Three days later …

The mood in the Tower was a juxtaposition of panic and depression. The four Titans were near the point of utter and total collapse as they had not slept since Raven was kidnapped at the shopping mall. There had been no communiqué from Slade. No demand made for ransom or surrender. They combed the city, several times, with the help of the entire legion of honorary Titans, but nothing was found, not a single clue or lead that might help them find their friend. Once again, Slade had gone and vanished into thin air without a trace. Things were so dire that Robin was considering calling the Justice League and the Doom Patrol to ask for their help.

And he hated doing that.

Robin stood in front of his three teammates, who were seated on the crescent shaped couch, wondering how he could rally his troops. It was nearly midnight and all they had to show for their long day was exhaustion and dejection. Beast Boy was droopy eyed, with a look on his face that betrayed that he was wondering if he would ever see Raven again. Cyborg, who still looked semi alert due to his bionic nature, was actually approaching depletion and immediately needed a full recharge or his systems would shut down and go into hibernation state. And Starfire, she had fallen asleep on the couch, even though she was the Titan who was fretting the most over the absent sorceress. Stifling a yawn, Robin addressed his weary team.

"I know we made no progress today, but we need to rest. Even if we could locate Slade's lair, we're in no shape to rescue Raven. Let's meet here at 6 AM tomorrow. Everyone hit the hay and get some rest. And we're gonna find Raven and make Slade pay, and that's a promise."

Cyborg got up and trudged away, disappearing behind the sliding doors. Robin picked Starfire up bridal style and carried her away.

Beast Boy sat alone on the couch, staring out the windows at the city's skyline.

"I know you're out there somewhere Raven and we're gonna find you." He muttered to himself as he dropped his head.

He paused before lifting his head back up.

"And when we do find you, we're gonna have a long talk about our relationship, and just where it can go."

-( scene break )-

The violet haired girl moaned as she woke up. Every bone in her body hurt and her muscles felt as if they were on fire. Her first instinct was to summon her healing powers, but she remembered that it was pointless, as the tingling sensation around her neck reminded her that she was wearing a power cancellation collar. Slade was thorough, he had all bases covered.

She opened her eyes and recognized her surroundings. She was strapped to a torture table, stripped down to her underwear. She heaved a sigh when she felt that the electrodes were once again taped to the soles of her feet, which meant that there would be another "session" coming up. Her throat was dry and parched; Slade had given her nothing to drink since he kidnapped her and while she had no idea of how many days had actually elapsed, it felt like an eternity to her.

The electric shock torture was excruciating. Slade was clever, because while it didn't cause any major damage to her body, except perhaps the burns on the soles of her feet, the pain it caused was simply agonizing. The electric shocks sent her body into a series of uncontrollable convulsions.

The shocks were so intense that soiled herself once during one of the earlier "shock therapy" treatments, but was currently clean, no doubt courtesy of one of the Slade-bots when she was unconscious. Since she hadn't eaten since arriving her bowels were now empty, so there would be no more "accidents", not that she cared. Apparently Slade did care, or at least was put off enough by the aroma of rancid feces to have her cleaned up. Slade might be a psychopath, but apparently he had some decorum. Or maybe he just didn't like the way her excrement smelled.

Slade asked her for the same thing every time he tortured her: the access codes to the Tower. She of course refused to divulge such a precious secret. Who did Slade think she was, Terra? Didn't he know better?

Her heart sank when she heard the sliding door open. She quickly chided herself for being fearful. There was no way she would tell him, he could go rot in hell with her father before she would tell him anything. Still, she mentally prepared herself for what was about to come.

"Bring it on Slade, do your worst." She murmured to herself. "You'll pay for this later, that's a promise."

There was a small table and chair next to the torture table. Slade placed a large pitcher of ice water and a tall glass on the table and filled the glass with water. Her thirsty eyes zeroed in on the tall glass, with the ice cubes floating in it and condensation forming on its chilled exterior.

"Hello, Raven, are we thirsty today?" Slade taunted her in his monotone.

She croaked something unintelligible in her parched throat. She was so dehydrated that her lips were cracked.

Slade pushed a button and the platform began to rotate, stopping just before she was in an upright position. Slade then took the glass and raised it to her lips. She turned her head away, refusing his offering. Slade did not relent and after immobilizing her head with his left hand he pressed the glass to her lip. Just feeling the water against her lips was a heavenly delight, but she refused the sip. Slade pried her lips open allowing the first swig to enter her mouth. It was pure heaven to feel that water roll over her tongue and she lost all control, quickly gulping down the glass's contents. Slade smiled triumphantly.

"There's more where that came from, my dear Raven, and food too. Just tell me what I want to know and it's yours."

