Slade dashed towards Nightwing, weapons raised. Nightwing put up his sticks as Slade brought his down. They clacked together. Slade backed up half a step and brought one stick down again as the other struck Nightwing's side. Nightwing took a step back as Slade continued the assault, Nightwing barely matching the attacks, just blocking them. Nightwing was stronger than he was a few years earlier, but still not as strong as Slade. But he knew its not always about who is strongest.
Nightwing got down to one knee as Slade continued the assault. As Slade struck again, he broke one of Nightwing's sticks. Slade raised the same hand to strike Nightwing. Nightwing used his now free hand to grab Slade's other wrist and put his boot to Slade's stomach. Nightwing rolled backwards, flipping Slade over and onto the floor behind him. This time, Slade did not catch himself as he fell. Nightwing got to his feet first. As Slade sat up, Nightwing threw an eskrima stick. Slade shifted at the last second to dodge it. The stick still connected, but it only hit Slade's shoulder, instead of his face/mask. Nightwing threw the other stick as a follow up, but Slade blocked it. Slade started quickly getting to his feet. Nightwing ran towards him, feeling this might be his best chance. Nightwing ran and side kicked. Slade caught his leg, holding it under his arm. Nightwing knew this was a precarious situation. Acting fast, Nightwing shot his hand out towards Slade, only for his momentum to suddenly stop. Nightwing looked down. There was a knife sticking through his hand. He suddenly felt pain shoot through his hand, and up his arm.
Nightwing was so taken off guard by this that he didn't notice when Slade let go of his leg and grabbed his throat, his hand still impaled. Nightwing had fought people wielding knives and other deadly weapons before. But somehow, he wasn't expecting that from Slade. Not because he didn't think Slade was capable of it, but… Slade had never done it before. Not with Nightwing or the other Titans, anyway. In spite of himself, Nightwing was a little shocked. Slade leaned his face in close to Nightwing's.
"I think its time you met me on my level, Nightwing." Slade said. Nightwing's hand was stuck by the knife, and Slade had him by the throat. Nightwing tried to think of some gadget he had that could help him here. But he couldn't breath, so it was hard to think. Slade suddenly turned his head, and was hit by something, knocking him to the ground. Nightwing gasped for air, and staggered back a few steps. He took a few deep breaths, and pulled the knife out of his hand. He winced as he did so. His blood dripped onto the floor. He looked at Slade. He had been struck with a large pipe. As Slade recovered, another object was thrown, this time a metal chair. The chair was surrounded by a black aura as it flew at Slade, barely missing. Nightwing glanced in the direction of the attacks and saw Raven, now standing, and in spellcasting mode. Slade held up his knife, and then tossed it aside. He held up his hands to the sides of his head, showing he had no weapon.
"Hello again, Raven." He said. Raven just glared at him. "I wasn't actually going to kill you." This last part was said to Nightwing.
"Could've fooled me." Nightwing said through gritted teeth.
"I just wanted to see how much you had improved. You're a man now, so no more kid gloves. Besides, they've already made it clear they want to kill you themselves."
"By them, you mean your hired thugs." Raven said. She was still tensed and had her hands filled with magic power. Her gaze was fixed on Slade, watching his every move.
"As I explained to Nightwing, I didn't hire them. I did train them though."
"More apprentices then." Nightwing said. "Like Terra."
Slade side eyed Nightwing. "Terra was a failure. These two are different."
"Terra was not a failure." Nightwing said. "She beat you." Nightwing was never close to Terra. But she was a Titan, if only briefly. Besides, she was important to Beast Boy. So, Nightwing felt obligated to say something.
"At any rate, that's in the past." Slade said. "You want to know about what's happening right now, don't you? Who your friends are fighting?"
"Talk, or we'll make you talk." Raven said.
"You'll find that I'm made of sterner stuff than Chang. We could fight…" Slade said. "But instead, I'll give you a choice. You can leave now, and go help your friends against those two killers, as you call them. I won't stop you. Or, you can stay here, and I will tell you everything."
"Just like that?" Nightwing said.
"Just like that." Slade said. "Just keep in mind: those two killers your friends are fighting? I trained them."
Nightwing and Raven exchanged a glance. Nightwing grit his teeth. "We have to go." He said.
"Yeah." She replied.
Raven ascended with her magic, and Nightwing readied his grappling hook. He turned to Slade. "The next time I see you…"
"Promises, promises." Slade said. Nightwing didn't waste another second, and made his way out of that place along with Raven. Within seconds, they were through the opening and outside again.
"I could have gone the rest of my life without seeing him again." Raven said.
"Too good to be true." Nightwing replied. They were outside now, putting distance between themselves and the observatory. Nightwing's bike was nearby. After walking a little further, he found it and pulled it out from its hiding place. He glanced back at the building, making sure Slade wasn't coming after them. "I wonder what game he's playing this time?" he said. Raven was about to say something, but Nightwing shook his head.
