Teen Titans Presents; The End – Part Omni – Armageddon

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Chapter 11: Melancholia

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Batman's clan. Always a bad thing to be clustered together in one sector of a dying city overrun by demons. You'd think that as a private eye to the supernatural and waking world of human thought, that all of this alien nonsense would spell out a plan to the old bat. Well, not when the alphas of this pack are totally in all, indecisive after the oldest of all of them has been bitten by a Tracker. Yes, a demon even I thought never could breach our walls, and it has. Thanks to a little coaxing from three too many members added to a group of adult babies. Was Lex even for a plan to salvage the lives of men, women and children he hasn't a bloody clue he's helping? Any left if them I guess, save for Vixen and our in passing friend, Batson.

But the one thing that gets me hot under the collar nowadays, is the big bad wolf and a cute song bird as they stick to a path without squabbling. If one does that, the other can easily push THEM off of that path and into the danger they themselves are trying to avoid.

Are we really for all, or for ourselves; and is Slade the mercenary not a babysitter, but a bodyguard to a prophesized cambion teenager who's lose just about everything she ever wanted?

He doesn't go by much, but trusting him….means losing badly in my book. Friends at the end of the world are vital, one turn and each of us could be at each other's throats in a lick of time. If I gave any, that is. I'm just here to watch. And wait…for him.

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John turned a lazy eye over to Slade as the pack leaders at this point took turns watching their own; two would rotate and then the next would take over so that the others could get some shut eye. The Trackers were off their scent, for now. Lex was acting more paranoid than per the usual alliance he'd been on. He would have to be monitored. Clark still had his eye on Raven due to what the demon had told them. After he had come back to them as a floating, sinking ship of a person, the man of steel had no desire to give up. They had waited a night, and tonight, Clark was starting to question Raven's new mission alongside their own. She was an asset towards winning a war that was nearly over. If they fell, the earth stood no chance of recovery.

"Batman." Superman moved over to leave a a gentle hand to his tired friend's shoulder. "I can continue to stand watch in your place. You should –

"The Trackers won't let us rest, Clark. It's a risk of I fall behind and, and I can't fall out of line."

"Then Clark and I can handle things. You do look like shit by the way." Slade moved in on them to seek out a weakness, some way to help the goody goody alien. His approach was too simple, too clean. His direction was lacking, and Slade had kids. Clark didn't.

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In the end, Bruce was the rock and Slade, stubborn as he was, co -- watched their troupe WITH the Man of Steel.

"He doesn't trust either of us."

"More so you than me." Smugly, the cape tried to keep his head up, eyes front. Slade could taunt him, yet his armor was tough as greater forms of titanium ever crafted off of earth and beyond it. He had nothing to add, yet didn't it seem that way, anyway for a bully to ever ACT tough?

"Bruce is loyal to everyone, and I am as well. You are making amends for only yourself, because you're so used to flying solo." Clark verified sharply, "You don't do charity work, Deathstroke. It's always someone's price to pay besides your own."

"I owe them the thanks I got for this face." Slade shot a glare at the super man, his one eye as lively as he was undead and walking around. "My plan backfired, but maybe I can get what I want while taking back what Trigon took from all of us."

"You abused and manipulated the youngest child and runaway princess of Markovian royalty to work for you." The Kryptonian's eyes looked ready to shoot lazers at his target. "You, Slade Wilson, don't get some other chance to make thing right for you. Raven right now is lost on what to do without a guide. You would be the one to swoop in as her hero. But I won't see her fall any farther when the last people she should be trusting, are you and John Constantine. He's seen her at her worst and you, but to say he'd help anyone but himself…" Clark clenched his fists, knowing that was a half-truth for the rogue magi from London.

"He's far too arrogant to try it."

"John told us this isn't his earth. His timeline was where your heroes defeated Trigon. This one is in ruins, and I'd love to know how they managed to accomplish any of that." Slade crossed his arms and waited for the hero to quit guilting the mercenary. "I can help. I might even know more about these creatures than I'd choose to admit to her."

"You, wouldn't protect any enemies. Even the Titans…"

"She's a child who is about to die. If Trigon gets her, he wins. She falls just like none of us wanted IF you don't try to put aside your useless heroisms and trust what I am willing to do to not allow that to happen."

"Bruce won't want to agree that you may be right." Sighed the Kryptonian softly. "We've had you help us in the past. But Slade, Robin…. Dick. Raven and Terra, were the last straw. I won't have you –

"You care alien, I'm glad actually."

Slade stood with a wall of broken shards of rock to his back, staring at the dusty red sky. No satellites in sight now, not ever again if they could not bring this truce to a tipping point.

"You allowed Lex and Ra's to have in on your circle as perhaps, some form of comfort. That they couldn't betray you. Maybe to distract from the fact that you'd never be this way again; should your chances of survival become higher than the given rate. Though, Bruce let Ra's into his little club. Why am I any different."

"Both things, including death. You were on a leash before but that broke a long time ago, a I recall from your files. Wilson."

Batman came to the man's side as he lumbered over in his overwhelming gear. "I heard what you told Clark. Ra's had no one, no mission but to starve and maybe repent. I know his word like yours is a code, but you're a mad dog if kept unchecked. You mentally wounded my ex – protégé. My son and his teammates. Dick had a diagnosed case of PTSD that not all of the methods we used could treat completely. Terra is never coming back, no science can fix what you've managed to do. It was as bad and deadly as a ploy by Two face or the joker…what scars you left are not going to heal, completely."

