"Your guess was correct," Wintergreen was saying. The older butler and Slade were standing in Slade's computer room in the basement, viewing the results of the analysis Slade had requested yesterday. Frozen frames of local Jump City news were spread across the monitors, the subtitles of the headline openings mocking Slade.

Slade ground his teeth together. This could be a problem, the thought to himself, reading the hidden message again. He'd known going after BioJump was inherently risky, but he had miscalculated how greatly Lex Luthor valued his little side project with the biotech company.

The message was formed by piecing together the first word of each broadcast's headline regarding his break-in.

SLADE. FOR JUSTICE LEAGUE ATTENTION. RETURN STOLEN DATA. SECRET TO TITANS.

The threat was clear to Slade. Luthor was pissed about the League upping the pressure on him and LexCorp because of the bioweapon. That much Slade had anticipated from the start. He was surprised Luthor wanted the data back. Given how easily the man could replicate it on his own, he wondered why Luthor valued the existing research so much that he was willing to make a true enemy of Slade whom Lex knew to be Deathstroke. Very few people in the world consciously tried to cross the infamous mercenary. Even fewer survived to tell the tale. While Slade was confident Lex didn't know many of his secrets, he also didn't want Lex sharing what he did know with Nightwing or the other Titans. Raven, of course, was different entirely. She already knew the secrets he kept closest. What would it matter if she learned a few more?

"And the bots?" Slade asked Wintergreen, rubbing his chin as he considered how best to deal with the villain.

Wintergreen was quiet for a moment. "Five of the dispatched bots successfully cleaned and cleared the distant targets."

Slade's mouth thinned. "And the sixth?"

"The sixth was taken offline upon reaching the targeted destination. It has not come back online."

"Fuck," Slade muttered. Sitting himself at the keyboard, he began pulling up the bots' data. Each of them recorded and uploaded video a cloud server, and when he opened the video feed of the last bot, he groaned. The bot was dispatched at the steps of the back door to one of the homes by a blurry figure wearing a familiar mask over his nose and mouth. "Bane."

Of course, he hired Bane, Slade thought. Only insane people got in Deathstroke's way, and Bane absolutely fell in that category.

"What would you like to do, Slade?" Wintergreen asked, staring at the paused figure of the madman.

Slade sat back in his seat, mind working out possibilities. The simplest course was to kill them both, but the likely collateral of a war between him and those two would be exponentially higher than he was comfortable with. He already had Wintergreen wipe the research from his systems, so doing as Lex asked was out of the question. Still, Slade would have no interest in handing it over if he did still possess it. He could retaliate against Lex directly for the threat, cause some chaos with his other side projects. Though, that path was bound to lead back to the original problem of extreme collateral. Simply ignoring the message was an option, but Slade had the distinct sense that doing so would only trigger Lex into upping his own pressure on Slade.

It was clever, really—using the media to bombard the Titans with negative press, essentially forcing their hand into hunting him down. Slade cracked a grin when he imagined what that brat Nightwing would say when he found out he was a pawn in Lex Luthor's game.

Now there's a thought, Slade mused. The Titans. I could use them the same way Lex is. If he could inform the Titans that Lex Luthor was seeking the research, that Lex was the one responsible for their bad image…

It could work. And with Raven, I could just fucking tell her what he's doing, and she could relay it to them. No collateral. No expensive war. Slade grinned. It was his best option. That would keep Lex off his back, and it might even help his little bird. Knowing Lex was puppeteering the press might give her some solace.

"I've got a plan," Slade said to his friend. "Well, the beginnings of one. For now, we don't need to do anything. If Lex Luthor wants to use the Titans against me, I'll turn them right back on him."

Wintergreen raised a brow. "And Bane?"

Slade waved off the concern. "Bane is a fucking psychopath, but he isn't stupid. He wouldn't take a contract to kill me unless he also had a reason to do it. I don't know why Lex sent him after one of the bots, but the fact Bane didn't track me down afterward tells me his job is done."

"And if it isn't?" Wintergreen asked, his voice tinged with concern. He was well aware of Bane's reputation.

Slade gave him a serious look. "Then, I'll put him right back in the hole he was born in and bury him in it."

Wintergreen nodded once, but the anxiety was still present in his body. It was uncommon for Slade to go up against men equal in ability. Even more uncommon when those men would be willing to kill. That worked in Slade's favor the majority of the time, but while Slade felt confident he could best Bane in a fight, especially given his improved healing, it would be a brutal affair.