She glared at the one eyed villain.

"I know you'll just kill me once I tell you, Slade. You might as well do it now."

Slade place the empty glass back on the table and reached for a rubber mouth piece.

"Open wide, Raven, we wouldn't want you to bite your tongue off, would we? Did I forget to mention that I'm raising the voltage again?"

She complied, knowing well that it was not an idle threat. Her body would indeed convulse so violently that accidentally severing her tongue was a real danger. Slade placed the protector in her mouth, after which he gave her an affectionate pat on her face.

"Let me know if you change your mind."

Slade nodded at a Slade-bot at the torture chamber's controls as he left the room. The sounds of the girl's screams echoed in the hallway until the door slid shut. Wintergreen was waiting for him in the corridor.

"Wilson, are you sure this won't kill her?" The gray butler asked in a worried tone.

"Do not concern yourself, Wintergreen, she is half demon, she's far sturdier than she looks. Plus we are ready to move onto the next step of our plan anyway … still … I'd be lying if I denied that I was enjoying this."

"Have I ever told you how fiendishly clever you are, Wilson?"

"More than once, my good friend."

-( scene break )-

She woke up again, and this time she was once again alone. She couldn't even remember the torture session, at least not far past the first few shocks. She could smell the burned flesh in the air; no doubt the aroma came from the soles of her feet. She was in such agony that she almost didn't notice it, at least not a first.

The power cancelling collar was still around her neck, but she couldn't feel its tingling sensation, which was a side effect of what it really did, which was to block the spinal cord nervous impulses associated with super powers. When she did notice that the tingling sensation was missing she wonder if perhaps she was too numbed to feel it.

She closed her eyes and after saying a quick prayer to Azar, she whispered her mantra: Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos.

The leather bindings that trapped her against the torture platform all broke in unison. At first she was stunned, unable to believe her good luck, the collar had malfunctioned, perhaps as a result of all the shocks.

She slowly sat up, her arms feeling like rubber as they propped her up and about to give away at any moment. She noticed that the pitcher of water was still there. The ice cubes had already melted, so she knew that some time had passed since she was last tortured. She lunged for the pitcher and raised it to her lips, drinking it in deep drafts.

After finishing it she carefully lowered herself to the floor. He legs also felt unreliable, but she was confident they would hold her up, especially after gulping down nearly half a gallon of water.

OK Raven, what do we do now? She asked herself.

The answer came almost as quickly as she asked it. She heard the sound of footsteps echoing down the hallway. She knew that she was too weak to fight. She only had one other option: Escape!

In her enfeebled state she raised her arms and murmured her mantra. The black hemisphere appeared and engulfed her.

She was free.

-( scene break )-

The sun was barely rising as the four dejected Titans finished up their breakfasts. Robin could see the defeat in their eyes; they had lost all hope of finding their friend alive. He knew it was up to him to cheer them up, to make them believe that all hope was not lost. But how could he do that, when he didn't believe it himself.

"OK team, here is the search strategy for today, were' going to start at …"

Beast Boy wasn't paying attention to Robin and instead was staring out the large windows in the common room. With no warning he leaped to his feet.

"Dude!" was the only word that came out of his mouth as he gesticulated wildly at the window. The others turned towards the direction he was pointing and they gave a collective shriek. There was no mistaking it; it was Raven's spectral obsidian bird. Within seconds it reached the window and phased through it, alighting in front of the Titans. The black bird disappeared in a hum, revealing Raven's underwear clad and battered form. She rolled her eyes and collapsed in front of them. As she fell, she briefly heard the pandemonium that ensued.

Raven's hurt!

Quick, get her to the infirmary!

Slade's gonna pay for this, I promise!

Then she blacked out.

-( scene break )-

When she woke up she found herself in more familiar surroundings. The first thing she was aware of was the smell of pine scented antiseptic. Next, she heard the all too familiar beeps on the electrocardiograph. Her pain was gone and she felt a bit fuzzy in the head, probably because Cyborg had pumped her full of pain killers. All together this meant one thing: she was home.

She opened her eyes and confirmed that she was resting in her med station, with an IV in her arm. The infirmary was not her favorite place in the Tower, but she was now overjoyed to be there. Her four teammates stood around her bed, smiles on their faces. Starfire and Beast Boy were still shedding tears of joy. She smiled back at them and opened her mouth.

"I escaped."

"You did, Raven, you sure did!" Robin replied with a huge smile on his face while he caressed he head.

"Slade tortured you … I can tell." Cyborg added. "That no good, sonnofa…"

She nodded.

"He wanted … the access codes … I … refused." She replied in drug hazed state.

