericho cocked his head and listened hard, but heard nothing. Well, Robin probably had better training and better senses, so it was best to listen to him when he thought something was wrong.

Jericho was suddenly and quickly grabbed by a hand that took a fistful of the front of his shirt, and the other clasped around the gold band on his wrist. Practically before he knew what was even happening, he was thrown head-long to the ground a few yards away, painfully landing on his shoulder and sliding a couple of feet on his wounded side. He tried his best to ignore the pain and lifted his head just in time to be kicked in the face, lifting him clear off the ground and slamming him into a nearby wall as the blood nearly poured from his mouth and nose.

Starfire gasped. "Jericho!" It had all happened so fast that no one had time to react until now. They all moved into defensive mode, but were also kicked to the ground before they had a chance to attack. Robin was the first to jump up, and he was luckily fast enough to block an oncoming overhead slice from a one-sided sword with his bo staff. As the two metals ground tightly together, Robin looked up to the masked face of the girl Slade had called Ravager. Robin had never seen her before until lately, and he didn't recognize her. But he had just made the mistake of concentrating too hard on who she was, and in one slick move she kicked him in the stomach and sent him reeling.

Raven rushed over to Jericho and reached down to help him up, but quickly turned and threw up a black shield to block an oncoming barrage of throwing stars, which stuck into the transparent shield, then dropped to the ground as the shield vanished. Jericho managed to sit up and spat blood onto the pavement, looking at Raven thankfully that she had come to protect him. Most boys he had ever known would object to being protected by a girl, but not Jericho. He glanced up and saw Ravager at a full sprint in Raven's direction. He hadn't even known what had hit him until now.

Raven stood in a defensive position in front of Jericho, who was still on the ground, but Ravager was assaulted by starbolts before she even made it close enough to Raven to attack. Starfire swooped down from the sky and planted a massive punch upside Ravager's chin, sending her flipping high into the air, but the agile girl managed to land the dangerous fall on her feet in a crouch.

A few of Robin's flash bombs exploded around her, and she rushed to cover her eyes. Even Jericho was blinded by the light, and he shielded his face with an arm. After the light faded, Ravager, who was a little disoriented and quite blinded, took a shot from Cyborg's sonic cannon and was once again thrown to the ground. She sat up and rubbed her eyes as Beast Boy stood ominously over her.

"Why are you doing this?" he demanded, crouched and ready to spring at any second. Ravager moaned quietly, then tilted her head up and glared up at him.

"I have my orders." She was up in a hearbeat and had kicked him back before he could even dodge.

Robin seemed to jump down from nowhere and tackled her from behind, and they landed in a struggling heap on the ground. Robin held her down briefly before the tables turned and she flipped over, driving her knee into his chest and pinning him to the pavement. She was fast enough to draw her sword from its holster before he could react, but it was knocked from her hand and she had glowed black and was thrown into a wall and kept there just as quickly.

"Thanks, Raven," Robin said, standing up. Raven had her hand extended and held Ravager to the wall with her mind powers.

"You don't have to keep attacking us," Cyborg said to her while helping Jericho to his feet. "If you don't cut it out, you're going to have quite a fight on your hands, little lady."

"I already do," Ravager replied, and with a quick movement she somehow broke the telekinetic hold that was on her and dropped to the ground, causing Raven to groan and step back quickly while holding her head.

In one massive jump and flip, Ravager cleared all five Titans and was heading down towards Jericho, who thought about moving and then changed his mind and planted himself in front of her, his eyes glowing. Ravager gasped slightly, as if she had nearly forgotten about her brother's powers, but here was no stopping it now. Jericho made contact with her eyes and had possessed her before she even touched the ground.

"Oh, yeah!" Cyborg cried. "Bet she didn't see that one coming."

Jericho made Ravager stand up, then proceeded to give her everything he had, landing every punch to her face with all the strength he could muster from her in the little time he had, because for some reason he could feel himself being thrown from Ravager's body, and he managed to get a few more hits in before he separated from her and went crashing to the ground.

Ravager seemed to be ignoring the fact that she had just beat herself up, and she reached to a device in her ear and pressed a button, and a small red light blinked quickly. Jericho looked up at the two buildings on either side of them, and saw that red light was blinking there as well. Ravager had somehow rigged the surroundings during the fight with bombs. His eyes widened as he turned to the Titans, trying to get them to understand that if they didn't move now, this whole street was going to explode, and they were all going up with it.