Raven entered the dark warehouse alone, cloak pulled up over her head. She knew what was coming, she dreaded it, yet she had no choice. But why would Slade want her alone unless he wanted to use her as the Gate to bring about Trigon again? Even that didn't make any sense, because Slade had helped the Titans defeat Trigon the last time, and he certainly held no love for her demonic father. So why had he brought her and only her here? Even Slade wasn't crazy enough to fight her one on one. Unless he was attempting to make her submit, he had no reason to bring her here alone.

Slade stepped from the shadows, dragging an unrecognizable humanoid shape behind him in his left hand. "I see you have come alone. Good. I was afraid I was going to have to kill your boyfriend." He spat the last word with sarcasm and scorn. "But, since you've obliged me and done as I ordered, you can have him back." Slade threw the bound shape in front of her, but the sight that met her eyes was not Tylan.

"You!" she shouted at the Perfect Thief. She then turned furiously on Slade. "Where's Tylan? I demand you show me where he is!"

Slade chuckled evilly. "He's right in front of you. Can't you see?"

"That is not him. It couldn't be. This…bastard," she spat venomously, "almost killed us. I saw it with my own eyes. There's no way Tylan could be this conniving murderer," she seethed.

"Oh?" Slade seemed surprised at that one. "Well then, little girl, let me prove it to you." He reached for the helmet, and tugged it off.

Raven slumped to the floor in disbelief, for there, in front of her, kneeling with his hands bound behind his back and his mouth taped shut, was Tylan. "How could you…" she gasped. "How can it be…?"

Slade laughed again, louder and fuller. "Oh, that was quite a trick! I guess since your mouth is sealed, I'll have to spoil the surprise," he said to the helpless Thief. He turned to Raven. "You see, your boyfriend has latent psionic abilities. I'm sure you figured out the thief had them. But they just weren't strong enough for him, especially when he found out you were a superhero. He felt he could never be with you unless he had powers of his own. So he designed and built this supersuit, and used psitanium." Slade cocked his head at Raven's confused expression. "You don't know what psitanium does? Well, then, let me enlighten you." He began to pace, while Tylan's eyes sent a silent request for forgiveness to Raven. "Psitanium is a highly radioactive element. It has the mystic ability to enhance and channel psionic energies when a magnetic field is applied to it. He," Slade jerked his head at the captive Tylan, "built his suit to channel his natural abilities. Then, he went a step further by adding liquid psitanium tetranitrite canisters to his suit, and injected it directly into his blood. This provided a current of flow for psionic energies to follow, thus increasing his use of his abilities. The only difficulty is that psitanium tetranitrite is extremely toxic in large quantities, so he could only use a small amount at a time." Slade paused to take in Raven's shock, and he smirked behind his mask. "As to why and how he attacked you, I can answer the how. His psychic abilities and neural uplink allowed him to control his armor remotely, and through an ingenious voice assimilation program, he was able to control its speech as if there was really someone in it. I can only speculate as to why, but my guess is you were getting close to finding it out, and he needed 'proof' that he wasn't the thief." Slade chuckled. "I've finally found someone who is as smart as I am, and stronger, as well. His one weakness is, of course, you. Just as your weakness is him."

As Slade was talking, Raven was looking at Tylan's eyes. He seemed to be blinking a lot, but as she looked closer, she noticed a pattern. He was blinking Morse code at her: …mind block…remove it…temples…mind block… over and over. Her gaze shifted to his temples, and sure enough, a thin metal band with blinking lights encircled his head at the level of his temples. She reached out subtly, and cracked the ring with a quick thrust of power.

Slade was mid-sentence when Tylan's hand bindings disintegrated into dust, and Tylan spun around, catching him under the chin with a leaping uppercut. Slade was knocked onto his back, and Tylan dove for his helmet, only to be kicked in the face by Slade's foot. Both were up in an instant and at it again, but this time, Slade had the upper hand. Tylan didn't have his superhuman speed and reaction time without his neural connection to his suit, so he had to rely on pure power, which against the nimble Slade was largely ineffective. The tables were turned against Tylan for once, and the Perfect Thief began to lose ground, taking blow after blow from Slade.

Raven wanted to help, but every time she was ready to hit Slade, Tylan was back up and in the fight, pummeling Slade when he could and attempting to block Slade's lightning-fast attacks. Raven couldn't do anything until Slade landed a devastating kick to Tylan's chin, throwing him ten feet in the air and across the warehouse.

But before Raven could attack Slade, he had whipped around to face her, saying "And now, for the real reason I had you come…" He held up what looked like a necklace, then pointed it at her. "Time to end this."

A white-and-black beam erupted from the pendant, racing straight toward the frozen Raven.

Tylan looked up just in time to see Slade's attack on Raven. It barely registered in his head before he slapped the emergency override button on his psitanium injectors, pumping the entire half-liter into his veins.

The psitanium surged through his body, granting him more power than he or anyone else had ever believed possible. He simply thought, and it happened. Time seemed to slow down as he ran full speed over to where Raven stood frozen in shock.

He slid to a stop between her and the incoming attack. He drew power deep from his source, from his rage at Slade, from his determination to win, and from his love for Raven. He channeled every iota of energy he could summon into his hands, and with a loud cry, he released it on Slade.

The blue river of power streamed from his hands, engulfing the black-and-white beam before striking the stunned Slade.

The explosion was unrivaled, and Starfire saw it from the air, immediately radioing to her fellow Titans, "Friends, I believe we have found friend Raven and friend Tylan, but I fear it may be too late."

Tylan's attack faded, but the battle wasn't quite over yet. Though Slade lay semi-conscious on the ground, his attack, which moved slowly, had survived the wave of energy projected by the psionic. It moved steadily onward, striking Tylan in the chest.

He collapsed as a flash of white light exploded all around them. Raven cried out, and fell to her knees beside him.

Boy, I just love endings like this, don't you? Something of a cliffhanger, I suppose. In case you hadn't figured it out yet, you're at the second-to-last chapter.