Joseph turned around to face the movement he heard behind him and sucked in a breath. His older brother Grant stood rigid with a high-powered machine gun propped on his shoulder, dressed in army fatigues and wearing a slight smirk on his face.

"Grant?" Joseph said hopefully, taking a step forward with clenched fists. There were no other people and no surroundings. Not even a floor, though they were both standing as normal. Not anything at all; just a strange white light covering everything that seemed to come from nowhere.

Grant tossed a lock of blond hair out of his eyes. "Miss me, Joey?"

Joseph stood with his mouth slightly agape. This couldn't be real. He hadn't seen his brother for months, so why was he so suddenly here? Why was he carrying a gun? And how did he get that awful, bleeding gash from his forehead to his cheekbone? Joseph wanted to ask, but when he tried to speak he realized he no longer had a voice. No matter how hard he tried to speak, nothing came out. It seemed as if something like this had happened before, but he couldn't place it.

"Don't believe everything you hear," Grant said. To have such a painful-looking wound, he didn't seem to be very bothered by it. "Slade only wants you to believe I'm dead. Well if I was, would I be standing here right now?"

Joseph clutched his throat at the sudden inability to speak, though he felt no pain. He had so many questions to ask his brother, so many things to tell him. But it was as if his throat was paralyzed.

"Joseph," Grant said, reaching out with the free hand that was not supporting his weapon. "I need your help. Nobody else knows where to find me."

Find him? But he was standing right here! Joseph tried to take his brother's outstretched hand, but even with as struggling as hard as he was, he couldn't move. It was like his body has been frozen in time, the only thing free to move being his eyes. He looked up at Grant's face and was surprised to see it suddenly bruised.

Grant turned to leave, then stopped in mid-step and turned his head back to look at his little brother. "By the way, next time you talk to Mom, tell her I said hey." Then he continued walking, weapon still on his shoulder, and seemingly disappeared into the bright light.

No, don't go! Come back! Joseph panicked at his brother's sudden departure, but he was unable to do anything, even move his own body. He glanced upwards and saw that the strange white light was fading and being replaced by a starless night sky, ebony colored. He could barely see the ground now, and noticed large snowflakes falling from the dark clouds above, covering the grass in a thin white layer. He stiffened when he felt a warm breath on the back of his neck, and wanted to cry out when two large hands were placed on each of his shoulders. He wanted to move, to run, but he was still frozen in place as he had been before.

"Joseph..." a deep voice said slowly, ominously. Slade. Joseph's heart raced. This shouldn't frighten him so badly, but it did. He nearly hyperventilated in an effort to get away, but although he could now move at will, those two hands bound him tightly and prevented him from running away. Joseph started crying silently with fear, and he once again felt powerless. All he wanted was to get away, to feel safe, and not be terrified of his own father. But he was, and though he could now struggle against the strong grip on his shoulders, it never entered his head to fight. He wanted to get away from here, out of this grip, back with his mother or friends, after his brother, anything, anything to get out of this situation but he couldn't and he tried to scream but he couldn't do that either and-

Jericho woke up with a start and felt the presence of being in another environment. He was lying on his right side with his forehead on a soft bed, both hands curled up under the pillow in sweaty fists. He breathed hard, though steadily, and forced his eyes open with great effort. He didn't see much, since his face was buried in the covers, but the rest of his senses reminded him that he was in the hospital. So did the IV that was throbbing in his wrist. Though slightly groggy, he felt more alert than the last time he had awakened and wanted to sit up and see what was going on.

But he didn't get far. Right when he tensed up his body to move, a searing, terrible pain shot through every body part he had. He gasped in silence and quickly resumed the position he held a few moments ago, his heart beating rapidly from the pain he had just experienced. As he forced himself to recover from it, he managed to move his hand enough to push the covers away from his face and look around. He was facing the window, the door and bathroom behind him, and he could see through the closed blinds on the window that it was still dark outside. The reclining chair beside the bed was empty, though there were signs that someone had been there recently.

