Disclaimer: This story is a fan work dealing largely in characters owned by subsidiaries of Time Warner. I claim ownership over nothing in this chapter.

Ascension of the Beast

Chapter XIX

Deathstroke

The changeling quickly jumped into a defensive position, but Slade did not display any offensive intentions. "Now, now, Garfield," the older man said, displaying his knowledge of the changeling's identity, "if I wanted to harm you, do you truly believe I would have awakened you first? I'm offended by how little you seem to judge me."

"Ha!" Gar replied, "if you didn't want to harm me, then why did you try to kill me?" The Titan had not forgotten about the incident that occurred immediately prior to Slade's death, during which the man attempted to use control over Terra's body to kill the changeling. "And don't call me that!"

"You made me lose my temper. And even if I did wish to kill you, things change."

"So, it was you who sent that Slade-bot after me?"

"Yes."

"Why?" The changeling never really did see the benefit Slade got out of that. Terra wasn't going to return to villainy anyway, but maybe Slade had the same idea that Garfield had? Maybe not.

"A simple question," the man who also went by the name 'Deathstroke' said as he found a seat and took it. "But the answer will be less than simple. Nor will it be short." The tone of the man's voice changed as he spoke. For some reason, it made Gar lower his defenses. He could not put a finger precisely upon what the tone conveyed, though. Regret? Maybe. Nostalgia? A little. Introspection? Quite a bit. Longing to be understood? Certainly present.

"Well, I've got all morning, I suppose. Raven probably won't be awake unt..."

"Raven is not in the house. She decided to take an interdimensional trip, and will be indisposed for a few hours," Slade interrupted.

"How do you know that?" the changeling didn't know whether to be confused, sweep the entire estate for bugs, or launch into a violent confrontation. But his instincts told him to stay calm and allow the man to explain.

"Do not be alarmed," Slade replied in a calm voice, "I have not done anything offensive and I do not have surveillance on your property. I do have a very private source, however. But I have to assume that my source would not be particularly pleased if I were to out her. That said, my source has informed me of the particular reasons why Raven has made her voyage. I anticipate that you will be a very happy man the next time you speak with her. And no, I will not elaborate further upon that point."

"Alright," Gar settled for that explanation, "but at any rate, I shouldn't be expecting any interruptions anytime soon, so go ahead and tell me everything you wanted to tell me."

"My full name is Slade Joseph Wilson, alias Deathstroke, sometimes called 'the Terminator' or simply referred to by my first name. In my youth, I always aspired to be a soldier, to the point where, when I was 16 years old, I lied about my age to enlist in the United States Army. I apparently was more than a good soldier, considering they assigned me to the United States Army Special Forces..."

"Dude!" Garfield Logan frequently played dumb to avoid having people pry into his mind, but he really was never as dumb as he made himself seem and he certainly knew what Slade just said meant. "You mean to tell me you were a fucking Green Beret?"

"Indeed, I was. Usually, a soldier needs a fair amount of experience before they are even considered a worthy candidate for Special Forces, but, given the natural aptitudes I displayed, they transferred me to the Green Berets when I was still just 18 years old—they hadn't discovered my fib about my age, so they thought I was 20, the minimum age of eligibility. Not long thereafter, I had my first deployment; the United States overtly sent money and supplies to government forces during the Salvadoran Civil War and covertly sent special forces operatives into the country as well. When I went to El Salvador, I held the rank of Corporal; by the time I left El Salvador, I was a Captain. I witnessed many terrible things in El Salvador, but eventually I became numb to the hardships to people of that country were feeling. I believe that is when I first began my descent, though the faces of dead civilians killed by both sides continue to haunt me to this day. But I proved myself to the Army during that engagement—hell, I even saved President Magaña's life at one point.

"After my tour in El Salvador, I was deployed to Grenada during Operation Urgent Fury. That was an exceptionally easy victory, but my actions there still earned the Pentagon's attention and I ended up being promoted to the rank of Major. After Urgent Fury, the Pentagon had such faith in me that they sent me to an advanced tactics course run by a Captain by the name of Adeline Kane." Slade's lips began to curl as his memories of his early love with Addie flooded his mind. "I fell in love with her almost from first sight. She was my first love and, contrary to what you must be thinking, I truly did love her. She almost immediately returned the sentiment. We were married very soon thereafter.

