Teen Titans Fan Fiction ❯ Coil ❯ Blood Binds ( Chapter 6 )

 

“Coil”

Chapter 6: “Blood Binds”

Disclaimer: Teen Titans doesn't belong to me by any means, the nice guys over at DC Comics and Warner Brothers have rights to that show and the comic(s) on which it is based.

Author's note: Aren't I evil for interrupting Robin/Alvin and Blackfire just as they were about to get it on? Sorry, had to do it; I can't get away with a lemon in a T-rated story. The really sad part is that Blackfire now hates Robin because she thinks he deceived her. At least he has Red X to console him . . . psych! Or maybe Robin will see that redheaded beauty waiting for him at Titans Tower in a new light . . . psych again! This is gonna be a Robin/Blackfire fic to the end, so all you R/S shippers had better either learn to like it or get the hell out!

Now let's go on with the story, shall we?

Robin gazed at what was left of Sacrilege.

“So what's a good guy like you doing at a place like this?” Red X asked.

“Allowing myself to be seduced by Blackfire,” Robin replied bitterly. “Blurring the line between good and evil just by fighting her as Robin and nearly screwing her as Alvin. And no matter which identity I wear, I can honestly say that I desired her, maybe even loved her.”

“And now she hates you because she thinks you purposely deceived her,” Red X deduced. “But can you say that you didn't mean to deceive her?”

“Alvin Draper was a lie, I'll admit that,” Robin confessed. “But my feelings for her weren't.”

“So what the hell are you standing here talking to me for?” Red X asked. “Go get her!”

“Sure,” Robin answered with less-than-total conviction. His voice grew firmer when he added, “But I have business to take care of first. Wanna come?”

“Does it involve kicking people's asses?” Red X asked.

“Yeah,” Robin replied.

“Count me in,” Red X said.

Robin went to his disguised R-Cycle and removed the cap concealing the blood-red R emblem, proceeding to hop on the motorcycle and rev it up. He tore through the streets like a bat out of hell while Red X followed him from the sky. Soon enough, they reached the abandoned warehouse in which the Hell's Dragons hung out.

“This the place?” Red X asked.

“Yeah,” Robin replied. He pulled out a grapnel gun and shot it at the ledge of the warehouse, the grapple securely gripping the ledge. He pulled himself upward, with Red X again following him.

“How do we do this?” Red X asked. “I'm kinda new to the whole gangbuster thing.”

“Just follow my lead,” Robin answered.

“Sure, boss,” Red X drawled sarcastically.

The two masked young men leaped through the skylight, shattering it in the process and landing in the Hell's Dragons' midst in a shower of broken glass.

“Well, well, well,” Robin remarked. “Did we just drop in on you guys taking cocaine?”

“Oh, crap,” the shady man uttered in fear. “Not you! Not you!”

“Yes, me,” Robin sneered.

“Kill him! Kill that son of a bitch and I'll only take thirty percent of the profits!” the shady man yelled.

“How about twenty-five percent?” Ryuji countered.

“Anything you want!” the shady man practically screamed. “Just kill that son of a bitch and his skull-faced pal!”

“Uh, we ain't pals,” Red X corrected before shooting an X-bomb at the Hell's Dragons, who just wondered what the masked renegade was thinking. They were rather shocked when the red X exploded, knocking them all back. They got up again and pulled out their guns, opening fire on Red X and Robin.

The masked young men dodged the gunshots, moving out of the way so quickly that it was as though the bullets were flying in slow motion. Robin pulled out a black-and-red Birdarang and threw it at the Hell's Dragons, knocking one's gun out of his hands. The others continued firing, but Red X was shooting web-like X's at them that filled the barrels of the guns with red gunk, ensuring that they would burst if their wielders attempted to fire a bullet. Fortunately for X, most of them tried and most of them ruined their guns that way.

One smart Hell's Dragon got the idea to throw his gun at Red X instead of trying to shoot him. However, X had very good reflexes even before he gained access to the speed-enhancing features of his suit and thus caught the gun in the air.

“Not a very good idea,” X remarked. “Tsk, tsk.” Then he lunged at the Hell's Dragon and knocked him out with a single punch.

