Author's Notes
To JP-Ryder, borrowing Kabuto Island from your "Beast Boy and the Titan North Girls" was a bit of a recursive borrowing - you did borrow elements of that from my own "Ascendant" (Rose losing her eye to shrapnel from an explosion). Anyway, things are definitely not looking good for the Titans at this point - they're right in a trap without a whole lot of escape options. Neither is Slade - he's a bit worn already from fighting his own half-brother, and he still has to contend with Flagg and Brainiac. So, yeah, it is not that pretty for them.
To Charles506, we're in the final two chapters now - the story is almost complete, though we've still got more than a few ends still to tie up.
Sorry about the fairly long wait, but I was extremely busy over the past few weeks with exams and family, and now I've got college about to resume so I'm likely going to be swamped again, but for the last wait, I give you the extra-long penultimate chapter (and the longest of the story so far).
Now, let's continue the story.
Back in Peru, Slade was staring at Rick Flagg, the only man who remained between him and Brainiac. Flagg was a competent fighter alright, but he had an additional advantage this time around - an exo-suit that amplified his strength and agility, as well as serving as protection from Slade's bullets. He had to take out that damned exo-suit if he was to have a chance.
Unfortunately, nothing he had seemed to be that effective against the suit. And Flagg had a machine gun and sword almost like Slade's, but they were going to be far more effective against Slade than against Flagg.
Flagg then proceeded to pull the machine gun out and began to open fire on Slade. While Slade managed to elude most of the bullets, two still managed to connect - the first in his upper arm, the second in his waist. Slade groaned in the extreme pain from the two bullets. Grabbing his knife, Slade proceeded to wedge it in his torso, just beneath the bullet in his waist. He bit his tongue as he slowly extracted the bullet, using the knife to pop it out of his body and then using his fingers to pluck the bullet and then remove it from his body.
One bullet down, one to go. Before he could remove the other bullet, though, Flagg grabbed him by his arm and tossed him into a wall. As he landed onto the ground, Slade already could feel he was falling apart in this battle. He was getting exhausted, especially having just brutally fought his own half-brother. Of course, he and Flagg were the appetizers for the main course.
Grabbing his blaster, Slade opened repeated fire on Flagg, but he already knew from prior experience that it wouldn't even slow him down...at least from direct shots to the chest. He needed to score a limb shot and that might cripple it. Of course, he also had to get rid of that pesky machine gun - two bullets already were damaging, and that gun had a capacity of around two hundred bullets, with another one hundred eighty three still to be unloaded at him.
Aiming the blaster at the machine gun, Slade opened fire, but Flagg moved it out of the way just in time, and then returned fire on Slade, forcing him to duck and evade in order to evade the gunfire. Shuffling backwards, Slade aimed another shot with his blaster and fired, which managed to strike off one of the iron sights on the machine gun. At least now Flagg couldn't aim the machine gun at him, but he could still get lucky. Focused hip-fire could be just as deadly as well-aimed fire, a fact that was proven true time and time again.
As the machine gun roared again towards Slade, he ducked as he ran up towards Flagg, sword in hand as he decided to slash the limbs apart and disable the exo from the back.
Before he could begin his attack, Flagg turned around and pulled out his own sword to duel Slade. While Slade was undoubtedly more skilled than Flagg at swordplay, Flagg had much more power and was much less tired, meaning he had the advantage in this fight.
Slade ducked below Flagg's sword as it went for a decapitating strike against him. Slade jabbed his own sword into the tendon of Flagg's right arm, but Flagg smugly commented, "Nth level metal, Wilson. You can't cut through this no matter how hard you try."
Slade moved his sword and began slashing at Flagg, trying to find any vulnerable part of the suit, but it was all Nth level metal, meaning his sword couldn't damage it, and it explained why nothing he had was really working against it, not even his blaster.
Of course, that didn't mean he was totally helpless, and now he knew just what was required to take down Flagg. Grabbing his blaster, Slade fired it at the wall, scoring several hits that ultimately caused it to collapse, revealing a huge hole that went into a computer room. Searching through the computers (finding that none of them were Brainiac, though), Slade grabbed several cords from all around the room and began connecting them to create one massive extended electric cord.
Flagg, of course, kept firing at Slade blindly, not sure of just what the mercenary was planning to do.
Slade hooked in the wire to a plug before going back out. Watching Flagg, Slade made sure that the soldier wasn't watching him before he made his move. This was probably the only move he had left to take out that exo-suit. If he couldn't destroy it physically, he had to fry it sky high.
Slade crawled just out of the hole, with plenty of cord left. Taking aim at the suit's internal battery hidden in the center of the backside, Slade tossed the cord and it managed to strike the suit. As Flagg turned around to see Slade, he quickly realized what Slade had done.
Slade jumped out of the way as the electricity surged from the plug into Flagg's exo-suit, causing him to scream as he ejected out of it at the last second. Grabbing his trusty Colt .45, Flagg watched as the Nth-level metal exo-suit was brought down by an electromagnetic pulse brought on by the surge.
