What's this?! A new chapter!? Already!? WOW! I must be on a roll! ^_^ Pity though that this is the 2nd to last chapter for this story, but hey! Still nice to get an update so quickly eh? Well then. That being said, in this chapter, justice is served, Adonis gets a very scathing dressing down and disillusionment of all chances he thought he may have had from his own hopeful future boss, and the miscreant soon learns the very hard way how much more kind the Titans and the Master would have been to let him die instead of being left at the mercy of what soon turns out to be in store for him at Belle Reve. Sound exciting?! Certainly hope so! Here's to hoping you read, review, and enjoy!

A/N: But first, just so you know, I do not own Teen Titans. And I don't own anything else obviously DC based or similarly owned by a higher legal power than myself. However, I DO own a certain OC that makes his glorious return in this chapter ;). Ready? Onward we go!

Chapter 17:

My Crummy Valentine

The very next morning, Adonis was in quite a foul mood. In fact, he'd been in this foul mood since the previous day, and it had all started after the Titans had finished interrogating him. He snarled at the memory. After finally cracking and agreeing to cooperate so as to avoid certain death by Beast Boy in Komodo dragon form, it had taken what had seemed to him like an eternity through the effects of the empathy spell and the ever present threat of the hissing green Komodo dragon for the Titans to finally deem that they'd gotten all the information they needed that he was capable of providing. Upon reaching that point, Beast Boy had reverted back to human form, Raven had undone the spell, and the five founding Titans had departed from the interrogation chamber and left him all alone once more.

An hour and a half later, the founding Titans had returned, and with news that had not left him in any better of a mood. While he would thankfully no longer be under the custody of the Titans themselves, he would not be going to the familiar Jump City prison either. Instead, as it turned out, he had been granted clearance for transfer to some bigshot super-jail all the way down in some random town in Louisiana. And soon after this news had been provided, he had been handed over to a contingent of policemen who'd already had the necessary transport prepared and ready. And from that point onward, he had been prepared for transport and shipped off to what would apparently be his brand new unwilling home away from home for what would almost certainly be a good long while. And as if to further add insult to injury, he couldn't even have the dignity of being actually placed within his planned cell just yet, due to some unexpected requested preparations that apparently needed to be made. And so, much to Adonis's chagrin, he'd been forced to spend the night in the hardly comfortable, though thankfully not Spartan, accommodations of his transport compartment, which he couldn't help but note had been designed to be very similar to something he'd seen get used on several inhumans in the 3rd season of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Now, it was about 9:00 in the morning the very next day in local time, and there still hadn't been any word of him being allowed to be taken to his cell yet. Needless to say, Adonis was now starting to get quite impatient, and he'd hardly ever been the type for patience before in the past. He directed a withering glare at the door to his compartment from the bed he was now sitting on, unconsciously lifting his hand up to the inhibitor collar that had been placed around his neck by the members of his police escort the previous day to prevent the Beast inside him from physically manifesting. "Hurry up," the boy mentally growled. "If I'm gonna be staying here in your fancy little prison, then you could at least have the decency to go ahead and let me be placed in a proper cell." He lowered his head, sighing in exasperation. "God, of all the rotten luck," he whispered to himself.

Then Adonis thought of one other detail, and his mood soured even more. "And doggone it," he thought irritably to himself. "Where the heck is my future boss?!" He looked around the room, getting increasingly angrier and more annoyed as he thought and stewed more and more about how his apparent hopeful future master had now seemingly just up and abandoned him at a time where he could have probably proven quite helpful. "Where the Devil is he when you need him?" Adonis thought to himself, still quite enraged at the apparent snub, and with his head now looking over to his left. "If he really was as willing to give me a chance at recruiting me into his grand and powerful army of villains as he indicated, then by golly he should have had me busted out by now!"

"In light of the circumstances behind this mess," spoke a familiar voice from directly to the miscreant's right, "your opinion of how worthy you are of my even caring about your well being, let alone about me trying to go to the trouble of getting you out of here, is far higher than what should reasonably be expected."

Adonis's eyes widened, and he whipped his head to look to his right, and saw none other than the familiar dark cloaked figure standing right by the edge of the bed he was sitting on, its red eyes glowing ominously in a color tone that clearly hinted that the being was seemingly quite angry. Adonis was briefly stunned by the sudden appearance of the very figure he'd been so angry about apparently abandoning him to his upcoming fate. Then he fully realized the fact that said being was present, and he chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his head. "Uh yeah, sorry about those thoughts. Heat of the moment and anger-driven nonsense really."

The cloaked figure raised his right eyebrow, clearly not amused, or swayed, by Adonis's comment. "You mean those unflattering thoughts you were thinking about me just now?" The figure snorted. "Please. You're gonna have to explain for a great deal more than that to get me to change my mind about you right now."

Adonis raised his eyebrow, now clearly looking confused. "Wha . . . what do you mean?"

