AKi- Heh, heh, hey guys, I'm back. (ducks in fear of stuff being thrown at her head) Okay, you know all those annoying fanfic authors who are always like, 'I'm at college, so I couldn;t write for a while cuz I'm so busy blah de blah blah bla...' Well, it is all true. I thought I wouldn't be one of them. But then it got busy, and I am a creative writing major and I had intro to fiction class, and all of my creative energies were used for that class. Also, I got friends in college (that's not fair, I had friends in high school...two...what, all my friends were in the class above me so by the time I was a senior...) anyway, I have a lot of friends and we hang out a lot and...I'm sorry, OKAY? I'm sorry. I made you all watch for months over a cliffhanger...Well, here's the chapter...

Chapter 19: How to Win Part 1

The first thing he felt was something cold and solid and flat against the side of his face. He opened his eyes and the world was tilted ninety degrees sideways. He was lying on the floor. He pushed himself into a sitting position.

"Kaden!" called a voice from behind him and he turned. It was Halle, standing with Alex and Cyborg, but they were all separated by a cage. Kaden stood and surveyed his surroundings as he walked over to them. It was a large grid-like cage, separated into four different sections. Four sections for four Titans. They were united by a corner in the middle.

"What's going on?" Kaden asked.

"They ambushed us, as soon as we entered the room," said Cyborg. "They drugged us. We woke up here."

"We walked straight into a trap," growled Alex; his hands were gripped into fists.

"It's not your fault," Halle said.

"I lead us here. I found the information. I should have been able to see through the trick. I should have been able to—"

"Alex," Halle cut off her brother with a loud voice. "We all wanted to find them, you were just the one who happened to find the information they laid out to lure us in."

"Yeah, man," said Kaden. "This isn't your fault."

"It's none of ours." That was Cyborg. "And we can't dwell on that. We need to figure a way out of here. Or at least what they want us for—"

"Oh, I can tell you zat," said a smooth four turned simultaneously to face Madam Rouge, standing on the gallery half way up the wall, flanked by two nondescript men in the shadows. She was leaning forward on the railing, smirking. "Revenge, plain and simple. My associates are here for various reasons: revenge, protection, reputation, even love. It is why we are all driven to do zee things we do…"

"Rouge," Cyborg growled. "Stop stringing us along."

"Oh, you want me to - how do you say, 'cut to the chase?' Very well then." The French woman pushed away from the railing and turned to one of the men. "Bring zem in." The man in the shadows exited by the gallery door by the corner. The four in the cages glanced at each other, but stayed silent. They had a shared fear and hope.

Moments later a door slide open on the floor level. Out walked eight people, four former Titans – dressed in their black outfits, eyes glazed and emotionless—each with a guard leading them.

"Let them go," Halle demanded loudly, forcing her eyes away from her brainwashed parents to Madam Rouge.

"Oh, now zat vou asked," the woman replied sarcastically.

"What do you want, Rouge?" Cyborg bellowed.

"I already told vou. Revenge. The Titans ruined my life, my career, everything I worked for. Do you zink that I was just going to let it go? You kids put your own lives at stake when you came after zem.. It works for moi, but you were not part of zee original plan."

"How's this revenge?" Alex questioned, but unlike Halle his eyes never once wavered from his parents' path. The guards separated the four Titans and led them to the separate door of each cage.

"These Titans are drugged. You've seen the effect already. They can fight just as well, but they are not themselves, non, I control their highly suggestive state…Yet, when zis superdrug wears off, they remember…everything. Won't it be horrible," said Rouge slowly as the doors to each cage opened and Robin, Starfire, Raven, and Beast Boy, were pushed in, "If they have to remember killing zier own children? Won't that be tragic?"

The cage doors slammed shut.

"You shouldn't have gotten involved. Originally they were just supposed to wreak havoc across zee country, maybe zee world, not for long, but enough…to make zem into monsters in eyes of everyone, to destroy everything zey ever stood for. Then we'd kill zem, if zee drugs didn't tear zem apart first. Prolonged use would be bad for the health, it seems. Oh, well."

While Rouge finished her monologue, villains and henchmen had filed in along the gallery, which spanned all four walls of the rom. The shouted and jeered, like deranged and malicious spectators at a zoo.

"What a show zis will be," Rouge said and she never had sounded quite as cruel and diabolical as in that moment. "Titans," she yelled, "Kill your enemy."

And with those finals words, four separate fights began.

…

Alex's eyes widened as his father began to approach. He backed up a few paces, but there was not much room for him to. The cage wall was just a foot behind him.

"Dad," he said quietly, but there was no response from the man he called father. No expression on his stoic face. Alex was silently glad that he did not have to see the empty eyes behind his father's mask.

"Dad," he repeated. The man took a running charge at him, a karate yell escaping his mouth. Alex only barely managed to turn out of the range of his hit. But Robin's training was too advanced for his son to be out of danger with one dodge. He turned his momentum from the run into a high kick. Alex jumped back, missed a foot to the head, but still got clipped on the shoulder, throwing him off balance. He stumbled into the cage wall, only managing not to end up on his knees by gripping the screen-like cage bars with his fingers.