In temporary shock, Flagg soon found himself tackled by Slade, who attempted to strangle him, throwing his elbow around his neck, trying to finally kill him. Unfortunately, Flagg was able to get two shots into Slade's leg and soon Flagg was able to overturn Slade before proceeding to repeatedly kicking him in the abdomen, especially around where he had been shot not that long ago.
Slade managed to grab Flagg's leg to push him away a little bit, which was enough for him to get back up.
Animal Man has been raised to always know when shit's going down, very quickly. It was always a family motto to him back in his Doom Patrol days and it sticks to him ever since. He has known when things turn for the worse around the times during the Brotherhood of Evil's war against the Titans years ago. But now, that feeling he's been having is going to be put into use once he noticed Raven's eyes opened up and glowing blue and quickly rise up from the bed.
"Guys..." Animal Man spoke in panic once Raven turns her head towards them.
"What is it, Animal Man?" Nightwing asked.
"Raven's under the Demon's Hand! We didn't get out of her enough!" Animal Man shouts. Nightwing stops the stolen vehicle once he saw the black magic being engulfed inside.
"Everyone, out!" Nightwing shouts as he and Starfire gets out of the van quickly as well as Animal Man, Cyborg, and Ravager getting out from the back. The van has been engulfed into black magic as it throws itself into a tree. Raven however, phase through the van before it made impact on the tree.
"Shit, Waller was on to us!" Nightwing said gritting his teeth. They all see Raven with glowing blue eyes, as well as her hands encased into black. The titans and Ravager all ran away from Raven as soon as she chases them. Nightwing threw in a birdarang as it explodes into a flash of light, blinding Raven's vision so she won't see them hiding behind the trees. "We were so close. Cy, do you still have the files in the USB drive?" he asked.
"Good thing I grabbed flash drive after we escaped." Cyborg answered showing the drive. "All I need is a signal to send it to the League's Watchtower." he said as he dodged the thrown tire at his way, as he protected the drive containing the files.
"Like that cell tower over there?" Star asked pointing at the cell tower not too far from their location.
"Perfect, Star!" Cyborg respond as he decides to use the cell tower's signal to send the files. But he would need to be close to get a better signal.
"Cyborg, we're going to the cell tower to send those files. Everyone else, keep Raven busy." Nightwing orders them. Everyone else look at each other as they agreed to the plan. In order for Cyborg to send the files, Animal Man, Starfire, and Ravager has to keep Raven busy while Nightwing keeps Cyborg on guard.
As Nightwing and Cyborg left with the USB, it was up to Animal Man, Starfire, and Ravager to take Raven down. The mind controlled empath got her vision back as her glowing blue eyes stared at the three before her. Animal Man transforms into a tyrannosaurus rex to charge at Raven to knock her out, but she has conjured a shield in protection. He keeps changing into his most strongest forms from a gorilla to a rhinoceros. He even change into his now controlled WereBeast form to try to break the shield. But to no avail it wouldn't work. Starfire flew in to shoot her star bolts at the shield, but it didn't leave a scratch as the shield proves to be too powerful for the to take it down.
"I thought since her powers were compressed over the years, her magic wouldn't be this strong." Animal Man said after he changed back into his basic form. Raven then sends out some projectile attacks towards them as they move away from the shields.
"Out of my way!" Ravager shouts as the two Titans moves out from her way. The daughter of Deathstroke is now carrying her two katanas as Raven attacks her with a black tendrils. Rose blocks the attacks using her katanas to absorb the energy to deflect the attack. She doesn't know how to get through Raven's energy shields, but all she can do is dodge them. A projectile is about to strike her from behind, but Ravager ducks down as she stabs her swords to the ground as she lay there.
She gets back up as she brings her swords up from the ground. She saw Raven intercepted her own projectile before it can strike at her. 'Reasons why I fell in love with that woman.' Ravager thought as she puts on a defensive position.
Meanwhile, Nightwing and Cyborg made it to the cell tower as they climb up to the top for greater reception. Cyborg used his jet boots to fly up to the top as Nightwing uses his grappling hook. Once they've made it to the top, Cyborg opens his arm computer and plugged in the USB, as he attempted to send it to the Watchtower. Once he attempts to upload the files, he is locked out of the internet.
"It says that I'm locked out!" Cyborg shouts in frustration trying to refresh the page.
"Impossible! We just have great reception!" Nightwing points out. "Why would- of course..."
"Brainiac." they both said in unison.
"He's blocking us out so we won't send in the files to the Justice League." Nightwing growled as he hits the rail of the tower.
"So what now?" Cyborg asked his leader.
"We put it on hold for now. We wait for Slade to take out Brainiac once and for all." he responded. They have a long fight ahead of them and hopefully they can make it through the night.
Slade continued to fight off Flagg, but it was clear that even without his exo-suit, Flagg currently held the advantage over Slade; for every hit Slade managed on Flagg, he got hit multiple times.
Slade threw a punch at Flagg's head, only for Flagg to duck and place his arm in Slade's elbow, grabbing Slade's arm and twisting it, causing him to groan in pain. Flagg followed that up with a series of strikes to Slade's abdomen via his knee.