In the meantime, Robin was fighting the other Hell's Dragons, including Ryuji. One Hell's Dragon swung a length of chain at him, but Robin caught it and used it to yank him to him, subsequently beating him into submission with a few well-placed punches. After that, he swung the chain at another Hell's Dragon, one end wrapping around his legs. Robin pulled the Hell's Dragon up with the end of the chain in his hand and swung him viciously into a short stack of crates, the gangster's impact causing the crates to fall on him and knock him unconscious.

A Hell's Dragon snuck up behind him to hit him over the head with a crowbar, but Robin simply threw his hand back and hit him in the face with it . . . without even looking back.

Finally, he and Red X brought it down to just them and Ryuji with the shady man watching in fear.

“Two on one,” Red X remarked. “Seems unfair.”

“Yeah, well, I still like my odds,” Ryuji retorted. He put on a pair of brass knuckles and charged at the two costumed young men, who easily evaded his charge. Ryuji swung at Robin, but Robin grabbed his wrist and threw him across the warehouse. Ryuji landed on the ground and rolled into a fighting stance. Then he came at Robin and Red X again, this time being stopped by Red X. “How the frig did you two find me?”

“Been shadowing you for quite a while,” Robin replied. “And yeah, your new recruit helped out a bit, too.”

“That little punk!” Ryuji yelled. “I'll kill him!”

“You won't get that chance,” Robin replied. In the corner of his eye, he noticed the shady man trying to get away. “And where do you think you're going?”

Red X fired a binding X at him, the flexible red material wrapping around the shady man and keeping him right where he was. “So . . . it sounds like you got this sweetheart deal going with these guys here. They sell the drugs for you and you get a cut of the profits.”

“Actually, they sell the drugs for him and he gives his cut of the profits to some disgusting rich guy,” Robin amended. “Speaking of that disgusting son of a bitch, I never got his name.”

“Who's your boss?” Red X asked.

“I don't know!” the shady man shouted. “He never told me his name and I never met him! I just give the money to his doorman at Torrid Nights and then I'm gone! And speaking of that place, that psycho Boy Wonder frigging torched it!”

“Uh, I'm guessing that was while you were fighting Slade,” Red X remarked to Robin.

“Yeah,” Robin replied. Turning back to Ryuji and the shady man, he said, “Even if I don't figure out who the man at the top is, you're all going to prison for a long time, considering the outstanding warrants you all probably got on you.” Then he bound Ryuji in black cord with a Birdarang attached.

Robin and Red X left the warehouse.

“The police will find them all soon,” Robin stated. “In the meantime, I gotta find Blackfire.”

“Gonna try to win her forgiveness?” Red X asked. “Good luck.”

“Thanks,” Robin replied. “I'll need it.”

“We're getting along rather well for a couple of people who are supposed to be enemies,” Red X observed.

“We wouldn't have to be enemies if you'd just quit using the suit for your own selfish reasons,” Robin answered.

“Here we go again,” Red X sighed.

“I'm serious,” Robin stated. “That suit gives you power and if there's anything I've learned, it's that when you have power you have a responsibility to use it for the good of the people and stop people who'll use their power to hurt other people.”

“The only people who get hurt when I do my thing are the ones who get in my way and even then I don't go out of my way to really hurt them,” Red X justified.

“That's no excuse!” Robin yelled. “You're still hurting people by stealing from them!”

“Their insurance will cover it,” X maintained.

“How do you live with yourself?” Robin asked. “What happened to make you think the way you do?”

“And what happened to you to make you think the way you do?” Red X countered. “Your parents get killed by some mobster, so you gotta go out and fight crime?” He paused before continuing. “Fighting for other people always makes things complicated. For me, it's as simple as this. Want. Take. Have.”

“You positively sicken me,” Robin spat. “Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to find Blackfire.” He got on his R-Cycle and drove away, thankful for the tracer he'd planted on the Tamaranean thief during his fight with her in Sacrilege.

Blackfire stood on the balcony of her penthouse apartment, which she'd paid for with the money she'd gained from her thievery.

“He lied to me,” she snarled. “He lied. All of it was a lie. All this time, he was just playing me, stringing me along . . . and I let him.”