"Fly, dammit," he heard Halle yell as he got a glance of red hair whipping by. His mother was in the air. Halle must be experiencing the difficulty of fighting someone who was in flight. Flight, however, was still something he barely had a handle on. He needed some extreme joy to fly and this was not exactly the situation to be feeling 'extreme joy.'

As knee came up to meet his gut, Alex decided he could not stand around thinking for too long in this situation. He grabbed his stomach as he keeled over in pain. He turned his fall into a not so glamorous roll out of the way of his father's foot. His martial arts skills were very basic, barely an issue against an expert like his father. He could not keep dodging and defending for long with the way the hits were coming. But he could not fly out of the way. That left…no, I'm not going to starbolt my own father. But it was his only option…I could not even get one out right now even if I tried…

That left him with martial arts, the first thing he had crossed off of his list. It was his only choice, and it was suicide. He had to do it.

Alex got to his feet, a hand clenched into a first by his side. The drugs had to wear off sometime, maybe he could delay until then…hopefully.

…

Halle knew from the second that her mother walked into her cage that she was doomed. Her mother could fly, shoot stuff from her hands and eyes, and had super strength to match hers. Halle was, arguably, better at hand-to-hand combat, but that mattered very little when her mother was hovering above her reach. The woman's eyes glowed green and glowing orbs formed around her fists.

"Oh, shit," she swore under her breath. She was a sitting duck. Her mother shot a starbolt and Halle somersaulted out of the way, quickly regaining her feet afterward. She saw the smoking scorch mark on the floor before looking up to see her mother swivel in mid-air. Halle shifted her weight to the balls of her feet, ready to move at a moment's notice. Starfire shot a row a swift starbolts and Halle was forced to run to the opposite side of the cage. She saw Alex get hit by her father and yelled without thinking, "Fly dammit!"

She could not stop moving now, because her mother was throwing starbolts without a pause. She ran to one side of the cage going intentionally underneath her mother before rolling into the corner in avoidance of another shot. It was like a high stakes game of dodge ball. Halle knew she could handle this for a bit more, but she could feel her heart beating faster, her breaths coming in shorter gasps…she knew her mind-controlled mother could last doing what she was doing much longer than Halle could.

She needed to come up with a plan.

…

Kaden barely had barely a few seconds to calm his nerves and prepare himself before his mother struck. When not of their own mind and not harboring emotions, their power must be easier to use. She shot a wide band of black energy at Kaden. He quickly conjured a thin slice of his own energy, cutting his mother's attack in two and negating it on either side of him.

Kaden glanced about the cage even though he knew what his deductions would be. There was nothing there for either of them to levitate or throw at each other. This would be a pure hand to hand and soulself fight. Kaden and Raven had exactly the same abilities, but she was a hell of a lot better at using hers.

Raven's hands glowed black and Kaden prepared by doing the same. The two circled, slowly, in classic sword-fight style, Kaden noted. He had never 'fought' his mother before, she had trained him to use his powers, to control them, to embrace them, but not for…this. Almost too lost in his own thoughts he managed to only dodge a shot of black energy thrown at him. In an adrenaline rush, he shot a bolt of dark energy back. His mother easily evaded, but Kaden stared. He had just attacked his own mother without a second thought.

It was defensive, his brain argued. And she is not in her own mind. Plus, it wouldn't have really hurt her at all...and…I have to…

…

Cyborg knew Madam Rouge was evil, and as mysterious and surprising as her return had been he had never pegged her as cruel, even beyond cruel, sadistic. She had paired each of the teens with one of their own parents, and him with his former best friend. It would have been extremely difficult for him to have fought any of the former Titans, but Beast Boy—Gar, Grass Stain, Salad Head—this was impossible.

Cyborg assessed the situation. Cage was fairly roomy, but small enough that it would limit the types of large animals Beast Boy could transform into. The t-rex was definitely out, thankfully. However, Beast Boy was not thinking about turning into a ferocious dinosaur, rather he transformed into a large bull, with two twisted and vicious horns on its head.

The bull charged. Cyborg braced himself for the impact, hands up and his weight shifted to the balls of his feet. The bull came and Cyborg caught him by the horns, digging his feet into the floor as the two collided. He was being pushed back, a stumble at first and then slowly, by centimeters. It didn't matter. The bull's momentum was lost. Cyborg put all his strength into twisting and throwing the bull sideways by the horns. It worked. Beast Boy turned back into his human form and tumbled onto the ground and into the cage wall.

He jumped lithely to his feet, not fazed at the least. He transformed into a hawk and took flight, circling overhead in the enclosed space. The hawk drove, talons aimed to scratch at the natural side of his face. Cyborg threw up his arms to protect himself.

It was a trick. In the last moments of the dive Beast Boy transformed into a billy goat, kicking his hooves into Cyborg. He fell back onto the floor. His fists tightened in anger. No, not at Beast Boy, he knew it was not his fault, but…Anger…determination…a little bit of despair…all four were feeling it. They had to win, but they didn't know how. They were being forced to play Madam Rouge's game.

And none of them knew how to win.

Thanks to Tenshi for reading this and proofing it (any mistakes are her fault), and the Smallville episode Cyborg that got me happy about Cyborg...cuz he was in it..., and all the readers who have stuck with me without putting a hit on me (and dude, seriously, I can't finish the story if I am dead).