While Flagg was striking, Slade elbowed Flagg in the side of the head, forcing him to let go of Slade, allowing him to backtrack and grab his sword, moving it so he could bring it to bear against Waller's army boy. Slade swung, but Flagg was able to quickly respond with a knife of his own. Slade knew he had to act fast, because he hadn't any idea of just what Flagg was about to do. Going for a beheading blow, Slade went at Flagg, who managed to just get out of the way in time, but neither party was unscathed.
Slade found a fresh slash around his bicep while Flagg had a cut in his upper back. As Slade came back around, Flagg pushed his knife into Slade's upper arm, causing him to yell out in pain. Pulling it out, Flagg then knocked the sword out of Slade's hands before kicking him away.
Flagg lunged in with his knife again, with Slade only gaining enough ground to evade the knife. Managing to then kick the knife out of Flagg's hand, Slade followed it up with a kick to his throat, causing him to stumble backwards a bit. With Flagg momentarily out of it, Slade took advantage and went in for the kill, picking up the knife and planning to stab Flagg to death. Before he could stab Flagg, though, he got back up and sent Slade down on the ground with a tackle, Flagg's knees now on Slade's back as he proceeded to dislocate Slade's shoulder and went in to kill Slade. The mercenary was able to roll over, temporarily disorienting Flagg.
Unfortunately, the knife still impacted, but it did land in Slade's lower leg rather than the heart where Flagg had aimed. Still, Flagg quickly went back in on the attack, bashing Slade's head into the wall several times; though it was protected by the mask, it still caused Slade more than a little pain. Slade responded with a donkey kick that sent Flagg into the other wall. Turning around and charging, Slade head-butted Flagg several times before slamming his head into the wall.
Slade realistically thought he had delivered the fatal blow with that one, but Flagg surprised him, and with a judo flip, sent Slade crashing right through the wall.
Brushing off the stone and dust that had gotten on him, Slade tried to pop his shoulder back into place before Flagg came back at him. He couldn't adequately fight back with just one arm.
However, as he tried to do so, Flagg came at him, punching him in the dislocated shoulder, further dislocating it as he kicked Slade in the back, causing him to crash into a desk. Slamming Slade's head through a computer, Flagg continued to brutally kick Slade while he was down before grabbing him and shoving him to the other wall, punching him in his chest and abdomen repeatedly.
Aiming for a blow to Slade's throat, Flagg moved in only for Slade to repel him. Of course, Flagg still had the advantage over Slade and took advantage of his dislocated shoulder, smashing him through the wall before tossing him into a window, peppering him with glass. Slade struggled to get back up but Flagg was relentless, soon managing to rip off Slade's mask and then whacked him with it, causing the one-eyed mercenary to collapse onto the floor.
Flagg aimed his Colt at Slade's head and prepared to finally end his life, but Slade managed to kick the gun out of his hand before grabbing his leg and then swept him down onto the ground, elbowing him in the neck before Flagg took advantage of Slade's still bum shoulder and flipped him over, pushing his foot onto Slade's throat, preparing to crush his windpipe and thereby kill him.
Slade rotated his head, thereby unbalancing Flagg long enough for him to stand back up and head over to his own mask, putting it back on. However, in that time, Flagg once again took the upper hand and grabbed hold of Slade's shoulders before shoving him into another desk, kicking him in the stomach, and slamming his head into the ground. Eyeing a window that showed the mountains around, Flagg decided just how Slade Wilson was going to die. Kicking him in the stomach, Flagg pushed him towards one of the windows, but Slade managed to stop himself just before he crashed into the window.
Flagg, though, was relentless, and then kicked Slade again, with the force of Slade impacting the glass being more than enough to cause it to break and shatter, and without anything to stop him, Slade fell backwards off of the base.
However, he just barely managed to get his hands onto the edge of the base, holding on for dear life as he came dangerously close to plummeting 20,000 feet to his certain death. He needed to get back up, but Flagg clearly wouldn't let him do so. He just had to keep one of his hands on the base, regardless of if Flagg removes them. He had to put them back on faster than Flagg could remove them.
Flagg stomped on Slade's left hand, which quickly lost its grip because of Slade's severely dislocated shoulder. As he proceeded to stomp on Slade's right hand in an attempt to dislodge it from the edge, Slade slowly got his left hand back on the edge, hoping that Flagg was too distracted from his attacks on his right hand to notice - he could see more from his one eye than lesser men could from both of theirs, and he hoped that Flagg fit in the latter category.
Unfortunately, Flagg didn't fit in the latter and quickly noticed Slade attempting to solidify his place, before placing one of his feet on Slade's hand, not removing it at all and caused Slade agony as the bones in his fingers started to wear from the overwhelming strain of Flagg's foot.
With both of his hands in pain from Flagg's beating, Slade doubted he could hold on much longer. Soon enough, both of his hands began to slip, and then Flagg responded by kicking Slade's fingers, causing his right hand to lose its grip on the base, with just his left hand still holding on.
Flagg smirked as Slade was now completely at his mercy, and now it was time to finally kill him. Grabbing his Colt, Flagg aimed the gun at Slade's hand to ensure it couldn't get back on. Flagg smugly remarked, "Well, goodbye Mr. Wilson."
