6. Precipice
"We're here," Slade announced as he stood on the shore, seemingly oblivious to the rain pelting his armor.
"Seems deserted," Beast Boy muttered as he clambered out of the surf.
"That's not coincidental," Slade replied, ignoring his tone.
By now, it was late afternoon. They'd had to leave the Turtle about fifty yards offshore, so as to avoid the jagged rock formations that ringed the island in place of a more hospitable sandy beach. The girls had flown (or in Raven's case, levitated) in from there, while the guys had simply waded in; the water was pretty shallow, most of the way. No big deal, and even less when you were a sea otter.
But as for the island itself, it looked to be an empty, forbidding place, at least from where Beast Boy was now standing. It was bigger than the island where they'd met Slade, though still small enough to be left off most maps, and it was all jutting rocks and winding, moss-covered, overgrown trails leading up and in toward the interior. There was no sign of any inhabitants or man-made structures, at least none that were visible from the shore, and the fact that it was now raining steadily only made the place seem that much more unfriendly.
"All right…what's the plan?" Robin growled at Slade as they all gathered along the shore, spitting the words out like they tasted bad. Well, tough, Beast Boy thought to himself. It was his bright idea to bring the guy along; he'd just have to suck it up.
Slade, meanwhile, whipped out some sort of small gadget from wherever he kept all that stuff, pushed some buttons on it, then put it away just as quickly. "I've just signaled my contact," he explained. "I've instructed him to meet us at a prearranged spot, further in. As soon as I get his confirmation, we can be off."
"Great," Robin muttered. "Raven…could I talk to you for a second?" He waved for her to follow him a short distance down the shore.
"Beast Boy." It was Slade. Talking to him.
The shape-shifter gave the one-eyed villain his best 'What do you want?' look.
Slade tossed a small object to him. Reflexively, he caught it, then opened his hand to see what it was. When he did, his eyes widened in shock and disbelief.
It was a plastic hair clip, shaped like a butterfly.
It was Terra's hair clip.
He looked up at Slade in utter confusion, trying to decide if he should thank him, or strangle him. "Why…?" was all he managed to say.
"Let's just say you deserve to have it more than I do," Slade responded.
Before Beast Boy could say anything further, another sound drew his attention – and everyone else's, too, for that matter.
Raven had just slapped Robin.
The Boy Wonder hardly flinched, and said nothing. Neither did Raven, as she stared at him for a moment before turning on her heel and walking quickly off down the beach, in the opposite direction.
All the other Titans were too thunderstruck to say, or do, anything.
His mouth hanging open in total disbelief, Beast Boy looked back and forth several times between Raven's retreating form and Robin, who was still just standing there with a dark look on his face.
"Dude, what…?" he finally managed to get out, then realized, from the look on his face, that Robin wasn't going to tell him jack. So he turned and ran after Raven, instead.
She was crouched at the water's edge behind a large rock formation when he caught up to her, her hood raised, cloak wrapped tightly around herself. The tide washed rhythmically over her feet, and her shoulders were visibly shaking beneath the blue shroud.
He glanced back to see if anyone else had followed him, but they must have all been busy (he hoped) trying to pry an explanation out of Robin. Cautiously, he took a couple of steps toward Raven. "Uh…what happened, back there?"
"How could he ask me that," she whispered fiercely, practically hissing the words through clenched teeth.
"Ask you what? Raven…what's wrong?" He rubbed the back of his head, feeling helpless and confused. He wanted to get closer to her, to make her look at him, but he was afraid that if he tried she'd withdraw even further and shut him out completely.
"No." She shook her head. "I, I can't. It's…"
Beast Boy was really starting to get worried. "What is it? What did Robin ask you? It's okay, you can talk to me."
He could tell she was fighting to get hold of herself. She took several deep breaths and, after a long moment, slowly stood up, though she kept her back to him and her head down.
Suddenly, Wonder Girl came flying into view. "Slade's boy just beeped him back," she called to them. "We're ready to move out, if…is everything all right?" She looked genuinely concerned.
"Well, uh…" Beast Boy faltered, wishing he knew the answer.
Raven quickly rubbed her sleeve across her face, then turned back toward them. She kept her hood up, however…and not, Beast Boy suspected, simply to block the rain.