Why was his guitar chords suddenly running through his head? Jericho tried to shake it off, but for some reason it kept coming back, puzzling him. It was probably just the medication that was wearing off. He pushed his bangs off his forehead, which felt dirty to the touch, and realized that his left hand was about the only thing he could move without pain. He was thirsty, and he wanted a shower, though there was little chance of that for now. What if Raven came in and saw him dirty and groggy? He sure didn't want that.

He heard the heavy door swing open, and a beam of light came into the room and hit the wall. He heard quick footsteps, and a skinny, middle-aged nurse came around the side of the bed and bent down beside him. Her brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she wore a green shirt, a namtag hanging from a clip around her neck. Jericho felt too tired to read it, but he did managed to smile at the nurse.

She smiled back broadly with relief, and his eyes closed as she laid a hand on his forehead to check for fever. "It's good to see you awake," she said sincerely. "You've been sleeping for a long time. I think all the nurses on this floor are worried about you."

He smiled again weakly, then opened his eyes halfway. She speaked to him like she knew he wasn't going to talk back, so it was obvious someone had told the nurses that he was mute.

"Can you move at all?" she asked, and he shook his head. "Does it hurt too bad?" He nodded. "Your medication must be wearing off. I'll get you some more in a few minutes." She took his blood pressure, which seemed to be low, and later took out the IV from his wrist and replaced it in he back of his hand. The pain in the rest of his body was so great that he didn't even notice the stab of the needle.

After stroking his hair a couple of times, the nurse left the room and pulled the door closed behind her. Jericho had heard that most of the time the nurses and the doctors took a long time to return to the room with medicine and things, but he had never had that experience. The last time he was in the hospital with a nearly lacerated throat, everyone had flocked over him continually, and there had been no delay for someone to get to him. He hadn't known what it meant back then, but he was in the ICU for a few days before finally being moved to a room with a few other kids in the Children's Hospital for recovery. He was glad to have his own space at the present moment, though he would rather not be alone if he had the choice.

The door opened again slowly, then closed quietly as someone walked into the room and made their way around the bed towards the direction of the window. Jericho saw someone wearing black and purple out of the corner of his eye, then sighed with relief when he saw Beast Boy come into view.

"Dude," he green changeling said quiety, "didn't know you were awake. How are you feeling?"

Jericho shook his head to insinuate 'not good'. He used one hand to motion for pen and paper, and Beast Boy looked around the room for a few minutes until he found just what he was looking for in a drawer beside the bathroom. Jericho took it from his friend and flexed the pen in his fingers. Luckily, he could write with either hand, and it was quite convenient now. "Everything hurts."

Beast Boy read the words, and nodded sympathetically. "I'd say it does. What hurts the most?"

"My left shoulder," Jericho wrote. "It's making it hard to write."

"You took that bomb head on," Beast Boy said seriously. "You probably landed on your left side. Who knows how many cuts and bruises you have. I heard a doctor say something about broken ribs."

It wouldn't surprise Jericho. Neither would a doctor saying every bone in Jericho's body was broken or at least fractured. He had never felt such pain.

"You'll be okay eventually," Beast Boy said, sitting down in the chair beside the bed. "Don't know how long it'll take though."

Jericho wrote slowly. "Where are the others?" He turned the pad of paper around so Beast Boy could see.

"Well, they're, um... I'm not exactly sure."

"You're not telling me something."

Beast Boy shook his head. "They'll be back soon."

"What time is it?"

"Late, or early, whichever one you want to say. About four a.m."

Jericho laid the paper down and rested his arm. He never thought it would take so much out of him to write a few sentences. He titled his head back and forth and managed to ignore the pain in his neck, which wasn't quite as intense as the other pain in his body. He was suddenly hit by a wave of fatigue, and he fought sleep. He didn't want to go unconscious again, he had just woken up. But it was starting to look like it was inevitable, and as he closed his eyes again he heard the nurse enter the room and felt her stroke his hair once more before falling asleep.