However, instead of his hand trying to get back on the edge, Slade moved both of his hands to grab onto Flagg's leg before using much of his strength to flip Flagg over, thereby throwing Flagg out of the base and off the mountain. Staring at Flagg screaming as he plummeted to the bottom of the mountain, Slade's body threatened to fall and join him, but Slade kept his knees firmly wrapped around a pipe (which he had used earlier to get hold of the base the first time).
Raven has proved to be too strong when she is brainwashed. The Titans has fought her effortlessly as they try to take Raven down without hurting her, which proves to be futile when you're facing one of the most powerful magic wielders on earth. Animal Man, Starfire, and Ravager did their best to hold off Raven as Nightwing came in to throw bolas towards the mind-controlled empath. But Raven levitates the bolas with her magic and shot to towards to Starfire. The bolas entangled Star as she lands to the ground.
"Starfire!" Nightwing shouts as he jumps up to catch Star bridal style as he lands on his feet. He untied Star as he told her "Sorry, aiming for Raven."
"She is that powerful, is she not?" Star asked as she gets freed from the bolas, as they dodge a stone thrown at them.
"I would've known that Raven can be this powerful. We're just not used to the power she has in her disposal. She's been away from us for years and we've forgotten how powerful she is."
"How is Friend Cyborg doing sending in the files?" she asked.
Nightwing replied "As long as Brainiac is still alive, we need to keep Cyborg and the laptop alive while we keep Raven busy."
"Dude, there's no way we can beat her!" Animal Man shouts as he dodges the attacks Raven sends in.
"Of course we can't beat her." Nightwing respond as he clench his fist. He brings out his bo-staff follow by his specialized birdarangs. "But now our top priority is to guard Cyborg and the cell tower with our life! When the time comes, he'll send the files to the Justice League and have this mess over with! Starfire, you and Cyborg will keep a distance in preventing Raven from getting to the cell tower. Animal Man, Ravager, you two will be in close range with me!" he ordered as he shouts his famous catchphrase "Titans GO!"
The under-influenced Raven notice Starfire flying up high just as a birdarang was about to hit her. She stops it and breaks it in half, as she sees Nightwing, Animal Man, and Ravager charging at her. She kept her shield up once she feels star bolts and sonic blasts coming towards her as they have been deflected.
Nightwing threw every trinket and gadget he has to weaken her defense. When he threw in a flash grenade towards her, she immediately catch it with a black tendril sprouting from the shield and threw it back to them. The grenade explodes into a flashing light. Nightwing and Ravager shield their eyes but Animal Man wasn't lucky as the flash caught in his eyes.
The green titan was blinded which gives an opportunity for Raven to throw a chunk of debris towards him. His blurred vision and the dark didn't help as he was instantly hit by the debris. He collided to a tree as he is now heavily injured. Nightwing saw the down changeling as he ran up to him.
"Garfield!" Nightwing shouts as he ran to his comrade and helps him up. He picks up Animal Man and rush out of the road with him as they hide in the forest. Ravager saw the two fall back, meaning that she is left alone with the mind-controlled girl she loves.
Ravager looks at Raven using her black tendrils to pick up a piece of debris, and throws it towards to her. Luckily Ravager dodges the debris as she jumps onto the thrown debris. As she steps up she charge towards Raven who has her shield down for a minute, Ravager swings her steel toed boot towards her head as she lands a lucky kick to Raven's forehead. This cause Raven to fall to the ground, receiving a small, bleeding cut on her forehead.
The daughter of one of the most deadliest mercenaries lands onto the pebbled ground, turning around to see the fallen Raven. She thought it was over at first, until she saw Raven's foot twitch. Ravager raise up and backs away to see Raven slowly getting up as Ravager retreated. Raven then looks above the cell tower as she levitates towards the cell tower.
"Shit! She's heading to the tower!" Ravager shouts as she chase after Raven to stop her. Nightwing heard her as he set the injured Animal Man down he ran down to stop Raven.
"Raven, you have to stop!" Nightwing told her but Raven swat him to a tree. She was going in advance to the cell tower to finish the job. The Titans hope that Slade can destroy Brainiac soon, or all hope is lost.
Still hanging on at the base, Slade slowly got his injured hands back to grab onto the ledge before hoisting himself back into the mountainside base. Breathing heavily from his long fight with Flagg, Slade went to pop his shoulder back in place, walking to the hole in the wall before placing his right arm on the edge of the hole and then pressing his left shoulder into the wall, first slowly, and then with a bit of force.
He groaned in pain for a moment, but his shoulder was better. Now, he could use it more effectively, especially for the fight he still had with Brainiac. By now, the Titans must have gotten Raven and Rose out of Belle Reve, which meant that Waller had likely activated the Demon's Hand. The Titans likely were trying to send the files to the League, but they couldn't - Brainiac was keeping them out of the Internet.
Walking into the hallway, Slade retrieved his sword and his blaster, clearly going to need both of them to defeat Brainiac - they probably were the only things that could fend off the malevolent intelligence long enough for Slade to plant the virus.
Going through the original corridor, Slade reached the door at the end and blasted it down, revealing an empty room filled with computers and desks. It could never be too easy, could it? Going through the room, he saw a door that was considerably better reinforced with a steel vault. This was it - this was where Brainiac was, and this was where it would all end.
