Robin was going to kill her.
Clenching and unclenching his fists in superficial anger, he turned on a heel and began sprinting toward the lounge where the rest of the team lurked.
Where had the time gone?
Raven had been outside, flying, levitating; doing whatever made her feel relaxed. No crime bosses thwarted her peaceful outing, no pesky teens or children whined for her autograph or gasped at her presence, and no Robin intruded on her at any point.
It was as if she was a ghost floating throughout the city, never taking any notice and not giving any in return.
Hours had passed, the sun was starting to nestle back into the grove of darkness where it slumbered, awakening a new form of life in the town. Bright, faux-lights, sulking shadows, and an overwhelming sense of anticipated dread began to weed out the innocence of day.
This was most certainly where she belonged.
For no reason other than the thrill in the air, adrenaline coursed through her veins, sparking her apathy into dangerous feelings of risk-taking.
What new dangers awaited her in the middle of the night?
Slade was thinking a rather similar thought.
It was only a matter of time before the girl slipped up. Her naivety would soon cost her something irreplaceable.
He couldn't wait.
The monitors in front of the vicious man hummed an alert. Snapping his eye open, he briskly sat forward in his stone throne, and leaned in, his one pupil dancing from left to right, up and down as he took in the information newly presented.
Realizing what the screen was delivering, he coughed a silent chuckle from the deep crevices of his throat and cracked an unwavering, cruel smile beneath the metal mask.
Feeling lucky, for it seemed tonight was certainly a win for him, he stood up and sauntered methodically out of the cavern, the one light shutting off as he ascended.
"Raven!" a scratchy, awfully familiar voice beeped from her belt. "Come in, Raven!"
She had been ignoring the petty cries of her friend for the last ten minutes, but unfortunately Robin knew better than anyone how easily her patience ebbed. Her shoulders sagged slightly, she landed upon the roof of an old warehouse near the bay and snatched the communicator up.
Grimacing and clicking a button on its head with a press of her thumb, she rolled her eyes.
"What?" she snapped harshly into the round, electronic T.
Instead of a lecture, only a variety of relieved sounds screamed from the tiny thing, most of it came from one green boy.
"Oh my God, she's alive! Jeez, don't scare us like that, dude! Er, I mean…dudet-?"
"Beast Boy, quiet," she growled.
A squeak came as the complacent reply.
"Get off the frequency for a sec, guys," Robin ordered nonchalantly.
She could tell by his voice he was moments away from exploding.
"Of course."
"Roger."
"Peace."
The sound of faint tapping was a cue for her to sit down, obviously she was about to get an earful. But, to her surprise, only silence greeted her awkwardly.
A chilled breeze whipped her hair and cloak about, the gravel of the stone she sat on rubbed uncomfortably against her bare legs, and she took a few deep breaths.
"Robin…"
"Don't."
"But I-"
"Zip it, Raven."
Frowning, they couldn't just sit like this forever. Who was he to dictate when and how she spoke? He was the one that intruded on her, right? If anyone should be angry...
Then why was she obeying?
For once, the silent girl was being eaten alive by the quiet, it was almost worse than a chorus of Beast Boys.
"Listen, Robin, I'm going to-"
"Unless you want to ge-" came the cut-off, headstrong reply.
"What?"
"Raven! I'm serious! Shut up!"
Her cheeks began to boil with rage. No one told her to shut up, not even Trigon.
"No! Not until you tell me why you're being such a douche!" she yelled.
A few more seconds of stillness passed eerily by, and then:
"Language, Raven."
A new voice, one that wasn't coming through the object in her tightened palm, sounded clearly behind her. With a gasp, but not a hesitation, she twisted around and threw her arms out menacingly. Her fingertips glowed with outline of new black against night-sky, ready.
But there was no target.
She had heard him, but he was already gone.
The communicator dropped from her hand, and the sharp cry of cracking plastic pierced the hush before chaos.
"Getting scared, are we?"
Finally, she was able to pivot quickly to where the unfortunate outline of Slade appeared. Her power was ready but she knew that fighting him would ultimately result in a defeat. At least now it would have- she could barely make out the copper in his mask.
"What do you want?" she hissed, grinding her teeth in a mix of frustration and apprehension.
Hands strictly placed behind him, he slowly strode around, baiting her, his steps clearly ringing in the tense air.
"You mean, you don't know?" he questioned back. "I thought I made it clear. But, then again, what can you expect from a Titan?"
Her lips remained stitched together, unwilling to fall victim to his linguistic traps.
"What a shame," he remarked coldly, his flickering, black eye digging into her skin. "Brains before beauty…"
"What do you want, Slade?" she repeated, bristling.