Was it really a lie? the voice of her conscience, which sounded annoyingly like Starfire, asked. Would someone such as Robin deliberately deceive you simply to pursue a goal?

Yes! Blackfire replied fiercely. He's just like all the others, just using me! He probably never actually gave a damn about me at all!

Was his kiss that of someone who didn't care about you? her conscience asked her.

I . . . I don't know, Blackfire replied. It felt real, like he desired me just as much as I did him.

What did you see when you looked into his eyes? Blackfire's conscience asked.

I saw . . . lust and that's all that there was between us, Blackfire spat. Just two people who wanted to k'ufc each other. That's all there was between us.

Are you sure? Blackfire's conscience asked. If you were, you wouldn't have felt so hurt when he called you scum when you sided with Slade.

I don't care what he thinks, Blackfire snarled. As far as I'm concerned, he can spend the rest of eternity in the place humans call hell.

Do you really feel that way about him? Blackfire's conscience asked. It seemed to me as though you had feelings for him.

Not really, Blackfire replied. I just wanted to take him so that I could make Starfire miserable. She chuckled bitterly. Starfire is the kind of girl men want to marry. I'm the kind of girl men want to k'ufc.

And you really think that there's no one who genuinely wants to be with you, her conscience drawled as though it didn't honestly believe her.

Before Blackfire could answer, she heard a familiar and now-hated voice call her name. Without really thinking about it, she whirled around and delivered a starbolt-charged punch to the mouth of the person who had dared speak her name.

“What are you doing here, Robin?” she asked angrily.

“I planted a tracer on you while we were fighting,” Robin replied. “In case I couldn't stop you and Slade right there, I intended to follow you to wherever he had himself holed up.”

“Using me,” Blackfire spat. “That's all you do.”

“I can't say I didn't deserve that,” Robin admitted. “But you're wrong about one thing.”

“And what's that?” Blackfire sneered.

“Assuming I felt nothing for you at all,” Robin answered. “That's not true. Alvin Draper might have been a lie, but if I was sincere about anything while I was using that name, it was my feelings for you.”

“Feelings?” Blackfire asked. “You love Starfire. You always loved Starfire.”

“I thought that was true,” Robin mused. “But what I felt for her wasn't love. It was simply a combination of teenage hormones and my feelings of caring for a friend or sister. For you, I feel something different . . . stronger. When I'm around you, all I see, hear, and feel is you. When I'm Robin, I have to remember that I'm a crime-fighter and you're a criminal and thus I have to stop you. When I was Alvin, I could forget about that and simply focus on being with you.”

“How poetic,” Blackfire mocked. “But I know you're just lying.”

“I'm not lying!” Robin insisted. “I meant everything I just said. When I kissed you, I felt like fire was surging through my veins. I felt like I could drink your very essence straight from your lips.

“When you joined Slade, I wanted to die. It just hurt so badly that you'd join my worst enemy, especially when I felt so strongly for you. Do you think I would have fought the way I did back in Sacrilege if I felt nothing for you?”

“Why would you want me when you have Starfire?” Blackfire asked. “She's the perfect girl for you: bright, cheerful, vibrant, and naïve. Just perfect for someone with a dark hero complex.”

“I don't want Starfire,” Robin replied with utter sincerity. “I want you. I want to be with you. You're strong, you're independent, and you have a firm grasp on what you want. Not many women on this planet are like that. That makes you unique . . . and in my eyes, beautiful.”

Blackfire looked at him for what seemed like an eternity, trying to decipher the truth in his face, sifting through his words for any traces of deception or insincerity. Finally, she spoke.

“Take off your mask.”

This seemed to startle Robin.

“Are you deaf?” Blackfire asked. “I said, take off your mask. It's the only way I'll be able to tell that you're not lying to me.”

Robin reached up with one hand and peeled his mask off, revealing teal eyes that shone with an emotion Blackfire almost didn't recognize.

“Can you see if I'm telling the truth now?” he asked.

Blackfire reached for him and connected her lips to his, her almost frantic kisses saying, I'm sorry, forgive me, forgive me, I love you. Robin reached up and stroked her hair, his own kisses whispering, I forgive you, I forgive you, I love you.

When the kiss ended, both Blackfire and Robin were gasping for breath.