Using his blaster to make several holes in the steel, Slade removed the lock and created a hole for himself, which he climbed through to see just what he had been looking for - Brainiac.
The computer simply sat at his space sled, staring at Slade as he came in. Brainiac simply said, "Slade Wilson, aka Deathstroke, this confrontation was most unexpected."
"So you've heard of me." Slade retorted back at Brainiac, aiming the blaster at the space sled. Brainiac's response was "While unexpected, I have thought of every possible scenario in which we fight, and you have a 3.4 percent chance of achieving victory here."
"3.4 percent, huh? I'll take those odds." With that, Slade fired the blaster and quickly damaged the space sled, forcing Brainiac to abandon it as it completely fell apart.
Firing the blaster quickly at Brainiac, Slade watched as the sentient computer was shot apart. However, after a few hits, Brainiac quickly reformed himself with some of the nearby computers and then prepared some of his energy blasts, firing them at Slade, smashing him into the wall behind him, causing him to drop the blaster as well.
Brainiac then fired some more of his energy blasts at Slade, causing him to scream in agony as he was ruthlessly hit with what Brainiac could send at him. These were blasts that gave Superman a hard time, and he was considered to be one of the most powerful individuals on Earth. How the hell could Slade possibly defeat him if he couldn't even get past those nasty energy blasts? His healing allowed him to quickly heal some of the damage, but not all of it, and thus he was in quite a bit of pain.
As Brainiac kept blasting him, Slade slowly inched towards his blaster, hoping he could get a good shot off and damage Brainiac, hopefully stopping those damned blasts and allowing him to get closer.
Brainiac kept hitting Slade with the energy blasts, even starting to strengthen them as he felt Slade weaken, on the verge of losing consciousness. At the seemingly last second, Slade grasped his own blaster and squeezed off a blast at Brainiac - that just distracted him enough for Slade to get up and move behind the computer.
Realizing that perhaps his blaster wouldn't be too effective, Slade switched to his sword and lunged in at Brainiac. The computer quickly caught on to what Slade was doing, and Brainiac managed to dodge most of the blade, but Slade did manage to chop off one of his hands. Gripping his hand in pain, Brainiac summoned more computer parts to replace the hand he just lost, but that did distract him from Slade, who managed to then chop off Brainiac's left arm.
Just as he was about to lunge towards Brainiac's head, the malevolent intelligence smacked Slade away with what remained of his right arm and then summoned a tentacle to constrain Slade, wrapping around his body and arms while forcing him to drop his sword.
As Slade struggled to get out, Brainiac began, "Face it Slade, your defeat is guaranteed. Perhaps Miss Waller will consider being lenient to you and your daughter if you choose to surrender immediately. Of course, you are nothing more than an obsolete relic of human experimentation. You have no place in her society, no function that she cannot find another to replace."
"Well, what about when you become obsolete to Waller? She will simply replace you just as she would find someone to replace me."
"By that point, I would have no further use to Waller. I would also have all of Earth's knowledge, as a little...what did she call it...oh yes, 'signing bonus'."
"You toyed with me on purpose, didn't you?"
"Does it really matter what I do considering that you will not be leaving this facility alive? Nobody will know what happened to you, and nobody will care. You are little more than a disavowed mercenary with a huge void in his heart."
Slade remarked, "You're wrong. They will know, and they will care that a human being did what aliens and metas could not - eradicate you." With that, Slade fired his blaster at the tentacle and ripped it open with one massive burst, allowing him to escape and grab his sword.
As Brainiac finished the repairs on himself, he was soon forced to contend with Slade as he returned with several debilitating strikes, forcing him to evade each of the blows as they came. Of course, Brainiac tried utilizing his energy blasts against Slade, but he had wised up to the computer's tricks and was able to elude them.
However, Brainiac was able to sneak in a cheap shot to Slade's neck and soon grabbed Slade by the throat, lifting him as he struggled to escape. Brainiac bragged, "Like I said, your defeat is guaranteed."
Unbeknownst to Brainiac, Slade was readying his sword and then stabbed Brainiac right in the chest. In shock, Brainiac tossed Slade into the remains of his space sled before snapping the sword, preventing Slade from using it again.
"And what did you possibly expect that to do?" As Brainiac asked, he soon began to notice his hands crumble apart and then his limbs began to shake and fall apart.
Slade smugly replied, "It's a computer virus, embedded in the sword itself. I just had to get close enough to stab you in the chest with it."
"Your simple virus cannot be causing this. I will not fall to a man."
"But this is no ordinary virus; I engineered it from the remains of your fusion with Lex Luthor, and it is programmed to go through you into the Internet and delete every single trace of you present. As of now, Brainiac, you no longer exist."
Realizing just what damage Slade had done, Brainiac could only watch in horror as his body completely crumbled apart, finishing with his head only to reveal a simple chip that comprised all that remained of Brainiac, and it was not enough to store him.
Slade then fell down onto the floor, exhausted following his long battle and ultimate triumph over Brainiac, as well as Flagg and LeFarge.