As both men walked out of the room, Slade began contemplating how he should tell Raven about Lex. He certainly didn't want her to think he was using her, but the fact was, that's exactly what he was going to do. Grinding his teeth, he tried thinking of just one way to frame his words that didn't end up with her screaming at him. If he told her everything about the contract and the device he'd created, he would be the most honest, but the price of those disclosures would be too high. He wanted to do his best to not remind her that he was actively still killing people for money. Even if those people were scum. Still, he had sworn he would never lie to her.

Frustrated, Slade pushed the question from his mind. He could find a way later. Hopefully, that way wouldn't involve Raven vanishing from his life forever.

Just as he and Wintergreen reached the main floor, a familiar presence reached for his mind.

Raven, he thought, a smile spreading on his face. He reciprocated the gentle touch of her spirit, his excitement that she was ready to return growing. But then….

Grief, regret, conflict. The mind he found on the other side of that connection was clouded. Dark, lonely feelings were suffocating him as he felt her intention.

No… Raven! he tried to call to her, to bring her back from the edge she was jumping from. When the link between them snapped closed, Slade reeled backwards, feeling like his heart had just been ripped from him. His fists clenched at his side, and he swung. Drywall gave way under his hand and dust fell to the floor. Just behind him, Wintergreen jumped back in shock at the unexpected outburst.

"Slade!" the butler called out, coming up beside his friend.

Slade was shaking, his anger and grief at the rejection pulling him under. The eye hidden behind his eyepatch was throbbing with his pain, mocking him. Putting his forehead against the wall, he tried to reach out to her, tried to soothe the storm he felt in her mind, but there was no response. Ripping his hand from the wall, he marched down the hallway and into his bedroom.

The door nearly came off its hinges as Slade stormed in. He was ripping off the casual clothes he wore and pulling out the armor of the man the Titans had fought against for so long. The man she had fought against. If she wouldn't come to him, he would force her to. The city was terrified of him, and he would amplify it. He would make her return. And when she did—

Slade paused, his armor on except for the mask which was taunting him in his palms. What? he asked himself. What then? Will I force her to stay? Bind her magic and keep her here like some fucking prisoner? She would hate me. She would never stop fighting me. I would prove to her I am the villain. That she was right to not come back. The idea of Raven hating him, of thinking of him with fear and disgust, it was too much. I don't want her to hate me. I just want… her.

"Slade," Wintergreen interrupted his train of thought.

"I'm fine," Slade choked out, setting the mask on the dresser and feeling despair in his chest.

"Slade," Wintergreen repeated more urgently.

"I said I'm fine," Slade fired back, looking straight at Wintergreen. When his blue eye finally landed on the butler in the threshold of his room, Slade saw the panicked look in his eyes. "What?" he asked.

"You need to see this," Wintergreen responded and walked out of the room.

Slade followed behind, not able to ignore the pangs in his heart, but his curiosity muting them enough for him to move. When he reached the main living room, he stopped next to Wintergreen, eyes trained on the broadcast playing on the television.

"I got an alert that you were mentioned in the news right when you stormed off, and when I turned it on, this is what was playing," Wintergreen explained.

Slade listened to the reporting, and even as he did so, he felt the connection between him and Raven spring to life. This time, though, where there had been sorrow and regret, he felt only an all-consuming wrath, and it was directed at him. There was absolutely no conflict in her now; she wanted him dead and she was intent on coming to do it.

"Well," Slade said, backing away from Wintergreen and running to his room, "it seems Lex thinks I've taken too long to respond. But, at least we know what Bane was doing in Georgia!"

As Slade slid into his room, grabbing his mask and preparing himself, he shouted to Wintergreen, "Wintergreen! Unless you want to become demon-fodder, I suggest you leave, now!"

Whether the older man heard Slade or responded, Slade didn't know because at that moment, the wrath that had been drawing nearer finally closed in as the lights of his home darkened and shattered. And from the depths of the shadow growing in the center of his bedroom, four red eyes opened, and a deep voice shouted out, "Liar!"

As that inhuman voice reverberated around the room, Raven emerged from the darkness, her face contorted and eyes locked onto him.

Settling into a fighting stance, Slade couldn't help but smile. "Hello, Raven."

Raven snarled, her burning eyes narrowing on their target as if she were nothing but an animal readying for the kill. Rage had full control, and the red clone was out for blood.

Everything around Slade was darkening. Shadows spread out from Raven's form, encapsulating everything in their path, and he dive rolled away as the dresser was lifted and slammed down at the spot he'd once stood.

"You lied to me!" Raven's demonic voice cried out.