The cloaked figure's eyes narrowed. "Is it really that hard for you to understand Anderson?" He pointed his right sleeve at the now both confused and terrified miscreant, his red eyes burning with what appeared to be disgust. "Your performance the other night? Three words; less than impressive." The being folded his heavily sleeved arms across his chest. "And after all that, I sure as his Malevolence am not all that keen on spending large amounts of quality time with you, period, let alone as your superior."

Adonis found himself briefly lost for words yet again. "But . . . why did you come here to bust me out then?" The cloaked figure slumped forward, the motion clearly screaming 'are you for real?'. Upon sight of this, Adonis winced, mentally face palming in the process.

"Who said I was here to bust you out?" the cloaked figure asked.

Adonis mentally gulped. He thought desperately to himself, trying to think of something to say that wouldn't make him look like an idiot. And by God did he know how much of an idiot he already tended to look like to everyone else he knew, period. "Well," he began nervously. "Why else would you be here with me right now?"

"Is it not obvious?" The cloaked figure shook his cowled head side to side as if in disbelief at his former future recruit hopeful's stupidity. "You took the test I assigned, and now I am here to give you your grade." He leaned forward, his eyes open wide and burning once more. "You failed."

Adonis gulped, and hung his head. Granted, the words hadn't been entirely unexpected. But even so . . .

"And even if by some miracle you had managed to pass the test in spite of everything that happened that night," said the Master, "I'm sure that I would have likely still come to regret recruiting you at some point or other after the myriad unpleasant developments that unfolded over the course of your efforts to fulfill the task requested for your entry exam."

Adonis raised his eyebrow. "What do you mean?" he asked in confusion. "How on Earth would you know what happened over the course of all that . . ."

"Simple," the Master stated bluntly, and quite interrupting the miscreant's question. "Honestly Donald, did you really think that I wouldn't be somehow keeping an eye on you over the course of your entry exam? The number of people I have in my cause may be limited, but I am not that limited in resources. I had another agent of mine out there in the forest keeping an eye on you; someone that I haven't even told either of my other two current underlings about yet. She was keeping watch over you the entire time. And thanks to some ingenious gadgetry of my own design that I had placed within the mask she was wearing, I was able to get a remote view of everything that happened over the course of your almost laughably bad efforts at fulfilling your entry exam, not to mention all of the very much unpleasant developments that unfolded over the course of said efforts."

For a brief moment, Adonis continued to remain confused. Then the full import of the words hit him, and his eyes widened in sheer dumbfounded shock. "You mean, you had an eye in the sky watching me the entire time?"

The Master raised his eyebrow. "Eye in the sky?" He chuckled. "Oh you have no idea."

Adonis narrowed his eyes. "What's that supposed to mean!?"

"That's need to know," the Master responded, practically spitting the words out in his newly returned anger. He folded his arms back across his chest. "And after your performance the other night, you've lost all chance of ever having the right to know, let alone any need to know."

Adonis just gaped at the Master. "But . . . why? What did I do wrong? Aside from fail, that is."

"Are you seriously asking me that?" The Master let out a humorless laugh. "Where? Do I? Begin?"

Adonis thought nervously to himself, too nervous now to even properly remember anything that he'd done two nights ago that would likely qualify as one of the 'unpleasant developments' the cloaked figure had mentioned. Either way, he knew that he was definitely screwed now.

"Never mind," said the Master. "I actually do know where to begin." He glared hard at Adonis, remaining silent until Adonis very clearly directed his full attention towards him. "For starters," the Master began. He started waving his arms up and down as if he were a bird flapping its wings. "You shook several trees to entice the sorceress into coming down from the sky."

Adonis raised his eyebrow in confusion. "What's so bad about that?"

"I remember quite clearly," the Master explained, "that over the course of our final discussion in my cave two nights ago before I sent you off to get ready while I met up with my other hopeful recruit, I explicitly told you to wait for the sorceress to land of her own free will. You were not supposed to lure her into landing for you, let alone in such an obvious fashion."

"She wasn't coming the way she was originally supposed to," Adonis stammered, trying desperately to defend himself. "There was no guarantee that she even would land freely on her own. . ."

"And if that had turned out to be the case," the Master interrupted, "then I would have been perfectly willing to allow for a chance to reschedule the plan." The cloaked figure shook his cowled head side to side in disapproval. "But no, instead of keeping good faith, you chose to try to seize control of the situation, and the plan itself, strictly into your own hands; and thus disobeyed a direct order." He opened his eyes. "And it was only the first time you'd end up doing so to."

Adonis's eyes widened. "First time?" he asked. "There were more?"

"Oh yes there were," the Master hissed spitefully. "And to elaborate, I will admit, you still could have perhaps been let off with a warning for that one little act of defiance if you'd had the sense to wait longer after the sorceress had landed before you threw the paralysis bomb I provided at her. In fact, the results of that effort were yet another reason as to why you should have waited for her to land of her own conscious decision rather than luring her into doing so. As a result of both having been lured into landing and how small an amount of time you waited afterwards before deploying the trap, you ended up triggering it while she was still keyed up and on guard, and thus more than capable of reacting in time to prevent her from being taken out in the way that was originally intended!" The Master snarled, and shook his head side to side once more. "And that wasn't the only moment of carelessness you demonstrated either."