"After Grenada, I was deployed to Santa Prisca, leading a team working to prevent a communist takeover there. When I left for Santa Prisca, Addie was seven months pregnant, giving birth to our first son—Grant—while I was still deployed. For my service in Santa Prisca, I was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel—my final promotion. Even with the increase in pay that came with the promotion, I knew I would soon be having trouble making ends meet, as I ended up knocking Addie up again within a year after my return.

"The CIA offered me a way out: they would pay me large sums of money if I agreed to participate in medical experiments. They wanted to test a new serum which they hoped would increase the resistance of special operations and intelligence operatives to truth serums—the Soviet Union still existed at the time and the KGB was known to have projects designing new and more effective truth serums, so it was imperative that the CIA, DIA and specops forces have a means to counter their effects. I needed the extra money, and it was a service to my country, so I agreed. That experiment did not, however, go according to plan.

"The serum first put me in a coma. When I awoke, it was discovered that the serum had enhanced my intellect, reflexes, speed, stamina, physical strength, senses, and healing factor to unnatural levels. However, since the serum had put me in a coma, the Army decided it was best not to risk things further and I was honorably discharged for medical reasons soon thereafter. The Army and serving my country were my life, so I ultimately became depressed and listless. It was just as well, though—I later found out that my cover had been blown during my mission in Santa Pisca. The KGB knew who I was, and they shared it with their allies. The CIA had also shared information about me with our country's allies.

"I became a mercenary, offering my services as Deathstroke the Terminator. The governments and individuals who knew my combat record were willing to pay me handsomely for those services. In order to conceal my activities from Addie—who I was certain would have questioned where the money was coming from and where I was going when I'd randomly disappear for months on end—I also moonlighted as a famous safari hunter. The set up seemed perfect to me at the time, but false realities have a tendency to fall apart at the seams. Did Joey ever tell you why he can't talk?"

"No," the changeling replied simply. "We figured the subject was probably too painful for him, so we never asked and he never brought it up." Garfield instantly felt guilty for not knowing.

"Another mercenary—who went by the alias of 'The Jackal'—wanted me to reveal information about a client. Being the professional that I am, I refused to disclose the information he requested. So, in order to force me to give it up, he sent his goons after my wife and children. Addie was more than capable in battle, but as bravely as she fought them off, she was unable to prevent keep them from kidnapping Joey. Knowing that I could no-longer hide the truth from her, I came clean and we teamed up to get our son back.

"We tracked them to Tangier. When we got there, I made a horrible mistake," Slade's voice trembled for the first time Gar had ever heard as he said the last clause of that sentence. The masked villain had to take a moment to collect himself before he continued further. "The Jackal threatened that if I didn't tell him what he wanted to know, he'd kill Joey. I was too arrogant. I thought I could get to Joey before they could harm him, so I tried to rescue him instead of giving the Jackal the information he wanted. I was able to get to Joey, but not before the Jackal's men slit his throat. Miraculously, he survived the ordeal, but his vocal cords were completely destroyed. Addie blamed me...hell, I blamed me—still do. All the grief I visited upon that poor woman; she tried to kill me after we got Joey to the hospital. Sometimes I still wish she'd have succeeded, but when she shot me it only destroyed my right eye. I never blamed her for that. I knew it was my own fault. Of course, when I didn't die, she left me. I didn't contest the divorce. I still loved her, but the destruction of my family was my fault.

"After that, in my despair, I descended further into the world of being a gun for hire. I had no life outside of my work. Pausing just made me think about how horribly I'd screwed up my life and the lives of the people I loved. Not long after my divorce was finalized, the Khmer People's National Liberation Front approached me with a job. There was this woman named Lillian Worth, who ran a bordello in Siempang, Cambodia. She was apparently a major intelligence asset for the Khmer People's National Liberation Armed Forces in their fight against the Vietnamese-backed regime which was still in control of the country at the time. Although the various parties to the war in Cambodia were working out a peace settlement at the time, Lili was nevertheless endangered, as the Cambodian government was beginning to learn about her ties to the KPNLF and KPNLAF. The KPNLF wanted me to take a team into Cambodia to escort Lili to a KPNLF camp in Thailand, where she would be safe.