-T-

Ravager was slammed with such strength into the trunk of a tree that the ground below nearly shook from the force of it. The Titans, especially the dark girl Raven, seemed to be all business. There was no going easy tonight. She was trying to fight back as best she could, and she had left her own marks upon the enemy team, but she was outnumbered and outclassed this time. Raven was the one that was really giving it to her, and with her powers, she didn't even have to physically touch Ravager to inflict damage. Even with one Titan missing, the team had beaten Ravager down right to where they wanted her- bruised, bleeding, and weak.

As Ravager slid down from the tree and hit the ground, she wondered when Slade would arrive on the scene. She had signaled for him nearly half an hour ago, but he didn't seem to be in a hurry to get to her. She felt shame that she couldn't take the Titans on by herself this time, and she mentally kicked herself for slacking. Sure, she wasn't

super-human or anything, but the way she had been trained all of her life, getting beaten in this fight was an embarrassment to her teacher- Slade. Perhaps that was why he wasn't helping her at the moment. Maybe he wanted her to fix the problem herself, but her opponents had driven through even her armor and were not holding back to drive her into the dirt.

"You have to learn who you can mess around with and who you can't," Raven growled, her cloak blowing in the wind as she hovered in the air. "If you want Jericho, you have to go through us. Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" She raised her hands and four massive chunks of rock rose from the ground. At her command, and she threw them two at a time at Ravager, who barely dodged the first two and had to whip out her bo staff and whack the next two to pieces just to avoid being crushed.

A few dozen starbolts rained down upon Ravager from an angry Starfire, who nearly seemed just as protective of Jericho as Raven was. It was bad enough for Ravager to face two infuriated girls, but Robin and Cyborg were not making the job any easier. Cyborg fired off a few long shots from his sonic cannon, one of them hitting its mark and sending Ravager skidding across the grass and smashing into the side of an old building.

Rising to her hands and knees, Ravager spit a stream of blood onto the grass and coughed. A hand snatched the back of her broken armor and shoved her unmercifully into the wall, knocking the breath out of her once more. She squinted in the dark and caught a glimpse of Robin before his fist met her face. She saw stars as she dropped to the ground, but tried her best to refuse to go down unconscious. Where was Slade?

She opened her eyes and felt a vibration in the ground, then was rammed hard on her blind side and sent reeling. After rolling over a few times, she figured it was probably Cyborg's metal fist. She clutched her side and grimaced with pain, the fight quickly draining out of her. No, she had to get up! She had to fight back. Knees shaking, she managed to stand and pull her sword from the sheath strapped to her back. This was her last chance, and if she had to go down, she would go hacking the Titans with her. She took a deadly swing at the movement beside her, but Starfire dodged the swipe. Reaching out with her eyes glowing, the Tamaranian girl grabbed the blade on each flat side and yanked it free from Ravager's grip, who couldn't even begin to hang on now. Starfire took the sword in both hands and bent it beyond reconstruction without effort, then threw it backwards over her shoulder. A blast of power from Raven's hand sent Ravager to the ground one more, who didn't show signs of wanting to get back up.

Robin held up a hand to his team to signal that it was finally time for the attacks to stop. "All right, Ravager," he said, reaching down and pulling her up to her knees. "You're going to tell us where we can find Slade."

"I won't," she said stubbornly. "He's probably going to come to you, anyway."

Robin shook her hard once. "You don't have a choice but to tell us. But either way, we're going to take him down just like we did you. Now where is he?"

Ravager was quiet for a second, then titlted up her head and spit blood right into Robin's face, who dropped her roughly to the ground and turned his back.

Ravager smiled to herself slightly as she lay spread-eagle on the ground. They weren't going to get Slade's location out of her, no way. They could beat her all they wanted, but she could take it. It was just part of the way she was trained. And though she had been taken down with blood and bruises, she somehow still felt victorious. No matter what the Titans did to her, she and Slade were going to get Jericho on their side with whatever it took.

It was her last thought before she passed out.

-T-

First of all, I know I just updated, but I gotta do what I gotta do.

Yeah, the Titans were really harsh in this chapter. But that's what happens when Raven gets mad. So Robin's basically mad because Raven is, Starfire's mad because Robin is, and Cyborg's just basically following orders.

R&R, please.