The Titans are still holding off Raven before she can get to the cell tower. Nightwing threw in some wiring around Raven's ankle to bring her down to the ground, as Starfire grabs her by the waist to throw her down. Raven phase through the ground as she went back up to give an upper cut to Starfire's face. The Tamaranean flew away from Raven's punch just as Nightwing threw his birdarang at Raven which she destroys it. However the birdarang was expect to be destroyed as it creates a cloud of smoke. Raven cleared the smoke as she grabs Nightwing's boot and throws him to a tree. This did not look good on the Titans side.
"Cyborg, are you online yet?" Ravager asked as she defend herself from Raven's attacks while preventing her from reaching the cell tower.
Cyborg stared at his laptop as he notice something. The Wi-Fi signal starts to work as he picks up a signal to the internet "I got a signal, and I can access the internet now!" This can only mean one thing for the Titans. Deathstroke has successfully eliminated Brainiac. With that one part of victory, Cyborg transfer the files to the Watchtower but he's going to need to buy some time.
"Alright Titans, let's keep Raven real busy!" Nightwing shouts as he brings out his bo staff, Animal Man brings out his claws as Starfire's hands glow green, and Ravager brings out her katanas in an offense position. They all hope to buy some time for Cyborg to completely upload the files.
On board the Justice League Watchtower, Batman and the other Leaguers were running the evidence found where Harley was murdered. They knew that she was killed by Deadshot, meaning that they can no longer be sure of just who is friend or foe to Waller (i.e. who the next victim will be). In addition, they were also trying to locate the Titans before Waller could have one of her associates (most likely the mind-controlled Raven) from killing them.
As they were working, Batman noticed that files were being downloaded to the mainframe. Rapidly checking the computer, Batman said, "Mister Terrific, trace the location of the upload." As he waited for Mister Terrific to provide him the answer, Wonder Woman came up to Batman and asked, "What's going on?"
"It's Cyborg. He's uploading Cadmus files to the mainframe. Everything that proves Waller is responsible."
"So the Titans are alive?"
"For now, but I doubt they will be for much longer. Do you have a location yet, Terrific?"
Mr. Terrific answered, "I do. A cell tower in northeastern Mississippi. I can't get an exact pinpoint, though."
Batman knew that there were more than a few cell towers there, making it a lot harder to figure out which one the Titans were at, and the closest a Zeta tube could get him was Tuscaloosa. He could only hope that Nightwing and the others made it out alive.
Raven uses her tendrils to pick up the debris and tries to throw it at them. Starfire keeps firing starbolts at her. The mind controlled empath dodges the starbolts as she keeps throwing debris at her. With Starfire up in defense, Nightwing and Ravager charge at Raven with their weapons.
Nightwing threw in some bolas to try to contain Raven, but she slice the bolas in half with her tendrils. The empath then noticed Ravager stabs her swords to the ground, as she jumps from the floor to flip over to deliver a kick. Raven dodge the kick as she grabs her leg, and throws Ravager to the ground. The empath looks at the swords as she plans to finish them off, but she is hit by a rock thrown by the silver haired mercenary.
Raven turns around as she uses her telekinesis to lift the two katanas up to shove it towards Ravager and Nightwing's direction. Both dodge as Rose grabs one of her katanas as Raven uses her telekinesis again to launch the other katana towards her. Soon Ravager barely dodges the sword as it was inches towards her neck, leaving a small but not lethal cut on the side of her neck.
While Ravager and Nightwing distracts Raven, a small, cobalt green tarantula crawled onto a tree just above Raven. The spider is actually Animal Man who plans to incapacitate her with the spider's paralyzation venom once he bites her. As soon as her shield is down, the spider jumps from the tree as it falls closer to Raven and lands on her back. As it crawls up Raven's head turns around in a 180 degrees angle and swat the spider with her long extended tongue.
Back at Belle Reve, Waller was watching the Titans fight Raven from the viewpoint of the half-demon under her control. While she watched the fight, knowing that the end of the Titans was drawing near, someone had the nerve to interrupt her.
Waller asked, "What the hell is it, Steve?"
Economos then explained, "Brainiac is down." Waller was quite shocked and turned her attention from the fight to her deputy Warden. "Are you sure?"
"I just got the confirmation. Flagg and LeFarge are most likely KIA, and I cannot find any trace of him at all. It's like he doesn't exist."
Waller then proceeded to switch from the feed of the fight to the base commands of some of the Cadmus outposts. After keying in a few buttons, Waller remarked, "Slade may have killed Brainiac, but he is not getting out of there alive."
The spider fell onto the ground as it's eight eyes saw her foot about to squash him. Using his quick thinking, the changeling transform into a cheetah to dodge her stomp. Raven looks at him as she grabs the green cheetah using one of her tendrils, throwing him towards Starfire.
Nightwing holds his bo staff in a swinging position as he charge at Raven. The empath didn't even need to move as she quickly sweep him away to another tree, thus knocking him out. Ravager saw where Nightwing was knocked down to as she is force to fall back and take Nightwing to safety.
She finds Nightwing, more injured in the fight as she swings his arm over her shoulder to help him up. "So much for the plan." she muttered.
"Raven can't even beat me in a fight during training." Nightwing respond "Can't believe four years can change a person."