"…Yeah, everything's okay," she said finally. "Let's get moving."
Wonder Girl didn't look convinced, but she nodded in agreement and flew back toward the rest of the group. Raven moved to follow her, but she stopped next to Beast Boy and caught his eye.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to worry you," she told him. "Let's, um…talk about it later, okay?"
"Uh…yeah, sure, that's cool," he answered lamely, still completely confused, but willing to play along. He patted her arm in a way he hoped would seem reassuring.
Without saying anything further, she looked back down at the ground and swept past him, heading back the way they'd come.
Beast Boy blew out his breath in a frustrated sigh. "Man, this is so not a good idea," he muttered to himself.
Robin scrambled over rain-slick rocks and fought his way through soggy underbrush, trying to channel as much of his inner turmoil as possible into his efforts to keep pace with Slade.
The group had been moving steadily inland for the past twenty minutes at what amounted to a forced march, and in near silence. Normally, he would have been pleased to see his team taking a mission so seriously. Except he knew their silence had little to do with the mission, and a lot to do with what had happened on the shore.
Starfire and Cyborg had tried, hesitantly, to ask him about it. He'd simply told them "Later," and left it at that. At this point, he didn't trust himself to elaborate without his own feelings getting in the way and clouding things further.
He hadn't expected Raven to react so angrily. But unfortunately, her reaction did seem to indicate that at least some of what Slade had mentioned earlier was probably true. Which was…troubling, to put it very mildly.
Why hadn't she told them? That Trigon was not only still alive, but that he could potentially return someday? He didn't understand. Was she afraid of how they'd react? Didn't she trust them, even after all this time, and all they'd been through together?
She could have at least told him, if not the others. She had to know that. He'd literally gone through Hell and back, for her. Wasn't that enough?
And she must have known about it. If Slade knew, there was no way she didn't.
He just couldn't understand.
Speaking of Slade, so far he'd wisely kept his mouth shut about the whole incident. A smart move on his part, particularly since Robin was privately hoping he'd say something about it, just so he'd have an excuse to finally lay into him.
But he didn't, which left Robin no convenient outlet for his frustration.
They entered a dense grove of trees, and as he hacked his way through hanging vines and twisting branches, he found himself reminded of the dank, swampy terrain of an alien planet in some old sci-fi movie. So much so that he expected Beast Boy would surely bring it to everyone's attention, any minute.
But he didn't. And that probably wasn't a very good sign, either.
Suddenly, Slade came to an abrupt halt. "Wait a moment," he said quietly, holding up a hand so the others, behind him, would see the gesture.
"What is it?" Robin asked him in a low voice, instantly freezing where he stood. He hadn't seen any signs of movement ahead of them…
Slade stood totally still, staring at him with an intensity that was rapidly becoming unnerving. Suddenly his hand shot out with uncanny speed, missing Robin's face by only a couple of inches.
"What the-?!" His reflexes taking over, Robin automatically jumped back into a defensive stance. Slade simply stood there, his arm outstretched, tightly grasping one of the hanging vines Robin had been about to brush out of his path.
…A vine which was now writhing and thrashing about, because it was actually a very large, and possibly venomous, snake. It struck at Slade's arm several times, but its fangs couldn't penetrate his armor.
"Mind your surroundings," he said, his voice carrying a hint of amusement, before casually tossing the snake away from their path.
Robin glared at him briefly before resuming his forward pace. "What do you want, a medal?" he muttered sarcastically.
"No, but a little gratitude might be nice," Slade replied as he fell into step alongside him. "Especially if you knew just how long I've been looking out for you."
Robin shot him a derisive look as he ducked a tree branch. "When was that, in between all the times when you were trying to kill us?"
Slade laughed – not his usual quiet, sinister chuckle, but a full-throated laugh, and it nearly brought the entire group up short.
"What, has he finally lost it?" Beast Boy muttered.
"Come, now, Robin," Slade began, still chuckling a bit. "You're smarter than that. You, of all people, must surely have some idea, tactically speaking, of just how many opportunities I've had to liquidate all of you…both individually, and as a team. And yet, you're all still here, aren't you? You're good, certainly, but we both know you're not that good. Not all of you, and not twenty-four hours a day."
Robin scowled. As fiercely as he wanted to, intellectually, he couldn't deny it. "What's your point?"
