Author's Notes

To JP-Ryder, Chief Grant has finally been busted, so the Titans can get some solace in the fact that the man who charged Raven was arrested for corruption, but they've still got a ways to go before they can get Raven free from Belle Reve. And as for Harley, she has certainly proved herself to be a major contributor to Cadmus, but even success doesn't make her safe.

To minerbuilder12, we'll explain more of how they injected Raven and how she didn't notice in the very first scene of the chapter. Yeah, and twelve jurors not being able to explain what happened...it was very unlikely all twelve would die in four years of natural causes, especially if they are far from Jump City.

To Anon 87, Gemini is part of the Cadmus plot in order to keep her mother in Belle Reve - it's been mentioned multiple times already that Madame Rouge (or Laura DeMille) was abusive to Gemini, so it figures that she'd work for Cadmus if it meant ensuring her mother never saw the light of day.

Now, let's continue the story.

After their disturbing discovery about the true reason for Raven's frame-up and subsequent imprisonment, and that the one responsible for the whole ordeal was the Warden of Belle Reve, the very prison Raven was being held in, the Titans knew they needed to discuss their next move with the Justice League.

Dialing up the Justice League, Nightwing saw Mister Terrific on call, who asked, "Nightwing, who do you need?"

Nightwing explained, "We need to speak to the founding seven immediately. We know why Raven was set up and who's responsible."

With that, Mister Terrific patched the Titans into the conference room held by the founding seven members, though not all of them were present - of the seven, all but Batman and Flash were present. That left Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern Hal Jordan, Hawkgirl, and Martian Manhunter present.

Upon noticing the Titans had dialed in, Superman asked, "What's come up, Titans?"

Cyborg revealed, "Cadmus is weaponizing Raven. They've been injecting Raven with a concentrated version of the Demon's Hand."

Hawkgirl inquired, "How?"

Nightwing elaborated, "Through her inhibitor collar. Cadmus arranged for Raven to be placed in Belle Reve so they could place their special inhibitor collar on her."

The Green Lantern deduced, "The Warden of Belle Reve is in on it, then? No wonder former Belle Reve inmates are being used as hitmen."

"The Warden, Amanda Waller, isn't just in on it, she's the head of it. She's been planning this for years, and what better way to ensure that progress is being made than to be present there herself?"

Just then, a hologram of Batman appeared in the conference room, asking, "Waller? Of course it had to be her. She always was hiding something back during the ARGUS situation. It was only natural she was the one responsible for Cadmus. She's an expert manipulator and liar - not even a goddamn lie detector would have been able to prove anything on her. A purebred sociopath."

"Wait a minute. How did they manage to inject Raven then without her realizing it?" Indeed, what Shayera had just asked was on the minds of everyone - how could Raven have not noticed a giant needle in the back of her neck?

Then, popping into the conference room was a hologram of the Flash, who explained, "Through the beatings. I took a look at the collar's design, and the injection would have caused Raven a bit of noticeable pain and probably because of the dramatic effect and overall nature of the concentrate, it would have to be absorbed into her bloodstream very slowly. Because she was thrown in Belle Reve along with nearly every other bad guy, they hurt her to a point that the pain inflicted by the inmates was far greater than that of the needle, enabling it to sneak in and slowly inject Raven, giving Cadmus the necessary window for the injections to commence."

"And her being beaten half to death was the perfect opportunity for the needle to go in. But if Raven's healing was activated, wouldn't she have realized she was being injected?"

"No, Animal Man. The first thing the concentrate did was numb the pain around the needle to the point Raven could not have felt it, even if she had her full powers back. How fast does the concentrate go is the big issue now."

"At this rate, Flash, I'd guess that about seventy six percent of the concentrate has been absorbed into her bloodstream, more than enough for Raven to be turned into Waller's puppet. Once it reaches one hundred percent, it's irreversible. Raven completely loses her freedom and becomes little more than a toy. So, what do we do now?"