"Well she did fight off against Madame Rouge and Killer Frost." Ravager states as she set Nightwing down. She turns around to see Raven moving forward towards them. But then something hit the shielded empath.
The shell went through the shield as it hits directly at Raven, which gives her a static of electricity of pain. Raven falls back as she screams in pain, as Animal Man and Starfire flew down to Ravager and Nightwing to regroup.
"What is that on Friend Raven's back?" Starfire asked pointing at the shell on Raven.
"That's something Cyborg shot out. It's a countermeasure for villains with magic, a shell that can penetrate them with a large amount of pain if necessary. I never knew that Cyborg had to use it on Raven." Nightwing explained. "But I doubt it'll last long."
"Alright, any plans?" Animal Man asked hoping for another plan.
"Nothing that comes in mind." Nightwing states.
"I got nothing either." Ravager replied.
"Oh this is horrible! We've run out of the plans to contain Friend Raven!" Star said in panic.
"We're running out of time." Nightwing said as he gets up "We need to figure out a way to keep Raven busy, otherwise we're out of endurance."
"What we need is a miracle." Ravager whispered as time was running out for them.
Having just destroyed Brainiac, Slade was so very exhausted from the fights he had to endure. He had collected his blaster and his shattered sword - it had served him well for years, and by some means, Slade had managed to put the USB drive in the sword, where nobody would suspect it being. Of course, he now needed a new sword, if he were to continue his career as a mercenary.
Laying against a wall, Slade suddenly heard alarms beginning to blare around the base. It didn't take him long to realize that Waller had activated the base's auto-destruct, intent on ensuring that he did not leave the base alive after killing two of her best operatives and her strategist. Still in pain from his fights, Slade knew he couldn't climb down the mountain, not to mention that it was likely the explosives would ensure he fall off the mountain or incinerate him or bury him in snow.
Walking towards the hangar at the other side of the base, Slade's only chance was to seize one of the helicopters there and fly away, but there was no guarantee that there was a helicopter present. And there were just a few minutes until the base exploded, and would take him with it. Of course, with the base being empty aside from him, he had no issue getting through unopposed - not that any of the guards would have been much opposition with the base about to blow sky high, and there was no way that he could shut down the destruction sequence from there - only Waller could do that, and she was still in Belle Reve.
After a couple of minutes, Slade reached the hangar bay, blowing the door open with his blaster before heading on in.
Unfortunately, the hangar bay was completely empty, no vehicles present, nothing he could use to escape, not even a parachute. He had no options available to him, nothing he could think of that would allow him to survive this. All Slade could do was sit down on the hangar, awaiting the explosion that would inevitably claim his life. He had a hell of a life, and he certainly would go out with a bang with this fight, which he knew was the hardest of his career, and that included his fights with the Titans and against Trigon.
Then, the first explosives began preparation for their detonation, which would occur in just thirty seconds. Slade was about to accept his death when the hangar door inexplicably opened and a rope ladder fell down in front of him.
Of course, death could claim him later and Slade ran towards the ladder, hopping onto it before the helicopter it was attached to flew away from the base. Mere seconds later, the base exploded, resulting in a massive bang and orange flames pouring through the Cadmus base.
Still hanging onto the ladder, Slade turned his focus towards the chopper and climbed up to the helicopter, intending on seeing just who had rescued him from imminent death. Hoisting himself into the cockpit, Slade saw an old friend of his.
"Wintergreen?" The elderly Brit replied, "Indeed, Master Wilson. What were you doing in Peru?"
"Ensuring my family's freedom from Cadmus. How did you even find me?"
"I had heard rumors that you were hiding in South America and I was following them. When the mountainside base began having reports of gunfire and fighting, I knew you were there and most likely needing an extraction. I take it you did need one."
Still struggling to come up with a plan, the Titans uses whatever tricks they can use to fight off Raven. To say the least, none of them work as they thought it would. The counter measuring shell on Raven didn't work as he thought it would as she short circuited it. The Demon Hand's power is much stronger in her control.
Animal Man tries to disguise as a tick to get to Raven, but somehow she knew and force change him into a ram. Starfire uses her starbolts multiple times on her, but Raven always kept her shield up to deflect the alien's attacks. Nightwing, Ravager, and Cyborg aren't doing any good as Cyborg is still transferring the files at the cell tower, he's doing his best to keep Raven down.
Raven has fortified herself like if she's a fort for a kingdom. A fort that has many defenses and counter attacks to keep the enemies from harming her. Even if the enemies are her friends and if her actions have no control over herself.
"This isn't working!" Nightwing shouts as he ran out of his gadgets to counter Raven. "I'm running out of ammo."
"Dammit! This can't be it!" Animal Man scowled "We can't let Waller win."
"If only we have the Demon's Hand, that way we can stop it controlling Raven." Nigthwing replied as he still has his trusty bo staff, but doesn't know how long that'll last.
Time was running out on the Titans as they dodge the boulders and debris thrown at them. Starfire has been following the pattern of Raven's attacks during the fight. It was then she kept thinking and then realize the reason for the attacks.
"Friends! I have thought of something!" Star shouts dodging the debris.
"Whatever it is, spill it out!" Ravager respond.