Slade's eye narrowed. "If, at any point in the past several years, I had ever truly wanted you dead…do you honestly believe you'd still be breathing?"
Before Robin could answer, they emerged from the swampy grove into a small clearing – right at the foot of a steep cliff which loomed in front of them. He judged it to be nearly a hundred foot climb, straight up.
"Did we take a wrong turn, or something?" Wonder Girl asked.
"Hardly." Stepping forward, Slade brushed at the cliff's earthen face, quickly producing a thick rope that had been camouflaged to look like part of the terrain. He tugged on it a few times, shaking the dirt away from it and revealing that it went all the way up.
"See you at the top," he tossed over his shoulder at them, and immediately began climbing.
Without hesitation, Robin fired his grappling line to the top of the cliff and began climbing also, quickly matching Slade step for step.
"Uh, wouldn't it be easier to…oh-kay, never mind then," Cyborg called after them as they ascended, clearly ignoring him.
Slade glanced over at Robin as he pulled up alongside him. "I'm surprised you didn't catch a ride with your 'friend-who-is-a-girl'," he remarked, mockingly.
Robin glared at him briefly, before deciding two could play at that game. "What, are you saying this is the hard way up? I climb twice as far every morning, before breakfast."
"Hm. I'm sure," Slade grunted. He was probably being sarcastic, but Robin didn't care. He was tired of simply reacting to him. Instead, he changed the subject.
"All right. If you haven't been actively trying to kill us, all this time…then, what was the point? What's it all been about?"
Slade glanced over at him. "I thought you'd never ask! The truth, then, at long last. My real interest in your team, from the beginning…has been in preparing you."
Robin nearly lost his grip on the rope. "Preparing…?!" he repeated incredulously.
"Precisely. Preparing you to face true evil, those who truly threaten our world…and who must be stopped, at any cost."
Now it was Robin's turn to laugh. "Beast Boy was right. You really have lost it."
"Think about it, Robin," Slade insisted. "What better way to forge your team into an effective unit than by presenting you with a capable, credible threat? One which would constantly demand that you operate at the peak of your abilities, challenge you to exceed your limitations, and push you right to the brink of oblivion…but never quite over it?" He paused, and caught Robin's eye. "…Sound like anyone else you know?"
Robin stared at him in utter disbelief. "You can not be serious."
"Ha! You already know my answer to that. And you also know that I've had many opportunities to permanently rid myself of you, had I ever actually wanted to. Can you really come up with a better explanation?"
"What about Terra?" Robin demanded angrily. "You destroyed her life, when you turned her against us. How do you justify that?!"
Slade sighed. "Terra's life was destroyed long before she ever met me. I did what I could to channel her destructive tendencies. By steering her into your path, I believe I ultimately limited the damage she would have randomly caused, otherwise…because I knew you could take it. It was a brutal, but necessary, lesson – and one you still haven't successfully learned, if that fiasco with the Brotherhood was any indication."
They climbed the next several meters in silence.
"I still think you're full of it," Robin muttered.
The other Titans stood there a moment, briefly perplexed as Robin and Slade scaled the cliff, neither of them sparing so much as a backward glance to make sure the rest were following.
"Whatever," Raven finally muttered as she began to levitate. Beast Boy followed her lead as a green eagle, and Wonder Girl joined them in the air, with Jericho in tow.
"Um…" Cyborg rubbed his head, watching all of his friends ascend from below.
"I shall assist you, friend!" Starfire announced, suddenly grabbing him by the shoulders and launching into the air without further warning.
"Er…thanks, Star," Cyborg grunted a few seconds later, once his stomach had caught up with them, as they soared upward.
"I welcome you," she responded cheerfully, but then lowered her voice. "Truthfully, Cyborg…I wish to seek your advice."
"Oh yeah?" He craned his neck to look up at her. "What's up?"
"Well…" She hesitated. "Robin feels that Raven and Beast Boy have been behaving…unlike Raven and Beast Boy, in recent weeks. Particularly since we journeyed to the land where the sun always rises, even when it is not." She frowned briefly, but managed to stay on topic. "I have thought about his words, though I had not noticed such a change in them myself. However, I must also admit that I have not been very…attentive, recently, and such a thing could have escaped my notice. So I must ask you; have you observed our friends behaving uncharacteristically?"