"What do you mean . . .?"

"Do not interrupt," the Master snarled. "Next up on the list, your little battle with the sorceress that unfolded after your failed attempt at taking her out with the bomb." He folded his arms across his chest. "As I remember quite well, I specifically made sure to tell you that, in what should have been a very unlikely event that the trap failed and you ended up having to do battle with the sorceress, you were supposed to stick strictly to using your physical combat skills, wait until such a moment in which it would seem that those would not be enough before even considering using any of the upgrades I had installed into your armor, and in that event resort strictly to use of the cloaking technology and the smoke screen dispensers while only using any of the other upgrades strictly as a last resort, if at all."

"The sorceress had already informed me that the green wimp was in the forest with us!" Adonis yelled, still shakily trying to defend his actions. "I had to take her out quickly before he found me . . ."

"WRONG!" the Master roared. "With that knowledge, you should have been EXTRA cautious about how you handled the fight so as to avoid running the risk of attracting the changeling's attention and giving away your location! Did you do that? NO! Instead, you not only waited until your battle with the sorceress had barely even begun before you resorted to using your upgrades, but also used virtually every single one of the upgrades that I'd made explicitly clear that you were not yet allowed to use and made a big, bright, loud, and flashy show out of the battle! And as a result, you not only alerted the changeling to your presence, but also advertised it even further by shining a giant, neon, spotlight on your exact location!" The Master vigorously shook his head side to side, growling angrily. "And to put it simply, that was the 2nd time you disobeyed a direct order from me."

Adonis gulped, briefly feeling lost for words. "Well," he eventually managed to say. "I did at least manage to take the sorceress out anyway, in the end. . ."

"Yes you did," said the Master bluntly. His eyes narrowed, "Using one of two additional samples that you stole from me."

"Well what's the matter with that?" Adonis stammered. "We're villains! We steal all the time. . ."

"Not from our allies!" the Master roared, his eyes now literally burning with hate. "Honestly! Even the Brotherhood of Evil understood that you almighty fool! I am trying to form an army of villains that contains at least a slight amount of trust amongst its members! How am I supposed to trust my future underlings when they steal from me right under my own nose?!"

"Well it was only reasonable for me to have a backup. . ."

"And indeed you did bring backup," the Master growled. "For a plan where, had you done it correctly, you wouldn't have needed a backup plan. But no, instead of trusting that my plan would work as it was, you chose to instead satisfy your own ego and attempt to undermine my authority before you even became an underling of mine! And even without that in mind, surely you noticed how one of the stolen samples was larger than the other! Why didn't you use that one!?"

"I thought it would be excessive," Adonis began shakily.

"EXCESSIVE?!" the Master roared. "Even though you already knew that the effects of the drug wouldn't last nearly as long for either of those two samples as it would have for the sample that should have been applied to the sorceress, and also didn't even have an exact idea just how long or short an amount of time the effects would last with either of those two particular dosages?! Are you insane?!"

The Master started pacing furiously left and right across the area in front of Adonis, snarling and growling in rage. Eventually, right as Adonis was starting to try to muster up the courage to ask if the Master had anything else to say, the cloaked figure abruptly turned to face the miscreant. "But enough of that! Let's move on to the next unpleasant development that unfolded." He leaned forward, his eyes literally ablaze. "Care to explain why you left the sorceress's communicator where you left it?"

Adonis gulped in fear. "As opposed to what?" he asked nervously.

"Need you ask?" the Master hissed spitefully. "Oh I don't know. How about DESTROYING IT!?"

"The Titans would have gotten suspicious if they'd tried to track her and suddenly found themselves unable to detect her communicator's signal," Adonis said shakily in an effort to defend himself.

"But they had not yet had any reason to start searching for her!" the Master shouted. "And even without destroying it, you could have at least tried to do a better job at hiding it, or perhaps even placed it somewhere that would have allowed the Titans to be thrown off your trail! But did you do either of those three wise options? NO! Instead, in yet another demonstration of your carelessness, you just up and left it on the ground, intact and undamaged, and in the very center of the clearing where any fool could have seen it! And as a direct result of that, when the changeling arrived at the clearing, it not only allowed even further confirmation of exactly where your trail began as a result of its position, but he was also able to use it to both sound the alarm for the other founding Titans, and lead them right to you and the sorceress!"

The Master clenched his fists, lowered his head, and snarled apoplectically in rage. Adonis mentally gulped, now completely unsure of what to say for fear of just digging himself even deeper than he already was.

"And now for the next unpleasant development that unfolded over the course of your work the other night." The Master lifted his head to face Adonis in the eyes once more. "You had the sorceress in your clutches, you had already jeopardized your chances at success, and you were already aware of how you wouldn't have nearly as much time available as you would have if the initial plan had worked as intended. Yet you still chose to procrastinate, goof around, and likewise waste your time! What is wrong with you?!"