Batman grimly noted, "We don't have enough to go to court yet - we can't definitively link Waller as the head of the conspiracy and for Raven's set-up, and even then we'd have to deal with the rammifications of stealing Cadmus files. We'll need time to figure out just how to go about this, so please don't do anything hasty."

With that, the communication between the League and the Titans ended, leaving the four Titans uncertain of how to proceed next.

Cyborg commented, "If we don't do something, Cadmus will turn Raven against us as their latest weapon. They already have a Kryptonian, a 'suicide squad', and a shapeshifter. The last thing they need is a half-demon on their side."

Nightwing also added, "But if we try breaking her out, Cadmus will be after our heads."

Animal Man asked, "Wouldn't they already be after our heads? We'd probably have a better chance of survival breaking her out than of letting her stay in prison. Face it, dudes, we're low on options now."

"Indeed, Friend Animal Man, we cannot allow Enemy Amanda Waller from turning Friend Raven into a mind-controlled assassin."

"Look, we can't just bust into Belle Reve willy-nilly."

"Yo, I thought you were on our side, Nightwing!"

"I am, Cy. If we're going to break Raven out of one of the most secure prisons on Earth, we're going to need help, and we can't get the League involved in this or else Waller will gain considerable leverage to continue her actions. In fact, we can't even tell the League about our plans. The fewer people that know, the better for all of us."

"But then who would we go to for - not him, Nightwing."

"Like you said, Gar, we're low on options and he has about as much at stake in this as we do, if not more. Who else would be able to help us break Raven out, and who would be willing to do it?"

The other Titans stared at Nightwing silently, realizing that to save their friend from such a major threat to the Earth, they would have to ally with their biggest enemy...again - the first time being the end of the world.

Going over to the computer, Nightwing activated the secure mode so nobody would be able to peek into their actions over the Web. Then, he went onto a classified defunct government server. Starfire asked, "What exactly is this?"

"It's a server the government used to contact hitmen, at least until they supposedly disbanded it. However, people who know about it still use it to contact specific hitmen for tasks. We're going to use this to contact Slade."

Then, Nightwing began to type in the message they intended to send to Slade, whom he knew was listed under Dark Gold - while he was Slade's apprentice, Robin was able to sneak in a look at the server and found Slade's codename on the site; while he did think of using it before to find Slade's movements, only the user in question could access the full trail of their messages, and given the nature of the server, they'd only be able to use it once, so Nightwing was saving it for an emergency.

Finishing the message, Nightwing sent it to Slade, desperately hoping he'd respond soon. Cyborg asked, "So, how will he know that you sent it, and nobody else would catch on?"

"The message is something only he would understand could have come from me. And judging by the circumstances, he will definitely take a look at it."

It was a few minutes before they received their reply, 'Noon. Warehouse Alpha Six. There, we'll discuss specifics. Dark Gold.'

Now, the Titans had their appointment set up with Deathstroke, but they still didn't know how it would turn out, and if he would even help them with the jailbreak of the century.

Superman, after taking care of a peace operation at a far away planet, flew on board at the Watchtower. While there he walks through the corridors, passing by other heroes such as Atom Smasher and Stargirl. The Man of Steel was about to head for the Ops center when suddenly, he heard a voice in his mind.

'Blue…Mesa…Dam…'

"What?" Superman said as he looks around, wondering if someone's talking to him.

'Blue Mesa Dam…immediately…'

Now the Kryptonian is curious about this message telling him to go somewhere. "The Blue Mesa Dam." he repeated as he decides to fly out to the location he is called for.

Superman flew down towards the large blue lake, Blue Mesa of Colorado. Once there he flew towards the dam as he spotted someone. As he lands there, he recognizes the person who is wearing a helmet.

"Dr. Hamilton?" Superman asked in surprised, remembering last seeing the doctor of STAR Labs at Cadmus before it went defunct originally.

