Chapter VII: Slade's Death

Some time later, the other three Titan returned. Seth and Raven had split up and gone to their respective rooms once they had gotten home. Seth was studying the map of the city again, he was going to great pains to review each and every possible escape route or hiding place. He had been forced to hide once before, well actually, dozens of times before. It had all began with the witch hunt that had opened up in Grant City once the cops had actually learned the truth about him. It had been Seth against the city and damn all consequences. He had rather liked that, him against the world with nothing but cold steel, his bare hands and a few other implements of destruction. There were red Xs all over the map, marking specific areas. He would have to go about setting up special precautions in those places, food, water, clothing, weapons. Seth sat back in his chair, resting, thinking. It had been at least an hour since the others had gotten home. Robin had come up to his room almost immediately, and tried to give him some speech about teamwork and how he was a bad impression on Raven. It had not looked to good from there when Raven was suddenly there and had coldly, almost dangerously, told Robin that she could make decisions for herself.

Seth had found the whole thing almost comical, when Robin, embarrassed but still attempting to pull his dignity about him, simple retreated down the hall and to the rec room. Nobody else had bothered him since then. Seth rose lithely to his feet and looked out of his window, the curtains pulled back but the sunlight held at bay through the tinted feature that Seth had very recently put up. Great towering skyscrapers looked back at him, the sunlight glinting off of their metals and glass that made up the buildings. Humanity thought itself so powerful, so safe and secure in their technology and weapons; but they were wrong. They were not safe, not secure, for there were forces out there that did not care what kind of weapon you had; it would never stop coming. Seth had found that out the hard way, but since he had completely destroyed Natas's body (he hoped), he was gone. Of course, things like Natas usually did not die that ease. Seth stopped that train of thought short, it was only disturbing him.

Seth looked round sharply as there was a familiar knock on his door,

"Enter." he said in his monotone voice. The door slid open to, once again, reveal Starfire in all her alien naivety. "Yes?" Seth asked.

"I...I wish to ask you some questions." she said almost hesitantly.

"Well, get on with it."

"The others wish to know how you are able to do what you do. How are you so quick, so fast?"

"I suppose its time for you all to know." Seth said. "I am the end result of genetic engineering." he said calmly. Starfire stared blankly at him, she slowly regained her composure; as if collecting her thoughts.

"But...I assumed that that was one of the forbidden practices on your planet."

"It is." Seth replied coldly, staring straight at her. She begin to fidget under his gaze, finally, she nodded, turned and left. Seth moved forward the close the door, since, in her hurry, Starfire had forgotten to. But paused right before he managed to do so as the local intercom clicked on. It was Robin who spoke.

"Titans, we've got a situation." he sounded rather excited. "They've found Slade and called us, assemble at the front door, now." the comm system clicked off and soon there was the sound of a door opening. Raven floated, almost drifted, down the hallway; wrapped in her dark energies. Her hood hid her face in darkness, giving her an eerie look; one that Seth rather liked. He followed her to the elevator, which Starfire was already waiting for. Once it came up, the three teen crowded in and began to head down to the ground.

A bit later, the five teens emerged where Slade had been reported. It was an abandoned warehouse on the far side of town, at the docks. It was a place where no one went anymore, not even thugs or bums or those who were looking for a place to lay low for a while. Sometimes, Slade would move to a different area for a new base of operations, this was only on occasion, if only to keep Robin guessing. The place was completely out of character for what a usual day would have been like. Instead of the cold, quiet, calm usual setting where the only things that moved were things set off by the wind, there were police cars, SWAT trucks, helicopters, fire trucks, ambulances and more. Policemen and SWAT members swarmed around the warehouse, guns pointed at every possible exit. More men and women in blue suits were exploring the area. All of the catwalks and small rooms and other places where somebody could be hiding.

Robin, Starfire, Cyborg, Raven and Seth all emerged in a great hole in the wall on the front side of the warehouse. It was not similar to the one at the research labs, this one looked like it was torn open through brute force rather then a bomb or explosive. Seth had a bad feeling about this, there was something familiar about the whole thing. Bodies lay everywhere, hundreds of them. Robotic versions of Slade lay broken and shattered all around, littering the floor. There was damage visible everywhere, great dents or cracks in the solid concrete walls, crates and boxes toppled over, unused supplies spilt out of them. Abandoned machinery and equipment that had been left to rust and collect dust was now knocked over or in pieces. Doors were ripped open or sometimes completely missing. Wherever you looked, there was dead robots. This was absolutely nothing in comparison with the amount of robots that had been at the research labs. Others moved about the great rooms, pistols and flashlights pointed in all different directions in search of the person or thing that had done this. As the Titans made their way deeper into the warehouse, silence reigned. Finally, it was broken by Robin.

"Hey! This place has security cameras!" he said eagerly, gesturing at a camera in the upper right hand corner of the room. Seth looked up to where he had indicated and sure enough there was a top of the line security camera, swerving slowly back and forth, a red light unblinking on it.

"I say we go and find the main security center." Cyborg said unnecessarily. The Titans continued forward, following the path of destruction until they came to a single doorway that had been ripped off of its hinges and thrown aside. And there, inside of a small room crammed with computers and monitors and screens and other equipment, was Slade. Or rather, what was left of Slade. He had been decapitated, his head was nowhere to be found. There was blood splattered everywhere, the thick crimson fluid coating the place in relatively dried pools.

Starfire leaned over to puke and Cyborg looked like he might join her. Robin exploded in anger,

"No! Why!? I wanted to kill this bastard!" Robin shrieked, he kicked the headless body and stalked off. Only Raven and Seth now stood within the doorway.

"I must say I find this rather disturbing." Raven said in a quiet voice. "I mean, we've been trying to nail Slade from the beginning and now this..." Raven turned around, contemplating. Seth stalked forward into the room, he had to know what happened here. More and more this was looking all to familiar; Seth begin to work the controls. He simply ignored the blood as he labored to bring up a sufficient amount of data on the subject of what the Hell had happened here. He finally accessed the program of the security systems, then he downloaded all of the days events from all the cameras onto a disc that he had found in the security center. With that, he left the security room and he and Raven made their way towards there the other Titans were; at the hole in the wall. Seth paused as he passed them, then looked at the three of them with a look of open contempt.

"Pathetic." he said, then stalked off.