"I needed to savor the moment," Adonis began.

"Savor the moment!?" the Master roared. "At a time like that?! Are you crazy?!" The Master reared his head up, then jerked it back downwards, sighing and growling in rage and irritation.

Adonis gulped. "Master," he said weakly and fearfully. "I'm sorry. . ."

"Oh wait," said the Master, lifting up his left arm as if sticking up one of his fingers so as to prove a point. "Here's my favorite part." He looked the boy directly in the face once more. "Perhaps you might recall that little phone call I gave you the other night?"

Adonis blanched, and his heart plummeted as he himself remembered just what had gone down during that moment, particularly his less than respectful behavior. "Master please," he whimpered, "I can explain. . ."

"You knew perfectly well that the number I was using was reserved exclusively for emergencies!" the Master roared. "And you knew perfectly well how unwise it would have been to dismiss my advice and blatantly rebel against me while trying to prove your worth as a member of my army! And things had already gone far south enough over the course of everything that had happened before that call! And what did you do?"

"Master. . ."

"SILENCE!" the Master thundered in fury. "Did you do the wise thing and evacuate like I told you to? NO! Instead, you dismissed my warnings as needless paranoid ravings, blatantly disrespected and insulted me to my face, and ignored a direct order from me for the 3rd time that night just so you could have your way with a girl!" The Master clenched his fists, and hunched downward once more, now quaking and snarling with fury. "And the real kicker?! That last act of defiance turned out to be all for nothing anyway! Because guess what!? That Beast inside you? The one that I'd offered to help you learn to control and tame if you proved yourself worthy? Turns out, it had the intelligence that you should have had, sensed the green one coming long before you would have ever dreamed of being able to sense him coming, seized control, and only proved you wrong in every way, shape, and form in the events that happened afterward! And where have you ended up as a result of all that?!" The Master snapped his arms out to his sides as if to indicate the entirety of the room he and Adonis were in. "RIGHT HERE! IN JAIL!"

For what seemed like an eternity, the Master heaved angrily, his entire cloaked body shaking, and his eyes still literally blazing with fury. Adonis gulped, and hung his head in shame, completely lost for words. The Master snarled one more time, then narrowed his fiery eyes and glared hatefully at the miscreant. "I already knew that not every villain I set my sights on attempting to recruit would make the cut," the Master hissed. His eyes narrowed again. "But even I never would have guessed just how utterly horrible, pathetic, and almost laughably unworthy of being a member of my cause you'd turn out to be." The Master snarled. "And I have never, and I mean never, been more disgusted with myself for even considering you worth even giving a chance."

"Master please," Adonis whimpered. "I'm sorry! Really I am! Just give me another chance! Please! I'll make up for this! I'll do it right next time! I swear!"

"NO!" the Master roared. He pointed his right arm at the miscreant in an almost accusatory fashion. "YOU HAD ONE SHOT! ONE SHOT ONLY! AND YOU BLEW IT! YOU DON'T HAVE THE RIGHT TO WORK ALONGSIDE ME, HIS MALEVOLENCE, OR ANY OTHER VILLAINS IN THIS WORLD, OR EVEN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE! THERE MAY BE PLENTY OF AVERAGE JOE SUPERVILLAINS OUT THERE LIKE YOU SAID, BUT YOU HAVE MADE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THE OTHER AMATEUR SUPERVILLAINS LOOK LIKE GRAND MASTERS! YOU'VE MADE THE MOST PATHETIC COMMON CRIMINALS LOOK LIKE PROS! YOU'VE MADE THE MOST HARMLESS OF VILLAINS AND CRIMINALS LOOK LIKE LEGITIMATE THREATS! AND ALL IN ONE NIGHT, AND IN A WAY SO LAUGHABLY BAD THAT IT SHOULDN'T HAVE EVEN BEEN POSSIBLE!"

The Master shook his head side to side and growled yet again. When he finally calmed down once more, he soon revealed himself to have yet more to say. "The only reason I even bothered to give you the opportunity to prove your worth was because I truly believed that you actually had the potential to be a legitimate and properly dangerous villain in spite of your past extensive history of failure." He hung his head, sighing in a mixture of tiredness and regret. "Never have I been more embarrassed to admit that I was wrong." He looked back up at Adonis. "And since you clearly don't have what it takes to be a worthy member of my cause, you can go ahead and rot in jail where you belong. Clearly, jail is the absolute place you could possibly be, in regard to both yourself and everyone else."

The Master turned around to face the door, his back facing Adonis. "Your life won't be worth spit," the cloaked figure hissed. He turned his cowled head to face the miscreant once more, his red eyes smoldering with disgust. "And don't even think that I'm being any more merciful to you right now then the Titans or anyone else is being, or will be, towards you." He nodded his head. "Believe me, you may not be going to his Malevolence's realm today, and you certainly won't be going there any time this month, or maybe even this year if you're lucky." The Master turned his head to face the doorway to the compartment once more. "But believe me, after just one hour of what's in store for you during your stay at Belle Reve, you're going to wish that you were dead."