"Hello, Superman." Dr. Emil Hamilton replied as he takes the telepathic helmet off.

"What are you doing here, Hamilton?" Superman asked him.

"I thought it would be obvious, with the same telepathic helmet I designed with the similar blue prints the late Gorilla Grodd had. I have constructed this replica to give a telecommunication signal to you, and only you." Hamilton explained as he looked at the blue waters of Blue Mesa. "There is some things I need to tell you about Cadmus."

"Like something I haven't heard before." Superman said with a glare of his once friend. "They've been killing my friends, some of the Titans, and some of the super criminals."

"Anything else you've heard of that category?" Emil asked.

"That you were responsible for creating a female clone of me, Galatea." Superman told the professor. "But as soon as I heard about this Galatea, as well as seen her profile picture, I've realized that she resembles more like deceased cousin, Kara Zor-El. Supergirl as you know her."

"Yes, but that is only the half truth of what you know about Galatea." Hamilton adjusted his glasses as he looks down in shame. "You see, during the aftermath of Darkseid's attack, she required massive organ transplants due to her injuries. Unfortunately there aren't any other donors to take her as the only person compatible with Kara Zor-El... "

"Was Kara Zor-El herself."

"Precisely. So the only option was to clone her in order to save her. But before the clone could generate, Waller arrived to shut down the cloning project, resulting in Supergirl's death so Amanda can create a mind-controlled assassin."

"What about Amanda? Why is she doing this?" Superman asked.

Hamilton replied "Ever since STAR Labs, Waller had been drawing up plans to take down superhumans like you, Zatanna, Flash, and any other superhumans, eventually reaching head of Cadmus upon its formation."

"What does she have to do with this Cadmus conspiracy?"

"In order for her to formulate the strategy, she needed someone that could calculate what was necessary to do in order for success, and thus she recruited Brainiac." He saw the Man of Steel's expression in understandable shock as he continued "Waller had found that alien program villain after his defeat upon the the reveal Argus was compromised, having been suspicious that the Kryptonian computer was still alive after the Legion of Doom explained that they've resurrected Darkseid instead of Brainiac. Even if Tala had deliberately sabotaged the resurrection, they were always going to resurrect Darkseid as since one cannot resurrect someone that isn't dead, Brainiac couldn't have been completely dead. We both know he can spread, hiding himself in any system he infects.

"So once I've discovered of Brainiac's resurrection, I knew I had to go to you despite of my personal feelings. I've realized that Waller will not stop until she has all of the power she will ever wanted and no boundary she will ever cross. When I joined Cadmus, I thought I was trying to help humanity protect itself from superhumans that could take control of the world without much trying, but once I learned about Brainiac, Cadmus became the very thing it claimed to prevent. Not only does humanity need protection from metahumans that want to conquer, but also from Cadmus itself." Hamilton finished his explanation.

"This is horrible." Superman said as he finally spoke "We got to do something."

"No, I have said to much." Emil said as he walks towards the edge the dam, as Superman picks up in what Hamilton is doing.

"Hamilton, wait!" Superman tries to stop him, but is halted when the scientist holds up a Kryptonite bullet, enough to back the Kryptonian away. "You don't have to do this Emil,…the League will protect you."

"You nor the League will never be able to protect me from Cadmus." Hamilton said his last words as he jumps down from the edge as he falls to his death, and Superman couldn't save him due to the kryptonite bullet he had.

"Hamilton." Superman said feeling useless for not saving the STAR Labs scientist, and his former friend.

The four Titans arrived at the warehouse, waiting for their meeting with Slade. Would he even show up? The message Nightwing sent, something Slade would know could only have come from him, may have deterred him, thinking it would be a trap. And then, Slade would have set up a trap of his own. Was this all a trap Slade had set up?

Animal Man asked his leader, "So, Nightwing, are we going in?"

Nightwing responded with, "Are you all sure you want to go through with this? You can all turn back now and have plausible deniability."