"Hmmm." He thought about it. "Not offhand. I know BB was kinda bummed over the last time he ran into Terra, but he seemed okay with it the last time it came up…'course, the kid is better at hiding that sort of thing than you'd think. As for Raven, I hadn't really thought about it 'till earlier, but maybe she has been a little bit gloomier than usu-whoa! Pull up, Star, pull up!"
They'd suddenly begun to lose altitude, and the trees rushed up to meet them with alarming speed. Starfire hastily corrected and they resumed their upward climb, with Cyborg's feet narrowly missing the treetops.
"Eep! Fervent apologies!" she squeaked, clearly embarrassed.
He looked up at her sympathetically. "This is really bothering you, isn't it?"
She pursed her lips and gave a quick nod, as if almost afraid to acknowledge it. "My…my fear is that it could somehow be related to Robin and myself, having become…more than friends."
"What? No way! Starfire, we've all known how you two felt about each other, probably even before you did! We're happy that you finally got together! Don't you doubt that."
"I – wish to believe that, also," she hedged. "And yet…I find myself fearing that something terrible may happen. And I do not know why."
"I do. Look, this mission's got everybody on edge, and it's all because of Slade. We both know Robin, Beast Boy and Raven all have particular reasons for hating the guy. I think that's a big part of what's going on. Once we get this over with and ditch that creep, things'll get back to normal. You'll see." He smiled at her as they swooped toward the cliff's summit, where the others were also converging.
"I hope you are correct," she said, smiling in return, though it seemed slightly forced. "I am grateful for your insights, Cyborg. I believe you have helped me."
"Anytime, Starfire" he grinned.
"Alright, so…what's this thing?" Beast Boy asked as Robin pulled himself up to the cliff's summit.
"Looks like some sorta radar nest," Cyborg answered, as he inspected the cluster of partially rusted metallic dishes and antennae situated among the rocks and vegetation around the plateau where the team now stood. "And an old one, too, from the looks of it."
"Very astute," Slade remarked, stepping forward. Outwardly, he didn't seem to be the slightest bit fatigued from the climb.
"This island was secretly used as a forward observation post by the Japanese, during World War II," he continued, slowly circling the partially-camouflaged sensor array as if looking for something in particular. "It's been abandoned since the end of the war, but some parts of the infrastructure should still remain…ah, here we are."
He pulled aside a large, flat rock situated toward the rear of the radar nest to reveal a hidden trapdoor. After brushing some of the dirt away from it, it opened with the loud, telltale creak of metal hinges that hadn't moved in decades. The rungs of an equally old service ladder descended from there into a dark, narrow tunnel, just wide enough for a single person to fit through.
"This maintenance shaft should get us close to the main bunker, where I suspect Brother Blood has probably established his current base of operations," Slade told them. "My contact will meet us near the exit."
"Man, that's gonna be tight." Cyborg shined his light down the ladder, which went straight down about fifty feet before it appeared to link with a larger underground passage. "I hope it's not that narrow the whole way."
"I doubt the original architects had large, partially mechanical crime fighters in mind," Slade commented, clearly amused by his discomfort. "After you?"
The cybernetic teen glared at him briefly before retorting. "Nah, you first. That way, there'll be something to break my fall if I slip."
Slade chuckled. "If you insist."
The climb was cramped and claustrophobic, but thankfully, the shaft opened into a normal-sized passageway at the bottom, leading off into the darkness. Cyborg did get stuck at one point on the way down, but only briefly. His shoulder lamps were already scanning their dust-covered, concrete surroundings when Robin reached the bottom. Beast Boy was just behind him, with the girls still on their way down from above. If nothing else, at least they were out of the rain.
"As you can see, there's only one way to go," Slade observed, his voice echoing slightly in the tunnel.
"No electricity?" Cyborg wondered aloud as he fingered one of the old, small light bulbs strung along the ceiling.
"It's better that way," Slade remarked. "That means no one has been using this tunnel. If all goes well, we should be able to approach the base undetected."
"Then let's get going. Beast Boy, eyes front," Robin ordered, without bothering to look at him.
"Dude, I wasn't even – ah, forget it," the green shape-shifter grumbled.