The Master lifted his right arm and swung it left and right once. A portal of shadows materialized from thin air directly in front of the cloaked figure. He turned his head to face Adonis one last time. "Farewell Donald Anderson," said the Master. "It was a great displeasure to know you. I regret ever so much as sparing a single thought towards you. And the next time I ever see you directly in person, I hope by his Malevolence that it will be within one of the worst segments of his Malevolence's realm." The Master walked into the vortex, melting away into the shadows that it consisted of in the process. Mere seconds after the Master faded away into the portal, the shadowy vortex dissipated into thin air, leaving Adonis all alone in his transport compartment once again.

For what seemed like an eternity, Adonis remained seated where he was, too stunned, guilt ridden, and ashamed to even think properly, let alone speak or do anything. Eventually, after an amount of time that Adonis now frankly didn't care about the exact length of, the miscreant heard the sound of an electronic beep indicating that the door to his transport compartment was opening. He directed his full attention to the door just in time to see it open to reveal none other than one of the Belle Reve guards he'd seen talking to the members of his JCPD transport unit standing right there. "You're in luck today kid," said the guard. "Your cell's finally ready, and its high time we got you properly settled into your new home away from home. After all, from what I hear, you'll be staying with us for a long time."

. . . . .

Adonis glowered as he stood in front of the now once again closed and locked door of his brand new cell. Aside from a bunkbed that appeared to be designed as an extension of one of the walls, the cell hardly looked all that memorable. Of course, as Adonis knew quite well from previous stays in prison, the cells were rarely ever the parts that the inmates tended to remember the most about their time in jail. He snarled, grumbling irritably to himself as he once again felt his earlier bad mood from before his talk with his former hopeful future master return. "No fair," he thought to himself. "No fair, at all."

He looked over at the small barred window on the wall in front of him, his eyes narrowing angrily. "And to think that the Titans actually had the gall to send me here, and especially after they'd already made my life unpleasant enough with their interrogation." He gritted his teeth in a silent snarl, his eyes narrowing again as he remembered the entire unpleasant ordeal in the Titans Tower interrogation chamber. In particular, he could remember Beast Boy practically hovering over him in Komodo dragon form, as well as the devastating spell that Raven had slammed him with.

Adonis raised his eyebrow, thinking to himself. "Could that spell perhaps have not fully been what she said. . .?" Then his eyes narrowed once more, and he shook his head side to side, growling in a mixture of rage and irritation. "No," he growled to himself under his breath. "I felt that particular cluster of hate and rage strengthen in direct response to what that witch was saying and how she was behaving. That spell? It was exactly what she said it was, no lies at all, 100% correct, true, and exactly as advertised."

Adonis turned his head to face the cell door behind him, glowering still. "And now here I am in Belle Reve while they get to go gallivanting around ruining the days and lives of even more criminal shmucks like me." His eyes narrowed. "And it's. Not. Fair." He clenched his right fist, and turned his head to glower at the window once more. "Well to Hell with them," he thought to himself spitefully. "They may have won this last battle, but by God they have not won the war. One way or another, I will get out of this oh so special prison someday." He narrowed his eyes once more, but this time in concentration on the plan that he was even now already rapidly forming up in his mind. "And when I do get out of this dump, I will return to Jump City, even if I have to crawl all the way there on my hands and knees. Yes, that's what I'll do." He looked back up at the window. "And once I've made it back to Jump City, I'm gonna get myself a brand new set of workout gear."

And he indeed had every intention of making good on this plan to build a new suit of armor. "I may not be the brightest bulb in the world," he thought to himself. "But I at least know my way around anything related to mechanics and similar subjects. Besides, I managed to successfully design one suit of armor that actually worked. I can definitely design another one; possibly even one that's even better than the original." He let a small smug grin come on his face. "Heck, maybe with a little help, I'll even be able to install all those upgrades that Mr. Bigshot Black Cloak had installed within my original armor before its destruction. I would certainly enjoy getting the chance to use toys like that again, especially considering how many more were available for use amongst the roster that I never got the chance to try out."

He looked over towards the right wall of his cell, even now continuing to plot. "And once I've got my new armor ready and I'm likewise all set, I'm gonna take the fight to those bigshot children that call themselves heroes," he thought to himself. "And by God I'm going to give them a beat down that will make them wish that they'd never messed with me at all." His eyes narrowed in distaste. "I'll recolor that high and mighty traffic light black and blue. I'll crush that brainless alien under my foot like an egg. I'll dismantle that ungodly robot until he's nothing but a lifeless heap of scrap metal." He gritted his teeth in yet another silent snarl. "I'll make that green wimp pay. I'll send him whimpering and scampering off into the hills with his tail between his legs. I'll make him wish he'd never been born." He straightened up, his face now set in a hard eyed look of determination. "And I will have my way with that witch. Sure, she was telling the truth all along about how she felt about me, and perhaps just maybe I never truly did like her that way at all." His eyes narrowed. "But by God, I'm still gonna have my way with her anyway. Not out of love, desire, or a sense of wish fulfilment. No way. I'm gonna do it for spite, for revenge, for justice." He turned his head to face the cell wall to his right once more, face now set into an angry glare once more. "But first," he thought to himself. "Somehow or other, I am going to get out of this stinking prison." With an inarticulate scream of rage, he drew his right fist back and punched the wall to his right, leaving a surprisingly quite respectably sized impact crater upon the area where his fist had struck.