"So, I assembled my team and took the contract. The mission itself was horribly difficult—everyone else in my team ended up dead—but I was nevertheless able to get Lili to safety. Aside from the mission, however, Lili was one of the three most beautiful women I've ever met in my life..."

"Who was the other?" the changeling asked curiously.

"What?"

"You said she was one of the three most beautiful women you've ever met in your life," Gar responded. "I could imagine Adeline is one of them as well, but who is the third?"

"I am presently not at liberty to tell you that, as it may out the confidential source I told you about," Slade responded, "But I do commend the attention you've been giving to my monologue. I always pegged you as someone with a low attention span; I find myself happily mistaken. But, back to the story, when I met Lili, I fell in love for the second time in my life. Unfortunately, it could never be, as I was constantly crisscrossing the world as a busy mercenary and she wanted to stay as near to Cambodia as she safely could. But we did have sex—one of the best sexual encounters of my life, in fact. I didn't know it at the time, but Lili gave birth to Rose nine months later.

"After that, I settled into a groove. At one point, I thwarted an attempt on President Clinton's life, but then I was wrongly implicated in the death of another prominent politician and my trust in the system was shocked. After that, I began accepting contracts from the Injustice League and the League of Assassins. After I was exonerated for the crime of which I was so wrongfully accused, I continued to take contracts from those organizations out of habit, eventually becoming a full-fledged member of the League of Assassins.

"As my sons grew, Addie concealed from them the fact that the mercenary Deathstroke was their father. Without knowledge that Deathstroke was his father, Grant nevertheless idolized the hired gun he never knew I was. He ultimately enrolled at the H.I.V.E. Academy in Jump City and began shacking up with his girlfriend, a young lady by the name of Carol Sladky. Grant's constant infidelity—which, in hindsight, I now blame myself for, seeing as I was never able to provide him a positive male role model—left their relationship almost fatally weakened. Interestingly, and event you must be very familiar with tipped over the first domino in a chain of events which ultimately led to his death."

"Huh?" Gar expressed his confusion.

"One day a few years ago," Slade began, "an alien princess from the planet Tamaran escaped the clutches of the Gordanian slavers who were holding her captive and ultimately landed on Earth."

"Starfire?" the changeling asked. Slade merely nodded in response, before continuing.

"When the Gordanians showed up to collect the princess, you and your friends fought a valiant battle to defend her newly re-acquired freedom. Unfortunately for my son, that battle destroyed his apartment. Carol had already more or less checked out of the relationship; the only reason she was still with Grant was simply because it was convenient and she didn't have to move her things. However, when their apartment was destroyed, she chose to get an apartment of her own, finally putting their relationship to rest.

"Grant was irate. He blamed the Titans for destroying his relationship with Carol. At the time, the H.I.V.E. had been working on a serum which was intended to have roughly the same effect on human physiology as the serum that gave me my own enhancements, albeit by a different mechanism. Grant, out of his anger, agreed to be the first test subject for the H.I.V.E. serum. He then became the first Ravager.

"To be honest, I wouldn't blame you if you didn't remember what happened next. It was a simple bank robbery, which he went into not for the purpose of stealing the money—although it certainly would have been a welcome bonus for him—but rather to draw the five of you out so that he could take you on and punish you for his relationship ending. It didn't really progress very far because the H.I.V.E. serum was basically worthless. Sure, it gave him enhancements, but when he overexerted himself he ended up dying from cardiac arrest."

"I remember that," Gar said before swallowing. "It was the first time anyone died when the Titans responded to a crime. I know it's probably not enough, but we all felt really horrible about it. I mean, we were supposed to protect life in as far as we were capable, even if the person was committing a crime. Hell, even when we were facing you and you were trying to kill us, our rules of engagement didn't permit the use of lethal force, simply because we wanted to avoid having people dying as long as it was possible."

"I understand that now," Slade noted, "but my immediate reaction was anger. I knew that Grant's death was preventable. My anger was focused against the Titans because you were fighting against him when he died, although deep inside I blamed myself, knowing that it was my history as a horrible husband and father that was ultimately to blame—while I was dead, I ultimately realized this. But Grant's death was what provoked my animosity toward the Titans.