“Don't think I'll change for you,” she stated. “I'm still a thief and I still intend to make Starfire suffer.”

“Why do you hate Starfire so much?” Robin asked.

“If you must know, it's because she has everything I ever wanted,” Blackfire replied. “The love of our parents and the love of our people. I never got either, so I decided to follow the old saying: `If you can't be loved, be feared instead.'”

“That's no way to live,” Robin said.

“Maybe not for you, but it suits me just fine,” Blackfire rejoined.

Robin sighed. “I guess the most I can hope for is that my example will eventually rub off on you. In the meantime, I have to leave. Slade can track the Apocalyptic Gems and he knows I have the final one. I can't put the people in my apartment complex at risk just because the gem I hold drew him there.”

“I'll come with you,” Blackfire replied. “I'm guessing you'll be hooking up with the Titans for a while and I can't wait to rub it in my sister's face that her boy is mine.”

“Is it always about one-upping Starfire with you?” Robin asked.

“Not always,” Blackfire replied.

Robin dove off the balcony of Blackfire's penthouse and shot a grapnel gun at the ledge of a nearby building. The grapple securely grasped the ledge and Robin swung on it, Blackfire flying above him.

Meanwhile, Titans West and East were meeting in Titans East's Tower with Cyborg at the computer mainframe looking at news reports of establishments burning down.

“Check this out,” he said. “First, a strip club called Torrid Nights was assaulted by someone dressed in black and gray with armor all over his body and a half-black, half-orange mask with one eye. Eyewitnesses claimed he started throwing fire around and they got out before the flames could kill them. Next, a semi-underground club called Sacrilege was assaulted by the same guy just earlier tonight, with the same M.O. as Torrid Nights.”

“Slade, right?” Speedy deduced.

“Yeah, it sounds just like him,” Bumblebee added.

“Uh-huh,” Cyborg confirmed. “I can guess that both times he was looking for an Apocalyptic Gem. He already has three, so I'm guessing he thought he could get the fourth at Sacrilege, but why would he go there?”

“Because someone in that club had the fourth Apocalyptic Gem,” Raven answered.

“Either that, or he hated the scenery so badly he had to burn the place down,” Beast Boy added.

“So how are we going to stop Slade from getting the fourth gem?” Bumblebee asked. “He's always a step ahead of us, distracting us with his murder machines while he picks up the gems himself.”

Raven stared at her locator bracelet, which suddenly blinked very brightly.

“What is it, Raven?” Starfire asked.

“The fourth Apocalyptic Gem is coming toward us . . . and it's coming really fast,” Raven replied.

“I guess we'll find out who it belongs to soon enough,” Cyborg remarked as he and the other Titans went to the rooftop of Titans East Tower. Soon enough, they saw two objects flying toward them very swiftly. One was a purple light and the other was discernable as a small black-and-red jet. The purple light came close enough for the Titans West to recognize it as a dark-haired girl with skin like orange gold . . . skin like Starfire's.

“Blackfire!” Starfire exclaimed.

“Relax, Star,” a familiar voice spoke through a P.A. “She's with me.”

“Robin!” Starfire exclaimed in joy.

For some inexplicable reason, Blackfire smirked.

The black-and-red jet landed in the center of Titans East Tower and the cockpit opened, revealing two passengers. One was a spiky-haired boy in a short-sleeved black-and-red costume who was only recognizable because of his mask. The other was a very familiar black-clad skull-masked thief.

“You've been keeping rather bad company, you know that, Robin?” Speedy remarked.

“He's working with me,” Robin answered as he and Red X climbed out of the jet. “Slade hired him to steal the Gem of Red War, but I persuaded him to entrust it to me. He may not be such a good guy, but even he doesn't want to see the world fall to pieces . . . and that also goes for Blackfire.”

“Why are you here?” Starfire asked her older sister angrily.

“Excuse me, but you banished me from our home planet,” Blackfire replied just as heatedly. “Where the hell did you expect me to go?”

Robin placed himself between the feuding sisters. “We have worse things to worry about right now,” he stated. “So put it aside.”

Mas and Menos zoomed up to Robin and gazed at his right arm. “Cool scar,” Mas remarked.