Sharpened tendrils darted for his chest, seeking a heart to pierce. She wanted him to feel her pain. She wanted him to know what it was like getting your heart torn from your chest only to have it be stabbed again and again.

Slade dodged the knife-like shadows, vaulting over his bed and flipping the mattress to block them. "I didn't lie to you!" he shouted at her as the mattress was torn to pieces.

"You told me you didn't take it! Innocent people are dead because I was stupid enough to believe you!" she screamed, and the bedframe exploded around them.

Slade was thrown back from the force of the blast, and he caught himself on one knee just before he would have slammed into the wall. Raven was approaching him, stepping over the remains of the bed with both hands clenched at her side. In one hand, she held… a mirror? Slade narrowed his eye at the object. It matched the description of the mirror Raven had been returning to get. The mirror into her mind. He met Raven's glowing eyes as he stood, and in them he didn't recognize the woman he had come to know. She's not going to listen to me. Not here. But maybe if I can get into her head….

Raven brought up one hand, shadows writhing around them, aiming directly at Slade's chest. "I should have known you'd always be him," Raven spat out the word, "the masked villain. The scourge of Jump City. You may have fooled me once, Slade, but you're never going to manipulate anyone. Ever. Again."

Despite his impending doom, Slade had to admit he was slightly proud of Raven. She'd certainly taken his comments to heart. She was not wasting any time here. "You know, little bird," he said to her, trying to buy himself a moment, "I'm proud of you."

Raven paused.

Thank fucking god, Slade thought. "You've really learned something from me. Killing your enemy? And so quickly? I didn't think you had it in you."

There it was. Doubt. It flickered across her face and sent a small tremor in her outstretched hand. Still, she did not back down. "So you are my enemy?" she hissed through her fang-like teeth. She hadn't meant for it to come out like a question, but through her blind rage, something else was creeping into her heart.

He betrayed you, Rage roared. Kill him!

Raven, please, another clone was whispering to her, though Raven couldn't identify which for the voice was so soft. Please, don't.

Slade had kept the bond between them open since he first felt her anger, and when he sensed it fade, if only slightly, he took his chance. Slowly, with his hands raised palm out, he removed his mask, letting it drop to the floor between them.

Her face scrunched up, and she shook her head, tearing her eyes away from his face. She could not bear to see the man beneath. "Put it back on!" she yelled, her voice cracking.

"No," he said softly, "I am not your enemy, Raven."

"I don't believe you," she choked out. When she looked back at him, four red eyes were replaced by two tear-filled violet ones.

Slade took a step, and Raven blasted magic at his feet in warning. "Don't," she cautioned, but her voice was shaking.

He took another.

"Stop it!"

Another step.

"I'll do it!" she threatened him, the magic flaring in her hand.

Slade smirked, "No, you won't." He took another step towards her. They were only a few feet apart now, and with one more step, he would be in arms' reach of her.

At his advance, Raven closed her eyes and flung her hand at him, trying to send her magic towards his body, but just as her hand moved, she felt her power fail her. Opening her eyes, Slade ducked away, expecting to be hit, but there was no magic in her hand. They both stared at her palm, wondering what had happened.

The answer came in Raven's mind only a second later. I won't let you hurt him. The voice from Nevermore. It was… Timidity?

Raven didn't have time to process why her shy self stepped in as Slade took the opportunity and closed the distance between them, reaching for Raven's other hand. As he gripped her hanging wrist, Raven reacted, kneeing him in the stomach and trying to push him away.

Slade grunted, but he kept his focus on the mirror. She was hitting him and prying at his grip, but he was stronger. He yanked the mirror from her grasp, only for it to slip through his fingers as the blood that coated the handle drenched his hand. Releasing her wrist, he went to reach for the fallen object only to have his stomach kicked in as Raven fought. Whether she knew what he was doing wasn't clear, but what was clear was that her fury had not fully departed. If she didn't have her magic, she would still fight tooth and nail. For Raven, fighting him felt like the only thing that was left to her.

She lunged at him, striking with her fists, and he blocked each with ease, refusing to fight back. She kicked and threw things, and Slade moved with her, parrying her attacks and ducking out of the way of flying objects. His eye always finding its way back to where the mirror had fallen. As they danced around the room, he managed to lead her back close to where the mirror was. He was about to dive for it when she picked it up, not even realizing what it was, and chucked it straight at his forehead.

His hand stretched out to snatch it from the air, but he stopped when the mirror froze between him and Raven. The jewels around the frame began to glow brilliantly as a vortex of shadow grew from the center, and before Raven could stop it, both of them were dragged into Nevermore.