"Hey!" yelled a guard that clearly must have been sitting somewhere outside the cell. "Quiet down in there! Some of the other prisoners are trying to nap here!"

Adonis turned around to face the cell door once again. "Screw yourself!" he yelled.

Outside the cell, the guard, who was in fact sitting on a bench located about a foot or two next to the door, lowered his newspaper once more and turned his head in the direction of the cell containing the inmate he'd just now yelled at, a less then pleased look on his face. "Screw yourself dirt bag!"

"Oh yeah?" Adonis barked out, clearly not at all keen on backing down. "Why don't you go to Hell for a while?"

The guard narrowed his eyes, and slowly reached down for his nightstick. "Afraid you're already there yourself pal."

"Why don't you prove it you asshole?" Adonis asked cockily.

The guard grabbed onto his nightstick, tensing up as if preparing to stand up from the bench and go into the cell to beat the unruly inmate black and blue. "Boy," he growled. "Don't make me come in there! Hell, considering how I could just as easily arrange for you to receive a personal visit from the Wall herself, the things I could do to you right now would be far more merciful in comparison."

"Yeah well, screw that," Adonis growled. He walked up to his cell door, grabbed onto the bars, and pressed his head up against the space between the two center-most bars. "I want my lawyer!"

"Don't bother."

Adonis's eyes widened at the sound of the unexpected voice. In fact, he was doubly surprised by the sound considering the fact that it had come from behind him. Heart in his mouth, he turned his head to look behind him just in time to see a furry human-like hand with five razor sharp claws for fingernails extend out from the area where the bottom bunk of the cell's bunkbed was located and clasp onto the wall extension that had until now completely prevented Adonis from being at all aware of how he apparently wasn't alone in the cell. The hand clenched around the wall extension, its claws digging deep, making it seem much like what a stereotypical monster would do in all the movies in similar circumstances.

"Lawyers aren't worth a damn in Belle Reve," said the voice from the bottom bunk of the bed, clearly belonging to whatever the furry, clawed, and otherwise entirely human-like hand was attached to. The being clenched its grip tighter, and leaned forward just enough to allow its head to come into view. Adonis blanched, his eyes widening in horror at the sight of the very, very goat-like head that had just now extended into view from the space between the two beds. He had not at all been aware that he'd even had a cellmate, let alone that he was going to be sharing living space with such a horrendously ugly monster as the creature that had now revealed itself to him.

The creature turned its head to directly face its stunned cellmate, allowing Adonis to get quite an eyeful of its face in all its furry, horned, yellow eyed, and saber-toothed glory. In fact, Adonis actually found himself even more terrified at how he'd only just now noticed this last very glaringly obvious detail. The creature smiled, a gleaming predatory grin consisting entirely of obviously razor sharp fangs that, combined with the creature's now almost psychotically happily gleaming yellow eyes, made Adonis feel very unnerved and sick to his stomach.

The creature chuckled, its grin not once leaving its face. "So you're my new cellmate I heard everyone talking about yesterday." Adonis said nothing. In fact, he scarcely dared breath.

The monster chuckled again, and stepped forward off of the bed, revealing himself to be dressed in an orange jumpsuit just like Adonis, and that he had an identical looking inhibitor collar around his neck, but with three glowing lights on the side instead of just one. However, the detail that Adonis was paying the most attention to was his cellmate's very craggy and obviously hoof-like feet. The creature intertwined its fingers, stretched its arms up into the air, and sighed in content. It looked over at Adonis, smug grin still on its face. "I dare say it's high time you finally got here. I've really been looking forward to introducing myself." He extended his right hand towards Adonis as if expecting the still clearly nervous Adonis to walk on over and shake it. "Name's Capricarn."

Adonis gulped, and looked his cellmate right in its unnerving yellow eyes, but otherwise did not respond, let alone move a muscle.

Capricarn chuckled, shaking his head side to side and still grinning. "Come now," said the satyr-like criminal. "Is that a proper way to behave around new acquaintances? Especially when they're trying to introduce themselves?" He leaned forward. "Come on," said the satyr-like monster. "I've told you my name. Tell me yours." Adonis said nothing, and shook his head side to side.

Capricarn made a fake pout. "You're no fun." Then his grin returned, and he chuckled once more. "Oh well, I guess it's not too bad that you're too shy to talk right now. After all, with how long you're apparently going to be staying here with me, we'll have plenty of time to get to know each other."

