To warn the next chapters are just leading to the main point of this story. As always don't own Slade or the TT, but I do own the name Azerovia and its ideals...Any how enjoy)

CH1

Snow crunched under Slade's boot as he was walking through the pavements of a city. Snow lazily fell around the crowd streets where Slade was making his way. Slade, like many other citizens they moved into the streets to move pass a demolished building that was damaged during the Azerathian revolt.

The City of Fredericksburg, the capital of the Azarathian planet, was nearly leveled during Azerovia's constant bombing and street fighting left the city that was once considered the most grand in all of the Azerovian Empire, greater than the capital of Azerovia itself, an backwater sewage of a city.

Slade never actually fought in the revolt, but rather he went behind the enemy's line wreaking havoc, destroying ammo dumps of the Azerathians, cutting vital supply lines that eventually took a toll on the rebels. As a saboteur, Slade gained knowledge of his enemies and used them to his agenda which usually lead it for the Azerovian army to divide and conquer.

Even though the Azarathian rebels surrendered, didn't mean there was a few that went on fighting. There were a few suicide bombings every now and then, and the occasional assassinations of Azerovian soldiers and officers, other than that Azarath was quiet, for now…

As Slade was walking down the streets, he glanced once in a while at the citizens of Frederickburg. Most Azerovians, they thought themselves as a better looking and far more intelligent group, Slade wasn't like that. He came to respect the Azarathian culture as much as his profession allowed. His wife, Lucy, was a half-Azerathian after all. But since fighting the Azarathian, which is how he lost half of his sight, Slade came to view them in a whole different light.

When Slade glanced at one of the Azarathians, none dared make eye-contact and that made Slade suspious. Since Azarath is under martial law from the military of the Azerovians, Azarath has a few ways to make a soldier shudder. You never knew if the man next to you or the woman behind you with a child in her arms will pull out a knife and stab you in the back.

When Slade came up to his destination, which was a large half-damaged temple to the Azarathian gods now converted to the military headquarters to Azerovia's armed forces. Entering the large marble building, where hieroglyphics of Azarathian mythology where gods and demons fought for the control of Azarath, which the gods won.

At the center of the room was a large bronze statue of Azarath's main god which the name slipped from Slade's mind as he walked by it. The statue was of a man twice as tall as Slade was where he was dressed in the cloaks Azarathians are famous for, and the face was long and neat, handsome with long hair entangled to the sides, but this was all before the revolt that not even the god of Azarath could save his people from the magical fist of Azerovia, that the statue was full of holes that took junks of bronze that left the god disfigure, like all of Azarath.

When Slade made it passed the statue and went into the many rooms the temple held till he got to the one he was looking for. He opened the door to see a dozen or so men dressed similar to Slade's dark-gray uniform and the orange/black helmet. The men were waiting in the room a while talking amongst themselves when Slade entered, they all stood attention and bowed respectively to their commander.

"That is all fine," Slade said to them as he moved into the room. His men went eased when Slade came into the middle of the room. "As you know, we are assigned to infiltrate the planet Earth and obtain as much information about the people and military before the invasion. Any questions?" Slade asked.

One man's arm rose, Slade pointed to him, the man said, "What kind of people are these Earthlings? Are they magically intelligent? Or uncivilized?"

"From reports, Earth isn't magically intelligent but they mastered the art of metal. Rather than use creatures they use mechanized-soulless machines. They aren't exactly civilized, they are divided into countries and have their own government so Earth isn't united." Slade explained.

"Barbaric!" the man said and multiple others agreed.

"Our job is to infiltrate the planet and gather much information so the military here could use that for the process to include Earth to the empire." Slade said.

"And how long are we going to leave and going to be gone?" Another soldier asked.

"We are not to leave for another few months. And to answer the next one is as long as it takes." Slade inquired. He knew most of the men had families with children. Like himself the started a family late, he knew some are concerned as well as he was. Slade couldn't tell them the exact time, which was twenty years. "Anything else?"

One more soldier raised his hand.

"Yes Blood?" Slade asked.

