Title: Masks and Men
Chapter Title: Awakening
Rating: T for swearing and mild violence and mature themes
Disclaimer: I don't own this… I think that's why there's Teen Titans Go and no season 6.
Author Notes: Thanks for all the reviews, favorites, and follows! Ya'll are really sweet. It's always nice to see what people think! :D
Anyway, sorry that this is a slower chapter. I think the characters need to understand each other more before anything major happens, and Raven just got a cheat code by breaking into Slade's mind. Yay. Life hack. Much cool.
Please enjoy!
"A little light dispels a lot of darkness"
—Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi
He wakes up and she's beside him. The darkness is being kept at bay by the small flashlight in her hands. That look is still there, written on her face as clear as day.
He hates her for her pity, almost as much as Slade Wilson hates himself.
"Where are we?"
"Your head," she answers simply. "I was uncomfortable with what you did in mine."
He looks down. Slade Wilson wants to apologize, but Deathstroke stops him.
"Don't do that again. Torment me during my meditation… Torment me in reality… I don't care what you do, but stay out of my head." She points the flashlight so it illuminates his face. "My mind is my own."
"Why not?"
"What you almost did last night… It's violation… It's rape…" Her voice catches in her throat. As if she's trying to choke back memories. "Don't do it."
"Then why did you do it to me?" He tilts his head. Slade wants her to respond, wants her to become consumed with rage. Always an easier target for manipulation. Always much, much more fun.
"You attacked me first. I lashed out—I was defending myself," she shoots back coolly.
"By raping me." Underneath his mask, he smirks. "How very Trigon of you."
There's the ticket. Raven's eyes flash dangerously. She closes the distance between then to jab a finger into his chest. In an inexplicable twist of events, she is the one in power, she is the one dangling him off a building. Why, it isn't even his birthday. "I did something my father would never do. I fixed you. I saved you, Slade."
"Why? To free yourself from guilt? Trying so hard not to be Daddy's little girl?" he laughs.
"No." Her eyes never waver from his. "Because I learned everything about you, Deathstroke."
Slade freezes. His eye narrows into a thin slit. "You know nothing," he hisses.
"I know everything," she says just as quietly, just as resolutely. "Addie. Joey. Grant. Wintergreen. I know it all."
He lunges for her, but she snaps her fingers and he finds himself dangling in the air. In spite of his struggles, Raven's magic wraps around him and forces him to look her in the eye.
"I know you, Slade Wilson." And her eyes tell him that this is no lie. She's telling the complete, wholesome truth. The thought of that terrifies him. She knows, every part of him—the good, the bad, the evil. (And part of him feels so relieved that someone finally understands.)
And yet… Her expressive eyes look so sad.
Another snap of her fingers and he falls to the floor, just a pile of bones in human armor. Raven holds out a hand, but both of them know that he won't take it.
Stooping, she clicks the flashlight to a higher setting. Light floods the area around them, and he sees his own mind clearly for the first time. It looks so much likes hers, only darker, harder, sadder. While her soul is bathed in light, his belongs only to the darkness.
Raven sets the flashlight next to him. Bending down, she touches his shoulder. Raven suddenly looks less like a girl and more like a woman. "You're not as evil as you say you are," she whispers in his ear. Purple eyes meet blue for the briefest of moments.
And then she returns to the darkness.
—
He doesn't turn the flashlight off.
Thank you for reading!
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