“Yes, very cool scar,” Menos added.

“I'm glad somebody thinks so,” Robin mumbled. More audibly, “Thanks.” He paused, as though realizing something. “When did you two learn English?”

“Bumblebee and Speedy have been teaching us,” Mas replied. Then with Menos and in their native language, “You're welcome.” Both boys zoomed back to the rest of Titans East.

“It's good to see you again,” Raven said to Robin.

Robin smiled. “Thanks.” Then the smile faded. “But we have work to do. Slade can track the Apocalyptic Gems just like we can. He'll be on his way here for the Gem of Red War . . . and here is where we make our stand. Whatever he throws at us, whatever he tries, we'll beat him back and take the other three Apocalyptic Gems from him. It's either that or the world ends . . . and I refuse to let things end like that.”

“Lovely speech, O fearless leader,” Red X remarked.

Robin and Raven both looked at their locator bracelets suddenly.

“The bracelet's going crazy,” Robin said.

“Mine, too,” Raven added. “He's coming.”

The Titans, Robin, Red X, and Blackfire looked down at the small island on which Titans East Tower stood. A figure dressed in black and dark silver gazed up at them through a bisected black-and-orange mask.

“Ah, I see the prodigal Titan returns to his friends at last . . . and in the company of a pair of thieves at any rate,” Slade remarked. In a mockingly parental tone, “Robin . . . I thought you knew better.”

The dragon mark pulsed angrily on Robin's right arm. “I told you before, Slade, don't lecture me!”

“Someone has to,” Slade mused. “Your problem is that you lack guidance and I doubt you'll find it with your present company.”

Robin bit his lip, stifling his anger and the dragon's silent screams of rage.

“I'd say it, but I'm no longer leader of the Titans, so I have no right to say it,” he said. He turned to Cyborg and Bumblebee. “You two wanna do the honors?”

“Titans . . .” Cyborg began.

“. . . Together!” Bumblebee finished, both her and Cyborg leaping off the roof of the Tower and down to the Island to face Slade. The other Titans followed them and Robin, Blackfire, and Red X joined in last.

“Twelve of us and one of you,” Robin sneered. “That doesn't look so good for you.”

Starfire felt a chill inside her when she saw Robin's smirk. It wasn't his usual confident smile; it was the expression of a demon looking forward to inflicting as much pain as possible.

“Really, Robin?” Slade asked as the ground beneath them began to rumble and fracture.

“What the hell is going on?” Mas asked.

“Speedy!” Bumblebee yelled. “Don't swear so much in front of Mas and Menos!”

“Sorry, Mom,” Speedy drawled.

A clawed silver hand reached out from the fractured ground, followed by other clawed silver hands. Those hands pulled out bodies encased in black metal with silver gloves, boots, and neck guards.

“More of your murder machines, Slade?” Bumblebee asked.

“These . . . aren't his standard `murder machines,' Bumblebee,” Raven answered with a shudder in his voice.

“Very astute, Raven,” Slade purred. “No, these aren't my typical murder machines - as you so like to call them - Bumblebee. They're the souls of the damned, souls that I plucked out of hell and grafted to my android soldiers, making them even stronger and faster.”

“That's low, even for you, Slade!” Beast Boy yelled.

“How could you torment these souls even after they had passed on from their mortal lives?” Starfire asked.

“These were wicked souls,” Slade replied. “The souls of people who committed many evils during their lifetimes and never repented for them, which is why they ended up in hell. They were already suffering when I found them, so I decided to liberate them . . . as long as they were of some use to me.”

“Monster!” Robin screamed and drew two Birdarangs, clanging them together into a sword and charging at Slade with the intent of severing his head. One of the soul-bonded androids leaped in front of him and blocked his charge, shattering his sword with a punch that also gave him a busted nose. Robin growled and forced the bone of his nose back into place, subsequently kicking the android in the solar plexus.