Starfire answered, "We are sure. We stand together. We will follow you in. Now, let us go."

The four Titans then slowly walked in, Nightwing equipping his two combat batons, watching to see if they were walking into a trap. Cyborg charged up his sonic cannon, and Starfire raised a starbolt to provide necessary visibility. Animal Man readied one of his dinosaur forms to assault if need be.

Soon after all four had entered the warehouse Slade had inidicated for the meeting place, the doors shut and the four instantly tensed up, ready to attack anything that came their way.

Suddenly, they were all met with a familiar voice, "I see you haven't lost your vigilance, Titans. It's been what? Five years?"

Then hopping out of the shadows came Slade, with that same infernal two-tone mask, hands behind his back.

Nightwing growled, "Slade. What do you want?"

Slade countered, "I do believe the question should be what do you want. You called this meeting, Nightwing. The message...motivation...wasn't all that hard to figure out. I knew it was you, and since you wouldn't try to get me in a sting, you have some urgent priorities. Now tell me, what are they?"

Cyborg began, "We need your help."

Slade snorted, "I figured that much, but I can't choose to help you if I don't know what you are planning, and what you thought I would be able to do."

Nightwing explained, "We need your help to break Raven out of Belle Reve."

"You've had four years to do so, to ask me or to do it yourselves. Why now?" As Slade finished his question, Nightwing played one of his cards, one that should persuade him to help.

"Because we found out the truth. This whole thing was a set-up from day one. The Joker came here under Harley's influence and she got him to nab the Demon's Hand, which they used to make Raven commit all those crimes, and she took the fall, the Joker was killed, and Harley was able to eventually slip away."

"So?"

"The trial was fixed so Raven would get sent to Belle Reve - the judge, jury, and chief of police were all involved, and once there, a concentrate of the Demon's Hand would be slowly injected into her through her inhibitor collar."

"Interesting story, but what's your endgame? What should warrant my involvment?" Looks like he wasn't quite convinced yet, so they needed to pull out some more trumps.

Cyborg revealed, "Raven is being weaponized, being turned into an agent of Cadmus. They've been developing weapons to kill the Justice League. From what we found, they have a female Kryptonian clone, a child trained to read her enemy's body language, and a shapeshifter who is also Madame Rouge's daughter, plus a so-called 'suicide squad' consisting of felons such as Harley Quinn, Deadshot, and Plastique. And that's not all - they have fear gas, paralytic drugs, and kryptonite rifles. They have enough firepower to take down any hero or villain they want. They could kill Superman, and if they can do that, they can kill you."

"I'm not that easy to take down, and what makes you think they'd come after me?"

"They're going after heroes and villains. You may be on their list, you may not."

"Okay then, Cyborg. If I was to believe you, and thus I was on this Cadmus hit list, an organization which has been supposedly defunct for years, what would convince me not only to help you, but that you would come to me for help?" When Slade had finished, Nightwing knew it was time to play the ultimate trump card.

Nightwing then dropped the bombshell, "Your daughter is Raven's cellmate...and the only person she can trust." Instantly, the Titans knew that the remark hit the mark.

Slade softly commented to himself, "Rose. She's alive." Then, he turned away from the Titans and walked up to a nearby pole, holding on to it in order to support himself as he cried. The Titans never saw this side of Slade - a man they long presumed to be a psychopathic mercenary and criminal lord, turned out to actually be quite sentimental.

Nightwing softly asked, several moments later after shaking Slade's world, "You thought she was dead? What happened?"

Slade explained, "The mission, the assignment that I lost her, was meant for me. I thought it would be an easy hit, so I sent Ravager to Detroit and take out the target. It wasn't until much later that I realized it was a trap, one meant to kill me. By the time I realized it, Rose was reported as killed in action. The burden has haunted me since. I tried to replace Rose with Terra, but I realized she could never replace Rose."