"It doesn't matter right now, we need to go help Cyborg and Beast Boy."
Raven brushed the hair out of her face as the wind began to pick up. It had become cloudy out, creating a somewhat gloomy atmosphere. "I could stay here with Slade." She said.
"What?" Nightwing said flatly.
"He said we could stay and listen to him, or go help our friends. What if we can do both?"
Nightwing shook his head again, this time with a scowl. "No way. Slade wouldn't make us make a choice like that and then compromise on it. Besides, there is no way in hell I'd leave you alone with him. Not if I can help it." Raven just stood there, looking at the ground. She then faced away from the wind, and pulled her hood up.
"It's time to go." Nightwing said, getting onto his bike.
"By the time we get there, it might be too late." Raven said.
"We don't have a choice. We'll go as fast as we can."
Raven turned her head and looked at him from under her hood. "There is a faster way. I can teleport us there."
"Over that much distance?" Nightwing said. "Won't that…"
"Yes. It will take a lot of power. I'll probably be pretty drained when we get there. I might not have enough strength left to fight when we arrive. But at least you'll be there, in just a minute instead of half an hour."
"I don't know…" Nightwing said.
"Its your call. But I'm sure they need our help now, not later."
Nightwing sat on the bike, and sighed. "Okay. We'll do it your way. But if you feel you're not up to fighting when we get there, then try to hide somewhere."
Raven said nothing. She just walked over to the bike with Nightwing on it, and raised her hands to her sides. A black circle appeared on the ground and surrounded them. It grew wider, and the black aura enveloped them both. It then quickly shrunk and collapsed, disappearing. They were gone.
Beast Boy, Cyborg, and Bumblebee stood across from their enemies looking at the girl who had removed her mask, only to reveal another one. The mask she wore resembled Slade's, albeit different in some ways. The mouth was exposed, and the mask appeared to be made of cloth instead of the more helmet-like mask Slade wore. She still wore the same tactical clothes though. The man also took his mask off, revealing another mask beneath. It was also a Slade-like mask, but different from the girl's. Black and gray.
"Your name is Ravager?" Bumblebee said to the girl.
"Technically, we're both called Ravager." The man said. "Ravagers. Not that it matters."
"You two work for Slade." Cyborg said. His voice and expression were stony. The man who also calls himself Ravager chuckled at this.
"Work for him? I wouldn't say that."
"He makes us sound like employees." The girl Ravager said.
"Don't tell me you're just fans." Cyborg said.
"We know him, let's leave it at that." Male Ravager said.
"I have a question for you." Beast Boy said. "You're both called Ravager, so doesn't that get confusing?" Cyborg side eyed Beast Boy and mouthed "Really?"
The two villains both looked at each other. The male Ravager still had the needle to Red Arrow. He smirked. "If it helps, you can call me Silver Ravager, and her… Bronze Ravager." The girl tilted her head, but said nothing.
"I don't care what you call yourselves." Bumblebee said. She took a step forward. "Just tell me why. Why did you kill Aqualad? Why take Red Arrow? Why are you doing all of this?" Her expression was somewhere between pain and anger.
"We wanted to kill Titans." The girl known as "Bronze Ravager" said. "He was first. You're next. Simple as that."
Bumblebee grit her teeth, and started flapping her wings, preparing to fly. "Wait!" Cyborg said, moving next to Bumblebee. "At least tell us why? You must have some reason. Is it just because Slade told you to? Because if it is, Slade is-"
"Okay, that's enough." Silver Ravager said. "Here's what's going to happen. We're going to fight. If you win, he lives." He nodded at Red Arrow. "If we win, we kill him, and all of you too."
"Hey, hold on." Beast Boy said. Silver Ravager put the syringe on the ground. The other Ravager readied her swords, getting into a fighting stance. The heroes started readying themselves too, but both Ravagers started running. Bronze Ravager ran straight for them, while Silver ran off to the side. Bumblebee flew off the ground, but because of the ceiling she couldn't get very high. Beast Boy changed into a wolf, while Cyborg readied his weapons. What ensued happened quickly.
Bumblebee fired blasts from her stingers at Bronze Ravager, who deflected them with her swords. Beast Boy lunged at her, and she fell onto her back and slid under him, stabbing him in the gut. Beast Boy immediately changed back, and rolled along the floor. Cyborg fired a laser blast at her head, but missed as she slid. She jumped to her feet and, rather than attack Cyborg, slashed her swords sideways at Bumblebee. Bee shrunk to a much smaller size to avoid the attack, but got blasted by Silver Ravager from further away, knocking her out of the air. Bronze Ravager then slashed her swords at Cyborg, who was able to block it with his cannon arm. He deflected the strike so that he mostly caught the blunt parts of the swords, and caused her to lose balance for just a second. But he used this second to blast her with his other arm, knocking her down to one knee. He then aimed both blasters at her, only to feel something behind him. Something had struck his leg. He turned to see Silver Ravager running away, and then saw something attached to his leg. It was something metallic, and beeping. Cyborg reached for it, but it exploded. He hit the floor violently. He was on his back now, slightly confused. He looked down, and his leg was gone. Or rather, it had been blown to pieces. The parts were scattered on the floor.