"Relax little lady, we figured as much. I already changed them, just to be safe." Cyborg beamed.

"I … didn't … tell him."

"We know, it's OK Raven, you just relax and recover. You're at home, you're safe now." Robin soothed her.

Raven closed her eyes, as if trying to concentrate.

"The collar?" She croaked.

"You got lucky. That shock torture they were giving you fried some of the chips in the collar and the self diagnostic didn't catch it, mostly because the self diagnostic chip was one that got fried. And as far as the electric shock torture, they really fried the soles of your feet. Don't plan on standing on them until you complete a healing trance." Cyborg informed her.

She nodded, still looking very tired. She then closed her eyes.

"OK guys, Raven needs her beauty sleep, so let's vamoose!" Cyborg commanded his teammates, waving towards the infirmary's exit. "We can all visit with her later after she's had a good sleep."

As the Titans bid her a good rest, she called out to the changeling.

"Garfield, come here."

The changeling complied and stood at the side of her bed.

"What is it Rae?"

"Once I'm back on my feet we need to talk." She whispered/

"We do? About what?"

She smiled.

"About us."

-( scene break )-

Lucky Raven, she escaped from Slade's lair. The Titans are ready to mete out some payback against their one eyed nemesis, but apparently he has something already planned for them.

As for Wintergreen, some of you might not be familiar with him. His full name is William Randolph Wintergreen. He and Slade became friends in the military, before Slade became the nefarious Deathstroke the Terminator. Slade saved Wintergreen's life and even after Slade became a villain, Wintergreen became his confidant, his Alfred Pennyworth if you will.

Wintergreen appeared very briefly in the show, only in the very first episode, Divide and Conquer. He also had very brief cameos in The Lost Episode and was seen briefly as part of the extended Brotherhood of Evil, which is odd as Slade did not join the Brotherhood. Here's a link to a picture of him (replace " dot " with "."):

images2 dot wikia dot nocookie dot net/_cb20100426062626/teentitans/images/5/56/Wintergreen dot jpg

And now, mail bag time:

Dezarulordoftwilight

Poor beast boy, but a good chapter nonetheless. I'm going to make a guess force so please tell me hot or cold if I'm close or not, Slade is taking ravens blood either for dark magic or to summon another demon but NOT Trigon.

What? You don't really want a spoiler, do you? :-)

Thowell3

I own the whole Tales of the New Teen Titans mini series, found em at a antique store pretty good price too. They are in great shape too. The Raven Issue is pretty cool, are you going to incorporate anything from those comics?

I like to borrow little things from the comics, especially the back stories which are missing from the show for obvious reasons.

That said, Raven is my least favorite Titan in the 1980's comics. She just seems kind of boring and bland to me. In my opinion, she was the most improved character in the show, and more than a little of "TV" Raven made its way back into the 2000 era comics. That said, my exposure to the 1980's New Teen Titans is incomplete limited to the Omnibus vols 1 & 2 (Volume 2 concludes with the Judas Contract). Volume 3 ships next summer, and perhaps Raven will become more than a boring pacifist in the later issues.

And if you were to ask which character was ruined the most on the show, in my opinion, hands down, it was Terra. She went from being a deliciously evil, psychotic slut (she slept with Slade and hated BB) to being a confused, lonely and misunderstood kid who deep down inside was good. Of course, there's no way comic book Terra could have made it into a kid friendly show, which is why we got stuck with the lame one in the show.

titanfan45

Man, Raven's little announcement regarding her and Beast Boy's statis was unexpected to say the least. Still, it was a real good read as always.

I think she's being a realist. But when you think about it, Robin might be right about her not being "girlfriend material". Of course that has not stopped me or other shippers from pairing her with Beast Boy.

PaulieJuice

You shouldn't be worried. What I mean is the whole 'Slade after Raven' type of thing. Raven isn't my favorite since she usually has a suicidal, annoying atmosphere around here. Robin is right on the nose when it comes to describing her.

I liked this chapter, the vegetarian thing was always odd. I've heard about Raven being a veggie-head many times. I also like the idea of BB indulging in meat every blue moon.

If Raven's character had a flaw in the show, it was that she was a bit of a downer. I was disappointed that when season 5 rolled around she was back into her blue/black ensemble and was as her usual grumpy self, as if everything that transpired in "The End" never happened.

New york Mike

Amazing!As do I get a feeling that Slade wont make a clone out of Raven but instead make a child of her with her own DNA...that would be interesting actually ...

Ooh! That would be creepy!

MelonLord28

Looks like its gonna be a very trigon Christmas

And a Slade New Year!

discb

Bleh, update soon. I hate cliffhangers.

But mon ami, cliffhangers are the zest of life! ;-)