"Given the Titans' closeness to the Justice League, I chose to join the Injustice League in full at that point in time. I didn't exactly want to find myself without allies should Batman suddenly decide to come rescue his former protege. The Injustice League, in turn, gained a great insight into the Titans' abilities from the times we fought, as I did test all of your limits, did I not?" The changeling reluctantly nodded in response to Slade's question. "And I suppose that ultimately leads me up to my conflict with you.

"I never actually expected that Terra would be so easy to manipulate. At the time, it was a pleasant surprise for me, as my obsession with destroying the Titans was beginning to dominate my entire life. I wasn't taking contracts anymore, and Wintergreen—my butler, mentor and closest friend—was trying to make me see how disastrous it might end. I refused to listen to him; I was trapped in a misguided vendetta to avenge Grant by taking my grief for him out on the Titans in vindictive rage. One thing did poke through that cloud of rage, however: our fight at the amusement park. You surprised me, Logan. I never realized you had such a warrior's spirit within you. When I was in the military, I would have killed to have men with your determination on my teams.

"But that is ultimately why I tried to force Terra to kill you when you got into my base. That you even found my base both enraged and frightened me. Remembering our fight, I knew I couldn't let you have an equal footing because you were a very credible threat. I also didn't like that the fight at the amusement park was so evenly-matched. You were supposed to be the weakest Titan, but now I believe you to be the second most powerful—behind only Raven. You just needed to be sufficiently motivated to use your capabilities. In hindsight, you did earn much respect from me. Of course, without Trigon that wouldn't have mattered much, seeing as I was dead.

"Death has a way of changing your perspective on things. I recognized that my grudge against the Titans was ill-founded. At the same time, however, I did, as you know, accept Trigon's offer to return me to life in exchange for service to him. I did more than a few things I am in no way proud of while I was in Trigon's service—at times, Trigon's demonic influence was difficult to overcome. I do not suppose it would take a giant leap to believe or understand that I had, for the entire time, been planning to cross Trigon—I had no interest at all in the Apocalypse. In fact, if anything, it went counter to all of my interests. But I could not do so until he returned me to my flesh. I knew that Raven's existence would not be completely eliminated when she became the portal, so I knew that there was a trump card to play if I could not myself cross Trigon before the end came.

"When Trigon crossed me before I could cross him, I was forced to play that card. When I allied myself with the Titans to help retrieve Raven and defeat Trigon, one might have thought it was because I wanted the right of killing the Titans and could not have allowed Trigon to take that from me, but such and assumption would be most incorrect. It would be correct to say that I was angry at Trigon for crossing me, but that was only one part of it. When Robin asked me why I was helping, I decided to lie to him because I knew he would not, in his obsessive mission to defeat me, believe me if I told him the truth. But I believe that you, Mister Logan, can accept the truth."

"Then what's the truth?" Gar asked, curiously. "Why did you help us?"

"As I said, I had no interest in the destruction of the world, but I especially had no interest in the destruction of the Titans. In the clarity of my death, I was given a premonition that if Trigon were destroyed and the Titans survived, Joey would one day be accepted as a Titan. I wanted so badly to atone for what I had done to my son, and I knew that the Titans could provide him with the family I never could. Additionally, I wanted to atone for what I did to the Titans in my misguided vendetta, so I was in large part bound to help.

"After Trigon was defeated, I decided to drop off the radar entirely. The Injustice League never even knew I'd been resurrected, so it was easy with them. The League of Assassins was more difficult, but Ra's al-Ghul decided that he could find a good use for me as a secret weapon, so the League of Assassins chose to conceal the fact that I was once again alive. Then it was a matter of simply leaving the Titans alone; never allowing you to see signs that I was alive again. I determined that if the Titans went long enough without any contact from me, Robin would eventually accept the idea that I had been killed on one of my contracts. When a mercenary disappears, it does not take a great suspension of disbelief to assume that the mercenary is dead.