Cyborg looked up and saw Silver Ravager standing some distance away, looking down at Cyborg and smirking. Silver had a gun, and raised it to aim at Cyborg. Cyborg quickly raised his own cannon, hoping to at least fire at the same time. But then he watched his arm/cannon be severed by lightning-fast metal. He blinked, and his lower arm was gone, just like his leg. He glanced to his side, and saw Bronze Ravager looking down at him coldly. He felt no pain in his limbs, since those areas had no nerves. They were entirely robotic. But it was still alarming to see parts of his body fly off like that. He then felt a laser blast hit him in the face. This one did hurt.
Cyborg's head fell back to the ground, while the two Ravagers approached. As Bronze Ravager raised a sword, it was knocked out of her hand by a blast. She turned and saw Bumblebee standing with a stinger. Bee fired the stinger again. Bronze shifted her head in time to avoid the full blast, but was singed on the cheek. She thrust her sword at Bumblebee, only for Bee to catch her arm and roll backwards onto the floor, flipping Bronze over. The Ravager landed awkwardly, but quickly recovered and started to get back up. Bumblebee got to her feet as well. They squared off. Bronze Ravager held up a hand and said, "Stop!" Bumblebee sneered.
"Calling it quits?" But Bee sensed something, and turned her head, to see Silver Ravager aiming a gun at her head.
"I can handle her." Bronze Ravager said. For a long moment, Silver and Bumblebee stood there in silence. But then, Silver Ravager backed away and lowered the gun.
"Suit yourself." He said. "Just be quick."
Bronze Ravager stepped forward, and Bumblebee turned back to her. Bumblebee lifted herself into the air with her wings, and charged at Ravager, feet first. Bronze Ravager sidestepped her and drove her fist into Bee's spine. Bumblebee grunted, and faltered to the floor. She looked up to see Ravager standing over her. And she had her swords again. Ravager held her swords out to her sides, leaving her head unprotected. Bumblebee acted fast. As fast as she could, she rammed her fist right into Bronze Ravager's face. Or at least, that's what she attempted to do. Ravager dodged the strike with ease, as though she had expected it. Ravager was no longer in front of Bumblebee. Bumblebee's outstretched arm was suddenly pincered at the elbow by two long blades. Bumblebee gasped as she saw Bronze Ravager beside her, holding the swords. Reflexively, Bumblebee tried to jerk her arm away and back away. But she couldn't. Bumblebee watched in horror as, in just a second, the blades sliced through her arm, cutting it into pieces. The severed parts fell to the ground. Bumblebee fell onto her back. Now on the floor, she looked at her arm, now a stump, blood pouring out. Bumblebee's eyed widened, and she screamed. Bronze Ravager stood over her with a sword pointed at her head. The fight was over.
From the moment the Ravagers charged, the entire battle involving the five of them had only taken about a minute. And now The Ravagers stood victorious. Nearby, Cyborg opened his eyes. He had been dazed for a few moments, just long enough for Bumblebee to be taken out. Now, still on the floor, he looked around and saw what had happened. "Oh my god." He said. "Beast Boy! Bumblebee!" he frantically looked back and forth between his friends, and attempted to get up. Which was difficult with his missing parts. "What happened?" he muttered. A gun appeared in front of his face, muzzle first. Silver Ravager grinned at him.
"You lost, robot." The villain said. His finger pressed on the trigger. A second later, there was a loud blast. But it wasn't from the gun. There were several more loud sounds, thuds and explosions. It was coming from outside the structure. Everyone looked around as the forcefield surrounding the building began to shimmer. There was another explosion, and then the forcefield disappeared.
"What the…" Silver Ravager said. A big chunk of the wall flew forward, stopping just a few feet from Silver. Other parts of the surrounding wall began to crumble, as a form appeared in the opening. A figure floated above them, eyes glowing.
"I can't believe it." Cyborg said. Everyone looked up at the floating figure, surrounded by green energy, hands and eyes burning with power.
"You will leave my friends alone!" said Starfire.
End Notes: If you are only familiar with the 2003 cartoon, then you might not know who the Ravagers are. But if you've watched or read pretty much any other media involving the Titans, then you probably are at least vaguely familiar with one or both of them. I am curious if anyone guessed them as the killers. Even though their identities have been revealed, the story is not close to over, yet. This story will not be nearly as long as my last long fic though.