A.N. Hey guys! Don't shoot me for being so late! Please review. puh-leeze

The Story So Far... The Teen Titans defeat Trigon. Yay! French toast! A year passes and the Church of Blood (led by the renamed Father Blood and his son) want to bring Trigon again to Earth, using Raven's daughter. Blood returns Slade to his skeletal state and grants him his old powers, as long as he delivers Raven to the Church as a concubine. A few problems: Slade would rather have Raven all to himself, the two have teamed up, and Cyborg and Beast Boy are catching on! Read the chapter to find out what happens next!

Disclaimer: Dont' own Teen Titans. Boo hoo hoo. Do own the monster. The pit was inspired by Edgar Allen Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum.

Slade

The fog was so thick he could barely see his left hand when he held it up two feet from his face. The ground was so completely solid and flat it was actually unsettling. He felt Raven shiver slightly and kept a firm hold on her hand. She would probably be less disoriented than he was. "Any ideas?"

"I..."

Maybe she was just as lost as he was. "Have you been here before?"

"Actually, um," Raven started, then got defensive. "No. Why? Have you been here before?"

"No..." Slade said. "But you were the one with all the supernatural information." This is so stupid.

"That doesn't im- did you see that?"

"What?"

"That!"

"I have no idea what you are talking about," Slade replied. She must be pointing at something.

Raven gave an exasperated sigh. "The thing over- never mind. Let's just go... this way."

Slade let her lead him in a random direction. Bad idea, Slade.

What?

Coming here. You'll never get back.

The fog started to shift and clear, revealing a gray sky and flat dark gray... tiles? which led up to a huge pit. He could see that it was filled what seemed to be three quarters of the way up with unfathomable water. "Anything about this in your books?"

"No," Raven said. She suddenly released his hand.

Do you even realize how pathetic you are with her?

Have you noticed she's a Teen Titan? And that at any given time she could kill me with that dark magic of hers?

His internal bickering was suddenly interupted by a shifting not underwater in the pit, but from the tiles under Slade's feet.

Robin

"What??"

"Yeah, man. We think she might be gone."

"Then how do we get there? Did she leave any signs of struggle? Or clues? Anything!" How could another member of his team have been tricked by Slade? How could Raven, who could withstand demons, have fallen prey to the voice that haunted his nightmares?

"Friend Robin! We know you are deeply disturbed by even the mention of Slade, but have you all forgotten that Raven is very smart and would not be easily fooled?" Starfire asked indignantly.

Beast Boy looked miserable for once. Cyborg said, "Look Star, it's not really how smart she is, it's just that Rae can be kind of, you know, naive. Like, how she fell for that Malchior guy. Not that I'm saying it's like that now, but... we gotta make sure Raven's safe."

Raven

The oddly shaped tiles bulged and cracked beneath her. Raven flew six feet off the ground to get a view of what was happening. Slade seemed to remember he could fly and did the same. She turned toward him. "What do you-"

She was interupted by the churning tiles giving way to a huge creature. It was massive, with dripping fangs and talons. It had no eyes, but only soft sockets. The torso was covered in armor-like scales. The monster lunged for Raven with a deadly hand and she created a shield with her soul self. She gaped as a moldy claw sliced right through the dark enery.

The pain ripped into her innermost being and Raven barely held back a scream. She dodged the claws by an inch, feeling light headed and still in excruciating pain. The blackness seeped slowly, agonizingly, back into her body. The monster began again to attack and Raven knew she did not have the strength to resist. Soon it would be over.

A flash of fire knocked her attacker off course. Slade! Her unlikely rescuer launched a barrage of flame at the creature's tender eye sockets. It let out a scream like a dog whistle and grabbed blindly, catching Slade in a huge hand. He sent fire through the monster's arm and into it's heart. It dropped to its knees and began to sink into the gray tiles, throwing Slade into the pit as it descended.

Raven regained mobility as she saw Slade dragged under the water by scores of shadowy hands.

Slade

That was the coldest thing by far he had ever felt.

"I have to go. We'll talk more when I get back."

Not the water, those fingers.

His vision was red. It seemed too dark to be blood. There was a scream. It couldn't be Addie. She was the one who shot him, right?

Too bad he didn't need to breathe. It would have been bliss to die.

A huge weight crushing his chest. The heat was so great it felt rather cold. He lost sight of that blond hair last. This wasn't supposed to happen. How could an idiot like her regain control?

The water (was it water?) trickled into his mask. How could he have lost conciousness when he was dead?

A.N. Hope you liked it! Please review. Constructive criticism is welcome.