Another wave of silence crashed between them.
"Do you really want to know?"
Now, she was truly in a pickle.
If she said yes, she would feed his pysho-ego, but if she said no, they would just talk in circles forever.
Luckily, he took her quiet contemplation as a definite yes. He stepped softly forward, taking advantage of her methodical state.
"As I said, I thought I made myself perfectly plain when I said you were marked to be mine," he began, taking another foot closer. "But, apparently, I need to repeat myself once more."
Realizing his ever closing-in state, she backed equally away.
He leaned in, his strong chest at a perfect angle as his gaze never wavered, the lid never shutting to a blissful blink but remained fixed upon her flesh.
"Raven," he growled, his throaty tone sending chills up her spine as she imagined his freezing touch. "You are mine. Like it or not, we are intertwined. Our destinies are one in the same. You can accept this inevitability, or, you can be a stubborn brat about it. Either way, I will get what I desire."
"Slade, unless you want me to…"
Not even letting her finish her rebellious statement, he backhanded her to the ground.
He always found new ways to be devilishly unexpected; however, if it was a fight he wanted, he was going to get one.
Merging through the stone, she disappeared from his line of sight, but reappeared behind him and sent a kick to his back.
It would have sent him off the roof, but unfortunately, he caught her delicate foot and instead, she was thrown away. Landing hard on the other side, she panted and snorted in frustration, but ultimately stood to face him again.
Only his mask was visible, it hovered in the shadows, almost as if it was completely separate from the rest of his body.
"Dear child, I suggest you quit now while I still have an ounce of patience left."
Quit? When did she ever do such a thing? Why was he even suggesting it?
"What are you playing at?" she barked out, lining her arms with dark energy once more.
"I would gladly answer that."
Tricked by the light, by something, he came from nowhere, and she was once again smacked to the ground, beneath him.
"Brings back memories, doesn't it?"
A subtle flickering of intense fear and pain skated across her mind as he pressed his heavy, metal boot directly into her stomach. The crushing pressure began to chisel away at her ribs, and she was certain he was going to crack one.
"Now," he started, his eye flicking upwards in fake contemplation. "How did it go again?"
He leaned forward, providing more weight into the hold he had on her, and a crackle of bone pricked in the air. Two ribs snapped.
A sharp, pained inhale of frigid oxygen made its way into her depleted lungs, the throbbing of internal bleeding and imploding cartilage allowed a sweet flow of adrenaline to coat her mind.
His massive foot pressed even more into her stomach, trampling her organs, and now it seemed all of her ribs were breaking under the weight.
Pleased with the look of intense pain, as well as the trickle of blood beginning to drip from the side of her mouth, he released her, only to pick her up by the cloak and throw her a few more feet away.
Skidding across the hard, brittle concrete, her flesh filed away in flakes, and the sting of new gashes and oozing wounds accompanied the horrible aching radiating from her chest.
"Ah, yes," his otherworldly voice announced. "I remember."
The pounding of his horrible walk caused her to try and crawl as consciousness began evading.
"Pathetically, you tried to get away," he recounted. "But, I caught you."
A strong, ice hand dug into her skin.
"What you have concealed, you shall become," he repeated mockingly.
The fingernails beneath the black gloves tore away, with surprisingly ferocity, her cloak, leaving her back bare, and the mark out in the open for the world to see.
The cement becoming more comfortable by the second, her pain beginning to finally dim out with her vision, he made it all the worse and snatched her up in his arms, his fingers wrapped around her shoulders, he ripped some more of her dignity away.
"Stop it," she spat out, a pool of blood drooling slowly out of her mouth. "Get off!"
Somehow, she managed to push him away, and began to run. Limping, ignoring the ache from her chest, she took slow but decisive breaths as her feet carried her quickly to the other end of the roof.
Once again, however, he cut her off out of nowhere. He was already waiting for her, directly in her path to freedom. Not to be deterred, she conjured what little energy she had buried and spread a pair of flickering wings.
Crying out, she sent every bit of magic at his split mask, the raven avatar screeching in rage as it flew from her.
The tsunami of darkness hit him point blank, and she smiled a little as she braced herself into the ground once more.
"Really, Raven is that the best you can do?"
Finally, her eyes widened to the realization of hopelessness.
That blow should have killed him, she had given it all without a thought toward morality. He should have been a cinder, or blown apart in many different pieces.
In pitch black, she could even make out the crater that was now drilled into the warehouse, she heard the bits of rock fall to the water below in satisfying splashes.
Unfortunately, as she squinted in the dark, his infuriating outline stood directly in front of the hole as well.