"Did you ever figure out who set up the trap?"

"Possibly. Amanda Waller."

"The head of Cadmus and the Warden of Belle Reve. The whole conspiracy fits together, Slade. Now you see what we're all facing. If Waller weaponizes Raven, I doubt your daughter will have much time to live. Actually, we all have that thing in common. We're all living on borrowed time, all targets of Waller, anybody she deems a threat to her own power. And we're sure Waller will be gunning for you. She's already tried with the rest of your loved ones."

Shocked, Slade wondered, "How do you know about them, Nightwing?"

"After we realized that Slade was your legal name and not your code name, we checked your family history. You were the mercenary Deathstroke the Terminator, working unofficial ops for the United States government. When you tried to retire, Waller, who was a government advisor and employee for STAR Labs and one of your handlers, went after your loved ones. She manipulated Grant into taking the same super-serum you took, and it overwhelmed him upon first use, the mission to kill the Royal Family of Vlatava. She had Wade LeFarge, your own half-brother, orchestrate Joseph's abduction and subsequent loss of his voice, which was an attempt to kill you by holding him hostage. She conducted a raid on 'suspected terrorist hideout' Kabuto Island to kill Lillian Worth and your daughter Rose - an attack she barely survived. And Waller also had Adeline Kane, your ex-wife, murdered when she was starting to put the pieces together. Waller is after you and you can't hide forever. We can stop her once and for all, but we need your help."

"There's also one thing you don't realize. One of the things I learned about Raven from Trigon was that with her emotions fractured, she only uses twenty percent of her available power. If she was weaponized, not only would her core personality be erased, but she would be able to access all of her power. Believe me when I say you do not want to fight a Raven five times stronger than you are used to her being."

"So, dude, are you going to help us?"

It did not take long for Slade to make up his mind. "On one condition - when you get Raven out, you get Ravager out of there as well."

Animal Man noted, "Not much of a condition. We honestly could not have thought of a way to get Raven out of there without getting Rose as well."

"Now that business is settled, the only way to get out of Belle Reve, other than release, which is an option you will not have, is in a body bag."

"I thought you said you were going to do the helping, Slade!" Taking note of the Tamaranean's glowing green eyes, looking as if they were ready to blast him with starbolts, Slade further explained, "I did, Starfire. I was pointing out how you get Raven out. You need to make it look like she died."

"So, Slade, how do we do that?"

"There is a sedative capable of reducing one's heart rate to just one beat per minute, slow enough to give the appearance of death. If Raven gets injected with it, you'd have about two hours to get her out before the sedative wears out, and she awakens."

"How do you propose we get this sedative to Raven? And where do we get this sedative?"

"No worries, Nightwing. I can get the sedative to Ravager. I told her years ago that if she was ever captured to wait for my signal. She would know what would be my signal, and once I slip her the sedative, she'll figure it out."

"And how will you get it to her, Slade?"

"Like I said, don't worry. Leave that to me. You all have your own part in this, and even if you wanted to stay out of this, you wouldn't be able to."

"What exactly would those be?"

"You'd need to start a riot in Belle Reve. Cyborg, once you get within range of Belle Reve, you'd need to deactivate several of the inhibitor collars long enough to begin the riot and have the other in. While you'd be able to get some of the collars deactivated, you won't be able to deactivate Raven's, as knowing Waller, her collar is on a different system than the others, one you won't be able to hack. The other inmates have been trying for years, waiting and planning for an opportunity - we can use that to our advantage."

"But seriously, Slade, are we going to break out a lot of dangerous criminals from Belle Reve?"

"No, Cyborg. Belle Reve has such massive security that the riot will be quashed. But there lies our window, in their distraction. Continuing on, Starfire, you will need to commadeer the coroner's truck once it arrives on scene. Nightwing, you will have to get my daughter out of Belle Reve, not to mention acquiring Raven."

"And what's my part in this?"

