Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in the Teen Titans show or comics.
Tzeck Shonia had considered himself a fairly normal man. Living with his small but loving family of three in Georgia, he did what he was told—he paid his taxes, did his job, and listened to the government. Not once in his life had he broken the law, neither Georgian laws or the more oppressive Russian laws; he had never involved himself in the educational revolutions of the smaller country-states, had never complained of the unfair conditions that had reigned for the better part of a decade in his small, isolated, mostly-shut-off-from-the-world nation. The fact that he worked for the Russian government in depth, and they could pull his funding and income and life out from under his feet at any moment probably had something to do with his docile obedience, but never once did he really question it. As long as he did his job as one of Russia's top research genealogists, Tzeck Shonia thought his slightly deadpan but nonetheless typical and contented existence would continue without harsh interruption.

Now, fearfully shuffling behind one of the most notorious and infamous criminals of the time, Tzeck Shonia wondered where his reasoning had gone wrong.

His family held captive and ready to be murdered with a word, all of them kidnapped from their comfortable life, Tzeck Shonia followed Slade's every wish with the hope of being returned to that life unharmed. Neither the Russian government nor the Georgian government would miss him, seeing as they would most likely mark him down as one of the many fleeing emigrants making their way to America or Great Britain. He had no family besides the one being held by Slade's henchmen to worry over his absence, no close friends or coworkers, either. Instead, he was stuck in a nightmarish, underground labyrinth of criminals and villains and darkness, all under the rule of Slade.

There were other scientists, doctors—five all together—that all appeared to be in the same position; all were foreign and terrified out of their minds. By communicating in broken, sometimes barely decipherable English, Tzeck had been able to discover their situations were extremely similar to his: kidnapped, loved ones threatened, life disrupted. But by far, the most disturbing fact of their situation was what they were being required to do; it was in a universal language every single one of them could understand fluently, and on understanding were far from eager to complete the task at hand. Tzeck had to admire the brilliant equations and schematics at hand—never before had he, or any of the other scientists, seen anything quite like it…genius work, groundbreaking work—it wasn't hard for someone as practiced as him to see how amazing the mind behind it had to be. But the manipulations, the enhancements—as he double-checked them and administered the required radiation and injections, Tzeck knew he was aiding in the creation of something monstrous. The looks on the other scientists' faces as they did their jobs showed their horrified repulsion as well. They were all aware of what Slade was planning…

And were so afraid.

The man whose vicious alter-ego was known as Plasmas slept soundly inside his steel preservation chamber, never knowing he had been precariously removed from the California State Convict Institution and placed in a reinforced, guarded room underneath two miles of dirt and rock and clay. For the past two weeks or so, the super-villain had been kept in suspended animation—and now, for the first time in two weeks, the normally sealed and locked door to the room he was kept in cracked and hissed open.

Slade would soon have use for the monster.

Letting his eye adjust to the darkness and shadows of the room, Slade resisted the urge to slit the throat of the trembling scientist behind him; it hadn't taken much to blackmail the poor man into helping him, but he was increasingly becoming a pain in the ass as he began to piece together what exactly Slade was doing. The jailbreak of several super-villains, the recruiting of those same villains, the injections they were being given—it wasn't hard to realize what was going on if you were a top Russian genealogist who understood the changes in the villains' medical charts, the results of the chemicals and such that each subject was being given regular dosages. And Slade could tell it was scaring the shit out of him…but the death of his captive family scared more shit out of him. Slade loved how easily human emotions could be manipulated.

"You know what to do." Slade's Russian was flawless, and Tzeck scurried forward, nodding. As if expecting the sleeping man to jump out at his throat, Tzeck worked quickly and efficiently, refusing to even glance through the glass at the frozen face inside. Slade watched with a disinterested air as the small man checked the vital signs of Plasmas, scribbled some notes on a clipboard, checked the charts, and proceeded to enter a vial of glowing, green gaseous substance into the preservation chamber, so it could saturate the skin of the villain and begin its DNA-enhancing job. The process had been done repeatedly on several super-villains recruited by Slade over the past couple of weeks, with no implications. Slade felt his face stretch into a grin under his mask as the scientist made his way back towards the door.

Who knew Ragonu could've been such a useful tool?

"Sir."

Slade turned to face the monotone, mechanical voice of one of his robotic henchmen. He was handed a metal box before the henchman once again disappeared into the shadows. Knowing what it was, Slade's grin only widened. "Useful, indeed," he muttered under his breath, stroking the box. In here was the last piece Slade needed to let his plan fall into place. Just this…and then he would wait.

Slade wondered briefly if it was by some sick twist of good fortune he had come by the mad but brilliant woman, ready to do so much solely for the guarantee of that green brat being delivered safely into her hands. Ragonu had truly been his major trump card this time around, unrivaled in both her skills as a geneticist and computer hacker—and Slade had been able to play her more than he could've imagined, with her insane fetishes blinding her the whole time. Yes, this time the Titans wouldn't even know what hit them. This time…

"This time, the Titans will fall," Slade spat. Tzeck looked up at the man as the room's door clanked shut behind him, not understanding Slade's words but catching the sinister, raging tone. He shivered slightly.

"They will fall…"