"Why hasn't Raven killed us already?"
Star's question sank in the minds of the Titans. With Raven being in control of the Demon's Hand, she wouldn't hesitate to kill due to the murders six years ago when Joker has her under control. Raven can snap their necks or impale them with her black tendrils if she wants to but the question is why she didn't? Waller has given her explicit orders to kill her, unless…
"She's holding back." Nightwing concluded "She would be in complete control of Waller and kill us in a snap. But Raven has been fighting back against Waller's control since the concentrated Demon's Hand essence in her blood is not enough to fully control her!"
"So all this time she's holding back just for our sake?" Cyborg asked feeling hope for his apathetic friend.
"That's just like her, always have self control of herself." Ravager states.
"But how can we get to her back to her old self?" Animal Man asked.
"We need to override the influence of the Demon's Hands out of her." Cyborg said "What she needs is to be in a state of shock or something."
"Like what?" Starfire asked as Ravager already knows what can be done.
"I got one more choice for this kind of thing." she said as she ran straight forward to the empath.
"Rose, where are you going!?" NIghtwing asked.
"What needs to be done!" Ravager respond as she head towards the shielded Raven. She uses her katanas to deflect Raven's attacks as she slash the shield. She manage to get a large hole on Raven's shield as Ravager jumps in before it closes. Now she is in the black magical fort with Raven inside as black spikes pierced through her arms.
'Shit!' Ravager cursed in her mind but she didn't give in. She make sure to dodge the spikes as she calls out to Raven "Babe, it's me, Rose!" she shouts as Raven's head twitch as she proceed to kick Ravager out of her black bubble.
Raven lowered her defenses for a bit as she leans closer to Ravager. The mercenary felt her upper arm and forearm bleeding a little as she quickly stands up. "Raven, I know you're in there somewhere." she said as she dodge another attack but Raven manage to scratch her calf of her leg. "I know that you're not a killer. I've stood up for you and protected you from Dr. Light, Madame Rouge, Killer Frost, and everyone in prison who wants to hurt you! You and I have spent so much years in Belle Reve, I've been getting to know you better and…and…" she walks in closer to Raven who tried to attack her, but the mind controlled empath stops attacking when Ravager did something to her that made her froze.
"I love you." Rose told her as she press her lips onto Raven's. The mind controlled empath's blank blue eyes widen in shock as she can feel the silver blond's tongue inside her mouth. Ravager has also proceed to wrap her arms around the blue haired girl as her hand gropes her round gray rear and the other stroking her back.
Raven's response to this was the stick her tongue in Rose's mouth. Her tendrils disappeared as her arousal to Rose's kiss and touch as Raven wraps her arms around Rose's back. This caused the Demon's Hand to lose its control to Raven as the dark titan broke free from Waller's control.
Back at Belle Reve, Waller was scanning the ruins of the Peruvian base after activating the self-destruction to ensure Slade was finally dead. In the meanwhile, she was half-heartedly looking at the feed of Raven fighting off the Titans. She was so close to domination, but it was all falling apart so fast - the League knew just what she was doing, and by now the Titans were about to finish uploading all of the key files. Killing them would be so satisfying, but it would just be too little for her, too late.
Then, on the feed of the fight, Waller was completely shocked to see Ravager and Raven's deep kiss. Checking the stats on the Demon's Hand, she saw that it was overpowered by Raven's will, meaning that she couldn't use it to control Raven anymore. All that time, and all for naught.
Waller screamed to herself, "Shit!" It was almost over, so she had to get the hell outta Dodge before the League cracked down on her.
The Titans all stared in awe to witness Raven stopped attacking them for Ravager's kiss. They all sigh of relief as Rose finish the kiss by releasing her lips from locking into Raven's. Raven then fell into unconsciousness as Rose held her in a bridal carry.
"Good job, Ravager." Nightwing said as the Titans walk towards them.
"No prob. To tell you the truth, I didn't know that it can work at first. I only did what I thought would work since I've seen this kind of stuff in those old movies as a kid." she respond looking at Raven's pale face that reflects the moon light.
"And just in time too." Cyborg said as he held his laptop "I've manage to complete the transfer all of the files to the Watchtower."
"With that crossed out on our list, we won, right?" Animal Man asked as all of a sudden headlights flared up in front of the Titans.
"We have you surrounded, Titans!" shout a state trooper as the Titans saw an army of other state troopers with helicopters, squad cars and police vehicles everywhere. "By the laws of the state of Louisiana, you are all under arrest for illegal break in at Belle Reve Penitentiary and busting out the two criminals with you!" "They're not the criminals!" Star shouted back not caring about the troopers holding their arms towards them.
"Tell it to the judge!" the state trooper told as the army were about to arrest the Titans.
"Stand down!" shout the commanding state trooper who marched out of the squad car. "But sir, the Titans-"
"Let them go. We got our new orders." The commanding officer said as the army troopers walk away from arresting the Titans letting them go.
"Something tells me that this night's going to be more satisfying." Rose smirked as she kiss the sleeping Raven's forehead, who only grew a smile on her face in her sleep.
Okay, we've just got one more chapter and then this story is over. Hard to believe it.