All around him, the Titans, Red X, and Blackfire were attacking the soul-bonded androids. Starfire and Blackfire double-teamed with their backs to each other, firing bolts of emerald and amethyst light all around the island that struck the androids. Red X was slicing through androids with whirring X-blades on the backs of hands. Beast Boy tore through androids in Werebeast form while Cyborg and Bumblebee blasted them with a dual Sonic Cannon and stingers, respectively. Raven's soul-self viciously attacked the androids, disrupting the spiritual connections that tethered the damned souls to those androids. Speedy shot a barrage of explosive arrows at the androids as Aqualad used the surrounding water to drown them and Mas and Menos dismantled them at super-speed.

With the exception of Raven, all the heroes and anti-heroes' efforts seemed to be for naught, as the soul-bonded androids just kept coming back for more.

Blackfire let out a curse in Tamaranean. “Why won't these things die?” she asked.

“Because they're not creatures of science or nature,” Raven answered. “They're creatures of necromancy, the dark arts of death.”

“So how the freak do we kill them?” Speedy asked angrily.

“Destroy the bonds keeping their souls attached to those androids and they'll go right back to hell,” Raven replied.

“Do you think they're aware of what Slade is making them do?” Robin asked.

Who the hell cares? the dragon snarled. They're the damned, souls consigned to hell because of the evils they committed in their mortal lives! Who cares if they're aware of what Slade is making them do?

“Your draconic friend has a point, Robin,” Slade remarked. “The souls I borrowed were serial killers, war criminals, terrorists, and dictators in their earthly lives. Why should you care what I do to them?”

“Because murderers or not, they're still human beings,” Robin answered as he beat back a soul-bonded android. “And human beings, no matter how vile, do not deserve to be tormented like that.”

“How noble,” Slade mused.

“How do we separate the souls from the androids?” Bumblebee asked as she blasted a pair of soul-bonded androids with her stingers. “I saw you do it, but you've got a soul-self and we don't.”

“Look at their foreheads,” Raven replied. “What do you see?”

“I see a strange mark made in blood,” Starfire replied. “It is shaped like a serpent eating its own tail.”

“The Ouroboros,” Raven murmured.

“I've got it!” Cyborg shouted. “Aim for the Ouroboros and we'll get them, right?”

“Right,” Raven confirmed.

Robin grabbed a soul-bonded android by the head and his gloved hand began to glow with smoky purple-black flame. Then the dark flame engulfed and disintegrated the android.

Starfire and Blackfire shot their optic blasts at the Ouroboros marks on the attacking androids' heads and the now-headless androids collapsed. Cyborg and Bumblebee shot more androids in the head with a pair of Sonic Cannons and stingers, respectively. Beast Boy in Werebeast form crushed the androids' heads, aiming for the Ouroboros marks. Speedy aimed for the Ouroboros marks on the androids' heads and fired armor-piercing explosive arrows at them, thus “killing” them. Aqualad summoned water from around him and shot it so forcefully at the androids' heads that each drop was like a liquid needle. Mas y Menos used the momentum from their acceleration to smash in the Ouroboros marks on the androids' heads. Red X embedded X-shuriken in the androids' Ouroboros marks, putting the souls inside to “rest.” Raven and Robin used their living darkness and dragon fire, respectively, to disintegrate and dismantle the androids.

“Now it's just you and us, Slade,” Bumblebee declared.

“Yes, but look at what I've gained,” Slade answered, stepping over to one of his fallen androids and taking a very familiar red gem out of the android's hand.

“How did you -?” Robin started to ask, but Slade cut him off.

“It wasn't me,” Slade replied. “It was one of my androids. It managed to swipe the Gem of Red War from your belt while you were busy fighting it. I will have to thank that tormented soul the next time I see him.”

“You'll give it back . . . or I'll wrench it from your cold, dead hands,” Robin snarled in an inhuman tone.

“Robin!” Cyborg exclaimed. “Get a hold of yourself!”

“I'll see you later,” Slade said. “I have a world to end at this moment.” A fiery warp opened beneath him and he sank into it.

Robin and Red X leaped into Robin's personal jet while the Titans West piled into the T-ship and the Titans East piled into their own T-ship. The three flying machines jetted into the night sky with Blackfire following on her own energy.

“We're getting close,” Raven stated.

Meanwhile, Slade emerged from the warp inside a temple. He walked to a doorway and walked through it, finding a staircase before him. He walked down the steps, getting closer and closer to his destination.