"Is your wife going to skin you alive or after she kills you?" the soldier, Blood asked. The room burst into laughter, which Slade himself had to laugh at, all he knew was he didn't want to find out. The only person Slade was afraid of was Lucy.

"Well Blood," Slade began, "Has your wife castrated you yet or has she took it away from you already?" Blood turned red and was about to yell, when he did, the room laughed even harder. Despite the fact that everyone was laughing at Blood, it was the only way to hide the true fact that many soldiers didn't know what their wives had in for them…

Slade left the temple followed by Blood, which his real name was Sebastian Blood, which some of the others call him Brother Blood because he treats every fellow on the team like a brother. Blood and Slade were good friends and liked to embarrass each other when they had the chance. But Slade was serious and Blood was not, most of the time.

"How's Lucy?" Blood asked as they were coming to the street.

"That depends on the day," Slade said, "one day she'll love you to death, the next day she wants to kill you." Slade laughed a bit and so did Blood. "Over all she is doing quite well. What about yours?"

Blood looked away from Slade's glance, "We separated from each other days ago." For a moment Slade felt embarrassed, then Blood said, "As she left she took everything including you-know-what." Pointing downwards, Slade chuckled at the fact that Blood is joker at times, but when it comes down to business, Slade knew he could depend on him.

Both had decided to find someplace to drink, as they went to search for a bar, while waiting at a cross walk were dozens of horses and carriages shoved on by, as Slade and Blood waited, a little hand reached for Slade's hand bag he carried around. Slade noticed something was tugging at his bag, he knew someone was trying to steal it, when Slade was ready he was going to break the guy's nose for it.

Slade grabbed the strap of his bag; he pulled it so the guy would come into the opening, but when Slade did, instead of finding a guy he stared at the face a little girl that was thrown into the opening still clinching the bag. Slade was shock at the sight, before Slade noticed the girl ran up to him stomped on his foot and ripped the bag from Slade and took off.

"Get that kid!" Slade yelled and took off with Blood behind him.

The girl was moving fast. She maneuvered through the crowds like a ghost through walls while Slade and Blood had to push through. Knowing at this rate the girl would have gotten away with theft, Slade reached for his belt and yanked out a crystal. The moment people nearest to Slade noticed the crystal they knew it was one of those crystals that exploded in moments. Everyone departed like a giant bolder was thrown into a river and the water moved around it. That is exactly what happened, everyone was moving sideways of Slade and Blood making it easier to spot the girl turning down an alley way.

Running, they turned down the alley way, only to see a long narrow passage full of trash and vermin's. Moving cautiously, Slade moved around garbage with the smell of something rotten Slade didn't want to find out. When they were about to come up to the other end of the alley, Slade and Blood thought they lost her, but then something creaked. Both turned to see a door hiding amongst the shadows.

Slade didn't know if the girl was leading them into an ambush or what, but knowing that the girl was going too be punished for stealing from an Azerovian officer that blogged Slade's thought of justice. It was Blood that kicked opened the door, instead of getting blasted by enemy fire, the only greeting the men got were an eerie silence. Moving into the house slowly, Slade looked around while Blood covered him.

The apartment, as they figured out was small and messy. The place probably hasn't seen a good cleaning since before the Azarathain revolt. Layers of dust covered the place and the house was dark. Rotting food littered the ground were rats and mice, even roaches roamed. Slade and Blood covered their noses for the smell was too horrific to tell what the smell was actually coming from. Personally they didn't want to know…

Looking into each room and finding nothing except abandonment, Slade and Blood came up to a closed door. Blood pulled out a tool that opened up to be a retractable sword. Slade pulled out his own, before giving Blood a nod. Blood opened the door cautiously, then pushed it in and both of them ran in to see the surprised face of the girl standing near a huge bed.

"Do you think were stupid?" Blood asked moving closer to the girl.

"Leave now!" the girl asked.

"Not until you return what you stolen." Slade said, following Blood's move.

"I'm warning you leave or suffer!" the girl sound desperate as she backed up to the bed.