Adonis chuckled nervously, and started slowly walking away from the cell door and towards the ladder leading up to the top bunk, keeping his eyes on Capricarn the entire time. "Oh yeah, flattering," Adonis managed to say in spite of his current mental turmoil that was being induced by his strong level of panic. "But uh, perhaps maybe we could uh, you know, just acknowledge each other's existence, treat each other with respect, keep to ourselves, and avoid interacting with each other to much instead?"

Capricarn laughed, a hearty, gravelly, bleating sound that left Adonis even more terrified then the smug chuckling from before. "Good one," said the satyr-like criminal. He directed his smug grin back at the human. "Sorry, but I'm afraid you don't really have a choice in the matter. The Wall seemed especially keen on us interacting, and doing it quite often to."

Adonis glowered at Capricarn, his eyes narrowed in irritation. "Who the heck is this 'Wall' person?" Adonis spat. "And why the Devil is she so important around here?"

"You're joking," said Capricarn. "Seriously, you're in Belle Reve, and you don't even know who the Wall is?"

Adonis just stared at Capricarn, and the satyr-like monster burst out laughing again. "I can't believe this!" said Capricarn, now smacking his fist against his chest in an effort to get himself to stop laughing. "I mean; I already knew from what she told me that you were an idiot! But I never would have guessed that you'd be this stupid!"

"What are you talking about?!" said Adonis, now getting irritated at being still left hanging and out of the loop. "Who the fudge is this 'Wall' person?"

"Not 'wall person'," said Capricarn. "The Wall." He grinned again. "Does the name Amanda Waller ring any bells?"

Adonis raised his eyebrow in confusion. Capricarn's grin widened as he waited for the boy's mental gears to turn. Sure enough, Adonis suddenly blanched, his eyes widened in horror as he finally connected the dots. "No," he said. "It can't be."

Capricarn started laughing again, and this time in a more sinister way as opposed to out of genuinely finding humor in something. "Oh I kid you not buddy! The legendary Amanda Waller herself! That's our warden!" Capricarn stopped laughing, grinning again. "And thanks to a little conversation she had on the phone with the Bird Boy from all the way back in Jump City yesterday, plus a good bit of string pulling and similar behind the scenes work on her part after that, you and I have quite the interesting setup arranged for us."

Adonis's heart sank. He had no idea what this setup Capricarn had now mentioned was. But knowing the reputation of Amanda Waller, not to mention of Belle Reve itself now that he remembered the detail of her being its warden, plus the very unnerving nature of his cellmate, he had a bad feeling it would not be pleasant for him.

Capricarn chuckled. "You see," the satyr-like villain began. "I hear that you have some sort of . . . uh . . . emotional problem." Adonis cringed, his face clearly showing a wince and silently screaming 'this is gonna suck'. "And with that in mind," Capricarn continued. He grinned. "Well, emotions? They're kinda my thing you know?" He chuckled. "No, of course you wouldn't know that before now. We've only just met." He chuckled again, and Adonis gulped, his heart sinking further and further as he felt his panic continue to rapidly rise.

Capricarn noticed how increasingly nervous Adonis was still looking, and raised his eyebrow. Then he shook his head, and his face took on a clear 'down to business' type of look. "The point is," Capricarn continued, "I know a thing or two about emotions." He let his earlier smug toothy grin return to his face. "And word from the Wall is, apparently, as per request from our mutual old friend the Titans, and all the hard work our dear warden did to make its fulfillment possible, apparently I'm supposed to be treating you to a rather unique form of . . . uh . . . therapy." The satyr-like villain chuckled again.

Adonis gulped. Maybe it was something about the way that Capricarn had said that last word. Or maybe it was his less than pleasant past experiences with therapists. But regardless, he had a bad feeling that he was not going to like whatever it was that was apparently now in store for him. Trying his best to keep a straight face and prevent himself from showing any more signs of his fear then he already had, he managed to force out, "What do you mean?"

Capricarn chuckled once more. "Oh you'll see." He looked over towards the door to the cell. "Guard!"

"Yes?"

"When's feeding time?" Capricarn asked.

"Glad you asked," said the guard. "It's now." Mere seconds after the guard said this, a large metal barrier suddenly descended from out of nowhere and slammed down into place directly in front of the door on the side where Capricarn and Adonis were positioned.

At the sound of the slamming barrier, Adonis's eyes widened, and he turned his head towards the now quite blocked off cell door. His eyes widened further as he noticed and realized how the only naturally available entrance and exit for the cell had now been rendered unavailable to him. He dashed over to the barrier and started pounding on it frantically. "Hey!" he shouted in panic. "What are you doing!? Open up! Let me out of here!"

Capricarn started laughing again, and Adonis turned his head in fear. "Hate to break it to you buddy," said Capricarn. "But this is Belle Reve. There ain't no getting out." He lifted his right hand, wiggling his clawed fingers back and forth ominously. "The Wall told me herself, this jail's walls are thick enough to hold Superman. They'd know. They've checked." He interlocked his fingers and stretched his hands forward, grinning in anticipation. "And boy are we going to have plenty of fun."