"Are you implying I'm not a sociopath then? An insulting and a rather faulty conclusion to the whys, Wayne." Slade didn't believe it as he taunted the knight to lose himself to revenge if he could... He was not the problem. It couldn't be this…

Could it?

"Raven can't stay with you for much longer. From what I can tell, you're growing weaker, restless; a cocktail for doing more harm than good while we want to save this planet from being kept the way it shouldn't. Not because of Raven's father, yet because of that drive, Slade." Bruce's masked eyes narrowed, while Slade's one narrowed back under the many wrappings. "I suppose, doing this as a type of innocent "sorry" for all of my flaws, isn't going to cut it."

"Batman –

"Clark. I want to take a moment. Go rest." He pointed for the alien to give him this; a chance to pay back Slade for every cut that he'd allowed while those Titans had been under his eye. It was how the pecking order had to stay. Slade would do it again if he got some status out of killing to gather a part of himself. It wasn't right, and that was why if Raven stuck by the occultist John and the mercenary who had helped to ruin her current lifetime, she'd just be forced to repeat this mess over and over until someone got it right.

Raven didn't have to go, but to Bruce, Slade did.

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Slade and Batman had the time of a beat – down in this lifetime; in a crevice where none could see the dark knight bleeding openly out his anger. His pent-up rage on a man made to take every, single hit.

"Jason Died…. Ra's found a way to bring him back! You…. you would have used that serum. Would have driven my son to madness to be in YOUR likeness. Dick was innocent!" He pounded the logic while Slade was already without his flesh. Bone poking a bit less, but still there as his cracking ache of pains returned whenever the bat hit hard enough. "You're cursed, Slade Wilson…always able to take lives and never repent. Assassins always have that, but to change? You can't try to. Not unless you stay away as far as you can from my team and family." He left one last hit before Slade was sent, slumped into a stone-cold wall. Water dripped from a broken pipe into his shoulder. "Your strength is gone; you won't touch them."

Groaning, the merc tried to answer with his busted jaws realigning. "I…. never intended to –

" Liar." Spat the bat as he never left Slade to pick himself up. "The noble knight, turned tyrannical ruler –

"I had to do something ." Snapped the caped crusader. " You waited to jump out when it was convenient for YOU. Clark was absolutely correct. You are not selfless. You couldn't be in this time, why do you think trying now even matters –

"Because." Heaved Slade as he shut his eye, a lung still pumping. Wide awake. "Your boy seems to think I have a shot at being one of you. I had no need to expect his heart to change, I can't tame it. And neither could –

"You –

"Bruce!" Raven ran in as Vixen puffed on behind. "Slade?" She looked to the bat, his knuckled gauntlet not at all left out of the picture. Slade bled, so why…why were they fighting?

"Bad timing."

"Raven. You need to go back."

"Listen to the big guy, please." Vixen looked at the room, thinking a creature would pop out to gobble up her soul. "We shouldn't –

"No." Raven walked up to Batman as he tensed." I can help, I can read your emotions, find a core reason to not fight between you. We have to stay –

"You don't know this man, he's an assassin without a heart, only an ego."

"I do have feelings, so that can't all be true."

"Shut up –

"Bats, we're going or…. you can't stay away and go an' tussle, but what about Rave? She is really important to this whole world right now to keep it…you know?"

Batman gritted his fists and turned to the women, pointing still at the merc in ruin by the worn wall. "He's not going to be a hero, his line is clear. Slade only works for his ideals, his favors. His needs, alone. I want him gone. That means –

"Then I'm going too." Raven stood aside, her heart knowing this was wrong, her logic. Thwarted before they'd even met. ~ Slade is a monster, but he's still a person. Just like me. ~

"You're not." Slade's body picked up a chill as the Bat was moving in a different way.

"I don't need you or anyone. Go ahead, see if you can save the human race with that blood soaked - hypocrite."

The ghostly fingers embracing Bruce's cowl were similar to that of the skeleton guards that the Titans had fought in the library below their feet, back before the Prophecy had been unleashed... These tendrils were hungry and possessing the dark knight, feeding off of his negative emotions. Raven couldn't use her magic, and Vixen was too frightened to fight something that she could not see or touch.

~Dreaming of this day, to take you out…. for our lord…."

Bruce tugged himself back as Slade moved, his arms tugged Bruce to him to keep whatever was controlling the bat, out.

"What…I can't see anything!"

"It's a demon, but it's hard to –

Slade moved and got his arms right round and fingers laced; choking the bat to knock him out by a pressure point. The demonic howl was melancholy and forelorn as the chill around them soon vanished. Bruce was left unconscious as both winced, Raven eying the room and seeing no one there.

"Was that…a ghost??"

"No." Raven hugged her arms round herself as the chill departed into the night. "No, it wasn't."

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We DID mention a soul stealing demon that drags you into the shadows but could that be not the only few demons springing up at the wake of Trigon's possible return?

Next is a twist, and I assure you Bruce won't punch Slade's lights out – but John might! Find out, not much Raven in this, just…a chapter to foreshadow something to come that will be extra dark.

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