As Slade moved closer, he actually got a good look at the girl. By the height of her and the look in her face, she had to be over eight. She had long violet hair, that it matched her eyes. She was wearing a cloak that had to be a size to big for her that it sagged off of her that it barley revealed a tunic that had to been picked out of the garbage. The way the girl looked at the Azerovians, she looked tired and hungry, if Slade had to see her in the right size clothing; he bet the girl was malnutrition.

Closer Blood and Slade got the girl, the more frightened she was. When Blood tried to reach for her, the girl screamed, "I warned you. Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" a black mass form that look like whip wrapped Blood and the girl threw Blood across the room. Slade advanced, but the girl retaliated by using the black mass and pushed him out the door.

"I told you." She said turning towards the bed as she reached down and grabbed Slade's bag.

Blood apparently was knocked out. Outside the room, Slade was rubbed his sore head, "Should've seen that coming." He said to himself as he staggered upwards. Slowly he returned the room. The girl had her back to him, he watched as the girl pulled out crystals of different uses, till she found a blue crystal… a healer one. Slade thought the girl looked fine, but as girl moved the covers away, what Slade saw made him change his very thought.

A little boy was wrapped in rags as the girl pulled the blanket all the way from him. The boy almost exactly looked like the girl in facial structure but his hair was white as the snow outside. But the boy looked far more malnutrition and had more bruises than the girl. When the girl shook the boy up, he barely had enough power to lift his arm to touch the girl's. Slowly the crystal glowed blue as the girl moved it across the boy's face arms and legs. The bruises disappeared and like magic the boy had enough strength to lift himself off the bed.

"You stole again?" the boy asked, his voice was dry and sounded weak.

"I had too." The girl responded.

"No you don't, all you had to do was ask." The boy inquired.

"What's the point, nobody cares for orphans, especially one that is dying."

As Slade listen, he felt his heart weep for the two childeren. He had seen suffering in the eyes of the Azarathain citizens, but those were from the ones that can work. But these two had to steal to survive. What Slade found remarkable is that the girl had lost hope for aid, but the boy insists on going the right thing.

Slowly Slade walked into the room. He totally forgotten about why he was here in the first place, nor did he notices his friend was lying unconscious on the floor. Walking quietly as he could to the bed, he knew he didn't wasn't to disturb the girl, but he had a feeling that these two were more than meets the eye.

Finally Slade said, "Not everybody turns down orphans." When the girl turned in surprise, Slade covered the girl mouth. "I'm not here to hurt you. At first I was, but not anymore." To show that he meant it, he removed his hand from the girl's mouth.

"Who are you?" the boy asked.

"Slade Wilson, officer of the Azerovian Imperial Forces." Slade replied, "What are your names?"

The girl looked at the boy for advice, when the boy nodded that it was okay, the girl looked at Slade. She said:

"Raven Roth."

The boy replied, "Edgar Roth."

"Siblings?"

"Yes, twins." Edgar said.

Slade nodded. Then Slade went on to talk to them. He eventually heard that Edgar was the oldest twin by mere minutes and that he has been sick throughout his life and always will be. Raven was only stealing healing crystals and food to survive. Slade figured their parent were killed by religious fanatics that didn't like the idea of their parents supporting Azerovia. Slade felt pity then remorse that reminded him of his past. Knowing he couldn't leave them, he knew he had to take them back to base.

As he kept talking he realized both Raven and Edgar were a rare Azarathians born with gifts no Azerovian, not even Slade himself could depend on power within. Most Azerovian power was drawn upon the unlimited crystal energy that powered their homes, vast transports and weapons, but these twins are born with inner power, as Slade kept thinking could be exploited by the AIF.

By the time the Roth twins' and Slade were done talking Brother Blood had gained conscience. Slade told Blood about them and talked about what he was thinking. After convincing Blood to agree, Blood went over and helped Edgar out of his bed, while Slade held Raven's hand and walked out of the apartment.

As the entered the streets, they headed back to the temple. As they all walked down the streets of Fredericksburg, people stared at them in confusion, and disgust. Slade noticed but didn't care to stare back, all he knew, they didn't know the power he and Blood were leading to Earth…

(Tell me what you all think, like my warning before, depending on the reviews I won't continue. Please review and wait...)