"Who's there?!" Raven yelled into the thick fog of black beginning to waft about her. "Show yourself!"
Her demands were met; a figure was beginning to part the illusion of smoke. She focused her energy, shocking her powers into life, yet they did not respond. Before she could peer down at her hands, and wonder why her birth-given right failed, a chest was now only inches away.
She screamed and flew back, into the ground, for any levitation failed her. The mist was certainly airy, but gravity was increasingly heavy.
"My, Raven," this eerily recognizable voice commented, always making sure there wasn't but a foot between them. "I never took you for the easily frightened type."
That voice…she thought, straining her repressed memories for a clue. It had been so very long…
Daring to flick her eyes upward, she felt the need to almost convulse on the spot.
The boots…the steel engraved into a human figure…the unholy mask hovered like it always had.
"Slade!" she breathed out, pushing back onto her hands, scrambling away as best she could yet to no avail as he kept perfect pace with her. "Y-you…"
Clogged with dread and worry, the muscles in her throat choked as if squeezed by an imaginary collar of spikes and thorns. Had he always been so terrifying?
"Died?" he guessed, and shook his head. "I can't be killed that easily, Raven."
It had been too long, two years…he had…
"Disappeared?" he speculated once more, his weighted, metal boots clamping upon the hard, imaginary ground as she still crawled backwards, desperately trying to evade him. "Now that's just impractical, dear child."
The fog, the void, the cavern of ultimate black and darkness was doing wonders for his entrance into her fears. All it had taken was a mild chuckle, appearance, and sarcastic rambling and her body already shook with anxiety. Would this be too easy?
His quick boot finally snagged onto her clock, stopping her frantic escape.
He extended a hand to the girl upon the apparent ground… he was a gentleman after all. The purpose of this meeting was not to fight, but to instruct and prophesize, although he would not mind if diplomacy turned sour and he had to remind her of her weakened place.
She simply stared at his hand, expecting it to sprout devilish wings and fly away or turn into a beast and eat her alive. The tension grew with silence, his eye remained fixed upon hers, never wavering or even blinking.
His gloved hand levitated amidst the fog.
Feeling light headed, her head began to fall with swooning, but she stopped herself.
I don't faint.
What power had possessed her to be such a damsel in distress? This was just Slade, it was only natural he would return and contact her first, his revenge list was long, but not complex in the least.
Coming to her senses, she pushed his fingers away and stood on her own, placing her perfect, slender hands upon her hips standoffishly.
"What do you want, Slade?" she hissed, gaining new strength.
"That's more like it," he noted cryptically, his soft, high pitched voice slick and purring. "I was beginning to wonder if you had grown soft since my absence."
Rolling her eyes and blowing a violet hair out of her face, she glared in return. Yet, the game they played was not so easy, it was his move last, her turn now.
"Again, what do you want, Slade?" she repeated with an annoyed sigh, stifling the urge to dig her fingers into the side of her head.
"I'm so happy you asked," he responded teasingly, a lion playing with a mouse. "You see, Raven, I haven't forgotten you."
His mysterious statements were eroding her patience, but this was simply Slade. Sometimes he aggravated her more than Beast Boy.
Sometimes…
"Um, thanks?" she spat, placing her hands at her sides, allowing the illusionary cloak to cover her body religiously. "Do you want a card or something?"
"Ah, I did miss that sense of humor," he hummed lyrically. "But unfortunately, girl, I seek something else: a gift, better than a useless shred of decorated paper."
She wished she had a watch to glance at impatiently, but she merely tapped her foot. The smoke around the two swirled lazily, calmed by the presence of the master of the mind.
"Get on with it, Slade," she insisted, her voice neither rising nor lowering in monotone intrigue.
Placing his hands characteristically behind his back, he began to pace back and forth like a shark.
"I've given this some thought, Raven," he began dramatically, his cold eye still intertwined with hers. "As I said, I have not failed to recall our last meeting, it was glorious after all."
As he spoke, she simply remembered being thrown off a building with the burning red symbols etched into her skin, her demonic father trying to destroy her over and over again, and Slade being the hand that dragged her into hell. Glorious was certainly not the word for it.
"The raw power you possess is something I have never seen before," he complimented lowly, his footsteps trudging closer to the girl, her memories far from this place.
Only centimeters, it seemed, were between the two, her head remained low and unaware, still reeling from old wounds being ripped open.
"I'm sure you remember that night," he started, not even a human breath exited his mask. "Even I could see how weak your body was. Such a pity that so much potential was wasted on your frame."
His negative comment broke the euphoria-trance that bound her, and rage began to replace confusion.
This sudden shift in emotion manifested as a glare, a snarl imprinted upon her nose, the wrinkles carving deeply into her skin.
"Now, don't pout," he instructed, his split mask hiding an ever-growing grin. "Just because you're feeble doesn't mean you have to take it out on me, girl."
Obviously, she did not see herself that way, no one really did, but Slade always loved to poke fun at beings he deemed imperfect.
Huffing, she turned away from his face, his massive stature that stood right behind her. A poor fighting move, but she couldn't stand looking at him.
Her tolerance ebbing away by the second, she began thinking of ways out, this conversation was lasting far too long for her tastes.
"Well," she growled. "I promise to subscribe to a gym. Now, if you'll excuse me…"
"I'm afraid you can't leave just yet, child," he interrupted, the cat still toying with his food. "You'll miss the best part."
Being as that there was no neon sign declaring "Exit", she didn't have much of a choice. Not even turning back around to grace his presence, she simply waited for his melodramatic speech.
"As I was saying," his voice sung behind her, velvet smooth. "That lovely night…yes, I clearly remember it now. How fragile you were, but how strong your power was. I've never seen anything close to matching it, Raven."
His hints were blunt, but she didn't want to see them.
"Truthfully, you are a perfect candidate to be mine."
Shaking suddenly, the truth ripped open for all to see like sin, she twisted quickly.
"No!"
The fist aimed at his half colored mask came upon thick, shadow air.
He was right behind me…
"Too slow, Raven."
Before she could once again twirl to his new stance, a fist erupted through her torso. Crying in pain, she peered down when there was actually not a scratch or throb to speak of.
"What the…?"
"Stay on subject, dear girl," he lightly demanded, pulling the fist that was just in the middle of her body out and back to his side strictly. "I do not have time to embarrass you. Well, at least not in combat."
"Listen," she barked. "I will never-"
"Oh please," he once again cut in, his tone indicating annoyance. "Your hand to hand is much too unbearable to be any use to me. You may think you're invincible because you and your little friends defeated Trigon but, really, you are as hopeless as ever."
"Go f—"
"Language, Raven," he snapped. "Or I may have to cut out that tongue."
Raising an eyebrow, his interruptions were making her skin crawl with fury. If she had been able to use her powers, he would be a pile of dust at her feet.
"Then why are you here, Slade?!" she yelled, her fingers curled into tight fists, her very core shaking, exploding with almost tangible magma broiling.
Taking the last of the space between them up, his mask lowered down right in front of her face as her foot began to step back.
"But, Raven," he said lowly, evilly. "You came to me."