"One complication to my plan to disappear arose relatively quickly, however. While I was dead, Wintergreen discovered that Lili had relocated to the United States. He paid her a visit, to inform her about my demise and touch base. During this visit, he discovered that she had a white-haired fourteen year old daughter. Wintergreen was always an intelligent man, and he knew that the time I was with Lili fell into a rough estimate he made of when the girl was conceived. He very quickly put two and two together: the girl—Rose—was my daughter.

"As soon as I returned from the dead, Wintergreen informed me of Rose's existence. My decision at the time, with her best interests in mind, was not to contact her. Unfortunately, my half-brother forced my hand. When he was a child, Wade always resented me because he felt inferior to me, but his resentment took on a dangerous tone in adulthood. He also fell in love with Addie, and when Addie fell in love with me, he vowed to destroy me. Since I was supposedly dead, he transferred this obsession to killing all the remaining family and friends I had. After Grant was killed, he took on the alias of Ravager as a taunt against me.

"Joey was safe, as Addie, mindful of past experiences, had taken him into hiding in Tibet. Unable to target my surviving son, Wade went after my daughter. He kidnapped her and, while she was in his captivity, he told her that I was her father. In order to maintain the appearance that I was dead, I could not partake in the rescue attempt, but I sent Wintergreen along to help Lili. Wintergreen had a military background, and many of the skills that i picked up were thanks to his tutelage, so I trusted that he could get the job done and keep my daughter safe.

"But the mission went wrong. Lili died trying to kill Wade, so Rose was left without her mother. In her grief-stricken state, Wintergreen told her that I was still alive. After that, she reached out to me as her only surviving parent. I knew that I could not give her the life that she deserved, so I decided to turn her away. I did not want her to die like Grant or be horribly injured like Joey. I love my children enough to accept that they are better off without me." The mercenary sighed as his lips curled into a frown. "So she was taken in by a foster family in Chicago—the Madisons."

"She never told anyone about that," the changeling commented.

"That's probably for a similar reason as to why you never tell anyone about your background," Slade responded. Gar's mouth and eyes shot fully open as he exhaled a surprised gasp.

"What do you know about my past?" he replied, partly out of defensiveness and and partly out of curiosity.

"Not everything, but enough. Surely I didn't become one of the greatest mercenaries ever to exist on this planet by failing to know my enemies. I've seen the State Department reports about you. I know that the former Robin is really Bruce Wayne's adopted son, Dick Grayson. I know enough about all of your tragic pasts. It actually made me second guess my vendetta when I began to see the pattern—almost everyone within the global Titan organization has suffered incredible traumas in their lives. Few as horrible as yours, I might say, though.

"Wade tracked Rose down to Chicago and kidnapped her again, murdering the entire Madison family in the process. At that point I was forced to rescue her and take her in, but in order to protect her from myself, I chose to fake my death and disappear, leaving her in Wintergreen's care. Unfortunately, Rose opted to become more like me anyway, defeating Wade, taking the name of Ravager for herself, and attacking Wintergreen and Professor Chang in an effort to gain control of my operation. Luckily, you and the other Titans stepped in and helped her see that she didn't need to be like me. I wish that would have been enough to keep her out of the mercenary game, but I'm at least glad that she's more scrupulous in what contracts she will and will not accept than I was, and I'm glad that she's following her own path rather than recreating my mistakes.

"You have no idea how happy I am that the Titans took my children in. You gave them the family that they needed, and for that I say with all sincerity that I owe you. I decided to pay some of that debt when you discovered Terra..."

"But why?" the changeling asked. "If you're not out to hurt me or kill me anymore, why didn't you want me to reconnect with her? Why did you send that Slade-bot after me?"

"It's very simple, Logan. I knew that you would never understand the treachery of her nature. You simply preferred to blame me, but do consider that every major turning point in both of our relationships with that girl has been focused on her betrayals. She nearly killed you when she betrayed you simply because I was willing to give her something she wanted, and then she did kill me when she betrayed me after she decided that she did not want to play out the consequences of the choices she made. The truth is that you, in your incessantly loyal nature, do not deserve to have your heart taken by someone who will betray you on a whim; I owed you a debt and I tried to repay some of it by attempting to stop you from reliving your own past mistakes. You deserve someone who will repay your loyalty in kind."

"Yeah right," Gar responded. "Who, then?"