Adonis gulped, and pressed his back up against the barrier blocking the cell door in a desperate effort to back himself further away from his clearly very dangerous cellmate. "What are you going to do?" he asked fearfully.

"Any minute now," said Capricarn, reaching up to his inhibitor collar with his left hand. Seconds later, before the satyr-like villain's hand even touched the collar, one of the three tiny glowing lights on it turned off. Capricarn's grin widened. "Finally," he said. "Now the fun can begin."

Adonis tensed up warily, now very worried about just what Capricarn would do. Capricarn took a deep breath, inhaling strictly through his nose, and Adonis found his eyes widening as he saw what appeared to be a trail of golden dust start to trickle out through his chest and hover through the air straight into his cellmate's nostrils. Capricarn opened his mouth, exhaling in clear joy, his yellow eyes wide open and gleaming brightly with happiness. "Ah yes," said the romantivore. "Tasty." He licked his lips hungrily as if very much wanting more. "I will admit, I'm not entirely certain myself just what to call that emotion I've just had a taste of that you feel for that Titan witch, but whatever it is," he took a deep breath, and then sighed in content, "I'm liking it already." He licked his lips again. Then he grinned at Adonis once more.

The formerly armored miscreant blanched, and pressed himself against the barrier even more, trying desperately to somehow put more space between him and Capricarn. The satyr-like villain chuckled, clearly amused at his cellmate's clear distress. "Hope you're ready," said Capricarn. He chuckled. "Because the doctor is in." No sooner had Capricarn said this, when his grin widened, his eyes flashed with deranged joy, and he started slowly letting out his distinctive bleating laugh once more. As he did so, he bent over, and then slowly straightened back up, lifting his arms and hands up in the air as if to celebrate an apparent upcoming triumph. And the entire time this was happening, the golden dust emanating from Adonis continued to trickle out of the terrified boy and get absorbed into Capricarn's laughing mouth.

As this happened, Adonis decided that he'd had enough, and he turned around so that he was directly facing the barrier before then starting to bang on it with his fists. "Help! Help!" he screamed. "Let me out of here!" Capricarn continued laughing behind him, and Adonis started pounding on the barrier even harder, clearly getting even more distressed and panicked. "Somebody help me!" he screamed, gradually increasing the strength and intensity at which he was banging on the barrier. "Guards! Guards! Guards!" Throughout the entire time Adonis was banging on the door, not once was he aware that Capricarn, still laughing, was now slowly, yet nonetheless ominously, walking towards him from behind.

Eventually, when Adonis very belatedly managed to notice the golden dust emanating from him start to intensify and hasten in the amount of speed at which it was pouring from him towards Capricarn, the boy turned his head, only for his eyes to widen at the sight of the satyr-like criminal getting disturbingly close to his position. Gasping in terror, the human boy turned his full body around and pressed his back against the barrier once again, eyes widened in fear and despair. "No," he whimpered. Capricarn only continued laughing and advancing towards his terrified cellmate. "No," Adonis whimpered again. Capricarn's laughing intensified, and he took another few steps. "No!" Adonis yelled. In that moment, the still laughing Capricarn took another three steps towards Adonis, his hands now outstretched towards the boy as if about to grab him by the wrists and pin him up against the barrier. He now needed only to take one single step more and he'd be in the ideal position to carry out his 'feeding' the way he now currently deemed appropriate. Seconds later, outside the cell, the air was very emphatically flooded with the sound of Adonis's terrified howling shrieks and screams of despair and horror mixed with Capricarn's hilarious, yet at the same time ominous, sounding distinctive bleating laugh.

And just like that, another chapter done! And boy did I LOVE writing this one! I'm especially hoping that you enjoyed reading this chapter and are satisfied with what turned out to be Adonis's ultimate fate in this story (shudders). And that being said, I'm especially hoping you enjoyed seeing Capricarn again! I feel quite proud of myself for creating this character and I hope you were happy to see him make one final appearance before this story ended! ^_^ Also, any comments on just what the Master had to say to Adonis? Particularly about what all the apparent 'unpleasant developments' turned out to be? Feel free to answer! And by the way, you'd best make a note of what the Master said about that one mystery agent of his after Adonis made those comments about her being the Master's 'eye in the sky'. Look at it the right way, and with the right DC knowledge, and you've got yourself a major hint as to just who she could very well turn out to be. Remember, I require a minimum of 1 review in order to post the epilogue (though I'll certainly understand if there are some among you who'd prefer to wait an especially long time before posting any reviews for this chapter so as to prolong the end of this story). Anyway, again, here's to hoping you read, enjoyed, and leave reviews for this chapter! ^_^

Coming up next: The Master has flown the coop yet again. But even in spite of the Titans' second failure at catching him, things still get slightly ok as loose ends are tied up in regards to 'Todd' and the matter of things between our favorite chromatically challenged duo reach a temporary resolution. And soon after that, the Master manages yet to leave Jump City with a new recruit to join his ranks, but not necessarily in a way that said recruit would have wanted. Sound exciting? I certainly hope so! ^_^