(….smiles innocently) Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans. I do own Shasta, Garth, Kym, the Keeper of Stories, and Rivrin Battleblade.

Chapter 16

The Battle

It was a quiet morning in the tower, everyone calm and serene. Raven was on the couch with Shasta, Garth, and BB who were playing a video game. She had her eyes closed, relaxed and content.

The other titans were scattered about the room except for Cyborg, who was in the garage waxing the T-car. It was a morning they rarely had; so quiet without any bickering, or villains doing evil things.

But that was broken an instant later when BB started yelling, "GO GO! COME ON! YES!"

Shasta and Garth groaned at their defeat. BB danced around like a lunatic shaking his behind. Raven sighed. She was tired of being here, so she looked at Shasta her eyes half closed. He caught her gaze, and gave her a questioning look.

Raven levitated off the couch and towards the door. She stopped and looked back waiting for Shasta to follow. The green cloaked titan left his controller and quickly followed her out of the door. Raven teasingly stayed a few feet in front of her love, even when he protested.

Finally, they arrived at Raven's room. Shasta was panting when he reached her. Her eyes half closed, she regarded her love. As he regained his breath, he looked up at her, and asked, "What did you bring me up here for?"

"Oh…no reason." She responded. The dark titan slowly lowered herself onto her bed, and then beckoned to him.

A small smile appeared on his face, Shasta's eyes lighting up with excitement. He quickly walked over to the bed, and she grabbed his arm and yanked him down on to it.

"AND CUT!!!!!" says the author waves arms in a panicked way we're going to skip right to the next part!!!

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Suddenly, the tower rang, and making everyone in the commons jump. BB and Garth quickly quit their game and Robin raced to the computer. As he was typing in a few words, Shasta and Raven came stumbling through the door. Terra turned and gave them an odd look then turned back to Robin.

"Slade…" reported the leader.

"Then let's go kick his butt!" Garth said.

Then the Titans were off.

Slade stood with his robots surrounding him. He chuckled as people screamed and ran. It would be fun to rule the city.

Suddenly, a robot was blown to pieces. Slade whipped around to see the Titans, weapons at ready. There were new Titans, the villain noticed, and Raven! He thought in disbelief. He had killed her!

But there was the dark titan floating with her friends, powers at ready, hood up. Slade growled in frustration. This was not going to be easy.

Shasta stared at the enemy that had tried to kill Raven. Hatred burned deep in him and he vowed silently to himself that it would be he who killed the mad man.

Slade pointed at the titans and yelled, "Attack!"

The Titans sprang into action. Shasta leapt into the air and with his dark powers, shot out a tentacle of energy. Three robots were shattered to pieces by the attack. He landed and with a wave of his hand, sliced six more robots in half. Then another robot grabbed his arm, and Shasta whipped around, and shot the robot through the face with a small sharp form of black power.

Then, through the robots, Shasta saw Slade, standing like a calm pillar of stone. The green cloaked titan fought his way towards the villain. Finally he was in the small circle clear ground Slade stood in. Panting, Shasta faced the villain.

Slade gazed at the young Azerathian, and then said, "Are here to face me?"

"Yes you son of a bitch! You tried to kill Raven and you will pay." Shasta snarled.

Slade chuckled. "You must love Raven a lot. Quite frankly, I didn't think the little whore would ever get a boyfriend."

Shasta growled. Slade laughed then lifted his hand and challenged the green cloaked Titan.

Shasta leapt at the villain, his power reaching out to rip the man apart. Slade easily dodged the attack, whipping out his battle staff. As Shasta turned to attack again, he was hit across the face with the staff. Shasta staggered away from the attack, and Slade waited for the young man to recover.

Shasta put a hand to the place where he was hit, and pulled back. There was blood on his hand. He glared at Slade and brought himself back to attack readiness. This time he stayed where he was and tentacles of black power reached out trying to grab the villain, but they missed and Slade flipped between them and landed another blow on Shasta.

Anger was building in the Azerathian, and finally, he unleashed it, firing it at the villain with as much quickness as he could. But Slade leapt into the sky, and over Shasta, and as the green cloaked titan whipped around to confront the villain, he saw a glint of metal in the sunlight and then he felt sharp pain from an area between his shoulder and neck.

Slade's free hand wrapped around Shasta's throat, for the boy's hood was down. Shasta gasped for air, feeling his tunic and cloak grow wet and sticky from his blood. It slid down his arm and dripped off his fingers onto the ground.

Slade's masked face was fading away to darkness. Shasta couldn't believe he'd failed. He had shamed himself and his house name. But the worst thing was that he had let Raven down. And now he was another painful burden for her to carry. Then the boy's mind went blank. The last thing Shasta heard was his name being called out.

Slade watched the boy in his hands shudder and then go limp. Under his masked he smiled with satisfaction. This would cause more pain to Raven than anything physical. He jerked his knife from the boy's neck, and cleaned in on his victim's cloak. Then he the boy's name called out. "SHASTA!"

Slade dropped his victim like a useless toy and turn to see Raven floating not far away, a cold light in her eyes. Slade tilted his head at the heroine, "What is it dear Raven, did I hurt your little boyfriend?"

Raven answered with a blast of power that sent Slade flying backward. He recovered just in time to roll out of the path of Raven's fury. Slade whipped his battle staff out, and swung it at the advancing Titan. He landed the hit, but it did not stop Raven from landing a punch of her own. Slade growled and yelled as he charged.

This time as Raven attacked with a razor sharp flash of power, Slade skipped to the side and behind. He swung with all his might. Raven let out a cry of pain and she fell to the ground, stunned and unable to move.

Slade, moved close to her, he raised his staff to bash the dark titan's head in. Then he let out a startled gurgle. Looking down, Slade saw a metal blade protruding from his stomach. He then fell to the ground.

Raven looked up at her savior in amazement. It was The Keeper! The brown robed figure stood over Slade's body, an insane light shining in its eyes. It then said to Raven, "Darkness and death…heh heh…will see life."

Raven watched as it pulled it's dagger from Slade's body, then turned and materialized into the mobs of fighting robots. Some began to charge her. Then a black streak flew through them. They stopped and fell in their tracks.

The bird, Rivrin Battleblade landed next to Raven. "Are you alright?"

Raven nodded. A smile appeared on the bird's beak. "Who said you could start the party without me and The Keeper?"

Then it lifted off the ground and flew into the robots. Raven waited for a few moments to let her back recover, then she dragged herself to Shasta's side. The boy was face down in a pool of his own blood.

Raven's eyes were wide with worry. She turned him over, and cried out in horror. The young man's eyes were open and staring sightlessly at the sky. Blood was every where, and a small stream ran from his slightly open mouth. Tears formed in Raven's eyes. "NO! Shasta…Shasta! Wake up!"

The boy did not stir. Tears fell from Raven's eyes; she shook her head, and buried her face in his un-bloodied shoulder. Her body shook with sobs.

A loud boom echoed through the air, a shadow fell over the battle field, and after a few moments it began to rain.