"I'd be lying if I said I didn't hope you would end up in my daughter's arms, but I see that was simply not going to happen. No, not Rose, but someone very close to you instead. I think we both know who I am talking about. But this is really immaterial to the reason I am here, which I assume you would like to know." The changeling somehow knew exactly who the mercenary was talking about: Raven. He was right, though; the subject had absolutely no relation to why Slade was in his bedroom, and he wanted answers.

"Okay," Gar began, "why are you here?"

"I am here to deliver a message," Slade responded.

The Titan's mouth dropped open once again, as his eyes widened and he slowly wrapped his arms around himself, hands ever so subtly shaking. "Duuuuude, no!" the changeling responded. "The last time you delivered a message to a Titan, it was the beginning of the end of the world!"

"Don't worry, Logan, it's nothing so dramatic this time," the one-eyed man assured the younger man. "In fact, it's not even anything that's particularly negative this time around. Maybe even positive."

The Titan sighed in relief, although the worry was still present in his eye. "Okay, then what's the message."

"When you go to Africa, Ra's al-Ghul would like you to take a detour to Egypt and join him in a conversation at his headquarters in Cairo. Admittedly, it's a rather large detour," Slade wasn't kidding—the distance between Upper Lamumba and Cairo was nearly two-thirds of the length of the African continent, "he has some information which will be most beneficial to your mission, and he would like to be of assistance."

"And why should I ally myself with an ecoterrorist like al-Ghul?" the changeling asked, taking a somewhat moralistic tone.

"This from a man who, in the past year, has donated $100,000 to the Animal Liberation Press Office, $75,000 to the Animal Rights Militia, $90,000 to the North American Earth Liberation Front Press Office, $85,000 to the Sea Shepard Conservation Society, all of which being ecoterrorist organizations according to FBI reports. I would have thought you would have been above hypocrisy."

"How the hell did you know about that?!" Gar shouted. "Those were cash contributions and shouldn't have been traceable!" He was now more than a little worried. If Slade could track them, who was to say that the press couldn't.

"I have my ways," Slade noted, "but don't worry. The only other person I can think of who could find that information would be Batman. And as for him, seeing as you are still in his good graces, apparently he either hasn't looked or doesn't care. For some reason I would tend more to believe the latter. And your secret is certainly safe with me—I have no reason to divulge it to less understanding parties."

"Point taken," Gar relented. "But what does Ra's have to gain from me? What does he want me to do for him?"

"I believe it is less about what you can do for him, and more about what he can do for you and what both of you can do to help realize your shared vision of a world in which humanity and nature can coexist in harmony."

"That really doesn't help," the changeling noted, "but I'll think about it. Who do I contact when I've made a decision?"

"Don't worry about that," Slade replied. "The League of Assassins will know when you are coming and they will approach you when you get to Cairo. Also, it doesn't matter if you go to Egypt before or after your first visit to Lamumba, although you might have a better handle on things if you go after," he spoke while leaving his seat and walking toward a window. "Regardless, I must be leaving you now. You might want to be well-rested when Raven returns," the mercenary said before leaving through the window.

"I really gotta update the security systems around here," Gar said before laying his head back down on his pillow.

Author's Notes
I kinda updated Slade's background in this chapter. The specifics of his original background story worked for the early '80s, but since the story is now based in the 21st Century, his military record needed to be moved into more recent times. I also played with some other facts, tweaking more than a few things, but overall it is mostly true to the spirit of the canon. I intentionally wrote this to give a look at Slade from a sympathetic angle—a glimpse behind his blue eyes (or, eye), if you will. It also gave me an opportunity to drop some major hints about the plot ahead.