At the end of the staircase, he found himself before twin doors marked by the Ouroboros. With a blast of hellfire, he blew the doors open and stepped through them, standing before a statue of an outstretched clawed hand.

“The Hand of Amon,” he muttered to himself.

“So, you're here at last,” a darkly feminine voice spoke.

“Who's there?” Slade asked.

“Just me,” the voice replied as a pale woman with dark hair and white-on-black eyes, dressed in a short red-and-black kimono-like dress, stepped out of the shadows.

Slade raised an eyebrow underneath his mask, as he found this mysterious woman to be quite attractive in a dark and sinister way. In a sense, she reminded him of Raven.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“Dark Angel,” the woman replied. She extended a hand to Slade. “I'll take those.”

Without warning, the four Apocalyptic Gems flew out of the pouches on Slade's belt and into Dark Angel's hand. The dark woman proceeded to plant the gems in the palm of the Hand of Amon. Once the gems were positioned, a line of dark light connected them in the shape of the number 4.

“What are you doing?” Slade asked. “Those are my gems!”

“Yours, Slade Wilson?” Dark Angel asked with a chuckle. “No, no, no. Those were my gems all along. I simply allowed you to do the hard work of finding them because I didn't wish to fight those ridiculous children who call themselves Titans.”

Slade let out a snarl of rage and shot a barrage of hellfire at Dark Angel, who dissipated the fireballs with a mere incantation in a language that sounded like a more demonic version of Latin. The dark woman proceeded to utter another incantation in the same demonic language. The “4” connecting the Apocalyptic Gems glowed brightly, as did runes within the gems.

This was the sight the Titans and their present “allies” had the misfortune of walking in on.

“What the hell is going on?” Speedy asked.

“It looks like we're too late,” Red X replied.

“No!” Robin yelled. “I refuse to let this happen!” The dragon mark ignited into black flame that lunged at Dark Angel in the form of a dragon. Unfortunately, the dark fire dragon was dissipated by a simple wave of the hand from Dark Angel.

As soon as Dark Angel finished her incantation, the runes in the Apocalyptic Gems glowed with a blinding brightness. When the glow faded, four horsemen sat atop forbidding horses. One was in black armor with a skull helm. Another was in white and was so thin that he was almost skeletal. The third was in crimson armor with a Roman soldier's helm on his head. The fourth was extremely pale with a sickly blue tint to his skin.

“The Four Horsemen . . .” Slade uttered.

“Go forth, my horsemen,” Dark Angel commanded. “Go forth and end this world!”

Following her command, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse transformed into black, white, red, and blue energy and teleported away. Dark Angel smirked at the Titans, Robin, Red X, Blackfire, and Slade and vanished.

“We are so screwed,” Blackfire said.

End Notes: Ah, yes, things look dire for our collection of heroes and anti-heroes, don't they? The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have arrived and they're certainly ready to cause trouble. Death, famine, war, and pestilence will abound . . . but can the Titans stop them before the entire world is destroyed?

Dark Angel, in the Titans comics, was a wicked sorceress who tormented Donna Troy (a.k.a. the original Wonder Girl) by spiriting her into a series of parallel lifetimes that would each end in tragedy. However, this had the unforeseen effect of strengthening and purifying Donna's spirit and in the recent miniseries The Return of Donna Troy it was revealed that Donna was in effect the result of the compression of all her parallel lives into one being. Also, it was revealed that Dark Angel was yet another version of Donna that had managed to escape the compression of Donna's parallel lives.

Also, for those of you who only watch the show and don't bother with the comics, “Wilson” is not a made-up last name; it is Slade's last name in the comics, where he is also known as Deathstroke the Terminator. Of course, they couldn't call him Deathstroke in the show because that would be a little too extreme for a kids' show, so they just stuck with his first name.

The terms “soul-bonding” and “Ouroboros” I borrowed from the anime Fullmetal Alchemist. “Soul-bonding” is what occurs when a person's soul is bound to an inanimate object through alchemy, the magical science of reshaping matter. The Ouroboros - the serpent that eats its own tail - is the mark of the homunculus, a soulless creature created through failed attempts to resurrect dead humans through alchemy.

That's all the fun for now. See you next chapter.