"Animal Man, your part will be to secure your team's 'insurance policy'. Waller has already made one attempt to eliminate you four - if she realizes you broke Raven out, or rather when she realizes you broke her out, your life expectancies will plummet to around a day, if you're lucky."

"What exactly do you mean by insurance policy?"

"You need to expose Amanda Waller as the head of the Cadmus conspiracy. The files you downloaded from the facilitymay give you part of the picture, but they will not hold up in court as proof as evidence Waller is the one truly responsible, something which I imagine Batman has already discussed with you. All the files regarding the Cadmus plot, those which prove that not only Waller is in on it, but the one responsible, are on her computer inside of her office in Belle Reve. It is isolated from the main network of the prison. The changeling is thus the only person capable of reaching the computer."

"So, I download all of her files?"

"Precisely. With the files, you use them to ensure your freedom, leak them to the Justice League and they'll hopefully handle the rest. If you try to sell them back to her, or trade them, she will kill you even if she gets the files back. It is imperative you upload those files as soon as you possibly can."

"And what's your role in all this, Slade?"

"Well then, Nightwing, once I get the sedative to Ravager, I will have my own target to hit. The Cadmus data facility in the mountains of Peru. Years ago, the United States government had seized a facility run by a South American cyberterrorist ring. The head of the operation was Amanda Waller, and it's the best place for the data facility of all of the places she currently could use."

"What's there?"

"Not only all of Cadmus's data and profiles of us: heroes, villains, political figures, but also of her ally, the one assisting her in determining who to target, Brainiac. Waller likely found the computer after the end of the Argus debacle and allied with him, with the computer assisting her out of revenge against the Justice League. Once I take it out and you get the files, then Waller will have nowhere to run."

"This is endgame. Either we succeed and survive or we get killed. But if we do nothing, we will die anyway, the only question being when. Will we ever cross paths again?"

Slade waited a moment before answering Nightwing's question, "I honestly don't know."

With that, Slade walked away, leaving the Titans alone to think about what they had to do. The stakes were far higher than they ever could have imagined - it was about as big as the end of the world. They basically were putting the future of all vigilantes, superheroes, metahumans, and more on a risky escape attempt, their only chance to guarantee their survival.

After working from her job in making licensing plates, Ravager heads down to the cafeteria to meet up with Raven. The silver haired prisoner walks down to the direction towards the cafeteria until she bumps into someone.

"Hey, Silver." spoke the pale skinned villainess Livewire getting Ravager's attention.

"What is it, Livewire?" Ravager asked the electric villainess.

"Well, I have something for you from a guy who called himself the "Slide Whistle". Said he was my dad, though I don't remember my dad having facial hair." Livewire said as she digs into her uniform as she pulls out the object out of her cleavage and hands it over to Ravager.

Ravager looks at the object in her hand- it was a pen. A long, regular black pen given to her.

"A pen?" Ravager asked in deadpan.

"Open it. That's what the guy told me." Livewire whispered to her.

Despite the unusual, the mercenary girl decides to open the pen by splitting it apart. As she opens it she finds a piece of small paper as she glanced at it. She reads the paper as her face stayed neutral. She then hands the paper to Livewire.

"Keep it with you at all cost." Ravager told her handing the paper to Livewire. The silver haired girl then starts reassembling the pen. "And keep the pen with you at all costs until the time comes, very soon."

"Whatever you say, Rosie." Livewire replied as she puts the pen into her pocket as she leaves Ravager with her own business.

Ravager then continues to head down to the cafeteria to meet up with Raven. She then starts to think about the upcoming events that will transpire soon, and very soon at that.

Okay, I mentioned in chapter 13 that after watching much of the DCAU (including the Justice League series), I had come up with some new ideas for the story - Brainiac's involvment was the chief one; Waller's role as the head was part of the plan more or less from day one.

Now, we're in the fast lane for the story, just four chapters away from completion, and we've got some very exciting stuff ahead.