I kinda altered a lot of the stuff about Rose, though. The comics had Slade randomly hiring Wade, which absolutely fails to maintain the suspension of disbelief IMO if you know the history between them. I mean, seriously, Wade goes from wanting to destroy everything Slade loves to being his mook on the drop of a hat? And Slade goes from wanting to keep Rose away from himself for her own good to suddenly wanting to force her into living his life? My guess is that the comic writers wanted to move Deathstroke back to being a villain, but the breakneck changes they made in the process make it extremely difficult to believe, from my point of view. I mean, the writers never could seem to nail down what kind of character Deathstroke was. I mean, during the early NTT era he was a very believable tragic villain with a very clear and personal motive: avenging his son's death (which he incorrectly blamed on the Titans), then he became a more morally neutral character who often helped the Titans after the Judas Contract was done with, then he understandably broke his ties with the Titans after Starfire honored Adeline's request for a mercy kill, but then instead of making him a tragic villain again or something along those lines, they decided to suddenly make him evil incarnate? I simply find him more believable as an anti-villain who occasionally crosses into anti-hero territory than I do when he's pure evil.

Then again, I'm not a fan of black and white morality when it comes to characters to begin with. I mean, some characters are irredeemably evil (Doctor Light), but those should be the exception rather than the rule. A dehumanized villain is usually difficult to believe. The Joker is a villain for a reason: he's insane. Lex Luthor is a villain for a reason: he's greedy and self-aggrandizing. Those are believable villains because their humanity is intact. But then to have a villain who is villainous for no perceivable reason other than "he's just evil" does not lend much to believability.

Some of the changes to Rose's background story are in order to help make the continuity somewhat consistent with TTG #49 (which had her initially fighting to take control of her father's mercenary business), although this continuity is not perfectly in line with that one, as it moves the events of TTG #49 to a later date (after Slade's resurrection in this story, as opposed to before Slade's resurrection in TTG).

Anyone want to take a guess on who this source that Slade does not want to identify (who we can assume is female, thanks to the use of pronouns) is/how she fits into everything/what her affiliation is to him? And why would she be angry if Slade outed her?

the missing link- That's actually going to be a major subplot in future chapters, so it would probably be best if I didn't really comment on what I think about it right now. I can say, however, that his main problem will be that he is afraid of the form.

OMAC001- There you go. It's none other than stock Teen Titans adversary Slade Wilson (albeit in an apparently less adversarial role).

pikachewy1- Yeah, it's hard to disagree with Cheetah on that one.

JOHNXgambit- Well, heroes have a responsibility to protect life if possible (hence why I didn't want Gar to be the one to kill Light in the last chapter), so Wonder Woman kinda had to prevent Cheetah from killing him if she could...I highly doubt any Amazon would have shed any tears for him had she failed, though. And yeah, I could totally see the Joker doing that—it's part of his mental state that everything has to be funny. I remember at one point Commissioner Gordon shot him in the knee and he was about to complain about how he might never walk again until he recognized the irony and started laughing his ass off. A person who will laugh at himself being shot will make a joke about anything.

JasonVUK- I'm actually considering writing two BBRae lemons—one more gentle and romantic, and the other a bit more hardcore with them using their respective suppressed forms (i.e., Raven's demon and Gar's werebeast). There'll probably be scratching in both events, though.

HeartedJ- Well, as this chapter shows, at least some villains will get a sympathetic angle to them in this story. I just didn't want Light to be one of them.

Hairul The Nightrage Beast- Gar's main problem with the Beast moving ahead is that he is himself afraid of that form. Since he's afraid of it, he doesn't want to morph into it. If he doesn't morph into it, he can't get accustomed to it enough to control it.

Greenhatred77- Just delivering a message...after spilling his life story.

liketotescray- Thanks. It's been taking an impressive amount of self-control for me to let the pace be so slow, though. I've really wanted to bring them together since the beginning, but I didn't want it to be something where you blink and they're suddenly in a relationship. They had to go through a process of discovering how they truly felt about each other, and now that they know, they have to overcome their fears and tell each other.

shugokage- Thanks.

Annatheavidreader- Well, Slade's conversation confirms that the League of Assassins and al-Ghul family do indeed want Gar and Raven for something, but it'll take a while before we'll learn the full scope of what's going on. As far as Dick goes—his obsession with Slade showed a big piece of his personality, as he was not only obsessive but damn stubborn as well (every major threat: must be Slade...even when Slade was dead, still must be Slade). He's not one to give up on a viewpoint very easily, although you are right that he doesn't have very far to go at this point, and one would think that Bruce's and Tim's comments would have added some food for thought.

LiumD- Yep. But interestingly without any apparent malicious intent behind the meeting.